1 February 2012 – A newly described frog species from New Guinea is now recognized as the world's smallest vertebrate, averaging only 7.7 millimeters in length—small enough to sit comfortably on the face of President Roosevelt on an American dime. The frog may aid researchers in the quest to understand the functional constraints of animals at either extreme of the body size spectrum. Christopher C. Austin, assistant professor at Louisiana State University and head curator of herpetology and amphibians at the Museum of Natural Science in Baton Rouge, is primary investigator of the lab that discovered the new species, named Paedophryne amauensis. "Finding the world's smallest vertebrate is interesting from a headlinegrabbing standpoint, but that's not necessarily the most interesting thing," Austin said, referring to the lack of scientific understanding surrounding the functional constraints of vertebrate bodies. Animals at either end of the body size spectrum tend to be aquatic: blue whales are the world's largest vertebrate and before P. amauensis was found, the world's smallest known vertebrate was a species of fish called Paedocypris progenetica. The discovery of P. amauensis "slightly challenges" this colloquially dubbed Aquatic Hypothesis, Austin said, since the frog is terrestrial. P. amauensis, named for the Amau River running through the area where it was discovered, lives in the leaf litter on the ground of the tropical wet rainforests in Papua New Guinea. Small frog species are often preyed upon by larger invertebrates, including scorpions and centipedes. Small frogs eat acarians, including mites and ticks, and arthropods called collembolans. Little is known about the ecology of P. amauensis and its role in the leaf litter habitat. The lifespan of the frog is likely about one year, the typical length for similar species. The field research team from Louisiana State University located the frogs by listening for their calls. To locate animals this small at dawn and dusk, researchers rely more on sound than sight. "[The call] sounds a little bit like a cricket [due to its high pitch] to people from North America," Austin said. "To find these frogs, you really just grab a handful of leaf litter and put it into a plastic bag," he said. "Then you go through, leaf by leaf, until you hopefully see the frog." Because females of the species do not make calls, researchers only identified males, which is not usual for frogs from the genus Paedophryne. Females are expected to be similar in size to the males. Extreme miniaturization in terrestrial frogs evolved eleven separate times, based on analyses of evolutionary relationships among frogs. For researchers, this means tiny size is not a new or "short-lived evolutionary experiment or fluke," Austin said. Austin's team also reported the discovery of another species of tiny frog from the same region, Paedophryne swiftorum. P. swiftorum is about one millimeter longer than P. amauensis and has a call characterized by a series of four pairs of notes at a lower pitch than the call of P. amauensis. All frogs exchange water and gas through their skin, and due to a high surface-area-to-volume ratio, tiny frogs dehydrate very easily. Because small frog species are only found in wet environments, it is likely that their need to stay hydrated caused them to evolve only in wet tropical rainforests, like those of New Guinea, rather than the tropical dry forests like those of Southern Mexico. A recording of the male P. amauensis call can be heard on Austin's personal website. The article, titled "Ecological guild evolution and the discovery of the world's smallest vertebrate," was published online by the Public Library of Science ONE on January 11, 2012. ■


"The history of recent years has shown that there will be a multi-speed EU, and not all members will participate in the same steps of integration", said Angela Merkel after the informal EU-Summit at Valetta/Malta, 3 February 2017 – "it was the first time that Merkel clearly claimed this old idea as her own."1 It amounts to a U-turn in Merkel's EU-integration strategy; until now, she has, in fact, pinned all her hopes on advancing towards tighter and tougher integration with all the – 27! – Member States of the Union. She is not the only one to switch from a one-fits-all approach to differentiated integration: François Hollande agreed as much on the idea2 at the same time as the Italian government, and the three Benelux-countries went as far as to publish an official statement on the topic. "Different paths of integration and enhanced cooperation could provide for effective responses to challenges that affect member states in different ways. These arrangements should be inclusive and transparent, with the greatest possible involvement of the other member states and EU institutions."3 This means that all the six founding Member States agreed, almost at the same moment, on a strategy of integration which is certainly not new, from a historical perspective, but has not been part of the game plan since the Brexit vote and the so-called Bratislava road-map, agreed upon in September 2016 and aiming at a reform vision for the EU to be achieved at the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaties, in March 2017. Last but not least, the President of the Commission joined the chorus: "I think the time has come for us to answer this historic question: do we want to move forward – as a group of 28 – in fact, we've already lost the 28th – or should those who want to move forward faster do so without bothering the others, by putting in place a better structure, open to all?' Juncker asked, adding that he would 'argue for this' in the coming days."4 What has led to Angela Merkel, on behalf of Germany, and the other founding member states changing their minds? And what can a "multi-speed" Europe, what can "different paths and enhanced cooperation" mean?


The effects of plateau width and step-edge kinking on carbon monoxide (CO)-induced restructuring of platinum surfaces were explored using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Platinum crystals displaying four different vicinal surfaces [(321), (765), (112), and (557)] were constructed and exposed to partial coverages of carbon monoxide. Platinum–CO interactions were fit to recent experimental data and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, providing a classical interaction model that captures the atop binding preference on Pt. The differences in Pt–Pt binding strength between edge atoms on the various facets were found to play a significant role in step-edge wandering and reconstruction events. Because the mechanism for step doubling relies on a stochastic meeting of two wandering edges, the widths of the plateaus on the original surfaces were also found to play a role in these reconstructions. On the Pt(321) surfaces, the CO adsorbate was found to assist in reordering the kinked step edges into st...


Green synthesis of nanoparticles has received great attention from scientists due to their undeniable applications in all field of science. In this study, an eco-friendly and fast approach is reported for the preparation of silver nanoparticle (Ag NPs) using Spartium junceum flower extract, as a reductant and stabilizer agent, from aqueous solution of silver nitrate. The biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles was optimized by investigating the reaction parameters including:  pH, temperature, concentration of plant extract and interaction time. The silver nanoparticles were characterized by UV-vis, fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. Also, the biosynthesis of Ag NPs was confirmed by UV-vis spectroscopy through the presence of a characteristic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band for Ag NPs at lmax=420 nm. The synthesized nanoparticles were crystalline in nature, nearly spherical in shape with 15-25 nm range of sizes.


This thesis has four separate but connected areas of interest: multiculturalism, autonomy, equality and feminism. These are brought together by considering an important critique of multiculturalism: that of the paradox of multicultural vulnerability. The case of minorities within minorities challenges whether multiculturalism does indeed help within minority groups. One of the ways these disputes have been resolved is through the evaluation of the alleged autonomy women practice in choosing illiberal practices. Whether women (and other at risk members) are considered to be autonomous will determine whether the practice will be tolerated by liberal states or not. However, what do we mean by autonomy. In the thesis I look at three different modern conceptions of autonomy through two intervening variables: socialisation and multiple identities. Theories of autonomy have been criticised by feminists because of the reliance on the idea of atomistic selves. The notion of socialisation places autonomy within embodied experiences, but it also brings to light the issue of adaptive preferences. Intersectionality or multiple identities also highlights the plural self as variable, conflicting and contradictory - all qualities that aptly describe the realities of lived experience. In the thesis I defend a tripartite understanding of autonomy that correlates with a differential understanding of the self. Through this it might become possible to speak about autonomy without essentialising identities, whilst simultaneously being sensitive about inequality.


Significance Clumped and stable isotope data of paleosol carbonate and fossil tooth enamel inform about paleoenvironments of Early Pleistocene hominins. Data on woodland- vs. grassland-dominated ecosystems, soil temperatures, aridity, and the diet of Homo rudolfensis and Paranthropus boisei ca. 2.4 Ma show that they were adapted to C3 resources in wooded savanna environments in relatively cool and wet climates in the Malawi Rift. In contrast, time-equivalent Paranthropus living in open and drier settings in the northern East African Rift relied on C4 plants, a trend that became enhanced after 2 Ma, while southern African Paranthropus persistently relied mainly on C3 resources. In its early evolutionary history, Homo already showed a high versatility, suggesting that Pleistocene Homo and Paranthropus were already dietary generalists. New geochemical data from the Malawi Rift (Chiwondo Beds, Karonga Basin) fill a major spatial gap in our knowledge of hominin adaptations on a continental scale. Oxygen (δ18O), carbon (δ13C), and clumped (Δ47) isotope data on paleosols, hominins, and selected fauna elucidate an unexpected diversity in the Pleistocene hominin diet in the various habitats of the East African Rift System (EARS). Food sources of early Homo and Paranthropus thriving in relatively cool and wet wooded savanna ecosystems along the western shore of paleolake Malawi contained a large fraction of C3 plant material. Complementary water consumption reconstructions suggest that ca. 2.4 Ma, early Homo (Homo rudolfensis) and Paranthropus (Paranthropus boisei) remained rather stationary near freshwater sources along the lake margins. Time-equivalent Paranthropus aethiopicus from the Eastern Rift further north in the EARS consumed a higher fraction of C4 resources, an adaptation that grew more pronounced with increasing openness of the savanna setting after 2 Ma, while Homo maintained a high versatility. However, southern African Paranthropus robustus had, similar to the Malawi Rift individuals, C3-dominated feeding strategies throughout the Early Pleistocene. Collectively, the stable isotope and faunal data presented here document that early Homo and Paranthropus were dietary opportunists and able to cope with a wide range of paleohabitats, which clearly demonstrates their high behavioral flexibility in the African Early Pleistocene.


In this major paper, we study the influence of structural breaks in the financial market model with high-dimensional data. We present a model which is capable of detecting changes in factor loadings, determining the number of factors and detecting the break date. We consider the case where the break date is both known and unknown and identify the type of instability. For the unknown break date case, we propose a group-LASSO estimator to determine the number of preand post-break factors, the break date and the existence of instability of factor loadings when the number of factor is constant. We also present the asymptotic properties of penalized least square estimator with both the cross-sections and the time dimensions tend to infinity. Further, we develop a cross-validation procedure to obtain the tuning parameters to fine-tune the penalty terms and use the least square approach to estimate the break date after the number of factors is obtained. We also present a Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the performance of the proposed procedure and analyze real data from 2007-09 Great Recession. The proposed procedure generally detects the break date correctly during the Great Recession while the procedure performs relatively poorly in estimating the number of factors in the preand post-break date case.


('nsage Kessen Dutton FOUNDERS AND BUlLD.ERS OF OUR NATION. By H'elen ~IehaTd Davidson. Chicago. and Xew York: Scott. Foresman' and Company. Cloth. 2tH pp. We 113\ e never seen a more interesting. more illuminating, more valuable biographical school book than this book by' Miss Davidson. The choice of twenty-six men and women from Columbus to Jane Addams is exceedingly suggestive, There is nothing accidental or incidental in the choices. The grouping of the men and women is equally skilful: Coder "The Xew Home of. Liberty." arc Columbus and \\'il1iam Penn, . . . Under "Laying the Foundation" arc Franklin. Patrick Henry. Washington. Robert Morr-is, John Paul Jones. ami Alexander Hamilton. ~ "Enlaruinc the Territorv," Clark, Jefferson and Andrew Jackson.' . . "America at Work." Fulton, Whirney, Cyrus H. ~lc Cormick, James J. Hill and Thomas A. Edison, "Songs of Home and \\"ork." Longfellow. UA Closer Union." Webster. Lee. Grant and Lincoln, "Women Builders," MaT)' Lyon. Clara Harton. Frances E. \\'iilard and Jane Addams. UA Great Amer-ican.' Roosevelt. Miss Davidson has arranged the subject-paragraphs admirably and the Administrations are most illuminating as well as attractive.


The international protection of refugees started after World War I with the appointment of the High Commissioner for Refugees by the League of Nations, but the tradition of protecting the stranger in need is found far earlier in most world cultures. During the inter-war period, the High Commissioner focused on protecting groups at risk, such as White Russians, Armenians, and Jews in Eastern Europe. However, after the end of World War II, the international community focused on the protection of the individual rather than the group, most notably through the adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly. This shift from the group to the individual has been applied to the protection of refugees, too, although I argue that there is nothing in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees requiring an individualistic approach. Rather, the group element is still predominant in the test for refugee status. Definition of the Refugee Under Article 1A.2 of the 1951 Convention, as up-dated by the 1967 Protocol to the Convention, a refugee is one who is outside her or his country of nationality and who, owing to a well-founded fear of persecution on account of her or his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is unable or unwilling" to avail her or himself of the protection of the country of nationality. This is the Convention test applied by states in determining whether an individual qualifies as a refugee. If one treats refugee protection as something-carried out in courts and administrative tribunals in the global North, then this is very much the starting point and bedrock of the process. However, while it is fundamental to refugee protection and should not be undervalued, it has become part of a much wider system of protecting displaced persons. Some elements of this wider regime are part of international refugee law, other parts flow from international human rights law, while still others depend on broader concepts from humanitarian protection. This article will focus on explaining the international law relating to the protection of refugees and other displaced persons as the end of the first decade of the new millennium fast approaches. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Individual vs. the Group The 1951 Convention was drafted with the effects of World War II in Europe and the subsequent expansion of the Soviet system in the eastern part of that continent firmly in mind. Indeed, the original version of the definition based refugee status on events occurring before January 1, 1951 and allowed states under Article IB to limit that status to those fleeing persecution in Europe. As such, the individual was to the fore. However, it was the decolonization of much of Africa and Southeast Asia in the following years that gave rise to the largest outflows of populations from their countries of nationality. Within international refugee law, there have been several developments. In 1969, the then Organization of African Unity (now, African Union) promulgated the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa that provided a supplementary and much broader route for refugee status within that continent: "Article 1.2: The term 'refugee' shall also apply to every person who, owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his country of origin or nationality." This much more generous approach to refugee status is extremely pertinent to situations of mass influx since it focuses on the group. Likewise, the 1951 Convention should also be used to protect groups, given that persecution has to be based on group characteristics, such as race, religion, and, explicitly, membership of a particular social group. …


Community reactions against organizations can be driven by negative information spread through a diffusion process that is distinct from the diffusion of organizational practices. Bank panics offer a classic example of selective diffusion of negative information. Bank panics involve widespread bank runs, although a low proportion of banks experience a run. We develop theory on how organizational similarity, community similarity, and network proximity create selective diffusion paths for resistance against organizations. Using data from the largest customer-driven bank panic in the United States, we find significant effects of organizational and community similarity on the diffusion of bank runs. Runs on banks are more likely to diffuse across communities with similar ethnicities, national origins, religion, and wealth, and across banks that are structurally equivalent or have the same organizational form. We also find stronger influence from runs that are spatially proximate and in the same state.


Abstract Evidence suggests that diets meeting recommendations for fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake are more costly. Dietary costs may be a greater constraint on the diet quality of people of lower socioeconomic position (SEP). The aim of this study was to examine whether dietary costs are more strongly associated with F&V intake in lower-SEP groups than in higher-SEP groups. Data on individual participants' education and income were available from a population-based, cross-sectional study of 10 020 British adults. F&V intake and dietary costs (GBP/d) were derived from a semi-quantitative FFQ. Dietary cost estimates were based on UK food prices. General linear models were used to assess associations between SEP, quartiles of dietary costs and F&V intake. Effect modification of SEP gradients by dietary costs was examined with interaction terms. Analysis demonstrated that individuals with lowest quartile dietary costs, low income and low education consumed less F&V than individuals with higher dietary costs, high income and high education. Significant interaction between SEP and dietary costs indicated that the association between dietary costs and F&V intake was stronger for less-educated and lower-income groups. That is, socioeconomic differences in F&V intake were magnified among individuals who consumed lowest-cost diets. Such amplification of socioeconomic inequalities in diet among those consuming low-cost diets indicates the need to address food costs in strategies to promote healthy diets. In addition, the absence of socioeconomic inequalities for individuals with high dietary costs suggests that high dietary costs can compensate for lack of other material, or psychosocial resources.


The US Report is part of a set of six country reports that support "Why Not the Best Schools?". The US Report contains five case studies of successful schools in the US and examines the reasons for their success. Through interviews with principals, other school leaders and analysis of school reports, the reports examine how these schools achieved transformation and success by actively developing and building strength in four kinds of capital: intellectual, social, financial and spiritual - and aligning them to their mission through outstanding governance.


The increasing seaborne transport of oil constitutes a growing pollution risk to the seas and oceans. Large spills of oil from vessel's sources in small areas have caused considerable environmental and economic concerns. Therefore, most public attention is focused on these accidents. Although the record of the tanker industry has improved dramatically in recent years, there are still occurrences when the press and television screens are dominated by pictures of a stricken tanker releasing oil into the sea and the accompanying pictures of oiled flora and fauna (plant and wildlife). Addressing the global issue of oil pollution damage to the ocean environment is a challenge faced by all human beings.
Research conducted by the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited (hereinafter referred to as 'ITOPF') has shown that, in recent years, almost all continents have suffered severe damage due to oil spilling from vessels source. In response, the international community has negotiated a series of conventions on the oil pollution prevention. The most important international conventions focussed on oil pollution damage from vessels sources are the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage 1969 (hereinafter referred to as 'CLC 1969') and the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage 1971 (hereinafter referred to as 'Fund Convention 1971'). Although the international community, exemplified by the International Maritime Organization (hereinafter referred to as 'IMO'), has amended these two international conventions many times, after repeatedly facing large and disastrous oil pollution accidents, the current financing mechanisms under these international conventions seemed still inadequate to provide compensation for the victims of oil pollution damage.
The problem of oil pollution is not limited to Europe and United States of America. With increasing demand for oil in Asia, the seaborne oil trade has soared in Asia as well. This is mainly because of the increased demand for oil in Japan and China. With its fast developing economy over the last two decades, China has turned from an oil exporter to an oil importer since 1993. The increased demand for oil transport has made most Asian states vulnerable to oil spills.
China acceded to the 'CLC 1969' and the 1976 Protocol on January 30th, 1980. The latter entered into force in China on April 29th, 1980. The 'CLC 1992' had been in effect in China since January 5th, 2000. However, owing to lack of specialized municipal laws governing the oil pollution accidents in China, Chinese oil pollution trials are still facing severe challenges in the judicial field. This situation has led to much more confusion on the application of laws in Chinese maritime courts. The most obvious features are that different maritime courts in China invoke different municipal laws or regulations in adjudicating fairly similar oil pollution cases. China is a participant in the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage 1971 (hereinafter referred to as 'Fund Convention 1971') and 1992. Due to historical and political reasons, however, the 'Fund Convention 1971' and 1992 are only applicable to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (hereinafter referred to as 'Hong Kong SAR'). They do not cover the Chinese mainland so far. In the new revised Marine Environment Protection Law of P.R.C 2000 (hereinafter referred to as 'MEPL 2000'), which became effective since April 1st 2000 in China and a scheme of joint liability between ship-owners and cargo industries has been set up. However, although the Regulations on Administration of Prevention and Control of Pollution to the Marine Environment by Vessel came into force from March 1st, 2010, and the Regulations on Levy and Usage Management Relating to Vessels Sources Oil Pollution Compensation Fund came into force from July 1st 2012 as well, claimants in China who suffer oil pollution damage from vessels sources still find it is very difficult to receive adequate compensation or indemnities from a compensation or indemnification fund. The fundamental reason probably is that the Chinese oil pollution liability regime which lacks specific provisions and implementing rules and therefore cannot really play an effective role in China today.
This thesis first examines international conventions including the 'International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage', the 'International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage' and the 'Oil Pollution Act 1990' in USA. A historical review illuminates how liability without 'fault' and the oil owner contribution compensation fund developed into its current state and questions whether its existence is still justified in today's law. And then, the study compares current international and regional oil pollution regimes in other jurisdictions by using the comparative methodology. The study seeks to get a clear view of what lessons can China draw from international conventions and 'Oil Pollution Act 1990' of United States of America, and how? This study also emphatically analyses the Chinese legislation on oil pollution and examines the civil liability and compensation in Chinese legal system. Current Chinese laws in oil pollution damage are rather primitive and are so far based on very few judicial decisions. This is totally incompatible with the recent rapid increase of economy and maritime litigants in China. The study of problems of current Chinese law on the civil liability and compensation regime for oil pollution damage highlights the pitfalls that might arise for litigants and indicates where the law should be amended and try to find problems with the current legislation and compensation regime for oil pollution damage in China.
The research draws conclusions on the comparative studies of oil pollution compensation in different legal systems and puts forward proposals for the remodelling of Chinese law of oil pollution compensation with a view to making it compatible with the rest of the world. As the increasingly involved in the world economy and international trade, China needs to make its legal system ever more open to the rest of the world. It is a matter of urgency for China to remodel some areas of its current maritime and environmental laws and establish a national compensation regime so as to be in line with international commercial practices and customs. This will reduce legal cost for both Chinese and foreign litigants and bring about certainty and consistency in court decisions and attempt to identify what avenues are open to enable the reform of oil pollution compensation in Chinese oil pollution laws.


The purpose of my research is to examine the new visibility of atheism and non-religion in a sphere that blurs private and public. In this paper I will look at how US women performing and constructing atheist identity via personal YouTube channels are enacting and invoking a counter public(s). These technologically mediated counter publics actualize issues of race, gender, religion, nationality and the issue of having voice in broader US society. These women speak of vulnerability, stereotyping, and the wish both to be seen and to remain hidden. My study highlights issues of what it means to have privacy in a hyper mediated sphere, and how intimacy is invoked in network spaces to connote authenticity. Using Actor Network Theory (ANT) I will be looking at these performances as relational and embedded in a particular nexus of technology, associative logic, templates of behavior, as well as material affordances and objects (Latour 2005). The purpose is to look at lived non-religion, not in order to categorize or make sense of the non-religious but to look at the performance of the personal and stigmatized in an ambivalent public. As a complement to ANT I appropriate Lynn Schofield Clark's (2011) usage of mediatization theory, her usage is dynamic and emphasizes agency, if not necessarily intent, and contributes to a discussion on rethinking the conceptualization of public sphere and public discourse. I will use ANT to develop mediatization theory, particularly exploring if and how mediatization can be understood on a micro level.


As a consequence of the increases in the number of international students and because of growing interests in multicultural issues in counselling, there has been much discussion of the psychological influence of studying abroad and support systems for international students from different research perspectives. This thesis, using a combination of a quantitative and a qualitative methodology, examines the psychological adjustment process of international students to a host environment within Rogers' person-centred counselling framework. In Rogers' personality theory, a potential for positive change in individuals and influences of environments on the self structure are main concepts. In this study, therefore, I focus on international students' potentials for positive change and the influences of their host environment on those changes. The principal aims of this thesis are (i) to explore international students' psychological experience during their study abroad, (іі) to investigate the psychological influences of intercultural experiences on them and (ііі) to seek support strategies which facilitate them to be effective as a student and as a resident abroad. Longitudinal research over one year was conducted with two cohorts of Japanese undergraduate students in England between 1998 and 2000, using questionnaires and in-depth interviews focusing on imagery and metaphors. The questionnaires (N=70) investigated students' past experiences in foreign countries, motivations, daily experiences, feelings, psychological experiences, interactions with others, psychological states (adjustment level) and self image, including self-evaluation of English proficiency. The interviews (N=17) covered similar contents, however, explored more in depth. The findings of the research show that although the year abroad is a challenging experience for many students, it can be beneficial to their positive changes, i.e., personal growth and acquisition of intercultural competence. Some possibilities are suggested for an effective support system to enhance an experience which can be either positive or negative and provided by those who work with international students.


BACKGROUND: Both "liberal" and "goal-directed" (GD) therapy use a large amount of perioperative fluid, but they appear to have very different effects on perioperative outcomes. We sought to determine whether one fluid management strategy was superior to the others.
METHODS: We selected randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the use of GD or restrictive versus liberal fluid therapy (LVR) in major adult surgery from MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed (1951 to April 2011), and Cochrane controlled trials register without language restrictions. Indirect comparison between the GD and LVR strata was performed.
RESULTS: A total of 3861 patients from 23 GD RCTs (median sample size = 90, interquartile range [IQR] 57 to 109) and 1160 patients from 12 LVR RCTs (median sample size = 80, IQR36 to 151) were considered. Both liberal and GD therapy used more fluid compared to their respective comparative arm, but their effects on outcomes were very different. Patients in the liberal group of the LVR stratum had a higher risk of pneumonia (risk ratio [RR] 2.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.0 to 4.5), pulmonary edema (RR 3.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 13), and a longer hospital stay than those in the restrictive group (mean difference [MD] 2 days, 95% CI 0.5 to 3.4). Using GD therapy also resulted in a lower risk of pneumonia (RR 0.7, 95% CI 0.6 to 0.9) and renal complications (0.7, 95% CI 0.5 to 0.9), and a shorter length of hospital stay (MD 2 days, 95% CI 1 to 3) compared to not using GD therapy. Liberal fluid therapy was associated with an increased length of hospital stay (4 days, 95% CI 3.4 to 4.4), time to first bowel movement (2 days, 95% CI 1.3 to 2.3), and risk of pneumonia (RR ratio 3, 95% CI 1.8 to 4.8) compared to GD therapy.
CONCLUSION: Perioperative outcomes favored a GD therapy rather than liberal fluid therapy without hemodynamic goals. Whether GD therapy is superior to a restrictive fluid strategy remains uncertain.


Since institutions include not only governmental and civic organizations and regulations, but also social customs and behavior, the post-transition development can not be analyzed or understood without the heritage of the past. All-encompassing state-ownership, monopolization and elimination of all kinds of competition reached unprecedented proportions in the Soviet-type economies, creating oligarchic organizations, mentalities, and behavioral patterns. The ruling communist elite enjoyed extreme privileges; citizens became much more alienated from the state than in democratic societies.

Experiences of the fastest growing countries proved that by reforming the institutional system and the policy-regime the growth potential of an economy can be much better exploited and catching-up with the more developed countries can be faster. Because of the "velvet" character of transition in East Central Europe, many of the old special interest organizations were not destroyed, thus creating obstacles to faster growth and structural change. In the catch-up process much depends on the openness of an economy, however its performance is basically determined endogenously, by the allocation of resources and their efficient use depending on the institutional structure.

The lack or weakness of the rule of the law is one of the main obstacles to the economic catching-up of the East Central European societies and their accession to the European Union. The share of the shadow economy in the transition countries increased very substantially and is about twice as big as in developed market economies. Increased criminal activities and large-scale tax-avoidance is closely related to corruption and is very damaging for the lawful and secure environment of growth. Corruption is strongly negatively associated with the investment rate, and through this it lowers the rate of growth. Clientelistic networks evolved around the political parties, creating a social network where political loyalty prevails against market relations, democratic decision making, and professionalism in public administration. In the political struggles, the question was not only which political group would govern the country, but also who would privatize the vast quantity of state assets, and to whom. In clientelist regimes corruption, favoritism, partiality, give-and-take, and nepotism abound, and thus democratic morale and the logic of the market is destroyed.

The analysis shows that the institutions in place in most of the East Central European countries are suitable to achieve a faster growth rate than the EU average, thus catching-up in the not too distant future seems probable after accession. However, the deficiencies in the rule of law are seriously hindering the full utilization of the growth potential of these economies.


The present study investigates the potential influence of voice leading on harmonic priming effects. Eight-chord sequences were presented to the participants, who had to perform a fast reaction task on a target chord ending the sequences. The target chord acted either as a tonic chord or as a subdominant chord. On the basis of previous findings, we expected more accurate and faster responses on tonic target chords. The critical new point of this study was to assess whether the size of this priming effect would be affected by good versus bad voice leading. In half of the trials, the writing of the sequences respected the rules of voice leading (normal voice lead- ing), whereas in the other half it did not (parallel voice leading). The crit- ical result was a significant main effect of voice leading on participants' performances (with faster responses for normal voice leading), which did not, however, affect the strength of the harmonic priming effects.


In the development of internal combustion engines, measurements of the heat transfer to the cylinder walls play an important role.
These measurements are necessary to provide data for building a model of the heat transfer, which can be used to further develop
simulation tools for engine optimization. This research will focus on the Thin Film Gauge (TFG) heat flux sensor. This sensor consists
of a platinum RTD (Resistance Temperature Detector) on an insulating Macor® (ceramic) substrate. The sensor has a high frequency
response (up to 100 kHz) and is small and robust. These properties make the TFG sensor adequate for measurements in the combustion
chamber of an internal combustion engine. To use this sensor, its thermal properties - namely the temperature sensitivity coefficient and
the thermal product - must be correctly calibrated. First, different calibration setups with a different temperature range are used to
calibrate the temperature sensitivity coefficient of the TFG sensor. These results will be analyzed and discussed. Second, the DED
(Double Electrical Discharge) calibration setup for the thermal product is extensively discussed.


This paper is concerned with ranking model construction in document retrieval. Traditionally, the ranking model is defined as a function of a query and a document. In practice, many factors affecting ranking can and must be taken into consideration, for instance, similarities between documents and hyper links between documents. One needs to exploit a new ranking model which is a function of a query and the entire set of documents retrieved with the query. This paper names this new problem 'global ranking of documents', in contrast to traditional 'local ranking of documents'. The paper proposes a novel learning to rank method to perform the task. The method employs Continuous Conditional Random Fields (CRF) as model, which is a conditional probability distribution representing the mapping relationship from the retrieved documents to their ranking scores. The model can naturally utilize as features the content information of documents as well as the relation information between documents for global ranking. A learning algorithm for creating Continuous CRF is also presented in the paper. Taking Pseudo Relevance Feedback and Topic Distillation as examples, this paper shows how the learning method can be applied to global ranking. Experimental results on benchmark data show that the proposed method outperforms the baseline methods.


High quantum efficiencies and low current thresholds are important properties for all classes of semiconductor light emitting devices (LEDs), including nanoscale emitters based on single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Among the various configurations that can be considered in SWNT LEDs, two terminal geometries with asymmetric metal contacts offer the simplest solution. In this paper, we study, experimentally and theoretically, the mechanisms of electroluminescence in devices that adopt this design and incorporate perfectly aligned, horizontal arrays of individual SWNTs. The results suggest that exciton mediated electron-hole recombination near the lower work-function contact is the dominant source of photon emission. High current thresholds for electroluminescence in these devices result from diffusion and quenching of excitons near the metal contact.


Glycogen and its
products of metabolism are considered to be the most important and direct source
of nutrient for the early conceptus. The premenstrual biopsies were taken from 100
women with primary infertility whose male partners had normal semenograms. The biopsies
were then subjected to Haematoxylin and Eosin (H & E) and Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) staining with and
without diastase to study histological and histochemical changes particularly glycogen
content in the endometrium respectively. Histolomorphologic spectrum of endometrium
on H & E stained sections revealed early proliferative
phase (4%), late proliferative phase (7%) and early secretory phase (7%), mid secretory
phase (33%) and late secretory phase (49%). PAS staining with or without diastase
for glycogen was performed and glycogen
content, as demonstrated by magenta color, was graded from + to ++++. Glycogen content was observed to be "+" to "++" in proliferative phase, where as in secretory
phase, it varied from "++" to "+++". Glycogen was confirmed by treatment with
diastase enzyme, after that PAS stain gave negative staining, i.e. loss of magenta color as glycogen was digested by diastase. Glycogen deficiency
was observed in 24.7% of secretory phase endometrium of infertile women. Depletion
of glycogen results in inadequate preparation of endometrium at the time of implantation, and hence, may be one of the causes of
infertility.


Changes in hand morphology throughout human evolution have facilitated the use of forceful pad-to-pad precision grips, contributing to the development of fine motor movement and dexterous manipulation typical of modern humans. Today, variation in human hand function may be affected by demographic and/or lifestyle factors, but these remain largely unexplored. We measured pinch grip strength and dexterity in a heterogeneous cross-sectional sample of human participants (n = 556) to test for the potential effects of sex, age, hand asymmetries, hand morphology, and frequently practiced manual activities across the lifespan. We found a significant effect of sex on pinch strength, dexterity, and different directional asymmetries, with the practice of manual musical instruments, significantly increasing female dexterity for both hands. Males and females with wider hands were also stronger, but not more precise, than those with longer hands, while the thumb-index ratio had no effect. Hand dominance asymmetry further had a significant effect on dexterity but not on pinch strength. These results indicate that different patterns of hand asymmetries and hand function are influenced in part by life experiences, improving our understanding of the link between hand form and function and offering a referential context for interpreting the evolution of human dexterity.


Objective To evaluate the benefits of routine cystic duct exploration during laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). Background The era of LC has been established as it decreases postoperative pain, shortens the hospital stay, and returns the patient to full activity within 1 week. Cystic duct stones (CDS) especially in patients with multiple tiny gallbladder are implicated in postcholecystectomy pain, failure of insertion of transcystic intraoperative cholangiography catheter, and the subsequent development of common bile duct (CBD) stones. Patients and methods This was a prospective study that included 30 patients with chronic calcular cholecystitis with multiple tiny stones. The patients were operated at the Department of General Surgery, Menoufia University Hospital between December 2015 and August 2016. All patients were scheduled for LC with exploration of cystic duct; intraoperative cholangiogram was done only for five cases. Results CDS were detected in nine cases in different patterns (multiple stones, single stone, gravels). CDS were detected more in patients with elevated liver functions including alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, γ-glutamyl transferase. CDS were detected more in patients with dilated cystic duct. CBD stones were found in one case detected by transcystic intraoperative cholangiography; endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreaticography was done in the same session. No postoperative complications were found regarding bile leak, obstructive jaundice, and postcholecystectomy pain. Conclusion Cystic duct exploration as a routine step in LC especially in patients with multiple gallbladder stones is a safe and easy to perform procedure that may help in protection against complications after cholecystectomy including postcholecystectomy pain, missed CBD stones, and pancreatitis with no increase in the time of procedure or risk on patients.


The emerging clean energy economy is already creating millions of jobs and generating trillions of dollars in economic activity across the globe.1 One characteristic of these jobs is that they span industries and occupations and provide opportunities for low-, middle-, and high-skill workers.2 As with other industries, though, the highest-quality jobs in this new clean energy sector will be in more knowledge-intensive occupations. These jobs run the gamut from research and development to engineering, architecture, advanced manufacturing, construction, and operations and maintenance. Despite their differences, though, these jobs all have two things in common: they require workers to have a solid foundation in basic technical skills, including both academic and practical skills;3 and they often require post-secondary credentials that are specific to the particular clean energy job in question.4


Aims. Neutral hydrogen clouds are found in the Milky Way and Andromeda halo both as large complexes and smaller isolated clouds. Here we present a search for Hi clouds in the halo of M 33, the third spiral galaxy of the Local Group. Methods. We have used two complementary data sets: a 3° x 3° map of the area provided by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey and deeper pointed observations carried out with the Arecibo telescope in two fields that permit sampling of the northeastern and southwestern edges of the HI disc. Results. The total amount of HI around M 33 detected by our survey is about 10 7 M ⊙ . At least 50% of this mass is made of Hi clouds that are related both in space and velocity to the galaxy. We discuss several scenarios for the origin of these clouds focusing on the two most interesting ones: (a) dark-matter dominated gaseous satellites, (b) debris from filaments flowing into M 33 from the intergalactic medium or generated by a previous interaction with M 31. Both scenarios seem to fit with the observed cloud properties. Some structures are found at anomalous velocities, particularly an extended Hi complex previously detected by Thilker et al. (2002). Even though the ALFALFA observations seem to indicate that this cloud is possibly connected to M 33 by a faint gas bridge, we cannot firmly establish its extragalactic nature or its relation to M 33. Conclusions. Taking into account that the clouds associated with M 33 are likely to be highly ionised by the extragalactic ultraviolet (UV) radiation, we predict that the total gas mass associated with them is >5 × 10 7 M ⊙ . If the gas is steadily falling towards the M 33 disc it can provide the fuel needed to sustain a current star formation rate of 0.5 M ⊙ yr -1 .


Engaged employees are more productive, motivated and resilient, yet gaining financial support to develop engagement is harder than ever as budgets are being squeezed and everyone is being asked to do more with less. 50 Top Tools for Employee Engagement shows that you don't need expensive interventions or additional resource to achieve employee engagement. It contains practical tools which can be used to make an immediate difference to engagement, whether you're working with individuals, teams or the organization as a whole.

 Each tool in 50 Top Tools for Employee Engagement includes guidance on when to use it, how long it will take and useful hints and tips to help get the most out of it. Most importantly, this book will give guidance on how to measure the impact of each tool to show what's working and where efforts are best focused. Addressing all the key areas of engagement throughout the employee life cycle, from talent attraction and induction to career progression and development, this book is a complete resource to engaging your workforce.


Abstract The fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life has received a great deal of attention in recent years, both in the philosophical and scientific literature. The claim is that in the space of possible physical laws, parameters and initial conditions, the set that permits the evolution of intelligent life is very small. I present here a review of the scientific literature, outlining cases of fine-tuning in the classic works of Carter, Carr and Rees, and Barrow and Tipler, as well as more recent work. To sharpen the discussion, the role of the antagonist will be played by Victor Stenger's recent book The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning: Why the Universe is Not Designed for Us. Stenger claims that all known fine-tuning cases can be explained without the need for a multiverse. Many of Stenger's claims will be found to be highly problematic. We will touch on such issues as the logical necessity of the laws of nature; objectivity, invariance and symmetry; theoretical physics and possible universes; entropy in cosmology; cosmic inflation and initial conditions; galaxy formation; the cosmological constant; stars and their formation; the properties of elementary particles and their effect on chemistry and the macroscopic world; the origin of mass; grand unified theories; and the dimensionality of space and time. I also provide an assessment of the multiverse, noting the significant challenges that it must face. I do not attempt to defend any conclusion based on the fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life. This paper can be viewed as a critique of Stenger's book, or read independently.


Seventeen new sightings, and a total of 32 records, of the little-known Longman's beaked whale, (Indopacetus pacificus) (also called tropical bottlenose whale or Indo-pacific beaked whale) are reported from the western Indian Ocean. Field identification features are reviewed, and the possibilities of confusion with other beaked whales are noted. Mean group size for the western Indian Ocean sightings was 7.2 individuals (n = 22, SD = 10.9, range = 1 to 40). This is smaller than previously published estimates from the Pacific, reflecting a relatively large number of new sightings of individuals and small groups, which, in turn, reflect the recent description of the external appearance of this species. Recorded dive times were either short (mean = 14 min, range = 11 to 18 min, n = 5) or long (mean = 26 min, range = 20 to 33 min, n = 19). Longman's beaked whales appear to be widely distributed in the warmer (> 27o C) waters of the western Indian Ocean, but most sightings were over or adjacent to deep slopes (depths 250 to 2,000+ m). Mean sighting rates were much higher in the western Indian Ocean (1 sighting per 31 sea days for visual surveys) and particularly around the Maldives (1 sighting per 21 sea days) than have been reported from the Pacific (1 sighting per 200 sea days). Longman's beaked whales may therefore be more common in the western Indian Ocean than in the Pacific, although survey methodologies used in the two oceans were not identical. Widespread gillnet fisheries may pose a potential threat to this species in the Indian Ocean.


The goal of this study was to investigate the translation of creative works into other domains. We tested whether people were able to recognize which works of art were inspired by which pieces of music. Three expert painters created four paintings, each of which was the artist's interpretation of one of four different pieces of instrumental music. Participants were able to identify which paintings were inspired by which pieces of music at statistically significant above chance levels. The findings support the hypothesis that creative ideas can exist in an at least somewhat domain independent state of potentiality and become more well defined as they are actualized in accordance with the constraints of a particular domain.


During meiosis, homologous chromosomes synapse and recombine at sites marked by the binding of the mismatch repair protein MLH1. In hexaploid wheat, the Ph1 locus has a major effect on whether crossover occurs between homologues or between related homoeologues. Here we report that—in wheat–rye hybrids where homologues are absent— Ph1 affects neither the level of synapsis nor the number of MLH1. Thus in the case of wheat–wild relative hybrids, Ph1 must affect whether MLH1 sites are able to progress to crossover. The observed level of synapsis implies that Ph1 functions to promote homologue pairing rather than suppress homoeologue pairing in wheat. Therefore, Ph1 stabilises polyploidy in wheat by both promoting homologue pairing and preventing MLH1 sites from becoming crossovers on paired homoeologues during meiosis.


Abstract The reintegration of South Africa into the global economy and technological change on many fronts has increased the need for investment in human capital to make South Africa's industry globally competitive. This paper describes how a partnership was formed between government, industry and educators in South Africa and Canada to develop university-level wood products education programmes capable of producing the managers needed to make South Africa's wood processing industry globally competitive. We describe the revitalisation of the professoriate at the Stellenbosch University and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, the institutions that offer these education programmes, and then describe how these institutions worked with the University of British Columbia in Canada to restructure their programmes. We also describe how the delivery of the restructured programmes is making use of new digital educational technologies to overcome the educational divide between academia and industry. The partnership with industry has been critical to the success of the wood processing industry educational strategy and we describe the strategies that were used to foster this partnership. We conclude by describing the outcomes of the partnership and the challenges that lie ahead for the strategy to realise its aim of helping to develop the human capital that South Africa's wood processing industry needs to be globally competitive in the twenty-first century.


In this paper we describe an experience undertaken in the Faculty of Architecture of Technical University of Lisbon, concerning the introduction of a 3D Digitization course in the frame of the PhD doctorate program in Architecture and in the frame of the Master's programs in Architecture, Urbanism and Design.We start by describing the theoretical and instrumental frameworks proposed. Then we describe and discuss a set of two exercises developed during one semester, giving examples of the work produced by the students. Finally we end with some considerations to be taken into account in future editions of the course.


The landscape of southwestern Wyoming around the ghost town of Fossil is beautiful but harsh; a dry, high mountain desert with cool nights and long, cold winters inhabited by a sparse mountain desert community. But during the early Eocene, more than fifty million years ago, it was a subtropical lake, surrounded by volcanoes and forests and teeming with life. Buried within the sun-baked limestone is spectacular evidence of the lush vegetation and plentiful fauna of the ancient past, a transitional ecosystem giving us clues to how North America recovered from a great extinction event that wiped out dinosaurs and the majority of all species on the planet. Paleontologists have been conducting excavations at Fossil Butte for more than 150 years, and with "The Lost World of Fossil Lake", one of the world's leading experts on the fossils from this spectacular locality takes readers on a fascinating journey through the history of the discovery and exploration of the site. Deftly mixing incredible color photographs of the remarkable fossils uncovered there with an explanation of their evolutionary significance, Lance Grande presents an unprecedented, comprehensive portrait of the site, its treasures, and what we've learned from them. Grande presents a broad range of fossilized organisms from Fossil Lake - from single-celled algae to palm trees to crocodiles - and together they make this long-extinct community come to life in all its diversity and splendor. A field guide and atlas round out the book, enabling readers to identify and classify the majority of the known fossils from the site. Lavishly produced in full color, "The Lost World of Fossil Lake" is a stunning reminder of the intellectual and physical beauty of scientific investigation-and a breathtaking window onto our planet's long-lost past.


From individual molecules to cells in animals, imaging has brought incredible insight to immunology. The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) meeting "Visualizing Immune System Complexity," held in January 2009, covered multiple scales, from imaging single molecules to imaging whole animals. In addition to experimental details, there was an emphasis on modeling both for data analysis and as a predictive tool to support experimental design. Imaging technologies discussed included total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, two-photon laser scanning microscopy, and magnetic resonance imaging. The biological systems included basic aspects of adaptive and innate immunity. The type 1 diabetes model was used to illustrate how a human disease was dissected at all the scales, from single-molecule analysis of the interactions of T cell receptors with peptide-loaded major histocompatibility complexes to dynamics of immune cell infiltrates by intravital microscopy, as well as the application of imaging diagnostics in humans.


Contribution/Originality: Test anxiety has received limited attention in personnel selection research, although it is well known that anxiety can impair selection outcomes (McCarthy & Goffin, 2004; Proost, Derous, Schreurs, Hagtvet, & De Witte, 2008). This paper focuses on the selection interview and studies when and why anxious applicants are less attractive to employers. As such, this topic fits into the topic of 'biases in selection' of the SGM. We build on studies on gender role stereotypes and the related backlash effect (Rudman & Glick, 2001) to suggest that the negative influence of anxiety on interview performance differs for male and female candidates. Since anxiety fits more with the female gender role and is more contrastereotypical for men (Moss-Racusin, Phelan, & Rudman, 2010), we expect that anxious men are the least attractive, compared to anxious women and non-anxious applicants. Design: To test this assumption, we conducted a 2 (anxiety) x 2 (gender) randomized between subjects experiment on 199 respondents (107 men, aged 18 to 65 years). Participants received a job description of a Business Project Manager and were instructed to hire a candidate for this job. They further received a written transcript of a selection interview and were asked to indicate the job suitability of that candidate (i.e., Would you invite this candidate for a second interview; Would you offer the candidate this job?; would you reject this candidate (reverse scored), alpha = .88). Anxiety was manipulated in two ways: participants received the result of a personality questionnaire, stating that the candidate appeared anxious in social settings vs. that the candidate is self-confident in social settings and read a written transcript of the interview in which notifications of the non-verbal behavior of the candidate were added in terms of 'the candidate appears calm' vs. 'the candidate appears somewhat nervous'. Results: The results of a PROCESS analysis (model 1) showed a main effect of anxiety on interview outcomes, B = -1.10, SE = .12, p = .00, and a significant interaction effect between gender and anxiety, B = .37, SE = .17, p = .03. As expected, the negative effect of anxiety on interview outcome was stronger for the male applicant compared to the female applicant. Limitations and Future research: A second study will be conducted in the spring in which we test two follow-up hypotheses. First, we test whether anxiety of the recruiter influences the relationship between anxiety and interview outcome. We suggest that when the recruiter experiences a similarity with the candidate in terms of anxiety, this will positively influence the interview outcome. Second, we test whether self-promotion can reduce the negative effect of anxiety on interview outcome and whether this effect is especially positive for the anxious male candidate. We base our suggestion on the idea that self-promotion is stereotypical male behavior and may thus especially advantage the (anxious) male candidate. Implications: This study has important implications for the validity of selection interviews and adds to the debate on the subjectivity of personnel selection decisions.


Transformative drugs, defined as pharmaceuticals that are both innovative and have groundbreaking effects on patient care, are the "holy grail" of drug research and development. The sources of drug innovation are often debated, with pharmaceutical manufacturers arguing that high drug prices support innovative output from their sector. We studied the developmental histories of twenty-six drugs or drug classes approved by the Food and Drug Administration between 1984 and 2009 that were judged by expert physicians to be transformative (in two cases, the first drug in a transformative class was approved before 1984). Most of the twenty-six were first approved early in the study period; only four were approved in 2000 or later. Many were based on discoveries made by academic researchers who were supported by federal government funding. Others were jointly developed in both publicly funded and commercial institutions; the fewest number of drugs had originated solely within pharmaceutical industry research programs. Nine of the twenty-six (35 percent) were repurposed from products developed for other indications, and ten (38 percent) were developed for rare diseases before much broader applicability was found. The insights from these case studies provide an experience-based foundation for policies to encourage the development of future transformative drugs.


This study w3s shaped by hvo major phases of investigation. In the first phase, a
control and experimental group was used. The experimental group was only exposed
to lessons which were based en Learning How To Learn. The); mere not trained in
learning strategies. SILL was administered to this experimental group at the
beginning and end of Phase One. The findings revealed that there is a slight
improvement in the mean scores of all the strategies at the end of Phase One except
for meta cognitive strategies.
A pilot study had revealed that many teachers teaching Form One English Language
Smart Classes did not know how to implement learning strategies and learning styles
into their English lessons. Hence, in the second phase of the study, both teachers and
students following the English Language classes in the Form One Smart classes were
given training in Learning How To Learn. A Training Module for Teachers was
designed to make Form One teachers in the English Language Smart classroom
aware of the key concepts of Learning How To Learn which included learning
strategies, learning styles, learning contracts and learner autonomy. Knowledge of
learning styles and being able to identify the types of learners in a class would help
teachers plan their lessons better. Teachers were also trained to write Learning How
To Learn lesson plans as well as to know the criteria for material selection. The
findings showed that this trainin2 sensitize the teachers to teach using Learning How
To Learn.
On the other hand, the Training Module for Learners is, in particular, awareness
training in Oxford's six classes of learning strategies. Learners also discovered their
own learning styles when they were answered the questionnaire on Willing's
Learning Styles Tasksheets. The findings indicated that with training, students could
become better language learners as they h a ~ ea knowledge of their own learning
styles and preferred learning strategies. Students could also be given autonomy to
decide on what is to be learnt, why it is to be learnt, when and where it is to be learnt
and how it is to be learnt.
The Training Module for Teachers was evaluated by the English Panel of Sekolah
Menengah Sains Kuching whereas the Training Module for Learners was evaluated
by four educators and the learners themselves. On the whole, the findings revealed
that the two modules were workable and in line with the principles of Learning How
To Learn.


We report an experiment that investigates the relationship between speed of information processing and development. The goal of the experiment was to compare developmental changes at two stages of processing—response selection and stimulus categorization. The experiment compared developmental change on three kinds of reaction time task. The first was a standard Jensen (1982) procedure which separates the decision and motor components of reaction time, the second was a modification of this procedure suggested by Smith & Carew (1987) to control for possible anticipatory strategies, and the third was a more traditional reaction time task where each stimulus is paired with a unique response (lights-to-keys). Age changes in speed of information processing were found for the lights-to-keys task but not for either of the Jensen tasks. We argue that this is because the lights-to-keys task taps response selection factors that change with age and that are orthogonal to differences in speed of stimulus categorization indexed by the standard Jensen task. If the latter is taken as the purer index of speed of processing then we conclude that speed of processing does not change with age.


Blood flow is an important measurement in the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases –
the main cause of death globally. Cardiovascular diseases are often associated with atherosclerosis, which is a condition that causes the narrowing of arteries due to a buildup of lipids on the wall of the arterial vessels. Atherosclerosis occurring in the upper or lower limbs (referred to as peripheral arterial diseases) may lead to heart attack, stroke or severe health complications. Early detection of peripheral arterial diseases will enable primary prevention, and thus a reduction in morbidity, mortality and associated resources and financial costs.
Limitations and drawbacks in the current methods for peripheral arterial blood flow measurement were primary factors in directing this research, which focuses on developing a reliable, easy-to-use and low-cost, non-invasive blood flow metering method that can replace or be an alternative option to current methods. This thesis describes the design and development of a novel electromagnetic induction method that can be used for peripheral arterial blood flow measurement non-invasively. In general terms, an electromagnetic induction flow metering technique is desirable because it is linear and insensitive to viscosity, temperature, conductivity and pressure loss. Additionally, and unlike previous non-invasive electromagnetic blood flow meters, the proposed method can be calibrated offline and is insensitive to velocity profile. The latter is important in obtaining measurements with high accuracy as blood flow in mammals is asymmetric.
A mathematical model was developed for the proposed electromagnetic induction method based on the theory of "weight functions" by Shercliff and the "virtual current" theory by Bevir. This model demonstrated that, for multiple flow channels within a cross-sectional area bounded by a multi-electrode array and across which a uniform magnetic field is applied, flow induced potentials, due to the flow interaction with the magnetic field, can be predicted. From these flow induced potentials, the total volumetric flow rate can be found, irrespective of the number, size and location of the flow channels within the area bounded by the electrode array using a technique based on the Discrete Fourier Transform method. This proposed method allows the venous and arterial blood flow in a limb to be found.
Next, a finite element model was developed in COMSOL Multiphysics software to validate the theoretical work. This was achieved by modelling multiple flow channels within a cylindrical region and obtaining flow induced potentials, which were compared with the theoretical values. From these induced potentials, the volumetric flow rate was found, using the DFT method, and confirmed.
Finally, a practical model was designed and built which consisted of a physical pipework model (simulating a human limb), an electromagnet and signal conditioning and processing systems. Flow induced potential difference measurements were made using this model and compared with the predicted theoretical values. Overall, a good agreement was found between the theoretical results, computer simulations and practical results. Based on this work and additional work that is suggested in thisresearch, a medical prototype non-invasive electromagnetic blood flow meter device can be developed for clinical trials.


This research seeks to examine optimistic prediction bias in the empirical world. Interest in this area stemmed from the observation that while the prevailing project planning methodologies typically encourage careful, comprehensive and rational schedule generation, the strict adherence to such methodologies may be insufficient to optimise prediction accuracy if the individual making the prediction deviates from objectivity. Temporal underestimation and schedule overruns are still a familiar fact of life in organisations, and existing research suggests that the tendency to be overly optimistic when predicting future outcomes could be responsible for a significant part of this. This tendency for excessive optimism in prediction is a manifestation of normal human cognition, and is exacerbated by motivational and various other contextual factors that can exist within organisations. Thus, implementing measures that account for and moderate this phenomena could be simple and cost effective, and yet yield substantial benefits for the organisation. Drawing predominantly on literature based upon the planning fallacy concept, this work applies a rich theoretical framework from psychology and business literature to the case study of KONE Corporation's Global Development (GD) division. The focus of the case study was the identification of the causes and manifestations of optimistic bias in the MNC planning context. This enabled practical recommendations to be generated for moderating the systematic underestimation of project durations by debiasing temporal predictions in the organisational setting. Qualitative interviews were conducted with GD employees, aimed at identifying the common thought processes that predominate during project schedule generation, along with the prominent planning fallacy variables identified by the literature. This was accompanied by an analysis of archived project planning data to establish patterns in the deviation between past (actual), ongoing (actual/predicted) and future (predicted) durations. Since prior studies on optimistic bias have primarily been conducted under laboratory conditions, a key contribution of this research is the development of some basic methodological guidance for examining prediction optimism in the empirical world. The research found general support for the existence of optimistic bias and the planning fallacy in the organisational context. The comparative quantitative analysis also revealed that project managers routinely perceived the future as inherently easier than the past. Key research findings included: 1. The best-case scenario is a default manifestation of human cognition in organisational project planning. 2. While project managers universally emphasised the importance of considering their own past experiences when making present predictions, they acknowledged that they typically drew upon the experiences of their colleagues significantly less. 3. The tendency to underestimate duration due to heightened motivation for quick completion and oversimplification of the task is correlated with hierarchical position (evidence of power biases) 4. Expert biases can induce individuals to underestimate training durations in internal development projects. 5. The social context in which predictions are generated can influence the extent of optimism in these predictions. 6. The trilateral relationship between establishing highly ambitious deadlines, task completion behaviour, and project worker stress is a conditional and contentious issue, and consequently one that needs to be carefully considered in planning.


Changes of shape are important in many situations of interest in biology at different typical
length scales. Approaches for modelling the behaviour of droplets in suspension and thermallydriven
motion of the molecular chains in enzymes are presented. Both models use orthogonal
basis functions to describe the spatial dependences in a spherical geometry. Both models also
describe the effect of time-dependent boundary data on the shape of the bodies involved, a
stochastic response for the enzyme model (dimensions of the order 10−9 m) and smooth response
for the colloidal model (dimensions of the order 10−6 m).
The first model presented considers the behaviour of a droplet of fluid surrounded by a thin
film of host fluid, both fluids being Newtonian and immiscible, with a well-defined continuous
and smooth interface between these regions. The flows for the droplet and host fluid are assumed
axisymmetric with small Reynold numbers. An extension of traditional lubrication theory is
used to model the flow for the host fluid and a multi-modal Stokes flow is used to derive the flow
within the droplet, subject to continuity conditions at the interface between the droplet and
host fluid. The interface is free to move in response to the flows, under the effects of interfacial
tension. Asymptotic expansions for the flow variables and interface are used to find the simplest
behaviour of the system beyond the leading order.
The second unique modelling approach used is the method of Zernike moments. Zernike
moments are an extension of spherical harmonics to include more general radial dependence and
the ability to model holes, folded layers etc. within and on the unit sphere. The method has
traditionally been used to describe the shape of enzymes in a static time-independent manner.
This approach is extended to give results based on the thermally-driven motion of atoms in
molecules about their equilibrium positions. The displacements are assumed to be fitted by
Normal probability distributions. The precision and accuracy of this model are considered and
compared to similar models.
Results are plotted and discussed for both regimes and further extensions, improvements
and basis for further work are discussed for both approaches.


Costly mistakes can occur when decision makers rely on intuition or learned biases to make decisions. To better understand the cognitive processes that lead to bias and develop strategies to combat it, we developed an intelligent agent using the cognitive architecture, ACT-R 7.0. The agent simulates a human participating in a decision making task designed to assess the effectiveness of bias reduction strategies. The agent's performance is compared to that of human participants completing a similar task. Similar results support the underlying cognitive theories and reveal limitations of reducing bias in human decision making. This should provide insights for designing intelligent agents that can reason about bias while supporting decision makers.


An integrated study system based on proven instructional methodology, this book and CD package shows you not only what--but how--to study for the SCWCD exam. The book offers complete coverage of all official exam objectives, 190+ practice exam questions, step-by-step exercises, on-the-job elements, and chapter self-tests. The CD-ROM contains MasterExam software with a complete 69-question exam, a searchable electronic book, 45+ complete web applications with source, and access to a downloadable bonus exam (with free online registration).


Dr Jeffrey Cunningham is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF). Dr Cunningham's research and teaching interests are related to the fate, transport, and remediation of contaminants in the environment. His current students are working on projects related to the clean-up of soil contaminated by hazardous chemicals, the fate of trace organic contaminants during reclamation of treated municipal wastewater, and the storage of carbon dioxide in deep saline aquifers as a method of mitigating global climate change. Several previous research projects focused on the transport and biodegradation of hazardous chemicals in groundwater. Dr Cunningham regularly teaches an introductory Environmental Engineering class for undergraduate Civil Engineering students, as well as graduate classes on physical and chemical processes in natural and engineered environmental systems. Dr Cunningham earned his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Rice University, his MS degree in Civil Engineering from Stanford University, and his PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. He has authored or co-authored nearly thirty papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. When not at work, he enjoys spending time with his family and watching baseball.


In recent years, incest and child sexual abuse has been gaining increasing media and civil society interest in Turkey and India. Yet the voices of the many adult survivors, a lot of whom are women, continue to be lost and silenced in both these countries. The purpose of this ethnographic study is to analyze how three feminist organizations, Mor Cati and KAMER in Turkey and RAHI in India, work within and against the existing media and legal discourses to break the silence surrounding incest and provide support to adult women survivors. Most anthropological and sociological studies on incest are based on research in Europe and the United States. While it is becoming increasingly possible to find statistics of sexual abuse and other such "data" from countries of the Global South, academic analyses of the experience of incest and the struggle against it continue to be scarce. This thesis first contextualizes issues such as the status of women, the discourses on the family, and the history of the feminist movements in Turkey and India; and then continues with an analysis of the media and legal discourses along with the existing legal provisions on child sexual abuse in Turkey and India, within and against which the three organizations function. Based on interviews with mental health professionals, lawyers, and activists, this thesis analyzes the ways in which dominant discourses on family sanctity, gender, survivorship and justice are challenged, and new methods and philosophies of struggle against incest are developed in Turkey and India. This research shows that despite the differences between their organizational philosophies and methods, with Mor Cati and KAMER being more involved in developing a feminist critique of the public discourse on incest and challenging existing laws on the issue, and RAHI focusing more on mental healing of survivors, all three organizations provide support for survivors and contribute to breaking the silence surrounding incest and sexual abuse in Turkey and India.


Supervised injection facilities (SIFs) have been shown to reduce infection, prevent overdose deaths, and increase treatment uptake. The United States is in the midst of an opioid epidemic, yet no sanctioned SIF currently operates in the United States. We estimate the economic costs and benefits of establishing a potential SIF in San Francisco using mathematical models that combine local public health data with previous research on the effects of existing SIFs. We consider potential savings from five outcomes: averted HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, reduced skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI), averted overdose deaths, and increased medication-assisted treatment (MAT) uptake. We find that each dollar spent on a SIF would generate US$2.33 in savings, for total annual net savings of US$3.5 million for a single 13-booth SIF. Our analysis suggests that a SIF in San Francisco would not only be a cost-effective intervention but also a significant boost to the public health system.


The glutathione content of freshly isolated rabbit alveolar type II cells, Clara cells and macrophages was depleted by incubating with diethyl maleate and the ability of these cell types to resynthesize glutathione from the sulfur-containing amino acids, cysteine, cystine and methionine was determined. Cysteine and methionine were taken up at a similar rate into each of the cell types, with cystine uptake occurring at a 10- to 14-fold lower rate. The cells were best able to utilize cysteine for glutathione resynthesis and the rates of both uptake and synthesis were fastest in macrophages and slowest in type II cells. There was no evidence for participation of a cystathionine pathway for glutathione synthesis in any of the cell types.


Heterotrophic respiration (RH) is a major flux of CO2 from forest ecosystems and represents a large source of uncertainty in estimating net ecosystem productivity (NEP) using regional soil respiration (RS) models. RH from leaf litter (RHL) may contribute greatly to annual RH estimates, but its contribution may be misrepresented due to the logistical and technical challenges associated with chamber-based field measurements of RHL. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of sources of RH (mineral soil-derived heterotrophic respiration [RHM] and leaf litter-derived heterotrophic respiration [RHL]) of a loblolly pine plantation (Pinus taeda L.) to varying soil and litter water content over the course of a dry down event. Additionally, we investigated whether fertilization influenced RHL and RHM to understand how forest nutrient management may impact forest soil carbon (C) dynamics. RHL was measured under dry conditions and at field capacity to evaluate water content controls on RHL, determine the duration of increased CO2 release following wetting, and evaluate the potential contribution to total RH. We also measured RHM inside collars that excluded plant roots and litter inputs, from field capacity until near-zero RHM rates were attained. We found that RHL was more sensitive to water content than RHM, and increased linearly with increasing litter water content (R2 = 0.89). The contribution of RHL to RH was greatest immediately following the wetting event, and decreased rapidly to near-zero rates between 3 and 10 days. RHM also had a strong relationship with soil water content (R2 = 0.62), but took between 200 and 233 days to attain near-zero RHM rates. Fertilization had no effect on RHM (p = 0.657), but significantly suppressed RHL rates after the wetting event (p < 0.009). These results demonstrate that there is great temporal variability in both CO2 released and the water content of differing sources of RH, and forest fertilization may largely impact forest floor C stocks. This variability may not be captured reliably using conventional weekly to monthly chamber-based field sampling efforts and could lead to over- or underestimation of RH. In the context of climate change, changes in the frequency and intensity of wetting and drying events will likely alter RHL and its contribution to RS. Separate consideration of RH sources and controls, along with increased field sampling frequency using chamber-based methodology under a broader range of specific environmental conditions, are likely needed to reduce variability in RH estimates and improve the accuracy of forest NEP predictions.


We present a new method of surface reconstruction that generates smooth and seamless models from sparse, noisy, nonuniform, and low resolution range data. Data acquisition techniques from computer vision, such as stereo range images and space carving, produce 3D point sets that are imprecise and nonuniform when compared to laser or optical range scanners. Traditional reconstruction algorithms designed for dense and precise data do not produce smooth reconstructions when applied to vision-based data sets. Our method constructs a 3D implicit surface, formulated as a sum of weighted radial basis functions. We achieve three primary advantages over existing algorithms: (1) the implicit functions we construct estimate the surface well in regions where there is little data, (2) the reconstructed surface is insensitive to noise in data acquisition because we can allow the surface to approximate, rather than exactly interpolate, the data, and (3) the reconstructed surface is locally detailed, yet globally smooth, because we use radial basis functions that achieve multiple orders of smoothness.


Abstract With vast amount of biomedical literature available online, doctors have the benefits of consulting the literature before making clinical decisions, but they are facing the daunting task of finding needles in haystacks. In this situation, it would be of great use to the doctors if an effective clinical decision support system is available to generate accurate queries and return a manageable size of highly useful articles. Existing studies showed the usefulness of patients' diagnosis information in supporting effective retrieval of relevant literature, but such diagnosis information is often missing in most cases. Furthermore, existing diagnosis prediction systems mainly focus on predicting a small range of diseases with well-formatted features, and it is still a great challenge to perform large-scale automatic diagnosis predictions based on noisy medical records of the patient. In this paper, we propose automatic diagnosis prediction methods for enhancing the retrieval in a clinical decision support system, where the prediction is based on evidences automatically collected from publicly accessible online knowledge bases such as Wikipedia and Semantic MEDLINE Database (SemMedDB). The assumption is that relevant diseases and their corresponding symptoms co-occur more frequently in these knowledge bases. Our methods use Markov Random Field (MRF) model to identify diagnosis candidates in the knowledge bases, and their performance was evaluated using test collections from the Clinical Decision Support (CDS) track in TREC 2014, 2015, and 2016. The results show that our methods can automatically predict diagnosis with about 75% accuracy, and such predictions can significantly improve the related biomedical literatures retrieval. Our methods can generate comparable retrieval results to the state-of-the-art methods, which utilize much more complicated methods and some manually crafted medical knowledge. One possible future work is to apply these methods in collaboration with real doctors. Notes: a portion of this work was published in iConference 2017 as a poster, which won the best poster award. This paper greatly expands the research scope over that poster.


IMAGINE LIVING IN MEDIEVAL times when castles and fortresses weren't built solely as dwellings, but also for protection from outside attacks--the thicker and higher the walls, the better. Suppose one day a report comes to the king with news of suspicious activity outside of the castle's walls. Strangers trying to find a way in are caught at the gate. The king discusses the situation with his advisors and decides to build a wall of fire that will circle the castle. For years the problem seems to be solved, until intruders start pouring buckets of water on the "firewall" to create a safe channel to the castle's gate. A battle follows the security breach; and after recovering from the attack the king decides to surround the perimeter of the castle with a moat--deep and wide enough to prevent any outsiders from entering. All is calm until one day the king again peers over the castle walls and sees a huge mass of wood built into the shape of a horse. The king brings the structure into the castle and ultimately grants access to enemies hidden within. Another battle ensues, and he restores security to the castle. Subsequently, the king implements a policy to screen any large packages delivered to the castle. This seems to provide the perfect solution, until one day he looks outside and sees another curious structure. It is clear that it is nearly as high as the castle, although it is still several hundred feet off in the distance. The king squints to see people scurrying about the structure's base. Suddenly the structure jolts and he realizes a large boulder is hurtling toward the parapet on which he stands. When the king realizes the peril, it is too late to react. In an instant, the parapet is reduced to rubble, and the king is crushed. Shortly thereafter, the castle walls are destroyed as well, allowing access to the bands of intruders. This anecdote may be dramatic, but it is reflective of how computer security threats evolve and require defenses that also evolve. For any school or classroom that uses computer technology, Internet-borne security threats are evolving and becoming increasingly dangerous. It's obvious to many that, like the castle-dwellers of old, computer users are involved in an arms race with hackers and virus writers. This makes it imperative to understand the types of computer threats that may affect school and classroom computers and networks. Current computer threats are capable of significant damage to systems and data, but are often hard to place in a single category, such as a "virus," "Trojan" or even "hacker exploit." Thus, these threats are combining to create a new type of computer security concern experts are calling "blended threats." Hackers, those trying to gain unauthorized access to computers and computer networks, and malicious mobile code, computer viruses and worms, are increasingly working in tandem. Because of these new blended threats, instructors must learn about the types of threats that exist as well as look to IT administrators to evaluate their current security strategies and develop comprehensive, adaptable protection. The Deadly Duo In the past, a computer hacker crept in through an unlocked door or vulnerable window--a pre-existing hole already in the system. This was often due to bugs in computer software or poor system configuration. For example, you may wish to share files on your computer with a teacher in the next classroom, which modern operating systems allow you to do with ease. However, if your configuration isn't carefully thought out, you might be creating a share situation that allows not only the teacher next to you to read your files, but also allows a hacker halfway across the world to access your information. Security products such as firewalls have provided a great deal of protection against these kinds of hacks, but ultimately their danger is that the computer is doing exactly what it was told to do. …


The Ordovician Period (485–443 Ma) is characterized by abundant evidence for continental-sized ice sheets. Modeling studies published so far require a sharp CO2 drawdown to initiate this glaciation. They mostly used non-dynamic slab mixed-layer ocean models. Here, we use a general circulation model with coupled components for ocean, atmosphere, and sea ice to examine the response of Ordovician climate to changes in CO2 and paleogeography. We conduct experiments for a wide range of CO2 (from 16 to 2 times the preindustrial atmospheric CO2 level (PAL)) and for two continental configurations (at 470 and at 450 Ma) mimicking the Middle and the Late Ordovician conditions. We find that the temperature-CO2 relationship is highly non-linear when ocean dynamics are taken into account. Two climatic modes are simulated as radiative forcing decreases. For high CO2 concentrations (≥ 12 PAL at 470 Ma and ≥ 8 PAL at 450 Ma), a relative hot climate with no sea ice characterizes the warm mode. When CO2 is decreased to 8 PAL and 6 PAL at 470 and 450 Ma, a tipping point is crossed and climate abruptly enters a runaway icehouse leading to a cold mode marked by the extension of the sea ice cover down to the mid-latitudes. At 450 Ma, the transition from the warm to the cold mode is reached for a decrease in atmospheric CO2 from 8 to 6 PAL and induces a ~9 °C global cooling. We show that the tipping point is due to the existence of a 95% oceanic Northern Hemisphere, which in turn induces a minimum in oceanic heat transport located around 40° N. The latter allows sea ice to stabilize at these latitudes, explaining the potential existence of the warm and of the cold climatic modes. This major climatic instability potentially brings a new explanation to the sudden Late Ordovician Hirnantian glacial pulse that does not require any large CO2 drawdown.


Thesis statement: Memory and performance overheads of application and system checkpoints can be significantly reduced with the assistance of hardware techniques.
The problems of software debugging and system reliability/availability are among the most challenging problems the computing industry is facing today, with direct impact on the development and operating costs of computing systems. A promising debugging technique that assists programmers identify and fix the causes of software bugs a lot more efficiently is bidirectional debugging, which enables the user to execute the program in "reverse", and a typical method used to recover a system after a fault is backwards error recovery, which restores the system to the last error-free state. Both reverse execution and backwards error recovery are enabled by creating memory checkpoints, which are used to restore the program/system to a prior point in time and re-execute until the point of interest. The checkpointing frequency is the primary factor that affects both the latency of reverse execution and the recovery time of the system; more frequent checkpoints reduce the necessary re-execution time.
Frequent creation of checkpoints poses performance challenges, because of the increased number of memory reads and writes necessary for copying the modified system/program memory, and also because of software interventions, additional synchronization and I/O, etc., needed for creating a checkpoint. In this thesis I examine a number of different hardware accelerators, whose role is to create frequent memory checkpoints in the background, at minimal performance overheads. For the purpose of reverse execution, I propose the HARE and Euripus hardware checkpoint accelerators. HARE and Euripus create different types of checkpoints, and employ different methods for keeping track of the modified memory. As a result, HARE and Euripus have different hardware costs and provide different functionality which directly affects the latency of reverse execution. For improving the availability of the system, I propose the Kyma hardware accelerator. Kyma enables simultaneous creation of checkpoints at different frequencies, which allows the system to recover from multiple types of errors and tolerate variable error-detection latencies. The Kyma and Euripus hardware engines have similar architectures, but the functionality of the Kyma engine is optimized for further reducing the performance overheads and improving the reliability of the system. The functionality of the Kyma and Euripus engines can be combined into a unified accelerator that can serve the needs of both bidirectional debugging and system recovery.