In an environment where information is more easily accessible, yet evolving rapidly in an era of dynamic technological and social change, we face an increasingly 'rapid obsolescence of knowledge' [Toffler, 1970]. It is accordingly becoming increasingly accepted that learning should be based more on a student's individual knowledge needs and more geared towards a process of life long learning, in line with views expounded originally by educational and social theorists such as Carl Rogers and John Dewey. This educational philosophy of student centred learning should hold particularly true for Product Design where graduates must remain connected to a wide variety of fast changing information as they pursue potentially widely diverse career and project challenges.One of the problems with any educational model however is in substantiating claims for effectiveness with results that can be easily influenced by uncontrollable causal inferences - factors such as group dynamic and ability or tutor style for example [Marsh et al, 2010]. Whilst a number of studies suggest that student centred learning – or aspects of it - is good practice, these tend towards multilevel model studies based on statistical measurement of outcomes which are again prone to bias or which are module perspective rather than generic. There is hence scope for additional supporting evidence including quantitative assessment based on non metricated analysis of the student learning experience based on a wider exploration of the entire learning landscape.The final year programme of the Product Design degree course at our British University lends itself to study requirement. The course learning philosophy aims to develop students as increasingly independent learners, starting with a structured first year but moving towards a significantly independent and self determined final year. This year is supported through traditional teaching methods such as lectures, tutorials and workshops, as well as a number of student centred learning mechanisms including Action Learning Sets, Common Interest Groups, independent learning contracts and peer crits for example. During this final year, students are required to document their learning moments as they proceed through their studies. This was conceived as a method of making clearer tutor feedback, but the resulting 'learning logs' are generating a significant body of evidence showing how students are learning in this type of educational environment.This paper therefore evaluates the collective learning logs of final year Product Design students. It aims to relate the evaluation to simplified models of learning, such as Bloom's taxonomy, and to identify the key learning mechanisms and issues that enable good practice in support of this increasingly important but often poorly applied educational philosophy.


Theanine is the main amino acid component in tea. It usually constitutes between 1 and 2% of the dry weight of the tea leaves. It is as prevalent in tea as all other free amino acids combined. Both enantiomers of theanine were found to have a similar sweet taste, with little or no aftertaste. It was found that black and half-green teas (except for Formosa Oolong) contained as much, or more, theanine as green teas. No correlation was found between the absolute concentration of theanine in tea and its enantiomeric composition. An inverse correlation was found between certain grades of tea (e.g., pekoe, Flowery Orange Pekoe, etc.) and the percent of d-theanine present. This could provide the basis for a reproducible, scientific method to grade and/or evaluate teas. Theanine slowly racemizes in aqueous solution. It also undergoes hydrolysis, particularly at basic pH values. By monitoring these processes, information may be gleaned on the production, storage, handling, and shipping of tea and tea products. Key...


Most Artificial Intelligence planners work on the assumption that they have complete knowledge of their problem domain and situation, so that planning an action consists of searching for an action sequence that achieves some desired goal. In actual planning situations, agents rarely know enough to map out a detailed plan of action when they start out. Instead, they initially draw up a sketchy plan and fill in details as they proceed.
This thesis presents a formalism that is expressive enough to describe this flexible planning process. We address ourselves to two central issues: (1) How can an agent determine that he knows enough to do an action? (Knowledge Preconditions Problem) (2) If the agent does not know enough, how can he plan to get the action done? (Ignorant Agent Problem)
We demonstrate that modal logic is too weak to serve as the basis for such a theory, and choose instead to work within a first order logic augmented with quotation. We then discuss the Knower Paradoxes that arise from such syntactic treatments of knowledge, and propose a solution to these paradoxes based on Kripke's solution to the Liar Paradox. Next, we present a theory of action and planning that is powerful enough to describe partial plans and joint-effort plans. We then explain what knowledge an agent must have in order to successfully perform an action and how an ignorant agent can construct and execute complex plans in order to overcome his ignorance. A central observation underlying our solution to the Ignorant Agent Problem is that ignorant agents tend to use communicative acts, such as asking for information, and delegating, to plan around their ignorance. During the final part of this thesis, we therefore develop a theory of communication as an integrated part of our theory of action and planning. We show that this theory of communication is more expressive than standard Austinian-type speech act theories.
The thesis includes comparisons of our theory with other syntactic and modal theories such as Konolige's and Moore's. We demonstrate that our theory is powerful enough to solve classes of problems that these theories cannot handle.


Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of a pretreatment thrombocytosis and its association with neutrophilia in patients with surgically treated endometrial cancer. Methods The baseline characteristics and outcome data of 508 patients with surgically treated endometrial cancer between January 2000 and December 2010 were collected and retrospectively reviewed. The patients were separated into 4 groups according to their platelet counts and the neutrophil counts, and the progression-free and overall survival rates of the 4 groups were compared. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to explore the independent prognostic factors. Results Pretreatment thrombocytosis was found to be associated with advanced stage (P = 0.0186), nonendometrioid histology (P = 0.0139), a deeper myometrial invasion (P = 0.0103), lymphovascular space involvement (P = 0.0404), cervical involvement (P = 0.004), positive peritoneal cytology (P = 0.0198), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.0301), and more frequent treatment failure (P = 0.0006). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that an older age (hazard ratio [HR], 2.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.46–4.51; P = 0.0009), advanced clinical stage (HR, 5.27; 95% CI, 2.94–9.86; P < 0.0001), lymphovascular space involvement (HR, 3.37; 95% CI, 1.74–7.07; P = 0.0002), and pretreatment thrombocytosis (HR, 4.99; 95% CI, 2.47–9.39; P < 0.0001) were significant predictors of survival. When examined according to clinical stage, pretreatment thrombocytosis was prognostically significant only in patients with stage III–IV disease. The neutrophil count in patients who display thrombocytosis was significantly greater than that observed in patients without thrombocytosis (median, 6702 vs 4406/μL; P < 0.0001). Moreover, patients who displayed both thrombocytosis and neutrophilia had significantly shorter survival than that in those with either thrombocytosis or neutrophilia alone. Conclusions Presence of thrombocytosis at the time of the initial diagnosis is an independent predictor of shorter survival in patients with advanced-stage (stages III–IV) endometrial cancer. Moreover, pretreatment thrombocytosis and concurrent neutrophilia are an independent predictor of shorter survival regardless of clinical stage.


Richard Posner wrote that the theory of judicial restraint is dead and that the liberal decisions of the Warren Court killed it. Posner should have placed some of the blame on himself and other former Warren Court and early Burger Court clerks who joined the legal academy. As young law professors, they rejected legal process theory that they had learned in law school from Henry Hart and Albert Sacks at Harvard, Alexander Bickel and Harry Wellington at Yale, and from process theory's patron saints on the Court - Felix Frankfurter and John M. Harlan. Legal process theory yielded to new theories, including rights protection (John Hart Ely and Owen Fiss), Critical Legal Studies (Duncan Kennedy and Mark Tushnet), and law and economics (Richard Posner and Guido Calabresi). This symposium piece explores the rise and fall of legal process theory as well as the scholarship of former Warren Court and early Burger Court clerks who nearly killed it. It also suggests that there could be a revival of a process-based judicial restraint based on a new generation of late Burger Court/early Rehnquist Court clerks-turned-academics who came of age during the mid-1980s. These law clerks rejected judicial supremacy and adopted popular constitutionalism and other democratic approaches to constitutional interpretation. Popular constitutionalism is inspired by the same faith in the democratic political process as the judicial restraint advocated by James Bradley Thayer, Felix Frankfurter, and Alexander Bickel.


A group of Beggiatoa-like organisms which do not deposit sulfur from sulfide but which were isolated from the same locations as sulfide-oxidizing beggiatoas should be considered as a species within the genus Vitreoscilla. These organisms fit the general description of Vitreoscilla beggiatoides as originally described by E. G. Pringsheim, and strain B23SS (= ATCC 43189) is herein designated as the neotype strain. The guanine-plus-cytosine content of the deoxyribonucleic acid of strain B23SS was 42 mol%. A few strains that were formerly considered as Beggiatoa spp. have been shown to lack the ability to accumulate sulfur in inclusions when exposed to hydrogen sulfide. Because rigorous tests were not previously carried out to determine whether these organisms really deposited sulfur, it is probable that they were never capable of doing so. These strains, which form a distinct group of microorganisms, now should be considered to be a Vitreoscilla species. This group of organisms is most characteristic of the species V. filiformis as originally described by E. G. Pringsheim. Because strains had not been characterized since the original description, V. filiformis was not included in the Approved List of Bacterial Names. This name has, therefore, been revived, and strain L1401-2 (= ATCC 43190), a strain originally isolated by E. G. Pringsheim, is designated as the neotype strain. The guanine-plus-cytosine content of the deoxyribonucleic acid of these strains ranged from 59 to 63 mol%. These two groups of organisms are compared to V. stercoraria, the best-characterized Vitreoscilla strain, and to Beggiatoa alba, the best-characterized and type species of the genus Beggiatoa.


Abstract We examined the biogeographic patterns of ground-dwelling arthropod communities across a heterogeneous semiarid region of the Southern Rio Grande Rift Valley of New Mexico. Our 3 sites included portions of 5 ecoregions, with the middle site a transition area where all ecoregions converged. We addressed the following 3 questions: (1) Do the species assemblage patterns for ground arthropods across habitats and sites conform to recognized ecoregions? (2) Are arthropod assemblages in distinct vegetation-defined habitats within an ecoregion more similar to each other or to assemblages in similar vegetation-defined habitats in other ecoregions? (3) Is there a detectable edge effect with increased arthropod diversity in the area of converging ecoregions? We encountered 442 target arthropod species from pitfall traps operating continuously for 7 years over a series of different habitats at each of the 3 sites. We examined geographic distributions of spider and cricket/grasshopper species in detail, and they showed affinities for different ecoregions, respectively. Each habitat within a study site supported a unique overall arthropod assemblage; nevertheless, different habitats at the same site were more similar to each other than they were to similar habitats at other sites. Overall arthropod species richness was greatest in the area where all 5 ecoregions converged. Arthropod species and their geographic distributions are poorly known relative to vascular plants and vertebrate animals. Findings from this research indicate that ecoregional classification is a useful tool for understanding biogeographic patterns among arthropods.


INTRODUCTION
Haemophilus influenzae is responsible for wide range of localized and invasive lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) with the highest burden of disease in low and middle income countries.

AIM
The aim of the present study was to characterize the H.influenzae isolates from suspected LRTI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A prospective study was conducted over a period of one and half years (December 2012 to May 2014) including patients with LRTI. H.influenzae was isolated from lower respiratory specimens following standard procedures. Complete characterization of the isolates was performed by bio typing, capsular serotyping, molecular genotyping and antibiotic susceptibility testing. The predisposing factors and clinical presentation were studied in the infected patients.

RESULTS
A total of 8995 samples were received during the study period, out of which growth was significantly observed in 2848 (31.7%) samples. Among the various respiratory pathogens, H.influenzae was isolated from 175 (6.14%) patients. Majority (78.9%) of the patients presented with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The isolates most frequently were of Biotype II (35.42%). Only four of the 50 isolates subjected to capsular serotyping were typeable and were of type b, e and f. All the 50 isolates tested were found to be non-typeable by PCR for capsular genotyping. Maximum resistance was found against ampicillin (9.71%).

CONCLUSION
H.influenzae was found to be a significant cause of LRTI. Majority of the isolates were found to be non typeable strains. Non typeable H. influenzae isolates should not be neglected as they can colonize the respiratory tract in COPD patients and can lead to biofilm formation and treatment failure.


The dynamic nature of knowledge and software evolution and usage present a pervasive challenge to system developers. Discrete attempts to create such systems often lead to a mismatch between system, expectation and a changing reality. The rationale for a dynamic feedback model stems from the need to focus on a continuous and long-term perspective of development and growth in change-intensive environments. This paper makes the case for a learning and knowledge-driven view of software development and presents such a model in a way that accounts for the long-term survival, growth and evolution of software-intensive systems.


Nutrition support in intensive care units (ICUs) is accepted as an integral part of patient care; however, feeding remains a low priority compared with other ICU treatments. Approximately 52,000 patients die of Traumatic Brain Injury each year in the United States and approximately 85% of the deaths occur within the first 2 weeks. Closed head injury is one of the most highly catabolic illnesses in ICU patients. Nutritional support for acutely head-injured patients is sometimes delayed until gastrointestinal function has returned to normal in the post injury period and these patients frequently have longer stays in the ICU, and causes of this beyond the severity of the brain injury include the presence of infectious complications, sepsis and acute malnutrition. A total of 21 Severe Head Injury (SHI) adult patients with a Glascow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 5-8, admitted at Critical Care Unit, Kenyatta National Hospital between January-March 2012, were included in the prospective quasi experimental, one group (pre-post test) study design. The study aimed at establishing the outcomes of Enteral Nutrition supplementation of SHI adult ICU patients. The patients were fed with two litres of a supplement which was high in fibre and mono unsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and contained no glucose to ensure high glycemic control and reduced glucose levels among the patients (exposures). The day of initiation of feed, ICU Length of Stay, duration of Enteral Nutrition supplementation, the GCS scores, albumin, haemoglobin and random blood sugar levels of the patients on admission and at the end of the study were determined (outcomes). Clinical characteristics of the patients on admission and at the end of the study were determined. T-test was used to test the significant differences between the sample means at the beginning and at the end of the study. Correlation was used to test the relationship between the variables. The mean ICU Length of Stay (LOS) from this study was 10.29±3.02 days with a SD of 7.05 days, SEM 1.53862. This was compared to 12 days which was the mean ICU LOS of SHI adult patients admitted in year 2006 when exclusive EN supplementation of ICU patients had not been initiated. The mean difference in the ICU LOS was -1.71429 at 95% CI. There was a reduction in the ICU LOS although it was not statistically significant (p=0.278). There was a significant improvement in the GCS scores (p= 0.000). The albumin levels decreased significantly at the end of the study (p=0.002). The haemoglobin levels of the patients decreased significantly (p=0.532). No significant improvement was found in the RBS levels (p=0.846). A P value of < 0.05 was used as the criterion for statistical significance. The study therefore recommends the introduction of a high calorie Enteral Nutrition supplement with a 20% protein content which is tailored to meet the protein catabolism and hypermetabolic energy requirements of SHI adult ICU patients so as to further improve outcomes.


Offline reinforcement learning (offline RL), which aims to find an optimal policy from a previously collected static dataset, bears algorithmic difficulties due to function approximation errors from out-of-distribution (OOD) data points. To this end, offline RL algorithms adopt either a constraint or a penalty term that explicitly guides the policy to stay close to the given dataset. However, prior methods typically require accurate estimation of the behavior policy or sampling from OOD data points, which themselves can be a non-trivial problem. Moreover, these methods under-utilize the generalization ability of deep neural networks and often fall into suboptimal solutions too close to the given dataset. In this work, we propose an uncertainty-based offline RL method that takes into account the confidence of the Q-value prediction and does not require any estimation or sampling of the data distribution. We show that the clipped Q-learning, a technique widely used in online RL, can be leveraged to successfully penalize OOD data points with high prediction uncertainties. Surprisingly, we find that it is possible to substantially outperform existing offline RL methods on various tasks by simply increasing the number of Q-networks along with the clipped Q-learning. Based on this observation, we propose an ensemble-diversified actor-critic algorithm that reduces the number of required ensemble networks down to a tenth compared to the naive ensemble while achieving state-of-the-art performance on most of the D4RL benchmarks considered.


Identifying cave levels provides insight into cave development and climatic changes that have affected a karst system over time. Cosmogenic dating has been used to interpret levels in Mammoth Cave and the Cumberland Plateau. This absolute dating technique has proven successful in determining cave paleoclimates and regional geomorphic history, but is expensive. The study presented here is a preliminary method to cosmogenic dating that can outline a region's speleogenesis using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and published denudation rates. The Carter Cave system in northeastern Kentucky is within the karst landscape found along the western edge of the Appalachians and contains multiple daylighted caves at various elevations along valley walls. These characteristics make the Carter Caves an ideal location to apply GIS to cave level identification and evolution as described by Jacoby et al. (in review), who identified the cave levels within the area. The authors concluded that an argument can be made for either four or five cave levels in the Carter Cave system; however, studies identified four levels in both Mammoth Cave and the Cumberland Plateau. Further analysis indicated that the fifth level formed as a result of a change in lithology rather than an event that influenced the local base level. This research is an extension of the conclusions presented by Jacoby et al. (in review). The GIS was used to calculate the volume of surficial material lost within each level as a result of degradational geomorphic processes. Then, level thickness lost and published denudation rates were used to calculate the relative time required to form each level. There was not one denudation rate applicable to each level within the cave system, but the rates varied between 12 m/Ma and 40 m/Ma. This study concludes that the cave system took between 3.4 and 5.7 Ma to form. This study did not perform an absolute dating of cave sediments or assess any detailed stratigraphic influence.


The comparison of the response characteristics of the pore space modulus Kρ and the Lame parameter λρ were examined using two wells that penetrated two different channels. The two offshore West Africa wells penetrated two channels at different depths with different geological ages. These channel sands are of different quality and with various shale percentages and porosities. Three cases of Gassman fluid substitution were analyzed: wet, oil, and gas. Compressional- and shear-wave impedances were calculated for the three fluid cases and Lame parameters (λρ, μρ) and Kρ.


Research ethics committees, while in many ways an excellent innovation, do have some drawbacks. This paper examines three of these. The first problem of such committees is that their approval of specific projects in their own institutions acquires intrinsic value. The second problem relates to the possible devolution of responsibility from the investigator to the committee. The committee approves, the investigator feels relieved of some responsibility and things can be done to patients which neither the committee nor the investigator might countenance if they had sole responsibility. The third problem arises directly from the bureaucratic nature of the committee itself. And one consequence of the resulting rigid guidelines is the insistence, by most committees, on the written consent of patients. Demanding this can, in some circumstances, mean giving the patient very disturbing information. The paper suggests that in patients with a fatal disease where trials compare two accepted therapies committees dispense with written consent. There is a commentary on this paper by Dr D J Weatherall of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford.


Rahmstorf (Reports, 19 January 2007, p. 368) presented an approach for predicting sea-level rise based on a proposed linear relationship between global mean surface temperature and the rate of global mean sea-level change. We find no such linear relationship. Although we agree that there is considerable uncertainty in the prediction of future sea-level rise, this approach does not meaningfully contribute to quantifying that uncertainty.


Simulated learning activities are increasingly being used in health professions and interprofessional education (IPE). Specifically, IPE programs are frequently adopting role-play simulations as a key learning approach. Despite this widespread adoption, there is little empirical evidence exploring the teaching and learning processes embedded within this type of simulation. This exploratory study provides insight into the nature of these processes through the use of qualitative methods. A total of 152 clinicians, 101 students and 9 facilitators representing a range of health professions, participated in video-recorded role-plays and debrief sessions. Videotapes were analyzed to explore emerging issues and themes related to teaching and learning processes related to this type of interprofessional simulated learning experience. In addition, three focus groups were conducted with a subset of participants to explore perceptions of their educational experiences. Five key themes emerged from the data analysis: enthusiasm and motivation, professional role assignment, scenario realism, facilitator style and background and team facilitation. Our findings suggest that program developers need to be mindful of these five themes when using role-plays in an interprofessional context and point to the importance of deliberate and skilled facilitation in meeting desired learning outcomes.


The Manual Ability Classification System (MACS) has been developed to classify how children with cerebral palsy (CP) use their hands when handling objects in daily activities. The classification is designed to reflect the child's typical manual performance, not the child's maximal capacity. It classifies the collaborative use of both hands together. Validation was based on the experience within an expert group, a review of the literature, and thorough analysis of children across a spectrum of function. Discussions continued until consensus was reached, first about the constructs, then about the content of the five levels. Parents and therapists were interviewed about the content and the description of levels. Reliability was tested between pairs of therapists for 168 children (70 females, 98 males; with hemiplegia [n= 52], diplegia [n= 70], tetraplegia [n= 19], ataxia [n= 6], dyskinesia [n= 19], and unspecified CP [n= 2]) between 4 and 18 years and between 25 parents and their children's therapists. The results demonstrated that MACS has good validity and reliability. The intraclass correlation coefficient between therapists was 0.97 (95% confidence interval 0.96–0.98), and between parents and therapist was 0.96 (0.89‐0.98), indicating excellent agreement.


Metamaterials are materials with artificial structures, engineered to produce electromagnetic properties not readily available in nature. Metamaterials have generated broad interest and utilization in various applications because of their engineer-able permittivity and permeability. Metasurfaces form the most-used class of metamaterials in all electromagnetic applications, from microwave to optical, because of their simplicity compared to bulky 3D structures. Metasurfaces are created using an ensemble of electrically small resonators. Previously, the metasurface concept was used to redirect or focus light, with the surface profile being tailored to control the phase and magnitude of the current at each cell. In the first part of this dissertation, a metasurface is used to create a new antenna concept by tailoring the feed for each resonator to create optimal radiation behaviour. The resonators are placed on a flat surface and connected to one feed point using different feed mechanisms to achieve desired current phase at each resonator. Unlike conventional array antennas, in which the distance between adjacent antennas is maintained at approximately half the wavelength to reduce mutual coupling between adjacent antennas, here the distance between the radiating elements is electrically very small. This effects good impedance matching of each resonator to its feed. The metasurface antenna has strong potential for a variety of traditional and non-traditional applications. Its flexible design (high degree of optimization freedom) facilitates its use on a variety of non-Cartesian and platforms. A prototype was fabricated and tested, showing positive agreement between numerical simulations and experimental results of the metasurface antenna. In this part, a concept is presented to enable a systematic design of low-profile conformal antennas. The concept is based on using closely spaced electrically-small radiators. An ensemble of the radiators is placed in a periodic arrangement and the phase of the feed for each element is set to create a phase front orthogonal to the direction where maximum radiation is desired. The phase front is created based on the assumption that each electrically-small radiator is essentially a Huygens source radiating in the open space. A novel method is proposed in the second part of the thesis that emerge metasurface for energy harvesting and wireless power transfer. Unlike earlier designs of metamaterial harvesters where each small resonator was connected to a load, in this design, the power received by the resonators is channeled collectively into one load, thus maximizing the power density per load. Another contribution of the metasurface harvester of this work, based on the concept of perfect absorbance and channeling to one load, is the design of a metasurface medium with near unity electromagnetic energy harvesting. Two different


Distributional Reinforcement Learning (RL) differs from traditional RL in that, rather than the expectation of total returns, it estimates distributions and has achieved state-of-the-art performance on Atari Games. The key challenge in practical distributional RL algorithms lies in how to parameterize estimated distributions so as to better approximate the true continuous distribution. Existing distributional RL algorithms parameterize either the probability side or the return value side of the distribution function, leaving the other side uniformly fixed as in C51, QR-DQN or randomly sampled as in IQN. In this paper, we propose fully parameterized quantile function that parameterizes both the quantile fraction axis (i.e., the x-axis) and the value axis (i.e., y-axis) for distributional RL. Our algorithm contains a fraction proposal network that generates a discrete set of quantile fractions and a quantile value network that gives corresponding quantile values. The two networks are jointly trained to find the best approximation of the true distribution. Experiments on 55 Atari Games show that our algorithm significantly outperforms existing distributional RL algorithms and creates a new record for the Atari Learning Environment for non-distributed agents.


The human epigenome has been experimentally characterized by measurements of protein binding, chromatin acessibility, methylation, and histone modification in hundreds of cell types. The result is a huge compendium of data, consisting of thousands of measurements for every basepair in the human genome. These data are difficult to make sense of, not only for humans, but also for computational methods that aim to detect genes and other functional elements, predict gene expression, characterize polymorphisms, etc. To address this challenge, we propose a deep neural network tensor factorization method, Avocado, that compresses epigenomic data into a dense, information-rich representation of the human genome. We use data from the Roadmap Epigenomics Consortium to demonstrate that this learned representation of the genome is broadly useful: first, by imputing epigenomic data more accurately than previous methods, and second, by showing that machine learning models that exploit this representation outperform those trained directly on epigenomic data on a variety of genomics tasks. These tasks include predicting gene expression, promoter-enhancer interactions, and elements of 3D chromatin architecture. Our findings suggest the broad utility of Avocado's learned latent representation for computational genomics and epigenomics.


Partially coherent beams can be used to reduce the turbulence-induced scintillation; however, the partial coherence induces the decrease of the mean received irradiance. An optimization criterion for the initial coherence degree of lasers is proposed. This criterion maximizes the received irradiance that occurs with the highest probability. A method for adaptive initial coherence was given to use the criterion in practical applications.


Maximum Likelihood Estimators (MLE) has many good properties. For example, the asymptotic variance of MLE solution attains equality of the asymptotic Cram{e}r-Rao lower bound (efficiency bound), which is the minimum possible variance for an unbiased estimator. However, obtaining such MLE solution requires calculating the likelihood function which may not be tractable due to the normalization term of the density model. In this paper, we derive a Discriminative Likelihood Estimator (DLE) from the Kullback-Leibler divergence minimization criterion implemented via density ratio estimation and a Stein operator. We study the problem of model inference using DLE. We prove its consistency and show that the asymptotic variance of its solution can attain the equality of the efficiency bound under mild regularity conditions. We also propose a dual formulation of DLE which can be easily optimized. Numerical studies validate our asymptotic theorems and we give an example where DLE successfully estimates an intractable model constructed using a pre-trained deep neural network.


Pulmonary neuroendocrine cell products, especially bombesin‐like peptides, are important modulators of fetal lung growth, morphogenesis and maturation. In the present study, we describe the ontogeny of protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5) in 28 midtrimester human fetal lungs, in comparison to chromogranin A (CGA), a marker of differentiated neuroendocrine cells, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), which is expressed by actively dividing cells. PGP 9.5 immunostaining colocalized with CGA in many cells, although the peak abundance of PGP 9.5 preceded that of CGA by 4 to 6 weeks. In addition, a novel staining pattern was noted for PGP 9.5: diffuse cytoplasmic staining of undifferentiated epithelial cells, which was demonstrated by all of the airways before 15 weeks gestation. After gestational week 15, only the smallest airways demonstrated this pattern. PCNA immunostaining demonstrated age‐dependent regional variation. All samples had approximately 25% epithelial cells immunopositive for PCNA. Between 11 and 14 weeks gestation over 50% of the mesenchymal cells were PCNA positive. This mesenchymal staining decreased after 14 weeks, and was rare by week 19. There was no definite correlation between the immunostaining for PGP 9.5 and that for PCNA, although PGP 9.5 positive cells were usually PCNA negative. These observations suggest that other growth factors produced by non‐neuroendocrine epithelial cells also participate in lung development. Microsc. Res. Tech. 37:62–68, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


In most of the contract theory literature, contracting costs are assumed either to be high enough to preclude certain forms of contracting or low enough to permit any contract to be written. Similarly researchers usually treat renegotiation as either costless or prohibitively costly. This article addresses the middle ground between these extremes, in which the costs of contracting and renegotiation can take intermediate values and the contracting parties can themselves influence these costs. The context for our analysis is the canonical problem of inducing efficient relation-specific investment and efficient ex post trade. Among our principle results are: (i) The efficiency and complexity of the initial contract are decreasing in the cost to create a contract. Hence the best mechanism design contracts can be too costly to write. (ii) When parties use the simpler contract forms, they require renegotiation to capture ex post surplus and to create efficient investment incentives. In some cases, parties want low renegotiation costs. More interesting is that, in other cases, parties have a strict preference for moderate renegotiation costs. (iii) The effect of contract law on contract form is significant but has been overlooked. In particular, the law's interpretive rules raise the cost of enforcing complex contracts, and thus induce parties to use simple contracts. Worse, the law also lowers renegotiation costs, which further undermines complex contracts and is also inappropriate for some of the simpler contracts. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.


Background: Velocity vector imaging (VVI) is a novel technique to assess regional myocardial mechanics. We evaluated the utility of VVI in the assessment of right ventricular (RV) function in normal children. Methods: RV images (apical 4‐chamber view, high frame rate capture) from 30 normal children (mean 8.7 years; range 1.1–18) were selected. Longitudinal myocardial velocities, peak systolic strain (PSS), maximal longitudinal displacement (LD), and times to peak for these parameters were obtained from six RV segments. Simultaneous Doppler tissue imaging (DTI) derived peak systolic and early diastolic velocities were obtained from the free tricuspid annulus. Measurements were made independently by two observers. Results: Qualitative analysis shows dominant longitudinal systolic and diastolic myocardial motion, particularly at the basal segments. Velocities and LD were greatest at the basal segments and decreased from base to apex. PSS values were less consistent between segments and observers, with the greatest PSS generally found in the apical segments. LD and time to peak displacement (TPD) were the most reproducible. TPD in the basal segments were strikingly similar in each patient and correlated with R‐R intervals. Peak diastolic velocities in the right base did correlate with corresponding annular DTI velocities; DTI velocities were consistently higher than VVI velocities. Conclusions: RV segmental velocities and LD are reliably obtained by VVI. PSS is less reproducible. LD is a reproducible measure of systolic function and TPD appears to be useful in the assessment of synchrony. Correlation of these findings with children who have known RV pathology is an important next step.


An examination of the five described species of the New Guinean genus Zophiuma Fennah (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Lophopidae), has confirmed that Zophiuma guineae (Lallemand) is a new synonym of Zophiuma pupillata (Stal) and that Zophiuma lobulata Ghauri is a new synonym of Zophiuma butawengi (Heller). The third species of the genus, Zophiuma doreyensis Distant, is known only from the male holotype. The morphology of the male genitalia and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequences were used to compare Z. pupillata and Z. butawengi. Both the male genitalia and the COI sequences showed clear cut differences between the two species with little intraspecific variation in comparison to interspecific variation. Sequence data demonstrated that males collected with the distinctively coloured Z. pupillata females are the males of that species. Male genitalia of Z. pupillata are described and illustrated for the first time and a key for the discrimination of the three species of the genus is provided.


In this study, we present petrological data from metasyenites in the Central Zone of the Limpopo Belt, South Africa. Results from conventional thermobarometry and pseudosection modelling in the chemical system Na2O-CaO-K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-H2O-TiO2-Fe2O3 (NCKFMASHTO) indicate the rocks underwent a metamorphic evolution that was characterised by a maximum pressure of 8 kbar and temperatures of ~770°C. Subsequent retrogression involved a simultaneous P-T decrease via decompression-cooling to 4 kbar at temperatures <550°C. The inferred P-T path, in combination with previous petrological data from Venetia and Messina can be interpreted to support the existence of a metamorphic field gradient that was developed during a single metamorphic event. The metasyenitic body is cross-cut by a number of quartzo-feldspathic veins that probably represent mobilised melt from the surrounding Alldays gneiss. An in-situ partial melt origin for the quartzo-feldspathic veins is ruled-out on the basis of modelling which suggests the measured compositions could not have been derived from the partial melting of the metasyenite. Modelling suggests the metasyenite could theoretically melt at the P-T conditions attained. However, due to a lack of available H2O, melting did not proceed.


Active Scope Camera (ASC) using a linear inchworm drive, which can run on various road surfaces assumed in disaster sites, have been developed as a snake-like rescue robot. However, it is difficult for the linear inchworm drive to run in crooked narrow pathways, because its rigid body actuator reduces the flexibility of the scope camera and becomes immovable when the scope camera is curved. There are many crooked narrow pathways inside collapsed houses and under rubble. ASC's search range could be vastly expanded if ASC can run in such environments. In this paper, we developed a flexible linear actuator, which has the bellows structure and the hollow structure, for ASC in order to solve these problems. The actuator was able to generate large force more than 6 N from 60 kPa of applied pressure even if it was curved at 200 mm bending radius. Moreover, we developed a flexible linear inchworm drive using this actuator. The flexible linear inchworm drive keeps the running characteristics on the various road surfaces of the conventional linear inchworm drive. The minimum width of 80 deg crooked pathway that the flexible linear inchworm drive could run through was 60 mm, which was one-thirds narrower than that of the conventional inchworm drive.


An analysis of a novel indentation model has been implemented to obtain master curves describing the optimal experimental parameters necessary to achieve the highest possible accuracy in the determination of viscoelastic properties of soft materials. The indentation model is a rigid indenter driven by a compliant measurement system, such as an atomic force microscope or optical tweezers, into a viscoelastic half space. The viscoelastic material is described as a multiple relaxation Prony series. The results have been extended via an application of a viscoelastic equivalence principle to other physical models such as poroelasticity. Optimisation of the indentation parameters has been conducted over many orders of magnitude of the velocity, viscoelastic moduli, spring stiffness, relaxation times and the duration of indentation resulting in a characteristic master curve. It is shown that using sub-optimal conditions gives the appearance of a more elastic material than is actually the case. For a two term Prony series the ideal ramp duration was found to be approximately one eighth of the relaxation. Also the ideal ramp duration for a three term Prony series was determined and shown to guarantee distinct relaxation times under specific conditions.


Summary
1.
The development of an immunity to the effects of reinfestations with C. americana larvae was demonstrated by the fact that animals reinfested after a twenty day interval were able to survive the injurious effects of a dose of larvae which proved lethal to a normal guinea pig within five days.
2.
There was a reduction in the number of larvae which succeeded in establishing themselves when placed in a previously infested animal, but larvae which were present in the wound 24 hours later grew and developed in a normal manner. It is evident, therefore, that interference with nutrition is not a factor in immunity to this parasite as it is to Cordylobia and some helminthic parasites. It is suggested that the proteolytic activity of the accompanying bacteria may somehow be concerned in this.
3.
The exudate from C. americana lesions has immunizing properties. Animals wounded and smeared with exudate from infested lesions for five days showed the same ability as previously infested animals to survive a normal lethal dose of larvae after a twenty day interval. It has been demonstrated that this immunity is not due to acquired resistance to the accompanying bacteria.
4.
The immunity to C. americana is confined to the area infested, as animals reinfested after twenty days on the opposite shoulder were unable to survive a normal lethal dose of larvae.
5.
The duration of this immunity is between twenty and forty days, as animals reinfested on the same area after forty days show evidence of slight immunity since they usually fail to succumb by the fifth day but die in from five to ten days.
6.
Attempts to immunize guinea pigs by subcutaneous and intraperitoneal injections of suspension of dried and pulverized larvae were negative except that a local immunity was produced by subcutaneous injections sufficient to delay death for several days in animals subsequently infested in the same areas.
7.
A single species of gram negative bacillus has been found to be invariably associated with C. americana lesions. This organism does not conform to any hitherto described species. It is herein described and named Proteus chandleri.
8.
The bacteria associated constantly with C. americana lesions apparently play no role in the production of immunity as animals immunized locally and generally to these organisms readily succumb to an infestation of twenty C. americana larvae.


[1] Recent studies have observed deviation from normal (Fickian) diffusion in sediment tracer dispersion that violates the assumption of statistical convergence to a Gaussian. Nikora et al. (2002) hypothesized that particle motion at short time scales is superdiffusive because of inertia, while long-time subdiffusion results from heavy-tailed rest durations between particle motions. Here we test this hypothesis with laboratory experiments that trace the motion of individual gravels under near-threshold intermittent bed load transport (0.027 < τ* < 0.087). Particle behavior consists of two independent states: a mobile phase, in which indeed we find superdiffusive behavior, and an immobile phase, in which gravels distrained from the fluid remain stationary for long durations. Correlated grain motion can account for some but not all of the superdiffusive behavior for the mobile phase; invoking heterogeneity of grain size provides a plausible explanation for the rest. Grains that become immobile appear to stay at rest until the bed scours down to an elevation that exposes them to the flow. The return time distribution for bed scour is similar to the distribution of rest durations, and both have power law tails. Results provide a physical basis for scaling regimes of anomalous dispersion and the time scales that separate these regimes.


Business "Buyers" Are People Too: Do Personal Characteristics Help to Explain the Effectiveness of Selected Marketing Activities in a B2b Setting? By Joel Patrick Dardick Mier May 2016 Committee Chair: Danny Bellenger Major Academic Unit: J. Mack Robinson College of Business Due to its role relative to company performance, the topic of sales effectiveness has been richly explored for decades. Academic researchers in the fields of sales effectiveness, organizational purchasing, purchase types, and market segmentation have identified the importance of understanding the personal characteristics of decision makers in business-tobusiness (B2B) environments. Most of the historic literature focuses on demographic characteristics, which has been deemed insufficient for understanding individual's motivations. While there has been recognition of the opportunity for psychographics and lifestyle data in B2B purchasing, there has been limited empirical research. Employing a contingency framework informed by Weitz and utilizing sales and marketing activities as well as results for 2,710 dyads, this study posits that the psychographic and lifestyle nature of B2B purchase decision makers, as well as the buyclass category of the purchase decision, moderate the relationship between specific sales activities and sales effectiveness. The results from this empirical study identify that there is strong support for the moderating effect of the purchasing decision maker's psychographic and lifestyle composition on the relationship between sales activities and sales effectiveness and partial support for the moderating effect of buyclass category on the relationship between sales activities and sales effectiveness. In addition, the results identify that the sales activities of the internal sales function, not the external "customer-facing" sales


The current study explores the use of conjunctive adverbials (CAs) in two corpora compiled by the author. The learner corpus consists of 23 final papers contributed by 10 MA TESOL students from Taiwan while the control corpus contains 10 journal articles from two prestige international TESOL journals. On the quantitative dimension, student writers were found to slightly overuse connectors when the analysis was based on word-level. Additionally, the qualitative analysis revealed that certain CAs (e.g. besides, therefore) were used inappropriately by some of the learners. The paper ends with several teaching suggestions on how to help student writers master the complex system of conjunctive adverbials in English.


During the construction of a subsea road tunnel across Vatlestraumen near Bergen, a ca. 10-m-wide subvertical zone of Jurassic sediments (here named the Bjoroy Formation) was encountered. The Bjoroy Formation constitutes a basal gneiss breccia, conglomerate, sandstone, coal, and unconsolidated sand. Palynological analyses suggest an earl y to middle Oxfordian ( early Late Jurassic) age for the sandstone, and a similar age is indicated for coal fragments in the unconsolidated sand. This makes the Bjoroy Formation time equivalent to the offshore Sognefjord Formation farther west on the Horda Platform. The Bjoroy Formation is preserved in a pre-Jurassic fault zone. Reflection seismic data indicate that Jurassic sediments also may occur in thicknesses of up to 50-60 m above the tunnel as S(SW)-dipping strata. Evidence of marine influence on rocks of the Bjoroy Formation is consistent with an Oxfordian marine transgression of the eastern margin of the (northern) North Sea, and indicates that at !east parts of southwestern Norway were covered by the sea in the latest Jurassic. The deposition of Late Jurassic sediments on crystalline basement in the Bergen area indicates that little erosion of the basement has taken place since late Jurassic times, and that the so-called ' paleic surface' (pre-Neogene peneplain) and parts of the Norwegian strandflat may be an old (mostly Jurassic) exposition. The fault rocks in the Vatlestraumen fault zone show evidence of repeated fault activity during decreasing P-T conditions. At ]east two pre-depositional (pre-Oxfordian) episodes of faulting are recorded, of which the first shows evidence of crystallo-plastic deformation of quartz. Most fault rocks were formed prior to deposition of the Bjoroy Formation, but post-depositional (late or post-Jurassic) fault rocks are recognized as unconsolidated gouge zones. Late or post-Jurassic vertical movements may have been up to several hundreds of meters across the Hjeltefjord fault zone west of Bjoroy, where it also offsets the paleic surface.


This article is about how the capital assets in private finance initiative (PFI) schemes are treated in government accounts. The article begins by describing how public sector obligations in relation to the capital assets of PFI schemes are accounted for in the national accounts, and also, using different accounting standards, in departmental accounts. The article then considers the implications of information obtained using Freedom of Information on the way a sample of PFI schemes actually behave in practice. Analysis of this data suggests that the methods used in the national accounts, and in departmental accounts, seriously underestimate the true scale of PFI obligations. The data also indicates potential weaknesses with the risk-based test for assessing whether a PFI asset should come onto the public sector's books in the national accounts – with the implication that many more PFI schemes should be brought on-book in the national accounts.


A graph $G$ is $(d_1,...,d_l)$-colorable if the vertex set of $G$ can be partitioned into subsets $V_1,\ldots ,V_l$ such that the graph $G[V_i]$ induced by the vertices of $V_i$ has maximum degree at most $d_i$ for all $1 \leq i \leq l$. In this paper, we focus on complexity aspects of such colorings when $l=2,3$. More precisely, we prove that, for any fixed integers $k,j,g$ with $(k,j) \neq (0,0)$ and $g\geq3$, either every planar graph with girth at least $g$ is $(k,j)$-colorable or it is NP-complete to determine whether a planar graph with girth at least $g$ is $(k,j)$-colorable. Also, for any fixed integer $k$, it is NP-complete to determine whether a planar graph that is either $(0,0,0)$-colorable or non-$(k,k,1)$-colorable is $(0,0,0)$-colorable. Additionally, we exhibit non-$(3,1)$-colorable planar graphs with girth 5 and non-$(2,0)$-colorable planar graphs with girth 7.


BACKGROUND
Telephone communication is increasingly being accepted as a useful form of support within health care. There is some evidence that telephone support may be of benefit in specific areas of maternity care such as to support breastfeeding and for women at risk of depression. There is a plethora of telephone-based interventions currently being used in maternity care. It is therefore timely to examine which interventions may be of benefit, which are ineffective, and which may be harmful.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effects of telephone support during pregnancy and the first six weeks post birth, compared with routine care, on maternal and infant outcomes.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's Trials Register (23 January 2013) and reference lists of all retrieved studies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included randomised controlled trials, comparing telephone support with routine care or with another supportive intervention aimed at pregnant women and women in the first six weeks post birth.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Three review authors independently assessed studies identified by the search strategy, carried out data extraction and assessed risk of bias. Data were entered by one review author and checked by a second. Where necessary, we contacted trial authors for further information on methods or results.

MAIN RESULTS
We have included data from 27 randomised trials involving 12,256 women. All of the trials examined telephone support versus usual care (no additional telephone support). We did not identify any trials comparing different modes of telephone support (for example, text messaging versus one-to-one calls). All but one of the trials were carried out in high-resource settings. The majority of studies examined support provided via telephone conversations between women and health professionals although a small number of trials included telephone support from peers. In two trials women received automated text messages. Many of the interventions aimed to address specific health problems and collected data on behavioural outcomes such as smoking cessation and relapse (seven trials) or breastfeeding continuation (seven trials). Other studies examined support interventions aimed at women at high risk of postnatal depression (two trials) or preterm birth (two trials); the rest of the interventions were designed to offer women more general support and advice.For most of our pre-specified outcomes few studies contributed data, and many of the results described in the review are based on findings from only one or two studies. Overall, results were inconsistent and inconclusive although there was some evidence that telephone support may be a promising intervention. Results suggest that telephone support may increase women's overall satisfaction with their care during pregnancy and the postnatal period, although results for both periods were derived from only two studies. There was no consistent evidence confirming that telephone support reduces maternal anxiety during pregnancy or after the birth of the baby, although results on anxiety outcomes were not easy to interpret as data were collected at different time points using a variety of measurement tools. There was evidence from two trials that women at high risk of depression who received support had lower mean depression scores in the postnatal period, although there was no clear evidence that women who received support were less likely to have a diagnosis of depression. Results from trials offering breastfeeding telephone support were also inconsistent, although the evidence suggests that telephone support may increase the duration of breastfeeding. There was no strong evidence that women receiving telephone support were less likely to be smoking at the end of pregnancy or during the postnatal period.For infant outcomes, such as preterm birth and infant birthweight, overall, there was little evidence. Where evidence was available, there were no clear differences between groups. Results from two trials suggest that babies whose mothers received support may have been less likely to have been admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), although it is not easy to understand the mechanisms underpinning this finding.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Despite some encouraging findings, there is insufficient evidence to recommend routine telephone support for women accessing maternity services, as the evidence from included trials is neither strong nor consistent. Although benefits were found in terms of reduced depression scores, breastfeeding duration and increased overall satisfaction, the current trials do not provide strong enough evidence to warrant investment in resources.


Introduction: Systematic literature reviews provide best evidence, but are underused by clinicians. Thus, integrating Cochrane reviews into continuing medical education (CME) is challenging. We designed a pilot CME program where summaries of Cochrane reviews (Courriels Cochrane) were disseminated by e‐mail. Program participants automatically received CME credit for each Courriel Cochrane they rated. The feasibility of this program is reported (delivery, participation, and participant evaluation). Method: We recruited French‐speaking physicians through the Canadian Medical Association. Program delivery and participation were documented. Participants rated the informational value of Courriels Cochrane using the Information Assessment Method (IAM), which documented their reflective learning (relevance, cognitive impact, use for a patient, expected health benefits). IAM responses were aggregated and analyzed. Results: The program was delivered as planned. Thirty Courriels Cochrane were delivered to 985 physicians, and 127 (12.9%) completed at least one IAM questionnaire. Out of 1109 Courriels Cochrane ratings, 973 (87.7%) contained 1 or more types of positive cognitive impact, while 835 (75.3%) were clinically relevant. Participants reported the use of information for a patient and expected health benefits in 595 (53.7%) and 569 (51.3%) ratings, respectively. Discussion: Program delivery required partnering with 5 organizations. Participants valued Courriels Cochrane. IAM ratings documented their reflective learning. The aggregation of IAM ratings documented 3 levels of CME outcomes: participation, learning, and performance. This evaluation study demonstrates the feasibility of the Courriels Cochrane as an approach to further disseminate Cochrane systematic literature reviews to clinicians and document self‐reported knowledge translation associated with Cochrane reviews.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE)-prediction models using accelerometry alone (ACC) and accelerometry combined with heart rate monitoring (HR+ACC) to estimate PAEE during six common activities in children (lying, sitting, slow and brisk walking, hop-scotch, running). Three PAEE-prediction models derived using the current data, and five previously published prediction models were cross-validated to estimate PAEE in this sample.

METHODS
PAEE was assessed using ACC, HR+ACC, and indirect calorimetry during six activities in 145 children (12.4 +/- 0.2 yr). One ACC and two HR+ACC PAEE-prediction models were derived using linear regression on data from the current study. These three new models were cross-validated using a jackknife approach, and a modified Bland-Altman method was used to assess the validity of all eight models.

RESULTS
PAEE predictions using the one ACC and two HR+ACC models derived in the current study correlated strongly with measured values (RMSE = 97.3-118.0 J.min.kg). All five previously published models agreed well overall (RMSE = 115.6-245.3 J.min.kg), but systematic error was present for most of these, to a greater extent for ACC.

CONCLUSIONS
ACC and HR+ACC can both be used to predict overall PAEE during these six activities in children; however, systematic error was present in all predictions. Although both ACC and HR+ACC provide accurate predictions of overall PAEE, according to the activities in this study, PAEE-prediction models using HR+ACC may be more accurate and widely applicable than those based on accelerometry alone.


The title of this Symposium, The Lawyer's Role in a Contemporary Democracy, has several possible interpretations. It could represent a call to discuss the nature of democracy itself. Alternatively, it might employ the term 'contemporary democracy' as shorthand for freedoms commonly associated with liberal democracies, such as free speech and equality, and anticipate that Symposium participants will explore how lawyers can promote those freedoms. Although this essay discusses these approaches, it ultimately takes a different perspective. Fordham Law School's Louis Stein Center for Professional Ethics, which typically focuses on how lawyers should act in their professional lives, has sponsored this Symposium. Given the Center's orientation, I perceive its invitation as encouraging the Symposium participants to consider the common notion that attorneys, because of their status, have unique obligations to support law reform enhancing individual rights and open, representative government.


These beautiful plants are of an herbaceous green color,
and belong to the Cryptogamic division of the vegetable kingdom.
They have attracted attention not only on account of
the striking beauty and variety of their forms, but also by
reason of the doubt as to their position, whether in the animal
or vegetable kingdom, having caused considerable discussion
amongst learned algologists. They are now almost universally
assigned to the vegetable kingdom. The presence of
starch in the ludochrome, and their mode of conjugating,
constitute incontestable proofs of their vegetable organisation,
notwithstanding the arguments of Professors Ehrenberg, Dalrymple,
and Bailey to the contrary.
Included is the list of Tasmanian Desmidieae.
The gatherings have been made mostly from pools which
are dug up during the summer. As they are plants whose
favorite haunt is the open moor, and are taken in greatest
numbers from perennial ponds.


Major recent improvements in biotechnology have led to an accelerated production of DNA sequences. The completion of the human genome sequence, along with the genomes of more than two hundred other species, has marked the arrival of the genome era. The ultimate goal is to understand the structure and function of genomes and their genes. This thesis has focused on the computational analysis of complementary DNA (cDNA) sequences. These are copies of mRNA transcripts that correspond to the coding regions of genomes. Studying the expression patterns of genes is essential for understanding gene function. Many gene expression profiling techniques generate short sequence tags that derive from transcripts. A pilot study was performed to assess the feasibility of using the pyrosequencing platform for gene expression analysis. The sequences generated by pyrosequencing in most cases (≈ 85%) were long enough (> 18 nucleotides) to uniquely identify the corresponding transcripts through database searches. Aspects of transcript identification by short sequence tags were further investigated in a number of public databases, revealing that a tag length 16-17 nucleotides was sufficient for unique identifi- cation. Longer transcript representations are obtained from expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing. Method development for the analysis and maintenance of large EST data sets has been performed on data from poplar, which is a tree of commercial interest to the forest biotechnology industry. In 2003 a large ESTsequencing project reached > 100 000 reads, providing a unique resource for tree biology research. ESTs have been grouped into clusters and singletons that represent potential genes. Preliminary analyses have estimated gene content in Populus to be very similar to that of model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. EST data collections provide a rich source for mining polymorphisms. A software application was developed and applied to EST data from two Populus species, and candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were recorded. A study of genetic variation between the species revealed a striking similarity, with orthologous pairs being > 98% identical on the protein level. Keywords: cDNA, EST, gene expression, SNP, SAGE, polymorphism, assembly, clustering, DNA sequencing, pyrosequencing, mRNA transcript, orthology, tree biotechnology, restriction enzyme


"Having compassion for oneself is really no different than having compassion for others. Think about what the experience of compassion feels like. First, to have compassion for others you must notice that they are suffering. If you ignore that homeless person on the street, you can't feel compassion for how difficult his or her experience is. Second, compassion involves feeling moved by others' suffering so that your heart responds to their pain (the word compassion literally means to "suffer with"). When this occurs, you feel warmth, caring, and the desire to help the suffering person in some way. Having compassion also means that you offer understanding and kindness to others when they fail or make mistakes, rather than judging them harshly. Finally, when you feel compassion for another (rather than mere pity), it means that you realize that suffering, failure, and imperfection is part of the shared human experience. 'There but for fortune go I.'


Secret Gospels: Essays on Thomas and the Secret Gospel of Mark. By Marvin Meyer. Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 2003. vii + 199 pp. $23.00 (paper). Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas. By Elaine Pagels. New York: Random House, 2003. 241 pp. $24.95 (cloth); $13.00 (paper). These are two of many books on the extra-canonical gospel of Thomas that have appeared just within the last year, both authored by scholars who have dedicated much of their career to studying the texts discovered in 1947 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. Meyer's book collects a number of the essays he has written over the course of his studies. Pagels quite explicitly explores a more wide-ranging reflection on what it has meant, personally, to be involved in that research. Both books are also written in the midst of our generation s current fascination with uncovering, behind Christianity's canonical texts, the "secret," which tends to imply "real," history of the movement that began with Jesus of Nazareth. Six of the essays in Meyer's book focus on his examination of issues in the gospel of Thomas. Meyer is based at the Albert Schweitzer Institute of Chapman University in California, and so it is perhaps natural that his first essay focuses on Schweitzer's own interest in the Jesus-sayings tradition long before the Nag Hammadi discoveries. Of the other essays on Thomas, some focus on the technical difficulties of reading the text off its papyrus leaves (or, rather, off the photographed reproductions of the leaves). Others deal with more interpretive issues, including two very similar essays on the famous last sentence of Thomas, offered as Jesus' answer to Peter's objection to Mary's presence within the apostolic circle ("every female who makes herself male will enter heaven s kingdom"). In both essays Meyer shows a sensitivity to the leadership that women of the Thomas circle may have been claiming under this difficult saying, given the patriarchal politics of the time. The last four essays turn to the so-called secret gospel of Mark, buried, then recovered by Morton Smith in 1958, not like Thomas from the compost of an abandoned third-century Egyptian monastic library, but from the archival holdings of a practicing twentieth-century monastic community in the Judean desert. The main feature of this proposed earlier form of the canonical gospel of Mark was an additional "sub-plot" focusing on a beloved youth in Jesus' entourage. All four essays wrestle with the significance of this young man. The second essay, in particular, focuses on how this "Ur-Markan" figure might relate to the "beloved disciple" that the gospel of John claims as the author of the traditions it records. These essays, while repetitive, are clearly written, and together provide a good introduction to the issues involved in reading two fascinating extracanonical texts. Pagels's book on Thomas is a quite different study, though also by a scholar who has dedicated a career to exploring early Christian texts. …


The radius and surface composition of an exploding massive star, as well as the explosion energy per unit mass, can be measured using early UV observations of core-collapse supernovae (SNe). We present the first results from a simultaneous GALEX/PTF search for early ultraviolet (UV) emission from SNe. Six SNe II and one Type II superluminous SN (SLSN-II) are clearly detected in the GALEX near-UV (NUV) data. We compare our detection rate with theoretical estimates based on early, shock-cooling UV light curves calculated from models that fit existing Swift and GALEX observations well, combined with volumetric SN rates. We find that our observations are in good agreement with calculated rates assuming that red supergiants (RSGs) explode with fiducial radii of 500 R⊙, explosion energies of 1051 erg, and ejecta masses of 10 M⊙. Exploding blue supergiants and Wolf–Rayet stars are poorly constrained. We describe how such observations can be used to derive the progenitor radius, surface composition, and explosion energy per unit mass of such SN events, and we demonstrate why UV observations are critical for such measurements. We use the fiducial RSG parameters to estimate the detection rate of SNe during the shock-cooling phase (<1 day after explosion) for several ground-based surveys (PTF, ZTF, and LSST). We show that the proposed wide-field UV explorer ULTRASAT mission is expected to find >85 SNe per year (∼0.5 SN per deg2), independent of host galaxy extinction, down to an NUV detection limit of 21.5 mag AB. Our pilot GALEX/PTF project thus convincingly demonstrates that a dedicated, systematic SN survey at the NUV band is a compelling method to study how massive stars end their life.


The use of wireless in buildings based on microwave radio technology has recently become a viable alternative to the traditional wired transmission media. Because of the portable nature of radio transceivers, the need for extensive cabling of buildings with either twisted pair, coaxial, or optical fibre cable is eliminated. This is particularly desirable where high user mobility occurs and existing wiring is not in place, or buildings are heritage in nature and extensive cabling is seen as intrusive. Economic analysis bas also shown that significant labour cost savings can result by using a radio system or a hybrid mix of cable and radio for personal communication. The use of wireless systems within buildings introduces a new physical radio wave propagation medium, namely the indoor radio propagation channel. This physical medium has significantly different characteristics to some of the other forms of radio channels where elevated antennas, longer propagation path distances, and often minimally obstructed paths between transmit and receive antenna are common. Radio waves transmitted over the indoor channel at microwave frequencies behave much like light rays, they are blocked, scattered, and reflected by objects in the environment. As a direct result of this several phenomena unique to this form of physical medium become apparent, and they must be accounted for in the design and modelling of the indoor radio propagation channel transmission perfonnance. In this thesis we analyse and characterise the indoor radio channel as a physical medium for data transmission. The research focuses on the influence of the radio physics aspects of an indoor microwave channel on the data transmission quality. We identify the associated statistical error performance for both time varying and temporally stationary indoor channels. Together with the theoretical analysis of the channel, a series of propagation measurements within buildings are completed to pennit empirical validation of the theoretical predictions of how the indoor microwave channel should perfonn. The measurements are perfonned in the frequency range 2.3-2.5 GHz, which includes the 2.4-2.4835 GHz band allocated by spectrum management authorities for industrial scientific and medical radio use, (ISM band). As!direct result of our measurements, statistics related to channel noise, fading, and impulse response for the indoor microwave channel are obtained. The relationship between data transmission error statistics and the aforementioned phenomena is quantified and statistically analysed for the indoor radio channel and phase shift keyed (PSK) modulation. The results obtained from this research provide input data for the development of a simulation model of an indoor wireless mobile channel. Our measurements identify microwave ovens as a channel noise source of sufficient magnitude to corrupt data transmission in the ISM band, and an in depth analysis of the affect of noise emissions from operational microwave ovens on PSK modulation is presented in this thesis. As a result of this analysis, the estimated data error rates are calculate:l. Channel fading measurements provide results that will be used as the input data for the design of antennas for use on the indoor microwave channel. We also show that a data rate of eight megabits/second is possible over the typical indoor radio channel, with no requirement for adaptive delay equalisation to counter multipath signal delay spread.


Background Body image disturbance (BID) is a core symptom of anorexia nervosa (AN), but as yet distinctive features of BID are unknown. The present study aimed at disentangling perceptual and attitudinal components of BID in AN. Methods We investigated n = 24 women with AN and n = 24 controls. Based on a three-dimensional (3D) body scan, we created realistic virtual 3D bodies (avatars) for each participant that were varied through a range of ±20% of the participants' weights. Avatars were presented in a virtual reality mirror scenario. Using different psychophysical tasks, participants identified and adjusted their actual and their desired body weight. To test for general perceptual biases in estimating body weight, a second experiment investigated perception of weight and shape matched avatars with another identity. Results Women with AN and controls underestimated their weight, with a trend that women with AN underestimated more. The average desired body of controls had normal weight while the average desired weight of women with AN corresponded to extreme AN (DSM-5). Correlation analyses revealed that desired body weight, but not accuracy of weight estimation, was associated with eating disorder symptoms. In the second experiment, both groups estimated accurately while the most attractive body was similar to Experiment 1. Conclusions Our results contradict the widespread assumption that patients with AN overestimate their body weight due to visual distortions. Rather, they illustrate that BID might be driven by distorted attitudes with regard to the desired body. Clinical interventions should aim at helping patients with AN to change their desired weight.


Fremanezumab is a fully humanized monoclonal antibody (IgG2Δa) that targets calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), a key neuropeptide involved in the pathophysiology of migraine. Fremanezumab is approved for quarterly and monthly subcutaneous dosing for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults. The phase 3 clinical development program for fremanezumab aimed to evaluate the efficacy of this preventive treatment across different patient populations, including those with difficult-to-treat migraine. Two pivotal 12-week, phase 3, placebo-controlled studies investigated quarterly and monthly dosing of fremanezumab in participants with chronic migraine (HALO CM) and episodic migraine (HALO EM). The efficacy of fremanezumab was further explored in individuals with difficult-to-treat chronic or episodic migraine in the 12-week FOCUS study, which enrolled participants who had previously experienced an inadequate response to 2–4 pharmacological classes of migraine preventive medications. The long-term efficacy of fremanezumab was assessed in a 12-month long-term study (HALO LTS), which enrolled participants completing the 12-week HALO studies and new participants. Across these studies, treatment with fremanezumab dosed quarterly or monthly provided significant reductions in the frequency of migraine days, headache days of at least moderate severity, and migraine- and headache-related disability compared with placebo. Sustained improvements were seen with long-term fremanezumab treatment. Subgroup analyses of participants with difficult-to-treat migraine (those with comorbid depression, overuse of acute headache medications, and concomitant use of other migraine preventive medications) demonstrated the effectiveness of quarterly or monthly fremanezumab in these populations. Ongoing studies are further exploring the potential benefits of fremanezumab in difficult-to-treat migraine and other headache and pain disorders.


Recognising and rewarding employees is a true business imperative no manager can afford to ignoreNow in a revised second edition, How to Recognise & Reward Employees gives managers all the helpful tools and information they need to get the most from their people. The book reveals the best ways to improve employee morale, productivity and quality of work, select the right reward for the achievement and inspire both high and low performers. It is an essential reference for every organisation.Key features This edition is updated and expanded, featuring all new examples and even more exciting ways to reward and recognise employees Includes exercises, case studies, self-tests, lists, and worksheets to help readers implement simple and effective rewards programs Contains information on both formal rewards systems and more informal types of recognition, as well as team rewards, options for shoe-string budgets, ways to emphasise corporate values, and more


Objective To assess role of hydroxyl radials in the ozone-induced upper airway hyperresponsiveness to tachykinins. Methods A prospective, controlled, animal model (n = 96) was performed. Half of them exposed to air (A-group, placebo) and the other half exposed to 3 ppm ozone (O-group) for 2 h. Two hours post air/ozone exposure, animals were anesthetized and equally randomized to be pretreated with one of the three treatments, including saline vehicle, dimethylthiourea (DMTU; 500 mg/kg m, a hydroxyl radical scavenger), or phosphoramidon (Phos; 2 μg/kg, an inhibitor for neutral endopeptidase). Ten minutes after pretreatment, half of the animals in each group were i.v. injected with capsaicin (2 μg/kg), and the other half were i.v. injected with substance P (10 μg/kg) to produce Evans blue dye extravasation. Results Nasal exudative response to capsaicin or substance P in O-group was found to be significantly greater than that in A-group. This ozone-induced nasal airway hyperresponsiveness was largely prevented by DMTU. Phosphoramidon produced a similar nasal airway hyperresponsiveness in the A-group, but failed to alter ozone-induced nasal airway hyperresponsiveness in O-group. In sharp contrast, only substance P, but not capsaicin, produced a laryngeal exudative response in the A-group, which was similar to that in the O-group. The laryngeal exudative response to substance P was not significantly affected by DMTU or Phos. Conculsion In the guinea-pig model, hydroxyl radicals play a vital role in the development of ozone-induced nasal airway hyperresponsiveness to tachykinins. It is possibly mediated through the suppressive action of ozone on the tachykinin degradation.

http://ntur.lib.ntu.edu.tw/bitstream/246246/233019/1/Ozone-induced nasal hyperresponsiveness to tachykinins in guinea pigs.pdf


Although there were experimental indications that phospholipid bilayers hydrated with D(2)O express different biophysical properties compared with hydration by ordinary H(2)O, a molecular concept for this behavior difference was only recently proposed by a molecular dynamics simulations study [T. Róg et al., J. Phys. Chem. B, 2009, 113, 2378-2387]. Here we attempt to verify those theoretical predictions by fluorescence measurements on 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) and 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) membranes. Specifically, we determine the water isotope effect on headgroup hydration and mobility, lateral lipid diffusion and lipid backbone packing. Time-dependent fluorescence shift experiments show significantly slower dynamics and lower hydration of the headgroup region for a bilayer hydrated with D(2)O, an observation in good agreement with the calculated predicted differences in duration of lipid-lipid and lipid-water bridges and extent of water penetration into the bilayer, respectively. The water isotope effect on the lipid order parameter of the bilayer core (measured by fluorescence anisotropy) and lateral diffusion of lipid molecules (determined by two-focus fluorescence correlation spectroscopy) is close to the experimental errors of the experiments, however also refers to slightly more rigid organization of phospholipid bilayers in heavy water. This study confirms the view that the water isotope effect can be particularly found in time-resolved physicochemical properties of the membrane. Together with the simulations our experiments provide a comprehensive, molecular view on the effect of D(2)O on phospholipid bilayers.


Globally, the dairy sector is probably one of the most distorted agricultural sectors: producer subsidies are in place in many developed countries, encouraging surplus production, export subsidies are paid by governments to place the excess production on the world markets, and tariff and non-tariff barriers are erected both by developed and developing countries to protect their dairy sector from 'unfair' competition. These market distortions are having significant and different impacts on producers and consumers in developing and developed countries, which are however extremely difficult to quantify. This paper is the first volume of a study on the impacts of global dairy trade on developing countries, giving an overview of global dairy production, consumption, industry structure, trade, applied policies and international standards. Different developments are occurring in the global dairy sector at the moment: Production in developed countries is falling (together with the number of dairy cows and farms), while productivity is rising. Simultaneously milk production in developing countries is growing strongly and numbers of cows are increasing. This development is mirrored in consumption. Dairy consumption levels in developed countries are constant or falling, whereas in many developing countries, foremost in East and Southeast Asia and driven by population growth and growing per capita incomes, dairy consumption is rapidly increasing. With consumer demand in developing countries rising faster than domestic production, global dairy trade volumes are increasing as well with import demand of developing countries being the major driver. In the second volume of the study, the dairy sectors of six developing countries (Bangladesh, Jamaica, Peru, Senegal, Tanzania and Thailand) will be analyzed in order to identify the impacts of (subsidized) milk powder imports on milk producers and consumers.


The aims of this research were to develop guidelines for designing interaction tasks for learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) and to investigate the attitudes of CFL learners toward a full CFL class in Second Life (SL). Three research questions were addressed in this research: (1) what are the attitudes of CFL learners toward the language learning tasks in SL? (2) what kinds of social interactions emerge from learning activities in a CFL class in SL? (3) how do those activities benefit CFL learners in the learning of Chinese in SL? Two studies were conducted to tackle these questions. The cognition, usage, and expansion (CUE) model was proposed based on the findings obtained from study 1 and then implemented and evaluated in study 2. The findings of study 2 indicated that the activities run in the CUE model were effective at motivating CFL beginners and improving their oral communication and social interactions. Based on the video data analysis, three criteria were proposed for designing learning activities. Suggestions are also made for future research on CFL teaching/learning in SL.


Designing buildings to use energy more efficiently can lead to lower energy costs, while maintaining comfort for occupants. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be utilized to visualize and simulate expected flows in buildings and structures. CFD gives architects and designers the ability to calculate the velocity, pressure, and heat transfer within a building. Previous research has not modeled natural ventilation situations that challenge common design rules of thumb used for cross-ventilation and single-sided ventilation. The current study uses a commercial code (FLUENT) to simulate cross-ventilation in simple structures and analyzes the flow patterns and heat transfer in the rooms. In the Casa Giuliana apartment and the Affleck house, this study simulates passive cooling in spaces well-designed for natural ventilation. Heat loads, human models, and electronics are included in the apartment to expand on prior research into natural ventilation in a full-scale building. Two different cases were simulated. The first had a volume flow rate similar to the ambient conditions, while the second had a much lower flow rate that had an ACH of 5, near the minimum recommended value Passive cooling in the Affleck house is simulated and has an unorthodox ventilation method; a window in the floor that opens to an exterior basement is opened along with windows and doors of the main floor to create a pressure difference. In the Affleck house, two different combinations of window and door openings are simulated to model different scenarios. Temperature contours, flow patterns, and the air changes per hour (ACH) are explored to analyze the ventilation of these structures.


In this contribution, we consider the classification of time-series and similar functional data which can be represented in complex Fourier coefficient space. We apply versions of Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) which are suitable for complex-valued data, based on the so-called Wirtinger calculus. It makes possible the formulation of gradient based update rules in the framework of cost-function based Generalized Matrix Relevance LVQ (GMLVQ). Alternatively, we consider the concatenation of real and imaginary parts of Fourier coefficients in a real-valued feature vector and the classification of time domain representations by means of conventional GMLVQ.


As infants get more mobile from the second half of the first year of life the ability to perceive and efficiently respond to colliding objects becomes increasingly important. It is suggested that this ability develops as part of a specialization process as infants get more experienced with self-produced locomotion. The aim of this study was to investigate brain electrical activity in infants aged 5-6 months, 8-9 months and 10-11 months. The infants were presented with a looming stimulus approaching on a direct collision course under three different accelerations. Brain electrical activity was investigated by source analysis. A threedipole model of the visual areas O1, Oz and O2 was fitted around peak looming VEP activity at these sites, providing source waveforms (SWF) as a measure of activity in these areas. Start time, duration and amplitudes of the source waveforms were analyzed on a trial by trial basis. The infants seemed not to distinguish between the three looming conditions. There were significant differences between the three dipoles for start time, duration and amplitudes, indicating that the looming stimuli were processed differently in these areas. Visual Cortex radial Left (VCrL) and Visual Cortex radial Right (VCrR) showed the most prominent activity, with activity in these dipoles starting first and lasting for the longest period of time. Also, amplitudes were higher in these dipoles, indicating more cortical activity. However, a pattern of decreasing processing time with age was observed for VCrL and VCrR, which supports earlier findings of a developmental trend for decreasing processing time within the first year of life. Presumably this is due to better control over self-produced locomotion and increased specialization in the developing infant brain. Whether this decreasing brain activity in infants' perception of looming correlates with behavioural changes should be investigated to get a better understanding of the developing brain and behaviour.


The biogenesis of biological membranes hinges on the coordinated trafficking of membrane lipids between distinct cellular compartments. The bacterial outer membrane enzyme PagP confers resistance to host immune defenses by transferring a palmitate chain from a phospholipid to the lipid A (endotoxin) component of lipopolysaccharide. PagP is an eight-stranded antiparallel β-barrel, preceded by an N-terminal amphipathic α-helix. The active site is localized inside the β-barrel and is aligned with the lipopolysaccharide-containing outer leaflet, but the phospholipid substrates are normally restricted to the inner leaflet of the asymmetric outer membrane. We examined the possibility that PagP activity in vivo depends on the aberrant migration of phospholipids into the outer leaflet. We find that brief addition to Escherichia coli cultures of millimolar EDTA, which is reported to replace a fraction of lipopolysaccharide with phospholipids, rapidly induces palmitoylation of lipid A. Although expression of the E. coli pagP gene is induced during Mg2+ limitation by the phoPQ two-component signal transduction pathway, EDTA-induced lipid A palmitoylation occurs more rapidly than pagP induction and is independent of de novo protein synthesis. EDTA-induced lipid A palmitoylation requires functional MsbA, an essential ATP-binding cassette transporter needed for lipid transport to the outer membrane. A potential role for the PagP α-helix in phospholipid translocation to the outer leaflet was excluded by showing that α-helix deletions are active in vivo. Neither EDTA nor Mg2+-EDTA stimulate PagP activity in vitro. These findings suggest that PagP remains dormant in outer membranes until Mg2+ limitation promotes the migration of phospholipids into the outer leaflet.


'...ever-present, phantom thing; My slave, my comrade, and my king.' Some of Emily Bronte's most extraordinary poems. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Emily Bronte (1818-1848). Bronte's Wuthering Heights and The Complete Poems are available in Penguin Classics


Climate change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century. Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem. Looking to the future, no country — however wealthy or powerful — will be immune to the impact of global warming.The Human Development Report 2007/8 shows that climate change is not just a future scenario. Increased exposure to droughts, floods and storms is already destroying opportunity and reinforcing inequality. Meanwhile, there is now overwhelming scientific evidence that the world is moving towards the point at which irreversible ecological catastrophe becomes unavoidable. Business-as-usual climate change points in a clear direction: unprecedented reversal in human development in our lifetime, and acute risks for our children and their grandchildren.There is a window of opportunity for avoiding the most damaging climate change impacts, but that window is closing: the world has less than a decade to change course. Actions taken — or not taken — in the years ahead will have a profound bearing on the future course of human development. The world lacks neither the financial resources nor the technological capabilities to act. What is missing is a sense of urgency, human solidarity and collective interest.As the Human Development Report 2007/8 argues, climate change poses challenges at many levels. In a divided but ecologically interdependent world, it challenges all people to reflect upon how we manage the environment of the one thing that we share in common: planet Earth. It challenges us to reflect on social justice and human rights across countries and generations. It challenges political leaders and people in rich nations to acknowledge their historic responsibility for the problem, and to initiate deep and early cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Above all, it challenges the entire human community to undertake prompt and strong collective action based on shared values and a shared vision.


Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology is a collection of classic articles by some of the best known proponents of oral history, demonstrating the basics of oral history, while also acting as a guidebook for how to use it in research. Added to this new edition is insight into how oral history is practiced on an international scale, making this book an indispensable resource for scholars of history and social sciences, as well as those interested in oral history on the avocational level. This volume is a reprint of the 1984 edition, with the added bonus of a new introduction by David Dunaway and a new section on how oral history is practiced on an international scale. Selections from the original volume trace the origins of oral history in the United States, provide insights on methodology and interpretation, and review the various approaches to oral history used by folklorists, historians, anthropologists, and librarians, among others. Family and ethnic historians will find chapters addressing the applications of oral history in those fields.


The predictive validity of a treatment readiness measure designed for out-of-treatment drug users, tapping dimensions of perceived problem severity, perceived need for formal treatment, motivation for treatment, and negative attitudes toward treatment is examined using data from a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded HIV outreach intervention in San Antonio, Texas. Logistic regression is used to predict use of substance abuse treatment services three months after program intake on the basis of readiness scores, controlling for demographic and drug history variables. Analyses of data from 673 drug users in an HIV outreach intervention indicated that treatment readiness dimensions accounted for a 12% increase in variation in "use of any modality" and 14% for "use or attempted service use". Only Motivation to Quit was a significant predictor of "use of any modality" and both Perceived Need for Treatment and Motivation to Quit were significant predictors of "use or attempted use". Findings support the importance of the individual's perception of "readiness" to change their substance-abusing behavior and enter treatment.


Tropical forest habitat continues to decline globally, with serious consequences for environmental sustainability. The South/Southeast Asian landscapes represent one of the most challenging parts of the world to study issues of landscape change. High population densities in the region pose major threats to forest cover. Despite presentations of supposedly catastrophic declines in forest cover, substantial areas have been observed to maintain or increase forest cover in recent years. This research draws on data from Nepal, India, Thailand, and Cambodia to examine trajectories of forest-cover change along gradients of deforestation and reforestation. The gradients we observe extend from Cambodia, a still predominantly forested landscape, with development and change at initial stages, to Nepal which, despite having experienced large-scale forest clearing in the past, has considerable reforestation in recent years. Understanding these processes is critical for policymakers working on climate change and adaptation. This research allows us to link national-scale and local-scale analyses, in terms of both their similarities and differences, and also to see changes still in progress via the inclusion of regrowth and degradation classes, not just reforestation and deforestation.