This paper examines two related issues: (a) the implicit methodology used by the U.S. Treasury in determining whether China and America's other trading partners manipulate their exchange rates, and (b) the nature of the Chinese exchange rate regime since July 2005. On the first issue, we investigate the roles of economic variables consistent with the IMF definition of manipulation - the partners' overall current account/GDP, its reserve changes, and the real overvaluation of its currency - but also some variables suggestive of American domestic political considerations -- the bilateral trade balance, US unemployment, and an election year dummy. The econometric results suggest that the Treasury verdicts are driven heavily by the US bilateral deficit, though other variables also turn out to be quite important. On the issue of China's de facto exchange rate regime, we apply the technique introduced by Frankel and Wei (1994) to estimate implicit basket weights, adding several refinements. Within 2005, the de facto regime remained a peg to the dollar. However, there was a modest but steady increase in flexibility subsequently. We test whether US pressure has promoted RMB flexibility. We also test whether the recent appreciation against the dollar is due to a trend appreciation against the reference basket or a declining weight on the dollar in the reference basket, and suggest that they have different policy implications.


ABSTRACT Blogging is often misunderstood. While some individuals use blogs and their capabilities to become what amounts to journalists, whose influence either augments or contradicts traditional news media, entrepreneurs can use blogs for their own purposes. Activities may include interactively engaging with customers and building user communities, or providing messages using mediums such as video demonstrations which have heretofore only been available to advertisers with much bigger budgets. To users blogs are like many other technologies; one sees the "shiny outside," but not "under the hood." As such, within the literature at large scholarly attention has been typically associated with aspects of media and journalism, socio-cultural analyses, and the literature of communications. Scholarly research on blogging or the "blogosphere" in the discipline of entrepreneurs hip is limited, despite the fact that the software that makes blogs work is designed for the primary purpose of allowing non-programmers to communicate any message they want to a world-wide audience, on the Web, and therefore blogs can be a powerful marketing tool for small businesses. INTRODUCTION The Pew Internet & American Life Project has conducted an ongoing series of research projects and published reports on Internet usage. In a summary memorandum released in January 2005 it was stated that "62% of internet users do not know what a blog is" (Rainie, 2005). However, as this paper will discuss: that landscape has changed significantly over the years with an explosive growth in the number of blogs, bloggers, and users. Perhaps the relevance to small business and entrepreneurship scholars can be suggested by a quote in Entrepreneur magazine that stated "[blogging has] gone beyond fad to become a full-fledged Internet phenomenon" (Kooser, 2002). Blogging has been further characterized as a "paradigm shift of how we disseminate and communicate" (Cunningham, 2005). "[Blogs] can be started with very little, and very inexpensive, editorial content yet are capable of exerting extraordinary influence" (Madden, 2005). Early blogs, also called Web logs, or by the shortened term, "weblogs" were primarily used as online diaries for sharing content and commentary of a personal nature (Blog, 2010). In keeping with the social impact and immense sphere of influence that has developed in connection with blogs and blogging, the term "blogosphere," has arisen, defined as a "collective term encompassing all weblogs or blogs as a community or social network"(Blogosphere, 201 1; Sobel, 2010). As observed by Madden (2005) an MIT Technology Review article: "Several factors have contributed to the emergence of blogs. . ..Blogging software is inexpensive - or often free - and easy to use. Low bandwidth requirements and Web-hosting fees keep the ongoing infrastructure costs of maintaining a blog very low" (p. 36). Because bandwidth and access continues to increase, and technologies such as "Flip" video cameras and smartphones (Barbierri, 2010; Smartphone Futures, 2010) have arisen (providing instant connectivity for uploads) blogs can now enable any individual, or small business to leverage what amounts to a publishing (broadcasting, etc.) platform. Most present day blogs have begun to supersede mere text and photos and many incorporate richer media including audio, video, and screencasts (Udell, 2005) as part of their content. Scholarly research on blogging or the "blogosphere" in the discipline of entrepreneurship is limited, despite the fact that the software that makes blogs work is designed for the primary purpose of allowing non-programmers an easy-to-use (Chung, Eunseong, Trammell, & Porter, 2007) means to communicate any message they want to a world-wide audience, on the Web, and therefore blogs can be a powerful marketing tool for small businesses. REVIEW OF EXISTING LITERATURE ON BLOGGING After a series of searches in the scholarly literature using library databases it was revealed that the topic of the "entrepreneurial blogosphere" has received little attention from academic researchers within the discipline of entrepreneurship. …


Objectives: Psychosocial interventions have been increasingly proven to play a key role in a holistic team-oriented approach to disorders of sex development (DSD) care. This article examined the influence of cultural and religious factors on the acceptance of the decision for gender-reassignment surgery. Next, how this patient accepted herself and her body image, and invested in her femininity, was analyzed.
 Methods: The study is based on a 3-year follow-up (from 2013 to 2015) of an adolescent with 46,XX DSD, in the mental health department of FANN National University Hospital in Dakar, Senegal. The patient and his/her parents and other family members underwent 12 sessions of counseling and supportive psychotherapy before and after surgical treatment. On average, each session lasted 55 min.
 Results: Raised as a boy until the age of 15, the patient initially refused surgical intervention. The parents were also confused, owing to the societal preference for males and the fear of stigmatization. The role of the grandfather was instrumental in the counseling and supportive psychotherapy, as he attributed a masculine and religious given name to the child. The postsurgical anatomy reduced the patient's distress. However, the psychic integration of her bisexuality was ambivalent and accompanied by depressive feelings and intense dream activity. Feminine socialization and environmental learning, conditioned by Wolof traditions and upbringing, were some constraints that affected postgender reassignment outcomes.
 Conclusion: While gender reassignment affects the patient, but it can even more profoundly affect the parent of that is the same sex to whom as the child's sex has been as identified at birth. Counseling and supportive therapy should take into account cultural constraints and transformations within and across the psychological developmental stages.


The paper considers alternative exchange rate regimes for the East European accession candidates, both prior to EU accession and following EU accession but prior to EMU membership. We conclude that, from an economic point of view, EMU membership should be as early as possible. There is, however, a risk that prevailing interpretations of the inflation and exchange rate criteria for EMU membership could lead to unnecessary delays in EMU membership for the accession countries. The exchange rate criterion for EMU membership requires that the candidate "has respected the normal fluctuation margins provided for by the exchange rate mechanism of the European Monetary System without severe tensions for at least the last two years before the examination." Both this text and the precedents of Finland, Italy and Greece, support the view that the exchange rate criterion can be satisfied without two years of formal ERM II membership. Insistence on at least two years of formal ERM II membership for the accession countries would result in an unnecessary, costly and potentially risky stay in EMU purgatory.


Accurate prediction of the rolling force is critical to assuring the quality of the final product in steel manufacturing. Exit thickness of plate for each pass is calculated from roll gap, mill spring, and predicted roll force. Ideal pass scheduling is dependent on a precise prediction of the roll force in each pass. This paper will introduce a concept that allows obtaining the material model parameters directly from the rolling process on an industrial scale by the uniform differential neural network. On the basis of the characteristics that the uniform distribution can fully characterize the solution space and enhance the diversity of the population, uniformity research on differential evolution operator is made to get improved crossover with uniform distribution. When its original function is transferred with a transfer function, the uniform differential evolution algorithms can quickly solve complex optimization problems. Neural network structure and weights threshold are optimized by uniform differential evolution algorithm, and a uniform differential neural network is formed to improve rolling force prediction accuracy in process control system.


Growing evidence shows that hydroxamate-based compounds exhibit broad-spectrum pharmacological properties including anti-tumor activity. However, the precise mechanisms underlying hydroxamate derivative-induced cancer cell death remain incomplete understood. In this study, we explored the anti-tumor mechanisms of a novel aliphatic hydroxamate-based compound, WMJ-J-09, in FaDu head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cells. WMJ-J-09 induced G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in FaDu cells. These actions were associated with liver kinase B1 (LKB1), AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38MAPK) activation, transcription factor p63 phosphorylation, as well as modulation of p21 and survivin. LKB1-AMPK-p38MAPK signaling blockade reduced WMJ-J-09's enhancing effects in p63 phosphorylation, p21 elevation and survivin reduction. Moreover, WMJ-J-09 caused an increase in α-tubulin acetylation and interfered with microtubule assembly. Furthermore, WMJ-J-09 suppressed the growth of subcutaneous FaDu xenografts in vivo. Taken together, WMJ-J-09-induced FaDu cell death may involve LKB1-AMPK-p38MAPK-p63-survivin signaling cascade. HDACs inhibition and disruption of microtubule assembly may also contribute to WMJ-J-09's actions in FaDu cells. This study suggests that WMJ-J-09 may be a potential lead compound and warrant the clinical development in the treatment of HNSCC.


Pressured by exams and premature academic demands, surrounded by screens and technology, children today face huge challenges. Childhood itself, it could be said, is facing a crisis. Are children in danger of losing their natural imaginative faculties, which are the source of all creative activity in later life? As a society, are we in danger of losing childhood altogether? First published in 1940, Harwood's little book has become a classic introduction to the perennial themes of child development and growth, as well as the basic principles of Steiner/Waldorf education. Harwood (1898-1975) was one of the founding members of the first Steiner school in the English-speaking world, and worked for many years as a teacher. His sensitive awareness and respect for the innate wisdom of childhood shine through his words. Despite the passing of time, the archetypal principles he addresses, as well as the sympathetic picture of childhood he paints, remain highly relevant.


Argues that the most basic assertions about our bodies, that they are ours and distinguish us from each other, that they are private and have boundaries, races and genders, are all political theories, constructed in legal texts for political purposes. The text asserts that none of the contructions of the body in legal texts are universal truths that rest solely on body experience. It shows that legal texts can construct all kinds of bodies, that are public, open and accessible to others. Further, the language, images amd metaphors of the body in legal texts can often convince us of positions to which we would not assent as a matter of political theory.


Understanding galaxy evolution is one of the most active research fields in astronomy today. The Milky Way, our home galaxy can be observed on a star-by-star basis, something impossible in other galaxies and is therefore a natural benchmark for testing in detail galaxy formation theories. Therefore, many recent and ongoing large scale surveys have been carried out, providing an unprecedented collection of data to analyze. It is however challenging from the Sun's perspective to infer the current state of the Galaxy. In the work presented here dynamical equilibrium models of the Galaxy in its current state are built, a key element for later inferring its formation history. The dynamics of stars and dark matter are modeled in a self-consistent way, reproducing as many datasets as possible using the flexible Made-to-Measure method. An inside-out approach is adopted, starting by focusing on the galactic bulge before moving out to the larger scales, the galactic bar and the nearby disk.

First a set of dynamical models of the galactic bulge with different dark matter fractions is made Chapter 2. Those models are fitted to reproduce both the 3D density of bulge stars, with their boxy/peanut shape, and the radial stellar kinematics in bulge fields measured by the BRAVA spectroscopic survey. Results from the modelling of different stellar and dark matter masses in the bulge lead to the most accurate measurement of the total dynamical mass of the galactic bulge up to date, of $(1.84 \pm 0.07) \times 10^{10}\, \Msun$ in a volume of $(\pm 2.2 \times \pm 1.4 \times \pm 1.2 )\kpc$ oriented along the bulge's principal axis. The orbital structure of the boxy/peanut shape in these dynamical models is then analyzed (Chapter 3). The boxy/peanut shape is found to be supported by novel brezel-like orbits, from which a strong peanut shape with a relatively short extension can be built, thus showing that boxy/peanut bulges are not necessarily supported by the so-called banana orbits as had been previously claimed in the literature.

Outside the central $2\kpc$, the galactic bulge smoothly segues into the long bar. Taking advantage of recent new data, the modelling was extended to the entire long bar region (Chapter 4). Additional data were added to the previous bulge models, mainly the distribution of Red Clump Giants in the bar region from a combination of the VVV, UKIDSS and 2MASS photometric surveys together with stellar kinematics as a function of distance along the line of sight from the \argos survey. By modelling the dynamics of the bar region, the pattern speed of the galactic bulge and bar is found to be $(39.0 \pm 3.5)\kmskpc$. This places the bar corotation radius at $(6.1 \pm 0.5 )\kpc$, making the Milky Way bar a typical fast rotator. The stellar mass of the long bar and bulge structure is evaluated to $M_{\rm{bar/bulge}} = 1.88 \pm 0.12 \times 10^{10} \, \rm{M}_{\odot}$, larger than the mass of disk in the bar region, $M_{\rm{inner\ disk}} = 1.29\pm0.12 \times 10^{10} \, \rm{M}_{\odot}$. Thanks to more extended kinematic datasets and recent measurement of the bulge IMF, the dark matter is found to account for $17\%\pm2\%$ of the mass in the bulge, with a density profile that flattens from the solar neighborhood to a shallow cusp or core in the bulge region. Finally, dynamical evidence for an extra central mass of $\sim2\times10^{9} \,\rm{M}_{\odot}$ is found, probably in a nuclear disk or disky pseudobulge.

This dynamical model of the bar region provides both the gravitational potential and a consistent library of N-body orbits that can be used as a basis for more advanced modelling of the Galaxy. Recent and future spectroscopic surveys such as \apogee or GALAH will provide hundreds of thousands of stellar abundances of elements that can allow tracing back the formation history of the Galaxy. Chemodynamical models, a natural extension of the dynamical models to also include chemical information, will be vital to understand these new data. To this end, the Made-to-Measure method was extended to include the metallicity distribution of stars, hence constructing the first Made-to-Measure chemodynamical model (Chapter 5). This method was applied to the \argos and \apogee data to successfully fit with the dynamical model of the galactic bar the spatial and kinematic variations of the metallicity in the inner Galaxy. The resulting phase-space distribution of the different metallicity components in the inner Galaxy is then analyzed. The variations as a function of metallicity observed in the data are described and explained in term of differences in spatial, kinematic and orbital structure. This demonstrates that chemodynamical models of the barred inner Milky Way can be constructed using the Made-to-Measure method. Such models describe the present chemodynamical state of the Galaxy and will in the future be a valuable resource in confronting galactic evolution simulations.


The ferromagnetic resonance response (FMR) in the variously sized magnetic dot arrays was measured by using network-analyzer ferromagnetic resonance technique. We first demonstrated that the magnetization excitation related to the susceptibility χzx by the coplanar wave-guide (CPW). In this χzx, the edge mode excitation modified the FMR response appreciably and found that the damping constant is strongly affected by the size of the nano-magnet. In larger nano-magnets, two edge modes were observed. We showed that this edge mode can be exploited as a means to separately characterize the magnetization state of the nano-magnet as well as the size variation. In addition, the simulation results are also presented here to account for the experimental observations.


It has been demonstrated [see, e.g., W.R. Babbitt and T. W. Mossberg, Opt. Commun. 65, 185 (1988)] that coherent optical processes can be employed to store and reproduce temporal sequences of optical data, thereby providing a mechanism for advanced optical memories. We find that excitation pulse phase noise can be used to extend the range of experimental conditions under which the storage process is effective and discuss the use of phase noise to achieve secure data storage.


In K-12 school settings in the United States, there is a preponderance of information delivered via multimedia to students everyday (e.g., visual aids found in science textbooks, electronic tablets, streamed video content, web pages, animations, and PowerPoint presentations). The cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML) outlines numerous principles associated with learning from and with multimedia (Mayer, Hegarty, Mayer, & Cambell, 2005). However, the bulk of the research like the CTML has been conducted using college age students (Jones, 2010; McTigue, 2009). There is ample evidence that college age students and younger students exhibit numerous and important differences when learning from multimedia content (Hannus & Hyona, 1999; McTique, 2009; Moreno, 2007; Van Parreren, 1983). As a result, the objective of the current study is to examine the influence of multimedia presentations that leverage motion (present or absent) in conjunction with signaling cues (present or absent) on high school students' ability to learn science concepts. Using a 2x2 experimental design, 99 high school participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Results of indicated statistical significance all participants over time for a knowledge measure and quality of concepts from a concept mapping task. Implications for multimedia learning theory on younger students are examined. RECEIVED 11 January 2016, REVISED 19 January 2016, ACCEPTED 19 January 2016


We demonstrate low-threshold single-mode supercontinuum (SC) generation by using a tellurite nanowire with long suspended struts under the pump of a picosecond fiber laser. The nanowire was fabricated by pumping an inflation pressure of nitrogen gas into the holes in the processes of preparing cane and drawing nanowire. At the pump wavelength of 1064 nm the nanowire has an optimized nonlinear coefficient. Due to the long radial struts the nanowire can propagate light up to the wavelength as long as 1800 nm with an insignificant confinement loss. Additionally, the tube-shaped glass cladding of the suspended nanowire shifts the single-mode cutoff wavelength to 810 nm. It is shorter than the cutoff wavelength, 1070 nm, of a naked nanowire with the same diameter. This makes it possible to obtain an SC spectrum, which is single mode for all wavelengths of the spectrum. Because of the high nonlinearity, a single-mode SC covering a wavelength range of 900-1600 nm was obtained under the pump pulse with the peak power as low as 24 W. It is shown that the suspended core nanowire with long struts can provide an optimized nonlinearity together with single-mode propagation, which leads to interesting applications in compact nonlinear devices.


A basic introduction to a variety of nucleoside derivatives is described along with a selection of recent syntheses of the said compounds. Initial studies on the synthesis of the key furan based intermediate N-2,5-dihydro-5-(2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl)furanyl trichloroacetamide which when hydrolysed to the free amine would yield a simple route to a variety of nucleoside derivatives. The synthesis was performed via the use of an aza-Claisen rearrangement on 1,4-anhydro-2-deoxy-5,6-O-isopropylidene-D-arabino-hex-1-enitol employing trichloroacetonitrile. This reaction proceeded to the desired amide in a facile manner, with excellent yield without the need for thermal rearrangement of the intermediate imidate. Initial efforts to hydrolyse this compound to the free amine proved inconclusive and this reaction was still being optimised at the close of the work.The Claisen rearrangement of 1,4-anhydro-2-deoxy-5,6-o-isopropylidene-D-arabino-hex-1-enitol employing dimethylacetamide dimethylacetal proceeded successfully to produce an amide useful as an intermediate to the synthesis of furan C-nucleosides. The key carbocyclic allylic alcohol intermediate 5-methoxymethylcyclopent-2-enol was synthesized via a six step synthesis in racemic form from the ethylene-acetal of 2-methoxymethylcyclopentanone but attempts at deprotection of the methyl ether proved unsuccessful. Attempts to repeat this synthesis using protecting groups other than methyl ether failed at an early stage. The aza-Claisen rearrangement of this allylic alcohol with trichloroacetonitrile proceeded in good yield to cis-N-methoxymethylcyclopent-2-enyltrichloroacetamide. This amide was easily acid hydrolysed to the amine hydrochloride which was subsequently used to synthesize a variety of purine based nucleosides. 5-Methoxymethylcyclopent-2-enol underwent the Claisen rearrangement with both dimethylacetamide dimethylacetal and triethylorthoacetate with the latters product showing promise as a useful intermediate to carbocylic C-nucleosides.


A simple open economy asset pricing model can account for the house price and current account dynamics in the G7 over the years 2001-2008. The model features rational households, but assumes that households entertain subjective beliefs about price behavior and update these using Bayes' rule. The resulting beliefs dynamics considerably propagate economic shocks and crucially contribute to replicating the empirical evidence. Belief dynamics can temporarily delink house prices from fundamentals, so that low interest rates can fuel a house price boom. House price booms, however, are not necessarily synchronized across countries and the model is consistent with the heterogeneous response of house prices across the G7 following the reduction in real interest rates at the beginning of the millennium. The response to interest rates depends sensitively on agents' beliefs at the time of the interest rate reduction, which in turn are a function of the country specific history prior to the year 2000. According to the model, the US house price boom could have been largely avoided, if real interest rates had decreased by less after the year 2000.


What are the neuronal codes that the brain uses to represent information? This constitutes one of the most fascinating and challenging questions in Neuroscience. Here we report the results of our investigations about the mechanisms of stimulus encoding and feature extraction using the weakly electric fish Eigenmannia as a model. In many circumstances, sensory systems are subject to natural stimuli that are constantly changing. Therefore we decided to study the representation of time varying signals. Eigenmannia constitutes an ideal system to combine neurophysiological and computational techniques to study neural coding. We have characterized the variability of neuronal responses with a new approach by using parameterized distances between spike trains defined by Victor and Purpura. This measure of variability is widely applicable to neuronal responses, irrespective of the type of stimuli used (deterministic versus random) or the reliability of the recorded spike trains. We also quantitatively defined and evaluated the robustness of the neural code to spike time jittering, spike failures and spontaneous spikes. Our data show that the intrinsic variability of single spike trains lies outside of the range where it might degrade the information conveyed, yet still allows for improvement in coding by averaging across multiple afferent fibers. We also built a phenomenological model of P-receptor afferents incorporating both their linear transfer properties and the variability of their spike trains. We then studied the extraction of features from the time varying signal by bursts of spikes of multiple pyramidal cells, the next stage of information processing. To address the question of whether correlated responses of nearby neurons within topographic sensory maps are merely a sign ofredundancy or carry additional information we recorded simultaneously from pairs of electrosensory pyramidal cells with overlapping receptive fields in the hindbrain of weakly electric fish. We found that nearby pyramidal cells exhibit strong stimulus-induced correlations. The detailed stimulus encoding by pairs of pyramidal cells was inferior to that from single primary afferents. However, the detection of coincident bursts of activity could significantly enhance the extraction of upstrokes and downstrokes in the stimulus amplitude. Our investigations reveal mechanisms by which the nervous system can accurately and robustly transduce a time-varying signal into a digital spike train and then extract behaviorally relevant features.


We study the evolution of primordial magnetic fields in an expanding cosmic plasma. For this purpose we present a comprehensive theoretical model to consider the evolution of MHD turbulence that can be used over a wide range of physical conditions, including cosmological and astrophysical applications. We model different types of decaying cosmic MHD turbulence in the expanding Universe and characterize the large-scale magnetic fields in such a medium. Direct numerical simulations of freely decaying MHD turbulence are performed for different magnetogenesis scenarios: magnetic fields generated during cosmic inflation as well as electroweak and QCD phase transitions in the early Universe. Magnetic fields and fluid motions are strongly coupled due to the high Reynolds number in the early Universe. Hence, we abandon the simple adiabatic dilution model to estimate magnetic field amplitudes in the expanding Universe and include turbulent mixing effects on the large-scale magnetic field evolution. Numerical simulations have been carried out for non-helical and helical magnetic field configurations. The numerical results show the possibility of inverse transfer of energy in magnetically dominated non-helical MHD turbulence. On the other hand, decay properties of helical turbulence depend on whether the turbulent magnetic field is in a weakly or a fully helical state. Our results show that primordial magnetic fields can be considered as a seed for the observed large-scale magnetic fields in galaxies and clusters. Bounds on the magnetic field strength are obtained and are consistent with the upper and lower limits set by observations of extragalactic magnetic fields.


The sweeping story of the modern struggle for gay, lesbian, and trans rights-from the 1950s to the present-based on amazing interviews with politicians, military figures, legal activists, and members of the entire LGBT community who face these challenges every day. The fight for gay, lesbian, and trans civil rights-the years of outrageous injustice, the early battles, the heart-breaking defeats, and the victories beyond the dreams of the gay rights pioneers-is the most important civil rights issue of the present day. Based on rigorous research and more than 150 interviews,The Gay Revolutiontells this unfinished story not through dry facts but through dramatic accounts of passionate struggles, with all the sweep, depth, and intricacies only an award-winning activist, scholar, and novelist like Lillian Faderman can evoke. The Gay Revolutionbegins in the 1950s, when law classified gays and lesbians as criminals, the psychiatric profession saw them as mentally ill, the churches saw them as sinners, and society victimized them with irrational hatred. Against this dark backdrop, a few brave people began to fight back, paving the way for the revolutionary changes of the 1960s and beyond. Faderman discusses the protests in the 1960s; the counter reaction of the 1970s and early eighties; the decimated but united community during the AIDS epidemic; and the current hurdles for the right to marriage equality. In the words of the eyewitnesses who were there through the most critical events,The Gay Revolutionpaints a nuanced portrait of the LGBT civil rights movement. A defining account, this is the most complete and authoritative book of its kind.


While the positive effects of personality similarity on attraction are well established, this research has made a limited transition to the person-environment (P-E) fit research. Following Schneider's (1987) attraction-selection-attrition model based on similarity-attraction literature, the following study proposes that student-instructor relationships characterized by high levels of perceived personality congruence (i.e., fit) will lead to more motivated and engaged students. The study proposes a model to explain the relationship between student-instructor fit, student course engagement, and student outcomes, whereby engagement should mediate the relationship between perceived student-instructor personality fit and student outcomes of course performance, course satisfaction, and commitment to the academic discipline. A sample of introductory psychology course students completed perceived personality fit and student course engagement questionnaires midway through the semester and final course evaluations at the close of the semester. The proposed theoretical model was not supported; however, findings indicated a significant relationship between personality fit and elements of engagement. Furthermore, some factors of engagement discriminately predicted course outcomes. The proposed role of engagement as a mediating variable was only moderately supported in the fit-satisfaction relationship. Modifications to the proposed model are explored and implications for future research in student-instructor fit and student course engagement are discussed.


Abstract We present a nine-step process to assist with developing an idea into a research protocol. This process ensures that evidence-based medicine practice is followed to prevent redundant research questions. The first step is to identify broad research ideas with a potentially "weak" evidence base, rather than starting with a specific research question. The second step is to identify the knowledge gap within the intended field of research by examining the background literature. Thirdly, the focus will be on the "foreground knowledge" needed to frame a potential research question. The fourth step uses this potential research question to conduct a comprehensive literature research, and aims to determine whether or not the question has been asked before. The fifth step entails writing a study one-page summary which provides a succinct summary of what is intended. The sixth step involves writing the protocol. The rigid process of protocol writing will ensure that a number of important practical study issues are dealt with timeously. The seventh step is to discuss the protocol with experts. Their input will make the protocol more robust. The eighth step necessitates making a "social contract" that requires public commitment to the project. The final step is to write a grant application for the study. This serves to allow the researcher to identify the funding priorities of potential grant-funding agencies, thereby allowing the researcher to frame his or her research in such a manner that the financial support necessary for the success of the project will hopefully be ensured.


Abstract. Floods often affect not only a single location, but also a whole region.
Flood frequency analysis should therefore be undertaken at a regional scale
which requires the considerations of the dependence of events at different
locations. This dependence is often neglected even though its consideration
is essential to derive reliable flood estimates. A model used in regional
multivariate frequency analysis should ideally consider the dependence of
events at multiple sites which might show dependence in the lower and/or
upper tail of the distribution. We here seek to propose a simple model that
on the one hand considers this dependence with respect to the network
structure of the region and on the other hand allows for the simulation of
stochastic event sets at both gauged and ungauged locations. The new Fisher
copula model is used for representing the spatial dependence of flood events
in the nested Thur catchment in Switzerland. Flood event samples generated
for the gauged stations using the Fisher copula are compared to samples
generated by other dependence models allowing for modeling of multivariate
data including elliptical copulas, R-vine copulas, and max-stable models. The
comparison of the dependence structures of the generated samples shows that
the Fisher copula is a suitable model for capturing the spatial dependence in
the data. We therefore use the copula in a way such that it can be used in an
interpolation context to simulate event sets comprising gauged and ungauged
locations. The spatial event sets generated using the Fisher copula well
capture the general dependence structure in the data and the upper tail
dependence, which is of particular interest when looking at extreme flood
events and when extrapolating to higher return periods. The Fisher copula was
for a medium-sized catchment found to be a suitable model for the stochastic
simulation of flood event sets at multiple gauged and ungauged locations.


Using 1970 and 1980 census block data for Washington, D.C., we test several hypotheses about the racial residential consequences of neighborhood revitalization. Areas located in the revitalizing core of the city have a) become whiter in both absolute and proportional terms, consistent with the displacement hypothesis, and b) experienced substantial though difficult to interpret shifts in segregation. The types of racial changes occurring in the core are not apparent elsewhere in Washington, and tract data for 1940–1980 show the core changes to be temporally as well as spatially specific. Because different racial residential trends have accompanied revitalization in other cities, we treat Washington as an exceptional case that helps specify the conditions under which conventional wisdom about neighborhood change is least applicable.


One of the fundamental changes in our technologically advanced society is the breadth of technologies available and the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets of the many inventors and developers. Traditional forms of systems engineering limit flexibility and the ability to react to emerging requirements by selecting one alternative to serve as a system, then committing to improving that technology until it can be all things, to all people. Often, years later, budgets have failed and the useful life of the technology is almost over. This paper suggests an iterative and incremental development approach that takes widely varying technologies and systems into account, nests them together to create a series of systems that are progressively more advanced and refined for usability, and that takes advantage of what is available now, all while planning development for future technologies. In order to test this process, a case study was conducted. It serves as a practical example of the proposed iterative and incremental system lifecycle approach. It was found that this method could save lives, drastically shorten fielding time for new capabilities, and increase user refinement of current systems as well as future alternatives.


Circumcision of females was and still remains a cultural practice in many African communities. While modernity and access to education has led to vilification of this tradition, the guardians and conservators of traditions who perceive not virtue but abomination in this revolution intrepidly use myths and falsehoods to sustain the tradition. Where that does not work, force is used. The Maasai are such a community where circumcision of women is still entrenched and highly esteemed. Some girls manage to escape but the effects of the harrowing escape remain. Subsequently, this study proceeds from the postulation that drama therapy is a useful tool not only to reach out to the survivors of any form of distress but also as an avenue for helping the victims cope while enhancing their selfexpression by obliterating the facade engendered by the trauma. Our contention is that as a tool for unlocking the voices of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) survivors, drama therapy creates a safe and playful environment where the survivors are able to act out their anxieties, fears and mental conflicts and reclaim their true beings, dreams and positions in society. In this way, drama therapy provides a platform on which the stigma related to FGM emotions can be expelled. While using various drama therapy techniques such as story-telling, poetry, role playing, song and dance, this paper examines and establishes how drama therapy can be used as an effective tool in regaining the real persona of survivors of Female Genital Mutilation. The study employs Nietzsche's Will to Power theory and Rogerian theory of self in interrogating the potentials of drama therapy. Nietzsche's Will to Power theory has been used to explore underlying motives behind the survivors' rebellion against Female Genital Mutilation whereas Rogerian theory of Self has been used in exploring the survivors' perception of their world, perception of the concepts of freedom, choice and personal responsibility, particularly after surviving Female Genital Mutilation. The study utilizes control-group as its research design while engaging in-depth interviews, questionnaires, focus group discussions and participatory theatre to obtain data for analysis. The data collected was analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively.


Background and Objectives: Essential oils and their compounds are getting increasing interest due to their multipurpose functionals as alternatives to the artificial preservatives. The aim of this study was to extract and identify the volatile constituents of essential oil of Citrus lemon leaf and to evaluate its antioxidant and antibacterial abilities. Materials and Methods: The essential oil was extracted using Clevenger apparatus and characterized by means of gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Folin-Ciocalteu method was used to determine the total phenolic equivalent (TPC). The antioxidant properties of the essential oil were evaluated by 2,2- diphenyl-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay and the detection of inhibitory effect of the essential oil at various concentrations (0.025-10 mg/mL) on Staphylococcus aureus , Bacillus cereus , Streptococcus faecium , Escherichia coli , Salmonella typhi and Shigella dysentery was carried out by agar disc-diffusion method and then Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) assay was evaluated. Results: GC-MS analysis allowed the identification of twenty-seven compounds and linalool (30.62%), geraniol (15.91%), α -terpineol (14.52%), and linalyl acetate (13.76%) were the main constituents. TPC of essential oil was 14.73 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry plant material and its IC 50 value was found to be 0.98 mg/mL in DPPH test, so lemon leaf essential oil showed good free radical scavenging capacity at all studied concentrations. However the antioxidant capacity increased with increasing concentration of the essential oil. The results showed that increasing the essential oil concentration, increases the zone of inhibition, so that the highest antibacterial activity was observed at 10 mg/mL of essential oil. The results of antimicrobial activity by disc diffusion method showed that essential oil exhibited maximum zone inhibition against Gram-positive bacteria including B. cereus , S. aureus and S. faecium , whereas the minimum zone inhibition was shown by S. typhi and S. dysentery as Gram-negative pathogens at the same concentrations . The highest MIC showed by S. aureus and S. dysentery, whereas the least MIC value was observed with B. cereus and S. typhi. Conclusions: The results obtained in this study have shown the moderate biological potential of essential oil of C. limon leaf is probably due to its particular chemical composition, mainly the high amounts of linalool. Therefore, this essential oil could be used to raise the shelf life of foods as a natural preservative ingredient.


This paper delves into the relationship between trade and competition, which has long been a subject largely untouched since the issue had been dropped from the multilateral trade agenda in 2003. The need to incorporate elements of competition policy into international trade rules has long been discussed in the context of making the international trade regime more effective. The issue has gained more attention as state-owned enterprises (SOEs) began to emerge as new influential players in the international market, competing with private enterprises on an unequal footing. A growing number of bilateral trade agreements have included chapters on competition policy, albeit with rules that do not have sufficient binding force for disciplining the business practices of state-owned enterprises. The recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), however, has introduced innovative rules for disciplining the competitive practices of SOEs by integrating the existing WTO disciplines on subsidies with competition rules. In this article, "competitive neutrality", the fundamental principle underlying the SOE disciplines, is used as a framework of analysis for understanding the new disciplines and obligations in the SOE rules. Several legal issues and challenges are identified that are relevant for applying the new rules in the real world, and implications are derived for future rule-making involving other new trade issues.


Velocity data from moored current meters is combined with satellite sea surface temperature (SST) to compute oceanic mixed layer temperature advection by tropical instability waves (TIWs). For the years 2002 to 2005 it is found that this process heats the equatorial mixed layer at an annual mean rate of +0.8°C/month at 0°N, 140°W; and +2.8°C/month at 0°N, 110°W. At 0°N, 110°W, approximately 25% of the heating is contributed by zonal temperature advection, a process that has often been assumed to be negligible. From a nine month segment of data (May 2004–February 2005), the zonal temperature advection at 2°N, 140°W has been estimated to be approximately 0.7°C/month, much larger than the equatorial value for the same time period. Thus, the data supports a recent hypothesis that tropical instability waves contribute a significant mean zonal temperature advection with off‐equatorial maxima to the equatorial mixed‐layer heat budget. Comparisons with numerical model results suggest that current ocean general circulation models can realistically simulate important aspects of tropical eddy‐mixed layer interactions.


The protracted insurgency and associated lawlessness in Nepal seriously undermined the criminal justice system in Nepal between 1996 and 2006. In the aftermath of the conflict, there remains a culture of impunity for serious violations of human rights committed during the conflict, impeding post-conflict reconstruction. Effective, well-formulated and properly targeted human rights training of law enforcement officials has the capacity to help prevent and remedy human rights violations in Nepal and to strengthen the criminal justice system. The purpose of this Review is to identify challenges and opportunities in strengthening human rights training in the criminal justice sector in Nepal by examining the extent to which different institutions and actors are currently delivering training, how such existing training might be improved, and where new or additional training could be developed and implemented. It makes 48 recommendations for strengthening human rights training in relation to the criminal justice system in Nepal, including for law enforcement bodies, external actors (such as non-government and international organisations) and law student education. It considers both the curricula and teaching methodology to be used.


Composite panel structure optimization is commonly decomposed into panel optimization subproblems, with specified local loads, resulting in manufacturing incompatibilities between adjacent panel designs. Using genetic algorithms to optimize local panel stacking sequences allows panel populations of stacking sequences to evolve in parallel and send migrants to adjacent panels, so as to blend the local panel designs globally. The blending process is accomplished using the edit distance between individuals of a population and the set of migrants from adjacent panels. The objective function evaluating the fitness of designs is modified according to the severity of mismatches detected between neighboring populations. This lays the ground work for natural evolution to a blended global solution without leaving the paradigm of genetic algorithms. An additional method applied here for constructing globally blended panel designs uses a parallel decomposition antithetical to that of earlier work. Rather than performing concurrent panel genetic optimizations, a single genetic optimization is conducted for the entire structure with the parallelism solely within the fitness evaluations. A guide based genetic algorithm approach is introduced to exclusively generate and evaluate valid globally blended designs, utilizing a simple master-slave parallel implementation, implicitly reducing the size of the problem design space and increasing the quality of discovered local optima.


We introduce a system that allows four users to each receive sound from a private audio channel while using a shared tabletop display. In order to explore how private audio channels affect a collaborative work environment, we conducted a user study with this system. The results reveal differences in work strategies when groups are presented with individual versus public audio, and suggest that the use of private audio does not impede group communication and may positively impact group dynamics. We discuss the findings, as well as their implications for the design of future audio-based "single display privacyware" systems.


This report deals with an investigation of the working environment when using manual weeding implements and small motor weeders in plantations and vegetable gardening. Factors taken into account include ergonomics, weeding effect and the length of time required to treat a given area. In the case of motor driven equipment, levels of noise and handle vibration were also examined and certain measurements of force were carried out. The report includes a technical description of the equipment covered in the study. In a survey of literature on ergonomics, the injuries which can be caused by incorrect working posture and strain are described. In our own experiments, the subjects graded the strain on different parts of the body when working with the various pieces of equipment. As it is seldom possible to adjust the equipment to suit individual height and build, different sorts of problems were experienced by the research subjects. For example, a tall person may have to stoop, with resulting pains in the back and shoulders. A person of small build, on the other hand, may find the weight of the equipment cumbersome. The noise levels of motor weeders were measured. Hearing protection must be used when levels exceed 85 dB (A). Of the motor weeders examined, all but one, the Honda F405, had excessive noise levels. There are set standards for the amount of vibration which is acceptable in various work situations and which involves no risk of long term injury to the body. Injuries which can occur include so-called white fingers and tingling and numbness in the fingers. Our own research has shown that the vibration levels for several machines were far too high to be acceptable. High vibration levels can occur especially when working in ground which is hard or stony. Working in hard or stony ground can also lead to high levels of static and dynamic strain on the body. As each piece of equipment is used for a relatively short period of time, it is difficult to draw any definite conclusions on its efficiency as regards time consumption. A fact which may cause surprise is that there was very little difference in time consumption between using manual weeding implements and motor weeders. Using motor driven equipment was, on the whole, a little faster, but the difference was marginal. There were no great differences in the weeding results after treatment with the various pieces of equipment. Generally it can be said that not too much time should elapse between treatments. The bigger the weeds have grown, the greater the force required to cut them down or hack them up. The large plants also cause problems by getting entangled in the hacking devices of the motor weeder, which must then be cleared from plant debris before being able to function properly again. In the discussion, it is maintained that those who use manual and motor driven equipment for weed control in their jobs have a working environment which is unacceptable and which subjects them to several risks. In order to come to terms with this problem, measures are required to improve and develop new equipment. It is also necessary to improve the design of the area which is to be worked on. Training in the use of this type of equipment can also contribute to a reduction, in the future, in the number of people with work related injuries.


During an experiment in the North Atlantic in June 1998, water samples were collected approximately 400 km south of Iceland inside and outside of a bloom of the coccolithophorid Emilia- nia huxleyi. In vitro dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) lyase activity (DLA) was quantified using gas chromatography and found to vary from 0.1 to 142.3 nM dimethyl sulphide (DMS) h -1 . Inside the bloom area the majority of DLA (> 74%) occurred in particles >10 µm, indicating that E. huxleyi (5 to 7 µm diameter) made only a minor contribution to total DLA. In surface waters, phototrophic dino- flagellates (>10 µm) made up a high proportion of the total phytoplankton biomass (~27%) towards the end of the coccolithophorid bloom and may have been the source of most of the DLA. This was also indicated by a significant correlation (p < 0.02) between DLA and the concentration of peridinin, a pigment used as a chemotaxonomic marker for dinophytes. The data presented here are the first field measurements of DLA in a coccolithophorid bloom and suggest that even a relatively low con- centration of photosynthetic dinoflagellates larger than 10 µm (during our study 18 to 105 cells ml -1 ) may contribute significantly to DMS production. Although dinoflagellates are recognised as an important source of particulate DMSP, recognition of their significance for DMS production in the field has previously been limited to a few observations in highly concentrated coastal and shelf blooms. Very little information exists on DLA in dinophytes and further investigations are warranted in order to improve our understanding of the biogeochemical and ecophysiological significance of DMSP lyases in this group of phytoplankton.


Мore free environmental science resources аt: www.ScienceJournalForKids.org We have all heard that living creatures need the sun to survive, either directly through photosynthesis or by consuming biomass produced by photosynthesis. But is this really true for all of them? Some organisms survive in the deep sea where there is no sunlight using energy from our planet instead of our sun in a process known as chemosynthesis. We wanted to know more about these microorganisms, especially the ones that live below the sea floor at deep-sea hot springs. So we examined fluids from a hot spring in the Pacific at in situ pressure and temperature and measured their productivity and rates of metabolism. Our study showed that sub-seafloor microorganisms were highly productive and fast growing. Our estimates allow us to assess the importance of hot springs for global cycles of essential elements, such as carbon and nitrogen.


An area of concern for occupational therapy is to increase preventive interventions among relatively healthy elderly individuals. The purpose of this study was to explore occupational performance problems among 85-year-old women and men in relation to demographic data, mental health, and health-related quality of life. Participants completed a postal questionnaire including the EuroQoL health-related quality of life measurement. Instruments used during a home visit were the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, the Mini-Mental State Examination, and the Geriatric Depression scale. The sample comprised 380 individuals. Women experienced poorer health and more occupational performance problems in community management, household management, and quiet leisure than men. Impaired cognitive function, lower self-rated health, and higher risk of depression correlated with a larger number of occupational performance problems. Intervention planning should be based on individual perceptions of meaningful occupations and environmental considerations.


This paper presents two fast schemes to speed up the retrieval process for conventional content-based image retrieval systems. The traditional features such as color and invariant histograms are extracted offline from each image to compose a feature vector. All these feature vectors construct the feature database. Then the system performs the online retrieval based on this database as soon as possible. In the case of a small number of returned images, an equal-average equal-variance k nearest neighbour search (EEKNNS) method is used to speed up the retrieval process. In the case of a large number of returned images, an iterative EEKNNS (IEEKNNS) method is given. Experimental results show that the proposed retrieval methods can largely accelerate the retrieval process while guaranteeing the same recall and precision


Ecological Stoichiometry theory predicts that the production, elemental structure and cellular content of biomolecules should depend on the relative availability of resources and the elemental composition of their producer organism. We review the extent to which carbon- and nitrogen-rich phytoplankton toxins are regulated by nutrient limitation and cellular stoichiometry. Consistent with theory, we show that nitrogen limitation causes a reduction in the cellular quota of nitrogen-rich toxins, while phosphorus limitation causes an increase in the most nitrogen-rich paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin. In addition, we show that the cellular content of nitrogen-rich toxins increases with increasing cellular N : P ratios. Also consistent with theory, limitation by either nitrogen or phosphorus promotes the C-rich toxin cell quota or toxicity of phytoplankton cells. These observed relationships may assist in predicting and managing toxin-producing phytoplankton blooms. Such a stoichiometric regulation of toxins is likely not restricted to phytoplankton, and may well apply to carbon- and nitrogen-rich secondary metabolites produced by bacteria, fungi and plants.


Providing targeted feedback to drivers can significantly contribute to the improvement of their driving behaviour and overall safety. However, the effectiveness of the driver feedback provided depends on various parameters. This paper constitutes a systematic effort to review the current state-of-the-art in driver feedback research. The most important parameters that should be taken into consideration when designing such feedback experiments are also reviewed and analysed herein. The focus is on the demographics, the types, the means and the time of feedback of the experiments. Novel ways of providing feedback in a naturalistic experimental setting can be designed based on the review at hand.


Predicting recurrent intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) related to cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) currently relies on brain images. We aimed to investigate whether blood neurodegenerative biomarkers predict disease severity and ICH recurrence in CAA. We recruited 68 first probable CAA-ICH cases from a Chinese prospective cohort, and 95 controls. We used the single-molecule array to measure acute phase blood amyloid-40, amyloid-42, total tau and neurofilament light chain (NfL). We used multivariable Cox regression models to assess the association between blood biomarkers and CAA-ICH recurrence, and used the concordance (c-) index to assess prediction models. Blood amyloid-42/40, total tau, and NfL levels changed in CAA-ICH cases than controls. During a median follow-up of 2.4 years, NfL was associated with CAA-ICH recurrence (adjusted hazard ratio 2.14, 95% CI 1.57-2.93) independent of MRI burden of small vessel disease (SVD). The performance of a model to predict CAA-ICH recurrence using MRI burden of SVD alone (c-index 0.77) increased with the addition of NfL (c-index 0.88, 95% CI 0.73-1.00, p=0.019). Further, NfL was associated with baseline ICH volume, NIHSS and 6-month mRS score. Blood NfL is associated with severity and prognosis of CAA-ICH and is a promising addition to MRI burden of SVD to predict CAA-ICH recurrence.


Gastrointestinal helminth parasites are found commonly in the Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi), the most endangered seal in the United States and one of the world's most endangered pinnipeds. We studied potential associations between gastrointestinal helminth infections and body size, and hematologic and serum chemistry variables in a sample of 282 monk seals captured between 1998 and 2002 as part of a population health assessment. Based on the presence of eggs in feces, the highest prevalence of infection (78%) was for cestodes belonging to a complex of several Diphyllobothrium spp. Infections with the nematode Contracaecum turgidum were found in 29% of samples tested. Eggs of the acanthocephalan Corynosoma rauschi were found in 4% of seals examined; and the feces of four weanling seals on the French Frigate Shoals contained eggs of the recently described trematode, Heterophyopsis hawaiiensis. We used a general linear model and analysis of variance techniques with adjustment for subpopulation and age to determine whether infections with Diphyllobothrium spp. or C. turgidum were associated with changes in hematologic or serum chemistry variables and found little evidence of an effect when we compared infected with negative seals or seals in the highest quartile of egg counts with negative seals. We also conducted analyses of associations between infection and morphometric values in adjusted, age-stratified data. Infection with Diphyllobothrium spp. was associated with a decrease in axillary girth and an increase in dorsal standard length/axillary girth ratio in seals less than 2 y of age, with the effects most pronounced in seals less than 1 y of age. After adjustment for Diphyllobothrium spp., C. turgidum infection was not associated with morphometric parameters. Co-infection with Diphyllobothrium spp. and C. turgidum was not associated with differences in body size greater than those found with diphyllobothriid tapeworm infection alone. These findings suggest that intervention strategies to reduce the prevalence of tapeworm infections in immature Hawaiian monk seals should be considered as a conservation measure for this highly endangered marine mammal.


Statistics show that motorcyclists are more at risk per mile ridden than any other type of road user. In addition, although the number of road accident fatalities in the UK has decreased in recent years, the number of motorcyclist fatalities has risen and the distribution of casualties has changed. Growing proportions of casualties are to older riders, and involve motorcycles over 500cc engine capacity. TRL Limited was commissioned by the then Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions to undertake a scoping study of motorcycle safety. This included a review of literature and current research, with a view to identifying areas where further research was needed. Characteristics of motorcycle use leading to accidents include their high instability, rider vulnerability, lack of visibility to car drivers, sensation-seeking behaviour and use of powerful motorcycles. Better motorcyclist training, anti-lock braking systems, and high conspicuity clothing are among the suggestions to reduce accident rates.


The Center began publishing this Primer series in 2005 to provide information on key aspects of agriculture and rural development (ARD) in the 11 countries comprising the Southeast Asian region. The first edition profiled the agriculture sector of each country and served as useful reference material for a wide range of users including researchers, academics, policy and decision makers, and development practitioners. Recognizing that significant changes have taken place in the region in the last decade, SEARCA is publishing this second edition to update the Primer and keep it attuned to the changing agricultural landscape in Southeast Asia. SEARCA envisages these new Primers to be more thematic, analytical, and focused on specific key factors and concerns affecting ARD in each country. This edition focuses on the analysis of each country's experiences, lessons, and insights on policy reforms and institutional innovations in the agriculture sector. The Philippines Primer presents a way forward to achieving food security, not by artificially inducing high food prices through trade restrictions, but by shifting the focus of policy to efficiency-enhancing measures. It also asserts that the Philippines implement long overdue policy and governance reforms needed to foster a more competitive and shock-resilient agriculture sector to keep in step with the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).


Until recently, the period of Late Antiquity had been largely regarded
as a sterile age of irrationality and of decline in science. This
pioneering work, supported by first-hand study of primary sources,
argues that this opinion is profoundly mistaken. It focuses in
particular on Proclus, the head of the Platonic School at Athens in
the 5th c. AD, and the chief spokesman for the ideas of the dominant
school of thought of that time, Neoplatonism.
Part I, divided into two Sections, is an introductory guide to
Proclus' philosophical and cosmological system, its general principles
and its graded ordering of the states of existence. Part II
concentrates on his physical theories on the Elements and the
celestial bodies, in Sections A and B respectively, with chapters
(or sub-sections) on topics including the structure, properties and
motion of the Elements; light; space and matter; the composition and
motion of the celestial bodies; and the order of planets.
The picture that emerges from the study is that much of the
Aristotelian physics, so prevalent in Classical Antiquity, was
rejected. The concepts which were developed instead included
the geometrization of matter, the four-Element composition of the
universe, that of self-generated, free motion in space for the
heavenly bodies, and that of immanent force or power. Furthermore,
the desire to provide for a systematic unity in explanation, in
science and philosophy, capable of comprehending the diversity of
entities and phenomena, yielded the Neoplatonic notion that things
are essentially modes or states of existence, which can be arranged
in terms of a causal gradation and described accordingly. Proclus,
above anyone else, applied it as a scientific method systematically.
Consequently, that Proclus' physical thought is embedded in his
Neoplatonic philosophy is not viewed as something regrettable, but as
proof of his consistent adherence to the belief, that there must be
unity in explanation, just as there is one in the universe, since
only the existence of such unity renders the cosmos rational and
makes certainty in science attainable.


A frequency-stabilized light source emitting at 556 nm is realized by frequency doubling a 1112 nm laser, which is phase locked to a fiber-based optical frequency comb. The 1112 nm laser is either an ytterbium (Yb)-doped distributed feedback fiber laser or a master-slave laser system that uses an external cavity diode laser as a master laser. We have achieved the continuous frequency stabilization of the light source over a 5 day period. With the light source, we have completed the second-stage magneto-optical trapping (MOT) of Yb atoms using the S10–P31 intercombination transition. The temperature of the ultracold atoms in the MOT was 40 μK when measured using the time-of-flight method, and this is sufficient for loading the atoms into an optical lattice. The fiber-based frequency comb is shown to be a useful tool for controlling the laser frequency in cold-atom experiments.


In the increasingly polarised debate that is American politics, religion and religious belief has garnered a significant amount of attention in recent years, particularly `on the right-wing of the political spectrum. Despite the separation of Church and State expressly laid out in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, many Republican politicians and faith-based organisations reject the idea of a secular United States and instead assert the supremacy of Judeo-Christian values in the American political discourse. This paper seeks to examine the activities of right-wing Christian political organisations, who oppose Church/State separation and their connections to U.S. politicians, as well as the deeper causes of the Religious Right's staunch opposition to the Establishment Clause.


- Advanced utility, diesel and turbines engines used widely in aerospace, chemical and oil industries are based on plasma sprayed thermal barrier coatings. The successful performance of these coatings during servicing are relied mostly on the careful design, selection and analysis of zirconia-based ceramic powders stabilized with yttria and ceria. Different design of sampling techniques relevant for each evaluates property is a key factor to obtain reliable data. Significant property differences were observed for single and mixed powders. In the present work the particle size, its distribution, apparent density, flow rate, biased standard deviation, unbiased standard deviation and phases were characterized using sieving, flowmeter, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), step scanning X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), electron microprobe analysis (EPMA) and FT-IR. Two single alloyed zirconia powders of zirconia- 25 wt% CeO 2 -2.5 wt% Y 2 O 3 (Sulzer Metco 205NS) and zirconia- 8 wt% Y 2 O 3 (Sulzer Metco 204NS-G) and mixture of these powders 80 wt% (Sulzer Metco 205NS) and 20 wt% (Sulzer Metco 204NS-G) were investigated. The particle shape has a remarkable effect on the flow rate and apparent density rather than the other properties. The particle distribution gives important noticeable information for the plasma spraying coatings.


In a time of financial crisis and rising demand for economic protectionism, the World Trade Organization, promoting free trade and economic growth, has never been more important. Enforcement of the WTO's provisions has grown increasingly contentious and high-stakes, and the Appellate Body empowered to rule on violations of the treaty has received harsh criticism. Three elements of WTO jurisprudence, in particular, stand out. First, the court's excessive use of narrow textualist argument tends to lead to short-sighted decisions that give little guidance to member states. Second, the court's decisions have increasingly interfered with sensitive democratic processes in sovereign countries. Third, the opinions handed down by the court have led countries to adopt trade-restrictive, rather than trade-liberalizing, measures. These criticisms of WTO jurisprudence present serious challenges to the very raison d'etre of the WTO. This jurisprudence cannot be explained without reference to the AB's history as an institution awkwardly positioned somewhere between the realm of diplomacy and law. This Article will argue that the WTO's jurisprudence can be usefully understood as a kind of resistance to constitutionalization in international trade law. The narrow textualism of the AB was intended to reduce the amount of contestation and politics at the WTO, but, paradoxically, the AB's resistance to constitutionalization has actually created the very controversy and division that it seeks to avoid.


Real-time video streaming suffer from bandwidth limitation that are unable to handle the high amount of video data. To reduce the amount of data to be streamed, we propose an adaptive technique to crop the important part of the video frames, and drop the part that are outside the important part; this part is called the Region Of Interest (ROI). The Sum of Absolute Differences (SAD) is computed to the consecutive video frames on the server side to identify and extract the ROI. The ROI are extracted from the frames that are between reference frames based on three scenarios. The scenarios been designed to position the reference frames in the video frames sequence. Linear interpolation is performed from the reference frames to reconstruct the part that are outside the ROI on the mobile side. We evaluate the proposed approach for the three scenarios by looking at the size of the compressed videos and measure the quality of the videos by using the Mean Opinion Score (MOS). The results show that our technique significantly reduces the amount of data to be streamed over wireless networks with acceptable video quality are provided to the mobile viewers.


High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was applied for aqueous determination of Nnitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). A fluorescence derivatization technique was adopted to enhance detection using HPLC. Derivatization with dansyl chloride was optimized for excitation and emission wavelengths (340 and 530 nm, respectively), pH (9-12), and concentration of dansyl chloride (500 mg/L). An instrumental detection limit of 0.1 ng NDMA using a fluorescence detector was achieved. The NDMA in aqueous samples was extracted by continuous solid-phase extraction using 1.5 g Ambersorb 572. NDMA detection could be lowered to a concentration of 10 ng/L in both water and wastewater samples. The chromatographic peak for NDMA was distinct without interference from the complex matrix of wastewater effluents. Such selectivity of the HPLC method for NDMA determination is necessary for wastewater samples.


Gender-specific differences in the immune response to nerve injury contribute to the increased susceptibility of females to chronic pain. Signaling from spinal microglia to neurons mediates chronic pain caused by peripheral inflammation or nerve damage. By comparing male and female mice after nerve injury, Sorge et al. identified that chronic pain signaling by microglia is mediated differently between the sexes (see also Brings and Zylka). Although the proliferation of microglia was similar in nerve-injured male and female mice, several chemicals that inhibit microglia activation, including minocycline, reduced mechanical sensitivity (allodynia) only in the male mice. Transiently depleting microglia through intrathecal injection of a conjugated saporin toxin suppressed allodynia in nerve-injured male but not female mice. The expression of the gene encoding the purinergic receptor P2X4R in microglia, previously shown to mediate neuropathic pain in male mice, was increased after nerve injury in male but not female mice. Neither inhibiting P2X4R nor key microglia-to-neuron mediators (the kinase p38 MAPK or the neurotrophin BDNF) reduced allodynia in female mice. In addition to microglia, adaptive T cells are also activated after nerve injury. Minocycline reduced allodynia in nerve-injured female nude or Rag1–/– mice, which lack T and B cells. Adoptive splenocyte transfer prevented minocycline-mediated alleviation of allodynia in female Rag1–/– mice. Together these data suggest that T cells mediate allodynia in female mice, whereas microglia mediate allodynia in male mice, and that females can switch to the microglial pathway in the absence of T cells. Male castration prevented the efficacy of minocycline against allodynia, whereas subcutaneous administration of testosterone reinstated its efficacy in gonadectomized male or enabled minocycline to reduce allodynia in gonadectomized female mice, suggesting that testosterone contributes to the male-specific microglial involvement in allodynia. In T cells, testosterone increases the abundance of the α isoform of the receptor PPAR and decreases the γ isoform. T cells that infiltrate the spine after nerve injury predominantly express PPARγ. An antagonist of PPARγ but not one of PPARα alleviated nerve-injury-induced allodynia in female mice. Thus, gender may dictate distinct therapeutic strategies for patients with chronic neuropathic pain. R. E. Sorge, J. C. S. Mapplebeck, S. Rosen, S. Beggs, S. Taves, J. K. Alexander, L. J. Martin, J.-S. Austin, S. G. Sotocinal, D. Chen, M. Yang, X. Q. Shi, H. Huang, N. J. Pillon, P. J. Bilan, Y. Tu, A. Klip,R.-R. Ji, J. Zhang, M. W. Salter, J. S. Mogil, Different immune cells mediate mechanical pain hypersensitivity in male and female mice. Nat. Neurosci. 18, 1081–1083 (2015). [PubMed] V. E. Brings, M. J. Zylka, Sex, drugs, and pain control. Nat. Neurosci. 18, 1059–1060 (2015). [PubMed]


The way in which orthodontic patients swallow poses a major problem during treatment, especially for long-term stability of the end result. If clinical diagnosis of atypical swallowing performed in an empirical manner by the practitioner, aided or not by rehabilitation devices, has been the subject of numerous studies, surface electromyography seems to bring new insight in diagnosing the way patients swallow and in re-training atypical deglutition. After a short refresher about the anatomy and physiology of the mechanisms of swallowing as well as the basic principles of electromyography, a descriptive and comparative study was carried out with 60 patients in order to understand and to prove the reliability and pertinence of this diagnostic tool. The results of the study are based on a collection of graphic and visual data compared to maxillo-facial kinesiographic studies where patients underwent a parallel double blind diagnosis. The objective was to determine if surface electromyography provides reliable, exact and reproducible data based on daily screening. Finally, it may be possible to create a flowchart for clinical decision making by using the results of our study as well as the findings in the literature.


Modest realism affirms that some of the objects of our beliefs exist independently of our beliefs. That is, there is a mind-independent world that we can epistemically access. The Cartesian skeptic claims that we can't offer any non-questionbegging arguments in favor of modest realism and therefore we are not justified in believing that modest realism is true. Reliabilists argue that the skeptic assumes an evidentialist-internalist account of justification and that a proper account of justification jettisons this. Hence, our belief in modest realism can be justified. I argue in this paper that virtue-responsibilism offers an analogous response to the Cartesian skeptic. According to the virtue-responsibilist, my belief that P is an instance of knowledge iff it maps onto reality and is the result of an act of virtue. I show that the virtueresponsibilist theory excludes evidentialist-internalism, and allows for our belief in modest realism to be justified. However, it may be objected that the virtue-responsibilist can't offer non-question-begging reasons for thinking that the virtues are reliable. I argue that this objection fails and that we can know that the virtues are reliable by empirical study. Thus, virtue-responsibilism provides a satisfactory response to the


Recent years have witnessed a revival of interest in relativism. Proponents have defended various accounts that seek to model the truth-conditions of certain propositions along the lines of standard possible world semantics. The central challenge for such views has been to explain what advantage they have over contextualist theories with regard to the possibility of disagreement. I will press this worry against Max Kölbel's account of faultless disagreement. My case will proceed along two distinct but connected lines. First, I will argue that the sense of faultlessness made possible by his relativism conflicts with our intuitive understanding of disagreement. And second, that his metaepistemological commitments are at odds with the socio-epistemic function of disagreement. This latter problem for relativistic accounts of truth has thus far been largely ignored in the literature.


This study screened the available evidence for the in vitro antimicrobial efficacy of propolis, a natural herbal resin bee product, against a selection of three bacterial species of relevance to oral diseases. For this purpose, papers dealing with laboratory studies assessing minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) or the agar diffusion method to analyze the antimicrobial properties of propolis on three oral pathogens (S. mutans, P. gingivalis, F. nucleatum) and a yeast (C. albicans) are reviewed. Overall, a positive antimicrobial effect could be shown. However, when compared to the commonly used control substances (e.g., specific antibiotics, antiseptics and antifungals), propolis appeared less effective, depending on the bacterial strain, and required higher concentrations than the control substances, in order to show a measurable effect. Nevertheless, propolis as a natural herbal resin bee product can be considered as a natural antiseptic agent within the range of other herbal products, like sanguinarine. Therefore, it may be a valuable compound of non-synthetic, natural origin for patients seeking complementary agents and alternatives for "hard" chemicals.


Correction for 'How can a knowledge of the past help to conserve the future? Biodiversity conservation and the relevance of long-term ecological studies' by Katherine J. Willis, Miguel B. Araújo, Keith D. Bennett, Blanca Figueroa-Rangel, Cynthia A. Froyd and Norman Myers (Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 362, 175–186. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1977)). The dates of the textual citations and the entries in the reference list for the following references should have been 2007 but were incorrectly given as 2006. The correct forms of these references are given below.


This work addresses the relation between inheritance and change in the framework of Diachronic Construction Grammar. Given that change is commonly thought of as a linear unidirectional path and inheritance relations tend to be organized in a multidirectional radial fashion, I propose two hypotheses to account for the way new constructions emerge in a language and their relation to existing constructions. The Constructional Convergence Hypothesis claims that historically unrelated constructions can come to participate in the same formally and functionally motivated network of constructions. Such participation results from a series of changes that merge the form and meaning of the new construction into an already existing pattern. The Construction Network Reconfiguration Hypothesis then proposes that, as new constructions emerge, inheritance relations in construction networks change. The change drives speakers to propose new links between constructions regardless of linear relationships. To demonstrate the validity of this claim, I develop an analysis of constructions from the Para Infinitive family of constructions in Brazilian Portuguese, based on extensive data collection from the 13th to the 21st century. The analyses show that speakers seem to have reconfigured the Para Infinitive construction network as far back as the 13th century. Since then, the emergence of new patterns has led to the expansion of the network and the reconfiguration of its inheritance links.


Several publications over the last 20 years have established that black organic shales are generally characterized by strong velocity anisotropy, low velocity in the bedding-normal direction, and relatively low density and porosity (e.g., Vernik and Nur, 1992; Vernik and Liu, 1997). These rock properties are of interest in seismic attribute studies, but even more so in geomechanical applications related to reservoir characterization and hydraulic fracture stimulation. Organic shales typically, but not necessarily, express strong vertical transverse isotropy (VTI), with axis of symmetry perpendicular to the bedding-parallel lamination and clay-particle-preferred orientation. High-resolution SEM imaging (Figure 1) immediately reveals all these textural features in addition to silt grains and the lenticular distribution of the solid organic matter (kerogen), which in turn is characterized by significant intraparticle porosity in mature shales. Any TI medium is described by the five independent elastic consta...


Low back pain is common, but a herniated intervertebral disk is the cause in only a small percentage of cases. Most symptomatic disk herniations result in clinical manifestations (pain, reflex loss, muscle weakness) that resolve with conservative therapy, and only 5% to 10% of patients require surgery. Sciatica is usually the first clue to disk herniation, but sciatica may be mimicked by other disorders that cause radiating pain. Because more than 95% of lumbar disk herniations occur at the L4-5 or L5-S1 levels, the physical examination should focus on abnormalities of the L5 and S1 nerve roots. Plain radiography is not useful in diagnosing disk herniation, but more sophisticated imaging (myelography, computed tomography, or magnetic resonance imaging) should generally be delayed until a patient is clearly a surgical candidate. Conservative therapy includes nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, brief bed rest (often for less than 1 week), early progressive ambulation, and reassurance about a favorable prognosis. Muscle relaxants and narcotic analgesics have a limited role, and their use should be strictly time-limited. Conventional traction and corsets are probably ineffective. Except for patients with the cauda equina syndrome, surgery is generally appropriate only when there is a combination of definite disk herniation shown by imaging, a corresponding syndrome of sciatic pain, a corresponding neurologic deficit, and a failure to respond to 6 weeks of conservative therapy.


Assessing the economic role of culture and interpreting it in connection with regional and urban development are becoming important. This paper aims to reflect on the possible means of quantification regarding the attributes of culture. Given that the authors are compelled to restrict the scope of analysis to the certain segments of culture attempts are made at investigating the properties of culture using multivariate statistical methods (factor analysis, K-means clustering, correlation) in the case of Hungarian micro-regions. After typifying the Hungarian micro-regions the paper conclude that significant differences are observed regarding the micro-regions of West and South Transdanubia, Northern Hungary and the Great Plain but there are also considerable disparities between the urban and rural areas of Hungary. Finally, the paper highlights some critical issues concerning the results and argues for an appropriate cultural policy in Hungary.


This paper investigates complex sentence constructions in Nyulnyul (Kimberley, Western Australia). Three primary types of inter-clausal relationships — embedding (part-whole), dependence (part-part) and scope (whole-whole) — permit an initial typology of complex sentence types. This paper focuses on embedding and dependence, ignoring scope. It is argued that non-finite clauses must be embedded in a finite clause, whereas finite clauses cannot be, and may only be related to another finite clause by dependence. Dependence relations can be classified (following Halliday 1985) according to two independent emically significant parameters: parataxis vs. hypotaxis; and extension vs. elaboration vs. enhancement. The contrast between parataxis and hypotaxis is examined, and it is argued that hypotaxis involves the reduction in status of the dependent clause; consequences of this are discussed. Embedding involves nominalisation, and with this the 'entitisation' of an event, and the consequent unchallangeability of the clause.


The locus of innovation is not the individual firm anymore but increasingly the network in which the firm is embedded. Hence, in this paper innovation is investigated in the broader context of networks and applied to the traditional food sector. Networking refers to a process of identifying and acting on complementary interests with or without formal means of cooperation and plays an important role for the diffusion and adoption of innovations, because they increase the flow of information. Two main types of networks exist. Vertical networks relate to cooperation of partners belonging to the same chain. Meanwhile, horizontal networks refer to coopereation among firms which are primarily competitors. Data were collected during focus groups and in-depths interviews in three European contries: Belgium, Hungary, and Italy. In each country, data are collected from retailers/wholesalers, food manufacturers and suppliers in the beer, hard and half hard cheese, ham, sausage, or white paprika chain. In the investigated countries both vertical and horizontal networks exist. However, the intensity of using the network differs. On the one hand vertical networks are well developed based on quality assurance schemes and traceability, though these networks often face difficulties due to high lack of trust. On the other hand, horizontal networks are well developed when a producer consortium is involved. However, these networks can be inhibited through strong competition. The partners in traditional food networks focus mainly on innovation related to product characteristics such as new size, form and packaging without changing the traditional character of the product. The main barriers for innovation in the traditional food networks are the lack of understanding the benefits of networking activities for innovation, the lack of trust, the lack of knowledge of appropriate methods and skills, and the lack of financial and physical resources. Our study points out that successful SMEs use their networks to overcome lacks of knowledge and information and to create possibilities of joint use of resources.


The identification of protein function is crucial to understanding cellular processes and selecting novel proteins as drug targets. However, experimental methods for determining protein function can be expensive and time-consuming. Protein partial structure comparison methods seek to guide and accelerate the process of function determination by matching characterized functional site representations, motifs, to substructures within uncharacterized proteins, matches. One common difficulty of all protein structural comparison techniques is the computational cost of obtaining a match. In an effort to maintain practical efficiency, some algorithms employ efficient geometric threshold-based searches to eliminate biologically irrelevant matches. Thresholds refine and accelerate the method by limiting the number of potential matches that need to be considered. However, because statistical models rely on the output of the geometric matching method to accurately measure statistical significance, geometric thresholds can also artificially distort the basis of statistical models, making statistical scores dependant on geometric thresholds and potentially causing significant reductions in accuracy of the functional annotation method. This paper proposes a point-weight based correction approach to quantify and model the dependence of statistical scores to account for the systematic bias introduced by heuristics. Using a benchmark dataset of 20 structural motifs, we show that the point-weight correction procedure accurately models the information lost during the geometric comparison phase, removing systematic bias and greatly reducing misclassification rates of functionally related proteins, while maintaining specificity.


Lymph node biopsy, if performed correctly, is likely to yield an optimal diagnostic result. However, in view of the invasive nature of the procedure, biopsy should only be undertaken in patients with a definitive clinical indication. Less invasive investigations, such a full blood count and serology, and fine needle aspiration (FNA), may indeed provide a conclusive diagnosis especially if a careful medical history / examination reveals the most likely clinical cause for the lymphadenopathy, which is subsequently confirmed.


It is our privilege to introduce a novel special section of the Journal of Xiangya Medicine (JXYM) entitled "Case Reports in Thoracic Surgery". Case reports in Thoracic Surgery, like case reports in general, are difficult to publish in the current literature. Even if the clinical report is well written, focused on an interesting topic, and accompanied by attractive images and/or videos, many journals do not consider case reports for publication. The decision not to publish case reports is often justified by the perceived low scientific value and the expected limited number of citations.


Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for 6 months is recommended as the most cost-effective public health intervention to improve child survival particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and is central to achieving Millennium Development Goal number 4 for child health. However, despite the benefits of EBF to infants and mothers, the rates continue to decrease as the age of the infant increases in an African cultural context including Malawi. There is increasing literature on the effectiveness of community-based peer counselling on EBF promotion in resource-poor settings but its effectiveness in the context of HIV and experiences of HIV positive women with the intervention remains a gap.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore determinants of EBF using MaiMwana infant feeding peer-counselling intervention conducted in Mchinji, Malawi as a case study. Specifically, in this study I explored the effectiveness of the intervention to help HIV positive women to overcome the barriers and examine people's experiences and perceptions towards the intervention with respect to HIV and poverty. I adopted qualitative in-depth interviews with 39 informants, including breastfeeding mothers, peer counsellors and key informants who were purposely selected. The data was analysed using a framework approach.

I found that despite having good knowledge, women from rural communities face considerable challenges while practicing EBF. Cultural beliefs, economic constraints, lack of power and support, and fear of transmitting the virus to their infants were cited as major barriers that prevented them from practicing EBF. Overall, the findings from this study suggest that peer counsellors are well accepted by service-users and other community members as they positively viewed their frequent visits as providing additional support, reinforcing infant feeding messages and provide psychological support to women resulting in improved EBF rates. Furthermore, the presence of peer counsellors was viewed as "bringing services at their door step" which reduced time and cost to travel to the health facility.

Nevertheless, the findings suggest that voluntary work in resource-poor settings presents considerable challenges such as: poor motivation due to lack of incentives, overworking, lack of knowledge and time to handle HIV positive cases and poor supervision. In order to effectively promote EBF in resource-poor settings, public health programme designers and implementers need to consider these barriers so as to design community-based interventions that suit the local context and create an enabling environment.


The extracellular concentrations of noradrenaline (NA) and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylethyleneglycol (DOPEG), one of the major metabolites of brain NA, in the hypothalamus of urethane-anesthetized rats were monitored by in vivo microdialysis followed by a sensitive and simultaneous determination of the two substances using high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. The effects of various drugs that affect central NA metabolism were also examined. Resting levels of NA and DOPEG were constant during 1 and 6 hr after the start of perfusion, the mean values being 3.8 +/- 0.4 pg/30 min for NA and 107.5 +/- 9.1 pg/30 min for DOPEG (mean +/- S.E.M. of 7 animals). Tetrodotoxin (1 microM), when added to the perfusion medium, reduced the output of NA below the detection limit (0.5 pg) and also decreased the DOPEG output by 60%. Clonidine (0.2 mg/kg i.p.) caused a marked reduction in both the NA and DOPEG outputs, whereas yohimbine (5 mg/kg i.p.) significantly increased both the NA and DOPEG outputs. Desipramine (2 and 5 mg/kg i.p.) produced a dose-dependent increase in the NA output, although it caused a gradual decline of the DOPEG output. The atypical antidepressant mianserin (2 and 5 mg/kg i.p.), which possesses both alpha-2 antagonist and weak NA uptake inhibitory actions, produced a less marked increase in the NA output with no or only a small decrease in the DOPEG output. Therefore, it is suggested that monitoring the extracellular concentrations of both NA and DOPEG enables the discrimination between the action of drugs inhibiting the NA uptake and that of drugs enhancing the NA release, and that this method is useful to obtain detailed information about central NA metabolism in vivo.


China is characterized by high prefiscal overall, urban-rural and regional inequality. Applying standard fiscal incidence analysis, we estimate the redistributive effect of taxes and social spending on income distribution and poverty. In particular, we estimate the effect of direct and indirect taxes, direct cash transfers, contributory pensions, indirect subsidies, and in-kind transfers (education and health) on overall inequality and poverty, the urban-rural income gap, and income inequality between regions. The results show that the fiscal system is inequality- reducing overall and between regions. However, the urban-rural gap rises and the postfiscal headcount ratio is higher than prefiscal poverty in rural areas. Both are undesirable outcomes given that rural residents are poorer. They are largely explained by the considerably lower contributory pensions received by rural residents.


Abstract. Nowadays many cities and countries are creating their 3D building models for a better daily management and smarter decision making. The newly created 3D models are required to be consistent with existing 2D footprint maps. Thereby the 2D maps are usually combined with height data for the task of 3D reconstruction. Many buildings are often composed by parts that are discontinuous over height. Building parts can be reconstructed independently and combined into a complete building. Therefore, most of the state-of-the-art work on 3D building reconstruction first decomposes a footprint map into parts. However, those works usually change the footprint maps for easier partitioning and cannot detect building parts that are fully inside the footprint polygon. In order to solve those problems, we introduce two methodologies, one more dependent on height data, and the other one more dependent on footprints. We also experimentally evaluate the two methodologies and compare their advantages and disadvantages. The experiments use Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data and two vector maps, one with 1:10,000 scale and another one with 1:500 scale.