The concept of vulnerable plaques has been long described since some atherosclerotic lesions rupture suddenly causing myocardial infarctions and strokes while others remain quiescent or stable for many years. Two potentially feasible approaches were used here in an attempt to identify these vulnerable plaques: imaging and urine proteomics. Imaging: Several intravascular imaging techniques have been investigated to identify vulnerable plaques without definitive success yet, demanding better understanding of pathophysiology of these lesions and more reliable imaging methods. We described the near infrared range (NIR) intrinsic fluorescent activity to be a property unique to the unstable plaques, using a well-established mouse model of tandem stenosis as well as human carotid endarterectomy samples. The source of NIR autofluorescence is shown to be intraplaque haemorrhage where haem degradation products were intermingled with various chemicals of the necrotic core. We also demonstrated that changes in the plaque burden were reflected by the changes in NIR fluorescent intensity using haem oxygenase enzyme modulation which played a complex role in the pathophysiology of plaque progression and vulnerability. NIR autofluorescence in the areas of intraplaque haemorrhage, a critical element of plaque vulnerability, provides a much needed new foundation in the field of intravascular imaging for unstable plaques. Although NIR fluorescent imaging is still in the pre-clinical stage, it should be further explored with the aim of developing intravascular probe to be applied in clinical studies. Urine proteomics: A pilot proteomic study aimed at the identification of secreted urinary peptide biomarkers and the modelling of a prognostic classifier for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is reported in this thesis. The urinary proteome profile data of 126 individuals who had suffered from ACS up to 5 years post urine sampling and proteome data of 126 controls without ACS were analysed. The initial statistical comparison of proteome profile data of 84 individuals with an ACS and 84 matched controls resulted in the discovery of 75 potential ACS-specific prognostic peptide biomarkers. Based on these peptide biomarkers we established the support vector machine-modelled prognostic ACS classifier ACSP75. The performance of the classifier was assessed using sensitivity, specificity and discrimination (c-statistics) and was compared the performance of the Framingham risk score (FHS), and to an algorithm combining the classifier, age and BMI. In the validation data set, the classifier identified individuals with an ACS with a sensitivity of 73.8% and demonstrated reasonable discrimination (c statistic=0.664). The classifier showed similar performance compared to FHS (C-statistics: 0.664 vs 0.644 [p=0.692] for classifier and FHS, respectively). In a model where we combined the classifier with other traditional risk factors (BMI and age), the algorithm showed good discrimination (c-statistic=0.707), but was not significantly better than the classifier itself (p=0.213). The sensitivity (83.3 %) and specificity (78.6 %) of the composite classifier was better than the classifier on its own. We demonstrate that the proteomic classifier ACSP75 based on urinary peptide biomarkers has the potential to predict future ACS events. The classifier and the composite classifier should be validated in a large cohort.


The contribution of the United Nations University over the past two decades to institutional capacity-building for research and high-level training in the area of food and nutrition for developing countries stands out prominently among international and bilateral agencies. More than 600 researchers and young scientists, accounting for about 44% of all UNU fellowships awarded, have received postgraduate training in this area. Nearly 70% of the fellowships were hosted at UNU-associated institutions located in industrialized and developing countries. Reflecting UNU's interest in promoting cooperation in the South-South context, a little over one-half of the fellowships awarded for postgraduate research and training have been implemented in developing-country institutions. Training provided in developing countries offers the fellows the opportunity to work on problems that are comparable to those in their home countries and also bolster the standing of the training institution as an important regional centre. The UNU effort in capacity-building has been relatively successful in Latin America and Asia, where key regional and national institutions have been involved in the UNU fellowship programme. The results in Africa have been less successful, because the lack of independent university nutrition programmes has made it necessary to depend too much on government research institutions.


Products Liability: Hospitals' Exemption-McKenna v. Harrison Memorial Hospital1-The Court of Appeals of Washington held that Harrison Memorial Hospital (HMH), which supplied a screw and rod device that was implanted in a patient's spine, was a provider of professional services that was exempt from liability under the Washington Product Liability Act (WPLA),2 rather than a product seller that was subject to the WPLA.3 Although the statute does not define a "provider of professional services," the court of appeals reasoned that, because the hospital acts only through its staff members, it follows that the hospital is acting within the particular staff person's professional practice when health care is provided to a patient.4 Additionally, the court reasoned that the relationship between a hospital and a patient is relevant in determining whether a hospital is principally a provider of professional services or a seller of goods.5 The decision reaffirms that hospitals are exempt from liability for a broken device under the WPLA.6 The plaintiff, Patricia McKenna, underwent surgery at HMH. The treating physician performed the surgery, inserting a screw and rod device into her spine.7 The physician was an independent contractor and not an employee of HMH.8 However, HMH provided the device, other medical supplies, the facilities and the nursing staff for the physician to perform the surgery. Several months later, x-rays revealed that two of the device's screws had broken, requiring surgery to remove the device. McKenna sued the physician and HMH, alleging a products liability claim under the WPLA against HMH. The trial court granted summary judgment for HMH, ruling that, as a provider of professional services, HMH was exempt from liability.9 McKenna appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment on the products liability claim.10 The Court of Appeals of Washington affirmed the district court's conclusion that HMH was exempt from liability because it was a provider of professional services and not a product seller as defined under the WPLA.11 Under the Washington Revised Code sec7.72.040, a product seller is liable to a claimant for harm proximately caused by its negligence.12 The WPLA defines a product seller as any person or entity that is "engaged in the business of selling products."13 Specifically excluded from the definition of product seller is "a provider of professional services who utilizes or sells products within the legally authorized scope of the professional practice of the provider. …


Never has there been so much demand for data and information about the world's forests. Achieving international goals and national commitments related to forest conservation and management, climate change, and sustainable development requires credible, accurate, and reliable monitoring of changes in forest extent and carbon stocks. Rapid developments in forest monitoring technologies—notably the use of satellite data and other remote sensing methods—now enable efficient monitoring of forest extent, characteristics, and changes over large areas consistently through time. However, there is a widening gap between what is demonstrated in a research context and what is developed, maintained, and applied in tropical forest countries. At the same time, proliferating demands for forest-related information and the diversity of forest monitoring systems developed to meet those demands risk creating confusion and redundancy.


Dance theatre offers potential for radical agendas, shifting perspectives on gender and cultural difference. Jonzi D's solo and collaborative work realise this potential by drawing on his insights into lived experience of contemporary British culture., In 'Aeroplane Man' (1997) Jonzi D interrogates notions of displacement through performance and confronts racism and stereotypes with a range of choreographic strategies. This work can be read in relation to the representational trope in which as Manning states, 'the white body represents a universal body but a black body only represents a black body' (1997: 193). Jonzi challenges the imbalance in power evident in this statement both in his performance work and the workshops which he leads. He organises his work both in traditional performance settings and more informal settings offering structures which are more inclusive and minimise the masculinist culture which surrounds hip-hop which is a key element of his work., Jonzi D's solo work concerns itself with issues of identity, forging new identities and connections with audiences through performance. He draws on the radical aspects of hip hop culture and through the subject matter, movement, vocabulary and lyrics of his work he attempts to resist dominant structures within contemporary dance practices. His ability to communicate issues of identity through physicality and rhyme, together with his unwillingness to accept the masculinist culture which surrounds hip-hop, offers potential for the future. His work extends the boundaries of Dance Theatre and challenges audiences to reconsider their place in British society whatever their cultural heritage.


ABSTRACT The titan cell is a recently described morphological form of the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. Occurring during the earliest stages of lung infection, titan cells are 5 to 10 times larger than the normal yeast-like cells, thereby resisting engulfment by lung phagocytes and favoring the persistence of infection. These enlarged cells exhibit an altered capsule structure, a thickened cell wall, increased ploidy, and resistance to nitrosative and oxidative stresses. We demonstrate that two G-protein-coupled receptors are important for induction of the titan cell phenotype: the Ste3a pheromone receptor (in mating type a cells) and the Gpr5 protein. Both receptors control titan cell formation through elements of the cyclic AMP (cAMP)/protein kinase A (PKA) pathway. This conserved signaling pathway, in turn, mediates its effect on titan cells through the PKA-regulated Rim101 transcription factor. Additional downstream effectors required for titan cell formation include the G1 cyclin Pcl103, the Rho104 GTPase, and two GTPase-activating proteins, Gap1 and Cnc1560. These observations support developing models in which the PKA signaling pathway coordinately regulates many virulence-associated phenotypes in diverse human pathogens.


This chapter approaches one of the most controversial topics concerning word formation and lexical creation: classification processes for lexical units according to the creation resources they are based on. The paper analyzes the lists of word formation mechanisms given by different authors and surveys the typologies proposed for the classification of new lexical units. On the one hand, it claims the lack of unanimity regarding word formation processes; and, on the other hand, it argues that the classification of newly created lexical units does not fit in any of the lists of word formation mechanisms that already existed; by contrast, there is a tendency to elaborate new proposals. The lack of agreement complicates the task of classifying words following the criteria of the creation method they are based on. Keywords: Word formation processes; classifications; neologisms


The tubular nature of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) crystals allows them to exhibit non-intuitive quantum phenomena when threaded by a magnetic flux, which breaks the time reversal symmetry and adds an Aharonov-Bohm phase to the circumferential boundary conditions on the electronic wave function. We demonstrate that such a symmetry-breaking magnetic field can dramatically "brighten" an optically-inactive, or dark, exciton state at low temperature. This phenomenon, magnetic brightening, can be understood as a consequence of interplay between the strong intervalley Coulomb mixing and field-induced lifting of valley degeneracy. Most recently, we made the direct observation of the dark excitonic state in individual SWCNTs using low-temperature micro-photoluminescence (PL) and and verified the importance of a parallel, tube-threading magentic field with ensemble spectroscopy. For micro-PL, a magnetic field up to 5 T, applied along the nanotube axis, brightened the dark state, leading to the emergence of a new emission peak. The peak rapidly grew in intensity with increasing field at the expense of the originally-dominant bright exciton peak and finally became dominant at fields > 3 T. The directly measured dark-bright splitting values were 1-4 meV for tube diameters 1.0-1.3 nm. For ensemble PL, we used fields up to 55 T in two collection geometries to demonstrate the importance of the tube-threading component. These experiments have provided one of the most critical tests for recently-proposed theories of 1-D excitons taking into account the strong 1-D Coulomb interactions and unique band structure on an equal footing.


Bending tests were conducted with cross laminated timber (CLT) panels made using an alternating layer arrangement. Boards of Norway spruce were used to manufacture five-layer panels on an industrial CLT production line. In total, 20 samples were tested, consisting of two CLT configurations with 10 samples of each type: transverse layers at 45° and the conventional 90° arrangement. Sample dimensions were 95 mm × 590 mm × 2000 mm. The CLT panels were tested by four point bending in the main load-carrying direction in a flatwise panel layup. The results indicated that bending strength increased by 35% for elements assembled with 45° layers in comparison with 90° layers. Improved mechanical load bearing panel properties could lead to a larger span length with less material.


The major component, called curcumin, of turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) (Family Zingiberaceae) powder is responsible for its biological actions. The present study aimed to prove the protective effect of turmeric extract against doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiac, hepatic, and renal toxicity as evaluated in rats. Body weight and urine volume of the animal groups under investigation were recorded daily throughout the experimental period. Also, the cardiac, hepatic, and renal toxicities were determined by estimating the changes in serum activities of the enzymes lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase (CK), serum levels of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, nitric oxide, albumin, and calcium, and kidney and liver tissue activities of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase, as well as the contents of glutathione and malondialdehyde. Hyperlipidemia was also determined, and protein and albumin changes in urine were estimated. Biochemical and histopathological findings demonstrate that turmeric extract has multiple therapeutic activities that are beneficially protective, and it has an ameliorative effect against DOX-induced cardiac toxicity and hepatotoxicity and blocks DOX-induced nephrosis. Similarly, turmeric extract inhibited the DOX-induced increase in plasma cholesterol, LDH, and CK. The present findings conclude that the turmeric extract has multiple therapeutic activities that block the cardiac, hepatic, and renal toxicities induced by DOX, and it also possibly acts as a free radical scavenger.


AIMS
Coping skills training, a promising treatment approach for alcoholics, was adapted for use with cocaine abusers and effects on outcome were investigated.

DESIGN
A cocaine-specific coping skills training (CST) package was compared to an attention placebo control when both were added to a comprehensive treatment program.

SETTING
The sites were two private substance abuse treatment facilities, one residential and rural, and one an urban partial hospital.

PARTICIPANTS
Substance abusers in treatment with cocaine abuse or dependence were selected.

INTERVENTION
The CST intervention was conducted in individual sessions. It involved functional analysis of high risk situations and coping skills training based on the functional analysis.

FINDINGS
Clients who received CST had significantly fewer cocaine use days and the length of their longest binge was significantly shorter during the 3-month follow-up period compared to clients in the control condition. CST did not affect relapse rates or use of other substances.

CONCLUSIONS
Results support the notion that cocaine-specific CST is a promising adjunct to treatment for cocaine abusers.


Customer participation in the coproduction of services is recognized as a topical subject of scholarly research in both public and private sectors and as a concept erasing the boundary between market-based logics of development and traditional theories of public administration. Nonetheless, in the scholarly literature there is no common agreement regarding the conception of customer participation in the coproduction of services. There is no integrated approach merging the conceptions of the coproduction of services as treated from the marketing and public administration points of view. This article aims at defining the conception of customer participation in the coproduction of public services, which integrates the approaches of marketing and public administration. The most important dimensions differentiating the conception of the coproduction of services in different disciplines are identified. One of such conceptions is individual and collective participation of customers. When presenting the essence of individual and collective customer participation, the author identifies the aspects that highlight the boundary between the coproduction of services and other forms of civic participation and that enable the specification of an integrated approach to this concept.


BACKGROUND
What decisions do patients expect the general practitioner to take within the consultation and to what extent are these expectations fulfilled? What factors influence patients' expectations and general practitioners' actions?

AIM
This study aimed to examine these questions with reference to prescribing and hospital referral.

METHOD
The study covered 1080 consultations with 12 general practitioners in two north London practices. Information was collected by self-administered questionnaires from patients before the consultation and from the general practitioners after the consultation.

RESULTS
Fifty one per cent of patients expected and 55% received a prescription; 13% expected hospital referral and 10% were referred. Factors related to their presenting problem were most strongly associated with patients' expectation of receiving a prescription. The actions which the general practitioners took were most strongly associated with patients' expectations. Patients' anxiety about their health problem also appeared to influence their expectations of referral and the doctor's prescribing decision.

CONCLUSION
This study suggests that patients' expectation of management and their anxiety associated with the presenting problem may be two of the factors which influence general practitioners' prescribing and referral behaviour and may explain some of the observed variations in behaviour.


The increase of air traffic rates registered in the recent years and the forecast for the next twenty years, has encouraged the necessity of developing new alternatives to manage the airspace. For this reason, several European and American organizations have been studying the idea of introducing new Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems based on four-dimensional trajectories. The four-dimensional trajectory management consists in establishing far in advance a time-based sequence for all aircraft converging to a specific point. The main idea is providing each aircraft with a time constraint to get a specific merging point. As a result, it is allowed to the aircraft to perform autonomous flight in order to achieve this merging point in the required time. In case the aircraft is not able to arrive to the merging point at the required time, it is assigned a new time of arrival; this means the aircraft has to perform Holding Patterns (HP) procedures, which is traduced to more fuel consumed, more emissions produced and several issues related to airlines and airport delays. A new generation of avionics systems related to navigation and flight management is emerging in order to support precision trajectories based on waypoints composed by latitude, longitude, altitude and a fourth dimension represented by the time. The purpose of this project is to design, simulate and test the functions of a Flight Management System (FMS) in order to follow automatically four-dimensional trajectories. This is achieved by controlling the aircraft airspeed, altitude, heading and vertical speed in order to arrive to the merging point in the specified time. The system receives data from the aircraft and computes new control parameters based on mathematical equations and prediction trajectories algorithms. Additional features has been added to the FMS-4D, such as the capability of predicting the arrival time taking into account previous flight parameters and speed/altitude constrains. Finally, a testing phase is performed using a flight simulator in order to obtain the performance and results of the designed system.


Antifeedant activity of plant extracts from Mentha piperita L. and Mentha pulegium L. were tested against the Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella (Hubner). The nutritional indices: relative growth rate (RGR), relative consumption rate (RCR), efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI) and feeding deterrence index (FDI) were measured for first-instar larvae (15-d old). Treatments were evaluated using a flour disk bioassay in the dark, at 25±1°C and 60±5% R.H. Concentrations of 0, 0.1, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5 and 2 mL/disk were prepared from each essential oil. After 72 h, nutritional indices were calculated. M. piperita oils were more effective than M. pulegium oils, by significantly decreasing the RGR, RCR and FDI. At the highest concentration tested (2 mL/disk), the ECI (9%) was significantly reduced.


Public speaking is an essential skill in a large variety of professions and also in everyday life. However, it can be difficult to master. This paper focuses on the automatic assessment of nonverbal facial behavior during public speaking and proposes simple and efficient methods of head pose estimation and motion analysis. The authors collected nine and six speech videos from a recitation and oration contest, respectively, conducted at a Japanese high school and applied the proposed method to evaluate the contestants' performance. For the estimation of head pose from speech videos, their method produced results with an acceptable level of accuracy. The proposed motion analysis method can be used for calculating frequencies and moving ranges of head motion. The authors found that the proposed parameters and the eye-contact score are strongly correlated and that the proposed frequency and moving range parameters are suitable for evaluating public speaking. Thus, on the basis of these features, a teacher can provide accurate feedback to help a speaker improve. KEywoRdS English Oration Contest, English Recitation Contest, Facial Feature Point, Head Pose Estimation, Image Processing, Motion Analysis, Speech Video


Neural conversational models require substantial amounts of dialogue data to estimate their parameters and are therefore usually learned on large corpora such as chat forums or movie subtitles. These corpora are, however, often challenging to work with, notably due to their frequent lack of turn segmentation and the presence of multiple references external to the dialogue itself. This paper shows that these challenges can be mitigated by adding a weighting model into the architecture. The weighting model, which is itself estimated from dialogue data, associates each training example to a numerical weight that reflects its intrinsic quality for dialogue modelling. At training time, these sample weights are included into the empirical loss to be minimised. Evaluation results on retrieval-based models trained on movie and TV subtitles demonstrate that the inclusion of such a weighting model improves the model performance on unsupervised metrics.


Acute puromycin aminonucleoside nephrosis (PAN) in rats is characterized by heavy proteinuria associated with renal hypercellularity. The role of apoptosis in the resolution of renal hypercellularity was investigated in PAN. To study the participation of apoptosis in PAN, renal tissues were collected from nephrotic and control rats on weeks 1, 2 and 7 after a single puromycin aminonucleoside injection. Apoptosis was evaluated by light and electron microscopy. Apoptotic DNA fragmentation was detected by TUNEL staining. Renal tissues were also evaluated by the presence of leukocyte common antigen (LCA), ED1 (macrophages) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) with corresponding monoclonal antibodies. An increased number of apoptotic (TUNEL+) cells was observed in the glomerulus at week 1. Electron microscopy analysis showed glomerular apoptosis mainly in endothelial cells. In the interstitium and tubules, increased apoptosis was observed at weeks 1 and 2. Increased apoptosis was accompanied with increased LCA+, ED1+ and PCNA+ cells in the interstitium and with increased PCNA+ cells in tubules. There was a high significant correlation between the number of apoptotic cells and the number of interstitial LCA+, ED1+ and PCNA+ cells. Tubular PCNA expression was correlated with tubular apoptosis. We also observed significant correlation between glomerular, interstitial and tubular apoptosis with proteinuria during the nephrosis. Double staining analysis showed that about 13% of interstitial or tubular apoptotic cells were positive for PCNA. All these values returned to normal by week 7. These results indicate that apoptosis is involved in the repairing process of this disease model.


The aim of this research study is to investigate how democratic curriculum designs enhance students' learning experiences in terms of promoting citizenship and emancipatory outcomes. A hallmark of such designs is that they confer agency to students and teach them to 'make a difference' within their communities. The study is situated in the multicultural context of the New Zealand state school system. It draws from democratic models of curriculum design developed in the USA, particularly Beane's (1997) model of student-centred curriculum integration that specifically addresses issues of democracy, personal dignity and diversity. The study highlights a number of historical and contemporary case studies of innovatory curricula in New Zealand classrooms that have adapted from theory to suit practical purposes. Using a mixed theoretical and historical methodology, it explains how each teacher implemented a local curriculum design that that was relevant and meaningful to their students. One example shows how a holistic approach to caring for a grieving immigrant child, following a tsunami in her home country, conceived a remarkable classroom curriculum that 'made a (highly significant) difference' by rebuilding a school in her home village in the nation of Samoa. While teachers and schools have a moral and ethical responsibility to address issues pertaining to social justice and inclusion, they must be equipped to do so. The Nordic countries have a well deserved reputation for egalitarian values, resulting in an enviable commitment to equity and social justice. This strong streak of egalitarianism might be expected to extend to multiculturalism but, as Horst and Pihl (2010) have explained, multiculturalism is a contested notion and is interpreted in different ways. Accordingly, responses to multicultural education policy by the different Nordic governments have been mixed. This research study demonstrates how focused curriculum designs in local contexts can tackle the issues of social justice, inclusion and multiculturalism. It was submitted to this Nordic conference firstly, because of the similarities New Zealand has to the Nordic countries in terms of egalitarian values, an effective state school system, and a humanitarian heritage; and secondly, because the study shows that democratic curriculum design has the potential to lead to genuinely emancipatory learning outcomes which ably support the goals of inclusion and multiculturalism.


We have studied a sample of Large Magellanic Cloud red giant binaries that lie on sequence E in the period–luminosity plane. We show that their combined light and velocity curves unambiguously demonstrate that they are binaries showing ellipsoidal variability. By comparing the phased light and velocity curves of both sequence D and E variables, we show that the sequence D variation – the long secondary period – is not caused by ellipsoidal variability. We also demonstrate several further differences between stars on sequences D and E. These include differences in velocity amplitude, in the distribution of eccentricity and in the correlations of velocity amplitude with luminosity and period. We also show that the sequence E stars, unlike stars on sequence D, do not show any evidence of a mid-infrared excess that would indicate circumstellar dust.


Railway system is a socio-technical system because the operation of such system also
heavily relies on the management of human activities and operating procedures in the organisation, as well as the execution of technical subsystems. Safety of these systems therefore is more than just about engineering their technical subsystems. The latest approach from systems engineering considers that an accident is due to inadequate controlled interactions in the system and is usually a dynamic event chain started from the activation of a hazard and culminated in a complex process of sequential and concurrent events until the system is eventually out of control. Meanwhile the analysis of these systems's safety becomes much harder when simply applying the traditional techniques of safety assessment. It is because, first of all, a social-technical system consists of a lot of complex and
non-linear interactions, traditional techniques show their limits when analysing complex systems. And secondly, the safety of a social-technical system requires a system perspective, which should take all the behaviours (desired and undesired but predicted) of a system as a whole in the context of its environment. To capture the information needed, the models for these analyses (i.e., fault tree and FMEA table) will become too complex to have a systemic view of each individual causal factor. In this paper, we proposed an approach based on system thinking and system dynamics to analyse the safety of a social-technical system. The case study of a tram accident is simple enough for the purpose of demonstrating its feasibility and benefits. The comparison with fault tree analysis was conducted, but it was not for the evaluation of our approach. The real evaluation comes from the extensive
applications in real world.


The authors of this article study the implications of thinking of the psychoanalytical treatment as an adolescent process and investigate the link between this process, the political and the therapeutic arrangement. Their reflection is based on two clinical situations around the Id (in the Freudian sense), identification and the ideal are intertwined. The text first tries to show that adolescence is a relevant model for conceiving of the treatment. It then relates adolescence to the political showing that both share a certain kind of relationship with utopia, adolescence characterizing the potential flexibility between Id, identification and ideal. In conclusion, the case of Irma presents an investigation into the analyst's place between the political, adolescence and treatment which, between repression and the demand for satisfaction, calls into question the edifice of the ideal.


Relationships with peers and friends are important and influential in the lives of youth, especially in adolescence (Buhrmester & Furman, 1987). Although attention recently has been drawn to the important roles of race, ethnicity, culture, and diversity in youths' peer group interactions (Graham, Taylor, & Ho, 2008), surprisingly little is known about the formation of dyadic friendships between youths of differing ethnic backgrounds. The current research examines the prevalence of cross-ethnic friendships and the socioemotional adjustment correlates of cross-ethnic friendships among 6th through 8th grade adolescent youth in an ethnically diverse urban middle school (N = 372). Youths responded to questionnaires in their classrooms at school. Results indicated that cross-ethnic friendships were more prevalent than previously thought, and importantly, the findings for prevalence differed based on the method used to assess friendships. Gender, developmental, and ethnic differences in cross-ethnic friendship prevalence also were tested. In addition, relations between youths' socioemotional adjustment and participation in cross-ethnic friendships were examined. Youths with advanced social perspective-taking skills had more cross-ethnic friends, whereas youths who experienced perceived barriers to forming cross-ethnic friendships had fewer cross-ethnic friends. Prosocial behavior, likeability among peers, depression, and anxiety were unrelated to cross-ethnic friendship. Associations of perceived popularity with cross-ethnic friendship were positive for boys, but negative for girls. In addition, youths' ethnic identity was differently associated with cross-ethnic friendship for ethnic minority versus non-minority White youth. Applied implications are discussed. Race relations is a complex and compelling issue, and understanding youths' friendships with peers who are different from themselves in terms of race/ethnicity will help to illuminate ways to foster positive intergroup relations.


ARVC may not cause any symptoms in its early stages. However, affected individuals may still be at risk of sudden death, especially during strenuous exercise. When symptoms occur, they most commonly include a sensation of fluttering or pounding in the chest (palpitations), light-headedness, and fainting (syncope). Over time, ARVC can also cause shortness of breath and abnormal swelling in the legs or abdomen. If the myocardium becomes severely damaged in the later stages of the disease, it can lead to heart failure.


The development of chemical reactor network (CRN) models to predict the NOx emissions is very important for the modern combustion system design. In this study, the new chemical reactor network models are constructed based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate the burning process of the industrial combustor. The boundary and the operating conditions used for these CRN models reflect the typical operating conditions of the industrial combustor. The global mechanism has been developed by GRI 3.0 in the UW chemical reactor code. For the reliability of the predictive models, the models were analyzed and compared to the experimental industrial combustor research. Finally, the CRN models have shown to be efficient estimating accurately NOx emissions with a very short response time.


Invasion by alien plant species may be rapid and aggressive, causing erosion of local biodiversity. This is particularly true for islands, where natural and anthropogenic corridors promote the rapid spread of invasive plants. Although evidence shows that corridors may facilitate plant invasions, the question of how their importance in the spread of alien species varies along environmental gradients deserves more attention. Here, we addressed this issue by examining diversity patterns (species richness of endemic, native and alien species) along and across roads, along an elevation gradient from sea-level up to 2050 m a.s.l. in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain), at multiple spatial scales. Species richness was assessed using a multi-scale sampling design consisting of 59 T-transects of 150 m × 2 m, along three major roads each placed over the whole elevation gradient. Each transect was composed of three sections of five plots each: Section 1 was located on the road edges, Section 2 at intermediate distance, and Section 3 far from the road edge, the latter representing the "native community" less affected by road-specific disturbance. The effect of elevation and distance from roadsides was evaluated for the three groups of species (endemic, native and alien species), using parametric and non-parametric regression analyses as well as additive diversity partitioning. Differences among roads explained the majority of the variation in alien species richness and composition. Patterns in alien species richness were also affected by elevation, with a decline in richness with increasing elevation and no alien species recorded at high elevations. Elevation was the most important factor determining patterns in endemic and native species. These findings confirm that climate filtering reflected in varying patterns along elevational gradients is an important determinant of the richness of alien species (which are not adapted to high elevations), while anthropogenic pressures may explain the richness of alien species at low elevation.


Ample evidence has accumulated for the evolutionary importance of duplication events. However, little is known about the ensuing step-by-step divergence process and the selective conditions that allow it to progress. Here we present a computational study on the divergence of two repressors after duplication. A central feature of our approach is that intermediate phenotypes can be quantified through the use of in vivo measured repression strengths of Escherichia coli lac mutants. Evolutionary pathways are constructed by multiple rounds of single base pair substitutions and selection for tight and independent binding. Our analysis indicates that when a duplicated repressor co-diverges together with its binding site, the fitness landscape allows funneling to a new regulatory interaction with early increases in fitness. We find that neutral mutations do not play an essential role, which is important for substantial divergence probabilities. By varying the selective pressure we can pinpoint the necessary ingredients for the observed divergence. Our findings underscore the importance of coevolutionary mechanisms in regulatory networks, and should be relevant for the evolution of protein-DNA as well as protein-protein interactions.


With recent increases in cybersecurity incidents, it is imperative to supplement current accounting curriculum, equip accounting graduates with sufficient knowledge and skills to assess cybersecurity risk, and learn about controls to mitigate such risks. In this chapter, the authors describe 10 teaching modules, supported by 10 professionally produced video series. The authors developed these videos for educating students on cybersecurity and the videos are available free to instructors from other institutions who wish to use them. The videos are filled with insights and advice from our two experts – one a former hacker and the other an experienced cybersecurity professional. This dialogue between two different sides provides a rich discussion that leads to answering many questions that people often have about cybersecurity. Further, in Exhibit 1, this chapter offers a framework for characterizing and analyzing some recent publicized data-breach cases, which can supplement discussion on cybersecurity modules. Instructors can add more cases to this source overtime. Finally, the authors share the analysis of feedback from students who went through the series. The results suggest that the students show interest in the topic, and videos helped them better understand the complexity of cybersecurity risk and controls.


Autoradiographic evidence after injection of tritiated thymidine indicates that cell position in the laminae of the monkey visual cortex is systematically related to time of cell orgin. The earliest-formed neurons, destined for the deepest stratum, arise at about embryonic day 45, and the last ones, destined for the outermost cell stratum, form at about day 102; cells of intervening layers are generated at intervening times. No neocortical neurons are produced in the last two prenatal months or after birth. Compared to cortical neurons in rodents, those in the monkey arise earlier, and the "inside-out" relation of cell position to time of origin is more rigid.


Background: Learning about fitness for work and return to work is an important subject for students in the medical sciences, but the educational method is important too. Problem-based learning (PBL) is an important method that should be examined in occupational health studies. The objective of this study was to compare the effects of three educational methods for learning about fitness for work and return to work for students in the medical sciences.
Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental study using the curriculum of the Ministry of Health for 150 occupational health students in the School of Health at Mashhad University; fitness for work and return to work was taught with attention to various educational methods. Group A (n = 50) received presentations and lectures; group B (n = 50) received additional Clinical practice observations; and group C (n = 50) received PBL. Pre- and post-assessments were used to determine change in knowledge and the results were compared among the three groups of participants; then results of exams were analyzed with SPSS 16, using Analysis of variance (ANOVA) (with post hoc Tukey), and statistical significance of P < 0.05.
Results: The total grade (20) of fitness for work and return to work for group A was 13.22 ± 0.64, for group B, 14.27 ± 1.01 and for group C, 16.28 ± 0.01. The between-groups comparisons showed significant differences among all three groups (P < 0.001). The level of learning - change in knowledge - among the three groups was also significant, with P < 0.001. The odds ratio was 1.44 (1.12-3.24) for group C with PBL.
Conclusion: According to the results, PBL was the best method for learning of fitness for work and return to work in students studying medical sciences.


ABSTRACT Background: The aim of the study was to develop the Japanese versions of Executive Interview (J-EXIT25) and Executive Clock Drawing Task (J-CLOX) and to evaluate the aspects of executive function that these two tests will be examining. Methods: The concurrent validity and reliability of J-EXIT25 and J-CLOX were first examined in all participants (n = 201). Next, the relationship between the two tests was examined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC), correlation, and regression analyses in healthy participants (n = 45) and participants with mild cognitive impairment (n = 36) and dementia (n = 95). Results: Satisfactory concurrent validity and reliability of J-EXIT25 and J-CLOX were shown. ROC analysis indicated that J-EXIT25 and J-CLOX1 were superior to the Frontal Assessment Battery, but inferior to the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), in discriminating between non-dementia and dementia. J-EXIT25, J-CLOX1, and J-CLOX2 scores were significantly correlated with age, scores on the MMSE, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) and Physical Self-Maintenance Scale (PSMS), and care level. In stepwise regression analyses of IADL scores, MMSE and J-EXIT25 were significantly independent predictors in men, and MMSE, age, and J-CLOX1 were significantly independent predictors in women. J-EXIT25, MMSE, and J-CLOX1 were significantly independent predictors in stepwise regression analysis of PSMS scores, and J-EXIT25 was the only significantly independent predictor in stepwise regression analysis of care level. Conclusions: J-EXIT25 and J-CLOX are valid and reliable instruments for assessment of executive function in older people. The present results suggest that these tests have common and distinct psychometric properties in the assessment of executive function.


Titanium alloys have outstanding mechanical properties such as high hardness, a good strength-to-weight ratio, excellent fatigue properties and high corrosion resistance. However, several inherent properties including their low thermal conductivity and high chemical affinity to tool materials impairs severely their machinability with conventional machining techniques. Conventional machining of Ti-based alloys is typically characterized by low depths of cuts and relatively low feed rates, thus adversely affecting the material removal rates during the machining process. Recently, a non-conventional machining technique known as ultrasonically assisted turning (UAT) was introduced to machine modern alloys, in which low-energy, high-frequency vibration is superimposed on the movement of a cutting tool during a conventional cutting process. This novel machining technique results in a multi-fold decrease in the level of cutting forces with a concomitant improvement in surface finish of machined modern alloys. Also, since the late 20th century, machining of wear resistant materials that soften when heated has been carried out with hot machining techniques.
In this work, a new hybrid machining technique called Hot Ultrasonically Assisted Turning (HUAT) is introduced for processing of a Ti-based alloy Ti-15V3Al3Cr3Sn. In this technique, UAT is combined with a traditional hot machining technique to gain combined advantages of both schemes for machining of intractable alloys. HUAT of the studied alloy was analysed experimentally and numerically to demonstrate its benefits in terms of reduction in cutting forces over a wide range of industrially relevant speed-feed combinations. Thermal evolution in the cutting process was assessed, and the obtained results were compared with FE simulations to gain knowledge of temperatures reached in the cutting zone. The developed novel turning process appeared to improve dry turning of the Ti alloy with significant reduction of average cutting forces without any substantial metallurgical changes in the workpiece material. Nano-indentation, light microscopy and SEM studies were performed to get an insight into the development of hardness in a zone near the machined surface in the workpiece. Backscatter electron microscopy was also used to evaluate the formation of α-Ti during the novel HUAT. No grain changes or α-precipitation were observed in machined workpieces in conventional and hybrid turning processes.
3D elasto-plastic thermomechanically coupled finite-element models for the orthogonal turning process were developed for conventional turning (CT), hot conventional turning (HCT), UAT and HUAT, followed by a more realistic novel 3D finite-element model for the oblique turning process. These 3D models were used to study the effects of cutting parameters (cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut, ultrasonic vibration, ultrasonic frequency, rake angle and tool nose radius) on cutting forces, temperature in the process zone and stresses. The later model was used to analyse the effect of vibration and heat on the radial and axial components of cutting forces in HUAT, which was not possible with the developed 3D orthogonal-turning model. Comparative studies were performed with the developed CT, HCT, UAT and HUAT finite-element models and were validated by results from experiments conducted on the in-house prototype and in literature.
The HUAT for the Ti-15333 was analysed experimentally and numerically to demonstrate the benefits in terms of a significant reduction in the cutting forces and improvement in surface roughness over a wide range of industrially relevant speed-feed combinations.


In this study, I propose a reading of Derrida as a Cartesian thinker. The mode
of reading is closely textual and not historical; and the analysis focuses on the
methodological or dispositional affinities between a sceptical Descartes in cogitation
and a deconstructive Derrida, to the exclusion of the onto-theological aspects of their
arguments. I locate the source of such epistemological affinities between them in the
self-reflexivity of philosophical self-doubt or self-criticism, and highlight, in the
course of analysis, the formatively self-referential aspects of both Cartesian
scepticism and Derridian deconstruction; The point of contention is that, in both
cases, the starting point of thinking is the self that self-reflects.
Standard interpretations tend to view Derrida as an anti-Cartesian thinker;
Against this reading, I advance the following two points of contention. Firstly, I argue
that Derrida can be read as a Cartesian thinker in that his reflexive tendency is
indicative of his implicit commitment to the methodological or epistemological
Cartesianism, i. e. the reflexive mode of cogitation. The claim here, limited to such an
extent, is that there is a structural resemblance between the reflexive form of
Descartes's cogilo and that of Derrida's deconstructive move in that both thinkers
follow performatively reflexive, and reflexively repeated moves; The Derridian move
is only one "step" beyond, and in this sense derivative from, the Cartesian. Secondly,
I argue further that Derrida can be read as a radical Cartesian. For this, I present a
reading of Derrida's reflexive hauntology as a sceptical radicalisation of Descartes's
reflective ontology. By bringing to the fore a structurally Cartesian dimension which
underlies the Derridian economy of writing and thinking, I argue, against Derrida's
self-understanding of his (non-)project, that deconstruction is to be read as a
conservative intra-metaphysical trajectory rather than as a transgressive endeavour to
go beyond metaphysics. In highlighting the traditional aspects of deconstruction as
opposed to the revolutionary sides of it, my aim is both to explicate the significance
of Derrida's deconstructive project and, at the same time, to expose its constitutive
limits, deconstruction taken as a meta-critical, reflexive endeavour to transcend the
limits of philosophy by philosophy. The critical point I raise against Derrida is the
following: Insofar as the logic or strategy of his deconstruction remains structurally
locked in, and at the same time exploitative of, the implicit binarism of Cartesian
scepticism, i. e. the logic of either-or, the deconstructive gesture that attempts to think
"the Other" by reflecting critically upon its own condition of thinking, is bound to be
self-reflexive or self-referential, therefore, self-corrosively ineffectual.
Part I sets out to articulate the aforementioned two contentions of thesis. It
aims to discover the recursively self-reflexive movements in the writings of Derrida.
For this, chapter 2 offers an analysis of some of Derrida's central terms of hauntology
that are descriptive of the movements and moments of meta-reflection, viz. double,
mark, fold, interest, and law. Although Part I deals mainly with Derrida, the reflexive
dimension of Descartes's cogito argument is also analysed in an early stage [1.31] to
the extent that it can set the terms for the subsequent reading of Derrida as a Cartesian
[1.32 -2.3]. Part II elaborates the key points made in Part I, first by providing a
detailed account of the Cartesian economy of self-reflexivity [Chapter 4], and second,
by closely reading selected passages from Den ida's essay on Descartes, 'Cogito et
histoire de lafolie' [Chapter 5]. Derrida's defensive and sympathetic reading of
Descartes's madmen against Foucault's, the last chapter argues, exemplifies a case of
Derrida as a committed Cartesian with a mind bent on methodic meta-reflection.


1. This study tested the hypothesis that muscle synergies underlie the invariance in the direction of corrective forces observed following stance perturbations in the horizontal plane. Electromyographic activity was recorded from selected forelimb and hindlimb muscles of cats subjected to horizontal translations of the supporting surface in 16 different directions. The responses of muscles were quantified for each perturbation, and tuning curves were constructed that related the amplitude of muscle response to the direction of platform movement. 2. Muscle tuning curves tended to group into one of two regions, corresponding to the two directions of force vectors. A few muscles showed clearly different recruitment patterns. The same direction of correction force vector was produced by different patterns of muscle activity, and the particular EMG pattern depended on the direction of platform movement. Therefore a simple muscle synergy organization could not account for the invariance in force vector generation. 3. It is concluded that there is a hierarchy of control in the maintenance of stance in which the vector of force exerted against the ground is a high level, task-dependent controlled variable and the selection of muscles to activate in order to produce the vector is controlled at a lower level. It is proposed that muscles are controlled using a modified synergy strategy. In this scheme, a synergy is not simply a fixed group of muscles, constrained to act as a unit. Rather, muscles are organized as a task-dependent synergy that is tuned or modified as needed by the addition or subtraction of other muscles.


The US trucking industry trade press often portrays the US labor market for truck drivers as not working, citing persistent driver shortages and high levels of firm†level turnover, and predicting significant resulting constraints on the supply of motor freight services. We investigate the truck driver labor market using three techniques. First, using data from the Occupational Employment Statistics of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we delineate the structure of the driver workforce. Second, from the same source we find that the trucking labor market has displayed some characteristics of a "tight" labor market since 2003: rising nominal wages, stable/growing employment, and lower rates of unemployment than other blue-collar jobs. Third, using data from the Current Population Survey we describe the occupations and industries from which drivers come and to which drivers go, when they change occupations, and statistically analyze these entries and exits. We find relatively high rates of occupational attachment among drivers, and importantly, we also find that truck drivers respond in the expected manner to differences in earnings across occupations. Finally, we point out that the issues discussed by the industry are concentrated in one segment of the overall market, that for drivers in long distance truckload (TL) motor freight, which contains between one sixth and one fourth of all heavy and tractor†trailer truck drivers. These findings suggest a more nuanced view of this labor market. The market as a whole appears to work as well as any other blue†collar labor market, and while the truck driver market tends to be "tight," there do not appear to be any special constraints preventing entry into (or exit from) the occupation. There is thus no reason to think that driver supply should fail to respond to price signals in the standard way, given sufficient time. The persistent issues localized in the TL segment are not visible in the aggregate data, and require a distinct analysis.


Two theories on stress are introduced. The first one proposes the unification of the two great research traditions on stress, biological and psychological, within a systemic science, psychoneuroendocrineimmunologic, aimed at both explaining the complex interaction between different levels of stress incidence on health and disease, and integrating the care of the others and the care of oneself. The other theory, oriented towards the study and the improvement of human being's condition, especially well-being at work, criticizes the psychological interpretative perspectives. According to this theory, stress is conceived as a psychoneuroendocrineimmune process, while health and prevention are seen as perfectible processes. Several differences, compatible elements as well as synergies between the two theories emerge.


The life history of Mussidia nigrivenella Ragonot was studied at 26 2C, 65 5 % RH in the laboratory. When reared on artificial diet, the larval stage lasted 18.4 days, the pupal stage 10,2 days, and total development time (one-day-old larvae to adult) 28.7 days. On average, pupae of males weighed 80.7 mg and those of females 111.2 mg; adult males weighed 44,0 mg and females 65,2 mg. Mated females laid an average of 268 eggs, while unmated ones laid 155. Females had a longer mean life span (6.1 days) than males (5.3 days), Individuals reared in batches of 30 larvae had significantly shorter larval periods and total developmental times than those reared in batches of 60, 90 or 120, Pupal and adult weights decreased significantly as the population size increased. Development period was significantly shorter and weights of pupae significantly higher on a soyflour + wheatgerm-based diet and a soyflour + maize flour + wheatgerm-based diet than on most other diets, Seven oviposition substrates, including plastic mesh, wire mesh, brass screen, wax paper and paper towel were compared for preference by M. nigrivenella. In both multiple and no-choice tests, paper towel folded diagonally and 21 x 21 units (meshes/cm1 plastic mesh had significantly more eggs laid on them than other substrates.


In
 1991,
 the
 Federal
 Circuit
 held
 that
 a
 judgment
 on
 the
 merits
 in a
 patent
 infringement
 action
 bars
 future
 claims
 based
 on
 products
 that are
 "essentially
 the
 same"
 as
 the
 product
 at
 issue
 in
 the
 former
 suit. This
 rule
 governed
 claim
 preclusion
 in
 patent
 actions
 until
 at
 least 2009.
 Then,
 in
 2012,
 the
 Federal
 Circuit
 upended
 the
 apple
 cart
 with Aspex
 Eyewear,
 Inc.
 v.
 Marchon
 Eyewear,
 Inc.,
 672
 F.3d
 1335
 (Fed.
 Cir. 2012),
 holding
 that
 a
 judgment
 in
 an
 infringement
 suit
 never
 bars
 fu-‐ ture
 claims
 against
 products
 that
 could
 not
 have
 been
 accused
 in
 the former
 litigation,
 essentially
 the
 same
 or
 not.
 The
 court
 reaffirmed
 this rule
 in
 2014
 in
 Brain
 Life,
 LLC
 v.
 Elekta
 Inc.,
 746
 F.3d
 1045
 (Fed.
 Cir. 2014).
 The
 Federal
 Circuit
 introduced
 this
 change
 in
 the
 law
 for
 a
 good reason:
 the
 "essentially
 the
 same"
 rule
 had
 the
 unfortunate
 effect
 of granting
 an
 adjudged
 infringer
 a
 license
 to
 continue
 infringing,
 secure in
 the
 knowledge
 that
 claim
 preclusion
 would
 bar
 a
 second
 suit.
 Unfor-‐ tunately,
 Aspex
 and
 Brain
 Life
 are
 squarely
 in
 conflict
 with
 earlier
 Fed-‐ eral
 Circuit
 precedent.
 Because
 one
 three-‐judge
 panel
 cannot
 overrule another,
 the
 "essentially
 the
 same"
 test
 remains
 the
 law.
 The
 en
 banc Federal
 Circuit
 should
 address
 this
 conflict,
 and
 resolve
 it
 in
 favor
 of Aspex
 and
 Brain
 Life.


V. M. Zhivov's introduction to Studies in Historical Semantics of the Russian Language in the Early Modern Period (2009), translated here for the first time, offers a critical survey of the historiography on Begriffsgeschichte, the German school of conceptual history associated with the work of Reinhart Koselleck, as well as of its application to the study of Russian culture. By situating Begriffsgeschichte in the context of late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century European philosophy, particularly hermeneutics and phenomenology, the author points out the important, and as yet unacknowledged, role that Russian linguists have played in the development of a native school of conceptual history. In the process of outlining this alternative history of the discipline, Zhivov provides some specific examples of the way in which the study of "historical semantics" can be used to analyze the development of Russian modernity.


This innovative textbook examines commercial law and the social and political context in which it develops. Topical examples, such as funding for terrorism, demonstrate this fast-moving field's relevance to today's concerns. This wide-ranging subject is set within a clear structure, with part and chapter introductions setting out the student's course of study. Recommendations for further reading at the end of every chapter point the reader to important sources for advanced study and revision questions encourage understanding. The extensive coverage and detailed commentary has been extensively market tested to ensure that the contents are aligned with the needs of university courses in commercial law.


Introduction Library automation in Pakistan is in its infancy. Major constraints in this regard include absence of planning, software/hardware problems, lack of cooperation, lack of competent and willing manpower, nonexistence of standards, financial limitations and absence of consultants and experts (Haider, 1998). Pakistan Library Automation Group (PakLAG), a not-for-profit trust, came into existence in year 2000, when some young professionals from the field of Library & Information Science wanted to institutionalize their volunteer work to overcome the obstacles in the way of library automation. Lahore based activity soon spread all over the country and volunteers from other provinces and cities joined the efforts to promote the use of ICTs in libraries. During the last eight years, PakLAG organized its chapters in all four provinces and federal capital. There is no membership fee and no official sponsorship. The idea was to achieve the objectives by promoting the self-reliance and economical solutions. PakLAG is carrying out various activities to achieve the following objectives: * To provide professional and technical advice to libraries, information centers and documentation centers in their development programs. * To recommend training programs for librarians so as to help them to develop, update and automate their libraries and documentation centers. * To develop library automation and capacity building programs. * To coordinate library development activities in the country with national as well as international development agencies and institutions. * To provide information and conduct research studies on library development. * To provide platform to the information professionals for the exchange of views, sharing of experiences, networking among libraries as well as to develop consensus upon the common issues faced by the profession. * To provide research support and policy recommendations to government at all levels and to legislative bodies in the formation of policies regarding the libraries and information services (Pakistan Library Automation Group, 2009). Activities and Services of PakLAG Following are the major activities and services of PakLAG (Iqbal, 2008; Mahmood, Khan & Siddique, 2008; Pakistan Library Automation Group, 2009): * PakLAG Website: The group maintains a website ( www.paklag.org ). Until May, 2009 this website was visited more than 76,000 times (Figure 1). * Library Information Management System (LIMS). Based on MS-Access this free software automates library housekeeping routines including cataloging, circulation and reporting. It also facilitates the use of barcode technology. PakLAG team also extends training and support in the use of LIMS. It is being used in more than 200 academic, special and public libraries not only in Pakistan but also in the Middle East. A unique feature of this software is that it has been designed, developed, implemented and tested by library professionals without any help from computer experts. * PakLAG Web OPAC and Digital Library Software. This is a web based application, consists of OPAC and digital library, to be connected with LIMS and provides remote access to library resources. It is a Java Server Pages and MySQL based application. * PakLAG Data Converter. Retrospective conversion of data of legacy ILS is a daunting task while implementing library automation system. This converter converts data from CDS/ISIS format of Library Automation Management Program (LAMP), first DOS based Integrated Library System developed with financial support of Netherlands Library Development Program. PakLAG distributes the converter free of cost and also provides its training. * Plagpk Mailing List. Mailing lists are tools of social networking. The PakLAG's plagpk mailing list is the first list in LIS field in Pakistan. In May 2009 it had membership of 2174 LIS professionals working in Pakistan and abroad. …


Abstract We examined factors that might influence breeding-site selection in Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo regalis) in the Uintah Basin, Utah, an area undergoing rapid oil and gas development. We located 31 occupied nests of Ferruginous Hawk (10 during 2002, 10 during 2003, and 11 during 2004) and compared them to 32 historical nest sites of Ferruginous Hawks that were unoccupied during our study, and 32 random sites. Ferruginous Hawks selected nesting areas that were dominated by mixed desert-shrub vegetation communities with scattered Utah juniper trees (Juniperus osteosperma), higher prey abundance, and a high number of active petroleum wells. Within occupied territories, Ferruginous Hawks selected nest sites in juniper trees, on cliff ledges, or on rock pinnacles that occurred in areas with higher prey abundance, close to an active well, and within 2–3.5 km of the nearest occupied nest of another raptor. The counterintuitive association between nesting activity and oil development may be the result of: (1) a spurious relationship between the occurrence of oil and gas reserves and suitable breeding habitat, (2) a time lag in the response of nesting pairs to development, or (3) oil and gas developments indirectly benefiting nesting pairs by improving the habitat of prey species and subsequently increasing prey densities, and/or reducing the threat of predation to Ferruginous Hawks or their young.


Ferropseudobrookite exsolution rods, approximately Mg2+0.11Fe2+0.70Al3+0.04Fe3+0.34Ti4+1.81O5, space group Cmcm with a about 0.98 nm, b about 0.37 nm, c about 1.00 nm, are first reported in quartz from a garnet-orthopyroxene-bearing quartzofeldspathic gneiss, Napier Complex, East Antarctica. The elongated direction of ferropseudobrookite rods is the b axis and is parallel to either the or of low-quartz. Moreover these rods have almost six-fold symmetry along the c axis of quartz. The formation of the exsolution must result from the cooling of the gneiss and the exsolution took place in the high-quartz field. The present exsolution phenomenon suggests that quartz can dissolve not only Ti but also Fe2+ and Fe3+ and that the gneiss contains Fe2+ ion under the ultrahigh-temperature peak metamorphic conditions.


Substance flow analysis (SFA) has been used by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency for more than two decades to identify sources of hazardous substance releases to the environment and to waste streams. More than 35 SFAs have been undertaken using a unified methodology. This article discusses key elements of the methodology and application of the results of the SFAs in Denmark, illustrated by examples. The use of repeated SFAs in the evolution of substance regulation is demonstrated for lead. A cadmium SFA illustrates the use of SFAs to monitor changes in consumption and release of a hazardous substance. Estimates of sources are presented for a number of toxic and resource‐intensive metals in solid waste incineration and sewage treatment. Most of the SFAs concern hazardous substances, but aluminum represents a case in which the resource perspective is an important element in a national SFA. The Danish SFA on brominated flame retardants illustrates some methodological problems with conducting national SFAs in a global economy in which the substances are mainly imported in finished products.


Urogenital fistulae (UGF) is one of the most dreadful complications encountered in obstetrics and gynaecology and constitutes a major surgical challenge to physicians. It is a source of great misery and unhappiness in the patient and a major liability and anxiety to the doctor. When it is surgical related, there are grave medicolegal implications. In South Africa, a country straddling the first and third world, urogenital fistulae caused by obstructed labour and those caused by gynaecological surgery are seen in approximately equal proportions. In most other African countries, especially Sub-Saharan states, obstetric related fistulae are far commoner. In high income countries, obstetric fistulae is rare.


Monetary policy implementation could, in theory, be constrained by deeply negative rates since overnight market participants may have an incentive to invest in cash rather than lend to other participants. To understand the functioning of overnight markets in such an environment, we add the option to exchange central bank reserves for cash to the standard workhorse model of monetary policy implementation (Poole 1968). Importantly, we show that monetary policy is not constrained when just the deposit rate is below the yield on cash. However, it could be constrained when the target overnight rate is below the yield on cash. At this point, the overnight rate equals the yield on cash instead of the target rate. Modifications to the implementation framework, such as a tiered remuneration of central bank deposits contingent on cash withdrawals, can work to restore the implementation of monetary policy such that the overnight rate equals the target rate.


Abstract. A multi-column radiative transfer code is used to assess the direct radiative effect of biomass burning aerosols over the southern African region during September. The horizontal distribution of biomass smoke is estimated from two sources; i) General Circulation Model (GCM) simulations combined with measurements from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) of Sun photometers; ii) data from the Moderate resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) satellite. Aircraft and satellite measurements are used to constrain the cloud fields, aerosol optical properties, vertical structure, and land surface albedo included in the model. The net regional direct effect of the biomass smoke is -3.1 to -3.6 Wm-2 at the top of atmosphere, and -14.4 to -17.0 Wm-2 at the surface for the MODIS and GCM distributions of aerosol. The direct radiative effect is shown to be highly sensitive to the prescribed vertical profiles and aerosol optical properties. The diurnal cycle of clouds and the spectral dependency of surface albedo are also shown to play an important role.


Korean Train Express (KTX) of South Korea introduced high-speed commercial rail service on April 1, 2004. It currently has two lines covering 661.1 km (413.2 mi), and its trains achieve speeds of 300 km/h (186 mph). KTX's offering represents the first phase of a scheduled two-phase introduction due to be completed in 2010. This paper documents the service changes of external transportation operators during the first 3 months of KTX operation and details the initial reactions of KTX customers. KTX reduced rail travel time between major cities by almost half. By offering 128 daily services, it increased seat supply by 33% among the major cities and increased revenue by nearly 100% for the Seoul–Busan line, as compared with the same April–June period the previous year. KTX achieved one million passengers in 14 days and 10 million passengers in 142 days of operation. Although these numbers are significant, they represent only about half the demand forecasted. Three major causes of this discrepancy are an inability to provide fully implemented KTX services, low Korean economic activity, and a degraded level of service on conventional passenger rail systems. The expected service level of passengers and the initial marketing strategies used appear to have negatively affected the successful introduction of KTX. However, demand trends show continued increases after the initial response. As a whole, KTX strengthened the viability of Korean rail travel and is expected to contribute to the building of a more balanced national transportation system.


Value-centric teaching is about creating a memorable learning environment that is attractive, meaningful, and relevant. A teaching philosophy that encompasses a strategic value-oriented approach integrates real-world and translatable experiences. The foundation is transferable. It strives to blend the passion for learning with foundational elements to motivate students to achieve and continue to grow. It is an emergent process that evolves over time and becomes stronger as it adapts to new challenges even as it remains true to its core principles. Educators have a vital role to play and must adhere to the principle of value orientation to further accentuate its educational and societal impact. Value-centric teaching enables a deeper exploration of life, enhancing knowledge, its values, its meaning, and responsibilities.


With the advances in the computing world, computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
is becoming more and more critical tool in the field of fluid dynamics. In the past
few decades, a huge number of CFD models have been developed with ever improved
performance.
In this research a robust CFD model, called Riemann2D, is extended to model flow
over a mobile bed and applied to a full scale dam break problem. Riemann2D, an
object oriented hyperbolic solver that solves shallow water equations with an unstructured
triangular mesh and using high resolution shock capturing methods, provides a
generic framework for the solution of hyperbolic problems. The object-oriented design
of Riemann2D has the flexibility to apply the model to any type of hyperbolic problem
with the addition of new information and inheriting the common components from the
generic part of the model. In a part of this work, this feature of Riemann2D is exploited
to enhance the model capabilities to compute flow over mobile beds. This is achieved by
incorporating the two dimensional version of the one dimensional non-capacity model
for erodible bed hydraulics by Cao et al. (2004).
A few novel and simple algorithms are included, to track the wet/dry and dry/wet
fronts over abruptly varying topography and stabilize the solution while using high
resolution shock capturing methods. The negative depths computed from the surface
gradient by the limiters are algebraically adjusted to ensure depth positivity. The
friction term contribution in the source term, that creates unphysical values near the
wet/dry fronts, are resolved by the introduction of a limiting value for the friction term.
The model is validated using an extensive variety of tests both on fixed and mobile
beds. The results are compared with the analytical, numerical and experimental results
available in the literature. The model is also tested against the actual field data of
1957 Malpasset dam break. Finally, the model is applied to simulate dam break flow
of Warsak Dam in Pakistan. Remotely sensed topographic data of Warsak dam is used
to improve the accuracy of the solution.
The study reveals from the thorough testing and application of the model that
the simulated results are in close agreement with the available analytical, numerical
and experimental results. The high resolution shock capturing methods give far better
results than the traditional numerical schemes. It is also concluded that the object oriented CFD model is very easy to adapt and extend without changing the generic
part of the model.


Just over a decade ago, several forest agency leaders from around the world met in Beijing, China at a conference convened by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), the State Forestry Administration (SFA) of China and the Chinese Center for Agriculture Policy (CCAP). As leaders—from Brazil, China, Mexico and the USA—we reflected on how few opportunities existed to learn from one another to discuss forest issues in an informal atmosphere outside of the protocol-laden, jurisdictionally-defined sessions we commonly attended. We wondered whether there was a better way—whether it was possible to have safe conversations where difficult issues, struggles and mistakes could be raised, acknowledged and learned from. From this first conversation, MegaFlorestais was created: a self-governing group of public forest agency leaders with RRI serving as the Secretariat and main funder. The period of 2005-2015 brought changes in forest governance, the status of forest ownership, the health of the world's forests and the global context within which forestry decisions are made. But much has remained the same. Was MegaFlorestais a factor? What can be learned from reflecting on these changes in a decade?


In the present work we describe the process of formation of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite (MAPbI3) by reaction between [001] oriented PbI2 thin films and MAI. The reaction leads to a rapid change in the optical properties with the formation of a brown phase having a large band in the visible range and a contribution in the near-UV range (375 nm). X-ray diffraction analyses indicate that the MAI + PbI2 as-obtained material mainly consists of a highly oriented matrix of MAI that intermixes with the Pb–I precursor. A chemical exfoliation of the initial PbI2 structure with the massive intercalation of the methylammonium iodide ions suitably describes the optical and structural findings. Short thermal treating (100 °C) of this as-obtained sample results in the formation of a second oriented intermediate phase, attributed to the presence of a low-dimensional perovskite structure. Such low-dimensional metastable phase is no longer visible by increasing the annealing time or the annealing temperature (150...


BACKGROUND: Although nursing, midwifery, and professions allied to medicine are increasingly using clinical guidelines to reduce inappropriate variations in practice and ensure higher quality care, there have been no rigorous overviews of their effectiveness, 18 evaluations of guidelines were identified that meet Cochrane criteria for scientific rigor. METHODS: Guideline evaluations conducted since 1975 which used a randomised controlled trial, controlled before and after, or interrupted time series design were identified through a combination of database and hand searching. RESULTS: 18 studies met the inclusion criteria. Three studies evaluated guideline dissemination or implementation strategies, nine compared use of a guideline with a no guideline state; six studies examined skill substitution: performance of nurses operating according to a guideline were compared with standard care, generally provided by a physician. Significant changes in the process of care were found in six out of eight studies measuring process and in which guidelines were expected to have a positive impact on performance. In seven of the nine studies measuring outcomes of care, significant differences in favour of the intervention group were found. Skill substitution studies generally supported the hypothesis of no difference between protocol driven by nurses and care by a physician. Only one study included a formal economic evaluation, with equivocal findings. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from the review provide some evidence that care driven by a guideline can be effective in changing the process and outcome of care. However, many studies fell short of the criteria of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group (EPOC) for methodological quality.


Reviewing the Potential and Challenges of Developing STEAM Education through Creative Pedagogies for 21st Century Learning: how can school curricula be broadened towards a more responsive, dynamic and inclusive form of education?

Globally, the term STEAM is used to indicate ways in which the Arts or art-practices (and sometimes more broadly the Humanities and Social sciences) engage with the STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

The number of students choosing post-compulsory study of STEM subjects is seen as being critical to a country's economic success, yet concerns have been expressed about the way those subjects are currently taught, specifically: a lack of creativity; a need to focus on inter- and multidisciplinary work; a need for a broader conception of science, and STEM's marginalisation of concerns for society and the environment.

Populist accounts may argue for having more creatively-minded scientists, and a more scientifically literate wider population. Instead, the Commission uncovered a much richer and complex set of purposes and possibilities for STEAM education.

The arguments for the inclusion of the Arts in STEM in education then are wide-ranging, extending from contributing to making science education more appealing, through to seeding development of more embodied, affective, and interdisciplinary models of school education.

For the first time, this BERA Research Commission reviewed STEAM education and gauged the potential for STEAM-like approaches in interesting young people in science. At the same time, the Research Commission also considered the value of STEAM in encouraging a broader understanding of science and technology, encouraging debate about the wider role of science in society, and seeing the value of science as being more than just its contribution to the economy.


The supply situation for Welsh organic horticultural products
Organic production in Wales has been developing steadily in the last five years, with particular emphasis on organic cattle and sheep production. This was despite over-supply conditions in some sectors, notably dairy, following the very rapid growth in 1999/2000. Looking further back there was a time when horticultural production represented a considerable proportion of Welsh organic output and played a significant role in the development of the organic market as a whole.
Between the end of 2002 and end of 2005, the number of holdings increased by 12% to 688, and the certified land area increased by 29% to 71 thousand hectares, of which more than 90% is grassland. Growth in Wales has exceeded other parts of the UK, reaching 5% of agricultural land by end 2005. More rapid growth is projected for 2006 and possibly 2007. There is however little evidence that this is mirrored in the horticulture sector -if anything there has been a reduction in the horticultural production area. The latest Defra statistics show that there has been a decline in organically managed horticultural land in Wales from 722 hectares in 2003 to 649 hectares in 2005.
Actual output of Welsh fruit and vegetables is more difficult to quantify reflecting a continuing need for improved statistical data to support market development and the delivery of public policy. Better data is available for the UK as a whole but a significant effort will be needed to dis-aggregate the output data for Wales. The UK data show the overall organic market increasing to £1.6bn in 2005 and the organic vegetable market increasing at a faster rate despite falling back in absolute terms. UK organic horticultural land is increasing but not at the same rate as the market. It is predicted that UK self sufficiency (which has increased to 62% over the last four to five years will fall away as imports increase to fill the widening gap between UK production and UK consumption.
Organic farm gate prices for fruit and vegetables have been under continuing downward pressure over the last five years and this fact has been cited as one of the contributory facts behind the relative lack of horticultural land coming into conversion. These pressures do not necessarily bear directly on the localised marketing that is common among Welsh organic producers but supermarket prices do provide
something of a benchmark for such operations. There is evidence of significant price increases in the conventional sector following last summer's heat wave but it remains to be seen if these are reflected in the organic sector.
The original market intelligence report published in 2004 provided a useful starting point for this review. The majority of producers who has seen it found it useful but they were a relatively small number of those that were asked. A number of extremely useful and pertinent recommendations were made and these will be reviewed in the conclusions to this report i.e. to what extent were they taken up?
A grower survey was undertaken using a detailed telephone questionnaire and a 56% response achieved from a list of 110 producers. Highlights included the fact that the 62 respondents represented some 83 hectares of horticultural output, a figure that is at odds with the Defra statistics even when allowances are made for non-respondents. 75% of respondents were marketing locally in one form or another while labour issues were seen as the most common restraint. Growers felt that the market was expanding and many were confident abut the future though a significant number had given up or were giving up for reasons of age, health, etc. In terms of market information there was a strong response for price information and also market trends.
This was followed by a trade survey that included box schemes, small retail outlets and wholesalers. All those questioned were unanimous that demand for organic produce in general and Welsh organic produce in particular is running at unprecedented levels. Traders are finding it extremely difficult to source the produce they need from Wales and are therefore importing it from countries such as France and Holland. A significant proportion (up to 60%) of this produce could be grown in Wales. Difficulties cited included lack of support payments, low profitability, certification fees, a reluctance on the part of growers to expand, and the increasing age of the present grower base.
It is possible to use these responses and set them alongside the wider data to generate a market assessment for organic fruit and vegetables in Wales. Using the assumptions of the earlier market intelligence report we can arrive at an estimate of the potential market for organic fruit and vegetables in Wales of £32.3m across all outlets. Organic Monitor reports a sharp increase in demand for fruit and vegetables in 2006. Set against this is the progressive reduction in both real and relative terms of the Welsh production base for organic horticultural produce. It is difficult to produce an estimate but it is unlikely to exceed the estimate in the earlier report of £1.3m. What is clear is that the gap between production and demand is widening at a rapid rate. It is possible to generate profits through the growing of organic horticultural crops but a rigorous financial analysis is essential before embarking on such a course.
SWOT analyses from earlier reports are discussed and placed in the present day context. Familiar issues of unsuitable infrastructure, topography, isolation, lack of cooperation, availability of labour and poor returns feature both then and now. There are a number of opportunities arising from the developing, public procurement and consumer support for Welsh produce. The major issue is however the threat to the existing grower base and an inability to address the many opportunities because of a lack of new entrants.
Recommendations
Despite the generally positive outlook from a demand perspective, there is a need to address some of the factors that might discourage producers from converting, including disruption to the Organic Farming Scheme, price levels that do not always reflect the costs of production, access to markets and a distinct lack of support for the sector.
To address this, there is a need for:
• better statistical data on current and future production levels and market shares;
• consideration should be given to the development of an organic price exchange service possibly in conjunction with other agencies and organisations
• continued efforts to support producer groups in developing markets for organic fruit and vegetables and in seeking to achieve realistic prices;
• wider publicity of the potential demand and market opportunities for organic horticultural produce through a series of events, articles and other media coverage;
• the re-vamping of and wider publicity for the present Organic Market Wales as a contribution to the wider publicity effort;
• enhanced payments through the OFS;
• a distinct arm of the Farming Connect service that addresses the needs of horticultural producers;
• more linked planning of events with other development centres, companies, organisations, etc.
• an increasing focus on education in order to signpost opportunities for young people;
• a linking mechanism for putting new entrants to the sector in touch with land owners interested in renting land, share-farming and share-cropping;
• improved production systems, supported by effective research and development and knowledge transfer;
• a key area for development is the encouragement of protected cropping systems along with a sympathetic approach from planning authorities
• a clear identification of suitable areas for both conventional and organic horticultural production along with guidance on how to deal with the particular soil types and prevailing climate
• improved integration of effort between organic sector businesses and the agencies that support the development of the Welsh horticultural and organic sectors;
• joint working arrangements with Organic Centre Wales, Horticulture Network Wales, Centre for Alternative Land Use, Welsh College of Horticulture, machinery rings and others – this could lead to a virtual centre where growers could access:
o market intelligence information
o land availability
o machinery and machinery ring contacts
o information on labour and available skills
o technical information and advice
• better linkage with the dairy, arable and red meat sectors to benefit from complementarity relationships between the sectors at production, market development and promotional levels.


Even if Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose (1980) is a historical novel with a medieval plot, even if it was published long ago, it still resounds today. Eco wrote his novel not in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit but in the name of the Rose. In his epilogue of the novel Eco argues that a title should confuse the reader rather than bring order and in fact The Name of the Rose opens up for multiple interpretations. Eco has a lot to tell his age (and a later audience) and the best way he can do that is by means of fiction and more specific in a historical novel. The High Middle Ages is a sort of projective time and space for Eco's actual ideas. All literature is written out of and into the society where it has its offspring, no matter how hermetic, autonomous and fantastic it claims to be. Novels may be located in the past or the future, in a fairy world or a utopian society. Under all circumstances they bear witness of the temporal ethnic, national, social, cultural etc. context they are written in, one way or the other. They always have relations to society, even though their relations might be very complex. In fiction the social reality and the historical events are always interpreted, transformed, construed etc,. according to certain procedures of artistic kind, i.e. narrative, structural, symbolic, metaphoric, stylistic, and cognitive devices. This is abundantly the case in The Name of the Rose. Eco has several intentions built into his novel. He wants to challenge and revise the usual ideas of the Middle Ages as a cultural monolithic unity. He uses his semiotic approach first to suggest, and then to deconstruct religious explanations, in casu with the starting point in the Apocalypse. Instead he proposes a postmodern model to give an adequate understanding of society today. There is no single exclusive point of view from where the world can be surveyed and described. At the same time he states the hermeneutic situation of the historians: they are left with only fragments of the past. He gives a fictional explanation of the disappearance of Aristotle's book on the comedy and defends laughter and liberation (William) in contrast to seriousness and control (Jorge). He gives the Bachtinian bodily grotesque figure the name Salvatore (savior). He plays an intertextual game with Jorge Luis Borges (the blind librarian Jorge from Burgos) and others. And finally his anti- authoritarian critique of the power elite in Avignon anno 1327 reminds of Rome anno 1980 - and in fact today.


We analyze the premises of recent propositions to test local realism via Bell-inequalities using neutral kaons from $\Phi$-resonance decays as entangled EPR-pairs. We pay special attention to the derivation of Bell-inequalities, or related expressions, for unstable and oscillating kaon `quasi-spin' states and to the possibility of the actual identification of these states through their associated decay modes. We discuss an indirect method to extract probabilities to find these states by combining experimental information with theoretical input. However, we still find inconsistencies in previous derivations of Bell-inequalities. We show that the identification of the quasi-spin states via their associated decay mode does not allow the free choice to perform different tests on them, a property which is crucial to establish the validity of any Bell-inequality in the context of local realism. In view of this we propose a different kind of Bell-inequality in which the free choice or adjustability of the experimental set-up is guaranteed. We also show that the proposed inequalities are violated by quantum mechanics.


This paper presents, and compares the performances of four control strategies for residential battery energy storages coupled with photovoltaic (PV) energy systems. The control strategies are: 1) rule based control, 2) optimization based control without utility constraints, 3) optimization based control with utility constraints, and 4) distributed control. The first two methods only concern about fulfilling the battery owner's requirements. In the other two methods, the utility is involved in controlling the operation of the batteries into certain extent. Therefore, the batteries intentionally contribute to lower the overvoltage risks while fulfilling the customers' needs. From the simulations it is shown that a significant reduction in reactive power support required from the converters can be achieved with optimization based control with utility constraints and distributed control schemes. Distributed control scheme shows best performance in terms of reduction in reactive power requirement, reduction in line losses and decreasing voltage unbalance. All these can be realized with little impact on the battery owner's desired objectives.


A slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier (SCOWA) is used to construct a 10-GHz harmonically modelocked laser with an intra-cavity etalon that serves as a high-finesse spectral filter. The laser output is a frequency comb that is actively stabilized to the transmission peaks of the etalon through a Pound-Drever-Hall scheme. The linewidth of the individual comb-lines is ~1 kHz and the frequency instability <;300 kHz over 60 s. The output power exceeds 20 mW due to the high saturation power of the SCOWA. The residual timing jitter of the pulse-train is ~1.9 fs (1 Hz to 100 MHz). A much broader comb (~10 nm) is generated after dispersion compensation of the cavity and the output pulses are compressible to <;1 ps. A comparison of the timing jitter of the all-anomalous dispersion and dispersion compensated cavities is presented along with a previous result with a similar architecture.


During the 1980s and 1990s New Public Management (NPM) (Hood, 1991;Osborne and Gaebler, 1992; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004) appeared as are action to the government management policies of the previous decades that were viewed as having become too 'self-centred'. Governments were accused of focusing too much on political objectives rather than meeting the needs of citizens. According to proponents of NPM, government bodies and state-owned companies were not sufficiently customer oriented, and were not innovative and were inefficient. In their view, government bodies should provide better service to citizens in efficient and innovative ways. In doing so, they should use private enterprise as an example. NPM supporters claimed that private companies are aware that their survival depends on their ability to meet the needs of their customers. Competition and self-interest stimulate companies to do this efficiently. NPM aims at introducing arrangements that enable and stimulate competition and/or give more room for pursuing self-interest. These criticisms also applied, with the necessary modifications, to public transportation companies, including railway, tram and underground rail companies. These companies were also accused of being insufficiently customer-oriented, inefficient and lacking innovation.


Representation learning for text via pretraining a language model on a large corpus has become a standard starting point for building NLP systems. This approach stands in contrast to autoencoders, also trained on raw text, but with the objective of learning to encode each input as a vector that allows full reconstruction. Autoencoders are attractive because of their latent space structure and generative properties. We therefore explore the construction of a sentence-level autoencoder from a pretrained, frozen transformer language model. We adapt the masked language modeling objective as a generative, denoising one, while only training a sentence bottleneck and a single-layer modified transformer decoder. We demonstrate that the sentence representations discovered by our model achieve better quality than previous methods that extract representations from pretrained transformers on text similarity tasks, style transfer (an example of controlled generation), and single-sentence classification tasks in the GLUE benchmark, while using fewer parameters than large pretrained models.