This case looks at the challenges of CEVA Logistics, a Netherlands-headquartered global logistics company, in remaining true to its lean management principles and sustainability commitments through worker-centric operations when trying to meet an important new customer's demanding requirements (Case A) and when trying to attract and retain qualified employees in an unfavourable business environment (Case B).

The case has two sub-cases: Case A focuses on CEVA's dilemma of choosing between a directive and a transformational leadership approach, and Case B focuses on CEVA's struggle to increase its labour force at a time when the logistics industry was undergoing transition due to the changing economic and political situation and the rising trend of automation.

The case is part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) case series, developed by Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University. With a focus on SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), this case is also closely related to SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure). Video learning materials and other resources about these SDGs are available at .


We present a dense reconstruction approach that overcomes the drawbacks of traditional multiview stereo by incorporating semantic information in the form of learned category-level shape priors and object detection. Given training data comprised of 3D scans and images of objects from various viewpoints, we learn a prior comprised of a mean shape and a set of weighted anchor points. The former captures the commonality of shapes across the category, while the latter encodes similarities between instances in the form of appearance and spatial consistency. We propose robust algorithms to match anchor points across instances that enable learning a mean shape for the category, even with large shape variations across instances. We model the shape of an object instance as a warped version of the category mean, along with instance-specific details. Given multiple images of an unseen instance, we collate information from 2D object detectors to align the structure from motion point cloud with the mean shape, which is subsequently warped and refined to approach the actual shape. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our model is general enough to learn semantic priors for different object categories, yet powerful enough to reconstruct individual shapes with large variations. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations show that our framework can produce more accurate reconstructions than alternative state-of-the-art multiview stereo systems.


The elemental composition and in situ decomposition of detritus of Rhizophora apiculata and Enhalus acoroides were studied in mangrove and seagrass bed sediments in the Bangrong man- grove, Phuket, Thailand, and compared with controlled laboratory flux incubations. At the field site detritus was buried in litter-boxes in the sediments and changes in particulate organic carbon and nitrogen in detritus and sediments were followed for up to 2 mo. In the flux incubations the sediments were amended with mangrove and seagrass leaves and rhizomes, and the exchange of oxygen, CO2, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and inorganic nitrogen was measured across the sediment-water interface for 43 d. The decomposition of seagrass leaves was rapid both in situ and in the laboratory, whereas about 40% of the mangrove leaves remained after 43 d, and no decomposition could be detected for the seagrass rhizome detritus. There was an immediate increase in sediment oxygen uptake (SOU) in the seagrass sediments followed by an increase in CO2 production after the addition of detritus, whereas the SOU remained low in the mangrove sediments. The C:N ratios decreased in the carbon-rich mangrove leaves and seagrass rhizome detritus, but increased in the less carbon-rich seagrass leaves during the decomposition. The decrease in C:N ratio was attributed to colonization by bacteria which incorporated nitrogen from the overlying water column or from the indigenous particulate organic nitrogen pool in the sediments. The mineralised carbon from the plant detritus was recovered as CO2, whereas no accumulation or release of DOC was found. The effect of amend- ment with mangrove detritus on the nitrogen fluxes was minor, whereas the uptake of nitrate and release of ammonium was enhanced with the seagrass leaves. About 32 to 36% of the mineralised nitrogen from the seagrass leaves was released across the sediment-water interface, where it became available for primary producers or exported to adjacent ecosystems


This study investigates the effects of varying prosodic boundary strength and lexical stress on domain initial /kl/ clusters in German by means of Electropalatography (EPG). Recordings of 7 subjects were analyzed using temporal and spatial parameters derived from the EPG data. Temporal and spatial parameters show that boundary effects are stronger for the first consonant while in the temporal domain stress affects the second consonant rather than the first. Overlap was found to be greater in unstressed position and at lower prosodic boundaries. Furthermore, /kl/ appears to be more susceptible to stress effects when not preceded by a boundary.


This report explores several hypotheses as to why state and local governments in New England have been spending less on capital investment than the national average, on a normalized basis. Census data show that state and local capital spending in all six New England states was well below the national average between 2000 and 2012, whether measured on a per capita basis, as a share of personal income, or as a share of state and local government spending. To explore why this is so, this report considers how capital spending has changed over time, how capital spending differs by state and across spending category, and the quality and quantity of capital stock in New England's states. The report also considers the relationship between debt issuance and capital spending. The authors find that economic, social, and political characteristics used in previous research are insufficient to fully explain the observed normalized levels of state and local capital spending in the New England states relative to their rates in the national average of all U.S. states. The report does suggest that the relatively large role of state government in New England and government officials' concerns about debt levels may have contributed to lower capital spending.


l‐Theanine (l‐THE) is a nonproteinogenic amino acid derived from green tea (Camellia sinensis), which exhibits strong antioxidant‐like properties and contributes to the favourable umami taste sensation. Several studies have reported that the consumption of this amino acid has many therapeutic effects, including improvements in brain and gastrointestinal function, cancer drug therapeutic efficacies, antihypertensive effects, and improved immune function. Considering the recent Western commercialisation and popularity of green tea consumption as a nootropic agent in humans, the aims of this review were to consolidate the existing knowledge from ex vivo and in vitro animal models and attempt to highlight the applicability of l‐THE towards the human clinical trials. Considering the anti‐inflammatory and antioxidants effects of l‐THE presented in the current review, further research must translate the existing knowledge gained from animal and cell models to exploring the potential metabolic health benefits and moderating effects on the pathogenesis of conditions such as obesity, arthritis, depression, and type 2 diabetes in human trials. This will bridge the gap in literature and provide more insights into the mechanisms driving pathologies characterised by the inflammatory response and oxidative stress.


A study was conducted to determine the influence of different dietary lipid sources on dressing percentage, breast meat yield and breast weight of male broiler birds. Four isoenergetic (15.1 MJ AME/kg DM) and isonitrogenous (222.3 g CP/kg DM) diets were formulated, using high oleic sunflower oil (HO), sunflower oil (SO), fish oil (FO) and tallow (T) at a 60 g/kg dietary inclusion level. Four hundred, day-old Ross 788 broiler males were randomly allocated to the four treatments (n = 100) and further subdivided into four replicates/treatment (n = 25). All birds receive a standard commercial diet for the first 14 days, whereafter the experimental diets were fed for another 28 days. At 42 days of age, three birds/replicate (n = 12/treatment) were randomly selected, weighed and slaughtered at a commercial abattoir. Chilled carcasses (4 °C) were weighed to determine dressing percentage. Breast muscles were removed from the chilled carcasses, skinned and weighed for the calculation of breast meat yield. Breast meat yield were expressed as a percentage of the live body weight as well as carcass weight. This study showed that the broilers fed a diet supplemented with 60 g/kg tallow had a better dressing percentage, breast meat yield and breast weight compared to other treatments. These results suggested that dietary lipid sources could be used to improve certain carcass traits of broilers.


Integral Christian higher education is in vogue. Most Christian institutions of higher education who take their mission seriously make the claim that the education offered to students is one where faith and learning are not separate. It is a belief that their entire educational enterprise is inexorably tied in some way, shape, or form to our new life in Christ. Most engineering programs on Christian campuses are the outgrowth of this perspective. Over the last fifty years, numerous philosophers, writers, scientists, and engineers have developed a solid foundation from which engineering can be understood as an essential calling in the kingdom of God.1 Central to this work has been a revival of the Biblical theme of creation, the mandate for culture formation, and the proclamation of the gospel through engineering work. The dialogue has often focused on developing a Christian motivation for our engineering work rooted in a Biblical understanding of Creation or on defining what constitutes "right" engineering action (ethics, responsibility, morality, witness...) from a Christian perspective. While I applaud these efforts and find this work indispensible for our task in engineering education, our work to date has yet to plumb the depths of another theme that thoroughly pervades scripture. This Biblical theme is the unpredictable, indeterminate, and irrational grace that characterizes life in the kingdom of God. When it comes to engineering education (which seems at home in the systematic and rational environment of laws, rules, regulations, and responsibility), grace is often either relegated to a personal sphere or is conveniently left for elsewhere in the curriculum. If the epoxy of grace is so bound up in the fiber of the kingdom of God and we claim that faith and engineering are not separate, then the trajectories of engineering and grace must somehow intersect. This paper will begin by establishing a biblical hermeneutic for understanding engineering in the light of scripture. It will illustrate from scripture that "grace" is not simply a theological concept or a mechanism for salvation. It is a way of life. Using the work of Christian philosopher Albert Borgmann on technology and grace as a starting point, the paper will explore how grace is woven into our work as engineers. An example of how "grace" might color a course in the engineering curriculum will be presented using an Instrumentation and Control Systems course as an example.


A goal of risk management in construction is to minimize risk exposure and the total cost of risk for a project. To this end, there are a variety of market mechanisms available for transferring risk and/or the financial consequences of a risk realization (e.g., transfer the financial consequences of a risk to an insurance company or use contractual non-insurance risk transfers such as hold harmless agreements to allocate financial responsibility to another party). Unique characteristics of construction risks are examined along with a discussion of which of these risks are insurable and which are not. The advisable risk handling mechanism to use (insurance, non-insurance transfer, retention or self-insurance, or some other technique) is provided Both the construction firm and its client must anticipate potential undesirable event occurrence with initial project planning, and build both downside risk protection and resilience into its risk management strategy. Future emerging technological advances and their impact on construction risks are discussed.


Gesture enabled devices have become so ubiquitous in recent years that commands such as 'pinch to zoom-in on an image' are part of most people's gestural vocabulary. Despite this, gestural interfaces have been used sparingly within the audio industry. The aim of this research project is to evaluate the effectiveness of a gestural interface for the control of audio processing. In particular, the ability of a gestural system to streamline workflow and rationalise the number of control parameters, thus reducing the complexity of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). A literature review of gestural technology explores the ways in which it can improve HCI, before focussing on areas of implementation in audio systems. Case studies of previous research projects were conducted to evaluate the benefits and pitfalls of gestural control over audio. The findings from these studies concluded that the scope of this project should be limited to two-dimensional gestural control. An elicitation of gestural preferences was performed to identify expert-user's gestural associations. This data was used to compile a taxonomy of gestures and their most widely-intuitive parameter mappings. A novel interface was then produced using a popular tablet-computer. This facilitated the control of equalisation, compression and gating. Objective testing determined the performance of the gestural interface in comparison to traditional WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) techniques, thus producing a benchmark for the system under test. Further testing is carried out to observe the effects of graphic user interfaces (GUIs) in a gestural system, in particular the suitability of skeuomorphic (knobs and faders) designs in modern DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). A novel visualisation method, deemed more suitable for gestural interaction, is proposed and tested.
Semantic descriptors are explored as a means of further improving the speed and usability of gestural interfaces, through the simultaneous control of multiple parameters. This rationalisation of control moves towards the implementation of gestural shortcuts and 'continuous pre-sets'.


Ages 2 to 12 years. Since 1985, the "Teach Me..." series has been embraced by teachers, parents and children alike because of its innovative, inviting and fun approach to foreign language learning. Knowing that music is a universal means of communication, the award-winning "Teach Me..." books use familiar songs to teach children the fundamentals of foreign language vocabulary, the alphabet, numbers and colours, days of the week and much more. Available in 10 languages, this series offers the ideal method for teaching children a foreign language. It's a fun, easy and engaging style of educating children through music!


A new trend in e-learning development is to have subject matter experts use rapid development tools to create training simulations. This type of training is called rapid e-learning simulation training. Though companies are using rapid development tools to create training quickly and cost effectively, there is little empirical research to indicate whether training created in this manner meets the needs of learners. The purpose of this study was to compare user responses to rapid e-learning simulation training to user responses receiving instructor-led training. The target population for this study was employees of a medium size private company in North America. Employees were divided into two groups and either received instructor-led training (comparison group) or received rapid e-learning simulation training (experimental group). The instrument used to measure user response was an adaptation of the technology acceptance model. Three variables were measured: training satisfaction, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness. Though no statistical significance was found between the two groups for training satisfaction and perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use was found to be statistically significant. Overall results fail to demonstrate the superiority of rapid e-learning simulation training over instructor-led training; however, this study indicates that rapid e-learning simulation training may be a viable substitute for classroom instruction based on user response.


This is an investigative paper based on human Resources Management deals with the enhancement of motivation levels of the organization's internal customer such that the per capita increase in effectiveness and efficiency levels of production (of goods and services) is brought about in such a way that the external customer's needs are more than adequately satisfied. This is therefore far more than what conventional personnel management aimed at and conventional industrial relations forms a sub-function of this specialization. It is argued that the per capita increase inefficiency and effectiveness is not possible to be brought about unless the self-perception of the internal customer is enhanced. The internal customer must begin to believe in herself/himself and thereby bring about a qualitative and quantitative improvement in the role fulfillment process itself. It is one of the principle tasks of HRM intervention to make this happen. This paper is to find out high attrition in the software industry is principally because technocrats do not have a sense of belongingness with the organization. It is wrong, we argue, to say that their loyalty lies with technology as some CEOs claim. Their loyalty is to their values and technology forms a part of their value framework. As long as their values are in consonance with the values of the organization they will stay on. If the two sets of values are at variance they will either change their own values or quit. With a receptive labor market the second option is found to be a better one to adopt for these young technocrats.This microeconomic reality had to contend with a post 1990 macroeconomic realism, which took the shape of liberalized markets, privatized means of production and globalize competition. The macroeconomic reality expected organizations to operate on the cutting edge of technology. The executives employed therein were expected to be effective and efficient thereby affording the much needed competitive edge. They are asked by their employers (to use Tom Peters' euphemism) to thrive in chaos. Faced with this macroeconomic need to perform better, the executive looked upon infrastructure to support him. That was conspicuous by its absence. What was present was a general air of anomie that pervaded the city alongside of a general atmosphere of belligerence to all forms of organized development born out of years of retarded capitalism of this socio-cultural malaise there were sprouting all sorts of fundamentalist organizations, which evoked all forms of metaphysical constructs without an adequate philosophical basis. Religion was reduced to vulgarized ritual at best and politicized power grabbing at worst. A veil that was so thick that one could not see the wood for the trees. Blind belief and dogma shrouded the greatness of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Priesthood (irrespective of religion) had become to many a means of continued and assured employment rather than an act of faith. Politicians exploited this situation wherever possible. Hence full political mileage was made from the most trivial of events by invoking either the wrath of God or the appeal to Bernard Shaw's middle class morality, and that too of a retarded variety. But the organizations had to thrive and succeed, for which they depended on their executives to deliver. Society registered development less growth and there was a crying need to de-school society (using Ivan Illych's term). Everyone we spoke to agreed but who would bell the cat was the million-dollar question.


Objective To assess the efficacy of combined use of scorpion antivenom (SAV) with prazosin, compared with prazosin alone in children with Mesobuthus tamulus scorpion envenomation. Study design Randomised controlled trial. Setting A tertiary care hospital in south India. Patients 50 children with definite history and/or systemic manifestations of scorpion envenomation were recruited from the paediatric emergency or outpatient department from February 2012 to July 2013. Interventions The children were randomised into two groups. In 25 children, SAV was administrated as a slow intravenous bolus combined with prazosin (group A). Others received prazosin alone (group B). Results were analysed by Student t test and χ2 test. Main outcome measures Time required for resolution of autonomic symptoms, total dose of prazosin, adverse events. Results Children in group A recovered earlier than those in group B (mean difference 9.1 h, 95% CI 6.0 to 12.2). 23 children (92%) in group A were clear of autonomic symptoms within 10 h, compared with 10 children (40%) in group B (mean difference 52%, 95% CI 29% to 75%). The proportion of children deteriorating to clinical grade 3 or 4 was 8% in group A as against 44% in group B (p<0.01). The mean dose of prazosin required was 54 µg/kg versus 130.8 µg/kg in group A and B, respectively (p<0.01). SAV was not associated with severe adverse reactions. Conclusions Usage of SAV led to faster recovery and reduced the incidence of myocardial dysfunction. Combined therapy with SAV and prazosin is beneficial for children with M tamulus scorpion envenomation. Trial registration number: CTRI/2013/09/004002 (Clinical Trials Registry of India).


This study focuses on the assessment of the degradation processes occurr ing in three sandstone infills of fossilized Late Jurassic ornithopod tridactyl footprints, found in 2001 in a coastline cliff in Porto das Barcas (Lourinha, Portugal) and exhibited in a museum display since 2004. These dinosaur footprints present nowadays severe decay phenomena compromising their physical integrity and leading gradually to their loss of value. The deterioration patterns were recorded, a map of their distribution was prepared and several samples were collected both in the dinosaur footprints and in the coastline cliff. Different analytical procedures were applied such as XRD, FTIR, FESEM and Ion Chromatography. A microclimatic survey was also performed and air temperature and relative humidity were measured during eight months both indoors and also outdoors. The decay patterns observed are a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors: the stone material, namely the swelling of clay minerals in the rock matrix(smectite and chlorite-smectite mixed-layer), the presence of salts (mainly chlor ides), the application of past conservation treatments (poly(vinyl) acetate and epoxy resins) and the indoor thermohygrometric conditions (mainly non -stable hygrometric conditions) of the museum. This scientific knowledge is therefore essential to the sust ainable preservation of this paleontological heritage.


This work considers micas present both as phenocrysts in granular xenoliths and as large xenocrysts in the phreatomag-matic deposits, which characterize the final volcanic activity of Colli Albani volcanic complex, Roman Comagmatic Region (central Italy). In these micas the Fe/(Fe+Mg) ratio spans from 0.06 to 0.55, thus the micas range from phlogopite to magnesian annite through ferroan phlogopite. Heterovalent octahedral substitutions involve Ti, Al and also Cr but in very limited amounts. In the interlayer, Ba for K substitution occurs up to 0.06 apfu. Crystal structure refinements were determined in space groups C 2/m and C 2/c for the 1M and 2M 1 polytypes, respectively (agreement factor, R obs : 0.021 ≤ R obs ≤ 0.035). The crystal structure of these micas is greatly affected by the annitic substitution. An increase in the annitic component is reflected by a decrease in distortion affecting both individual tetrahedra (tetrahedral angle variance, TAV: 0.49 ≤ TAV ≤ 1.13° 2 ) and the entire tetrahedral ring [6.6 ≤ α ≤ 10.34°]. The interlayer topology is affected as well. A strong correlation exists between Fe and Ti; thus, the same correlations found for Fe apply to Ti also. Another strong correlation exists between heterovalent octahedral substitutions and the (OH)- site deprotonation. In contrast, heterovalent interlayer substitutions are accompanied by substitution of F- for (OH)-. Despite their scattered occurrence in pyroclastics, these micas nicely represent the overall crystal chemical trends of micas, which re-crystallized undisturbed in magma before this reached explosive conditions. One crystal of the dataset considered may represent a phenocryst in a hypabissal body disrupted by one of the many explosive phases of the Alban Hills volcanism.


This comprehensive survey deals with the melt-growth process and characterization of the novel class of ternary materials, (Nd,Sm,Gd)Ba2Cu3Oy 'NSG-123'. Microstructure observations by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the presence of sub-micron secondary phase (RE2BaCuO5, 211) particles uniformly dispersed in the 123 matrix that enhance flux pinning at low fields and improve the performance of this material. The energy-resolved TEM-EDX analysis clarified that small particles consist mainly of Gd2BaCuO5 'Gd-211', irrespective of the initially added secondary phase (Gd-211 or NSG-211). Dark-field TEM observations showed that the NSG-123 matrix had a high density of RE-rich RE1+xBa2−xCu3Oy (RE-123ss) clusters 3–10 nm in size. These small clusters enhance pinning at intermediate fields. The scaling analyses of the volume pinning force density at 77 K made on NSG-123 samples with varying 211 contents of various secondary phases showed the secondary peak at normalized fields as high as 0.45, which might indicate the activation of ΔTc pinning mechanism. Trapped field measurements proved that silver was the key element to improve the mechanical strength of NSG-123 materials. Record trapped-field values at high magnetic fields can be obtained at 77 K with appropriately large sized NSG-123 samples.


14 strains of Penicillium species were isolated from different localities and habitats from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and cultivated on two different media: Czapek Dox's medium, in which NaNO3 is the source of inorganic nitrogen, and Waksman's medium, in which pepton is the source of organic nitrogen. Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) technique was used in this study to distinguish these isolates. The Penicillium isolates examined in this study consisted of six Penicillium species: Penicillium corylophilum (three isolates), P. rubrum (one isolate), P. citrinum (two isolates), P. crustosum (one isolate), P. canesens (six isolates) and Penicillium sp. (one isolate). The electrophoretic protein patterns from Penicillium isolates grown on Czapek Dox's medium revealed the presence of 17 different bands (out of 14 polymorphic bands, there were three monomorphic bands and two unique bands). The electrophoretic protein pattern of the same isolates grown on Waksman's medium revealed the presence of 12 different bands (out of eight polymorphic bands, there were four monomorphic bands and one unique band). Data were analysed by a clustering method and similarity coefficients using NTSYSpc version 2.02i. Two different phenograms were produced for the studied Penicillium species based on the analysis of the protein banding patterns. Data from the protein banding patterns produced from both media were combined and analysed to produce third phenogram, and the relationships between the species and isolates are discussed. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijasbt.v2i3.10949 Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol. 2(3): 283-290


This stunning new book, arranged alphabetically by subject areas, captures the essence of the successful Flint Faience Tile Company's highly diversified production between 1921-33 in Flint, Michigan. The history of this ceramic tile company, its major designers, and the designs and styles of its products are woven throughout a tapestry of more than 825 color photos illustrating both rare and popular tiles. Showcased are Art Deco and Arts & Crafts style tiles, animal and nursery rhyme designs, geometric motifs, plants and flowers, dramatic murals, and much more. Many sections feature photo documentation of these collectible tiles installed in homes, schools, churches, restaurants, swimming pools, and more. Present day values are provided in the captions. This fascinating and informative A to Z collector's book is a valuable addition to the library resources of any tile and ceramics collector or maker.


Intellectual disability (ID) is a common disability affecting 2–3% of the general population. X-linked intellectual disability (XLID) disorders, caused by the defects of genes on the X chromosome, affect 1.7 of 1000 males. Patients with XLID require long-term family involvement, medical care and social services with enormous attendant burden and cost.

XLID is a medically important and biologically significant group of disorders for which the prospects for further progress on the understanding of their molecular basis have improved with advances in technological approaches. As such, worldwide efforts over the past 25 years have identified 124 XLID genes involved in 124 XLID syndromes and 53 nonsyndromal XLID conditions. About 70% these genes fall into three categories of biological process or function: structural molecule, catalytic activity or transcription regulatory activity. In-depth analysis of the genes will assist with understanding not only XLID but also cognitive function and brain function in general.

Key Concepts

XLID conditions can be partitioned into two broad categories: syndromal and nonsyndromal
Molecular analysis allows for splitting XLID conditions thought to be similar
Molecular analysis allows for determining distinct XLID entities are allelic
XLID proteins fall into 3–4 major categories of function
Better understanding of XLID gene function may lead to treatment therapies

Keywords:

X-linked intellectual disability (XLID);
nonsyndromal XLID;
gene classification;
human evolution


Cognitive radios (CR) are regarded as a viable solution to enabling flexible use of the frequency spectrum in future generations of wireless systems by taking advantage of spectrum holes, that is idle frequency bands not actively used by primary users (PU) for licensed transmissions. The actual utilization of a spectrum hole is determined by its duration (implied by the time interval between two PU transmissions) as well as by the time needed to detect it through a spectrum sensing procedure. In this paper we propose a new method for adapting the duration of the spectrum sensing window that improves the probability of detection of the spectrum holes as well as their actual utilization. The proposed method is illustrated with numerical results obtained from simulations which show that both the spectrum sensing performance (evaluated in terms of the probabilities of detection and false alarm) and the hole utilization are improved when compared to a scheme with fixed sensing window length.


STUDY OBJECTIVES To examine associations between five measures of housing conditions during childhood and subsequent mortality from all causes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer. DESIGN Historical cohort study. SETTING Data on housing conditions were collected from survey centres in 16 areas of England and Scotland. PARTICIPANTS Children of families participating in the Carnegie Survey of Family Diet and Health in pre-war Britain (1937–1939). Analyses are based on a subset of 4168 people who were traced and alive on 1 January 1948. MAIN RESULTS Poorer housing conditions were generally associated with increased adult mortality. After adjustment for childhood and adult socioeconomic factors, statistically significant associations were only found between lack of private indoor tapped water supply and increased mortality from coronary heart disease (hazard ratio 1.73, (95% CI 1.13, 2.64); and between poor ventilation and overall mortality (hazard ratio for people from households with poorest ventilation relative to best ventilation 1.30, 95% CI 0.97, 1.74). CONCLUSIONS This study provides evidence that associations between housing conditions in childhood and mortality from common diseases in adulthood are not strong, but are in some respects distinguishable from those of social deprivation.


We present new data showing that normal IgG immune responses comprise the production of two kinds of antibodies, namely anti-foreign and anti-anti-self antibodies. For example, immunization of C3H mice by two rounds of BL/6 skin grafting results in the production of anti-BL/6 antibodies plus antiidiotypic antibodies (C3H anti-anti-C3H) with the latter being detected using antibodies produced in a BL/6 anti-C3H immune response. Similarly, the IgG immune response of C3H mice to tetanus toxoid includes the production of C3H anti-anti-C3H antibodies. Antigen-specific antibodies produced in one alloimmunization plus antiidiotypic antibodies produced in the converse immunization can be used to synergistically induce specific tolerance. We show that infusions of anti-BL/6 antibodies together with BL/6 anti-anti-BL/6 antibodies specifically suppress an immune response to BL/6 lymphocytes in C3H mice. Specific tolerance was measured as suppression of the induction of BL/6-specific cytotoxic T cells. The two kinds of antibodies with complementary specificity are believed to stimulate two populations of T lymphocytes, and co-selection (mutual selection) of these two populations leads to a new stable steady state of the system that has specifically diminished reactivity to BL/6 tissue. Stimulation with a combination of anti-C3H and C3H anti-anti-C3H IgG antibodies furthermore down-regulates inflammation in a mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease. An analogous combination of C3H anti-BL/6 and BL/6 anti-anti-BL/6 antibodies significantly down-regulates tumour growth and metastases in BALB/c mice in the EMT6 transplantable breast cancer model. We conclude that a combination of certain antigen-specific and antiidiotypic antibodies has potential as a new class of vaccines based on the symmetrical immune network theory. This new kind of vaccine does not involve the production of antibodies. The prevention of two important degenerative diseases makes this a potential anti-aging technology.


Abstract Livestock depredation by large carnivores is a global conservation challenge, and mitigation measures to reduce livestock losses are crucial for the coexistence of large carnivores and people. Various measures are employed to reduce livestock depredation but their effectiveness has rarely been tested. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of tall fences to reduce livestock losses to snow leopards Panthera uncia and wolves Canis lupus at night-time corrals at the winter camps of livestock herders in the Tost Mountains in southern Mongolia. Self-reported livestock losses at the fenced corrals were reduced from a mean loss of 3.9 goats and sheep per family and winter prior to the study to zero losses in the two winters of the study. In contrast, self-reported livestock losses in winter pastures, and during the rest of the year, when herders used different camps, remained high, which indicates that livestock losses were reduced because of the fences, not because of temporal variation in predation pressure. Herder attitudes towards snow leopards were positive and remained positive during the study, whereas attitudes towards wolves, which attacked livestock also in summer when herders moved out on the steppes, were negative and worsened during the study. This study showed that tall fences can be very effective at reducing night-time losses at corrals and we conclude that fences can be an important tool for snow leopard conservation and for facilitating the coexistence of snow leopards and people.


Datasets often contain biases which unfairly disadvantage certain groups, and classifiers trained on such datasets can inherit these biases. In this paper, we provide a mathematical formulation of how this bias can arise. We do so by assuming the existence of underlying, unknown, and unbiased labels which are overwritten by an agent who intends to provide accurate labels but may have biases against certain groups. Despite the fact that we only observe the biased labels, we are able to show that the bias may nevertheless be corrected by re-weighting the data points without changing the labels. We show, with theoretical guarantees, that training on the re-weighted dataset corresponds to training on the unobserved but unbiased labels, thus leading to an unbiased machine learning classifier. Our procedure is fast and robust and can be used with virtually any learning algorithm. We evaluate on a number of standard machine learning fairness datasets and a variety of fairness notions, finding that our method outperforms standard approaches in achieving fair classification.


Males' greater propensity for antisocial (i.e., externalizing) behavior has been well documented. Because males and females generally have evidenced negligible differences in moral judgment stage, we investigated whether the gender discrepancy in antisocial behavior might be attributable to gender differences in other moral cognitive variables, specifically, moral self-relevance and self-serving cognitive distortion. The sample included 88 male and 105 female college students aged 16 to 19 years. In multiple regression analyses, moral judgment and moral self-relevance correlated negatively, and self-serving cognitive distortion correlated positively with antisocial behavior. Path analysis revealed that mature moral judgment and higher moral self-relevance were associated with lower levels of self-serving cognitive distortion, which partially mediated the relationship between those variables and antisocial behavior. Relationships among the moral cognitive variables and antisocial behavior did not vary by gender. Although the genders did not differ in moral judgment stage, females evidenced greater moral self-relevance, less self-serving cognitive distortion, and less antisocial behavior. The implications of these findings for moral developmental theory and the treatment of antisocial behavior are discussed.


This project seeks to provide historical context for the modern revival of avowed socialism in America through an examination of Eugene V. Debs leadership of American Socialism from 1895 to 1921. The paper argues that Debs' leadership of American socialism was unsuccessful because he left the critical task of convincing the American people that the ideology of Socialism is correct and fundamentally different from traditionalism, capitalism, and progressivism, incomplete. Reform Socialism did not distinguish itself from local progressivism, and revolutionary Socialism adopted violent, opportunistic methods which prevented broad support. Debs' unique ideology of Founding ideals, faith in democracy, and total societal transformation stood in the middle of these factions, offering distinction without danger. Unfortunately, Debs permitted party infighting and spent his energies in unwinnable Presidential campaigns. This research hopefully provides insight about the uniquely American challenges and circumstances relating to Socialism, relevant as avowed Socialism has appeared in America once again through Bernie Sanders. Sanders falls into the category of reform Socialism, slowly winning municipal and Congressional elections and fostering Socialism's positive image. To establish Socialism as a legitimate political entity, Sanders must move farther to the left, to ensure that the mainstream Democratic candidates do not appropriate the idea of free college without accepting its Socialist ideology. Still, Sanders might find himself, like Debs, awkwardly positioned between reformers and revolutionaries, unable to convince America that the idea of abolishing private property will create utopia.


In the current study, parameter tuning is performed for two evolutionary optimization techniques, Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy and Topological Species Conservation. They are applied for three multimodal benchmark functions with various properties and several outputs are considered. A data set with input parameters and metaheuristic outcomes is used for training four surrogate models. They are then each used by a genetic algorithm that is employed for searching the best parameter settings for the initial approaches. The genetic algorithm uses the model outputs as the direct fitness evaluation and only the best found parameter setting is tested within the original metaheuristics. Each model quality is priory evaluated, but they are all subsequently used in the search process to observe how the (in)accuracy influences the final result. Additionally, the genetic algorithm is used for tuning these approaches directly to test if the search conducts to the same parameter set, or at least close to it.


It sounds rather odd to say that digital artifacts -- like software -- have material properties because people generally think of materials or materiality as physical substances such as wood, steel, and stone. Yet scholars increasingly talk about the "materiality" of digital artifacts. What do they mean? In this paper, I explore two definitions of the adjective "material" -- practical instantiation and significance -- in addition to its normal connotation as matter. I argue that treating materiality as the practical instantiation of theoretical ideas (like policies that allow women to vote help make material the idea that sexes are equal) or as what is significant in the explanation of a given context (like material evidence in a courtroom trial) provides a more useful framework for understanding how digital artifacts affect the process of organizing. I contend that moving away from linking materiality to notions of physical substance or matter may help scholars of technology integrate their work more centrally with studies of discourse, routine, institutions and other phenomena that lie at the core of organization theory, specifically, and social theory more broadly.


In this highly illustrated book, a team of internationally renowned scholars surveys the greatest of Asia's empires from 800 AD to the mid-20th century, from the Far East to the fringes of Europe. "The Great Empires of Asia" shows how those seven empires played a key role in forming todays global civilization. Illuminated by maps showing the growth of each empire and lists of key events, this book will be of interest to students, historians and everybody concerned with understanding the role of Asia in todays world.


The degrees of freedom of any interacting quantum field theory are entangled in momentum space. Thus, in the vacuum state, the infrared degrees of freedom are described by a density matrix with an entanglement entropy. We derive a relation between this density matrix and the conventional Wilsonian effective action. We argue that the entanglement entropy of and mutual information between subsets of field theoretic degrees of freedom at different momentum scales are natural observables in quantum field theory and demonstrate how to compute these in perturbation theory. The results may be understood heuristically based on the scale-dependence of the coupling strength and number of degrees of freedom. We measure the rate at which entanglement between degrees of freedom declines as their scales separate and suggest that this decay is related to the property of decoupling in quantum field theory.


In this paper, we propose a novel framework to estimate the parameters of a diffeomorphism that aligns a known shape and its distorted observation. Classical registration methods first establish correspondences between the shapes and then compute the transformation parameters from these landmarks. Herein, we trace back the problem to the solution of a system of nonlinear equations which directly gives the parameters of the aligning transformation. The proposed method provides a generic framework to recover any diffeomorphic deformation without established correspondences. It is easy to implement, not sensitive to the strength of the deformation, and robust against segmentation errors. The method has been applied to several commonly used transformation models. The performance of the proposed framework has been demonstrated on large synthetic data sets as well as in the context of various applications.


The article examines different ways in which the research of material culture is relevant for digital games. It is argued that despite the wide adoption of digital distribution, material culture still registers as a significant component of the overall gaming culture. The paper compiles a collection of different research areas relevant for the study of games and materiality. In order to better contextualize the different research approaches, the framework is applied to Angry Birds (Rovio 2009). The different approaches, ranging from platform studies and political economy to merchandizing and collecting, highlight how a seemingly small, digitally distributed mobile game still manages to connect with multiple facets of material culture in significant ways.


ABSTRACT The geopolitical location of the Baltic Sea region between the Russian heartland and the Atlantic Ocean has shaped developments in this part of Europe for at least a millennium. The traditional narrative in the Baltic Sea tells of hegemonic powers succeeding each other in a continuous struggle to control trade routes and exclude non-littoral powers, from the Vikings to Tsarist Russia. Since industrialization, war and military tension in the Baltic Sea have reflected European and global great power rivalries more than regional tensions. While the hegemonic powers in the Baltic Sea have changed repeatedly through the centuries, infrastructure and terrain in the region have always been unfavourable to the large-scale projection of military power, giving a defender the upper hand. Now, the increased range and accuracy of modern weapon systems seem to have changed that. Moreover, climatic changes expected in the coming century may transform the geopolitical environment even further.


In 1995, we were commissioned to conduct research on the impact of family businesses on the U.S. economy. A search of all relevant research led to the conclusion that the majority of existing data relating to family businesses' economic contributions were not grounded in empirical research, and the definitions used to distinguish family businesses from other enterprises were ambiguous or non-existent. In 1996, we published a paper providing a framework for assessing the economic impact of family businesses across three ranges, defined by the degree of family involvement in the businesses. This paper revisits that research and updates and improves the original findings based on more recent data.


ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to examine factors associated with Malignant Mesothelioma (MM) incidence rate of the groups with occupational asbestos and environmental asbestos or erionite exposure in rural area. In this ecological study, a total of 21 cohort datasets (8 environmental and 13 occupational) were evaluated. Data were analyzed using a multiple linear regression analysis model. In environmental cohorts, the risk of MM incidence was higher in women and people exposed to erionite. In this cohort, the incidence rate of MM increased as the median exposure time increased, while the incidence decreased as the median cumulative exposure dose increased. In occupational cohorts, the incidence rate of MM was positively correlated with the median cumulative exposure dose. The risk of mesothelioma was lower in those exposed to tremolite than others. Environmental asbestos exposure is as important as occupational exposure to develop MM, and it has its own unique exposure features on the risk of MM.


On Being With Others is an outstanding exploration of this key philosophical question. Simon Glendinning shows how traditional positions in the philosophy of mind can do little to rebuff the accusation that in fact we have little claim to have knowledge of minds other than our own. On Being With Others sets out to refute this charge and disentangle many of the confusions in contemporary philosophy of mind and language that have led to such scepticism. Simon Glendinning explores why early attempts by J.L. Austin and Martin Heidegger to refute scepticism about other minds failed and argues that we must turn to Wittgenstein in order to build a solid theory of other minds. Drawing on the celebrated debate between John Searle and Jacques Derrida, Simon Glendinning establishes fascinating and important links between controversies in the philosophy of mind, language and epistemology.


A progrowth signal can mediate feedback that reduces cell proliferation and stem cell self-renewal. This Podcast features an interview with Stephen Nimer, senior author of a Research Article published in the 23 October 2012 issue of Science Signaling. Nimer discusses his group's finding that Akt signaling stimulates expression of the Ink4a-Arf locus, which encodes the cell cycle regulator p16 and the tumor suppressor p19. The kinase Akt, which is activated by growth signals and is often activated in cancer cells, phophorylated the transcriptional silencer Bmi1 to cause it to dissociate from the Ink4a-Arf locus. The resulting increase in abundance of p16 and p19 led to decreased cell proliferation, tumor growth, and self-renewal of stem and progenitor cells. Therefore, in addition to mediating growth signaling, Akt can also initiate a feedback loop that counteracts growth signaling.


Magnetic resonance in metamaterials is basically formed by an optically induced current loop that, when arranged in a specific order, can exhibit exotic features. In this work, we numerically study the magnetic-resonance-associated optical characteristics in strongly coupled plasmonic nanodisks, which are shown to support various magnetic resonances for vertical polarization (E-field out of the disk plane). To identify these modes, which are essentially relevant to the optically induced current loops, we calculate the optical spectrum, the radiation powers from multipole moments, and the resonant magnetic field pattern. It is shown that the lowest-order resonances are sequentially magnetic dipole mode, magnetic quadrupole mode, and toroidal mode. The surface charge density, the induced current density, and the magnetic near-field are carefully examined for these modes, which show that these modes are quite differently located in both spectrum and real space, bearing distinct symmetry nature. In view of that, we introduce a concentric and nonconcentric air hole in the disks, as a small perturbation, to tune their resonance. It is found that both the radii of the air hole and its position are capable to shift the resonant frequencies. However, their impacts are interestingly distinct with respect to the mode order. These results can provide a useful way to adjust the optical properties of the metamaterials constructed by double disks.


MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS Human Rights in the Arab World: Independent Voices, ed. by Anthony Chase and Amr Hamzawy. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. 199 pages. Appends, to p. 282. Notes to p. 309. Contribs. to p. 313. Index to p. 322. $65. Reviewed by Amy Hawthorne This dense volume is not an easy read. Indeed, any book that engages deeply with the unhappy topic of human rights in the Arab world could not be. Nonetheless, it is an original and outstanding contribution to the literature on human rights in the region. The book comprises 11 chapters by leading Arab, American, and European scholars and human rights activists, who explore the struggle for human rights from theoretical and empirical perspectives. Introductory chapters examine the debate in the region over the meaning of human rights: Are they universal, reflecting global (some say "Western") norms? Or are they contextual, determined wholly by Islamic norms and Arab cultural values? Or some combination of both? This debate is fierce because it is intertwined with the broader struggle over Arab and Muslim identity and the region's relationship with the West. Subsequent chapters examine strategies used by Arab human rights groups (e.g., bringing lawsuits in the courts, raising public awareness) and the dilemmas they face (e.g., whether to accept funds from Western donors, whether to defend all victims of human rights abuses, notably Islamist extremists who seek to deny the rights of others). This multidimensional analysis produces an unusually richly textured picture of the Arab human rights movement. Indeed, a central theme of the book is that a genuine movement exists. As Anthony Chase writes, "... human rights are on the intellectual and public agenda ... the human rights debate is part of the Arab world's everyday political conversation" (p. 3). The book traces the movement's evolution, from its intellectual stirrings following the 1967 Arab defeat by Israel, which leftist intellectuals blamed in part on the absence of political freedoms; to the establishment of human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the 1980s; to the movement's expansion and professionalization in the 1990s; to the more recent adoption of human rights discourse by some Arab regimes and mainstream Islamist groups. The book's second main theme is the failure of this movement to achieve any significant gains. Some contributors attribute this to government repression and Western indifference, while others point to the challenge of fighting both illiberal regimes and illiberal Islamist groups. The most common explanation, however, blames the movement itself. It has failed - indeed it has not seriously tried - to build a grassroots constituency. …


We report on the mask-less integration of GaAs crystals several microns in size on patterned Si substrates by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. The lattice parameter mismatch is bridged by first growing 2-μm-tall intermediate Ge mesas on 8-μm-tall Si pillars by low-energy plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. We investigate the morphological evolution of the GaAs crystals towards full pyramids exhibiting energetically stable {111} facets with decreasing Si pillar size. The release of the strain induced by the mismatch of thermal expansion coefficients in the GaAs crystals has been studied by X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence measurements. The strain release mechanism is discussed within the framework of linear elasticity theory by Finite Element Method simulations, based on realistic geometries extracted from scanning electron microscopy images.


This small longitudinal study investigated oral task-based interaction in an undergraduate EFL classroom in Japan. First, descriptive quantitative data related to language-related episodes (LREs) and other contextual data from four focal learners and their partners (N = 8) in two oral presentation tasks were quantified to provide insights into the amount and effectiveness of learner-generated focus on form in a Japanese university context. Next, a qualitative microanalysis of one learner's interaction with partners of similar proficiency on two similar tasks, separated by a period of seven months, was conducted to investigate influences of context. Much as in previous studies, there was little focus on form in interaction and there was much variability across dyads. Qualitative analysis revealed that the effectiveness of FOF in interaction and performance may have been influenced by the learners' shared background (including L1 use), individual differences in terms of engagement in LREs, learners' perceptions of each other's language proficiency, and other interpersonally negotiated features of the interaction. The chapter concludes with suggestions for awareness-raising activities which may improve the effectiveness of task-based learner-generated FOF in foreign language settings.


The current work examines the filtration of both charged and uncharged NaCl nanoparticles in the size range of 2.5–20 nm on grounded metal filters and meshes, and on plastic mesh. The methodology thus allows electrostatic and other effects to be differentiated from true thermal rebound effects (Wang and Kasper 1991). The work also compares measurements under identical conditions made with a number of different condensation particle counters, and a number of different experimental methodologies, in order to allow exclusion of certain measurement errors from the results. It was found that even for particle sizes as small as 2.5 nm there was no measurable deviation from the classical single-fiber-efficiency theory. This conflicts with recently published work (Balazy et al. 2004) which claimed that the thermal bounce of nanometer sized aerosol particles begins to occur at a much larger particle size than previously thought. However, peculiarities or artifacts in CPC counting efficiency at small particle sizes were found during experiments which could account for such observations reported in previous work.


Xu et al. used human cell lines that expressed inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) under the control of regulated promoters to investigate the effects of inhibiting mitochondrial respiration with nitric oxide (NO), which competes with oxygen for cytochrome c oxidase. NO, acting independently of soluble guanylate kinase activity, stimulated the expression of glucose-regulated protein 78 (Grp78), an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident chaperone protein whose expression is enhanced as part of the ER stress response. The authors used Western analysis to show that NO produced an increase in the amount of the soluble transcription factor p50 ATF6, which has been implicated in the regulation of Grp78 expression. ATF6 is generated through a calcium-dependent process involving regulated intramembranous proteolysis. NO-dependent stimulation of p50 ATF6 production and of Grp78 expression was attenuated in cells depleted of intracellular calcium by exposure to a calcium ionophore in the absence of extracellular calcium. NO protected against cytotoxicity produced by the ER calcium ATPase inhibitor thapsigargin, and this protection (as well as the increase in Grp78 mRNA) was abrogated by silencing two serine proteases involved in the proteolytic generation of p50 ATF6 with siRNA. Both an intracellular calcium chelator and cyclosporin A (which interferes with mitochondrial calcium signaling) reduced NO-dependent ATF6 cleavage and prevented the NO-dependent increase in Grp78 and protection from thapsigargin cytotoxicity. Thus, the authors propose that NO-dependent inhibition of mitochondrial respiration affects calcium signaling between the mitochondria and the ER, thereby stimulating production of p50 ATF6 and thus of genes involved in the ER stress response. W. Xu, L. Liu, I. G. Charles, S. Moncada, Nitric oxide induces coupling of mitochondrial signalling with the endoplasmic reticulum stress response. Nat. Cell Biol. 6, 1129-1134 (2004). [Online Journal]


We assess the causes of adult sex ratio skew in marine pelagic copepods by examining changes in these ratios between the juveniles and adults, sexual differences in juvenile stage durations, and mortality rates of adults in the field and laboratory (when free from predators). In the field, late copepodite stages (CIV and CV) commonly have sex ratios that are either not significantly different from equity (1 : 1), or slightly male biased. By contrast, in adults, these ratios are commonly significantly biased toward female dominance. Sex ratio skews are therefore primarily attributable to processes in adults. Members of the non‐Diaptomoidea have especially skewed adult ratios; in the members Oithonidae and Clausocalanidae this is not generated from differences between male and female adult physiological longevity (i.e., laboratory longevity when free of predators). In the genera Acartia, Oithona, and Pseudocalanus, we estimate that predation mortality contributed ≥ 69% of the field mortality rate in adult males, whereas in Acartia, Oithona, and Calanus adult females, this is ≥ 36%.We conclude that (1) adult sex ratio skew in pelagic copepods is primarily due to differential mortality of the sexes in the adult stage and not in juveniles, (2) mortality rates of adult Acartia, Pseudocalanus, and Oithona are dominated by predation mortality rather than physiological longevity (except under extreme food limitation), and (3) in Pseudocalanus and Oithona, elevated mortality rates in adult males to females is predominantly due to higher predation on males. Our work demonstrates that we now need to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the importance of feeding preferences in predators.


Among the Lelet of central New Ireland (Papua New Guinea), a dramatic increase in Pentecostalist fervor has produced significant changes in dreaming. Traditionally, the Lelet have valued dreaming as a means of access to knowledge and power. Now it is seen as a gift bestowed by the Holy Spirit, giving access to new and different forms of knowledge and power. Pentecostalism lays down many rules of conduct for the avoidance of sin, and dreams now play a role in policing them. Drawing on Michel Foucault's work on governmentality, I find that Lelet dreaming acts as a form of self-scrutiny, reminding dreamers of the need to rectify their failures to follow Pentecostal precepts. Beyond this, dreams enable people to address the dilemmas that emerge when they embrace frameworks that impose radically different ways of being in the world than their previous religion did.


Written in ANSI C, eclipse is a library offering numerous services related to astronomical image processing: FITS data access, various image and cube loading methods, binary image handling and filtering (including convolution and morphological filters), 2-D cross-correlation, connected components, cube and image arithmetic, dead pixel detection and correction, object detection, data extraction, flat-fielding with robust fit, image generation, statistics, photometry, image-space resampling, image combination, and cube stacking. It also contains support for mathematical tools like random number generation, FFT, curve fitting, matrices, fast median computation, and point-pattern matching. The main feature of this library is its ability to handle large amounts of input data (up to 2GB in the current version) regardless of the amount of memory and swap available on the local machine. Another feature is the very high speed allowed by optimized C, making it an ideal base tool for programming efficient number-crunching applications, e.g., on parallel (Beowulf) systems. Running on all Unix-like platforms, eclipse is portable. A high-level interface to Python is foreseen that would allow programmers to prototype their applications much faster than through C programs.


There is a global issue concerning the disparity in educational achievement associated with the socioeconomic status of students, known in the U.S. as the Achievement Gap. This Achievement Gap highly correlates with what has been called the Opportunity Gap for professional careers. This paper discusses this Opportunity Gap and how the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) is addressing the gap at a local level through summer STEM camps. Specifically, this paper looks at the increase of social capital of the participants of the UNO and Girls Inc. Eureka-STEM! summer camp through the development of instructional relationships between underserved girls ages 12-14 and UNO's Institutional Agents, namely the Mathematics student camp leaders who were also pursuing teacher certification. A new assessment approach through the use of Social Network Analysis (SNA) was used to determine the quantity and strength of supportive ties formed. Results suggest this assessment method is very promising and that supportive ties are indeed formed. Discussions concerning the importance of social capital for underserved girls are included.


Multimodal biometric authentication (BA) has shown perennial successes both in research and applications. This paper casts a light on why BA systems can be improved by fusing opinions of different experts, principally due to diversity of biometric modalities, features, classifiers and samples. These techniques are collectively called variance reduction (VR) techniques. A thorough survey was carried out and showed that these techniques have been employed in one way or another in the literature, but there was no systematic comparison of these techniques, as done here. Despite the architectural diversity, we show that the improved classification result is due to reduced (class-dependent) variance. The analysis does not assume that scores to be fused are uncorrelated. It does however assume that the class-dependent scores have Gaussian distributions. As many as 180 independent experiments from different sources show that such assumption is acceptable in practice. The theoretical explanation has its root in regression problems. Our contribution is to relate the reduced variance to a reduced classification error commonly used in BA, called Equal Error Rate. In addition to the theoretical evidence, we carried out as many as 104 fusion experiments using commonly used classifiers on the XM2VTS multimodal database to measure the gain due to fusion. This investigation leads to the conclusion that different ways of exploiting diversity incur different hardware and computation cost. In particular, higher diversity incurs higher computation and sometimes hardware cost and vice-versa. Therefore, this study can serve as an engineering guide to choosing a VR technique that will provide a good trade-off between the level of accuracy required and its associated cost.


Under the Lambertian reflectance model, uncalibrated photometric stereo with unknown light sources is inherently ambiguous. In this paper, we consider the use of a more general reflectance model, namely the Torrance and Sparrow model, in uncalibrated photometric stereo. We demonstrate that this can not only resolve the ambiguity when the light sources are unknown, but can also result in more accurate surface reconstructions and can capture the reflectance properties of a large number of nonLambertian surfaces. Our method uses single light source images with unknown lighting and no knowledge about the parameters of the reflectance model. It can recover the 3D shape of surfaces (up to the binary convex/concave ambiguity) together with their reflectance properties. We have successfully tested our algorithm on a variety of nonLambertian surfaces demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach. In the case of human faces, the estimated skin reflectance has been shown to closely resemble the measured skin reflectance reported in the literature. We also demonstrate improved recognition results on 4050 images of 10 faces with variable lighting and viewpoint when the synthetic image-based representations of the faces are generated using the surface reconstructions and reflectance properties recovered while assuming the extended reflectance model.


This conference series, founded at the University of Bologna in 1990 and now at the 13th edition, is devoted to the progress in Magnetic Resonance in Porous Media and in our understanding of Porous Media themselves, and to stimulate the contact among people from various parts of Academia and Industry. Researchers in Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Computer Sciences, and in Industrial Applications will benefit from exchange of ideas, experiences, and new approaches. Topics will include innovative techniques to study structure, behavior of fluids, and their interactions in every kind of natural and artificial porous materials, including rocks, cements, biological tissues, foodstuffs, wood, particle packs, sediments, pharmaceuticals, zeolites, and bioconstructs. New data acquisition and processing techniques are also expected to be strong features.


The recent discovery of a topological phase transition in IV-VI narrow-gap semiconductors has revitalized the decades-old interest in the bulk band inversion occurring in these materials. Here we systematically study the (001) surface states of Pb1-xSnxSe mixed crystals by means of angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy in the parameter space 0 = T >= 9 K. Using the surface-state observations, we monitor directly the topological phase transition in this solid solution and gain valuable information on the evolution of the underlying fundamental band gap of the system. In contrast to common model expectations, the band-gap evolution appears to be nonlinear as a function of the studied parameters, resulting in the measuring of a discontinuous band-inversion process. This finding signifies that the anticipated gapless bulk state is in fact not a stable configuration and that the topological phase transition therefore exhibits features akin to a first-order transition.


Abstract. Approximately by the year 2030, 40% of population of a country will be urbanised. This indicates a tremendous opportunity in sector of constructing units for fulfilling Residential as well as commercial requirements. Construction activity takes place on land, it must be noted that land solely is not responsible. There are various regulations which affect the extent to which construction/land utilization can takes place. The two most significant factors which affects utilization of land are Zoning and Development Control regulation. Zoning will broadly determine land use while DCR varies depending on size of plot, height achieved by a construction activity and purpose for which it is being used. Development plan determines zone in which a land will be lying (i.e., from Macroscopic point of view), it determines the activity permitted and largely the FSI allotted for each zone. While General Development Control Regulation (GDCR) gives detailed structure regarding permitted activities for the land as well as minimum area of construction depending on its typology. In addition to its height as well as margin depends on factors like Road length and surrounding structure. Using the buildable area of a plot, the total built-up area in a city can be calculated based on the FSI provided in various zones that helps in providing sufficient infrastructure for the future It also gives an estimate on how much land needs to be opened up in future to accommodate the future population Study focuses on developing a Geospatial solution which can incorporate all these factors when a particular construction activity needs to be conducted. By obtaining buildable are one can forecast various infrastructural elements which needs to be implant along with various emergency provision of Fire Safety and Identify the Roof tops to fixed up the Solar penal, develop a public utility, other such.


One of the great dilemmas of corporate law is how to address the problem of excessive executive compensation without replacing it with excessive government intervention. This Article proposes for the first time that Article 36(b) of the Investment Company Act ("ICA"), which enacted fiduciary obligations for investment advisers, be applied to general public corporations. The effect of this proposal — termed Corporate 36(b) — would be to impose upon CEOs and other highly placed corporate executives a fiduciary duty with regard to their compensation packages. This would enable federal courts to genuinely evaluate the procedural and substantive nature of executive compensation negotiations. As scholars, the media, and politicians have pointed out, excessive executive compensation reduces shareholder wealth, increases hostility in the workplace, and provokes societal anger. The Article demonstrates that the legislative history of the ICA supports the application of its principles to general corporations. It further shows that the courts' implementation of the ICA can be replicated in the context of general corporations. The Article argues that adoption of Corporate 36(b) will help to reduce executive demands, to empower and incentivize boards of directors, and to avoid undesirable federal regulation. The Article also addresses potential criticisms concerning the risk of nuisance suits and strike litigation, the vagaries of involving courts in business decisions, and the problems surrounding federalization of corporate law. The Article concludes with a brief description of how the proposed legislation could have been applied to deal with the controversial compensation package in the well-known case of Disney's hiring and firing of Michael Ovitz.


Introduction: Traditional education seems to be sufficient in meeting the needs related to knowledge of patients, However, by recognizing the impact of psychosocial issues and the environment on patients 'behavior, educational techniques were used to change patients' behavior. And the education approach to diabetic patients has changed, as well as the theory and research on diabetes was introduced. And the focus of the capacity building approach to adapt treatment to self-efficacy and empowerment was changed. Empowerment is a collaborative approach to diabetes care and patient education. This systematic review was conducted with the aim of empowerment in improving self-care behaviors in diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: In order to achieve the aim of the study and to improve the accuracy of the study and its comprehensive understanding, this review study was conducted based on the Broome method. This method is carried out in three steps: searching for texts, evaluating data and analyzing data. So, in the search phase, postretrospective study texts are examined in four stages in terms of inclusion criteria. After obtaining the conditions for entry into the study, the content of the study is evaluated and at the end of the analysis of the data. Results: In this study, 12 articles were reviewed that showed that the empowerment approach of diabetic patients improves self-efficacy and self-care scores and reduces hemoglobin A1C, Improvement of general self-care behaviors, reduction of mean glycosylated hemoglobin and improvement of quality of life, blood glucose control, and so on. Conclusion: In researches done on the empowerment approach of diabetic patients, the importance of empowerment approach is confirmed by increasing control and self-care and improving some other factors in diabetic patients. Therefore, considering the importance of the concept of empowerment as an effective approach to supporting patients with diabetes, it is necessary to consider this approach in furtherresearch.


Overview and Sources Liberation theology is a new arrival in the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Though the roots of this conflict precede the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 by decades, only recently have Christian thinkers who have been influenced by the ideas of liberation theology become engaged in the dispute. Although liberation theology developed in an entirely different context, it has emerged as a central method of theological discourse among Palestinian Christians and non-Palestinian Christians who support the Palestinian cause. It furnishes an ideology of resistance and sympathy with the downtrodden that has proved popular among contemporary critics of the State of Israel. Though the influence of Palestinian liberation theologians among Palestinians is limited because of the relatively small number of Palestinian Christians, they have found a rapidly growing audience in the West, especially in the Protestant churches. Some churches and church organizations (especially the so-called mainline Protestant denominations) are developing deeper ties with Palestinian Christians, and conferences with and church delegations to the Palestinian territories are becoming more frequent. Recent conferences run by Naim Ateek's Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, for example, have drawn hundreds of participants from many denominations around the world. (1) Statements from Western church organizations on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict show the influence of liberation theology, and liberation theologians--both Palestinian and non-Palestinian--are often called upon to present their theological and historical views. (2) As the conflict grinds on and interested outsiders continue to be involved as advocates for one side or the other, the influence of liberation theology continues to grow. (3) There are, however, serious problems associated with the emergence of liberation theology in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Liberation theology is preeminently Christian theology, and the decision to employ Christian theology as a response to the practices of the State of Israel distorts liberation theology in an unprecedented way. Even apart from this conflict, some Jews were uneasy about the central ideas in liberation theology. (4) Liberation theology has always drawn heavily from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, especially the narratives of the Exodus and the life and teaching of Jesus; it derives from these narratives a religiously based ideology of resistance to injustice. (5) A fundamental claim is that God has an overriding concern with the poor and oppressed. However, the Exodus story--which to Jews is a narrative about God's delivering the chosen people from bondage, bringing them to the land of Israel, and instituting a Law-based covenant--became for many liberation theologians a universal narrative of divine deliverance for all peoples. The focus on one people and the emphasis on the goal of entry into the land often drop out, along with attention to this broader Exodus theme of the creation of a covenant. Moreover, the connection of the narrative to the historical people of Israel sometimes diminishes or disappears. (6) Liberation theologians' claims that the Exodus is about the generic oppressed (sometimes even denying that the Jewish people were the people originally liberated) move the Jewish people out of their own story. This resembles classic Christian supersessionism in its hostility to the particular covenant between God and Israel. (7) Similarly, the emphasis that liberation theologians place on Jesus' teachings about oppression and injustice sometimes ends up repeating, even in different contexts, classic denunciations of Judaism. Also, there is a strong dualism at the heart of many liberation theologies, typified by the belief in a God who shows favor to one group. It is thus an easy move to develop a model of resistance to injustice based on an analogy to Jesus' standing in opposition to a deficient, overly nationalistic Judaism of his time. …


Tremendous research effort has gone into the field of natural language processing and understanding during the last half of the 20th century, yet it remains as one of the most challenging problems. Nevertheless, many companies have commercialized language processing applications such as Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems, domain-specific Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems, Machine Translation (MT) systems, and limited-domain, speaker-dependent Speech-to-Speech (STS) prototype systems. While the quality of all natural language processing applications has improved steadily, they remain far from being perfect.
Due to globalization and the widespread use of the Internet, occurrences of foreign entities—foreign words, names, locations, and events—in written text are becoming commonplace. This further complicates the automatic processing of natural language text. Identification of such foreign entities is important for several reasons. For example, TTS systems will usually fail to pronounce such entities properly in their native language as they try to sound them using the lexicon of the base language. These foreign entities also cause problems for MT programs where translation is initially done word by word.
This dissertation simplifies the Naive Bayesian, N-gram based text-classification algorithm by taking its logarithm, naming it the Cumulative Frequency Addition (CFA) algorithm, and applies it to three text processing tasks: language identification, name-to-nationality identification, and detection of foreign words and names. In the language identification task CFA yields 100% accuracy on string sizes greater than 150 characters. In the name-to-nationality task, it yields 86% accuracy on a 14 country database and 96% on a 7 country database within the top three choices. Identifying the nationality, or at least the language group, of a person from his/her name, can be important not only for proper pronunciation but also for purposes of forensics studies and national security. Finally, in the task of detecting foreign words we obtain 66.9% accuracy. This is the first study to apply natural language processing techniques to the latter two tasks.


These two papers both focus on the intersection of the law of evidence with criminal responsibility doctrine, using as a springboard my book, Proving the Unprovable: The Role of Law, Science and Speculation in Adjudicating Culpability and Dangerousness. The first piece, Psychological Syndromes and Criminal Responsibility, appears in the Annual Review of Law and Social Science. It analyzes the admissibility of defense-proffered testimony about phenomena such as battered woman syndrome, combat stress syndrome, and XYY syndrome as well the admissibility of prosecution-proffered evidence about phenomena such as rape trauma syndrome and abused child syndrome. It emphasizes the need to assess, in each instance, materiality (the logical relationship of the evidence to the precise doctrine at issue-insanity, lack of mens rea, etc.), probative value (reliability), helpfulness (the extent to which the evidence adds to the fact-finder knowledge), and prejudice (the extent to which the evidence distracts or confuses the fact-finder). Thus, the ultimate admissibility decision involves consideration of the scope of the criminal law, the scientific methodology associated with the syndrome, the counter-intuitiveness of the evidence, and the role and capacities of juries. The second piece, to appear in a symposium issue of Seton Hall Law Review with the title The Right to Voice Reprised, looks more closely at the probative value issue. Proving the Unprovable argued that criminal defendants ought to be able to present speculative psychiatric testimony if the expert has followed a routinized evaluation process that addresses the relevant legal criterion, an argument based in part on the position that the Constitution can be read to entitle defendants to tell their exculpatory mental state stories. In a recent essay, Professor Lillquist takes aim at this latter rationale, which I called the right to voice. He believes that the right to voice cannot be found in the Constitution or the Supreme Court's construction of the Constitution, and that in any event recognition of such a right would be a bad idea because it would increase the chance of inaccurate outcomes. In response, this article bolsters the argument that there is a limited constitutional right to tell exculpatory mental state stories through experts and shows why fear that such a right will generate "inaccurate" verdicts is unfounded. In the course of doing so, it explains why these arguments apply only to psychiatric evidence and do not require or lead to a more generalized right to present a defense, which appears to be the real concern underlying Professor Lillquist's essay. Nonetheless, the concluding section of the article departs from the psychiatric context to suggest some new reasons why the notion of a more generalized right to voice at least ought to be on the table.


The analysis of data collected from the interaction of users with educational and information technology has attracted much attention as a promising approach for advancing our understanding of the learning process. This promise motivated the emergence of the new research field, learning analytics, and its closely related discipline, educational data mining. This paper first introduces the field of learning analytics and outlines the lessons learned from well ‐ known case studies in the research literature. The paper then identifies the critical topics that require immediate research attention for learning analytics to make a sustainable impact on the research and practice of learning and teaching. The paper concludes by discussing a growing set of issues that if unaddressed, could impede the future maturation of the field. The paper stresses that learning analytics are about learning. As such, the computational aspects of learning analytics must be well integrated within the existing educational research.


The debonding stage of orthodontic treatment involves removal of attachments from the surface of teeth followed by removal of remaining adhesive resin. The adhesive resin removal process is often accomplished by different debonding burs which are believed to be safe to enamel surface while removing all remaining adhesive resin from the tooth surface. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of four different commercially available burs on the enamel surface of teeth. The four burs studied were: 1) 12 fluted (universal) carbide, 2) 20 fluted carbide, 3) 30 fluted carbide, and 4) white stone. Eighty human premolar teeth were randomly assigned to one of four groups. In each group, fifteen teeth were used for profilometric analysis and the remaining five teeth were used for scanning electron microscopy. Initial profilometric analysis and SEM imaging were performed. After the teeth were bonded using metal brackets, brackets were removed from the surface of teeth using bracket removing pliers. The amount of remaining adhesive on the surface of teeth was evaluated using the ARI system. The remaining adhesive was removed with one of the four burs according to the group. Final profilometric analysis and final SEM imaging were performed.
 The results of the study showed that there was a statistically significant difference in roughness value after debonding between groups 1 and 2 (p = 0.000), 1 and 3(p = 0.000), 1 and 4 (p = 0.000), 2 and 4 (p = 0.000), and 3 and 4 (p= 0.000). However, no statistically significant difference was observed between groups 2 and 3 (p= 0.063). The ARI values between groups were comparable and no statistically significant differences were observed between groups in terms of amount of adhesive resin remaining on the tooth surface prior to using the debonding burs(p=0.925). Overall, the white stone bur caused the most damage to the surface of enamel, followed by the 12 fluted bur while the 30 fluted and 20 fluted carbide burs caused the least damage. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference in enamel surface roughness between the 20 fluted and the 30 fluted burs.


BACKGROUND--IgG antibodies from mothers adequately treated for syphilis can cross the placenta and appear in the sera of healthy newborns without infection. In such infants, a false diagnosis of congenital syphilis is often made. We have designed a retrospective survey to determine the time of seroreversion of the serological tests for syphilis (STS) in uninfected newborns born to mothers who were adequately treated for syphilis. MATERIALS AND METHODS--Fifty two seropositive, untreated newborns born to 51 mothers treated for syphilis were studied. The newborns were followed at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of age until seroreversion was detected. The VDRL test was followed until 12 months in 12 of the 22 newborns who were positive at birth, the TPHA in 21 of the 46 newborns, and the FTA-ABS test in 22 of the 48 newborns. RESULTS--In the first serological tests done within 1 month after birth, the VDRL was positive in 22 newborns (42%), the TPHA in 46 (88%), and FTA-ABS in 48 (92%). The VDRL seroreverted within 6 months after birth in 84%, and within 1 year in 100%. The TPHA test seroreverted in 95% within 1 year after birth. The FTA-ABS test seroreverted in 100% within 1 year after birth. CONCLUSIONS--In most seropositive, untreated newborns born to treated mothers the VDRL became negative within 6 months after birth and the TPHA and FTA-ABS within 1 year. This result is consistent with current Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. However, although the CDC guidelines are adequate in general, we think that some revision is desirable concerning the IgM test and combination of the test results in order to rule out congenital syphilis in seropositive, nonsymptomatic newborns born to the treated mothers.


This article presents a smart composite that shows a reversible bending deformation from an initial flat configuration into a 90° angle controlled by local thermal activation. The novelty lies within the structural fixation of the deformation at room temperature without continuous energy input. The new structural architecture of antagonistic performing shape memory alloy actuators embedded in a shape memory polymer matrix is presented. The shape memory polymer is locally heated from the rigid glassy state to the easily deformable rubbery state by integrated heating wires. By subsequent activation of the different shape memory alloy actuators by resistive heating, the reversible performance can be realized. By deactivation of the heating wires in the shape memory polymer, the shape memory polymer fixates the deformation in its rigid condition. The actuation characteristics of the smart composite are investigated by thermo-mechanical experiments. The performance of the smart composite was investigated by thermo-mechanical experimentation of the individual components. The results show that a 90° bending deformation is feasible with the current material dimensions, but repeated deformation is restricted due to fatigue of the alloy. By superposition of the bending forces of the individual components, it is possible to estimate the bending angle of the composite material.


Literacy in reading and understanding printed words is significant for all undergraduate students to succeed in their academic career. Developments in digital technology improved the quality of academic texts in terms of design, format and layout. Further, availability of academic related English language resources in electronic versions gave readers to access and read the content on computer screens or download a text to make a hard copy. These developments on the printed pages of English course books helped the readers to identify letters of English alphabet precisely. However, vocabulary and sentence structures presented in the text remained difficult to the ESL students. A study was conducted to assess the reading strategies of engineering students across the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Subjects of the study were 52 students pursuing engineering education in the engineering colleges affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India. The primary source of data was obtained through think-aloud verbal probe. Findings of the study reveal that engineering students feel disappointed and frustrated when the content presented in the course is beyond their comprehension. This research paper presents qualitative data obtained through think-aloud verbal probe. Insights from the verbal reports on reading strategies presented in this paper give new directions to the teaching-learning of English in ESL undergraduate classrooms. Findings presented from the study are significant for English teachers, researchers and curriculum designers to develop quality reading materials for ESL classrooms.


While driver distraction has been extensively studied in laboratory and empirical field studies, the prevalence of driver distraction on our nation's highways and the relative crash risk is unknown. It has recently become technologically feasible to conduct unobtrusive large-scale naturalistic driving studies as the costs and size of computer equipment and sensor technology have both dramatically decreased. A large-scale naturalistic driving study was conducted using 100 instrumented vehicles (80 privately-owned and 20 leased vehicles). This data collection effort was conducted in the Washington DC metropolitan area on a variety of urban, suburban, and rural roadways over a span of 12-13 months. Five channels of video and kinematic data were collected on 69 crashes and 761 near-crashes during the course of this data collection effort. The analyses conducted here are the first to establish direct relationships between driving inattention and crash and near-crash involvement. Relative crash risk was calculated using both crash and near-crash data as well as normal, baseline driving data, for various sources of inattention. Additional analyses investigated the environmental conditions drivers choose to engage in secondary tasks or drive fatigued, assessed whether questionnaire data were indicative of an individual's propensity to engage in inattentive driving, and examined the impact of driver's eyes off the forward roadway. The results indicated that driving inattention was a contributing factor in 78% of all crashes and 65% of all near-crashes. Odds ratio calculations indicated that fatigued drivers have a 4 times higher crash risk than alert drivers. Drivers engaging in visually and/or manually complex tasks are at 7 times higher crash risk than alert drivers. There are specific environmental conditions in which engaging in secondary tasks or driving fatigued is deemed to be more dangerous, including intersections, wet roadways, undivided highways, curved roadways, and driving at dusk. Short, brief glances away from the forward roadway for the purpose of scanning the roadway environment (e.g., mirrors and blind spots) are safe and decrease crash risk, whereas such glances that total more than 2 seconds away from the forward roadway are dangerous and increase crash risk by 2 times over that of more typical driving.


The current understanding of drinking water distribution system (DWDS) microbiology is limited to pipe wall biofilm and bulk water; the contributions of particle-associated bacteria (from suspended solids and loose deposits) have long been neglected. Analyzing the composition and correlation of bacterial communities from different phases helped us to locate where most of the bacteria are and understand the interactions among these phases. In the present study, the bacteria from four critical phases of an unchlorinated DWDS, including bulk water, pipe wall biofilm, suspended solids, and loose deposits, were quantified and identified by adenosine triphosphate analysis and pyrosequencing, respectively. The results showed that the bulk water bacteria (including the contribution of suspended solids) contributed less than 2% of the total bacteria. The bacteria associated with loose deposits and pipe wall biofilm that accumulated in the DWDS accounted for over 98% of the total bacteria, and the contributions of bacteria in loose deposits and pipe wall biofilm were comparable. Depending on the amount of loose deposits, its contribution can be 7-fold higher than the pipe wall biofilm. Pyrosequencing revealed relatively stable bacterial communities in bulk water, pipe wall biofilm, and suspended solids throughout the distribution system; however, the communities present in loose deposits were dependent on the amount of loose deposits locally. Bacteria within the phases of suspended solids, loose deposits, and pipe wall biofilm were similar in phylogenetic composition. The bulk water bacteria (dominated by Polaromonas spp.) were clearly different from the bacteria from the other three phases (dominated by Sphingomonas spp.). This study highlighted that the integral DWDS ecology should include contributions from all of the four phases, especially the bacteria harbored by loose deposits. The accumulation of loose deposits and the aging process create variable microenvironments inside loose deposits structures for bacteria to grow. Moreover, loose deposits protect the associated bacteria from disinfectants, and due to their mobility, the associated bacteria reach taps easily.


For many years, courts, commentators and counsel agreed that 28 U.S.C. §1782 – a somewhat extraordinary procedural device that allows U.S. courts to order discovery in the United States "for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal" – did not apply to disputes involving international arbitration. However, that presumption has come under challenge in recent years, particularly in the realm of investment arbitration, where the Chevron-Ecuador dispute has made Section 1782 requests a commonplace procedure. This Article takes a rigorous look at both the history and the future of Section 1782 in international arbitration, taking care to distinguish between requests made in the context of international commercial arbitration and requests made in the context of international investment arbitration. In so doing, the Article considers issues relating to grants of jurisdiction, state interests and standard interpretive canons.


In the last 50 years the tiger population in Asia has plummeted from 100,000 to about 5,000. The number of tigers is dangerously low, and the conservation of the world's remaining tigers is of global concern. Now, in this volume, 40 world authorities on tigers from Asia, Europe, and North America have summarized and identified the management, conservation, and research needs for this endangered species. A new discipline conservation biology is emerging and this book is an early contribution. It spans and unites theory, laboratory, and field studies with management practices of both the wild and captive populations. The book is based on the international symposium held in Minnesota, discusses the tiger's systematics and taxonomy, its status both in the wild and captivity, reproductive biology, and management and conservation strategies. In addition, an entire section is devoted to a discussion of the white tiger. The tigers of Indonesia, Nepal, Siberia, and China, as well as captive tigers are discussed. Finally, the information in this book places real numbers on the remaining tiger populations, their habitat that is protected, and probabilities of these populations surviving an extinction.