The study aimed to assess the efficacy of developed high fibre food mix on the management of obesity. The high fibre food mix was developed by using region specific ingredients. The dietary intervention was carried out on obese rural farm women for a period of 120 days by providing 1/3 rd daily requirement of protein and energy. Impact of food mix was evaluated by assessing somatic and biochemical parameters at pre and post dietary intervention. The developed mix contained protein (15.80 ± 0.32g), fat (2.60 ± 0.12g), energy (320 kcal), carbohydrate (60.75g) and dietary fibre (29.5 ± 0.91g) per 100 g of the mix. Significant reduction in weight (65.34 ± 10.97 kg to 63.23 ± 10.60 kg) leading to reduction in body mass index (27.84 ± 4.14 to 26.95 ± 4.06) and reduction in hip circumference (105.23 ± 9.96 cm to 104.93 ± 9.90 cm) was recorded at P≤0.05 level. Significant decrease in cholesterol, low density lipoprotein and fasting blood sugar was observed from pre to post test. The food based dietary intervention with high protein and dietary fibre showed desirable effects on body weight and biochemical parameters. Hence the inclusion of millets, legumes vegetables and oilseeds in the daily diet enhances the dietary fibre intake and thus helps in management of body weight.


For massive data sets, efficient computation commonly relies on distributed algorithms that store and process subsets of the data on different machines, minimizing communication costs. Our focus is on regression and classification problems involving many features. A variety of distributed algorithms have been proposed in this context, but challenges arise in defining an algorithm with low communication, theoretical guarantees and excellent practical performance in general settings. We propose a MEdian Selection Subset AGgregation Estimator (message) algorithm, which attempts to solve these problems. The algorithm applies feature selection in parallel for each subset using Lasso or another method, calculates the 'median' feature inclusion index, estimates coefficients for the selected features in parallel for each subset, and then averages these estimates. The algorithm is simple, involves very minimal communication, scales efficiently in both sample and feature size, and has theoretical guarantees. In particular, we show model selection consistency and coefficient estimation efficiency. Extensive experiments show excellent performance in variable selection, estimation, prediction, and computation time relative to usual competitors.


Abstract : The German military genius for maneuver warfare is well illustrated by an often overlooked operation of World War II, the invasion of Scandinavia in 1940. Operation Weserubung also warrants examination because it was joint in execution and demonstrates that the German army, navy, and air force--Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe--could fight as a team even if rivalry among the headquarters of the services made Hitler the operation's unified commander by fault. A combination of speed, surprise, and daring enabled the German armed forces to defy the Royal Navy by transporting troops directly to their objectives along the Norwegian coast. Furthermore, quickness and dash baffled the hapless Norwegians and beleaguered Allied forces. The lessons of this operation were not lost on the British for the balance of the war and remain relevant today as a case study in joint warfare and the operational art.


Depending on the descriptive and analytical approach to address the issue, through the review and analysis of scientific references and periodicals related to it. We try by this study to know the effect between acquaintance of Enterprise Resources Planning ( ERP ) and the enterprise cost and quality, through delivering the questionnaire , unloading, analysis and interpretation of results. by the end of study we found the items of sample have good acquaintance in ERP concept , also theire realization of ERP reflects on cost & quality in good level . in addition to There is a direct impact for cquaintance in ERP concept on quality & cost axis . To achieve the research goal we designed questionnaire according to the research variables, and was distributed to the (111) food companies in Syria. Using the method of multiple regression of a package of statistical programs (SPSS.18.0).


Patient: Female, 28 Final Diagnosis: Gastric duplication Symptoms: — Medication: — Clinical Procedure: Resection of the duplication Specialty: Surgery Objective: Rare disease Background: Gastric duplication is a rare malformation mostly diagnosed during childhood. Symptoms in adults are atypical, rare, or may be completely absent. The diagnosis is suggested after a morphological and histological assessment. The treatment is a complete surgical resection. Case Report: We report on a case of a 28-year-old woman referred to our unit for a surgical assessment of a gastric duplication of the antropyloric area associated with paraduodenal and pancreatic extensions, diagnosed by several image tools and histological confirmation. She had undergone a total laparoscopic resection of the duplication without violation of the gastric lumen or any other splanchnic injury. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged on postoperative day seven without any complains. Conclusions: The present report illustrates that complete resection of a distal gastric duplication is feasible by a laparoscopic minimal invasive procedure and therefore is considered to be a safe therapeutic modality. Our case is the first distal gastric duplication cyst with pancreatic and paraduodenal extension reported in the literature completely resected by laparoscopic approach.


Problem statement: Cyberbullying represents the expansion of traditional bullying into the
electronic realm. As the problem of cyberbullying typically occurs via the Internet, many
cyberbullying prevention and intervention resources have been made available online. The purpose of
this qualitative study was to determine general characteristics of cyberbullying prevention and
intervention websites. This study was conducted as a preliminary survey of seventeen independent
cyberbullying prevention websites. Approach: Categories for analysis were developed following
consultation with three psychologists, one of whom specializes in online psycho educational
interventions. Each of the seventeen cyberbullying websites was then reviewed for the same variables
of target audience, main topics, use of published research and methods for relaying information.
Results: Fourteen of the websites are oriented toward informing parents and caregivers while seven
address latency aged children, eight address children ages eleven and twelve and eleven address
adolescents. Nine of the websites address educators and six provide information for law enforcement
professionals. The main topics consist of cyberbullying prevention and Internet safety tips, availability
of a commercial product, methods for managing cyberbullying, signs a child is experiencing
cyberbullying, information regarding the motivations for cyberbullying and miscellaneous but related
topics. Sixteen of the seventeen reviewed websites present information comparable to the information
found in empirically validated studies and ten of the websites list references to the published literature
on the site. Methods for relaying information include text only, interactive formats, videos, personal
stories, message board/blogs and newsletters. Conclusion/Recommendations: Psychological research
showed that victims of cyberbullying believe they should manage the problem on their own and rarely
confide in their parents. The results of analysis of the target audiences suggested that there is a
disconnection between Internet based cyberbullying interventions and the main target audiences. To
address this problem, future research should include evaluation of the accessibility and effectiveness of
cyberbullying psycho educational websites designed for youth. Other areas to be researched include
the potential negative consequences of online cyberbullying interventions and the need for Internet
based cyberbullying prevention websites designed for cyberbullies. A definite area in need of research
is on the efficacy of Internet based cyberbullying psycho educational sites in decreasing incidences of
cyberbullying.


While Mali has experienced agricultural growth in recent years, child malnutrition has remained alarmingly high. This thesis examines the contributions that including indices can make in modeling child nutritional status. All indices are derived from three index categories: childcare, sanitation, and feeding. Four indices are constructed through two methods: factor analysis and ad hoc. The models with indices are compared to a preexisting model in order to identify immediate and underlying determinants of height-for-age (HAZ) Z-scores (an indicator of long-term health and nutritional status) in rural Mali and examine the relative impact that changes in these factors will have on average HAZ scores for rural children. Though the original model has a larger number of observations and will, ceteris paribus, have a larger R-squared value, the higher R2 does not necessarily signify that the model is an accurate reflection of the underlying relationships. Explanatory power of the individual indices varies. Coefficients of four of the indices are not significant in the regression. Four of the indices are significant and deal with care and feeding. None of the sanitation indices are significant.


A solo recital work lasting approximately 6'30". This piece was First Prizewinner in the piano solo section of the S.S.Prokofiev 2nd International Composition Competition, Moscow, March 1997. The adjudication panel was chaired by the distinguished Russian composer-pianist Rodion Schchedrin.

The following programme note appears in the published score:

'A fragment or two of this piece languished in various cupboards and drawers from 1986 until 1996, when the kindly interest of its eventual dedicatee, Marc-Andre Hamelin, and the announcement of a section for short piano solo works in the 1997 Prokofiev Composing Competition in Moscow conspired jointly to get the job finally done. The music seeks to offer pyrotechnical interest worthy of such a formidable virtuoso while still achieving a degree of substance and musical argument. The American pianist Frederic Chiu gave the Toccata its British premiere at the 1999 Pianoworks Festival in London. It was taken up in 2003 by the Canada-based Azerbaijani virtuoso Alexander Tselyakov, who presented it at the Wigmore Hall and on BBC Radio Three in that year before performing it on tour across Canada and the USA, and who recorded it on his own CD label, Golomb Recordings (in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). It has been performed with no less distinction by the fine British pianist Julian Hellaby.
The Prokofiev connection prompted a number of allusions: for example, Prokofiev's own Toccata, opus 11, with its flattened seventh in early and menacing opposition to a dogged tonic pedal, finds a harmonic echo as the present work gets rhythmically into its stride (a semitone lower). There follow a number of oblique references to the outer movements of Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata and the finale of his Eighth. A further homage, found in what develops as a fugato secondary episode, is to the opening of the Lesghinka from Liapunov's arresting youthful set of Etudes d'Execution Transcendante, coincidentally also opus 11, although its melodic shape is a good deal altered. A manic cadenza-like passage near the end of the Toccata salutes aspects of Hamelin's own astounding recorded cadenza to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2. Despite this, the piece as a whole is to be seen as ominously insistent or enigmatic rather than (until the home straight) simply headlong. It seeks to vindicate its title by exploring several contrasting means of touch, rather than to hammer away with diminishing returns at only one.'

The work was previously published by Fand Music Press, but has been withdrawn and now republished by Composers Edition with a marginally revised ending.

© Francis Pott, 2014.


Facial nerve paralysis by trauma is common cause after idiopathic. Facial palsy as a result of intra cranial, intra temporal and extra temporal blunt injury or fracture and both. Sudden and immediate facial nerve palsy needs early surgical intervention for better outcome. Facial nerve decompression and terminoterminal anastmosis surgical intervention had done in present study. It is a prospective study was done between 2004 to 2006 in Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery in Gandhi Medical College and Associate Hamidia Hospital, Bhopal, (M.P.). The complete clinic examination, otoscopic, audio logical, topodiagnostic, and radiological evaluation were done in all the patients. The outcome of these patients was done on the HouseBrackmann nerve grading system.
All patients have infra nuclear type of facial nerve palsy. The maximum incidence of facial nerve paralysis found in the age group between 21 to 30 years. The most common mode of injury was motor vehicle accident in ten patients (60%) and thirteen (76%) patients show complete facial nerve palsy, three (18%) patients were temporal bone fracture and two patients were suffered head injury. Out of 17 patients, 13 patients were normal hearing. Suprachordal (47%) involvement is the most common site of lesion in traumatic facial nerve paralysis.
Sudden and immediate onset facial nerve paralysis needs early surgical intervention for better outcome. Facial nerve decompression was better outcome comparing to termino terminal anastmosis. The facial nerve paralysis prognosis depends upon degree of paralysis, duration of paralysis, site of injury and patients' factors.


ABSTRACT This paper reports on a posture stability control method for an inverted pendulum robot using a control moment gyro (CMG) mounted on the top of the inverted pendulum. As an inverted pendulum dimension decreases, a time to fall over to an angle where an inverted pendulum cannot restore its posture becomes shorter; however, a small inverted pendulum robot cannot have a powerful computer because of space limitations. This means it requires a faster and smaller way to maintain its balance. Furthermore, inverted pendulum robots require movement space to gain a restoring force to keep their balance. We thus proposed an inverted pendulum robot using a CMG to obtain the necessary restoring force. The CMG's effects decreased the robot's falling over speed, meaning it can keep its balance without moving. We successfully demonstrated that an inverted pendulum robot with a CMG can separate posture stability control and trajectory tracking control. The validity of the inverted pendulum robot with a CMG was confirmed comparing the two experiments. In the first experiment, the CMG performed posture stabilization and the wheel performed trajectory tracking. In the second experiment, only the wheel performed posture stabilization and trajectory tracking. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


This case study proposes to rethink context as a determinant of digital government success and elaborate on the variables that affect these initiatives in specific contexts. When talking about contextual variables, researchers often categorize them as social, political, and economic. Regarding social conditions, the digital divide is probably the most studied concept, although the conceptualization can vary for authors from different disciplines and theoretical traditions. For instance, many authors use the digital divide to not only refer to access to the Internet and related technologies, but also the skills and capabilities of users and how they use technologies to generate value in their daily lives. This case study argues, however, that the social context goes well beyond the digital divide and includes additional important factors like extreme poverty and legal vulnerability. Using the case of immigration services in the southern border of Mexico, this paper shows how multiple variables from the social environment affect digital government success and its impact on multiple users.


Several proteinases from different multigene families have been implicated in the uterine invasion required for establishment of pregnancy in some mammals. In this study, the expression of matrix metalloproteinase gelatinase B (MMP-9), urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and their inhibitors was investigated during early mouse embryo development. Transcripts for tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP-1,-2,-3) and uPA receptor were detected throughout pre- and peri-implantation development whilst MMP-9 and uPA mRNAs were first detected in peri-implantation blastocysts associated with the invasive phase of implantation. Through use of in situ hybridization, it was shown that MMP-9 transcripts were strongly expressed in the network of trophoblast giant cells at the periphery of implanting 7.5 day embryos and TIMP-3 transcripts were strongly expressed in the decidua immediately adjacent to the implanting embryo. uPA transcripts were preferentially expressed in the ectoplacental cone and its derivatives. Because these proteinases are regulated by growth factors and cytokines in other tissues, the effect of leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) on their activity was investigated. Both LIF and EGF, like the proteinases, have been implicated in peri-implantation development. Blastocysts collected on day 4 of pregnancy were cultured 2 days in TCM 199 + 10% fetal bovine serum to allow outgrowth followed by 24 hour culture in defined media containing either LIF or EGF. Conditioned media were assayed for uPA activity by a chromogenic assay and MMP activity by gelatin zymography. Both LIF and EGF stimulated uPA and MMP-9 activity in blastocyst outgrowths after 3 days of culture (day 7). Proteinase activity was assayed again at the 5th to 6th day of culture (day 9 to 10). EGF was found to have no effect whereas LIF decreased production of both proteinases. These results demonstrate that proteinase activity in early embryos can be regulated by growth factors and cytokines during the implantation process and, in particular, they demonstrate the possible involvement of LIF in establishment of the correct temporal programme of proteinase expression.


Housing affordability distinguishes 'need' and 'access' as the key criteria to examine the ability of the households to enter the housing market or transit into homeownership. The term 'housing affordability' is a common terminology in describing housing difficulties, which was broadly considered as the relationship between house price and income. Besides, housing affordability examines the ability of households paying for a house without squeezing current daily expenses or falling into poverty. The expansion of the Chinese residential housing market has been accompanied with house price appreciation in recent 10 years, such change has led housing difficulties to low income groups. This research examines the main factors which would impact housing affordability in China. The secondary cross-section data which contains data on household income, financial status, demographic factors and life cycle status are employed to investigate the magnitudes of housing affordability in Micro level. Furthermore, the impact factors of housing affordability will be examined empirically regarding the locational and income differences. Recent research on housing affordability has shifted from estimating affordability indices to policy debates of granting housing and social welfare subsidies. With respect to the results, this research will propose further policy measures to evaluate the efficiency of the housing policy in China.


The factors affecting the territorial organization of the agriculture in the Far East of Russia are considered. A role of natural factors in the territorial organization of agriculture is evaluated. The natural factors limiting the possibilities of agricultural activities are presented. The territorial differences of the agricultural branch in the 1990s are considered. The changes in volumes of output of basic kinds of agricultural products for a period of reforms are shown. Variations in the forms of land ownership and forms of the agricultural production organization are considered. The reasons of negative changes in the agriculture of the Russian Far East are identified.


Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphic studies are presented from 11 sedimentary sections, nine located in the Mediter- ranean area and one each from the middle latitude North and South Atlantic, respectively. The distribution patterns of middle to late Eocene calcareous nannofossils are studied by means of quantitative and semiquantitative methods. Our main goal was to test the biostratigraphic reproducibility of bioevents used in two classical standard biozonations, and to introduce new biostratigraphically use- ful biohorizons, resulting in a series of new middle latitude biostratigraphic events. The new zonal scheme substantially improves the available biochronologic resolution, doubling the current partioning based on the classical standard zonations. This study extends the ter- minal Eocene and Oligocene calcareous nannofossil zonal scheme proposed for the Mediterranean area (Catanzariti et al. 1997), into the middle Eocene. New age estimates are provided, which highlight the need to revise the present middle-late Eocene calcareous nannofossil biochronology. Two new species are described: Cribrocentrum erbae sp. nov. and Cribrocentrum isabellae sp. nov.


This article explores the emergence of 'diaspora orphans' over the course of Zimbabwe's crisis. The debates over this phenomenon reflect a range of real emotional and practical problems encountered by children and youth with parents abroad. But they also highlight the ambiguity of moral judgments of emigration and emigres, and the crisis of expectation that assumptions of diaspora wealth have fostered within families and among those remaining behind. The negative stereotyping of 'diaspora orphans' reflects the moral discourse circulating within families, schools and society more broadly, which is revealing for the light it sheds on unfolding debates over changing parenting, gender, and extended family obligations as these have been challenged by crisis and mass exodus. The article furthers understanding of transnational parenting, particularly the perspectives of those who fulfil substitute parental caring roles for children left behind, and of the moral dimensions of debates over the role of money and material goods in intimate relationships of care for children. It adds a new strand to debates over African youths by focusing not on the problems created through entrapment by poverty, but on the emotional consequences of parents' spatial mobility in middle class families where material resources may be ample. The article is based on interviews with adults looking after children and youths left behind (maids, siblings, grandparents and single parents), and the reflections of teachers and 'diaspora orphans' themselves.


The following text is taken from the publisher's website.
"In Spaces for the Sacred , Philip Sheldrake brilliantly reveals the connection between our rootedness in the places we inhabit and the construction of our personal and religious identities. Based on the prestigious Hulsean Lectures he delivered at the University of Cambridge, Sheldrake's book examines the sacred narratives which derive from both overtly religious sites such as cathedrals, and secular ones, like the Millennium Dome, and it suggests how Christian theological and spiritual traditions may contribute creatively to current debates about place.

"Philip Sheldrake has enriched and deepened the idea of place by bringing history, cultural studies, geography, various human sciences, and literature together with theology and spirituality. He manages to do justice to the particularity of place in its many dimensions, and to connect in an accessible style with ordinary personal and social life in the twenty-first century. Above all he helps readers to identify and 'position' themselves in relation to the places in their lives, and to open up new possibilities of inhabiting them."—David F. Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge

"'To be a person,' Philip Sheldrake tells us, quoting the philosopher Heidegger, is literally to 'be there,' Dasein , thus to be in a particular place . Drawing on a wide range of writers, from Duns Scotus to Simon Schama, as well as on poetry and his memories of his own childhood in Dorset, Sheldrake offers a rich and original way of meditating on the importance of place and places in our lives."—Fergus Kerr, OP, Regent of Studies, Blackfriars, Oxford

"At a time when—in the modern metropolis—time has been usurped by space, and space has become everywhere the same, the same fluorescent lit shopping malls and suburban lawns, Philip Sheldrake's Hulsean Lectures seek to reclaim 'space' as a fundamental Christian category, as the space which God makes in coming to us at a particular time and place. Inspired by Duns Scotus and Michel de Certeau, and the Ignatian Exercises, Sheldrake explores the tensions in Christian tradition between the particular and the universal stability and pilgrimage, the places we inhabit and from which we must depart. This gently passionate book will be welcomed by all concerned with traversing the modern city, and who wish to journey with the man who made space for others, but had nowhere to lay his head."—Gerard Loughlin, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne."


The theory of stochastic differential equations driven by multiplicative Markovian dichotomous noise and a number of geomorphological relationships of river basins are used to investigate the geomorphological patterns of the width of riparian zones and the associated riparian vegetation biomass. Under the assumption that the scaling relationship between the river flow fluctuations, represented by the standard deviation of the flows, σQ, and drainage area holds, i.e., σQ ∼ As, we find that the scaling exponent s plays an important role in determining the patterns of the riparian width and vegetation biomass. In particular, high values of s, i.e., when the fluctuation grows relatively fast with drainage area, could result in the riparian zones of high‐magnitude streams being completely void of vegetation, whereas low values of s result in the riparian zones increasing in width with the stream magnitude. For very low s such an increasing trend of riparian width scales with the stream magnitude with an exponent approaching the negative value of the scaling exponent of the stream bank slope. The analysis presented here offers a potentially useful tool that can be used in watershed management, especially under changing climatic conditions, which may induce larger flow fluctuations and extreme events.


"Islamophobia" is a modern word for a prejudice that dates back to the Middle Ages and that permeates Western societies in the 21st century. It refers to the fear of and hostility toward Muslims and Islam, as well as the discriminatory, exclusionary, and violent practices arising from these attitudes that target Muslims and those perceived as Muslims. Islamophobia is best understood as a form of cultural racism that instigates animosity based on religious beliefs, cultural traditions, and ethnicity.
 The historical roots of Islamophobia are found in the political rivalries between Islamic empires and European Christian kingdoms and empires dating back to the Middle Ages. During this period, both Christians and Muslims depicted one another in unflattering terms, conceiving of the other religion as inferior and a distortion of God's true revelation.
 By the 19th century, European empires gained the upper hand in this rivalry and imposed some form of colonial rule across vast swaths of the Muslim-majority world. To justify imperial expansion, Europeans developed Orientalist narratives that frequently cast Islam as a backward, uncivilized, and barbaric religion, at odds with European civilization. This narrative found new life as a "clash of civilizations" framework was deployed after the Cold War and particularly after the 9/11 attacks to explain both the rise in Islamist terrorism and to justify ongoing Western military intervention in Muslim-majority regions under the guise of the War on Terror.
 Islamophobia is exacerbated by the fact that Muslims often lack the power to control the narrative of Islam in the modern West. What most non-Muslims "know" about Islam often comes from one of two sources: the mass media, which frames Muslims primarily through the lens of terrorism and violence; and a professional Islamophobia network, a cadre of right-wing bloggers, activists, authors, and politicians who make a living demonizing and dehumanizing Muslims.
 Decades if not centuries of Islamophobia have had a devastating impact on the lives and livelihoods of Muslims living in the West. Since 9/11, Muslims have been subject to intrusive government surveillance and profiling programs, detentions and deportations, registration systems, hate crimes, and infringements on freedom of religion in the form of antisharia laws, hijab and full-face veil bans, and localized and political resistance to the building of mosques and minarets.


Objective: The aim was to determine the rate of cumulative trauma disorders (CTD) among computer users, to question the risk factors concerning CTD, to assess the disability and depression levels of patients, and to examine the interaction between these factors. Material and Methods: One hundred fifty computer users were included in the study. They were classified as the "complainant group (Group 1, CTD+)" having symptoms in the neck, back, and upper extremity and "non-complainant group (Group 2, CTD-)" having no symptoms. In the control group, 50 non-computer user hospital staff were included (Group 3). All participants were asked to fill our questionnaire form, including detailed risk factor query and physical examination. Pain was assessed by the visual analog scale. The Jamar hand dynamometer was used for isometric hand grip strength measurement. The Beck Depression Scale (BDS) was used for the assessment of the emotional mood of the participants. To measure the general disability levels of the participants, the Quick DASH Score (QDS) was used, and to measure disability levels during work, the Quick DASH Work Score (QDWS) was used. Results: QDS, QDWS, and BDS scores were significantly higher in the complainant group than in the non-complainant and control groups (p<0.01 p<0.05). Statistically significant correlations were found between QDS, QDWS and increased time spent in the profession, increased daily working time, number of days per week in the complaint, pain duration, increased BDS score, decrease in family and social life satisfaction, and decreased hand grip strength. Conclusion: We determined that CTD and mood disorders are common among computer users. We believe that recovery in workplace conditions, ergonomic circumstances, depression, and negative aspects in social life have a great importance in the treatment and more importantly in the prevention of this clinic entity that cause serious disability and work force loss.


BACKGROUND
Due to the heterogeneity of the lesion following a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the complexity of the driving task, driving assessment and rehabilitation in TBI individuals is challenging. Conventional driving assessment (on-road and in-clinic evaluations) has failed demonstrating effectiveness to assess fitness to drive in TBI individuals.

OBJECTIVE
We aimed to determine if driving simulators represent an interesting opportunity in assessing and rehabilitating driving skills in TBI individuals.

METHODS
We searched PubMed, CINAHL and Cochrane library databases between 27-02-2014 and 08-04-2014 for articles published since 2000 with the contents of simulator driving assessment and rehabilitation.

RESULTS
Out of 488, eight articles with the subject of simulator driving assessment and two with the subject of simulator driving rehabilitation in individuals with TBI were reviewed.

CONCLUSIONS
Driving simulators represent a promising avenue for the assessment and rehabilitation of driving skills in TBI individuals as it allows control of stimuli in a safe, challenging and ecologically valid environment and offer the opportunity to measure and record driving performance. Additional studies, however, are needed to document strengths and limitations of this method.


An autonomous Lunar precursor mission is proposed as the first step to an effective, low cost return of man to the Lunar surface. The mission would use two self similar robotic vehicles and three experimental bio-volumes. The volumes are derived directly from the three lunar landers required to fulfill mission hardware delivery needs. The autonomous lunar vehicles are scheduled to establish 'ground truth', carry out resource exploration, develop sites and roads, and to provide resource recovery and processing support. By exchange of data, each vehicle would proceed to learn Lunar maps and pathways from the other. Delivered resources coupled with in situ resources would provide the reconfigured bio-volumes with the capability to carry out biological growth and waste processing demonstrations autonomously. The implementation of the Lunar Oasis by Automation and Robotics (LOAR) has immediate returns to the U.S. technology base in the crucial areas of automation and robotics.


Purpose Choroidal melanoma is the most common primary malignant ocular tumor in human adults. Relevant mouse models of human uveal melanoma still remain to be developed. We have studied the transgenic mouse strain, Tyrp-1-TAg, to try to gain insight into possible molecular mechanisms common to pigmented ocular neoplasms occurring spontaneously in the eyes of these mice and human choroidal melanoma. The role of two members of the ETS (E26 avian leukemia oncogene) family of transcription factors, ETS-1 and ETS-2, has been investigated in many cancers but has not yet been studied in ocular tumors. Methods This is the first study describing the production and distribution of ETS-1 and ETS-2 mRNAs and proteins using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry in murine ocular tissue sections of normal control eyes and tumoral eyes from mice of the same age. Using semi-quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR) and western blots experiments, we compared changes in ETS-1 and ETS-2 expression, their protein levels, and the regulation of some of their target gene expressions at different stages of the ocular tumoral progression in the transgenic mouse model, Tyrp-1-TAg, with those in normal eyes from control mice of the same age. Results In normal control adult mouse eyes, ETS-1 was mostly present in the nuclei of all neuroretinal layers whereas ETS-2 was mostly localized in the cytosol of the cell bodies of these layers with a smaller amount present in the nuclei. Both were found in the retinal pigmentary epithelium (RPE). ETS-1 and ETS-2 mRNA and protein levels were much higher in the ocular tissues of Tyrp-1-TAg mice than in control ocular tissues from wild-type mice. This upregulation was correlated with tumor progression. We also demonstrated upregulation of ETS-1 and ETS-2 target expressions in Tyrp-1-TAg mice when comparing with the same target expressions in control mice. Conclusions Our findings suggest that ETS-1 and ETS-2 are upregulated in ocular tumors derived from the retinal epithelium and may be involved in one or several signaling pathways that activate the expression of a set of genes involved in ocular tumor progression such as those encoding ICAM-1 (intercellular adhesion molecule-1), PAI-1 (Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1), MCP-1 (monocyte chemoattractant protein-1) and p16 (Cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 2A).


Gary Snyder has been a major cultural force in America for five decades--prize-winning poet, environmental activist, Zen Buddhist, earth-householder, and reluctant counterculture guru. Having expanded far beyond the Beat scene that first brought his work to the public ear and eye, Snyder has produced a broad-ranging body of work that encompasses his fluency in Eastern literature and culture, his commitment to the environment, and his concepts of humanity's place in the cosmos. Prose selections include journals from his travels to Saigon, Singapore, Kyoto, Ceylon, New Delhi, and Dharamshala; key interviews from the East West Journal and The Paris Review, meditations on Buddhism and the surrender of self; a cultural survey of communal living; and notes from the lookout tower on Sourdough Mountain, where in stark isolation Snyder once watched for forest fires. The Reader gathers poems from each phase of Snyder's long career--from his fist collection, Riprap, to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Turtle Island, through his epic poem cycle that was forty years in the making, Mountains and Rivers Without End. From freighter to firetower, Zendo to Himalayan mountain ridge, Snyder's writings reflect a lifetime of study, journey, and the practice of everyday mindfulness. Gary Snyder has witnessed and captured our culture at the hinge of change and--time and again--his work has transformed us just as it has altered our understanding of literature and place in a purposeful life.


The angle- and thickness-dependent photonic band structures in a one-dimensional superconducting photonic crystal are theoretically investigated. The analysis is made within the framework of the Bloch theorem together with the transfer matrix method in a multilayer structure. The photonic band structures are investigated as functions of the thicknesses of the constituent superconducting and dielectric layers. Additionally, the effects coming from the oblique incident angle for both TE and TM waves are also numerically elucidated. The existence of omnidirectional gaps in this kind of photonic crystal is also found.


FingerPing is a novel sensing technique that can recognize various fine-grained hand poses by analyzing acoustic resonance features. A surface-transducer mounted on a thumb ring injects acoustic chirps (20Hz to 6,000Hz) to the body. Four receivers distributed on the wrist and thumb collect the chirps. Different hand poses of the hand create distinct paths for the acoustic chirps to travel, creating unique frequency responses at the four receivers. We demonstrate how FingerPing can differentiate up to 22 hand poses, including the thumb touching each of the 12 phalanges on the hand as well as 10 American sign language poses. A user study with 16 participants showed that our system can recognize these two sets of poses with an accuracy of 93.77% and 95.64%, respectively. We discuss the opportunities and remaining challenges for the widespread use of this input technique.


Scientists want to encode their applications in domain languages with high-level operators that reflect the way they conceptualize computations in their domains. Telescoping languages calls for automatically generating optimizing compilers for these languages by pre-compiling the underlying libraries that define them to generate multiple variants optimized for use in different possible contexts, including different argument types. The resulting compiler replaces calls to the high-level constructs with calls to the optimized variants. This approach aims to automatically derive high-performance executables from programs written in high-level domain-specific languages.
TeleGen is a prototype telescoping-languages compiler that performs type-based specializations. For the purposes of this dissertation, types include any set of variable properties such as intrinsic type, size and array sparsity pattern. Type inference and specialization are cornerstones of the telescoping-languages strategy. Because optimization of library routines must occur before their full calling contexts are available, type inference gives critical information needed to determine which specialized variants to generate as well as how to best optimize each variant to achieve the highest performance. To build the prototype compiler, we developed a precise type-inference algorithm that infers all legal type tuples, or type configurations, for the program variables, including routine arguments, for all legal calling contexts.
We use the type information inferred by our algorithm to drive specialization and optimization. We demonstrate the practical value of our type-inference algorithm and the type-based specialization strategy in TeleGen.


Background Migrant health workers fill care gaps in their destination countries, but they also actively engage in improving living conditions for people of their countries of origin through expatriate professional networks. This paper aims to explore the professional links that migrant health workers from sub-Saharan African countries living in five African and European destinations (Botswana, South Africa, Belgium, Austria, and the United Kingdom) have to their countries of origin. Design Qualitative interviews were conducted with migrant doctors, nurses, and midwives from sub-Saharan Africa (N=66). A qualitative content analysis of the material was performed using the software ATLAS.ti. Results Almost all migrant health workers have professional ties with their countries of origin supporting health, education, and social structures. They work with non-governmental organizations, universities, or hospitals and travel back and forth between their destination country and country of origin. For a few respondents, professional engagement or even maintaining private contacts in their country of origin is difficult due to the political situation at home. Conclusions The results show that African migrant health workers are actively engaged in improving living conditions not only for their family members but also for the population in general in their countries of origin. Our respondents are mediators and active networkers in a globalized and transnationally connected world. The research suggests that the governments of these countries of origin could strategically use their migrant health workforce for improving education and population health in sub-Saharan Africa. Destination countries should be reminded of their need to comply with the WHO Global Code of Practice for the international recruitment of health professionals.


Automated handwritten character recognition seems to be necessary due to the increasing number of Persian/Arabic handwritten documents. A new approach for Persian/Arabic handwritten digit recognition has been proposed in this paper. This approach employs Local Binary Pattern (LBP) operator as the base feature extraction method. Although this operator has shown great performance in research areas such as context and object recognition, but it has not been used in Persian/Arabic handwritten digit recognition problem. First step in the proposed approach involves smoothing, converting black and white input image to grayscale intensity image and resizing it to a fixed size. In the next step, input image is divided into several blocks. LBP operator is applied to each block to extract features. Finally, these features are used to train a multi-layer perceptron neural network with circular approach. Empirical results shows that the proposed approach has a very good generalization accuracy (99.72%) on Hoda dataset with 60000 train and 20000 test samples. This accuracy is the best among the stateof-the-art methods.


Evolutionary Structural Optimisation (ESO) has become a well-established technique for determining the optimum shape and topology of a structure given a set of loads and constraints. The basic ESO concept that the optimum topology design evolves by slow removal and addition of material has matured over the last ten years. Nevertheless, the development of the method has almost exclusively considered finite elements (FE) as the approach for providing stress solutions. This thesis presents an ESO approach based on the boundary element method. Non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) are used to define the geometry of the component and, since the shape of these splines is governed by a set of control points, use can be made of the locations of these control points as design variables. The developed algorithm creates internal cavities to accomplish topology changes. Cavities are also described by NURBS and so they have similar behaviour to the outside boundary. Therefore, both outside and inside are optimised at the same time. The optimum topologies evolve allowing cavities to merge between each other and to their closest outer boundary. Two-dimensional structural optimisation is investigated in detail exploring multi-load case and multi-criteria optimisation. The algorithm is also extended to three-dimensional optimisation, in which promising preliminary results are obtained. It is shown that this approach overcomes some of the drawbacks inherent in traditional FE-based approaches, and naturally provides accurate stress solutions on smooth boundary representations at each iteration.


The Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment has long been interpreted by scholars and judges to provide very limited protections for criminal defendants. This understanding of the Eighth Amendment claims that the prohibition is operationalized mostly to prevent torturous methods of punishment or halt the isolated use of a punishment practice that has fallen into long-term disuse.This Article challenges these assumptions. It argues that while this limited view of the Eighth Amendment may be accurate as a historical matter, over the past two decades, the Supreme Court has incrementally broadened the scope of the cruel and unusual punishment clause. The Court's contemporary Eighth Amendment jurisprudence — with its focus on categorical exemptions and increasingly nuanced measures of determining constitutionally excessive punishments — reflects an overt recognition that the fundamental purpose of the Eighth Amendment is to protect vulnerable citizens uniquely subject to majoritarian retributive excess.Animating these developments is a conception of constitutional liberty that transcends the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Indeed, 2015's same-sex marriage decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, reflects a similar trajectory in the Court's substantive due process jurisprudence. Taken together, these doctrinal developments illustrate a concerted move to insert the Court as the independent arbiter of legislative excesses that undermine the basic right to human dignity by virtue of unnecessarily impinging upon individual liberty. Ultimately, these liberty-driven developments signal new possibilities for the protection of defendant rights in a variety of contemporary contexts, including juvenile life without parole for homicide offenses, life without parole for non-violent drug offenses, the death penalty, certain mandatory minimum sentences and the prolonged use of solitary confinement.


Key Finding Summary Researchers found that a training program for students learning to become pre-primary teachers in Ghana improved teachers' implementation and knowledge of the national kindergarten curriculum, but had mixed impacts on teaching


Integrin transmembrane receptor functions are regulated by adaptor molecules binding to their and subunit intracellular domains, or tails, thus affecting integrin traffic and adhesion during e.g. cell motility. Interestingly, many cellular proteins function in both cell motility and cell division, thus raising the possibility that integrins might be involved in regulating the cell cycle. A thorough understanding of cell division is essential in cell biology and in human malignancies. It is well established that failures to complete cell cycle can give rise to genetically unstable cells with tumorigenic properties. Transformed cells promote the disruption of intercellular adhesions such as tight junctions, and this correlates with the onset of cell motility, invasion and unfavorable prognosis in cancer. In this study, we analyzed integrin regulation, mediated by adaptor binding to the subunit tail, during cell motility and cell division. We revealed a novel molecular mechanism by which Rab21, through association with the integrin subunits, drives integrin endosomal traffic during mitotic phases. In addition, we found indications for this finding in vivo, as RAB21 gene deletions were mapped in ovarian and prostate cancer samples. Importantly, the multinucleated phenotype of cultured ovarian cancer cells could be reverted by Rab21 overexpression. In this thesis work, we also show how the tight junction protein ZO-1 unexpectedly interacts with the 5 integrin cytoplasmic domain in the lamellipodia to promote cell motility and at the cleavage furrow to support separation of the daughter cells. The 5-ZO-1 complex formation was dependent on PKC which regulates ZO-1 phosphorylation and its subcellular localization. In addition, by an in situ detection method, we showed that a subset of metastatic human lung cancers expressed the -ZO-1 complex. Taken together, we were able to identify new molecular pathways that regulate integrin functions in an tail-mediated fashion. These findings firmly suggest that genetic alterations in integrin traffic may lead to progression of tumorigenesis as a result of failed cell division. Also, the interplay of integrins and ZO-1 in forming spatially regulated adhesive structures broadens our view of crosstalk between pathways and distinct adhesive structures that can be involved in cancer cell biology.


The Backyard Duck Book is a revised edition of Nyiri Murtagh's popular book, For the Love of Ducks, but with colour photographs of the duck breeds. It covers all aspects of duck husbandry, from selecting a breed and buying ducks to housing, breeding, feeding and health. It includes a description of each of the duck breeds currently available in Australia, the standards for each breed, their egg-laying capacity and their potential as table birds.

The book also has a comprehensive section on artificial incubation of eggs that includes step-by-step instructions on how to test eggs for fertility and defects. Crossbreeding, developing your own lines and raising ducks for meat are also covered.

Backyard poultry farmers, small-acre farmers and hobby farmers will find this book an enjoyable and useful reference.


Welcome to Low Town. Here, the criminal is king. The streets are filled with the screeching of fish hags, the cries of swindled merchants, the inviting murmurs of working girls. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found. Warden is an ex-soldier who has seen the worst men have to offer; now a narcotics dealer with a rich, bloody past and a way of inviting danger. You'd struggle to find someone with a soul as dark and troubled as his. But then a missing child, murdered and horribly mutilated, is discovered in an alley. And then another. With a mind as sharp as a blade and an old but powerful friend in the city, he's the only man with a hope of finding the killer. If the killer doesn't find him first.


Data analysis is an essential tenet of analytical chemistry, extending the possible of obtaining information from the measurement of chemical phenomena. Conductivity methods have grown considerably over recent years but their wide use is hindered because some still consider them too complicated. The purpose of this article is to describe a conductivity sensitivity method more simply from the point of view of an analytical chemist, by using mathematical linear and quadratic extrapolations. This conductivity sensitivity method defines sensitivity parameters for determining reactant or product concentrations based on measuring strong and weak electrolytes conductivities. The sensitivity parameters are constant throughout this specific reaction. Concentrations of strong electrolytes can be determined by linear extrapolation, whilst concentrations of weak electrolytes can be determined by quadratic mathematical extrapolation. This method proposes a continuous determination of real reactant or product concentrations.


More and more fishery researchers begin to acknowledge that one-dimensional biomass models may omit key information when generating management guidelines. For the more complicated age-structured models, numerous parameters require a proper estimation or a reasonable assumption. In this paper, the effects of recruitment patterns and environmental impacts on the optimal exploitation of a fish population are investigated. Based on a discrete-time age-structured bioeconomic model of Northeast Atlantic mackerel, we introduce the mechanisms that generate 6 scenarios of the problem. Using the simplest scenario, optimizations are conducted under 8 different parameter combinations. Then, the problem is solved for each scenario and simulations are conducted with constant fishing mortalities. It is found that a higher environmental volatility leads to more net profits but with a lower probability of achieving the mean values. Any parameter combination that favours the older fish tends to lend itself to pulse fishing pattern. The simulations indicate that a constant fishing mortality around 0.06 performs the best. A comparison between the optimal and the historical harvest shows that for more than 70% of the time, the optimal exploitation precedes the historical one, leading to 43% higher net profit and 34% lower fishing cost.


Scholarship on the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in South Africa tends to focus on quantitative evaluation to measure the progress made in the implementation of EPWP projects. The number of employment opportunities created by EPWP, demographic profiling, skills acquired by beneficiaries and training opportunities related to the Programme form the basis of typical statistical evaluations of it, but exclude comment by the workers who participate in its projects. Based on primary sources, including in-depth interviews, newspaper reports and internet sources, this article seeks to provide a qualitative review of the EPWP from the perspective of the beneficiaries of municipal EPWP projects. Various South African government sectors hire EPWP workers to provide local services such as cleaning and maintaining infrastructure, but the employment of these workers can still be regarded as precarious, in the sense that they have no job security, earn low wages and have no benefits such as medical aid or pension fund. The interviewees indicated that, although they appreciate the temporary employment opportunities provided by the EPWP, they also experience health and safety risks and lack the advantages of organised labour groupings. Their main disadvantage, however, is that they cannot access permanent employment, which offers better wages and concomitant benefits.


This article proposes a framework for the analysis of social classes in Latin America and presents evidence on the composition of the class structure in the region and its evolution during the last two decades, corresponding to the years of implementation of a new economic model in most countries. The paper is an update of an earlier article on the same topic published in this journal at the end of the period of import substitution industrialization. Relative to that earlier period, the present era registers a visible increase in income inequality, a persistent concentration of wealth in the top decile of the population, a rapid expansion of the class of micro-entrepreneurs, and a stagnation or increase of the informal proletariat. The contraction of public sector employment and the stagnation of formal sector labor demand in most countries have led to a series of adaptive solutions by the middle and lower classes. The rise of informal self-employment and micro-entrepreneurialism throughout the region can be interpreted as a direct result of the new adjustment policies. We explore other, less orthodox adaptive strategies, including the rise of violent crime in the cities and migration abroad by an increasingly diversified cross-section of the population. The impact that changes in the class structure have had on party politics and other forms of popular political mobilization in Latin American countries is discussed.


The temperature dependent rate coefficients have been measured for the reaction of OH radicals with 2,3-dimethyl-1,3butadiene with reference to isoprene over the temperature range of 269-359K. Gas chromatography has been used to measure the concentrations of the organics. The measured rate coefficient is k = (1.01±0.1)×10 cmmolecules at 298K and 760 Torr. The derived Arrhenius expression is k269-359K = (6.67±3.84)×10 exp[(807±89)/T] cmmolecules over the studied temperature range. To understand the reaction mechanism and to continue our earlier study of 2,3-dimethyl-1,3butadiene with Cl atoms, computational calculations have been performed over the temperature range of 275-400K. Temperature dependent rate coefficients have been calculated using CVT/SCT (Canonical Variational Transition state theory with Small Curvature Tunneling) in combination with CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pvdz//M062X/6-311+G(d,p) level of theory. To understand the atmospheric implications of butadienes, the obtained rate coefficients have been compared with 1,3butadiene and 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene (isoprene). Atmospheric lifetimes and global warming potentials of these butadienes are discussed.


The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) imposed significant changes in the information about calories and nutrients that manufacturers of packaged foods must provide to consumers. This paper tests whether the release of this information impacted body weight and obesity among American adults. We estimate the effect of the new label using a difference-in-differences method. We compare the change before and after the implementation of NLEA in body weight among those who use labels when food shopping to that among those who do not use labels. In National Health Interview Survey data we find, among non-Hispanic white women, that the implementation of the new labels was associated with a decrease in body weight and the probability of obesity. Using NLEA regulatory impact analysis benchmarks, we estimate that the total monetary benefit of this decrease in body weight was $63 to $166 billion over a 20-year period, far in excess of the costs of the NLEA.


Abstract By studying landscape form and patterns, we can study processes at multiple scales and determine how collectively those processes inform us about function(s). Integrating landscape ecology from a biogeographical perspective with geographic information science (GIScience) practices offers new ways to study how landscapes change over time and space, including how they can be measured, analyzed, and modeled for management needs. This article presents methodologies and selected results of analyzing spatial patterns from field data across multiple scales by examining standing dead tree (snag) processes across wildfire-disturbed landscapes in Arizona. Our primary motivation was to illustrate a particular type of work benefiting from the coalescing of landscape ecology and GIScience, functioning at the methodological and practical overlap of these two contributing fields. Our management goals were to (1) describe spatial patterns and characteristics of snags in pairs of burned and unburned ponderosa pine forests of Arizona in four recent (within the past ten years) wildfires, (2) document bird response to wildfires by combining landscape ecology and GIScience methods, and (3) link these patterns to snag monitoring plots and cavity-nesting bird use to predict the probability of snag use by birds and cavity nesters based on snag characteristics (snag use model). The methods and results demonstrate how integration of landscape ecology with both GIS and GIScience improves the ways to study landscapes and land management issues, in this case offering guidelines for retention of snags that provide habitat for wildlife.


Lighting design is an important topic of 3D scene design. There are many functions that lighting assumes in game environments, including directing attention, visibility, evoking emotions, setting atmosphere, and providing depth. Due to the unpredictability of interactive environments, current lighting design models do not adequately adapt the lighting to serve these aesthetic and communicative functions. In this paper, I will discuss the contributions of ELE (Expressive Lighting Engine) as an intelligent lighting control system that automatically adjusts the lighting to achieve aesthetic and communicative functions, including evoking emotions, directing visual focus, and providing visibility and depth in game environments. In particular, I present results from interfacing ELE to the Unreal 2.0 engine (used in Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004). These preliminary results show (1) enhanced control of lighting in an interactive environment to provide visual focus, set atmosphere, evoke emotions, and establish visibility, and (2) acceleration in the development process due to the introduction of an automated system for lighting that can be overridden by designers at a high-level, and thus eliminating the time consuming process of setting individual light parameters for each level and/or scene.


Although postarthroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis has become a well-known disastrous complication of arthroscopic shoulder surgery, little is known about postarthroscopic humeral head osteonecrosis. This article describes 3 patients who were referred to the authors' practice with end-stage osteonecrosis after an arthroscopic rotator cuff repair or debridement.Three patients (average age, 63.3 years) presented to the authors' practice reporting severe shoulder pain after a rotator cuff debridement or repair was performed at an outside facility. After an interval period of mild improvement, all patients experienced progressive pain and loss of shoulder range of motion at a mean of 4.8 months postoperatively. Plain radiographs and magnetic resonance imaging obtained prior to the index operation showed no evidence of osteonecrosis. Postoperatively, progressive clinical and radiographic evidence showed humeral head osteonecrosis and subsequent glenohumeral destruction with cuff tear arthropathy. The authors managed all patients with a reverse total shoulder arthroplasty due to severe glenohumeral arthrosis and massive rotator cuff tears not amendable to repair. Satisfactory results were achieved in all cases.Although many complications of arthroscopic shoulder surgery are documented, little is known about postarthroscopic humeral head osteonecrosis. Shoulder surgeons should be aware of this potential complication when performing arthroscopic rotator cuff surgery and when evaluating painful and stiff postarthroscopic shoulders.


Article history: Received 25 April 2014 Received in revised form 20 May 2014 Accepted 26 May 2014 Available online 22 June 2014


Targeted biological therapies hold tremendous potential for treatment of cancer, yet their use has been limited by constraints on delivery and effective tumor targeting. We combined an immune effector cell population [cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells] with an oncolytic viral therapy to achieve directed delivery to, and regression of, tumors in both immunodeficient and immunocompetent mouse models. Preinfection of CIK cells with modified vaccinia virus resulted in a prolonged eclipse phase with the virus remaining hidden until interaction with the tumor. Whole-body imaging revealed that the cells retained their ability to traffic to and to infiltrate the tumor effectively before releasing the virus. These results illustrate the potential of combining biotherapeutics for synergistic effects that more effectively treat cancer.


Abstract. In this article, a model which examines the formation and evolution of chemiions in an aircraft engine is proposed. This model which includes chemiionisation, electron thermo-emission, electron attachment to soot particles and to neutral molecules, electron-ion and ion-ion recombination, ion-soot interaction, allows the determination of the ion concentration at the exit of the combustor and at the nozzle exit of the engine. It also allows the determination of the charge of the soot particles. For the engine considered, the upper limit for the ion emission index EIi is of the order of (2-5) x1016 ions/kg-fuel if ion-soot interactions are ignored and the introduction of ion-soot interactions lead about to a 50% reduction. The results also show that most of the soot particles are either positively or negatively charged, the remaining neutral particles representing approximately 20% of the total particles. A comparison of the model results with the available ground-based experimental data obtained on the ATTAS research aircraft engines during the SULFUR experiments (Schumann, 2002) shows an excellent agreement.


Genistein (G) and related soy phytoestrogens have been studied for potential usefulness in different chronic diseases, and may ameliorate signs of aging. They have a profound influence on the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The present study utilized the rat model of mild andropause to thoroughly evaluate the effects of G and soy extract on the adrenal gland and related blood hormones. Adult male rats were orchidectomized (Orx) or sham operated (SO). Orx rats received daily subcutaneous injections for 3 weeks of solvent, or G (Orx+G, 30 mg/kg), or commercial soy extract (Orx+Soy, 30 mg/kg). Adrenal glands and blood were harvested at the end of the treatment for hormone analyses, histology and design-based stereology. Compared to SO rats Orx evoked significant (P<0.05) changes including: the replicating cell number in the 3 adrenocortical zones; vascularity and cortical volume and blood levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), aldosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). When comparing Orx vs. Orx+G groups the following significant (P<0.05) changes were observed: a further increase in number of replicating cells in zonas glomerulosa and reticularis, vasculature network presence, cortical and zona reticularis volumes, ACTH and corticosterone concentrations, and lower DHEA levels. Comparing Orx vs. Orx+Soy resulted in elevated (P<0.05) ACTH and corticosterone levels. Structural integrity of the adrenal gland was unchanged vs. SO rats. Overall, G and soy extract treatments resulted in proliferative activity and/or vasculature support in the adrenal cortex. The data and current literature support the impression of a beneficial effect of soy components on the homeostatic response to stress.


Common-onset visual masking (COVM) occurs when a mask and a target have common onset but delayed offset, with the mask persisting beyond the duration of the target [Di Lollo, V., Enns, J. T., & Rensink, R. A. Competition for consciousness among visual events: The psychophysics of reentrant visual events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 481507, 2000]. We report the first behavioral and electrophysiological evidence of COVM in infants. An initial behavioral study included a familiarization phase during which a visual pattern (the target) surrounded by four black dots (the mask) was flashed 15 times to the infant. In the unmasked condition, the mask disappeared with the target. In the masked condition, the mask remained on the screen after deletion of the target for a further 93 msec. During the test phase, the familiar target pattern was paired with a new pattern. Infants in the unmasked condition showed a significant familiarity preference, suggesting that they had encoded the target during familiarization, whereas those in the masked condition showed no preference, suggesting that they had not encoded the target during familiarization. In the second experiment, high-density event-related potentials were used to investigate the electrophysiological pattern of activity that accompanies COVM. Six-month-old infants viewed both masked and unmasked conditions. Electrophysiological data indicated that over posterior channels the masked condition elicited a larger amplitude positive wave around 300 msec after stimulus onset than trials in the unmasked condition.


Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Abstract Glaciers are not only contributors to the sea level rise but also important players in the circulation of pollutants. Over a billion people apply glacial waters for domestic pur-poses; hence, both the quality and quantity of this water should be monitored. In this chapter, we concentrate on the archipelago Svalbard in the Arctic, a typical target area for xenobiotics from long range atmospheric transport (LRAT), holding an important share of the Arctic glacial ice cover. Literature review has been conducted over both the cryospheric metrics and the achievements of analytical chemistry in the environmental monitoring. Svalbard is a relatively well-monitored part of the Arctic, with 17 glaciers regularly monitored for mass balance. In the chemical records of glaciers, a variety of substances have been determined, e.g., ions, heavy metals, or persistent organic pollutants (POPs), with the use of precise analytical techniques. However, knowledge gaps persist, preventing a formation of a reliable chemical inventory of Svalbard glaciers. Moreover, detailed studies on the deposition and transport of pollutants, rather than focusing on their presence only, are crucial future research recommendations.


The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) Data Handling System (DHS) provides the technical framework and building blocks for developing on-summit instrument quality assurance and data reduction pipelines. The DKIST Visible Broadband Imager (VBI) is a first light instrument that alone will create two data streams with a bandwidth of 960 MB/s each. The high data rate and data volume of the VBI require near-real time processing capability for quality assurance and data reduction, and will be performed on-summit using Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) technology. The VBI data processing pipeline (DPP) is the first designed and developed using the DKIST DHS components, and therefore provides insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the framework. In this paper we lay out the design of the VBI DPP, examine how the underlying DKIST DHS components are utilized, and discuss how integration of the DHS framework with GPUs was accomplished. We present our results of the VBI DPP alpha release implementation of the calibration, frame selection reduction, and quality assurance display processing nodes.


PLT Redex consists of a domain-specific language for specifying reduction semantics, plus a suite of tools for working with the semantics. This is a reference manual for Redex. See http://redex.plt-scheme.org/ for a gentler overview. (See also the examples subdirectory in the redex collection.) To load Redex use: (require redex) which provides all of the names documented in this library. The module redex/reduction-semantics provides only the non-GUI portions of what is described in this manual (everything except the last two sections), making it suitable for use with mzscheme scripts.


Interaction design is about designing interaction. But how do first year students of interaction design understand and use concepts of interaction in their design processes? By interaction analysis of video material we analyse how students used concepts adhering to interaction. The aspect most frequently used was interactivity. Interaction was mainly handled by using spoken language. While working with physical materials, talk about interaction decreased.


In this PhD thesis the electronic structure of a range of actinide compounds has been investigated using density functional theory. The reason for using DFT instead of other methods is mainly due to the size of the compounds which makes multireference calculations prohibitively expensive, but also to make comparisons with previously calculated DFT results.

The first chapter presents the basic concepts of electronic structure theory and the chemical properties of the actinides and lanthanides. The theoretical foundation of DFT and the consequences of relativity are also introduced.

In the second chapter the bonding in mixed MUCl6, MUCl8 2-, NpReCl8 2- and PuOsC NpReCl8 2- (M = Mo, W) systems is investigated and compared with previous work on the M2Cl6, M2C NpReCl8 2- U2Cl6 and U2C NpReCl8 2- systems. The study shows that the total bonding energy in the mixed compounds is the average of the two "pure" compounds.

The third chapter deals with systems of plenary or lacunary Keggin phosphomolybdate coordination to actinide (Th), lanthanide (Ce, La, Lu) and transition metal (Hf, Zr) cations: [PMo12O40]3-, [PMo11O39]2 14-, [PMo12O40]2 6- and [PMo11O39][PMo12O40]10-. These large, highly anionic systems proved to be very challenging computationally. The main result of the study confirms that the bonding is ionic and that there are few differences in the behaviour of the transition metals.

In the fourth chapter the electronic spectrum of NpO2 2+, NpO2Cl4 2- and NpO2(OH)4 2- is calculated using time dependent DFT. TDDFT has proved adequate for the uranium analogues of these systems and this extends previous work on f0 systems to f1 systems. The results show that TDDFT is in poor agreement with both experimental results and multireference calculations for these compounds.

In chapter five, group 15 and 16 uranyl analogues have been investigated. For the UE2 (E = O, S, Se, Te) analogues the geometry bends for all chalcogens heavier than O. The UE2 2+ analogues remain linear all the way down group 16. In U(NCH3)2 2+ the formation of a {pi} "back bone" along the axis of the molecule was noted. The {sigma}-bonding valence MOs stabilize while the {pi} MOs are destabilized down group 15 and 16.

Chapter six is a summary of the results in this thesis and an outlook on potential future work.


The podcasts of Iranian Children's National Library (http//icnl.nlai.ir) are collections of audios introducing books in an attractive manner and providing an archive of the voices of the writers, translators and other individuals related to the children literature.
As these podcasts are available in the web, there is a great opportunity for communicating with mother tongue and cultural roots. Persian children living in other countries can enjoy these podcasts because they may just verbally familiar with this language and they are not literate for reading and writing in Persian.
The idea of the project was found at the beginning of 2016. At first, we made two pilot episodes and waited for the feedbacks. It was acceptable, so we began the work as an executive plan. Just one author and one translator accompanied with us to read the books with their own voices in the first episode. Other texts were read aloud by the librarians who were involved in the project. In some cases, the children's voices were also used, but from the sixth episode, all the texts were recorded by the voices of the writers and translators. In 7th episode a professional storyteller joined the project for a book whose author was not alive. At the end of 8th episode, 20 authors and translators contributed the project with their own voices.
Each episode is about 40 minutes and deals with a specific subject. Selected texts from related books in a designed scenario were read aloud for recording. Then related songs from children music albums were used between the parts. Also in some cases the movies based on the books or related to the topic were introduced. The published subjects are about freedom and independence, peace, trees and environmental protection, Nowruz (Iranian's New Year) and spring, summer vacation, traveling, winter and Yalda Night and International Children's Day.
In this poster graphic design of each episode illustrated and a brief description of the whole project added. There were some earrings in little pockets designed by the theme of the podcasts and QR Code for listening them through the smart phones.


The authors propose that best practices in music education require a conceptual understanding of music teaching and learning based on a perspective of social justice and equitable access for all students. Examinations of the relationship between the tenets of culturally-responsive teaching and three dimensions of music teaching and learning (musical content, instruction, and context) are presented: (1) historically, through the identification of neglected African American contributions to Appalachian music; and (2) pedagogically, through the chronicling of social justice content and culturally-responsive instruction as taught in an urban university and public middle school. The implications of issues of power and social justice for music education are further contextualized within the lens of critical pedagogy to uncover possibilities for a 21st century canon of music teacher preparation that will maximize the potential to transform music education practice.


If an institution wants to organize e-learning courses, the institution has to provide Content Mangement System (CMS) server which has a Public IP, so that all the stakeholders of the e-learning processes can communicate. In this paper, the author explains an alternative solution that can be use to organize a tehcnology supported e-learning that has conformance with Learning Technology System Architecture (LTSA), but at the same time does not need the availability of a CMS computer server and its infrstructure. To achieve this end, the author designs and builds a software that run on Android smartphone and the processes in LTSA framework are handled by each lecturer or teacher and his/her student.  The features of the Android based software for the lecturer or teacher are creating and distributing class schedule, lesson content and quizzes to the students and to receive quizzes answers and marks from students, to be further processed with the help of a spreadsheet program. While the features for students are to access lesson content, to work on quizzes and sending answers and marks to lecturer/teacher. Then the application on the student's and teacher's smartphone will communicate indirectly with each other through preparing text that is ready to be copied and pasted to social media application or email application. With the special way of delivering message between parties but still having the power of Android operating system and the social media application running on it, the need for centralized CMS server for storing data and for doing communication will be eliminated.


The analysis contained this document (RE-330) focuses on the 2002-2006 period, evaluating the most recent Country Strategy (document GN-2205-1) and supplemental documents. Its universe of projects encompasses those approved during the period under study, as well as previously approved projects that have been executed to a large extent during this period and/or are relevant within the strategy framework established by the Bank with Peru. The results of this evaluation point that the Bank's program in Peru was relevant, executing agencies were satisfied with the Bank's work, and the portfolio performed better than the Bank average, although disbursements for the newest projects have slowed down. In terms of effectiveness, once again, the results were not as positive as planned, despite a strongly performing economy. This document focuses on divergences from the objectives because of the inherent requirements of an exercise that seeks to enhance the quality of the Bank's work in the country.


The paper provides conceptual background for the idea of the angel of the presence as the heavenly counterpart of Moses in the Book of Jubilees and the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian. The identity of the celestial scribe in the form of the angel of the presence found in the Book of Jubilees and some other Second Temple materials might further our understanding of the enigmatic process of mystical and literary emulation of the exemplary figure, the cryptic mechanics of which often remains beyond the grasp of our post/modern sensibilities. It is possible that in the traditions of heavenly counterparts where the two characters of the story, one of which is represented by a biblical exemplar, become eventually unified and acquire a single identity, we are able to draw nearer to the very heart of the pseudepigraphical enterprise. In this respect, it does not appear to be coincidental that these transformational accounts dealing with the heavenly doubles of their adepts are permeated with the aesthetics of penmanship and the imagery of the literary enterprise. In the course of these mystical and literary metamorphoses, the heavenly figure surrenders his scribal seat, the library of the celestial books and even personal writing tools to the other, earthly identity who now becomes the new guardian of the literary tradition.


This paper seeks to document and analyse changes in the distribution of wages and employment in the transition countries since the collapse of communism. Most countries experienced an increase in wage inequality during the initial shock of the transition. Proximate causes of this increase seem to be sectoral shifts in employment and increasing inter-industry wage differentials. In Eastern Europe, where economic growth has restarted, there have been further increases in income inequality. These changes are arguably the best guide to future trends in the wage distribution. Taking the case of Poland, rising inequality appears to be entirely accounted for by an increased incidence of workless households. This rise in workless households derives from two phenomena: rising participation in post-compulsory education and earlier retirement. Also in Poland, though there is no change in hourly wage inequality, structural change has had clear impacts of the distribution of wages with increased wage premia to education, to growing sectors and geographically advantaged regions in the economy and to senior occupations.


Program Number: 6099 Presentation Time: 11:00 AM–11:15 AM Functional Consequences of Fixational Eye Movements in People with Macular Disease Susana T. Chung, Girish Kumar. Optometry, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA. Purpose: A recent theory posits that slow-drifts of fixational eye movements (FEMs) serve to reformat the visual input of natural images, so that the amplitude of the spatial frequencies (SFs) of the input image no longer decreases in proportion with 1/SF, but is equalized across a range of SFs. This "spectral whitening" effect is postulated to improve the processing of high-SF information. This theory requires normal FEMs with small-amplitude slow drifts that approximate Brownian motion. Given that people with macular disease exhibit abnormal FEM characteristics, with large amplitude of slow drifts and microsaccades, do their FEMs also result in spectral whitening? Methods: Retinal images of 16 observers with bilateral macular disease (age: 58–87, logMAR acuity: 0.48–1.32) and 14 agematched adults (controls) with normal vision (age: 62–84, logMAR acuity: ≤0.0) were recorded using a Rodenstock scanning laser ophthalmoscope while observers monocularly viewed a 1° cross for trials of 30 s. FEMs were recovered from the recordings using a brute-force cross-correlation algorithm at a sampling rate of 540 Hz. Segments of FEMs of durations ranging from 50 to 500 ms, without (i.e. drift-only) or with intervening microsaccades, were extracted from the eye-position trace of each trial. Each of these segments was used to create a movie, simulating how a natural scene image moved on the retina due to FEMs. 48 images were used as input to recreate these movies. The spatio-temporal amplitude spectrum of each movie was computed using a 3D Fast Fourier Transform. Results: Across all conditions (different segment durations, driftonly or drift+microsaccades) and observers (macular disease vs. controls), the amplitude spectrum of the movies simulating the effect of FEMs shows a reduction for low SFs, such that the spectrum is virtually constant for SFs up to ~10 c/deg ("spectral whitening"). The extent of whitening changes minimally with duration, is slightly less (10%) when microsaccades are present, and ~20% less in people with macular disease than in controls. Conclusions: Our finding that spectral whitening is observed under a variety of conditions invalidates the assumption that whitening is a property of normal fixational drifts. More importantly, whitening is observed in people with macular disease, implying that the abnormal FEMs of these individuals may also benefit vision by improving the processing of higher-SF information. Commercial Relationships: Susana T. Chung, None; Girish Kumar, None Support: NIH Grant R01-EY012810


Abstract
We argue that a foreign-based R&D subsidiary of a multinational enterprise (MNE) can potentially source knowledge from three diverse knowledge networks, namely (i) external knowledge network of the home country, (ii) external knowledge network of the host country, and (iii) internal (MNE) knowledge network. Drawing on the relative costs and benefits associated with the process of synergistic knowledge, this study examines whether a substitutive or a complementary relationship exists when two of the aforementioned networks collaborate in order to generate new knowledge at the subsidiary level. Our study's sample is based on a survey questionnaire addressed to foreign-based R&D subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies. We assess the existence of complementarity/substitutability using the "production function approach." Our results indicate that a complementary relationship exists between external knowledge network of the host and the home country, as well as between external knowledge network of the host country and internal knowledge network. On the other hand, external knowledge network of the home country and internal knowledge network form a substitutive relationship. Our study offers a more comprehensive view of the diverse sources/knowledge networks that R&D subsidiaries are sourcing knowledge from when compared to existing research. We also specify and account for the costs/benefits involved in knowledge sourcing and thereby detect possible substitution/complementarity between different sources of knowledge. So far, there has been limited to nonexistent research into the diversity of knowledge networks of R&D subsidiaries and the examination of potential substitutabilities and complementarities. Hence our empirical study contributes to the development of this particular research stream.


Motesanib is a small molecule and potent multikinase inhibitor with antiangiogenic and antitumor activity. Population pharmacokinetic (POPPK) modeling of motesanib and M4, an active metabolite, was performed to assess sources of variability in cancer patients. The analysis included data collected from 451 patients from 8 clinical trials with oral doses of motesanib ranging from 25 to 175 mg, either once daily or twice daily. The POPPK analyses were performed using nonlinear mixed‐effect models with a sequential approach. Covariate effects of demographics and other baseline characteristics were assessed with stepwise covariate modeling. A 2‐compartment model with food effect on absorption parameters fitted the PK data of motesanib well. The effects albumin and sex on apparent clearance (CL/F) of motesanib were statistically significant. The albumin effect was more important but remained below a 25% difference. A 1‐compartment model fitted PK data of M4 well. Effects of race (Asian vs non‐Asian) and dosing frequency were identified as statistically significant covariates on the CL/F of M4. The maximum effect of albumin would result in less than 25% change in motesanib CL/F and as such would not warrant any dosing adjustment. However, faster elimination of M4 in Asian patients requires further investigation.


Integrating cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) with hypnosis may increase benefits to clients suffering from a broad range of mental and physical health problems. This practitioner's guide, written by some of the most influential clinical psychologists, educators, and hypnotists, brings together these two methods of treatment and provides a theoretical framework for this integration. By thoroughly reviewing the evidence-based research for the addition of hypnosis to cognitive behavioral treatments and illustrating a variety of clinical applications, the contributors show how the integration can mean productive treatment of clients who might otherwise not have progressed as quickly or successfully. A useful final chapter addresses the process of becoming a practitioner of both CBT and hypnosis.


The low temperature spin dynamics of the canonical dipolar spin ice materials is examined. The ac susceptibility of dipolar spin ice materials Ho2Ti2O7 and Dy2Ti2O7 is measured to lower temperatures and frequencies than previous studies. This provides a probe of the dynamics of fractionalized magnetic excitations which have been found to exist and interact as monopole-like particles within the spin ice configuration. Low temperatures and low frequencies access the dilute monopole phase, and provide a valuable stress case scenario to theory which has been used to describe the system to date. The relaxation is found to be well described at the lowest temperatures by an Arrhenius law with single energy barrier for both Ho2Ti2O7 and Dy2Ti2O7, with similar barriers to relaxation, 10.7 K and 9.79 K respectively. It is also revealed to be distinctly different from predictions of the dipolar spin ice model, based upon simulations of both a Coulomb gas and dipolar spin ice on the pyrochlore lattice. These simulations, as well as calculations based on Debye-Hückel theory, do not see Arrhenius behaviour in our temperature range, and do not predict the rate at which dynamics freeze out. It is not currently understood what would be required in order to amend this. The implications for thermal methods of probing spin dynamics is discussed, as well as how this measurement impacts the magnetolyte theory of spin ice. Brief reports are presented in the appendices of specific heat measurements of three spin liquid candidates: Yb2Ti2O7, Tb2Ti2O7, and Pr2Hf2O7. In Yb2Ti2O7, measurements of three single crystals, two unique features, a broad anomaly at 195 mK and sharp peak at 265 mK, are found which seem to comprise elements of previous single crystal and polycrystalline measurements. These low temperature features do not correspond to changes in neutron scattering intensity at 400 mK. In Tb2Ti2O7, a second order transition is found, corresponding to the emergence of a mode in inelastic neutron scattering. Absence of an ordering transition in the suspected 〈111〉 antiferromagnet Pr2Hf2O7 is also shown, with specific heat measured down to 100 mK with no ordering transition.


This issue broadly explores RFID and how it applies to libraries. Applications include security, rapid charging and discharging of library materials by staff, easier patron self-charging, sorting for reshelving, electronic inventorying, and electronic shelf reading. The author discusses available products, and their strengths and weaknesses.


The identification of the molecular pathway that is targeted by a compound, combined with the dissection of the following reactions in the cellular environment, i.e. the drug mode of action, is a key challenge in biomedicine. Elucidation of drug mode of action has been attempted, in the past, with different approaches. Methods based only on transcriptional responses are those requiring the least amount of information and can be quickly applied to new compounds. On the other hand, they have met with limited success and, at the present, a general, robust and efficient gene-expression based method to study drugs in mammalian systems is still missing. We developed an efficient analysis framework to investigate the mode of action of drugs by using gene expression data only. Particularly, by using a large compendium of gene expression profiles following treatments with more than 1,000 compounds on different human cell lines, we were able to extract a synthetic consensual transcriptional response for each of the tested compounds. This was obtained by developing an original rank merging procedure. Then, we designed a novel similarity measure among the transcriptional responses to each drug, endingending up with a "drug similarity network", where each drug is a node and edges represent significant similarities between drugs. By means of a novel hierarchical clustering algorithm, we then provided this network with a modular topology, contanining groups of highly interconnected nodes (i.e. network communities) whose exemplars form secondlevel modules (i.e. network rich-clubs), and so on. We showed that these topological modules are enriched for a given mode of action and that the hierarchy of the resulting final network reflects the different levels of similarities among the composing compound mode of actions. Most importantly, by integrating a novel drug X into this network (which can be done very quickly) the unknown mode of action can be inferred by studying the topology of the subnetwork surrounding X. Moreover, novel potential therapeutic applications can be assigned to safe and approved drugs, that are already present in the network, by studying their neighborhood (i.e. drug repositioning), hence in a very cheap, easy and fast way, without the need of additional experiments. By using this approach, we were able to correctly classify novel anti-cancer compounds; to predict and experimentally validate an unexpected similarity in the mode of action of CDK2 inhibitors and TopoIsomerase inhibitors and to predict that Fasudil, a known and FDA-approved cardiotonic agent, could be repositioned as novel enhancer of cellular autophagy. Due to the extremely safe profile of this drug and its potential ability to traverse the blood-brain barrier, this could have strong implications in the treatment of several human neurodegenerative disorders, such as Huntington and Parkinson diseases.


The relationships among 55 wheat accessions (47 accessions collected from Iran and eight accessions provided by the Institute of Plant Biology of the University of Zurich, Switzerland) belonging to eight species carrying A genome (Triticum monococcum L., T. boeoticum Boiss., T. urartu Tumanian ex Gandilyan, T. durum Desf., T. turgidum L., T. dicoccum Schrank ex Schübler, T. dicoccoides (Körn. ex Asch. & Graebner) Schweinf. and T. aestivum L.) were evaluated using 31 A genome specific microsatellite markers. A high level of polymorphism was observed among the accessions studied (PIC = 0.77). The highest gene diversity was revealed among T. durum genotypes, while the lowest genetic variation was found in T. dicoccoides accessions. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed a significant genetic variance (75.56%) among these accessions, representing a high intra-specific genetic diversity within Triticum taxa in Iran. However, such a variance was not observed among their ploidy levels. Based on the genetic similarity analysis, the accessions collected from Iran were divided into two main groups: diploids and polyploids. The genetic similarity among the diploid and polyploid species was 0.85 and 0.89 respectively. There were no significant differences in A genome diversity from different geographic regions. Based on the genetic diversity analyses, we consider there is value in a greater sampling of each species in Iran to discover useful genes for breeding purposes.


Welcome to another edition of The Journal of Pan African Studies (JPAS). This issue, like many of our past issues, engages the African world in a trans-disciplinary fashion. We begin with sincere thanks for the life and afterlife of our recent ancestors, my fellow librarian-scholar Donna Marcia Wells (1953-2009); scholar, activist and educator Imari Abubakar Obadele (1930-2010); community organizer Tommy Jacquette-Halifu (1943-2009) and distinguished scholar Ralston Milton "Rex" Nettleford (1933-2010). I had the pleasure of meeting all but one of these fine people, and I am sure they will be welcomed in the afterlife. Next we journey into the four cornerstones of African centered leadership-followership devised in 2000 at the Kwame Ture Leadership Institute. This model seeks to restore Black sovereignty in political, economic and cultural terms, and is presented by JPAS editorial member Uhuru Hotep. Our next article attempts to deconstruct a myriad of negative images that denigrate Africa and works to invalidate stereotypes that have been pervasively consecrated as historical truths in literature, philosophy, religion, and politics. Continuing, a host of authors re-examine current paradigms and concepts about rural development, environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation in Africa. In addition, the dynamics of political affairs are articulated by President Barack Obama, His Excellency Professor John Evans Atta Mills, and His Excellency Mr. Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma. Returning to another side of politics and world affairs, Gilbert L. Taguem Fah emerges us in a discussion of Africom which derives from the assumption that US African Command is a continuation of American militarization in Africa and it is negatively changing the local culture of violence. In addition, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Victor Ojakorotu examine the security terrain within which Africom was established and reasons why there was a push for it to be established in Africa. In juxtaposition, Okori Uneke writes that corruption, particularly in countries where it has become an integral part of the social fabric, is a major handicap to sustainable development in Africa. JPAS editorial member Nana Adu-Pipim Boaduo FRC contends that from 1990 to 1993 South Africa ushered in a new philosophical and political ideology of reconciliation which climaxed in 1994, and thus, this political change requires a new education to humanize all South Africans. …