John le Carre (b. 1931) is the pen name of David Cornwell. Under that pseudonym he has become the leading writer of contemporary spy thrillers. Tremendously popular and deeply influential, his novels feature a level of psychological depth and narrative complexity that makes them as rewarding as the most highly-touted literary fiction. Weaving incisive political commentary, razor-sharp satire, and suspense, his work reflects upon and dissects both Cold War anxieties and the complications of social relationships. Several of his novels-including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Russia House, and The Tailor of Panama-have been adapted into award-winning movies. In Conversations with John le Carre, the acclaimed writer talks about his craft, the nature of language, the literature that he loves, and the ways in which his own life influences the creation of, and characters within, his novels. He worked for the British Foreign Office in the 1960s, and although his works are dazzlingly informed about global politics, le Carre's voice is distinctively British. His love of language, particularly the ways in which it can reveal or conceal thought and action, is evident in every piece here. In interviews with George Plimpton, Melvyn Bragg, and others, le Carre proves himself to be quick witted, engaging, and deeply passionate. Though often self-deprecating in his humor, le Carre reveals his commitment to the spy thriller and tells us why he thinks it is just as capable of exploring human consciousness as any other literary genre. Matthew J. Bruccoli is Jefferies Professor of English at the University of South Carolina. He has written or edited thirty volumes on F. Scott Fitzgerald, including the standard biography, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur. Judith S. Baughman works in the department of English at the University of South Carolina. With Bruccoli she is co-editor of Conversations with F. Scott Fitzgerald (University Press of Mississippi).


Abstract. In order to investigate the emission of carbonaceous aerosols at the Gosan background super-site (33.17° N, 126.10° E) in East Asia, total suspended particles (TSP) were collected during spring of 2007 and 2008 and analyzed for particulate organic carbon, elemental carbon, total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), and stable carbon isotopic composition (δ 13 C) of TC. The stable carbon isotopic composition of TC (δ 13 C TC ) was found to be lowest during pollen emission episodes (range: −26.2‰ to −23.5‰, avg. −25.2 ± 0.9‰), approaching those of the airborne pollen (−28.0‰) collected at the Gosan site. Based on a carbon isotope mass balance equation, we found that ~42% of TC in the TSP samples during the pollen episodes was attributed to airborne pollen from Japanese cedar trees planted around tangerine farms in Jeju Island. A negative correlation between the citric acid-carbon/TC ratios and δ 13 C TC was obtained during the pollen episodes. These results suggest that citric acid emitted from tangerine fruit may be adsorbed on the airborne pollen and then transported to the Gosan site. Thermal evolution patterns of organic carbon during the pollen episodes were characterized by high OC evolution in the OC2 temperature step (450 °C). Since thermal evolution patterns of organic aerosols are highly influenced by their molecular weight, they can be used as additional information on the formation of secondary organic aerosols and the effect of aging of organic aerosols during the long-range atmospheric transport and sources of organic aerosols.


This paper examines the optimal export policies when ex ante negotiation over subcontract manufacturing occurs between two competing international-firms. It show that it could be optimal for the exporting country to adopt either a different or a parallel trade policy between the two exporting goods (the final product and the subcontracted product). However, a different trade policy that taxes the finalproduct export and subsidizes the subcontracted-product export is not ever optimal. When the exporting firm is a pure subcontractor, taxing the single export (subcontracted product) becomes the only optimal trade policy of the exporting country. Morever, the exporting country imposes a less aggressive trade policy in response given that the importing country inflicts a more aggressive trade policy.


A comprehensive ontology has been developed to model the operational domain knowledge and provide information management for a light fieldable laboratory (LFL) performing molecular microbiological analyses. LFL is considered as a toolbox where all operational functions and tools used to execute these functions are incorporated into a single system. The ontology is used to facilitate the LFL mission preparation and management, to provide technical compatibility of sharable information between tools, and to align the terminology and definitions between tools while complying with standards, best practices and procedures. The LFL domain is a formalised and structured modelling the LFL concepts, procedures, functions, prescribing the necessary functions and delimiting those which are incompatible with the given mission or scenario. Such consistent logical modelling allows to efficiently plan and configure the LFL mission selecting only the necessary functions and tools from the whole collection and to activate them appropriately in due time.


Personal information management (PIM) covers a large area of research fragmented into separate sub-areas such as file management, web bookmark organization, and email management. Consequently, it is hard to obtain a unified view of the various approaches to PIM developed in these different sub-areas. In this article, we synthesize and classify existing research on PIM based on the approach used to organize information items. We classify the organizational structures into five categories: hierarchical, flat, linear, spatial, and network. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each structure along with examples showing how to deal with the weaknesses. Finally, we provide design recommendations and a framework for researchers to experiment with various ideas for developing novel PIM tools.


Essay mills are commercial enterprises delivering assessable work on a fee-for-service basis. File-swapping sites encourage students to upload graded work and institutional materials to exchange for work or solutions submitted by others. The number of both types of sites continues to grow, indicating the issue is unlikely to disappear. Plagiarism preventative measures such as promoting academic integrity practices, and including recent real-world events in assessment design do not provide a disincentive to stop students purchasing or repurposing assignments due to the seemingly low risk of detection. This paper summarises the results of a content analysis study of detailed interview notes complied while investigating students with irregularities in their assignment submissions. A pattern of clues were identified within the irregularities. Clues indicating essay mill purchases included the misrepresentation of bibliographic material where information was omitted or changed, inappropriate references out of the subject area, the style and types of references used, in addition to generalised discussion that did not answer a specific question. File swapping site usage was identified through the inclusion of inappropriate and irrelevant material, bibliographic 'mashups' where academic journal and book information was blended into a single reference, and cross matching identified by Turnitin where students relied on the same file swapping source. Once the clues were identified patterns of use in other assignment work was easier to detect. Part of the key to detection is awareness, and knowing the patterns and signs evident in non-original work can assist in identifying other submissions warranting closer inspection.


Enggal area is a public space which consist open space, sports stadium, offices, settlement, and commercial buildings. Located in the downtown of Bandar Lampung City, Enggal is an area with high traffic of pedestrian. This research is conducted to formulate a design concept of pedetrian-ways which accentuate to emphasized pedestrians walking experience when walking and also increasing society interest to walk more. To emphasised pedestrians walking experience, it consist of three main principle designs of pedestrian-ways which is safety, convenience and pleasure. Collaborating with pedestrians characteristic analysis, behaviour setting analysis, pedestrianways geometric analysis, analytical hierarchy process and multi criteria analysis which is consist of experts and the users, Enggal area's diversity index of space shown 0,86 means the research area has a high democratic value which consist of vary elements of user. Pedestrians behaviour in synomorphic and milleu captured limited walking space of pedestrians. Pedestrians who walk with their spouse don't able to walk abreast and needs change their position into parallel when they are crossing pedestrian ways with other pedestrians. Pedestrians behaviour setting shows they are in inconvenience level as a pedestrian. They need to get out from pedestrian ways to the main road in order to averse the cadgers and broken sidewalk. The concept of pedestrian ways arrangement based on stakeholder perception shows the ranking priority of every elements from safety, convenience and pleasure which is need to be prioritized such as flat and smooth pedestrian ways design, free of cadgers and the pattern of shading plants placement.


There is an ongoing public policy debate regarding vertical integration and its concomitant information flows. Of particular concern is that the information derived by an auctioneer (such as a distributor) will be shared with its integrated bidder (such as a manufacturer), leading to a reduction in competition between the bidders. Similar competitive concerns arise regarding bid revelation policies, such as those used in public sector procurement. Modeling such situations as the repeated auctions introduced in Thomas [1996a], this paper examines the transmission of private information via the auction outcomes, and shows how that transmission is affected by the changes in market structure described above. These concerns are not present in the existing auction literature, because such information transmission is irrelevant both in series of independent auctions and in sequential auctions in which participants desire only a single item. However, when bidders desire multiple items, and when the values of those items to a bidder are correlated, the incentive to learn about opponents' values and to obscure one's own drive equilibria to depart systematically from those in standard models. I examine structural information transmission, created through various policies for conducting auctions, and its effect on strategic information transmission, which arises as an optimal response to given structural policies. I initially model information acquisition in situations where bidders do not see rival bids and learn only the identity of the winner. I then extend this model to show how the desire to conceal information about oneself affects behavior by examining repeated auctions with publicly announced bids. The auctioneers prefer a policy of revealing all bids to revealing only the winner's bid and to revealing no bid information. Finally, I show that a vertical merger between a buyer and a seller can be procompetitive due to both structural and strategic information transmission. I


The focus of this thesis is formulation and development of a mathematical framework for the solution of the contingency constrained optimal power flow (OPF) based on sequential quadratic programming. The contingency constrained optimal power flow minimizes the total cost of a base case operating state as well as the expected cost of recovery from contingencies such as line or generation outages. The sequential quadratic programming (SCP) OPF formulation has been expanded in order to recognize contingency conditions and the problem is solved as a single entity by an efficient interior point method. The new formulation takes into account the system corrective capabilities in response to contingencies introduced through ramp-rate constraints. Contingency constrained OPF is a very challenging problem, because each contingency considered introduces a new problem as large as the base case problem. By proper system reduction and benefits of constraint relaxation (active set) methods, in which transmission constraints are not introduced until they are violated, the size of the system can be reduced significantly Therefore, restricting our attention to the active set constraint set makes this large problem significantly smaller and computationally feasible.


In this paper I argue against a sharp separation of semantics from pragmatics. While it may be useful to consider semantics independently of pragmatics, in some cases this strategy may lead us astray. First, I make a methodological point. Competing semantic analyses are often presented as supported by competing semantic intuitions of native speakers. Functional considerations are pragmatic considerations which should affect our choice of semantics. These are inferences from the linguistic goals the speakers actually achieve to the meanings their expressions must therefore have. Second, there are linguistic expressions whose semantic (literal) meaning is a function of their pragmatic uses.I consider two examples. First, the logicians' debate over the universal analysis of conditionals in natural language. The participants in the debate all ignore conditional forms other than the assertoric and subjunctive. In particular they ignore the conditional speech-act reading. The meaning of the conditional is related to its function: to restrict the commitment of a given speech-act to special conditions. A functional proof of the existence of such conditionals (even in the assertoric mood) is given, thus showing that the different semantics account only for part of the relevant facts. The second example concerns vague terms. I claim that one of their main uses is to help us identify objects by reference not to their absolute properties but relative to their background. This function cannot be performed by the use of non-vague terms. Vague terms are context dependent and may in some contexts be used non-vaguely and refer to distinct objects in the discourse domain. In a way, what these terms end up denoting is a function of the use of predicates to partition a given domain.


Studies in proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) often require the combination of an outer-sphere oxidant and a base, to remove an electron and a proton. A common problem is the incompatibility of the oxidant and the base, because the former is electron deficient and the latter electron rich. We have tested a variety of reagents and report a number of oxidant/base combinations that are compatible and therefore potentially useful as PCET reagents. A formal bond dissociation free energy (BDFE) for a reagent combination is defined by the redox potential of the oxidant and pKa of the base. This is a formal BDFE because no X–H bond is homolytically cleaved, but it is a very useful way to categorize the H• accepting ability of an oxidant/base PCET pair. Formal BDFEs of stable oxidant/base combinations range from 71 to at least 98 kcal mol−1. Effects of solvent, concentration, temperature, and counterions on the stability of the oxidant/base combinations are discussed. Extensions to catalysis and related reductant/acid combinations are mentioned.


ABSTRACT Apart from Bouma sequences, recurrent patterns of sedimentation can be recognized at two hierarchic levels in turbidite formations of the northern Apennines. First order cycles (turbidite suites) encompass most of the basin fill, second order cycles (megasequences) occur as organized groups of beds 2-70 m thick within the suites. The Marnoso-arenacea (Lower-Upper Miocene) is an example of a progradational or offlapping suite with thickening and coarsening upward trend. The Laga Formation (Upper Miocene-Lower Pliocene) is characterized by a "transgressive" (retrogradational) or onlapping trend. Vertical facies changes go either way through the following steps: basin plain outer fan midfan inner fan slope deposits ( = prograding, = receding). Both suites are enclosed by hemipelagic pelites and chaotic deposits, the start of turbidite sedimentation being gradual in the progradational case, and abrupt (large scale erosion) in the reverse one. Second order cycles follow each other or are separated by monotonous (uniform or irregularly bedded) sequences of extremely variable thickness (2 to more than 1,000 m) composed either of fan (overbank, fringe) or basin plain deposits (with key beds laterally continuous up to 175 km). The trend of cycles may be asymmetric (termed positive when beds thin upward, negative when they thicken upward), symmetric, composite or not definable. Thick to massive beds with sand/shale ratio >> 1 or > 1 and well developed coarse divisions (products of high density turbidity currents, grain flows, debris flows, fluidized flows) form the thicker bedded portion of cycles and sometimes the whole cycle. One hundred and thirty-two cycles were analyzed and subdivided into simple and complex (= multiple or composite). By splitting multiple cycles into simple components, a total of 170 cycles was reached. Thirty-nine of them were measured in channelized deposits, 131 in non-channelized turbidites, laterally continuous exposures enabling the distinction to be made. Results of sequence analysis are illustrated by columnar profiles and bed thickness diagrams, i.e. CD (coarse division) and L (layer) diagrams. Eighty percent of channelized cycles show a positive trend, whereas a negative trend characterizes 60% of non channelized cycles. This strengthens the assumption that most positive cycles reflect filling of fan channels, while negative cycles are the expression of prograding depositional lobes, i.e. localized areas of preferred sand accumulation in front of distributary channels. Among progradational cycles, a distinction was made between "fast" and "slow" accretion types by means of relative number of beds (L/T ratio), relative number of coarse divisions (L/CD ratio), and frequence of interbedded hemipelagites. The possible non-prograd tional nature of some "slower" cycles is discussed; they could alternatively reflect sporadic phases of sand accumulation in the basin plain environment due to huge flows triggered by tectonic events and bypassing the fan system (or independent from a fan system). Attempts of correlation of negative cycles both downcurrent and across current are shown.


A CVC (central venous catheter) is used to measure Central venous pressure and also to administer drugs. The direct measurement of the estimated insertion length using the puncture site and the external landmark could be more practical and bedside. Here we use sternal head of right clavicle and nipple as landmarks for inserting the CVC (central venous catheter) tip near the svc (superior vena cava) and right atrial junction. Objectives of the Study: To Evaluate a method for cvp insertion depth using anatomical landmark
Materials and Methods: A study in PICU, KIMS (kempegowda institute of medical sciences) from Oct 13-14. 35 patients were enrolled irrespective of age. Point A marked at the sternal head of the right clavicle, A horizontal line drawn connecting the nipple on both sides, and then the midpoint of the perpendicular line drawn between Point A and the horizontal line was designated as Point B. The distance between the insertion point of the needle (I) and Point A is measured and the distance between Points A and B was also measured. Insertion depth was determined by adding the two and subtracting 0.5 cm from this. Presence of CVC tip in right atrium and svc junction was confirmed using 2D Echo (echo cardiography) and X-ray chest.
Results: Out of the 35 cases studied in 32 cases cvc was exactly placed at the level of carina (91.4%) and in 3 cases the tip was exactly placed at right atrial and svc junction, while in the rest it was deep. On an average with the above formula one could place a cvc 2.9mm SD =/-1.62 mm deep in the right atrium.
Conclusion: It is inferred that this method can be used safely in calculating length of the CVC for right IJV catheterization.


This article presents the ways Orthodox countries form their own discourses for heritage representation and observes how these practices interact with emerging tourism and preservation agendas. Recent history of heritage tourism in Russia and Ethiopia provides insights into how participants engage with the spiritual heritage of their Churches and the contemporary dilemmas produced when orienting towards preservation protocols that seek to safeguard heritage and make it palatable to a global audience. The Ethiopian case study of Meskel, the festival of the Finding of the True Cross, a UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) intangible cultural heritage entry in 2014, is examined in order to identify key issues when spiritual heritage is situated in preservation management discourse. The discussion concludes by considering a vital component of preservation efforts contained within Orthodox Churches and proposes that indigenous approaches to the elaboration and circulation of cultural values be an essential component of heritage policies.


Abstract This article argues that the new EU's selective engagement with Islamist parties in its Southern neighbourhood following the Arab uprisings is the result of a partial shift in the EU's frame used to understand political Islam, combined with a form of pragmatism that puts a premium on finding interlocutors in the region. Using the case studies of Tunisia and Egypt, it shows that the EU has replaced its previous monolithic conception of political Islam with an understanding that is more sensitive to differences among Islamists. This opens the door to some forms of engagement with those actors that renounce violence and demonstrate their commitment to work within the confines of democratic rules, while violent strands of political Islam and conservative groups remain at arm's length.


AIm: Our aim was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the novel crescent-shaped PMMA strut for anterior spinal reconstruction and fusion in patients with thoracolumbar bust fractures. The surgical results using this technique are reviewed. mAterIAl and methOds: Six patients suffering thoracolumbar and lumbar fracture using a crescent-shaped PMMA strut combined with fixation for reconstruction of the anterior spinal column. Postoperative radiographic, included plain x-ray and 3-D computed tomography (CT) imaging, evaluated fusion status postoperatively. Pain relief and neurological status was assessed by comparing Frankel Score and Vision Analogue Score (VAS) pre- and postoperatively. results: All six patients achieved immediate stabilization. No patient needs additional posterior instrumentation stabilization due to loss of sagittal alignment and kyphosis deformity. All patients achieved significant relief of back pain, improvement of neurological function, correction of preoperative deformity and excellent bone fusion results documented on plain x-rays and 3-D CT reconstruction imaging. There were no complications of neurological worsening, wound infection, subsidence and dislodgement of PMMA strut, or anterior instrumentation failure during the follow-up. COnClusIOn: The crescent-shaped PMMA strut is an alternative for anterior spinal reconstruction and fusion in patients with thoracolumbar burst fracture. However, the long-term clinical effects and possible complications need further evaluation. Keyw Ords: Burst fracture, Polymethylmethacrylate, Crescent-shaped, Anterior reconstruction


Endometriosis is a gynaecological disease that affects 6–10% of women of reproductive age. Symptoms vary but commonly include severe menstrual and pelvic pain and infertility, all of which can have major impacts on the lives of affected women. Linkage studies have identified several chromosomal regions but the genes contributing to these linkage signals have yet to be identified. Candidate gene studies on over 80 genes have not shown robust evidence of association, mostly due to the limited power to detect individual risk variants of small effects. Four groups have now conducted genome-wide association studies for endometriosis, revealing a number of intriguing candidates that may contribute to disease risk. Further research aimed at increasing our understanding of the genes and biological pathways underlying endometriosis may provide better and more targeted diagnosis and treatment options in the future.

Key Concepts:

Endometriosis is a gynaecological disease that occurs when tissue resembling endometrium (the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus) attaches and grows on organs in the body cavity, including the ovaries, fallopian tubes, intestine and bowel.

Endometriosis affects 6–10% of women during their reproductive years and the symptoms, including severe menstrual and pelvic pain and sub- or infertility, can greatly impact an affected woman's physical and psychological wellbeing as well as her family and working life.

The financial cost of endometriosis is amongst the highest of all complex diseases, with direct (medical and surgical treatment) and indirect (loss of income, reduced productivity, infertility treatment and social withdrawal) health care costs estimated at >$15 billion annually in the US alone.

Linkage studies on large numbers of families have indicated chromosomal regions that may harbour endometriosis susceptibility genes but these are yet to be definitively identified.

Candidate gene association studies on over 80 genes have not produced convincing evidence of gene robustly associated with endometriosis susceptibility.

Genome-wide association studies have identified a small number of chromosomal areas that harbour extremely interesting candidate genes that should be followed up in the future.

Understanding the genes and biological pathways underlying susceptibility to endometriosis may eventually lead to better diagnostic and treatment options for women affected by this common and often debilitating disease.

Keywords:

genetics;
gene mapping;
candidate genes;
linkage;
genome-wide association;
endometriosis


One of the most important questions in the study of compact objects is the nature of pulsars, including whether they consist of neutron star matter or strange quark matter (SQM). However, few mechanisms for distinguishing between these two possibilities have been proposed. The purpose of this Letter is to show that a strange star (one made of SQM) will have a vibratory mode with an oscillation frequency of approximately 250 GHz (millimeter wave). This mode corresponds to motion of the center of the expected crust of normal matter relative to the center of the strange quark core, without distortion of either. Radiation from currents generated in the crust at the mode frequency would be an SQM signature. We also consider effects of stellar rotation, estimate power emission and signal-to-noise ratio, and discuss briefly the particularly important, but unsolved, question of possible mechanisms for exciting the mode.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Polymicrogyria is a malformation of cortical development that is often identified in children with epilepsy or delayed development. We investigated in vivo the potential of 7T imaging in characterizing polymicrogyria to determine whether additional features could be identified. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten adult patients with polymicrogyria previously diagnosed by using 3T MR imaging underwent additional imaging at 7T. We assessed polymicrogyria according to topographic pattern, extent, symmetry, and morphology. Additional imaging sequences at 7T included 3D T2* susceptibility-weighted angiography and 2D tissue border enhancement FSE inversion recovery. Minimum intensity projections were used to assess the potential of the susceptibility-weighted angiography sequence for depiction of cerebral veins. RESULTS: At 7T, we observed perisylvian polymicrogyria that was bilateral in 6 patients, unilateral in 3, and diffuse in 1. Four of the 6 bilateral abnormalities had been considered unilateral at 3T. While 3T imaging revealed 2 morphologic categories (coarse, delicate), 7T susceptibility-weighted angiography images disclosed a uniform ribbonlike pattern. Susceptibility-weighted angiography revealed numerous dilated superficial veins in all polymicrogyric areas. Tissue border enhancement imaging depicted a hypointense line corresponding to the gray-white interface, providing a high definition of the borders and, thereby, improving detection of the polymicrogyric cortex. CONCLUSIONS: 7T imaging reveals more anatomic details of polymicrogyria compared with 3T conventional sequences, with potential implications for diagnosis, genetic studies, and surgical treatment of associated epilepsy. Abnormalities of cortical veins may suggest a role for vascular dysgenesis in pathogenesis.


Each year dozens of workers are killed, thousands of children harmed, and millions of dollars wasted because of unjustifiable delays in federal regulatory action. Such delays in regulatory action have become commonplace, part of the wallpaper of Washington's regulatory process for the protector agencies-the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), EPA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and OSHA.Despite its significance, the problem of regulatory delay and the costs it generates has been virtually ignored in the debate over the general wisdom of the U.S. regulatory system over the last 30-plus years. Opponents of the regulatory system have deliberately framed this debate in terms of the "costs and benefits" of regulatory action, implying that regulatory inaction caused by regulatory delay is somehow cost-free. The one-sided nature of this debate is perhaps best exemplified by the White House Office of Management and Budget's annual Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations, as required by the 2001 Regulatory Right-to-Know Act. These annual reports document in painstaking detail the quantified and monetized costs and benefits of regulatory action, providing aggregate estimates of these costs and benefits for many of the regulations that federal agencies have issued over the previous year as well as over the previous ten years. Not once, however, have these reports ever sought to document the costs of regulatory delay.The problem with ignoring the costs of regulatory delay is that it provides an incomplete picture of the value of the U.S. regulatory system - one that is inevitably skewed against stronger regulatory protection. Broadly speaking, the purpose of this white paper is to begin the process of filling in the rest of this picture, so that in the future the debate over the general wisdom of the U.S. regulatory system can continue on more robust and balanced terms. To this end, this white paper presents three case studies. Each tells the story of a recent or ongoing example of regulatory delay that has caused real harm to Americans and their environment.


Background Natural products play a key role in drug discovery programs, both serving as drugs and as templates for the synthesis of drugs, even though the quantities and availabilities of samples for screening are often limitted. Experimental approach A current collection of physical samples of > 500 compound derived from African medicinal plants aimed at screening for drug discovery has been made by donations from several researchers from across the continent to be directly available for drug discovery programs. A virtual library of 3D structures of compounds has been generated and Lipinski's "Rule of Five" has been used to evaluate likely oral availability of the samples. Results A majority of the compound samples are made of flavonoids and about two thirds (2/3) are compliant to the "Rule of Five". The pharmacological profiles of thirty six (36) selected compounds in the collection have been discussed. Conclusions and implications The p-ANAPL library is the largest physical collection of natural products derived from African medicinal plants directly available for screening purposes. The virtual library is also available and could be employed in virtual screening campaigns.


This study aimed to test the use of chlorogenic acid (CGA), a natural antioxidant, which might act improving the retention of eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) fatty acids. Fish were fed one of three experimental diets. A diet with 160 g kg−1 fish oil (FO) and 80 g kg−1 vegetable oil (VO) was used as a positive control with high n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC)-PUFA, a diet containing 40 g kg−1 FO and 200 g kg−1 VO was used as a negative control for low n-3 LC-PUFA and 1 g kg−1 CGA was added to the negative control diet to test the impact of CGA on n-3 LC-PUFA synthesis. The expression of genes involved in PUFA synthesis was upregulated in the liver of fish fed the low n-3 LC-PUFA diets. This might be due to the activation of sterol regulatory element-binding transcription factor 1 (SREBP1) and liver X receptor. Moreover, malondialdehyde concentration tended to decrease, and accumulation of dietary EPA in the liver in relation to diet was observed in fish fed the low n-3 LC-PUFA diets. However, the concentration of EPA and DHA was higher in fish fed the positive control diet. The inclusion of 1 g kg−1 CGA did not exert any additional effect on lipid peroxidation, EPA and DHA concentrations or LC-PUFA metabolism.


The focus in this study is the position of low income households in the Eastern
Beaches, a semiurban area east of Hobart, Tasmania. Influences upon the opportunity constraint
spectrum of low income households are considered in this study. Position
in the labour market, ideology, state policy, the operation of the land and housing
market and the established spatial configuration of the Greater Hobart area interrelate
at a particular point in time within the global capitalist system; the result is the
location of low income households in isolated and poorly serviced semiurban areas
such as the Eastern Beaches.
The locational disadvantage of low income households in semiurban areas is raised in
both urban research and public policy discussion. A common solution to locational
disadvantage put forward in these contexts is urban consolidation. Part of the reason
this study was undertaken was to investigate the degree to which understanding of
the disadvantaged position of low income households in semiurban areas requires, not
a consideration simply of location, but also of established structural relations and
inequities in conjunction with causal processes. If public authorities are seriously
committed to the principles of social justice and ecologically sustainable development
fundamental social structures and processes need to be tackled.
The approach used in this study is a realist perspective of Marxian theory set within a
broad political economy framework. A summary of a literature review and
assessment of contemporary urban issues is followed by the situating of this study
within the context of the global economy. This setting forms the basis for an
investigation of trends in housing accessibility and affordability in and around
Hobart, and for the interviewing of households in the Eastern Beaches to ascertain
their nature and views of their position and of local environmental issues.
In this study, the location of low income households in semiurban areas was found to
disadvantage further low income households, to strain already overstretched and
under-resourced state services, and to contribute further to finite fossil fuel depletion and
greenhouse gas emissions. The interaction of structure and agency in time and
space was found to be important in the location of low income households in the
Eastern Beaches. The ideological predispositions of individual households combine
with broad structural determinations at a particular time of global capital organisation
and state policy and in relation to a particular spatial configuration and operational
structure of the land and housing market, to produce a specific sociospatial outcome.
Understanding of the interaction of structure and agency in time and space to produce
particular sociospatial outcomes, as in the case of the Eastern Beaches, allows the
disadvantaged position of certain social groups to be better addressed.


For centuries, clinicians have been attempting to replace missing teeth with suitable synthetic materials. Dental implants are fixtures that serve as replacements for the root of the missing natural tooth and becoming popular in the current day dental practice. Success or failure of the dental implant treatment is mainly based on the principles of creating and maintaining an interface between the implant and surrounding bone. This can be achieved by a phenomenon called osseointegration , which is the direct and stable anchorage of an implant due to the formation of bony tissue around the implant. A number of systemic and local factors influence the production of an osseointegrated interface and therefore the stability of the implant. However, surface characteristics of the implant materials in general and surface roughness in particular have received a great deal attention in the recent years to help achieve favourable interaction between the implant and biological tissues. Present article is a review of surface roughness characteristics and its effect on the osseointegration of dental implant materials.


This special issue was proposed to combine biology, biomechanics, and human locomotion and the use of this knowledge to improve rehabilitation; prescription of physical activity for health promotion and for sports performance are important for the science, not only for the gait but for every type of movement and exercise.

In this special issue, men and women were compared in sports, physical activity, and standing posture. P. G. Mouroco and colleagues show that men and women achieve fast front crawl swimming with different strategies; while men use arm stroke, women swim fast using whole-body mean forces. M. Persiani and colleagues showed that men consistently had larger COP parameters than women. They applied lateral optic flow perturbances and found that they cause asymmetry in postural balance and different lateralization of postural controls in men and women. H. Jaafar and colleagues evaluated force-velocity relationship during cycling and arm cranking exercise. They compared the reliability of maximal power, maximal pedal rate, and maximal force in active men and women and showed that they are different according to sex. It is interesting to see how close or far human performance is according to biology.

In rehabilitation, evaluation of functional movements is the key element in building a rehabilitation program. M. Caimmi and colleagues provide a set of normative data from healthy subjects of different ages doing upper-limb functional tasks (reaching and hand-to-mouth movements). Their results are important for upper-limb evaluation in different populations. Normative data in quiet standing is important as well. Therefore, A. C. Alonso and colleagues showed that anthropometric variables can explain part of center of pressure sway quiet standing.

Developing techniques to evaluate body motion during walking is necessary to understand how people move. C. Buckley and colleagues measured upper body movement during walking and associated it with postural control in persons with Parkinson's disease (PD). They showed that persons with PD attenuate body accelerations differently compared to controls. E. Bergamini and colleagues proposed a method to evaluate wheelchair propulsion based on biomechanics and successfully applied the results to regulate a training program for young wheelchair athletes.

But technology is not only applied in rehabilitation to improve measurements; it is applied as an intervention. C. Luque-Moreno and colleagues reviewed and compared VR intervention in stroke, looking for frequently used outcome measures. Multimodal approach, combining VR and conventional physiotherapy, presented the best results in balance and gait. VR mostly improves gait speed, balance, and motor function in stroke patients.

Exercise-based interventions improve performance. N. Hedayatpour and D. Falla reviewed neuromuscular adaptations to eccentric exercise, depicting histochemical, metabolic, and neural adaptations due to eccentric training. Besides, exercise changes human biology. W. Y. V. Mak and W. K. C. Lai showed that short duration of resistance exercise may provoke a transient increase in central arterial stiffness in healthy young men. They analyzed acute effect of Valsalva manoeuvre during resistance exercise on arterial stiffness.

So, this special issue is very rich and joins different views of the motion study in the same publication, empowering the knowledge for all professionals of this area.

Jullia Maria D'Andrea Greve

Angelica Castilho Alonso

Luiz Mochizuki

Paulo R. Lucareli

Chandramouli Krishnan

Richard Baker


This chapter, a revision 16 years later of the original chapter designated in SSRN as Freedom of Speech I, summarizes the history of free speech in the U.S., 1791 to 1940 and updates the discussion of the exaggerated reality and the ideological uses of free speech from the earlier version. The focus of Freedom of Speech II is on contemporary free speech issues. A set of legal doctrines and rules that expanded and protected speech rights emerged from the 1930s and, after a regression in the 1950s, resumed in the 1960s and early 1970s, when the civil rights and antiwar movements demanded and received enhancement and heightened enforcement of speech rights. These doctrines and rules constitute what the chapter calls the "liberal paradigm," which has been contracted and retrenched in the conservative period starting in the mid-1970s. The retrenchment has been principally characterized by new limits on speech in public places, withdrawal from the "content barrier," rejection of claims to access to the mass media that had been recognized in the liberal paradigm, and cutbacks in voting and democracy rights, amounting to a dismantling of the basic system of free speech. In the same period, however, some speech rights were expanded - for example, campaign finances gained constitutional status as protected speech, and corporations were granted new speech rights. Overall, in the last few decades, the Supreme Court has narrowed and restricted the speech rights available to people of ordinary means, enlarged the speech rights available to wealthy people and corporations, and erected a free-speech barrier to public access to the media and to important electoral, economic and social reforms.


In 1764, a Milanese aristocrat named Cesare Beccaria created a sensation when he published On Crimes and Punishments. At its centre is a rejection of the death penalty as excessive, unnecessary, and pointless. Beccaria is deservedly regarded as the founding father of modern criminal law reform, yet he was not the first to argue for the abolition of the death penalty. This book presents the first English translation of the Florentine aristocrat Giuseppe Pelli's critique of capital punishment, written three years before Beccaria's treatise, but lost for more than two centuries in the Pelli family archives. The book examines the contrasting arguments of the two abolitionists, who drew from different intellectual traditions. Pelli was a devout Catholic influenced by the writings of natural jurists such as Hugo Grotius, whereas Beccaria was inspired by the French Enlightenment philosophers. While Beccaria attacked the criminal justice system as a whole, Pelli focused on the death penalty, composing a critique of considerable depth and sophistication. The book explores how Beccaria's alternative penalty of forced labour, and its conceptualisation as servitude, were embraced in Britain and America, and delves into Pelli's voluminous diaries, shedding light on Pelli's intellectual development and painting a vivid portrait of an Enlightenment man of letters and of conscience. With translations of letters exchanged by the two abolitionists and selections from Beccaria's writings, the book provides new insights into eighteenth-century debates about capital punishment and offers vital historical perspectives on one of the most pressing questions of our own time.


Embodied voice-based agents, such as Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Jibo, are becoming increasingly present in the home environment. For most people, these agents represent their first experience living with artificial intelligence in such private and personal spaces. However, little is known about people's desires, preferences, and boundaries for these technologies. This thesis shares insights, learnings, methods, and tools from ajourney with 69 children, adults, and older adults to help democratize the design of voice-based agents for the home. In the first study, participants interact with and discover various voice-based agents to capture first impressions of the technology. In the second study, participants engage in longterm encounters with agents in their home to experience and reflect upon their preferences, desires and boundaries for these devices. Qualitative and quantitative data from interview transcripts, card sorting, and deployed cultural and technology probes is used to identify agent action preferences, sociotechnical themes, daily usage trends, personality preferences, and future "wishes" for agents. This work culminates with participants designing their dream agents for the home through a structured ideation process. Throughout this work, a series of participatory design tools and methods are developed, iterated upon, and implemented to create a language of engagement with participants. These methods and tools are shared as an open-source design kit for others seeking to explore the domain. Cynthia Breazeal, Thesis Supervisor Associate Professor of Media Arts & Sciences


This paper proposesd a non-blocking multistage ATM switch based on a hierarchical-cell-resequencing (HCR) mechanism and high-speed WDM interconnection and reports on its feasibility study. In a multi-stage ATM switch, cellbased routing is effective to make the switch non-blocking, because all traffic is randomly distributed over intermediate switching stages. But due to the multi-path conditions, cells may arrive out of sequence at the output of the switching fabric. Therefore, resequencing must be performed either at each output of the final switching stage or at the output of each switching stage. The basic HCR switch performs cell resequencing in a hierarchical manner when switching cells from an input-lines to a output-line. As a result, the cell sequence in each output of the basic HCR switch is recovered. A multi-stage HCR switch is constructed by interconnecting the input-lines and output-lines of these basic HCR switches in a hierarchical manner. Therefore, the cell sequence in each final output of the switching fabric is conserved in a hierarchical manner. In this way, cell-based routing becomes possible and a multi-stage ATM switch with the HCR mechanism can achieve 100% throughput without any internal speedup techniques. Because a large-capacity multi-stage HCR switch needs a huge number of high-speed signal interconnections, a breakthrough in compact optical interconnection technology is required. Therefore, this paper proposes a WDM interconnection system with an optical router arrayed waveguide filter (AWGF) that interconnects high-speed switch elements effectively and reports its feasibility study. In this architecture, each switch element is addressed by a unique wavelength. As a result, a switch in a previous stage can transmit a cell to any switch in the next stage by only selecting its cell transmission wavelength. To make this system feasible, we developed a wide-channel-spacing optical router AWGF and compact 10-Gbit/s optical transmitter and receiver modules with a compact high-power electroabsorption distributed feedback (EA-DFB) laser and a new bit decision circuit. Using these modules, we confirmed stable operation of the WDM interconnection. This switch architecture and WDM interconnection system should enable the development of highspeed ATM switching systems that can achieve throughput of over 1 Tbit/s. key words: ATM, non-blocking, multi-stage switch, WDM, interconnection


Background and Aim: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major public health problem in the developing countries. HEV infection in pregnant women is more common and fatal in the third trimester. The present study was designed to determine the seroprevalence of subclinical HEV infection in asymptomatic pregnant women. Materials and Methods: A total of 116 asymptomatic pregnant women divided into 2 groups: Group 1 included 56 pregnant women with HCV positive serology and group 2 included 60 pregnant women with negative HCV serology were included in this study. Prevalence of anti-HEV antibodies and anti-HCV were determined by an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. Results: The overall prevalence of anti-HEV IgG was highly significant among pregnant women with chronic HCV infection 40/56 (71.42%) than pregnant women free from chronic HCV infection 28/60 (46.7%) (P = 0.006). Chronic HCV infection in pregnant women appeared to be a risk factor associated with HEV IgG seropositivity (OR = 2.86, CI = 1.24-6.6). The seropositivity of anti-HEV IgG was significantly high in rural areas than urban areas (62.5% vs. 37.5%) in group 1 and (78.58% vs. 21.42%) in group 2 (P = 0.15) and OR = 2.2, CI = 0.65-7.7). A decrease in albumin level (P = 0.047) and an increase in bilirubin (P = 0.025), ALT (P = 0.032), and AST (P = 0.044) in pregnant women with positive HCV and IgG anti-HEV than the second group with negative HCV serology. Conclusions: The seroprevalence of anti-HEV IgG in pregnant women is high in Egypt especially in rural areas. With chronic HCV coinfection, a marked increase in anti-HEV IgG seropositivity and significant worsening of the biochemical liver indices were noted. Increased public awareness about the sound hygienic measures for a less prevalence of HEV is strongly advised. The need for HEV vaccination for those at risk, especially pregnant ladies, should be considered.


Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon®) is encountered in many environments – frying pans, clothing, osmotic distillation membranes, to name a few – yet the solubility and clustering behaviour of water with this material was not found in the open literature. This information may be useful in applications where an absence of water is desired, such as in clothing and textiles. Previous work on polyethylene + water has shown that small water clusters form in the amorphous portion of the polymer. This work investigated this phenomenon for the case of polytetrafluoroethylene + water. Initially, a test system of light alcohols + water + n-dodecane was investigated using Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo simulations and compared to previous laboratory experiments. This test system was investigated in order to gain expertise in the methodologies and theory behind Monte Carlo simulation, as well as to gain experience with using the necessary software. For this test system, it was found that the TraPPE parameters representing the interactions between the alcohols and the n-dodecane were not adequate and lead to increasing deviations with increasing carbon number in the alcohol. To replicate the conditions of the amorphous polymer matrix, liquid-liquid equilibrium between water and the polymer was investigated. Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo simulations have been performed for systems of perfluoroalkanes and water to determine the influence of temperature and carbon number on the solubility and clustering behaviour of water within the perfluoroalkanes. The temperature range in this study was from 450 K to 600 K, and the perfluoroalkane carbon number range was from 8 to 300 carbon atoms. With increasing carbon number, it was found that there was an asymptotic value of 98.0 mole percent water in the polymer phase. With increasing temperatures it was found that there were exponential increases in solubility of water into the polymer matrix. Previous work on clustering and supramolecular structure of perfluoroalkanes described the rigidity of the perfluoroalkane chains in comparison to alkane chains, thus explaining the large increases in free volume with increasing temperature in the polymer matrix observed in this work. A discontinuity with regard to both solubility and clustering behavior was observed for a polymer carbon number of 10 to 12 carbon atoms. Prior work on the energy contributions towards the helical structure of perfluoroalkanes showed a shift in the energy contribution regime for carbon numbers larger than ~10 carbon atoms, which may explain this discontinuity. It was found that linear water clusters accounted for up to ~90 percent of the water clusters, concurring with previous work on water clustering in polyethylene.


The purpose of this article is to develop a framework for the origin of foresight. Following a review of arguments for foresight as genetically inherited versus environmentally acquired, the understanding of foresight is expanded through a behaviorist perspective and through an evolutionary perspective. The framework established makes it possible to deploy evolutionary logic to explain foresight as well as to enhance our understanding of foresight, both on individual (e.g., managerial) and aggregated (e.g., organizational) levels.


This article examines ways of seeing China in Isaac Julien's nine-screen film installation Ten Thousand Waves (2010), which represents a migratory aesthetic based on evocative translocality and mobile spectatorship. As Julien reconstructs the legend of compassionate Mazu (played by Maggie Cheung) and memories of Old and New Shanghai (both enacted by Zhao Tao), his screen images and sounds enter a constant circulation and form an intriguing multidirectional dialogue across a variety of media and genres: cinema, art photography, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and star performance. In addition to evaluating new concepts and new techniques at work in the cross-fertilization of cinema and other visual media in the new millennium, this article complicates Julien's celebrated political poetics by highlighting his problematic reception by ethnic Chinese spectators and by reckoning with the specter of orientalism that refuses to go away despite his previously audacious repudiation of stereotypes and clichés and his professed engagement with cosmopolitanism and globalization.


Purpose: Upper respiratory tract infections are major causes of the common cold throughout the world. Cordyceps militaris (C. militaris) is a well-known functional food for its anti-fatigue and immunomodulating activities. On the other hand, there are no reports on the protective effect against upper respiratory tract infections (URI). This study was a 12 week randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled trial in healthy volunteers. Methods: A total of 100 subjects 20~70 years of age with a history of at least two colds in the year were enrolled in the study. The participants were required to record any adverse events and rate any cold-related incidents in a diary during the investigation period. The efficacy end point was the symptoms and incidence of URI, and changes in cytokines, IgA and natural killer (NK) cell activity. Results: The Cordyceps militaris group over 12 weeks showed no significant impact on the incidence and symptomatology of URI compared to the placebo group. On the other hand, the experimental group showed significantly higher NK cell activity (p = 0.047) and IgA level (p = 0.035) compared to the placebo group. The NK-cell activity and IgA level were increased significantly by Cordyceps militaris over 12 weeks. Conclusion: The results suggest the possible beneficial immunomodulating effects, but the protective effects on URI could not be demonstrated under these conditions. Additional research will be needed to determine the efficacy and mechanisms of Cordyceps militaris function.


We characterize trade policies that result from political competition when assessments of well-being include both material and psychosocial components. The material component reflects, as usual, satisfaction from consumption. Borrowing from social identity theory, we take the psychosocial component as combining the pride and self-esteem an individual draws from the status of groups with which she identifies and a dissonance cost she bears from identifying with those that are different from herself. In this framework, changes in social identification patterns that may result, for example, from increased income inequality or heightened class or ethnic tensions, lead to pronounced changes in trade policy. We analyse the nature of these policy changes.


This paper estimates a DSGE model and three versions of VAR models (VARX, BVARX and BVAR) to analyze forecasting performance of these models in context of Pakistan. VAR models and a medium-scale DSGE model are estimated using quarterly data (1980Q4-2017Q2). Expanding window recursive out-of-sample forecasts for GDP growth, call money rate, CPI inflation and percent change in exchange rate are generated and compared over the period 2009Q1-2017Q2. Forecasting performance is analyzed by the comparison of bias and root mean squared errors (RMSE). Analysis of forecasting performance over 1-8 quarters forecast horizon reveals that BVAR model provides relatively better forecast in case of GDP growth, interest rate and inflation while BVARX provides more accurate forecast in case of exchange rate. In case of GDP growth, inflation and exchange rate, forecasting performance of DSGE model considerably improves as forecasting horizon expands. For longer forecast horizons, divergence between DSGE and Bayesian VAR forecasts tends to disappear. This implies that DSGE model is more relevant for medium term forecasting rather than short term forecasting. Structural interpretation of DSGE forecast errors reveals that there has been unutilized growth potential in economic activity. This slack in economic activity might be attributable to unnecessarily high interest rate and overvalued exchange rate.


Novel ethyladamantyl solubilization side groups were found to induce π–π interactions between the conjugated cores through adamantyl–adamantyl stacking in soluble diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) derivatives. The closeness of the DPP cores amplifies charge transfer in the material, as far as the π–π interaction is a dominant charge-hopping pathway. As a result, tenfold enhancement of hole mobilities exceeding those obtained for insoluble derivatives was reached. Moreover, due to high crystallinity and co-planarity of the conjugated cores, electron transfer was preserved with a mobility of 0.2 cm2 V−1 s−1 for dithiophene-DPP. At the same time, the material remained soluble, which is a significant advantage for purification and processing. This approach can be universally applied for many types of semiconducting organic materials containing the imide motif, where solubilization is achieved by side-group substitution.


Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a role in a wide range of diseases resulting in an enormous public health burden. The goal of this thesis is to identify metabolic pathways that are disrupted in response to mitochondrial insults. A large proportion of this work is based on the generation of stable isotope labelled metabolites to allow for the rigorous quantification of intracellular metabolites by liquid chromatographymass spectrometry. Once developed, this methodology was employed in cell culture models initially to characterize an unidentified acyl-CoA thioester induced by propionate metabolism. This novel pathway was identified as the direct formation of 2-methyl-2-pentenoyl-CoA, and using isotopic labeling by metabolic precursors served as a critical component to this pathway elucidation. These same techniques were then applied to studying rotenone, a mitochondrial complex I inhibitor associated with Parkinsonâ??s disease. Previous work by our group has shown that rotenone inhibits components of glucose metabolism. As demonstrated in this thesis, lipid oxidation and glutamine anaplerosis serve as important compensatory mechanisms in this setting. Furthermore, chiral analysis of 2-hydroxyglutarate, a metabolite linked to glutamine metabolism, revealed stereospecific alterations in response to rotenone. These previously unknown metabolic adaptations induced by rotenone may contribute to neurological phenotypes resulting from diminished complex I activity. Finally, a collaborative effort was initiated to study metabolic defects in Friedreichâ??s ataxia, a genetic disease suspected to occur, in part, due to deficiencies in mitochondrial complex I. Utilizing isolated platelets in combination with isotopic labeling it was shown that Friedreichâ??s ataxia patients exhibit diminished glucose metabolism with a concomitant increase in lipid oxidation. Taken together these findings suggest adaptations to glucose and lipid metabolism are metabolic characteristics resulting from disrupted mitochondrial function across multiple models, and description of these disruptions gives insight into basic metabolic biotransformation, toxicology, and etiology of poorly understood diseases. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Pharmacology First Advisor Ian A. Blair


A questionnaire on biomarker testing previously used in central European countries was extended and distributed in Western and Central European countries to the pathologists participating at the Pulmonary Pathology Society meeting 26–28 June 2019 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Each country was represented by one responder. For recent biomarkers the availability and reimbursement of diagnoses of molecular alterations in non-small cell lung carcinoma varies widely between different, also western European, countries. Reimbursement of such assessments varies widely between unavailability and payments by the health care system or even pharmaceutical companies. The support for testing from alternative sources, such as the pharmaceutical industry, is no doubt partly compensating for the lack of public health system support, but it is not a viable or long‐term solution. Ideally, a structured access to testing and reimbursement should be the aim in order to provide patients with appropriate therapeutic options. As biomarker enabled therapies deliver a 50% better probability of outcome success, improved and unbiased reimbursement remains a major challenge for the future.


The profile of students enrolled in higher education is changing rapidly. Compared to a generation ago, students are likely to be older, juggling study with work and personal commitments and may well be the first in their family to attend university. These students arrive at university with a significant store of life experience but often filled with trepidation about their capacity to succeed academically. Despite their classification as 'non-traditional' students it is usually assumed that they will engage effectively with traditional approaches in the learning and teaching environment. Yet the high attrition rate amongst this cohort suggests that providers should be considering new ways to engage and retain these students.

This study investigated an alternative pedagogical approach in a teacher-education course whose cohort consisted entirely of non-traditional students. Building on previous research on authentic learning, a set of applied learning design principles was created to guide the development and delivery of a course of fully online units in a four year undergraduate degree. Applied learning is a pedagogical approach often associated with vocational education and training but it has potential for greater application within the higher education sector. The applied learning design principles guiding the course aimed to enable students to directly apply what they were learning about to real-life contexts, in order to bring theory and practice together in meaningful ways. This study investigated the experiences of students over an eighteen month period using the iterative process of design-based research, to assess the influence and effectiveness of the applied learning design principles.

The findings of this study contribute new knowledge about the characteristics and needs of non-traditional students and their behaviour in the learning environment. The findings uncovered a vulnerability for self-doubt and withdrawal, sitting alongside a common desire to contribute altruistically to the learning community. Indeed, it appears the provision of opportunities to give meaningfully to the learning community may actually help students to address concerns over their worthiness and capability to succeed in higher education. The investigation concludes that an applied learning approach that respects and integrates the students' lived experience can lead to positive, even transformational outcomes for students.

This study produced new understandings of an alternative pedagogical approach in a higher education context. The applied learning design principles can assist course developers in building an environment that links university study to the workplace more effectively and facilitates the development of graduate attributes. Additionally, the findings reveal ways for teaching staff to capitalise on the affordances of web-based technology to support geographically and characteristically diverse students. In an era of unprecedented growth in the numbers of non-traditional students embarking on higher education, this investigation provides a set of tested principles to guide the pedagogical design of online teacher-education and, potentially, more broadly in higher education.


This study involved the successful development of a computer model to simulate the affinity maturation of B lymphocytes in the germinal centre in 3-D because certain behavioural aspects cannot currently be examined experimentally. The software tool recreates the structure of the germinal centre that enables the B cells to move and interact with other cells inside the germinal centre. This allows the modelling of the affinity maturation of the B cells to produce high affinity antibodies. The model was validated against the available published population dynamics data that shows population sizes on different days post-immunisation. The modelling results show a reasonable correspondence with published data. They also suggest that the high affinity plasma cells that are produced from the germinal centre reaction displace the antibodies on the immune complexes on the follicular dendritic cell. This feed-back drives the selection of high affinity centrocytes to be selected and become high affinity plasma blasts and memory B cells. This conclusion has been partially confirmed by recent experimental results (Toellner, unpublished).


The article deals with the relationship of such concepts as the world-system and civilisation, both living independently and co-existing in time and space. World-systems and civilisations may be forced to unite into hyper-systems, or world-empires of different kind—self-sufficient, militarist-parasitic, and mixed type. Militarist empires-parasites can be settled and nomadic. Nomadic or bivouac empires are empires-armies, which exist only in movement. Stopping leads either to the death of the empire-army, or to the transformation into one but usually several stationary empires, mostly also militarist-parasitic.


Optical image processing experiments can contribute to an understanding of optical diffraction and lens image formation. We are trying to discover a highly effective way of introducing lens imaging and related topics, light scattering, point sources, spatially coherent light, image processing, in a laboratory-based holography-centered introductory optics course serving a mixture of physics, chemistry, and science education sophomores and juniors. As an early experiment in this course, a microscope slide bearing opaque stick-on letters forming a word such as PAL is back-lighted by a point source of laser light. The surround for the letter A is transparent, while the surround for the letters P and L is made translucent with Scotch MAGIC tape. A 20-cm focal length converging lens forms a bright image of PAL on a screen, and also an image of the laser point source in a (transform) plane between the lens and the screen. Students are startled when they see that they can choose to pass only the image of the letter "A" or only the images of "P" and "L," by very simple manipulations in the transform plane. The interpretation of these experiments is challenging for some students, and the experiments can lead to a significant amount of discussion. Useful explanatory ray diagrams will be presented. Many demonstrations of optical image processing require long focal length lenses and precise manipulation of somewhat complex passing/blocking filters. In contrast these experiments are easy to set up and easy to perform. Students can fabricate the required objects in a matter of minutes. The use of zero-order laser light helps students discover the essential simplicity of the ideas underlying image processing. The simultaneous presence of both scattered (spatially incoherent) and not scattered (spatially coherent) laser light is thought provoking. Current explorations to further develop these and other closely-related experiments will also be described.


During an evolutionary period for Iran the aim of this paper is to identify a set of success factors, to inform enterprises who are now able to engage in the practice of outsourcing after the recent removal of long-standing US and UN sanctions, and contribute towards the formulation of a set of guidelines to assist these organisations and help deepen the understanding of recent economic developments in the Middle East. Primary research data was collected using a selfadministered survey which required senior/executive managers from enterprises in Tehran to assess a set of outsourcing factors established by academic literature. The most important factors for achieving outsourcing success in Iran were found to be having a clear strategic vision and plan, understanding the intended use of outsourcing, and
understanding how outsourcing aligns with organizational goals and objectives. The primary driver for adopting outsourcing is access to operational expertise and the sectors experiencing the greatest level of outsourcing success were the construction and IT industries. With little literature available on outsourcing in Iran this research addresses a clear gap in the current body of knowledge and contributes toward a deeper understanding of potential supply chain opportunities in this unique region. The findings will assist academic researchers, and contribute towards policy formation, and there are clear implications for Iranian enterprises who might be considering adopting outsourcing now that barriers permitting them from doing so have been removed.


The international community has worked toward a global law of contracts for the last century. These efforts include the Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods, the Uniform Law on the Formation of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, the Principles of European Contract Law, and the Vienna Convention for the International Sales of Goods (CISG). These texts are all tremendous achievements in their own right. However, they reflect a delicate juxtaposition of the two primary legal systems of the world --- the civil law and the common law. A consequence of this tension has been that the texts are full of compromises between the two systems. This article seeks to determine, between the two great and dominant legal systems of the world --- the common law and the civil law --- which of the two is more workable and efficacious in implementing any future effort at such a sophisticated system of international contracts law. I believe that the civil law may prove a more pragmatic and politically expedient solution to this dilemma, for the following reasons: (1) the civil law would be more distinctly unifying of the international law of contracts, (2) the civil law would minimize the surrender of nations' sovereignty to an international regime of contract law, primarily by promulgating a comprehensive code and eliminating stare decisis, (3) the characteristics of the international contract law – in excess of one thousand years old, and simultaneously a new supranational regime in the embryonic stages – are such that codification is especially appropriate for immediate implementation of any such regime, (4) common law jurisdictions have evidenced increasing amenability to codification of existing law and have also revealed an observable trend away from strict adherence to stare decisis, whereas there is no discernible converse trend in civilian jurisdictions and (5) other considerations – including the sheer population numbers which weigh in favor of the civil law – point toward implementing a civilian international contracts code as the logical and pragmatic solution.


Background: Clinical scores and biomarkers improve risk stratification of patients with acute coronary syndromes. However, little is known about their value in patients referred for coronary angiography. Methods: Consecutive patients admitted at four Swiss university hospitals with a diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome were enrolled into the SPUM-ACS Biomarker Cohort between 2009 and 2012. Patients were followed at 30 days and 1 year with assessment of adjudicated events including all-cause mortality and the composite of all-cause mortality or non-fatal recurrent myocardial infarction. Results: Events and biomarkers were analysed in 1892 patients (52.4% with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, 43.3% with non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and 4.3% with unstable angina). Death at 30 days occurred in 35 patients (1.9%) and at 1 year in 80 patients (4.3%). The choice of troponin assay (conventional versus high sensitivity) to calculate the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score did not affect risk prediction. The prognostic accuracy of the GRACE score was improved when combined with three individual biomarkers including high sensitivity troponin T (hsTnT), N-terminal-pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) to yield a 9% increment (C-statistic 0.73–>0.82) for the discrimination of short-term risk for all-cause mortality. In contrast, the novel biomarkers placental growth factor (PlGF), soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) and the ratio sFlt-1/PlGF did not improve risk stratification. Conclusions: In patients with acute coronary syndrome referred for coronary angiography, combinations of biomarkers including hsTnT, NT-proBNP and hsCRP with the GRACE score enhanced risk discrimination. Clinical Trials Registration: NCT01000701


Through literature review, this paper examines six empirical studies. Three cases are from the United States and the other three are from studies conducted in Asian. The purpose of this study is to identify whether or not self-directed learning is a key factor leading to successful academic performance in webbased learning environments. The in-depth analysis and discussion of each study finds that the effect of self-directed learning on academic success in web-based environments is divergent among six case studies. Follow-up studies should exclude potential problems identified in this paper.


In this article we propose the establishment of a Drone Court to review Executive Branch drone decisions prior to their execution. That said, we harken back to Chief Justice Earl Warren's wise words in Miranda v Arizona in which he called on, if not challenged, Congress and others to recommend alternative means to protect those subject to police interrogations. In the spirit of Chief Justice Warren's entreaty, we are not wedded to the establishment of a Drone Court. Moreover, we do not claim to have all of the answers. We are, however, wedded to the creation of a process that will ensure that U.S. counterterrorism be conducted in accordance with the rule of law and the principles of morality in armed conflict which can effectively and concretely be monitored and measured. In other words, we advocate for the use of drones falling into alignment with the precepts of legitimacy explored in this volume. We present our proposal in the context of two realities that must be noted for the record. The first reality is that since the horrific attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States has struggled, as it never has in its history, with finding the appropriate balance between the protection of individual rights and the demands of national security. Repeatedly, as we note below, particularly in the area of surveillance, national security has trumped individual rights leading to abuses that have shocked the nation and led to calls for reform. Those abuses have occurred despite the formal existence of institutions intended to maintain the balance of power among the branches of government. Thus, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was established pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) supposedly to insure that Executive Branch decisions with respect to surveillance were carried out in a way to protect the rights of those surveilled. The reality, however, is that fundamental flaws in the structure of the FISC, detailed more fully below, have turned the court more into a rubber stamp of Executive decision-making than a constitutional buffer between citizens and Executive Branch abuses that FISA sought to eliminate. Indeed, the mere existence of FISC has been cleverly used by the Executive branch to bolster claims that the massive surveillance programs disclosed since 9/11 pass constitutional muster – after all, goes the argument, the FISC said it was OK! We are under no illusion that the same process might not occur were a Drone Court to be established. It too, if not constructed properly with safeguards to maintain its independence, could be hijacked and used as a shield for abusive Executive decision-making rather than as a sword to insure appropriate checks on the Executive Branch. The task will not be easy. The lessons learned from past abuses must be incorporated into the Drone Court structure and the Court must have sufficient power to insure that the Executive responds in good faith to the requirements imposed on it. As we make our proposal, we recognize that such a structure has yet to be created in America's 250-year struggle to find the appropriate balance between individual rights and national security. We believe, however, that if we keep that struggle in mind, along with past dismal failures, we may have the best hope of succeeding in the future. It is with that mindset that this proposal is offered, knowing the perils that may exist, including the misuse by the Executive Branch of a judicial order sanctioning its decision-making in the name of national security.


This thesis is a qualitative study of infertility clinicians in the UK, exploring how they manage ethical issues: a study that uses empirical methods to explore ethical questions. I use a broadly Aristotelian conception of the relationship between theory and practice to develop a methodology for considering practical ethical issues. I then show how this approach, when allied with contemporary qualitative methodologies, can provide particularly valuable insights and produce practical recommendations. An important element of my approach is that a close attention to actual practice can also result in refining and developing our ethical theories and principles – practice informs theory just as theory can inform practice. This account of the ethical decision-making processes of infertility clinicians can not only highlight new ethical problems, but also develop more nuanced moral norms and ethical theories to deal with the conflicts and issues that arise in the clinical setting. Infertility treatment is a speciality that has attracted much attention from the public and bioethicists. The focus has been predominately on the dramatic aspects such as the status of the embryo or underlying issues such as the ethical boundaries of procreative liberty. Relatively little, however, is known about the everyday moral workings of infertility clinics: how clinicians approach ethical issues on a daily basis; what for them are troubling issues; and how they resolve ethical conflict. This study aims to gain insight into the way clinicians actually make ethical decisions. Moving on from this, it critically evaluates such processes and offers both an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the clinicians' ethical decision-making and considers how this form of decision-making can be extended and supported in practice. The aims of this thesis are to contribute to the debate on both how ethical decision-making in the infertility clinic can be improved and, more generally, how bioethics can make a useful contribute to practical problems.


Interventions to prevent error and improve error management have been central to health care safety and quality research. To achieve this, any error needs to be reported formally and should also be acknowledged to the patient/consumer or their family. Appropriate organisational culture is regarded as a means of assisting these actions.
Error management is important to the health system, clinicians and most importantly for consumers. When an error occurs it can lead to harm, which itself can be traumatic, but this in turn can lead to increased costs both to the system and to the consumer. Clinicians involved in error, along with their colleagues, also suffer when harm occurs as a result of error. Most importantly, the consumer and/or their family suffer, including if the facts of an error are not fully disclosed.
This research aims to describe the complexity of safety climate amongst nurses working in rural clinical settings. It focuses on the nature of this complexity in relation to nurses' views of reporting medication error.
The framework for the research was underpinned by complexity science with health care viewed as a complex system where evidence and sense-making are forms of knowledge generation. A survey incorporating a safety attitudes questionnaire and a hypothetical medication error with multiple outcome scenarios (severe, moderate and near miss error) was used to collect data for this research. Variable analysis was undertaken along with case-based analysis using a configurational comparative method (CCM). This provided an additional means of analysing the data with each individual nurse considered a case.
Variable analysis found differences in both views of reporting and disclosure as well as safety climate and teamwork factors amongst reporting compared with disclosure, severity of harm from the error, workplace setting and work role. The results from the case-based configurations of factors of safety climate present for the outcomes in each of these areas also demonstrated complexity existed in the relationship between the factors and views.
Some of these configurations suggest common assumptions made about culture and error reporting are not fully consistent with an outcome that an error would always be viewed as reported or acknowledged by each individual nurse. These assumptions need to be rethought, particularly those surrounding positive safety climate factors as being causal for improvements in error reporting and disclosure.
The case-based results also had implications for the concept of resilience. They suggest a need for more focus upon why error is reported and disclosed rather than looking primarily at why it is not occurring. Error management should be regarded as an intervention for safe patient care rather than an outcome of positive safety climate. In this way resilience to safety climate may be achieved.
Use of a configurational comparative method has provided for better understanding of safety climate and error within the complex and chaotic world in which health care delivery occurs. Shifting from a focus upon reductive approaches to research, that are driven by evidence, to one of expanding knowledge and sense-making helps with understanding the world of clinical practice where nurses work, and consumers receive health care. This informs both future research as well as the development of new theories for the delivery of safe patient care.


Selections of barley, Hordeum vulgare, obtained from a composite cross by means of salinized solution culture, a salt-tolerant research line from Arizona, and three cultivars were grown in dune sand and irrigated with water from the Pacific Ocean. All lines grew and produced grain of good feed quality. There is evidence of considerable phenotypic plasticity and of marked genotypic diversity with respect to conditions of seawater culture. Rough estimates of yield approached half the national average for barley.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to compare the immunohistochemical expression of vascular endothelial growth factors VEGF-C and D, as well as the expression of VEGFR-3 in VIN and vulvar invasive cancer and to compare the density of lymphatic marker D2-40 antibody in both groups, and to compare them with different clinicopathologic features.

MATERIALS & METHODS
The study was performed using tissue material and clinical data from 100 women diagnosed with VIN and 100 women diagnosed with invasive vulvar cancer.

RESULTS
No significant differences were found in the expression of VEGF-C and -D or VEGFR-3 between those patients with VIN and those with invasive vulvar cancers. Weak expression of VEGF-C was confirmed only in two cases of the analyzed series; in all cases, expression of VEGF-D and VEGFR-3 was observed. The strongest expression of VEGF-D and VEGFR-3 was observed in the group of invasive cancers. The highest density of lymphatic vessels per 2 mm was observed in VIN. In the cancer group, small lymphatic vessels with a narrow oval lumen were observed. Moreover, in two cases of vulvar cancer, the presence of intratumoral lymphatic vessels was observed.

CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that lymphangiogenesis begins at the preinvasive stage of vulvar carcinogenesis and suggests the important role of VEGF-C, VEGF-D, VEGFR-3 and LV (D2-40) as prognostic factors in the process of carcinogenesis in the vulvar area.


Sediment routing from terrestrial source areas to the deep sea influences landscapes and seascapes and supply and filling of sedimentary basins. However, a comprehensive assessment of land-to-deep-sea sediment budgets over millennia with significant climate change is lacking. We provide source to sink sediment budgets using cosmogenic radionuclide–derived terrestrial denudation rates and submarine-fan deposition rates through sea-level fluctuations since oxygen isotope stage 3 (younger than 40 ka) in tectonically active, spatially restricted sediment-routing systems of Southern California. We show that source-area denudation and deep-sea deposition are balanced during a period of generally falling and low sea level (40–13 ka), but that deep-sea deposition exceeds terrestrial denudation during the subsequent period of rising and high sea level (younger than 13 ka). This additional supply of sediment is likely owed to enhanced dispersal of sediment across the shelf caused by seacliff erosion during postglacial shoreline transgression and initiation of submarine mass wasting. During periods of both low and high sea level, land and deep-sea sediment fluxes do not show orders of magnitude imbalances that might be expected in the wake of major sea-level changes. Thus, sediment-routing processes in a globally significant class of small, tectonically active systems might be fundamentally different from those of larger systems that drain entire orogens, in which sediment storage in coastal plains and wide continental shelves can exceed millions of years. Furthermore, in such small systems, depositional changes offshore can reflect onshore changes when viewed over time scales of several thousand years to more than 10 k.y.


Better-educated countries have better governments, an empirical regularity that holds in both dictatorships and democracies. Possible reasons for this fact are that educated people are more likely to complain about misconduct by government officials and that more frequent complaints encourage better behavior from officials. Newly assembled individual-level survey data from the World Justice Project show that, within countries, better-educated people are more likely to report official misconduct. The results are confirmed using other survey data on reporting crime and corruption. Citizens' complaints might thus be an operative mechanism that explains the link between education and the quality of government.


This report gathers and presents approaches, methods and tools that can support and facilitate daylight and solar energy considerations within urban planning processes. The report presents different ways to address existing building stock, new urban environments and landscape environments in relation to use of daylight and active solar. It addresses the need for spatial and energy planning that enhances solar energy while respecting cultural and historical heritage values in urban and landscape contexts.


This essay explores the story of Floride Norelus, an undocumented Haitian immigrant, her civil rights lawyers, and the judges who didn't believe them. The backdrop for Norelus's story comes out of Ariela J. Gross's new book What Blood Won't Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America. In What Blood Won't Tell, Gross, an elegant historian and eloquent storyteller, enlarges an already distinguished body of work on slavery, race, and antebellum trials to investigate the changing meaning of identity in law and litigation. Bridging the study of law and culture, she constructs or rather reconstructs identity - both race and gender - from the artifacts of local knowledge expressed in social performance and scientific expertise. Gross points to two "key moments" in the twentieth century American history of racial and gender identity occurring initially when "racial identity trials shifted from more routine adjudications of ancestry to intense contests about science and performance," and subsequently when jingoist and nativist movements ignited "efforts to define the boundaries of citizenship racially." During these moments, she notes, the forum for the "determination" of racial identity moved to the local courthouse, "a key arena through-out the nineteenth century for struggles over identity." At local courthouses, Gross explains, trials of racial and gender identity "reverberated through American culture." Indeed, for Gross and others, the "cultural arena" of a courthouse and the "legal case" at stake "could fix the identity of an individual or an entire national group with a conclusiveness that was hard to overturn." Because of its cultural import, Gross argues, "law has been a crucial institution in the process of creating racial meaning at every level." Both trials and trial transcripts, she observes, disclose "glimpses of ordinary people's, as well as lower-level legal actors' understandings of legal and racial categories and of their own places in the racial hierarchy." Race trials, Gross emphasizes, "brought to the surface conflicting understandings of identity latent in culture, and brought into confrontation everyday ways of understanding race with definitions that fit into the official, well-articulated racial ideology that supported the maintenance of slavery and post war racial hierarchy." Witnesses, lawyers, and litigants entangled in this cultural conflict "learned to tell stories that resonated with juries" and judges; in doing so, they actively participated in "the day-to-day creation of race." This Essay extends Gross's historical scrutiny of identity trials to contemporary civil rights debates over the construction of race in law and litigation. The Essay is divided into three parts. Part II maps Gross's analysis of racial identity trials, explicating her notions of racialized common sense and performance. Part III examines the trial and appellate litigation in Floride Norelus's civil rights case. Part IV considers alternative approaches to civil rights litigation embodied in identity performance and empowerment strategies.


Boron carbide is characterized by a unique combination of properties that make it a material of choice for a wide range of engineering applications. Boron carbide is used in refractory applications due to its high melting point and thermal stability; it is used as abrasive powders and coatings due to its extreme abrasion resistance; it excels in ballistic performance due to its high hardness and low density; and it is commonly used in nuclear applications as neutron radiation absorbent. In addition, boron carbide is a high temperature semiconductor that can potentially be used for novel electronic applications. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the recent advances in understanding of structural and chemical variations in boron carbide and their influence on electronic, optical, vibrational, mechanical, and ballistic properties. Structural instability of boron carbide under high stresses associated with external loading and the nature of the resulting disordered phase are also discussed.


High-performance flexible lithium-oxygen (Li-O2 ) batteries with excellent safety and stability are urgently required due to the rapid development of flexible and wearable devices. Herein, based on an integrated solid-state design by taking advantage of component-interaction between poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) and nanofumed silica in polymer matrix, a stable quasi-solid-state electrolyte (PS-QSE) for the Li-O2 battery is proposed. The as-assembled Li-O2 battery containing the PS-QSE exhibits effectively improved anodic reversibility (over 200 cycles, 850 h) and cycling stability of the battery (89 cycles, nearly 900 h). The improvement is attributed to the stability of the PS-QSE (including electrochemical, chemical, and mechanical stability), as well as the effective protection of lithium anode from aggressive soluble intermediates generated in cathode. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the interaction among the components plays a pivotal role in modulating the Li-ion conducting mechanism in the as-prepared PS-QSE. Moreover, the pouch-type PS-QSE based Li-O2 battery also shows wonderful flexibility, tolerating various deformations thanks to its integrated solid-state design. Furthermore, holes can be punched through the Li-O2 battery, and it can even be cut into any desired shape, demonstrating exceptional safety. Thus, this type of battery has the potential to meet the demands of tailorability and comformability in flexible and wearable electronics.


How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom builds on the discoveries detailed in the best-selling How People Learn. Now these findings are presented in a way that teachers can use immediately, to revitalize their work in the classroom for even greater effectiveness. Organized for utility, the book explores how the principles of learning can be applied in science at three levels: elementary, middle, and high school. Leading educators explain in detail how they developed successful curricula and teaching approaches, presenting strategies that serve as models for curriculum development and classroom instruction. Their recounting of personal teaching experiences lends strength and warmth to this volume. This book discusses how to build straightforward science experiments into true understanding of scientific principles. It also features illustrated suggestions for classroom activities.


Generative adversarial networks (GANs) have attracted huge attention due to its capability to generate visual realistic images. However, most of the existing models suffer from the mode collapse or mode mixture problems. In this work, we give a theoretic explanation of the both problems by Figalli's regularity theory of optimal transportation maps. Basically, the generator compute the transportation maps between the white noise distributions and the data distributions, which are in general discontinuous. However, DNNs can only represent continuous maps. This intrinsic conflict induces mode collapse and mode mixture. In order to tackle the both problems, we explicitly separate the manifold embedding and the optimal transportation; the first part is carried out using an autoencoder to map the images onto the latent space; the second part is accomplished using a GPU-based convex optimization to find the discontinuous transportation maps. Composing the extended OT map and the decoder, we can finally generate new images from the white noise. This AE-OT model avoids representing discontinuous maps by DNNs, therefore effectively prevents mode collapse and mode mixture.


Because of its resource and labour intensity, the wood furniture sector presents an opportunity for developing countries and their firms to participate effectively in the global economy. This paper begins with a brief description of the global wood furniture industry and highlights the importance of exports wood furniture products for developing countries and emerging and transitional economies. The paper then maps the wood furniture value chain and opens-up the nature of the buying function, since this function represents the key form of control over global production networks in this sector (that is, the wood furniture chain is what is increasingly referred to as a "buyer-driven chain"). The paper then asks what producers need to do in order to upgrade their activities, particularly in developing countries. In order to address these issues the authors describe the evolution of an initiative designed to promote the upgrading of one segment of the wood furniture industry in a middle-income country, South Africa. This experience is then used to generate a series of generic policy challenges, which might be transferred to other countries and to other sectors.