Original stories by C. S. Adler, Marion Dane Bauer, Francesca Lia Block, Bruce Coville, Nancy Garden, James Cross Giblin, Ellen Howard, M. E. Kerr, Jonathan London, Lois Lowry, Gregory Maguire, Leslea Newman, Cristina Salat, William Sleator, Jacqueline Woodson, and Jane Yolen Each of these stories is original, each is by a noted author for young adults, and each honestly portrays its subject and theme--growing up gay or lesbian, or with gay or lesbian parents or friends.


Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) is considered an under-utilized species even though it is an economically useful tree often used daily in the diet of rural communities in West Africa. Baobab seeds do not germinate immediately after they are released from ripe fruits due to dormancy imposed by hard seed coats. A study was carried out to assess (1) best soaking duration for seed pretreatment in concentrated sulfuric acid (96%) to increase germination rate of baobab seeds; and (2) relationships between seed morphometric traits as varying with provenances and germination rate. Length, width, thickness and weight of baobab seeds collected from seven provenances spread across an agro-climatic gradient of 250 to 1100 mm in Senegal were first measured. Then, seeds were pretreated by soaking them in distilled water (control) and concentrated H2SO4 (96%) for 12 min, 30 min, 1, 3, 6, 8 and 12 h, respectively. Pretreated seeds were placed on moistened filter paper in 16 cm diameter Petri dishes in an incubator at 25°C for germination. Highest germination rates were obtained for seeds that had been soaked for 6, 8, and 12 h in concentrated sulfuric acid as evidenced by germination rates at 3, 7 and 10 days after sowing, respectively, although we did not find any significant differences among these three soaking durations. Significant variation among provenances was observed in seed morphology traits and seed germination rates. Highest seed trait and germination rate values were observed for Sudano-Sahel and Sudan agro-ecological provenances. This study has shown a significant variation in these characters mainly related to geographical origin. Overall, results could be useful for a further domestication and integration of baobab in the agro-productive system in Senegal as knowledge on seed germination requirements is a critical factor in seedling production for subsequent planting and reforestation.

 Key words: Agro-ecology, baobab seed, dormancy, germination physiology, germination rate, non-timber forest product (NTFP), under-utilized species.


ABSTRACT King's Point Optimal (PO) test of a simple null hypothesis is useful in a number of ways, for example it can be used to trace the power envelope against which existing tests can be compared. However, this test cannot always be constructed when testing a composite null hypothesis. It is suggested in the literature that approximate PO (APO) tests can overcome this problem, but they also have some drawbacks. This paper investigates if King's PO test can be used for testing a composite null in the presence of nuisance parameters via a maximized Monte Carlo (MMC) approach, with encouraging results.


The main objective of this thesis is to examine a conflict in the field of community education in the 1970s and '80s over whether its efforts should be directed mainly to the intellectual, social and cultural development of the individual (In the tradition of liberal adult education) or, conversely, to the cause of social change. The two schools of thought which confronted one another are termed the liberal' and the 'radical' wings of adult and community education. The thesis argues that the type of debate which ensued was not in fact new to adult education, but has been endemic in the history of adult education movements in this country, representing not simply a difference of opinion on organisation, content and methodology, but a more fundamental divergence of beliefs, values and attitudes. The thesis attempts to identify the significant factors leading to the adoption of a particular educational stance and from these constructs a theoretical framework for analysis in the form of a matrix, identifying three particular positions upon a continuum (Paternalist, Liberal and Radical). Throughout the thesis's treatment of adult and community education, in both their historical and their contemporary applications, links to this matrix are demonstrated and developed. The thesis examines in detail the emergence both of the dominant school- based model in this country and of the new 'community action' or 'community development' model. It considers the defence put forward by proponents of liberal adult education and the contrary critique mounted by the 'radical' side. It presents the results of a series of interviews with six individuals who took part in the debate over community education and finds that its analysis is for the most part corroborated by the recollection and reflections of the participants. It ends by considering briefly the current state and possible future of community education, as well as suggesting what further research might be relevant and useful.


We describe our initial experience with the admission of 129 patients for 132 episodes of ventilator-dependence to a self-contained ventilator-dependent unit (VDU) in a general hospital and present a survival comparison between VDU patients and a historic control population from the same institution. Forty-three patients were screened and denied admission to the VDU because long-term ventilator dependence was not felt to be a probable outcome (56%); they were medically unstable, often requiring electrocardiographic monitoring (19%), they had poor rehabilitation potential because of markedly depressed mental status (13%), or they preferred to be treated closer to their homes (12%). Thirteen (9.8%) of the VDU patients died in the hospital compared to 44 (42%) in the historic control group. After exclusion of patients with multiorgan failure (who made up 26% of the control group) and using a proportional hazard model to adjust for group differences in age and disease class, the difference in hospital mortality remained highly significant (p < or = 0.01). Ninety-one of the 119 VDU patients (77%) were ultimately able to return home; 16 (13%) continued to use a ventilator intermittently at night; 26 patients (22%) were permanently placed in nursing homes, all off of the ventilator. Overall, 88% of the 119 patients discharged had been liberated from mechanical ventilation. Ninety-seven (82%) and 86 (72%) remain alive 1 and 2 years after discharge, respectively. Some of the survival benefits may be directly attributed to the VDU. Others reflect a change in treatment philosophy, which was nevertheless reinforced by our VDU experience.


Secure transmission of bulk data is of interest to many content providers. A commercially-viable distribution of content requires technology to prevent unauthorised access. Encryption tools are powerful, but have a performance cost. Without encryption, intercepted data may be illicitly duplicated and re-sold, or its commercial value diminished because its secrecy is lost.

Two technical solutions make it possible to perform bulk transmissions while retaining security without too high a performance overhead. These are:

 1. a) hierarchical encryption - the stronger the encryption, the harder it is to break but also the more computationally expensive it is. A hierarchical approach to key exchange means that simple and relatively weak encryption and keys are used to encrypt small chunks of data, for example 10 seconds of video. Each chunk has its own key. New keys for this bottom-level encryption are exchanged using a slightly stronger encryption, for example a whole-video key could govern the exchange of the 10-second chunk keys. At a higher level again, there could be daily or weekly keys, securing the exchange of whole-video keys, and at a yet higher level, a subscriber key could govern the exchange of weekly keys. At higher levels, the encryption becomes stronger but is used less frequently, so that the overall computational cost is minimal. The main observation is that the value of each encrypted item determines the strength of the key used to secure it.

 2. b) non-symbolic fragmentation with signal diversity - communications are usually assumed to be sent over a single communications medium, and the data to have been encrypted and/or partitioned in whole-symbol packets. Network and path diversity break up a file or data stream into fragments which are then sent over many different channels, either in the same network or different networks. For example, a message could be transmitted partly over the phone network and partly via satellite. While TCP/IP does a similar thing in sending different packets over different paths, this is done for load-balancing purposes and is invisible to the end application. Network and path diversity deliberately introduce the same principle as a secure communications mechanism - an eavesdropper would need to intercept not just one transmission path but all paths used. Non-symbolic fragmentation of data is also introduced to further confuse any intercepted stream of data. This involves breaking up data into bit strings which are subsequently disordered prior to transmission. Even if all transmissions were intercepted, the cryptanalyst still needs to determine fragment boundaries and correctly order them.

 These two solutions depart from the usual idea of data encryption. Hierarchical encryption is an extension of the combined encryption of systems such as PGP but with the distinction that the strength of encryption at each level is determined by the "value" of the data being transmitted. Non- symbolic fragmentation suppresses or destroys bit patterns in the transmitted data in what is essentially a bit-level transposition cipher but with unpredictable irregularly-sized fragments.

 Both technologies have applications outside the commercial and can be used in conjunction with other forms of encryption, being functionally orthogonal.


Today Patient Empowerment is gaining ground in the area of health care in modern western societies. This concept is revolutionary, as it potentially alters the balance of power within traditional and apparently solid hierarchical health care structures. The Internet has accelerated the process by providing tools and techniques enabling nearly unlimited access to information and exchange of experiences. However, the benefit from this approach is bilateral, with respect to both care providers and care receivers (consumers). In order to obtain increased efficiency, in an economical as well as medical perspective, the responsibility for proper health and recovery support lies on both sides. Therefore, patients must be prepared for some kind of action. Accordingly, in the role of being a patient, today and in the future, the patient will no longer be "patient". On the contrary, the patient must be proactive; not stagnate as a passive receiver of care. Nevertheless, as encouraging as this conceptualization is, it also harbours new demands on this "new type of patient". Consequently, even if the advantages are predominant, the approach will cause friction: not every patient is capable to take action, as the "new empowered patient" should already be healthy and strong to undertake such tasks (a paradox within the concept). The challenges are, by design of Empowering Systems, to decrease or eliminate such difficulties. For a proper understanding of this licentiate thesis, it is essential to notice that the Patient Empowerment phenomenon is highly related to aspects of activity and learning. With reference to this, these empowering requirements should be met by eHealth design especially adapted for this aim. A Model (the KIViC-model) is advocated, which initially has been constructed, and further on evaluated in a Study within the area of congenital heart conditions, to underpin and strengthen design discussions about the importance of information transparency (for patient activity and learning) in health care. Simultaneously, questions concerning visualization of the right information (what is needed), at the right time (when it is needed), and at the right place (where and how it is needed) are highlighted by virtue of the study. Moreover, and maybe of highest importance, questions of the digital divide and security are discussed to underline hazards related to the transformation of one system into another. The paradox within the Patient Empowerment concept is obviously crucial and most likely is context aware Information Systems Design one key that could resolve this. Conclusively, Empowerment Systems should provide the patient with tools to become empowered; despite impeding deficiencies.


This book is the practical guide about designing, building and programming a modern robotics system. It presents a collection of wide range research results from the robotics community. Various aspects of current research in robotics area are explored and discussed. In particular, the major part of the book is devoted to robotic vision systems, robot navigation, human-robot interaction and adaptive learning systems. Different approaches include theorems and formal proofs for these systems are provided. Some advanced mathematics will be involved. This book is aimed at students and researchers who have an avid interest in this area will appreciate this user-friendly presentation of a wealth of robotics topics.


Reaction-diffusion processes can be adopted to model a large number of dynamics on complex networks, such as transport processes or epidemic outbreaks. In most cases, however, they have been studied from a fermionic perspective, in which each vertex can be occupied by at most one particle. While still useful, this approach suffers from some drawbacks, the most important probably being the difficulty to implement reactions involving more than two particles simultaneously. Here we develop a general framework for the study of bosonic reaction-diffusion processes on complex networks, in which there is no restriction on the number of interacting particles that a vertex can host. We describe these processes theoretically by means of continuous-time heterogeneous mean-field theory and divide them into two main classes: steady-state and monotonously decaying processes. We analyze specific examples of both behaviors within the class of one-species processes, comparing the results (whenever possible) with the corresponding fermionic counterparts. We find that the time evolution and critical properties of the particle density are independent of the fermionic or bosonic nature of the process, while differences exist in the functional form of the density of occupied vertices in a given degree class k . We implement a continuous-time Monte Carlo algorithm, well suited for general bosonic simulations, which allows us to confirm the analytical predictions formulated within mean-field theory. Our results, at both the theoretical and numerical levels, can be easily generalized to tackle more complex, multispecies, reaction-diffusion processes and open a promising path for a general study and classification of this kind of dynamical systems on complex networks.


Two models are typically offered to explain severe continental extensional tectonism: low-angle detachment faults with alloch thonous sedimentary basins above a crustal "rolling hinge," or differential displacement on systems of distinct, deeply rooted normal faults with in-place sedimentary basins. Structural and stratigraphic relationships between the Badwater turtleback and the adjacent Furnace Creek basin in Death Valley provide a test of these contrasting models. There, ductile extensional deformation of basement rock at the Badwater turtleback coincided with brittle extensional deformation and local uplift in the adjacent Furnace Creek basin between 13 and 18 Ma. In the Furnace Creek basin, crustal extension of this age is evident as (1) greater fault density and offset in pre–13 Ma rocks relative to post–13 Ma rocks and (2) the presence of laterally variable sedimentary breccias and conglomerates, which indicate a syndepositional paleotopographic high. This high is approximately on line with the likely projection of an early Badwater turtleback fault, the surface expression of the turtleback mylonites. These relationships indicate that the Badwater turtleback and Furnace Creek basin were contiguous prior to 13 Ma and that the basin formed in place relative to the Black Mountains basement. These findings support arguments for extension in the Death Valley area by distinct, deeply rooted fault zones rather than by a rolling-hinge detachment fault.


Due to its outstanding carrier transport capabilities the aromatic hydrocarbon pentacene is still one of the most promising out of all organic semiconducting materials investigated so far. Pentacene appears in several polymorphic structures that significantly differ with respect to the d(001) spacing. It is shown, that precise control of the epitaxial growth process of thin films enables not only to adjust the formation of the polymorphic phases, but also to influence grain size and shape. The relative volume fraction of the pentacene polymorphs is determined by several parameters which are substrate material, deposition rate, film thickness and substrate temperature. A comparison of X-ray diffraction and Raman measurements reveals that the phase with the smaller layer-by-layer spacing grows on top of the other]. Moreover, there is a strict correlation between evaporation rate and maximum grain size. In addition to structural we also investigated the electrical properties of pentacene thin films focussing on polymorphism and its influence on the transport properties. Apart from the fact that the charge carrier mobility is strongly influenced by the grain size it turned out that the bulk phase is related to a lower intrinisic mobility than the thin film phase.


Introduction A museum is a repository containing historical records, often unique or unpublished, which are intended for long-term preservation. It is a non-profit organization committed to preserving the historical record of a place, institution, people, activity or thing. Museums, as institutional repositories of natural and cultural heritage, have a significant role to play within the community, a role which is advocated - or at least acknowledged - by society at large. The general mandate of museums to preserve and promote the intellectual and cultural heritage and enlighten society as to its heritage is a valued service despite being an enormous task (Mckellar, 1993). Public heritage in museums facilities comprise physical assets that a community intends preserving indefinitely because of their cultural, historic, recreational or environmental importance. They are often referred to as "community assets", and this name encapsulates much of the nature and purpose of such facilities. They are maintained by the government for cultural, heritage, recreation and other community purposes rather than for the purposes of government administration or income generation (Barton, 2000). Objectives of the Study The main objectives of the study are: * To explore how Bahawalpur Museum is contributing towards the social and cultural growth of its community * To identify its policies and procedures in community inclusion for maximum accomplishment of its objectives and benefits to the community To know the community's perception about museum's community-based activities * To find out and suggest possible measure for further improvement Research Design The study employed six methods for data collection: (i) a document search; (ii) personal communications; (iii) the researchers' participation; (iv) a guided tour to the museum (v); a structured interview with Director; Bahawalpur Museum; (vi) and semi-structured interviews with local community members. Detailed structured interviews aiming to collect data and solicit qualitative information and suggestions for improvements was conducted with Director, Bahawalpur Museum and other staff members. Museum brochures, Leaflets, Pamphlets, Programmes & Events circulars and a guided tour to Galleries of museum were used for data collection. Researchers also conducted semi-structured interviews with two hundred randomly selected community members i.e., business community, house wives, teachers, students from school to university levels, journalists, doctors, local television and radio artists and other society members. Review of Related Studies The literature shows that the British Museum UK has established a Clore Education Centre that enabled the Museum to expand its educational role. Its two auditoria are home to a daily programme of lectures, film and videos, as well as conferences, concerts and other performances related to cultural festivals or special exhibitions. Five additional multi-purpose rooms are also used for other programmes ranging from informal 'drop-in' sessions to courses for the general public and teacher training (the British Museum website). The National Programme for Community-Based Museums Mexico (PNMC) supports community-based museums, highlighting the importance of community members as culture generators and carriers. The community museum is not only a place that harbors objects of the past, but also represents the possibility for community members to appear before others as subjects with history and participate in the course of both regional and local events. The creation process of the museum is also a collective process of reflection and acquisition of an idea of continuity and transformation (Mexico Community-Based Museums website). Objectives of the Mexico Community-Based Museums Programme: * Enables and advises on the technical aspects and practices of the Museographic process * Generates links between communities and their cultural heritage, which allows for the formation of respect-based relations. …


Managing the Mentally Disordered Offender presses the case for better health care of mentally disturbed law breakers, and the need to divert them from unnecessary imprisonment. Mentally disordered offenders present particular problems in our society, which wants both to sympathise and to punish. How do we get the balance right between sympathy towards their illness and genuine worries about their offending behaviour? What do we do for - and about - people wo have been released from prison yet we suspect continue to pose risks to the safety of others? With specialist contributors from criminology, criminal justice, social work, probation practice and the law, Managing the Mentally Disordered Offender stresses the importance of professional cooperation in community-based services, whilst acknowledgin the psychologically demanding nature of working with mentally disordered people, and ther very real challenges of attempting to contain their wrongdoing without recourse to the repressiveness of imprisonment.


OBJECTIVE Diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy are two important microvascular diabetes complications with a high concordance rate in diabetic patients. A recent genome-wide association study in type 1 diabetic patients of European descent identified four loci to be associated with diabetic nephropathy. The aim of this study was to test the effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from these four loci on diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy in Chinese type 2 diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In stage 1, we recruited 1,276 type 2 diabetic patients, including 378 patients with diabetic nephropathy but no retinopathy, 374 patients with diabetic retinopathy but no nephropathy, 244 patients with both diabetic retinopathy and nephropathy, and 280 control subjects with diabetes for >10 years and no diabetic retinopathy or nephropathy. Fifty-five SNPs from four loci (CPVL/CHN2, FRMD3, CARS, and IRS2) were genotyped. The SNPs that showed associations to diabetic retinopathy or nephropathy were genotyped in stage 2 samples for replication. RESULTS SNPs from CPVL/CHN2 and FRMD3 were associated with diabetic retinopathy with rs39059 and rs10868025 as the top SNPs (odds ratio [OR] 1.292, 95% CI 1.097–1.523, P = 0.0022, for rs39059; 1.201, 1.014–1.422, P = 0.0343, for rs10868025) in stage 1 samples. In stage 2 analysis, only rs39059 showed similar effect to diabetic retinopathy (OR 1.269, 0.989–1.628, P = 0.0689), and meta-analysis showed a significant association between rs39059 and diabetic retinopathy, with an OR of 1.285 (1.120–1.474, P = 0.0003). CPVL/CHN2 rs39059 was also associated with levels of diabetic retinopathy (P = 0.0007 for trend). However, no association was detected between these SNPs and diabetic nephropathy. CONCLUSIONS In this study, we found CPVL/CHN2 rs39059 was associated with diabetic retinopathy in the Chinese type 2 diabetic patients.


During quasi-static tests of beam-column joints, cyclic displacements are applied slowly so that the actuator has enough time to perfectly execute the loading direction reversal. In contrast, during high-speed tests, an actuator has to change loading direction rapidly to exactly follow the intended displacement history. However, most actuators cannot maintain the intended loading speed and simultaneously follow a sharp peak at the reversal point. Consequently, the displacement history followed by an actuator shows a smooth transition around the peak of each cycle. Inside this transition phase, the velocity gradually decreases and a large negative acceleration exists, which induces a significant inertia force that is included in the load cell reading. If the high-speed displacement cycles are applied at the column-top, the inertia force must be accurately determined to know the correct value of storey-shear, which is the most important parameter for result interpretation. On the other hand, if the displacement cycles are applied at the beam-tips and the column-top is held stationary, the load cell reading at the column-top is free of inertia effect and gives the exact value of storey-shear. Nevertheless, the beam-tip load cell readings are influenced by inertia force. This mechanism is discussed here based on the results of a high-speed cyclic loading test of a lightly reinforced beam-column subassembly.


Visualization recommender systems attempt to automate design decisions spanning choices of selected data, transformations, and visual encodings. However, across invocations such recommenders may lack the context of prior results, producing unstable outputs that override earlier design choices. To better balance automated suggestions with user intent, we contribute Dziban, a visualization API that supports both ambiguous specification and a novel anchoring mechanism for conveying desired context. Dziban uses the Draco knowledge base to automatically complete partial specifications and suggest appropriate visualizations. In addition, it extends Draco with chart similarity logic, enabling recommendations that also remain perceptually similar to a provided "anchor" chart. Existing APIs for exploratory visualization, such as ggplot2 and Vega-Lite, require fully specified chart definitions. In contrast, Dziban provides a more concise and flexible authoring experience through automated design, while preserving predictability and control through anchored recommendations.


A racemic synthesis of new carbocyclic nucleoside ethyl or vinylphosphonate analogues bearing purine bases (adenine and guanine) was accomplished using racemic (+/−)-4-O-protected-2-cyclopentanone. All compounds were prepared using a hydrophosphonylation reaction of ethynyl carbocyclic precursors followed by a Mitsunobu coupling reaction between the heterocyclic bases. After deprotection, the compounds were evaluated for their activity against a large number of viruses. However, none of them showed significant antiviral activity or cytotoxicity.


Railways were integral to the development of the Indian economy before World War I. This article presents new estimates of total factor productivity (TFP) for railways from 1874 to 1912, which highlight the strong performance of this key industrial sector. Railway-industry TFP growth was substantial averaging 2.3 percent per year and generating a 2.7 percent social savings for the Indian economy. A combination of factors contributed to TFP growth including greater capacity utilization, technological change, and improvements in organization and governance. Railways had higher TFP growth than most sectors in India and compared favorably with TFP growth in other countries.


Seasonality is one of the significant features in tourism market. This
study employs the X-13 ARIMA-SEATS method to tourism market in Taiwan. Tourists
who had come to Taiwan from 1981 to 2016 mainly came from Asia, followed by the
Americas and Europe. In Asian area, tourists from Mainland China account for
the highest percentage, followed by Hong Kong and Japan, whose overall
resources provide favourable conditions for industrial development. Rapid
growth in the number of tourists coming to Taiwan gives rise to the issue of
uniform distribution of tourists during the year, namely, tourism seasonality.
The empirical results show that tourism seasonality of tourists coming to
Taiwan is randomly changing. Analysis should be conducted concerning
sustainable planning, environmental dynamic carrying capacity and sustainable
development. The high tourism seasons are March, April, November and December.
However, January, July and September every year are off-season in Taiwan's
tourism market, with gradual decreasing number of tourists compared with those
in high-season months. The contribution of this research is the analysis of data from high-season and off-season months, The
local transport routes and environmental facilities can
be planned for the high-season months, in
order to develop diversified tourism marketing
and strategies, improve the utilisation of space, and enhance business
performance. During off-season months,
Stay at Home Economic may be developed through Internet or platform marketing
to provide distance-free remote services. For the overall environment, The analysis between off-season and high-season months
not only helps to generate economic development, but can provide a sustainable
planning direction, and link environmental dynamic carrying capacity and
sustainable development.


Background: The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) efficiently diagnoses personality disorders, differentiating the individual subtypes. This research aimed to evaluate personality dimensions using the Cloninger TCI (TCI-125) in a group of people with borderline personality disorders at Ruzbeh Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 27 borderline personality patients were evaluated with a clinical interview based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition text revision (DSM- І V-TR) and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM- І V Axis I І (SCIDII) . Depression and anxiety scores of patients were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) questionnaires. Dimensions of temperament and character traits were assessed using the TCI-125 . The findings were compared with parameters of the normal Iranian population. Results: Results showed higher scores for novelty seeking and harm avoidance and lower scores for self directedness, self transcendence and cooperativeness in borderline personality disorder patients. Conclusion: The results of the Cloninger TCI in this study showed higher scores for novelty seeking and harm avoidance and lower scores for self directedness than those of the normal Iranian population. Scores for reward dependence fell within the range of the normal population. Lower scores for character factors, such as self directedness, cooperativeness and self transcendence, are usually associated with cluster B personality traits. Higher scores for novelty seeking and harm avoidance are usually characteristic of borderline personality disorder patients. In this study, there is the possibility that the small sample size or other factors, such as medication or substance abuse, might affect the study, resulting in normal scores for reward dependence. Abstract


The frequency of overdiagnosis associated with breast cancer screening is a topic of controversy. Published estimates vary widely, but identifying which estimates are reliable is challenging. In this article we present an approach that provides a check on these estimates. Our approach leverages the close link between overdiagnosis and lead time by identifying the average lead time most consistent with a given overdiagnosis frequency. We consider a high-profile study that suggested that 31% of breast cancers diagnosed in the United States in 2008 were overdiagnosed and show that this corresponds to an average lead time of about nine years among localized cases. Comparing this estimate with the average lead time for invasive, screen-detected breast cancers of 40 months, around which there is a relative consensus, suggests the published estimate of overdiagnosis is excessive. This approach provides a novel way to appraise estimates of overdiagnosis given knowledge of disease natural history.


It was a long 35 years ago that Richard Nixon proclaimed, Our national goal should be to meet our own energy needs without depending on any foreign sources. Even now that goal of energy security remains elusive although it has occupied an attention almost continuously. Under the sharp increase in oil prices until last year, the past several years have made a huge impact on public awareness and have contributed to a growing concern about energy independence. At the same time, a big difference has come about in attitudes toward climate change. In December 1997, when tough negotiators agreed to the Kyoto Protocol, the United States Senate was at odds with the international community, voting 95-0 against the accord. Now the cultural landscape is full of cover articles in major media publications on such topics as powerful hurricanes, 100 year storms, disappearing species, as well as Al Gores book and film An Inconvenient Truth and his Nobel Peace Prize. Global warming has arrived at center stage as a major concern for economics and national security. Governors are taking dynamic steps to fight climate change, major companies are working for strategic measures, venture capitalists are pouring money into alternative energy, military specialists are engaged by the global security dangers of climate change, and civil societies are demonstrating against global warming.


Soil surface characteristics, such as albedo, moisture content and porosity are important factors of the energy balance and therefore critical to the ground thermal condition of permafrost regions. These surface characteristics alternate over distances of a few meters within the polygonal tundra, where water saturated peat soils are surrounded by elevated dry rims. The presented results are based upon data collected during the July and August 2007 expedition on Samoylov Island in the Lena River Delta. This study focuses upon spatial variations of the energy balance components occurring within low centre polygons which are the most dominant surface features of the investigation site. Energy balance components were recorded over a wide range of scale to gather general information about the magnitude of energy flux variations between surface units such as polygon rims and centres. Those measurements include calculations of ground heat fluxes from a dense network of continual temperature and moisture measurements immediately below the surface; variations of surface temperatures measured with a 10 m long infrared scanner system; and spectrometer measurements used to gain information about the reflectance characteristics of the different surface elements. Sensible and latent heat fluxes were detected on a larger scale of several hundreds of meters by Eddy covariance method and standard climate tower. The energy flux measurements in combination with soil thermal models give us a more detailed view of the small scale energy balance variations. First results indicate that energy balance componentssuch as ground heat flux or long wave emission can vary by a factor of two over a distance of only 5 - 10 m. These small scale variations of the energy balance should be taken into account when considering permafrost processes at regional scales.


Current Therapy in Medicine of Australian Mammals provides an update on Australian mammal medicine. Although much of the companion volume, Medicine of Australian Mammals, is still relevant and current, there have been significant advances in Australian mammal medicine and surgery since its publication in 2008. The two texts together remain the most comprehensive source of information available in this field.
This volume is divided into two sections. The first includes comprehensive chapters on general topics and topics relevant to multiple taxa. Several new topics are presented including: wildlife health in Australia and the important role veterinarians play in Australia's biosecurity systems; medical aspects of native mammal reintroductions and translocations; disease risk analysis; wildlife rehabilitation practices in Australia with an emphasis on welfare of animals undergoing rehabilitation; management of overabundant populations; immunology; and stress physiology. The second section provides updates on current knowledge relevant to specific taxa. Several appendices provide useful reference data and information on clinical reference ranges, recommended venipuncture sites, chemical restraint agent doses and regimens, a drug formulary and dental charts.
Written by Australian experts, Current Therapy in Medicine of Australian Mammals is clinically oriented, with emphasis on practical content with easy-to-use reference material. It is a must-have for veterinarians, students, biologists, zoologists and wildlife carers and other wildlife professionals. This volume also complements, updates and utilises the resources of other books such as Radiology of Australian Mammals (Vogelnest and Allan 2015), Pathology of Australian Native Wildlife (Ladds 2009), Haematology of Australian Mammals (Clark 2004) and Australian Mammals: Biology and Captive Management (Jackson 2003), all CSIRO Publishing publications.


Introduction Cholera remains a significant contributor to diarrhoeal illness, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Few studies have estimated the cost of illness (COI) of cholera in Malawi, a cholera-endemic country. The present study estimated the COI of cholera in Nsanje, southern Malawi, as part of the Cholera Surveillance in Malawi (CSIMA) programme following a mass cholera vaccination campaign in 2015. Methods Patients ≥12 months of age who were recruited as part of CSIMA were invited to participate in the COI survey. The COI tool captured household components of economic burden, including direct medical and non-medical costs, and indirect lost productivity costs. Results Between April 2016 and March 2020, 40 cholera cases were enrolled in the study, all of whom participated in the COI survey. Only two patients had any direct medical costs and five patients reported lost wages due to illness. The COI per patient was US$14.34 (in 2020), more than half of which was from direct non-medical costs from food, water, and transportation to the health centre. Conclusion For the majority of Malawians who struggle to subsist on less than US$2 a day, the COI of cholera represents a significant cost burden to families. While cholera treatment is provided for free in government-run health centres, additional investments in cholera control and prevention at the community level and financial support beyond direct medical costs may be necessary to alleviate the economic burden of cholera on households in southern Malawi.


Development Some analyses of conflict have drawn attention to the role that contested access to resources such as valuable timber, water or minerals plays in relation to wider conflict. Less has been said about access to land, but in some contexts it has undoubtedly been important. This paper reviews evidence from Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of the Congo to draw out the main roles that access to land has played in initiating, fuelling or perpetuating conflict, and to draw out policy conclusions. CONFLICT IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION – HOW IS IT LINKED WITH LAND AND MIGRATION? Chris Huggins, Herman Musahara, Prisca Mbura Kamungi, Johnstone Summit Oketch and Koen Vlassenroot


The research applied Geographic Information Systems (GISs) and remote sensing tools in quantifying land cover changes in Nkayi District and assess the drivers for such changes. This was done to link the impacts of anthropogenic activities to change in the physical environment especially looking at ecosystem goods and services, which in turn reduce their productivity. Satellite images were analyzed for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2017 in order to produce temporal land cover maps for Nkayi District and use them as tools for estimating the rates and the extent to which land cover has changed from 1990 to 2017. Four main land cover types were identified, namely woodland, deforested land, cultivated land, and water bodies. In 1990, woodland covered 58% of the total land area in Nkayi District, while deforested land, cultivated land, and water bodies covered 31, 11, and 0.2%, respectively. From 1990 to 2017, woodland declined to 47% in 2017, while deforested land and cultivated land increased to 14.9 and 36%, respectively. The major drivers of land cover changes were increase in household numbers, which were associated with woodland clearing for agriculture. The other drivers of land cover changes were soil infertility and overgrazing by livestock. The research was crucial in detecting the problems of forage shortages and poor rangeland conditions, mainly caused by expanding fields coupled with infertile Kalahari sands. The research highlighted the urgent need to manage the fragile miombo woodlands, which are being threatened by the increased demand for land for human settlements and cultivation. Alternatively, the research also highlights the need for farmers to produce more biomass in their fields in the form of high-value crop residues to cater for the loss of rangelands.


In testing a proposed model of any academic field, huge extents of data are collected and analyzed through a proposed or adopted scale by researchers. It is very significant to test the reliability and the construct validity of this scale. This study aims to explore the important strategies or tools that should be followed to achieve a reliable and valid scale. It also aims to study the two concepts in association with scale testing as well as to afford a snapshot of the recent understandings of the reliability and validity of scale tests as expressed in previous research studies. This paper emphasis mainly on the theoretical and practical parts of reliability, and the affiliation between the two perceptions. Seeking to synthesize research results about the construct validity and internal-consistency reliability of items (factors), we focus on the four main measurements: Cronbach's alpha, interitem correlation, corrected item – total correlation, and Cronbach's alpha if item deleted. These measurements would provide researchers with a clear knowledge about purifying the survey's scale before using it in collecting the data set. This kind of research is required so that a complete understanding of the construct validity and internal – consistency reliability of items is realized.


Description: As a promising educational approach, PBL (Problem Based Learning) has been adopted by an increasing number of higher education institutions worldwide to replace the traditional lectured based educational approach. However, the organizational change towards PBL is not easy for higher education institutions, especially for those with a long history of Lecture Based Learning. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the challenges and obstacles for higher education institutions which are implementing PBL. In order to address the research concern, this book involves in an intensive exploration of two universities which are transforming their traditional educational approaches to PBL. Specifically, this book is concerned with how managers, staff members, and students interpret PBL and its implementation. It reveals that the challenges for implementing PBL are closely linked to organizational members' conception of PBL, social learning and motivation at the university. The conclusions are specified as: firstly, the organizational members' understanding of PBL and social learning are quite diverse, and some of them are not consistent with the managerial attempts. They may create huge tensions or chaos at the university, depending on which strategy the mangers have employed. Further, the organizational members' understandings of PBL are more concerned with teaching and curriculum design rather than learning, which should be highlighted within PBL context. Besides, staff members have to struggle between different roles due to the complexity of the university in modern society, and some tasks such as researching will distract them from participating in teaching activities and thus undermine PBL implementation. Finally, the university has to make reflections on how to keep a balance between the use of normative approaches to guarantee organizational effectiveness and the intention of giving staff more freedom to make innovations and create new possibilities.


Neurochemical biomarkers are urgently sought in ALS. Metabolomic analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy is a highly sensitive method capable of revealing nervous system cellular pathology. The 1H-NMR CSF metabolomic signature of ALS was sought in a longitudinal cohort. Six-monthly serial collection was performed in ALS patients across a range of clinical sub-types (n = 41) for up to two years, and in healthy controls at a single time-point (n = 14). A multivariate statistical approach, partial least squares discriminant analysis, was used to determine differences between the NMR spectra from patients and controls. Significantly predictive models were found using those patients with at least one year's interval between recruitment and the second sample. Glucose, lactate, citric acid and, unexpectedly, ethanol were the discriminating metabolites elevated in ALS. It is concluded that 1H-NMR captured the CSF metabolomic signature associated with derangements in cellular energy utilization connected with ALS, and was most prominent in comparisons using patients with longer disease duration. The specific metabolites identified support the concept of a hypercatabolic state, possibly involving mitochondrial dysfunction specifically. Endogenous ethanol in the CSF may be an unrecognized novel marker of neuronal tissue injury in ALS.


Purpose
The present research aims to study the correlations among organizational climate, academic satisfaction and organizational commitment as factors that influence happiness at work by applying a structural equation model to Spanish National Police cadets.

Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive, quantitative, correlational, exploratory and cross-sectional empirical study was carried out. A measurement instrument was applied to a target population of 397 student-inspectors enrolled for the 2018–2020 academic year on the executive scale at the National Police School (EPN) in Spain. A sample of 190 surveys was obtained, of which 33 were open competition, 52 were competitive examinations and 105 were selective seniority.

Findings
Structural equation modeling shows that academic satisfaction, organizational climate and practical organizational commitment are recommended variables for assessing happiness within organizations. On the other hand, there is a bit of a positive relationship between happiness and practical organizational commitment. The same is not true for the parameters of academic satisfaction and organizational climate.

Originality/value
This study fills a gap in the literature on the analysis of governance models in public administration. This is particularly relevant in professions that require a high degree of engagement with citizens, such as police officers. According to the authors' knowledge, this study is one of the first works to analyze corporate governance in police cadet schools in Spain under the happiness management approach. It contributes by offering a better understanding of the psychosocial variables that affect the existence of good governance.


This paper presents a development of component synthesis vibration suppression (CSVS) method for control of flexible structures. The proposed method eliminates unwanted flexible modes of vibration while achieving the desired rigid body motion. The robustness to uncertainties of dynamic modeling parameters is analyzed. Unlike traditional input shaping, in which a numerical optimization is used, design for CSVS commands is based on analytic methodology and is relatively easy to implement. A case study is performed on a time-fuel optimal control strategy using constant amplitude reaction jet thrusters. Both simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


RizkiMagistra Maharani. 2011. Teaching Procedure Text to Grade VII
Students in SMP Negeri 5 Karanganyar. English Diploma Program, Faculty
of Letters and Fine Arts, SebelasMaret University.

This final project report is composed based on my job training experience
done in SMP N 5 Karanganyar for about one month.
I emphasized in teaching English procedure text to the VII grade students
to know their ability in conveying message through English.I applied four stages
in teaching procedure text in class from building knowledge of the field (BKOF),
modeling of the text, joint construction of the text, and independent construction
of the text. I used bilingual system to teach the students in class. Thus, I composed
a new material based on the syllabus of Education Unit level for the VII grade
students of Junior High School to create a significant progress of English teaching
and learning.
Many obstacles encountered during the process of teaching and learning
procedure text for instance the lack of vocabulary, uncooperative students,
difficulties of material, and misunderstanding instruction. To overcome these
obstacles I providedsome pictures of new vocabularies and translated the difficult
words into Indonesian. I asked the lazy students to sit onthe front and gave some
tasks to make them more active, said:"class" then ordered the students to answer:
"yes", and sang a song as well. I made up the material through decreasing the
level of its difficulties. I also applied bilingual system in teachingand learning
process to avoid the misunderstanding instruction.
Teaching procedure text to grade VII students in SMP N 5 Karanganyar
was successfully accomplished. There might be some mistakes during the process
of teaching and learning. Hence, I give some suggestions for all parties who take a
role on it.


Mark Twain's famous hoax articles, such as "Petrified Man" (1862) and "ABloody Massacre near Carson" (1863), are forerunners of a genre – news satire –which blends together social criticism, humour and intentional deception.Unlike the present-day fake news press, represented e.g. by the British satiricalmagazine Private Eye or the American spoof newspaper The Onion, mostof these inaugural forms were not based on actual events. Instead, they createdentirely imaginary situations so as to feed the readers' thirst for shockingsensations while satirising their manias. Interestingly, Twain's made-up storiespropagated massively due to the readers' credulity. This paper aims at examiningthis particular facet of the great American writer's production, in particular thelinguistic and discursive strategies he uses in mixing fact and fiction, in playingwith frames of reference and in exploiting the readers' interpretive expectations.For this purpose, a Model of News Satire is applied to a corpus of spoofnews articles by Twain in order to test the occurrence of three components –the intertextual, the critical, and the comic. In particular, the model offers ananalysis of the structure and style of the texts, of the butts they target, and of thescript oppositions they trigger, the overall combination of which amounts to aspecific textual genre: that of news satire.


Gauteng, the economic centre of South Africa, attracts many migrants from across the African continent and other regions in South Africa: almost 44% of the total population are migrants. In this study, a composite index is constructed and the quality of life of cross-border, internal migrants and the native population of Gauteng is compared. This study uses the method of Nicoletti et al. (2009) to construct the composite index, and adapts it to be suitable for the analysis of categorical data. Furthermore, this study compares the means of the quality of life scores of the different groups using ANOVA. The results of the study show that although there are statistically significant differences between the mean quality of life scores of the groups, the effect size approaches zero. This suggests that migrants and non-migrants experience almost equal levels of quality of life in Gauteng. This result contradicts findings in existing literature that measures well-being.


Indo-Guyanese Canadian writer and poet Cyril Dabydeen's novel Dark Swirl (1988) imagines the settler-colonial cultural and environmental encounter among a rural Indo-Guyanese family, the indigenous reptilian water spirit the massacouraman , and a white British naturalist, illustrating that the Indo-Caribbean story of migration, indenture, and postcolonial citizenship includes negotiation not only with the Afro-Caribbean, but with the marginalized Indigenous presence in the Caribbean. This essay considers, among other aspects of Dabydeen's novel, the metaphor of water and the bridging of the relational gap between Indigenous myth and Indo-Guyanese Hinduism through similar stories of reptilian spirits to argue that, like Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese are interpellated into the nation and accorded postcolonial sovereignty through the appropriation of Indigenous myth and the syncretism of religious and folkloric belief. Following the Guyanese writer of magical realism Wilson Harris, Dabydeen's unusual literary attention to the relationship between the Indigenous Caribbean and creolized diasporic communities illustrates that postcolonial rulers invoke continuity with an effaced Indigenous presence to establish legitimacy while simultaneously denying living Indigenous inhabitants their land rights and identities.


We introduce a model for analog computation with discrete time in the presence of analog noise that is exible enough to cover the most important concrete cases, such as noisy analog neural nets and networks of spiking neurons. This model subsumes the classical model for digital computation in the presence of noise. We show that the presence of arbitrarily small amounts of analog noise reduces the power of analog computational models to that of nite automata, and we also prove a new type of upper bound for the VC-dimension of computational models with analog noise.


Development of hydrocarbon and mineral resources in Federal waters along the Pacific coast of the United States has been a controversial issue for years. The Minerals Management Service has initiated various approaches to identify and resolve concerns arising as a result of proposed mineral developments. Resolution has been attempted at all levels of interest from site-specific local issues to far-reaching national policy. This paper describes and evaluates some of the efforts made to resolve environmental conflicts associated with proposed outer continental shelf oil and gas and hard minerals projects. In addition to improving necessary lines of communications, these efforts have been successful in addressing sensitive, local issues and in developing positive professional relationships. Successful future exploration and development of marine minerals or hydrocarbons in U.S. waters will likely require substantive efforts to involve a wide variety of government and local participants.


OBJECT
The endoscopic treatment of a suprasellar arachnoid cyst (SAC) consists mainly of ventriculocystostomy (VC) and ventriculocystocisternostomy (VCC). However, the most appropriate treatment for these cysts has not been fully determined yet. The authors report on the effectiveness of endoscopic VC for SACs communicating with the basal cisterns, which is demonstrated by preoperative CT cisternography.

METHODS
The authors retrospectively analyzed the surgical results of patients with an SAC treated using endoscopic fenestration. The patient charts were reviewed for demographic data, clinical presentations, surgical therapies, and clinical outcomes.

RESULTS
Six consecutive patients with SAC were surgically treated using endoscopic fenestration (VC or VCC) between March 2004 and February 2011. The mean age was 18.5 months (range 5 days to 37 months). Five patients were previously untreated, and 1 patient had previously undergone ventriculoperitoneal shunt placement. Five patients underwent preoperative CT cisternography, and communication between the SAC and the basal cisterns was demonstrated in 3 patients, very slight communication in 1, and no communication in 1. Four patients, including the 3 with communication between the SAC and basal cisterns, underwent VC. Two patients with very slight or no communication underwent VCC. In all patients the SAC decreased in size and hydrocephalus improved postoperatively. Five patients (3 treated with VC and 2 with VCC [83%]) have been stable without reoperation (mean follow-up 32.7 months). All 3 patients with an SAC communicating with the basal cisterns have been stable without reoperation following VC.

CONCLUSIONS
Preoperative cisternography may be useful for selecting the optimal endoscopic treatment method for SAC. If an SAC communicates with the basal cisterns, a VC could be an effective, safe, and simpler treatment option.


Objective Unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics is a major problem in the US and worldwide, contributing to the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This review examines the effects of quality improvement strategies on reducing inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics, targeting both prescribing of antibiotics for non-bacterial illnesses ("the antibiotic treatment decision") and prescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics when narrow-spectrum agents are indicated ("the antibiotic selection decision"). Search Strategy and Inclusion Criteria We evaluated studies examining the effectiveness of quality improvement (QI) strategies targeting outpatient antibiotic prescribing for acute illnesses. Studies were identified by searching the Cochrane Collaboration's Effective Practice and Organisation of Care registry and MEDLINE®. We included randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials, controlled before-after studies, and interrupted time series that reported measures of antimicrobial use. QI strategies were classified as clinician education, patient education, provision of delayed prescriptions, audit and feedback, clinician reminders, and financial or regulatory incentives. Our primary outcomes were the percentage of patients prescribed an antibiotic (for antibiotic treatment studies); or the percentage of patients prescribed a recommended antibiotic or guideline-concordant antibiotic therapy (for antibiotic selection studies). Secondary outcomes included effects on antimicrobial resistance, intervention safety (disease outcomes and adverse events), prescribing costs, and patient satisfaction. Data Collection and Analysis Two reviewers abstracted data on the components of the QI intervention, study population, targets, and outcomes. We compared the effects of QI strategies in terms of the median effect achieved for the primary outcomes, using nonparametric tests; studies not eligible for median effects analysis were summarized qualitatively. Main Results Fifty-four studies reporting a total of 74 trials met the inclusion criteria; 34 studies (reporting 41 trials) addressed the treatment decision, and 26 studies (reporting 33 trials) addressed the selection decision. Six studies evaluated both decisions. Study methodologic quality was generally fair. Nearly all studies took place in outpatient primary care clinics. Studies addressing the antibiotic treatment decision: Most studies addressed prescribing for acute respiratory infections (ARIs). Interventions were effective at reducing prescribing, with a median absolute effect of -8.9% [interquartile range (IQR) -12.4% to -6.7%]. No individual QI strategy (or combination of strategies) was more effective at reducing prescribing. Within clinician education, active educational strategies appeared more effective than passive strategies. When extrapolated to a population level, strategies targeting general antibiotic prescribing appeared to reduce antibiotic prescribing more than strategies targeting prescribing for a single condition. Few studies addressed secondary endpoints; patient satisfaction was not worsened by QI interventions, but effects on AMR or costs could not be assessed. Studies addressing the antibiotic selection decision: Interventions targeted prescribing for ARIs or urinary tract infections (UTIs). Interventions were effective, with a median absolute improvement in prescribing of recommended antibiotics of 10.6% (IQR 3.4% to 18.2%). Clinician education alone appeared more effective than education in combination with audit and feedback, but this finding likely represents confounding. Very few studies addressed secondary outcomes. Conclusion Quality improvement efforts appear generally effective at reducing both inappropriate treatment with antibiotics and inappropriate selection of antibiotics. While no single QI strategy was more effective than others, active clinician education may be more effective than passive education, particularly for addressing the antibiotic treatment decision. Greater reductions in overall prescribing may be achieved through efforts targeting prescribing for all acute respiratory infections, rather than targeting single conditions. The available evidence is of only fair quality, and further research on the cost-effectiveness and potential harms of these interventions is needed.


This module note describes the sixth module in the International Finance course at Harvard Business School. The module explores the issues confronting firms that operate in weak institutional environments. The cases examine situations where investor protections are limited and how firms can respond to these environments, how they impact the financing choices of firms, and the possibility of non-national recourse in response to an expropriation. The module note provides instructors with an overview of the module, the cases and the teaching notes, and explains how this module fits into the overall International Finance course. There is a brief description of the framework developed in the course and the note explains the application of this framework to the cases in this module. The module note includes descriptions of the two cases in the module and the analysis required in each case; an explanation of the learning objectives and suggested assignment questions for the cases; and information on additional materials useful in teaching the cases. The module note concludes with references to the relevant academic literature and a bibliography.


We recently described a new apolipoprotein A1 variant presenting a Leu174Ser replacement mutation that is associated with a familial form of systemic amyloidosis displaying predominant heart involvement. We have now identified a second unrelated patient with very similar clinical presentation and carrying the identical apolipoprotein A1 mutation. In this new patient the main protein constituent of the amyloid fibrils is the polypeptide derived from the first 93 residues of the protein, the identical fragment to that found in the patient previously described to carry this mutation. The X‐ray fiber diffraction pattern obtained from preparations of partially aligned fibrils displays the cross‐β reflections characteristic of all amyloid fibrils. In addition to these cross‐β reflections, other reflections suggest the presence of well‐defined coiled‐coil helical structure arranged with a defined orientation within the fibrils. In both cases the fibrils contain a trace amount of full‐length apolipoprotein A1 with an apparent prevalence of the wild‐type species over the variant protein. We have found a ratio of full‐length wild‐type to mutant protein in plasma HDL of three to one. The polypeptide 1–93 purified from natural fibrils can be solubilized in aqueous solutions containing denaturants, and after removal of denaturants it acquires a monomeric state that, based on CD and NMR studies, has a predominantly random coil structure. The addition of phospholipids to the monomeric form induces the formation of some helical structure, thought most likely to occur at the C‐terminal end of the polypeptide.


The Galactic Center (GC) region hosts a variety of powerful astronomical sources and rare astrophysical processes that emit a large flux of nonthermal radiation. The inner 375 pc × 600 pc region, called the Central Molecular Zone, is home to the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, massive cloud complexes, and particle accelerators such as supernova remnants (SNRs). We present the results of our improved analysis of the very-high-energy gamma-ray emission above 2 TeV from the GC using 125 hr of data taken with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System imaging-atmospheric Cerenkov telescope between 2010 and 2018. The central source VER J1745–290, consistent with the position of Sagittarius A*, is detected at a significance of 38 standard deviations above the background level (38σ), and we report its spectrum and light curve. Its differential spectrum is consistent with a power law with exponential cutoff, with a spectral index of , a flux normalization at 5.3 TeV of TeV−1 cm−2 s−1, and cutoff energy of TeV. We also present results on the diffuse emission near the GC, obtained by combining data from multiple regions along the GC ridge, which yield a cumulative significance of 9.5σ. The diffuse GC ridge spectrum is best fit by a power law with a hard index of 2.19 ± 0.20, showing no evidence of a cutoff up to 40 TeV. This strengthens the evidence for a potential accelerator of PeV cosmic rays being present in the GC. We also provide spectra of the other sources in our field of view with significant detections, composite SNR G0.9+0.1, and HESS J1746–285.


Supply chain analysis is an expression used to refer to the process of investigating and studying the role and contribution of each economic agent along the supply chain (actors such as producers, traders and consumers, as well as legal entities such as businesses, authorities and development organizations) that contributes directly to the generation of a final product or service. It involves the evaluation of every stage of the supply chain starting from the raw material or intermediate product acquisition and finishes downstream, after several stages of transformation or increase in value and the final delivery of the product to the costumer.

The rise of globalization caused global trading to become more common, increasing the role and importance of supply chain management. Global supply chains usually extend between industrialized and developing countries, in which the variation of economy, regulations, legalisation and standards pose difficulties in managing the supply chain. Usually developing countries play the role of raw material suppliers or manufacturers to industrialized countries. However, they face problems affecting the performance of the supply chain, which include instability of governments and policies, corruption, labour intensive industries, deteriorated infrastructures, limited use of new technologies, underemployment, child labour, and low education level of the population.

This report provides a set of simple and easy to follow tools for analysing supply chains in developing countries.


Historically, the process of developing new anticancer agents was largely empirical. Today, because of improvements in our knowledge of the molecular processes involved in the development of cancer, the process of developing new agents is becoming more rational. Researchers from Cancer Research UK, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the National Cancer Institute have shown that, by undertaking a pharmacological approach to the selection of potential anticancer agents, both meaningful antitumour data and an 80% reduction in animal usage can be obtained. It has also been demonstrated that a new pharmacological tool, the "hollow fibre system", in which tumour cells are grown in biocompatible fibres which are implanted into mice, can be used to produce meaningful antitumour data with pharmacodynamic endpoints. By increasing the amount of data that can be obtained from a single animal and opening up the possibility of eliminating the need for untreated control animals, the hollow fibre system has the potential to make a significant contribution to both reduction and refinement.


Abstract The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is preparing for the National Ignition Campaign (NIC) scheduled in 2010. The NIC is comprised of several "tuning" physics sub-campaigns leading up to a demonstration of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) ignition. Some of these experiments requires to use the NIF streak x-ray detector (SXD) to measure fuel capsule trajectory (shock timing) or x-ray "bang-time" from time-resolved x-ray imaging of the imploding capsule fuelled with pure tritium (T) instead of a deuterium-tritium (DT) mixture. The resulting prompt neutron fluence at the planned SXD location (∼1.7 m from the target) would be ∼ 1.4e9/cm2. Previous measurements suggest the onset of significant background at a neutron fluence of ∼ 1e8/cm2 and the radiation damage and operational upsets which start at ∼ 1e8 rad-Si/sec must be factored into an integrated experimental campaign plan. Monte Carlo analyses were performed to predict the neutron and gamma/x-ray fluences and radiation doses for the proposed diagnostic configuration. A possible shielding configuration is proposed to mitigate radiation effects. The primary component of this shielding is an 80 cm thickness of Polyethylene (PE) between target chamber center (TCC) and the SXD diagnostic. Additionally, 6-8 cm of PE around the detector reduces the large number of neutrons that scatter off the inside of the target chamber. This proposed shielding configuration reduces the high-energy neutron fluence at the SXD by approximately a factor of ∼50.


Over the last sixty years, UNRWA's relationship to the Palestinian refugees it serves has undergone profound changes. Faced with the difficult task of adapting a humanitarian regime to a highly politicized environment, the agency has had to thread its way through the diverse and sometimes conflicting expectations of the international donor states, the Arab host countries, and the refugees themselves, who from the start were deeply suspicious of UNRWA's mandate as inimical to the right of return. Against this background, the article traces the evolution of the agency's role from service and relief provider to virtual mouthpiece for the refugees on the international stage and, on an administrative level, from a disciplinary regime to emphasis on community participation and finally to the embrace of a developmental agenda. Although UNRWA's presence, originally seen as temporary, seems likely to endure, the article argues that financial and political constraints are likely to thwart its new agenda.


PURPOSE
Albumin modified by Amadori glucose adducts is a plasma-borne factor that activates cell signaling pathways, modulates the expression of growth factors and cytokines, and participates in the pathogenesis of microvascular complications of diabetes. In the present study, streptozotocin diabetic rats were treated with an orally administered compound that inhibits the nonenzymatic glycation of albumin to evaluate whether increased glycated albumin contributes to diabetes-associated abnormalities in the vitreous fluid.

METHODS
Vitreous obtained from age-matched nondiabetic and streptozotocin-diabetic rats, half of which received the test compound 2-(3-chlorophenylamino) phenylacetic acid (23CPPA) by oral gavage for 26 weeks, was analyzed by immunoassay for pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and glycated albumin content, by measurement of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARs) for lipid peroxide products and by colorimetric assay for hyaluronan content.

RESULTS
Compared with that of nondiabetic controls, vitreous of diabetic rats contained decreased PEDF, increased VEGF, higher VEGF/ PEDF ratio, and elevated levels of TBARs, glycated albumin, and hyaluronan. These changes were significantly attenuated in rats treated with test compound despite the presence of marked hyperglycemia.

CONCLUSIONS
Results indicate that inhibiting the formation of glycated albumin, which is increased in diabetes, ameliorates vitreous changes in angiogenic and metabolic factors associated with the development of diabetic retinopathy. The observed improvement in vitreous alterations associated with reductions in glycated albumin suggests that elevated levels of glycated albumin play a retinopathogenic role in diabetes that is operative and that can be therapeutically addressed independently of glycemic status.


I. Introduction Historic preservation is not merely "sav[ing] old buildings in order to save old buildings." (1) The preservation of historic buildings is not an end in itself, but a means to accomplish so much more. (2) The end result of historic preservation includes "downtown revitalization, neighborhood stabilization, affordable housing, luxury housing, heritage tourism, education, and ... economic development." (3) Missouri has been a beneficiary of historic preservation, as investors have spent billions of dollars redeveloping many of Missouri's historic buildings. (4) But this investment did not appear out of nowhere; Missouri's historic preservation tax credit stimulated much of this private investment. (5) An historic preservation tax credit is a tax incentive used to encourage the redevelopment of historic buildings. (6) This income tax credit is calculated as a certain percentage of redevelopment expenses. (7) Most historic preservation statutes require that the property being rehabilitated be an historic building. (8) Although this Comment promotes state historic preservation tax credits based on their ability to stimulate redevelopment, the preservation of historic buildings impacts society in many other ways. (9) In the long run, preservation has an "educational, environmental, cultural, aesthetic, historical, and social impact." (10) In the short run, the people who are going to make historic preservation happen (11) are much more interested in the economic value of historic buildings. (12) By using the platform of economic impact, advocates of historic preservation are able to make a more persuasive argument for an historic preservation tax credit. (13) An historic preservation tax credit is effective only if it gives people enough of an incentive to pursue redevelopment. It is important to structure an historic preservation tax credit to maximize its effectiveness as an incentive. one of the main reasons that Missouri's historic preservation tax credit has been so successful is its structure. (14) Yet, there are many who argue that Missouri's historic preservation tax credit program should be significantly reduced in size because of the increasing cost of the credit and the need to balance Missouri's budget. (15) If the General Assembly votes to reduce or even eliminate the historic preservation tax credit program, there will be a significant decrease in the amount of private investment in historic buildings. Additionally, there will be lost tax revenue, less redevelopment, and more deteriorating old buildings. Part II of this Comment discusses Missouri's historic preservation tax credit, and supplementing the discussion is some background on the federal rehabilitation tax credit. Part III explains how an historic preservation tax credit statute can be structured and outlines the advantages and disadvantages of these structural aspects. In addition, it discusses how historic preservation tax credits can be used as a redevelopment tool and the economic impact that these credits have had in Missouri. Part III of this Comment will review the recommendations made by the Tax Credit Commission appointed by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. Finally, in Part IV, this Comment proposes changes to Missouri's historic preservation tax credit providing supporting arguments and debunking potential criticisms. The Comment concludes that reinvigorating Missouri's historic preservation tax credit will provide economic benefits to the state for years to come. II. Legal Background A. The Initial Use of Tax Incentives to Encourage Preservation of Historic Structures The use of tax incentives to preserve historical buildings and discourage the demolition of older buildings began at the federal level in 1976. (16) Congress eliminated provisions of the tax code that "favored new construction over rehabilitation" and created new tax incentives that encouraged the redevelopment of older buildings. …


mer Portuguese colony of Mozambique, look little different from those of other subSaharan African cities. Open sewers overflow with rotting fruit, beggars harass pedestrians for 1,000 meticals (the equivalent of less than 10 cents), and young mothers walk past in dirty rags, carrying emaciated children. Yet Maputo is also hopeful. After decades of brutal civil war, Mozambique has enjoyed peace since the early 1990s and has built a nascent, if fragile, democracy. Mozambican entrepreneurs have reconstructed the shattered economy of their capital, whose business district has even sprouted a small skyline. Amid the pink and green Mediterranean-style buildings on Maputo's oceanfront, signs of its Portuguese colonial heritage, one structure stands out—an enormous, blocky building with an Asian pagoda roof that hardly resembles the surrounding architecture. It is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and it has been built, as part of a larger initiative, with Chinese aid. Indeed, in recent years China has become a major provider of aid to Mozambique, launching an investmentand trade-promotion center in Maputo, offering debt reduction, and promising significant other economic assistance. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mozambique now regards China as one of its most important allies outside of Africa. On one visit to Beijing, Mozambique's prime minister announced that his country supports China's "independent foreign policy"—a term Beijing uses to denote independence from American power—and called for China to play a larger role on the African continent. Mozambique is hardly unique. Over the past decade, while the United States has too often ignored sub-Saharan Africa policy other than counterterrorism cooperation and aid initiatives, Beijing has quietly established relationships with the continent's political and business elites. And Beijing has enjoyed considerable success in Africa, building close ties with countries from Sudan to South Africa, becoming a vital aid donor in many African nations, signing trade initiatives with more than 40 African states, and developing military relationships with many of the continent's powers.


In this thesis I examine popular cultural representations of Ilisin, a traditional Indigenous festival in Taiwan, in the context of ethnic and racial power relations and identity politics in the country after 1995, the year of emergence of the Council of Indigenous People. In support of this research, I collected 417 articles related to Ilisin from three newspapers and three magazines in the period 1995 to present. I also conducted an internet "ethnography" by visiting three B B S sites and collecting 38 posted comments about Ilisin. The thesis draws on poststructuralist theoretical frameworks and tourism . research about power and ethnicity, as well as research on the social, historical and political context of Taiwan. Various social definitions of "others" were identified in the media contents and shared cultural meanings of Ilisin constructed in internet conversations. These distinctions were not limited to Han (Chinese) versus Indigenous. What and who constitutes "us" versus "them" was found to be a contingent issue that related to social and cultural identities and contexts. The comments on the Internet demonstrated a broad range of interpretations of Ilisin and its media portrayals. 1 In the end, this study challenges the apparent comprehensiveness of the category of "Chinese". Multiculturalism is often critiqued for constructing a Utopian rhetoric where the "minority" can have their own cultures/ghettos under the state, while, at the same time, the dominant social groups absolve themselves of responsibilities for prior discrimination. However, multiculturalism overlooks cultural and ethnic diversity in the "dominant" and inevitably simplifies the concept of antagonism. This thesis demonstrates a complex set of relationships other than the binary of "dominant" and minorities/Indigenous in the context of "multiculturalism". . The thesis and its analyses in many respects reflect my experience and point of view and are intended to provoke a dialogue on these issues. Critical, interpretive research is not intended to bring closure, but to open up dialogue, and I suggest future studies to apply various ethnographic methods to gain a deeper understanding about how people interpret and embody difference. Moreover, I suggest we investigate other 'ethnic', 'Chinese', 'Taiwanese' events to explore power relations from various angles and to (re)discuss and de/re/construct meanings of these events, which I hope, in the end, will contribute to the ethnic/racial debates in Taiwan.


In the COVID-19 pandemic, treatment of the virus, prevention of its spread, and dealing with its secondary effects on the economy and society have been left to the states and local governments, businesses and other public and private institutions, with the federal government furnishing only feeble support to the primary responders. I argue that COVID-19 is a national disaster, and as such, the federal government should have mounted a massive response under the auspices of the National Response Framework and the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. During my 30-year career administering federal disaster assistance, I worked throughout the United States and its territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean. I participated in many imaginative uses of the federal disaster authorities and programs to address serious and unique problems faced by people and their local, state, or territorial governments. During my disaster relief career, the nation never faced a disaster impacting every geographic area and segment of society as COVID-19 has. While the 9/11 attacks shocked the nation, the destruction was restricted to small areas of two cities, and the nation-wide cessation of air travel and other business and social disruptions were short-lived. More than ever before, the extent and severity of the disastrous effects of COVID-19 called for maximal engagement of the National Response Framework to mobilize the combined resources of the country to overcome multiple problems of astounding complexity.


This study proposes to evaluate the environmental sustainability of certain productive processes, which may be of interest for the enhancement, and economic development of specific hill and mountain areas of northern Italy. In order to make a comprehensive appraisal of the impact of the various activities in each geographical context, we adopted a methodology based on AHP multicriteria analysis. In particular, this method was applied to the cultivation of berries and fruit chestnut, also with reference to alternative cultures already consolidated in the areas under investigation


Many system-development projects today are mainly driven by the complexity of their software interacting with sensors or actuators in an embedded context. Autonomous vehicle development is a domain where it seems inevitably necessary to apply modern development techniques to cope with complexity, increase development efficiency, and ensure appropriate quality. Furthermore, changes that are triggered by customers or inventions of competitors, as well as bugs, enforce a comprehensible, if necessary, yet agile development process with stringent quality management. In this paper, we describe the agile efficiency- and quality-focused change management mainly based on scenario-driven regression simulation used in the CarOLO project for the development of an autonomously driving vehicle to compete in the 2007 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge program. The main contribution is the demonstration of the modern software engineering techniques' applicability to develop distributed embedded systems.


In binary regression, symmetric links such as logit and probit are usually considered as standard. However, in the presence of unbalancing of ones and zeros, these links can be inappropriate and inflexible to fit the skewness in the response curve and likely to lead to misspecification. This is the case of covering some type of insurance, where it can be observed that the probability of a given binary response variable approaches zero at different rates than it approaches one. Furthermore, when usual links are considered, there is not a skewness parameter associated with the distribution chosen that, regardless of the linear predictor, is easily interpreted. In order to overcome such problems, a proposal for the construction of a set of new skew links is developed in this paper, where some of their properties are discussed. In this context, power links and their reversal versions are presented. A Bayesian inference approach using MCMC is developed for the presented models. The methodology is illustrated considering a sample of motor insurance policyholders selected randomly by gender. Results suggest that the proposed link functions are more appropriate than other alternative link functions commonly used in the literature. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


ABSTRACT Most professionalisation programmes to support teacher educators as research supervisors focus on the development of research skills. The methodology of practice-oriented research, in addition to a clear vision on the function, and purpose of student research often receives little attention. At the Amsterdam University of Applied Science, we developed such a vision and methodology and studied the development of 17 teacher educators as research supervisors during a programme that introduced this methodology. We questioned participants about affect, and understanding regarding their role as a student research supervisor, and their perception of their competences to perform that role. Results showed that teacher educators became more aware of their role, and became more critical about their own competencies. Growing awareness of the implications of their role as student research supervisors seemed to result in a lower self-efficacy regarding the performance of this role. Implications for the training of teacher educators are discussed.


Fundacion Zain is developing new built heritage assessment protocols. The goal is to objectivize and standardize the analysis and decision process that leads to determining the degree of protection of built heritage in the Basque Country. The ultimate step in this objectivization and standardization effort will be the development of an information and communication technology (ICT) tool for the assessment of built heritage. This paper presents the ground work carried out to make this tool possible: the automatic, image-based delineation of stone masonry. This is a necessary first step in the development of the tool, as the built heritage that will be assessed consists of stone masonry construction, and many of the features analyzed can be characterized according to the geometry and arrangement of the stones. Much of the assessment is carried out through visual inspection. Thus, this process will be automated by applying image processing on digital images of the elements under inspection. The principal contribution of this paper is the automatic delineation the framework proposed. The other contribution is the performance evaluation of this delineation as the input to a classifier for a geometrically characterized feature of a built heritage object. The element chosen to perform this evaluation is the stone arrangement of masonry walls. The validity of the proposed framework is assessed on real images of masonry walls.


This major new complete edition of Shakespeare's works combines accessibility with the latest scholarship. Each play and collection of poems is preceded by a substantial introduction that looks at textual and literary-historical issues. The texts themselves have been scrupulously edited and are accompanied by same-page notes and glossaries. Particular attention has been paid to the design of the book to ensure that this first new edition of the twenty-first century is both attractive and approachable.


The theory of ego development presents a comprehensive framework to understand personality development throughout the stages of life. In this developmental theory, the ego is considered a cognitive-based structure and the primary synthesizing and regulating agent in personality development. Art appreciation and aesthetic judgment are considered to have personality correlates and developmental aspects. The current study aimed to examine the association between ego development and aesthetic judgment styles in adults. We recruited 202 adults from a community sample in Tehran, Iran. The age of participants in this study ranged from 18 to 64 (M = 29.5, SD = 8.9). Consistent with our hypotheses, results indicated that concrete aesthetic judgment was negatively associated with ego development. Moreover, analytical and emotional aesthetic judgment styles were positively correlated with ego development. In conclusion, individuals who scored higher in ego development tended to use more advanced aesthetic judgment styles when exposed to art.


ABSTRACT The ternary copper-based chalcogenides Cu3TMCh4 (TM = Cr, Fe and Ch = S, Se, Te), which have simple cubic (SC) crystal structure and conform to space group with 215 space number, have been investigated by spin-polarised generalised gradient approximation (GGA) in the framework of density functional theory (DFT). All systems have been considered in ferromagnetic (FM) order. The mechanical and thermal properties and the electronic band structures of these systems have been investigated after the well-optimised structural parameters have been obtained. The spin-polarised electronic band structures of all the systems exhibit half-metallic behaviour with band gaps in minority spin channel from 0.29 eV for Cu3FeTe4 to 1.08 eV for Cu3CrS4, while metallic band structures are observed for majority spins. This agrees with the calculated total magnetic moments which are close to integer values. The calculated negative formation enthalpies indicate the energetic and thermodynamic stability of these compounds. Moreover, the calculated elastic constants verify that these materials are stable mechanically due to satisfying Born stability criteria. The estimated anisotropy shear factors show that Cu3FeS4, Cu3FeSe4 and Cu3CrSe4 systems have nearly isotropic character with 1.004, 0.910, and 0.958 values, respectively, whereas other compounds have relatively low anisotropic behaviour.


A number of cellular processes, such as proliferation, differentiation, and transformation, are regulated by cell-extracellular matrix interactions. Previous studies have identified a novel tyrosine kinase, the focal adhesion kinase p125FAK, as a component of cell adhesion plaques. p125FAK was identified as a 125-kDa tyrosine-phosphorylated protein in cells transformed by the v-src oncogene. p125FAK is an intracellular protein composed of three domains: a central domain with homology to protein tyrosine kinases, flanked by two noncatalytic domains of 400 amino acids which bear no significant homology to previously cloned proteins. p125FAK is believed to play an important regulatory role in cell adhesion because it localizes to cell adhesion plaques and because its phosphorylation on tyrosine residues is regulated by binding of cell surface integrins to the extracellular matrix. Recent studies have shown that Src, through its SH2 domain, stably associates with pp125FAK and that this association prevents dephosphorylation of pp125FAK in vitro by protein tyrosine phosphatases. In this report, we identify Tyr-397 as the primary in vivo and in vitro site of p125FAK tyrosine phosphorylation and association with Src. Substituting phenylalanine for tyrosine at position 397 significantly reduces p125FAK tyrosine phosphorylation and association with Src but does not abolish p125FAK kinase activity. In addition, p125FAK kinase is able to trans-phosphorylate Tyr-397 in vitro in a kinase-deficient p125FAK variant. Phosphorylation of Tyr-397 provides a site [Y(P)AEI] that fits the consensus sequence for the binding of Src.


Background/question/methods: In Mediterranean ecosystems a major challenge for land managers is the development of fire regimes that are optimal for biodiversity and reduce the occurrence of damaging wildfires. The aim of this study was to develop guidelines for ecological fire regimes in a peri-urban landscape dominated by remnant Banksia woodlands. Tolerable fire intervals of key fire flora and fauna response species were determined based on plant juvenile periods and fauna requirements, and fire history over four decades was analysed. Temporal and spatial distribution of post-fire ages at the landscape and local scales were assessed and ideal age class distributions estimated.

Results/conclusions: Based on tolerable fire intervals it was recommended that a minimum fire interval of 8-16 years be adopted for the woodland communities. The fuel age distribution at the landscape level and within major vegetation communities was highly skewed to 1-6 years post-fire age and areas of old fuel age (>21 years) were very low. The current fire regime has implications for key flora and fauna species, particularly those that require long-unburnt Banksia woodlands, such as the critically endangered Carnaby's black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris), honey possum (Tarsipes rostratus) and common dwarf skink (Menetia greyii). Planning to protect and increase areas of long-unburnt vegetation is recommended for these species. Susceptible biota associated with wetlands (southern brown bandicoot Isoodon obesulus, water rat Hydromys chrysogaster) also require protection from frequent fire. The guidelines provide a model for ecological burning regimes for optimal biodiversity outcomes in similar Mediterranean ecosystems.