STUDY OBJECTIVE
Delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) is a circadian-rhythm sleep disorder characterized by abnormally late sleep and wake times. Melatonin, taken in the evening, advances sleep and circadian phase in patients with DSPS. However, little is known about the most effective dose or time of administration. In the present study, we tested the effectiveness of melatonin to advance the timing of sleep and circadian phase in individuals with DSPS.

DESIGN
Following baseline assessment of sleep and circadian phase, subjects were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups. The administration of melatonin (0.3 or 3.0 mg) or placebo was double-blinded.

SETTING
All procedures were conducted on an outpatient basis.

PARTICIPANTS
Thirteen subjects with DSPS, recruited via flyers, advertisements, and referrals from the Sleep Clinic, completed this study.

INTERVENTIONS
Melatonin (0.3 or 3.0 mg) or placebo was administered between 1.5 and 6.5 hours prior to dim light melatonin onset for a 4-week period.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS
Both doses of melatonin advanced the circadian phase of endogenous melatonin. The magnitude of phase advance in dim-light melatonin onset correlated strongly with the time of melatonin administration, with earlier times being more effective (r2 = 0.94, P < .0001). Similar, though weaker, relationships were obtained between the timing of melatonin administration and changes in sleep time.

CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that melatonin advances the circadian clock and sleep in patients with DSPS in a phase-dependent manner. This is the first study that reports a relationship between timing of melatonin administration and phase changes in patients with DSPS.


Drug addiction as the most serious social issue of the world has different sociological, psychological, legal, and political aspects. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to determine the role of early maladaptive schemas in prediction of dysfunctional attitudes toward drug abuse among students of Islamic Azad Universities in Tehran Province, Iran. Statistical population of this study includes all students of Islamic Azad Universities in Tehran Province during 2013 and sample size is equal to 300 members that are randomly chosen. First, the name of university branches in Tehran Province were determined then three branches were randomly chosen out of them and then 300 members were chosen from those branches using random sampling method. All sample members filled out Young Schema Questionnaire Short Form and Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) toward drug. Data were analyzed through regression correlation method and SPSS22 software. The obtained findings indicated a significant relation (P<0/05) between early maladaptive schemas and dysfunctional attitude toward drug abuse among students. Early maladaptive schemas can predict dysfunctional attitudes toward drug among students


Relationships between the ownership structure attributes and the risk of financial distress are empirically examined for public-listed companies in China. The results show that ownership concentration and state ownership are negatively associated with the probability of financial distressed, suggesting that large shareholders and the state share owners have incentives to hold back financial distress. Management and board member ownership is found to be unrelated with the distress status, which may be that the effects of convergence and entrenchment are weak due to minority of management and board member ownership. Stock turnover rate also turns out to be insignificant, implying the stock liquidity may not provide a valuable external discipline in Chinese emerging stock market. Proportion of tradable shares appears to be positively related with the likelihood of financial distress. It could be that the tradable shareholders' freeriding behaviors lead to a low level of governance efficiency. The attendance rate of annual shareholders' general meeting appears to be not an important determinant, which is possibly due to the exorbitant dominance of large shareholders in major decisionmaking and limited voting rights controlled by the institutional investors. Introduction Empirical studies so far have examined the association between ownership structure and the risk of financial distress. Teall (1993) finds insider shareholdings are positively related to managerial risk-taking behavior and corporate failure in thrift industry. Simpson and Gleason (1998) survey approximate 300 banking firms to explore the influence of board structure and ownership on probability of financial distress. The results indicate that the equity ownership of management and board members has no significant effect on the likelihood of financial distress. Elloumi and Gueyie (2001) report ownership held by blockholders and outsider directors is negatively related with the probability of financial distress for a sample of Canadian firms. Parker et al. (2002) investigate the impact of corporate governance attributes on the survival of distressed firms with the method of Cox Proportional Hazards analysis. Their empirical findings suggest that blockholders' and insiders' ownership is positively related to the firm's survival likelihood. Lee and Yeh (2004) deal with the relationship between the risk of wealth expropriation by the controlling shareholders and the probability of financial distress through investigating the companies listed in Taiwan. Their evidence reveals a positive relationship exits between the probability of financial distress and this type of expropriation. Under the condition of transitional economy, ownership structure in Chinese public-listed companies exhibits some typical features, such as separation and excessive unevenness of equity ownership, high market liquidity of tradable stocks, large proportion of state ownership and so on. Previous researchers have found that ownership structure is associated with firm's performance in Chinese companies (Xu and Wang, 1997; Wei and Varela, 2003). However, few studies discuss how the ownership structure characteristics influence Chinese companies' financial distress. The unique aspect of this study is to investigate the impact of ownership structure on the corporate financial distress in Chinese emerging stock market. From the last 1990s, with the worldwide tendency of improvement in corporate governance, China increasingly realized the importance of corporate governance. The results of this paper may be helpful for regulatory authorities or policymakers in making decisions regarding privatization and corporate governance reformation. Ownership structure characteristics of public-listed companies in China Shares in Chinese public-listed companies are classified into two categories, namely, tradable shares and non-tradable shares (the share classification can be seen in the appendix). …


Magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) has the potential to provide conductivity images with high spatial resolution and accuracy. Recent studies using various conductivity phantoms showed that the spatial resolution could be similar to that of conventional MR images as long as enough current is injected. Before we try in vivo animal imaging studies using a small injection current of less than 5 mA, we have performed MREIT conductivity imaging of postmortem canine brains using 40 mA injection currents. The primary goals were to produce high-resolution conductivity images of white and gray matter in situ and to accumulate experimental techniques to undertake in vivo animal imaging studies in the near future. Reconstructed conductivity images of two canine brains with a pixel size of 1.4 × 1.4 mm2 showed a clear conductivity contrast between gray and white matter. Considering the anisotropic conductivity of white matter, we interpreted reconstructed conductivity images as equivalent isotropic conductivity images. Estimated conductivity ratios of white to gray matter were between 1.13 and 1.20 depending on the choice of a region of interest in reconstructed images. A higher conductivity value of white matter compared with that of gray matter stems from the fact that the reconstructed equivalent isotropic conductivity value of white matter reflects a high conductivity of white matter in the direction parallel to its fibers. We expect that this kind of postmortem animal imaging can provide conductivity information on tissues in situ to be utilized in numerous modeling studies.


This essay explores the history of tax benefits, property rights benefits, and mandates for energy development for the purpose of gaining insights on how such incentives can best be used to encourage the development of renewable energy. Part I describes some of the tax preferences and other financial incentives the U.S. government has historically provided to the energy sector, including to fossil fuel development, renewable fuels (particularly ethanol), and renewable electricity sources. It compares and contrasts the varying types and levels of support for these energy sectors, and concludes that the tax preferences and other financial support provided to date to renewable electricity do not provide the same level of continuity for investment purposes and long-term growth as the support provided to the fossil fuel and biofuels industries. Part II turns to property rights incentives, and discusses the long-time property rights benefits states have conveyed to oil, gas, and other natural resource developers as well as to electric utilities to encourage the development and use of energy resources. This Part suggests that policymakers should use caution in conveying new property rights incentives to renewable energy developers to avoid upsetting existing certainty in property law and also to avoid a situation where the burdens of such changes fall too heavily on a small and discrete number of landowners. Part III considers mandates in the energy industry. These include: (1) state renewable portfolio standards (RPS) for renewable electricity; (2) the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that benefits the biofuels industry; and (3) California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard regulations that mandate use of an increasing amount of fuels with lowered GHG emissions each year in the state. It compares the federal RFS for biofuels with the lack of a similar mandate at the federal level for renewable electricity, and discusses the potential benefits associated with a federal RPS for electricity. Finally, Part IV considers the important role certainty and continuity play in efforts to support renewable energy development. Ultimately, this essay concludes that the continuity and relative certainty associated with certain types of tax benefits and mandates may be the best means of providing long-term support to renewable energy markets. Property rights incentives, on the other hand, should be used more sparingly to provide benefits to particular energy sectors or markets, but may be best used to create the nationwide, physical networks such as electric transmission grid expansions necessary for those markets to exist.


Membrane rafts, rich in sphingolipids and cholesterol, play an important role in neuronal membrane domain-specific signaling events, maintaining synapses and dendritic spines. The purpose of this study is to examine the neuronal response to membrane raft disruption. Membrane rafts of 8 DIV primary neuronal cultures were isolated based on the resistance to Triton X-100 and ability to float in sucrose gradients. Membrane rafts from primary cortical neurons were also imaged using the membrane raft marker, cholera toxin subunit-B (CTxB), and were co-immunolabelled with the dendritic microtubule associated protein marker, MAP-2, the dendritic and axonal microtubule protein, β-III-Tubulin, and the axonal microtubule protein, Tau. Exposure of cortical neurons to either the cholesterol depleting compound, methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MBC), or to the glycosphingolipid metabolism inhibiting agent D-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3- morpholino-1-propanol (D-PDMP), resulted in neuritic retraction prior to the appearance of neuronal death. Further investigation into the effects of MBC revealed a pronounced perturbation of microtubule protein association with membrane rafts during neuritic retraction. Interestingly, stabilizing microtubules with Paclitaxel did not prevent MBC induced neuritic retraction, suggesting that neuritic retraction occurred independently of microtubule disassembly and that microtubule association with membrane rafts is critical for maintaining neuritic stability. Overall, the data indicated that membrane rafts play an important role in neurite stability and neuronal viability.


This paper studies the effect of learning information on people's attitudes toward ambiguity. We propose a method to separate ambiguity attitudes from subjective probabilities and to decompose ambiguity attitudes into two components. Under models like prospect theory that represent ambiguity through nonadditive decision weights, these components reflect pessimism and likelihood insensitivity. Under multiple priors models, they reflect ambiguity aversion and perceived ambiguity. We apply our method in an experiment where we elicit the ask prices of options with payoffs depending on the returns of initial public offerings (IPOs) on the New York Stock Exchange. IPOs are a natural context to study the effect of learning, as prior information about their returns is unavailable. Subjects perceived substantial ambiguity and they were insensitive to likelihood information. We observed only little pessimism and ambiguity aversion. Subjective probabilities were well calibrated and close to the true frequencies. Subjects' behavior moved toward expected utility with more information, but substantial deviations remained even in the maximum information condition.


The association of intrauterine exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) and the subsequent development of reproductive tract abnormalities in young women has been well documented. Although the incidence of vaginal adenocarcinoma was low in the exposed population, vaginal adenosis, a nonmalignant abnormality, was quite common. In order to study the pathogenesis of adenocarcinoma and to determine the frequency of adenosis following prenatal exposure to DES, timed pregnant CD-1 mice were treated s.c. with DES (dose range, 5 to 100 micrograms/kg/day) on Days 9 though 16 of gestation. This period corresponds to major organogenesis of the reproductive tract in the mouse. Female offspring were sacrificed between 1 and 18 months of age. In addition to nonmalignant abnormalities, some of which have been described in women exposed prenatally to DES, two cases of vaginal adenocarcinoma (2%) were observed in 91 prenatally DES-treated animals. No comparable epithelial lesions were seen in 158 control female mice. One other case of adenocarcinoma of the vagina was reported previously by this laboratory using the prenatally exposed animal model. In another series of mice treated prenatally with DES, 100 micrograms/kg/day, 3 of 20 (15%) 1-month-old animals and one of 10 (10%) 18-month-old treated offspring had glandular epithelium abnormally located in the vaginal fornices (adenosis). Other cervicovaginal abnormalities observed after prenatal DES exposure included structural alterations, cervical enlargement, squamous metaplasia in the endocervical canal, excess keratinization of the ectocervix and vagina, transverse folds and basal cell hyperplasia in the upper vagina, and prominent Wolffian duct remnants. Thus, vaginal adenosis in the mouse does not appear to be a common abnormality following treatment with DES in utero. Neonatal exposure to DES on Days 1 to 5, on the other hand, resulted in six of eight (75%) animals with adenosis at 35 days of age. Since perinatal mouse studies have reported high incidences of vaginal adenosis, but, to our knowledge, no cases of vaginal adenocarcinoma, the results presented in this report suggest that the stage of cellular differentiation at the time of DES exposure may be critical in the final expression of these abnormalities.


During the administration of Argentina's president Cristina Fernandez (2007‒2015), the government developed a confrontational stance toward news organizations that it perceived to be against it, usually labeling them "opposition media." This has also been the case in other countries in the region and in other parts of the world. This article examines the consequences of this confrontation on the news agenda and the preferences of the audience. Findings from a panel survey and content analysis of three news organizations usually labeled opposition media indicate that the agendas of the news outlets and their respective most viewed stories diverged substantively in their thematic preferences. Different opposition media and their audiences behaved in a heterogeneous fashion. Interviews with members of the audience underscore the role of ideology in mediating the impact of government–media relations. Drawing on these findings, we contribute to middle-range theorizing of government–media relationships and reflect on their implications for the dynamics of journalism and political communication.


A brain-wide distributed network orchestrates cognitive memorizing and remembering of explicit memory (i.e., memory of facts and events). The network was initially identified in humans and is being systematically investigated in molecular/genetic, single-unit, lesion, and imaging studies in animals. The types of memory identified in humans are extended into animals as episodic-like (event) memory or semantic-like (fact) memory. The unique configurational association between environmental stimuli and behavioral context, which is likely the basis of episodic-like memory, depends on neural circuits in the medial temporal lobe, whereas memory traces representing repeated associations, which is likely the basis of semantic-like memory, are consolidated in the domain-specific regions in the temporal cortex. These regions are reactivated during remembering and contribute to the contents of a memory. Two types of retrieval signal reach the cortical representations. One runs from the frontal cortex for active (or effortful) retrieval (top-down signal), and the other spreads backward from the medial temporal lobe for automatic retrieval. By sending the top-down signal to the temporal cortex, frontal regions manipulate and organize to-be-remembered information, devise strategies for retrieval, and also monitor the outcome, with dissociated frontal regions making functionally separate contributions. The challenge is to understand the hierarchical interactions between these multiple cortical areas, not only with a correlational analysis but also with an interventional study demonstrating the causal necessity and the direction of the causality.


This commentary argues that one path toward Natalie Oswin's 'An Other Geography' is through abolishing the institution of 'White men'. Like other oppressive institutions, 'White men' have produced epistemic violence that has shaped and structured the discipline of geography in uneven and unjust ways. This essay is an effort to show appreciation and gratitude, and to stand in solidarity, with Oswin's prophetic vision of 'an other geography'. I mobilize the linked biographies of Harriet Tubman and John Brown as an entry point given how little we have yet worked to understand abolitionist history for thinking through the many ways we can work to transform geography.


The stable isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2 is being monitored via measurements made at the University of Colorado-Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, using air samples collected weekly by the Global Air Sampling Network of the NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory. These measurements, in concert with the monitoring of atmospheric CO2 mixing ratios, offer the potential to characterize quantitatively the mechanisms operating in the global carbon cycle, by recording the isotopic signatures imparted to CO2 as it moves among the atmosphere, biosphere, and oceans. This data set increases the number of measurements of atmospheric CO2 isotopes by nearly an order of magnitude over those previously available. We describe the analytical techniques used to obtain and calibrate these data and report measurements from 25 land-based sites, and two ships in the Pacific Ocean, from samples collected during 1990–1993. The typical precision of our mass spectrometric technique is 0.03‰ for δ13C and 0.05‰ for δ18O. Collecting the flask samples without drying leads to loss of δ18O information at many sites. The seasonal cycle in δ13C at sites in the northern hemisphere is highly correlated with that of the CO2 mixing ratio, with amplitudes approaching 1‰ at high latitudes. The seasonal cycle in δ18O is of similar amplitude, though variable from year to year and lags the other species by 2–4 months. Interhemispheric differences of the 1992 and 1993 means of the isotopic tracers are in strong contrast: the north pole-south pole difference for δ13C is −0.20‰, which though highly quantitatively significant is dwarfed by the −2‰ difference for δ18O. In contrast to the record of atmospheric δ13C during the 1980s we observe no significant temporal trend in annual mean δ13C during 1990–1993.


Researchers strive to understand eating behavior as a means to develop diets and interventions that can help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight, recover from eating disorders, or manage their diet and nutrition for personal wellness. A major challenge for eating-behavior research is to understand when, where, what, and how people eat. In this paper, we evaluate sensors and algorithms designed to detect eating activities, more specifically, when people eat. We compare two popular methods for eating recognition (based on acoustic and electromyography (EMG) sensors) individually and combined. We built a data-acquisition system using two off-the-shelf sensors and conducted a study with 20 participants. Our preliminary results show that the system we implemented can detect eating with an accuracy exceeding 90.9% while the crunchiness level of food varies. We are developing a wearable system that can capture, process, and classify sensor data to detect eating in real-time.


This paper is based on qualitative in-depth open question interviews with relevant stakeholders from public authorities, experts, NGOs as well as private sector organisations at the local, regional and national levels about their visions of centralized and decentralized energy transition options as a way of fulfilling the Morocco's climate, energy, and regional development goals. The questions were around three big thematic blocks: vision of energy transition, discourse about centralized and decentralized energy solutions and participatory governance of energy transition. Key results highlighted the importance of awareness raising measures about costs and benefits of energy transition and available technological solutions. Such raising awareness programs also included the small-scale renewable energy projects realised in Morocco. The awareness rising and knowledge transfer projects are necessary to facilitate distributed deployment of renewable energy technologies. On the other hand, expectations about socio-economic development, including job creation processes and multiplier effects for local economies, are major drivers of social and public acceptance of large-scale renewable energy projects, including, concentrated solar power (CSP) stations. Awareness raising is also needed for local communities to facilitate participation in deployment of small-scale energy generation projects. The existing experience in Austria with distributed energy generation was discussed with the Moroccan stakeholders. There is a vivid interest of stakeholders in Morocco about the Austrian decision-making processes, namely, Climate and Energy Model (CEM) process, including the existing networks of CEM managers and opportunities for stakeholders' engagement in frames of energy groups, existing in such regions as CEM Freistadt,.


Objective: Depression is a leading cause of disability and hospitalization. Women are at the highest risk of depression during their childbearing years, and the birth of a child may precipitate a depressive episode in vulnerable women. Postpartum depression (PPD) is associated with diminished maternal somatic health as well as health and developmental problems in their offspring. This review focuses on 2 PPD risk factors of emerging interest: serotonin transporter (5-HTT) genotype and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 PU FA) status. Method: The MEDLINE, PubMed, and Web of Science databases were searched using the key words postpartum depression, nutrition, omega-3 fatty acids, and serotonin transporter gene. Studies were also located by reviewing the reference lists of selected articles. Results: Seventy-five articles were identified as relevant to this review. Three carefully conducted studies reported associations between the 5-HTT genotype and PPD. As well, there is accumulating evidence that n-3 PUFA intake is associated with risk of PPD. Preliminary evidence suggests that there could be an interaction between these 2 emerging risk factors. However, further studies are required to confirm such an interaction and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Conclusions: Evidence to date supports a research agenda clarifying the associations between n-3 PUFAs, the 5-HTT genotype, and PPD. This is of particular interest owing to the high prevalence of poor n-3 PUFA intake among women of childbearing age and the consequent potential for alternative preventive measures and treatments for PPD.


Stream flow, chemical and biological data for the northern part of Swatara Creek, which drains a 112 km2 area in the Southern Anthracite Field of eastern Pennsylvania, indicate progressive improvement in water quality since 1959, after which most mines in the watershed had been flooded. Drainage from the flooded mines contributes substantially to base flow in Swatara Creek. Beginning in 1995, a variety of treatment systems and surface reclamation were implemented at some of the abandoned mines. At Ravine, Pa., immediately downstream of the mined area, median SO4 concentration declined from about 150 mg l−1 in 1959 to 75 mg l−1 in 1999 while pH increased from acidic to near-neutral values (medians: c. pH 4 before 1975; c. pH 6 after 1975). Fish populations rebounded from non-existent during 1959–1990 to 21 species identified in 1999. Nevertheless, recent monitoring indicates (1) episodic acidification and elevated concentrations and transport of Fe, Al, Mn, and trace metals during storm flow; (2) elevated concentrations of Fe, Mn, Co, Cu, Pb, Ni, and Zn in streambed sediments relative to unmined areas and to toxicity guidelines for aquatic invertebrates and fish; and (3) elevated concentrations of metals in fish tissue, notably Zn. The metals are ubiquitous in the fine fraction (<0.063 mm) of bed sediment in mining-affected tributaries and the main stem of Swatara Creek. As a result of scour and transport of streambed deposits, concentrations of suspended solids and total metals in the water column are correlated, and those for storm flow typically exceed base flow. Nevertheless, the metals concentrations are poorly correlated with stream flow because concentrations of suspended solids and total metals typically peak prior to peak stream stage. In contrast, SO4, specific conductance and pH are inversely correlated with stream flow as a result of dilution of poorly buffered stream water with weakly acidic storm runoff derived mainly from low-pH rainfall. Declines in pH to values approaching 5.0 during storm flow events or declines in redox potential during burial of sediment could result in the remobilization of metals associated with suspended solids and streambed deposits.


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A variety of experimental evidence suggests that positive-tone chemically amplified photoresists have an intrinsic bias that might limit resolution during high-volume lithographic processing. If this is true, the implications for the semiconductor industry require careful consideration. The design concept of chemical amplification is based on generation of a chemically stable catalytic species in exposed regions of the photoresist film. The catalytic action of the photoproducts on the photoresist polymer causes a change in the dissolution rate in the irradiated regions of the film. Formation of a stable catalyst species is required for chemical amplification, but it has long been recognized that catalyst migration can produce a difference between the initial distribution of exposure energy and the final distribution of photoproducts. This difference, known as diffusion bias, depends on the photoresist chemistry and processing conditions. Diffusion bias is insensitive to exposure conditions, but it is possible to reduce catalyst migration through changes to resist formulation such as increasing the size of the catalyst molecule or processing conditions such as reducing the post exposure bake temperature. Another common approach to limiting diffusion bias is to incorporate base additives into the photoresist formulation to scavenge diffusing acid catalyst. All of these approaches to reducing catalyst migration generally reduce the catalytic efficiency of each photoproduct and therefore increase the total exposure dose required to pattern the film. Increases in required exposure dosage reduce the throughput of the exposure tools and can reduce the profitability of the manufacturing process. In this paper we present experimental results that are suggestive of an intrinsic photoresist bias. This diffusion bias sets a minimum resolution limit for chemically amplified resist systems that can be improved at the cost of reduced throughput and productivity.


The discipline of political science in the United States evolved in tandem with the development of democratic education and the modern university system. Since the early years of the twentieth century, political science has been an academic discipline housed in universities and colleges, and most political scientists earn their living as university or college teachers. And yet as individual academics or as a discipline, we rarely stand back from our institutional environment and ask hard questions about what is happening with higher education and what this means for the practice of political science. Suzanne Mettler does precisely this in Degrees of Inequality: How Higher Education Politics Sabotaged the American Dream. And so we have invited a range of political science scholars, many with extensive experience as university leaders, to comment on her book and its implications for the future of political science.


A new method of analyzing sensitivity tests is proposed. It uses the Likelihood Ratio Test to compute regions of arbitrary confidence. It can calculate confidence regions for the parameters of the distribution (e.g., the mean, {mu}, and the standard deviation, {sigma}) as well as various percentiles. Unlike presently used methods, such as those based on asymptotic analysis, it can analyze the results of all sensitivity tests, and it does not significantly underestimate the size of the confidence regions. The main disadvantage of this method is that it requires much more computation to calculate the confidence regions. However, these calculations can be easily and quickly performed on most computers.


Book synopsis: The Sahara is Libya's outstanding landscape feature and is the source of most of its significant natural resources. This desert region is also extraordinarily rich in historical and cultural heritage that is in itself another valuable resource, through exploitation by Libya's tourism industry. This volume draws attention to the link between the benefits that Libya draws from its Saharan resources (oil, gas, water, minerals and tourism) and the need to safeguard and record aspects of its cultural heritage. The book also provides a summary of important developments in Saharan studies and shows how these can contribute to modern planning and development of the desert regions.


Metrology is a discipline of expunging impurities. The mid-nineteenth century French physicist Henri-Victor Regnault created a whole new way of doing experiments, attempting to produce standards physically by the direct method. His immodest ambition to control all disturbing parameters represents a relict in the physical sciences of Romantic hopes for an all-embracing, artistic and aesthetic approach to nature, expressed in the absolute, eternal determination of nature's constants and their numerical relationships. The novelist Gustave Flaubert, whose rejection of metaphysics, love for finest detail, concern for impartial treatment of the human psyche, and perfectionism, made him Regnault's literary complement, likewise hoped for this utopian union of science and art. There is a romantic and a modern ring to their ideals which were not to be achieved by optimism, but by introducing systematic doubt, by thoroughly studying impurities and expunging them. Nature did not speak clearly, but hid behind a multitude of disturbing effectsrevealed only by the experimenter's or writer's voluntary restraint and self-denial, a disinterestedness Regnault and Flaubert celebrated as the highest and holiest morality. For them, attention to secondary matters became primary, because they expected them to lead the way to the grail.


FXPAL's Pantheia system enables users to create virtual models by 'marking up' a physical space with pre-printed visual markers. The meanings associated with the markers come from a markup language that enables the system to create models from a relatively sparse set of markers. This paper describes extensions to our markup language and system that support the creation of interactive virtual objects. Users place markers to define components such as doors and drawers with which an end user of the model can interact. Other interactive elements, such as controls for color changes or lighting choices, are also supported. Pantheia produced a model of a room with hinged doors, a cabinet with drawers, doors, and color options, and a railroad track.


In this paper, a feedback linearization-based controller with a sliding mode observer running parallel is applied to a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle. An adaptive estimator is added to the overall system to estimate the effect of external disturbances such as wind. The whole observer-estimator-control law constitutes an original approach to vehicle regulation with minimal number of sensors. Performance issues of the controller are illustrated in a simulation study that takes into account parameter uncertainties and external disturbances as well as measurement noise.


The main purpose of this work is to develop a navigation system that allows a mobile robot to move autonomously in an environment using perceptions of multiple events. A topological navigation system methodology based on events is presented. This methodology imitates human navigation by using sensorimotor abilities and sensorial events, guiding the robot to its final destination. The developed topological system implies an a priori environment representation, the acquisition of perceptions related to events, the planning of a path as a sequence of actions and perceptions between events and the navigation that converts the sequence into real movements supervising the avoidance of unexpected obstacles. The developed architecture enhances the integration of new elements due to its modularity and the decoupling between modules. The innovation of this work resides in the use of an integration interface to handle multiple events concurrently, leading to a more complete and advanced navigation system. Finally, experiments have been carried out in several mobile robots, their results show the feasibility of the navigation system and the integration of the sensorial data managed as events.


Many Indigenous islander populations in Latin America and the Caribbean have been facing high levels of poverty and widespread economic and social exclusion. Based on a case study approach, this paper proposes the concept of interculturalism as a means toward collaboration between Indigenous islander communities and non-Indigenous stakeholders, to influence the Indigenous islander communities' socio-economic development. The study focuses on the Indigenous people of the autonomous Kuna Yala region of San Blas in Panama and explores how intercultural principles and characteristics could contribute to a cross-cultural dialogue between the Kuna people and external stakeholders, and to the socio-economic growth through tourism development in the Kuna region. Considering that certain aspects related to the Kuna culture are of a compound and complex nature, mutual trust and awareness, intercultural understanding and dialogue are critical in this process.


Aim/Purpose This article reports on quantitative analysis of students' perceptions on dimensions of augmented face-to-face support. It is built upon the findings from a larger research project that was undertaken to evaluate postgraduate support offered to Ethiopian doctoral students. Background Student support is critical for the delivery of any quality Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system. This is because there are numerous challenges that students enrolled especially in global South ODL institutions are faced with, which can impact negatively on their progress and throughput. Methodology In this article, the data from a quantitative questionnaire that was collected from a larger research project was used. The questionnaire asked students to respond to questions about their perceptions of the inclusion of face-to-face workshops. The responses were analyzed using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS), version 8.4 statistical package. Contribution This research exposes the benefits of supplementing distance postgraduate supervision with face-to-face tutorials. Findings The results show that the student-respondents, in general, experienced all five dimensions ('supervision', 'student needs', 'facilitators', 'environment', and 'institutional support/access') of face-to-face student support very positive. Recommendations for Practitioners As this inclusion of face-to-face workshops was found beneficial to the students who are geographically distant and at risk of digitally exclusion, the paper concludes by recommending that such approach should not be discarded but strengthened to supplement distance postgraduate supervision. Doctoral Student Supervisory Support 48 Recommendations for Researchers Replication of this study but focusing on the qualitative aspects of the five dimensions identified. Impact on Society Although this study is limited in scope to the Ethiopia project, implications for geographically distant education and support are relevant to Unisa and other ODL institutions in the global South. This may ultimately help inform distance learning efforts globally through augmented face-to-face supports. Future Research The study results revealed potential concerns regarding student age and registration timelines. Therefore, more specific research that explores age and registration is required.


The Dodd–Frank Act was signed into law in July 2010 in response to what is generally considered one of the worst financial crises in modern history. One of its more controversial provisions is the "Volcker Rule," which prohibits banks from engaging in proprietary trading and from investing in and sponsoring private equity and hedge funds. Such funds are defined largely by reference to the concept of an "investment company" under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and certain exemptions from that definition. Although applying the Volcker Rule generally can be extraordinarily complex, additional complexity arises in the context of certain types of vehicles that issue on multiple occasions separate series of notes backed by separate collateral pools. Such vehicles are frequently used for "repackaging" transactions. Although they share the same corporate issuer, each series of notes issued is completely separate from each other series, and only the collateral underlying that particular series is available to creditors relating to that series. However, under the Investment Company Act of 1940, and thus under the Volcker Rule, the definition of investment company goes beyond the normal corporate boundaries such that things like insurance company separate accounts or analogous constructs, even within the same corporate entity, will be treated as separate issuers. Accordingly, the authors argue in this article that two of the more significant portions of the Volcker Rule (relating to determining what constitutes a prohibited hedge fund or private equity fund) must be applied, in the context of such multi-issuance vehicles issuing separate series of notes, on a collateral pool by collateral pool (i.e., a series by series) basis and not more generically to the nominal corporate issuer and/or all its issued series in aggregate. In other words, for a banking entity considering whether the Volcker Rule is implicated by a particular contractually ring-fenced (CR) series under an multi-issuance special-purpose vehicle (MSPV) program, it would generally look only to that particular CR series and how it fits into the MSPV program. Conversely, where a banking entity is considering whether the Volcker Rule is implicated by an MSPV program in general, it would need to analyze each CR series separately thereunder (in the context of that MSPV program). The status of one or more such CR series as covered funds is not in itself dispositive as to the status of any one or more other CR series issued by the same MSPV program. Of course, the desirability of intentionally being involved in an MSPV program that has some CR series that are covered funds and others that are not is highly questionable. Nevertheless, in circumstances where many non-covered funds exist under the same umbrella as a handful of covered funds, this approach may obviate the need to expend vast resources to build new structures or to restructure existing platforms.


C-reactive protein (CRP) is a highly sensitive but non-specific acute phase
protein that is produced in the liver in response to injury, inflammation and
disease. CRP has been by shown by several authors to be elevated in dogs with
lymphoma (LSA) compared to healthy control dogs, however the findings of their
small studies have suggested that CRP is too non-specific to be used in a clinical
setting to monitor dogs with LSA that are receiving treatment with
chemotherapy. Studies in the human literature have shown that CRP
concentration is significantly affected by extent of disease and by the presence
of clinical signs in patients with both non-Hodgkin's and Hodgkin's lymphoma,
and it has been suggested that an elevated concentration of CRP at time of
diagnosis carries a poorer prognosis. No veterinary studies to date have been
large enough to investigate the effect of patient clinical parameters on CRP
concentration, or to determine whether CRP concentration carries any
prognostic significance.
The aim of this study was to determine whether serum CRP was a clinically
relevant biomarker in dogs with LSA using a large population. Specific aims
included confirming if differences existed between the CRP concentration of
healthy dogs and dogs with LSA, and determining if any patient variables had a
relationship with CRP concentration. The effect on CRP concentration in dogs
receiving chemotherapy treatment was investigated, with an aim to determine
whether CRP could be used for categorisation of remission status. Finally, the
role of CRP concentration as a prognostic indicator was investigated with respect
to disease relapse and survival.
This study included 59 control dogs and 73 dogs with LSA. Spare serum was
prospectively harvested and stored at -70°C prior to batch analysis on an
immunoturbidimetric assay (Pentra 400, Horiba ABX). Serial samples were
obtained at time of diagnosis, throughout treatment with chemotherapy, at
routine re-check appointments and at time of recrudescence of disease. Dogs
with LSA were fully staged at time of diagnosis to determine the extent of
disease and all dogs were assigned a WHO stage and substage. Of the dogs that
received treatment with chemotherapy, a remission status (i.e. complete/partial remission, stable disease or progressive disease) was assigned
at each visit based on the subjective response to treatment from the palpation
of peripheral lymph nodes. Patient clinical data was retrospectively obtained
from both paper and electronic records. CRP was investigated as both a
continuous and categorical variable, and categorisation was based on the degree
of elevation of concentration. Significance was set at a p-value of ≤0.05. CRP
concentration was deemed normal if ≤10 mg/L.

Results suggest that serum CRP concentration is significantly higher at time of
diagnosis in dogs with LSA compared to the control dogs, however not all dogs
with LSA exhibit an elevated CRP concentration. CRP concentration returns to
within normal limits for the majority of dogs following 4 weeks of treatment
with chemotherapy. Of the patient variables investigated, WHO stage and
substage, and pre-treatment albumin concentration were shown to be significant
following univariate analysis. Significant differences between the median CRP
concentration of the different remission statuses exists, however the overlap of
ranges of CRP concentration in each group suggests that it could not be used to
categorise remission status. The median CRP concentration at time of diagnosis
is significantly higher than at time of relapse of disease; however CRP
concentration does become elevated in most dogs at time of relapse. CRP
concentration was not shown to be significantly elevated in the weeks leading up
to relapse, indicating that this biomarker is not useful for predicting early
relapse prior to recrudescence of disease becoming clinically apparent. Finally,
results of the survival analysis revealed that pre-treatment CRP concentration is
not a significant variable, however immunophenotype and WHO substage are.
This is the largest study to date investigating CRP concentration in dogs with LSA
and is the first study to suggest a relationship between CRP concentration at
time of diagnosis and pre-treatment albumin, WHO stage and substage. Findings
from this study have confirmed those of previous authors; for example CRP
concentration becomes elevated in dogs with LSA both at time of diagnosis and
at time of relapse of disease, and that immunophenotype and WHO substage
carry prognostic significance. Although CRP concentration did not show any
prognostic significance, there was a trend for those dogs with a moderate and
marked elevation in CRP concentration (>30 mg/L) to have a reduced overall
survival time.


This volume combines interviews and photographs to document the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered parents and their children. It allows all of the family members to speak candidly about their lives, their relationships and the ways in which they have dealt with the pressures of homophobia. Included in the book are people from a diverse array of racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds, representing a wide range of family structures. Together, they provide clear evidence that family roles and responsibilities need not be based on gender, and that children thrive in an atmosphere in which understanding, respect and love transcend the prejudices of the day.


Abstract The antibiotic resistance crisis continues to threaten human health. Better predictions of the evolution of antibiotic resistance genes could contribute to the design of more sustainable treatment strategies. However, comprehensive prediction of antibiotic resistance gene evolution via laboratory approaches remains challenging. By combining site-specific integration and high-throughput sequencing, we quantified relative growth under the respective selection of cefotaxime or ceftazidime selection in ∼23,000 Escherichia coli MG1655 strains that each carried a unique, single-copy variant of the extended-spectrum β-lactamase gene blaCTX-M-14 at the chromosomal att HK022 site. Significant synergistic pleiotropy was observed within four subgenic regions, suggesting key regions for the evolution of resistance to both antibiotics. Moreover, we propose PEARP and PEARR, two deep-learning models with strong clinical correlations, for the prospective and retrospective prediction of blaCTX-M-14 evolution, respectively. Single to quintuple mutations of blaCTX-M-14 predicted to confer resistance by PEARP were significantly enriched among the clinical isolates harboring blaCTX-M-14 variants, and the PEARR scores matched the minimal inhibitory concentrations obtained for the 31 intermediates in all hypothetical trajectories. Altogether, we conclude that the measurement of local fitness landscape enables prediction of the evolutionary trajectories of antibiotic resistance genes, which could be useful for a broad range of clinical applications, from resistance prediction to designing novel treatment strategies.


Since the first description of Klinefelter syndrome (KS) was published in 1942 in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology, large inter‐individual variability in the phenotypic presentation has been demonstrated. However, our understanding of the global impact of the additional X chromosome on the genome remains an enigma. Evidence from the existing literature of KS indicates that not just one single genetic mechanism can explain the phenotype and the variable expressivity, but several mechanisms may be at play concurrently. In this review, we describe different genetic mechanisms and recent advances in the understanding of the genome, epigenome, and transcriptome of KS and the link to the phenotype and clinical heterogeneity. Future studies are needed to unite clinical data, genomic data, and basic research attempting to understand the genetics behind KS. Unraveling the genetics of KS will be of clinical relevance as it may enable the use of polygenic risk scores to predict future disease susceptibility and enable clinical risk stratification of KS patients in the future.


We theoretically consider the spin-wave mode- and wavelength-dependent enhancement of the Gilbert damping in magnetic insulator--normal metal bilayers due to spin pumping as well as the enhancement's relation to direct and alternating inverse spin Hall voltages in the normal metal. In the long-wavelength limit, including long-range dipole interactions, the ratio of the enhancement for transverse volume modes to that of the macrospin mode is equal to two. With an out-of-plane magnetization, this ratio decreases with both an increasing surface anisotropic energy and mode number. If the surface anisotropy induces a surface state, the enhancement can be an order of magnitude larger than for to the macrospin. With an in-plane magnetization, the induced dissipation enhancement can be understood by mapping the anisotropy parameter to the out-of-plane case with anisotropy. For shorter wavelengths, we compute the enhancement numerically and find good agreement with the analytical results in the applicable limits. We also compute the induced direct- and alternating-current inverse spin Hall voltages and relate these to the magnetic energy stored in the ferromagnet. Because the magnitude of the direct spin Hall voltage is a measure of spin dissipation, it is directly proportional to the enhancement of Gilbert damping. The alternating spin Hall voltage exhibits a similar in-plane wave-number dependence, and we demonstrate that it is greatest for surface-localized modes.


The production of K(S)(0) and Lambda hadrons is studied in pp collision data at root s = 0.9 and 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a minimum-bias trigger. The observed distributions of transverse momentum, rapidity, and multiplicity are corrected to hadron level in a model-independent way within well-defined phase-space regions. The distribution of the production ratio of (Lambda) over bar to Lambda baryons is also measured. The results are compared with various Monte Carlo simulation models. Although most of these models agree with data to within 15% in the K(S)(0) distributions, substantial disagreements are found in the Lambda distributions of transverse momentum.


Multilevel inverter technology has emerged recently as a very important alternative in the area of high-power medium-voltage energy control. This paper presents the most important topologies like diode-clamped inverter (neutral-point clamped), capacitor-clamped (flying capacitor), and cascaded multicell with separate DC sources. Emerging topologies like asymmetric hybrid cells and soft-switched multilevel inverters are also discussed. This paper also presents the most relevant control and modulation methods developed for this family of converters: multilevel sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation, multilevel selective harmonic elimination, and space-vector modulation. Special attention is dedicated to the latest and more relevant applications of these converters such as laminators, conveyor belts, and unified power-flow controllers. The need of an active front end at the input side for those inverters supplying regenerative loads is also discussed, and the circuit topology options are also presented. Finally, the peripherally developing areas such as high-voltage high-power devices and optical sensors and other opportunities for future development are addressed.


It is well known that the lenticular lens screen based stereoscopic display known as autostereoscopy does not call for any special viewing aids for viewing the display screen. This paper reviews the difficulties encountered in autostereoscopy for its adoption to TV and proposes remedies for feasible implementation of autostereoscopic television. Two proposals are made here for relaying multiple angle views of the object with conventional TV equipments. The first approach involves direct transmission of multiple angle views of the video images and their video projection in the receiver onto a double sided lenticular screen. In the second method, the complex picture pattern containing micro line images of multiple views are spatially divided into two parts by registering them in two lenticular screens and subsequently, they are transmitted as video signals. This reduces the spatial density of picture into half of its original and allows them to be captured and transmitted with HDTV system. These two parts of complex picture pattern in the receiver are spatially interleaved to get the full image and is displayed in a lenticular screen fitted LCD monitor. Performance analysis of the systems including the cost involvement is presented.


This thesis reviews the area of e-Research (the use of electronic infrastructure to support research) and considers how the insight gained from the development of social networking sites in the early 21st century might assist researchers in using this infrastructure. In particular it examines the myExperiment project, a website for e-Research that allows users to upload, share and annotate work flows and associated files, using a social networking framework. This Virtual Organisation (VO) supports many of the attributes required to allow a community of users to come together to build an e-Research society. The main focus of the thesis is how the emerging society that is developing out of my-Experiment could use Semantic Web technologies to provide users with a significantly richer representation of their research and research processes to better support reproducible research. One of the initial major contributions was building an ontology for myExperiment. Through this it became possible to build an API for generating and delivering this richer representation and an interface for querying it. Having this richer representation it has been possible to follow Linked Data principles to link up with other projects that have this type of representation. Doing this has allowed additional data to be provided to the user and has begun to set in context the data produced by myExperiment. The way that the myExperiment project has gone about this task and consideration of how changes may affect existing users, is another major contribution of this thesis. Adding a semantic representation to an emergent e-Research society like myExperiment,has given it the potential to provide additional applications. In particular the capability to support Research Objects, an encapsulation of a scientist's research or research process to support reproducibility. The insight gained by adding a semantic representation to myExperiment, has allowed this thesis to contribute towards the design of the architecture for these Research Objects that use similar Semantic Web technologies. The myExperiment ontology has been designed such that it can be aligned with other ontologies. Scientific Discourse, the collaborative argumentation of different claims and hypotheses, with the support of evidence from experiments, to construct, confirm or disprove theories requires the capability to represent experiments carried out in silico. This thesis discusses how, as part of the HCLS Scientific Discourse subtask group, the myExperiment ontology has begun to be aligned with other scientific discourse ontologies to provide this capability. It also compares this alignment of ontologies with the architecture for Research Objects. This thesis has also examines how myExperiment's Linked Data and that of other projects can be used in the design of novel interfaces. As a theoretical exercise, it considers how this Linked Data might be used to support a Question-Answering system, that would allow users to query myExperiment's data in a more efficient and user-friendly way. It concludes by reviewing all the steps undertaken to provide a semantic platform for an emergent e-Research society to facilitate the sharing of research and its processes to support reproducible research. It assesses their contribution to enhancing the features provided by myExperiment, as well as e-Research as a whole. It considers how the contributions provided by this thesis could be extended to produce additional tools that will allow researchers to make greater use of the rich data that is now available, in a way that enhances their research process rather than significantly changing it or adding extra workload.


Bottom-up systems biology entails the construction of kinetic models of cellular pathways by collecting kinetic information on the pathway components (e.g., enzymes) and collating this into a kinetic model, based for example on ordinary differential equations. This requires integration and data transfer between a variety of tools, ranging from data acquisition in kinetics experiments, to fitting and parameter estimation, to model construction, evaluation and validation. Here, we present a workflow that uses the Python programming language, specifically the modules from the SciPy stack, to facilitate this task. Starting from raw kinetics data, acquired either from spectrophotometric assays with microtitre plates or from Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy time-courses, we demonstrate the fitting and construction of a kinetic model using scientific Python tools. The analysis takes place in a Jupyter notebook, which keeps all information related to a particular experiment together in one place and thus serves as an e-labbook, enhancing reproducibility and traceability. The Python programming language serves as an ideal foundation for this framework because it is powerful yet relatively easy to learn for the non-programmer, has a large library of scientific routines and active user community, is open-source and extensible, and many computational systems biology software tools are written in Python or have a Python Application Programming Interface (API). Our workflow thus enables investigators to focus on the scientific problem at hand rather than worrying about data integration between disparate platforms.


The aim of the present study was to quantify the individual practice and game loads throughout an NCAA division I football season to determine if significant differences exist between the practice loads associated with pre-season training camp and those undertaken during the in-season period. Thirty-one NCAA division I football players were monitored using GPS and IA (MinimaxX S5; Catapult Innovations, Melbourne, Australia) during 22 pre-season practices, 36 in-season practices, and 12 competitions. The season was divided into four distinct phases for data analysis: pre-season week 1 (pre-season1), pre-season week 2 (pre-season2), pre-season week 3 (pre-season3), and 12 in-season weeks. Individual IA datasets represented players from every offensive and defensive position group (WR: n=5), (OL: n=4), (RB: n=4), (QB: n=2), (TE: n=3), (DL: n=4), (LB: n=4), (DB: n=5). Data were set at the practice level, where an observation for each player's maximum player load (PLMax) or mean player load (PLMean) from each training camp phase was referenced against each player's respective PL from each game, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday practice session. Notable results included significantly (p<0.05) greater PLMax values attributed to pre-season1 compared to PL resulting from all in-season practices, and significantly (p<0.05) higher cumulative PL reported for pre-season1, 2, and 3 compared to every in-season week. Data from the present study augment our understanding of the practice demands experienced by NCAA division I college football players, and provide scope for the improvement of pre-season practice design and physical conditioning strategies for coaches seeking to optimize performance.


Seasonal and weather influence on the incidence of cerebrovascular disease has been reported previously. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine whether the time of onset of ischemic strokes (IS) and intracerebral hemorrhages (ICH) were associated with the environmental temperature or the time, as a month or season, in our region. We analyzed the monthly and seasonal incidence of stroke between 1997 and 2001. Four hundred and fifty-one cases were admitted to our clinic (IS; n = 288 and ICH; n = 163), and aged from 16 to 94 years. The study was carried out in province of Van in eastern Turkey. The present study demonstrated a peak occurrence of IS in August (n = 41). For ICH, we observed a peak occurrence in July (n = 23). The highest number of IS occurred in summer (n = 108), the most moderate amount in autumn (n = 81), and the least in spring (n = 38). The hemorrhagic events were highest in summer (n = 58), most moderate in winter (n = 61), and lowest in spring (n = 31) and autumn (n = 32). There was a significantly greater incidence of IS and ICH during the summer than any other season in the province of Van, Turkey. This may reflect the role of weather temperature in the development of stroke and allow us to take preventive measures.


Level Set Projection Method for Incompressible Navier-Stokes on Arbitrary Boundaries Bertrand Williams-Rioux A second order level set projection method for incompressible Navier-Stokes equations is proposed to solve flow around arbitrary geometries. We used rectilinear grid with collocated cell centered velocity and pressure. An explicit Godunov procedure is used to address the nonlinear advection terms, and an implicit Crank-Nicholson method to update viscous effects. An approximate pressure projection is implemented at the end of the time stepping using multigrid as a conventional fast iterative method. The level set method developed by Osher and Sethian [17] is implemented to address real momentum and pressure boundary conditions by the advection of a distance function, as proposed by Aslam [3]. Numerical results for the Strouhal number and drag coefficients validated the model with good accuracy for flow over a cylinder in the parallel shedding regime (47 < Re < 180). Simulations for an array of cylinders and an oscillating cylinder were performed, with the latter demonstrating our methods ability to handle dynamic boundary conditions.


JURIDICAL, RELIGIOUS AND GLOBALIZATION PERSPECTIVES ON THE CONSTITUTIONS OF EGYPT AND TUNISIA AFTER THE ARAB SPRING Lora Hadzhidimova Old Dominion University, 2016 Director: Dr. Peter Schulman This work examines the juridical aspects of the current Egyptian and Tunisian Constitutions adopted after the Arab Spring. Along with the legal analysis of these two manifestations one more element is also a subject of this commentary – possible political issues that can surface from the interpretation of some controversial articles. The second part of this study focuses on the compatibility between the premises of the Islamic Sharia, the Islamic culture and tradition, and the core values of the contemporary modern democratic states. Moreover, it addresses some of the problematic moments within the discourse whether or not the Quran evokes discrimination policies. The conclusions I was able to derive, link the above mentioned practices with centuries old customs and beliefs in the Islamic societies. I also maintain that any violations of women's right and religious minorities in Islamic countries are not inherently related or prescribed by particular parts of the Quran. The latter was utilized as a source of civil norms in times when no other legislation was known. Despite the fact that it had its applicability in the past, its role has to be passed on civil codes in which no room for ambiguous interpretations of texts should be allowed. The last part of this work focuses on some patterns that the events before, during and after the Arab Spring have revealed. By connecting historical and political facts of earlier periods to the tensions in Egypt and Tunisia after the fall of the autocratic regimes, I aim to draw some deductions for the stability of the democratic and the juridical goals in the future of these two states.


This article discusses discretion and prioritisation in public antitrust enforcement, in particular in the enforcement of European Union (EU) antitrust law. First, this article defines the notion of discretion and discusses the rationale of discretion. Second, it examines the enforcement of Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) by the European Commission, showing that the Commission has a broad discretion concerning the question on which suspected or alleged infringements to pursue but no discretion as to the content of the antitrust prohibitions. With regard to fines, the Commission has a significant degree of discretion, although this discretion is potentially neutralized by the General Court's unlimited jurisdiction. Third, a brief comparison is made with and between the competition authorities of the EU Member States, highlighting divergence as to discretion to set priorities. The last section of this article sets out various reasons for allowing competition authorities discretion to set priorities as to which cases of suspected or alleged infringements of the antitrust prohibitions they investigate and pursue, as well as a number of risks related to prioritisation.


Industrial tourism involves visits by tourists to operational industrial sites where the core activity of the site is 'non-tourism' oriented. The study discusses the concept of industrial tourism within the context of tourism attraction theory, and tests empirically the extent to which visitors to industrial tourism attractions can be identified by using (a) a particular personality theory (Holland's 1985 theory of personality types), (b) demographics, and (c) past visitation. Prior to conducting a major household survey, two preliminary studies were conducted. One study considered the range and type of industrial tourism attractions in Australia, while the other considered the applicability of Holland's theory to career choice and to tourism choice behaviour. The major household study found that there were some significant associations between the respondents' Holland personality types, and their tourism behaviour, for some attractions and some measures of behaviour. The study found that industrial tourism attractions are perceived as being different to other types of tourism attraction and that Holland's theory may be a useful means of predicting tourism choice behaviour but that other measures, such as demographics and type and size of travel party, should also be taken into consideration. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to the marketing and other aspects of the management of industrial tourism attractions.


Small changes in the peptide-major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecule ligands recognized by antigen-specific T cell receptors (TCRs) can convert fully activating complexes into partially activating or even inhibitory ones. This study examined early TCR-dependent signals induced by such partial agonists or antagonists. In contrast to typical agonist ligands, both an antagonist and several partial agonists stimulated a distinct pattern of zeta chain phosphorylation and failed to activate associated ZAP-70 kinase. These results identify a specific step in the early tyrosine phosphorylation cascade that is altered after TCR engagement with modified peptide-MHC molecule complexes. This finding may explain the different biological responses to TCR occupancy by these variant ligands.


The modulation of energy metabolism is a crucial mechanism to adapt to climate. This thesis highlights that genetic and climatic factors interact to shape metabolic responses. I used an integrative approach to study the metabolic activity of cells and the whole organism in wild populations of a native Australian songbird. I showed that metabolism was strongly affected by the presence of water in the environment and the genetic variation encoded in the mitochondrial genome. These drivers of climate adaptation have rarely been highlighted, but should be considered to conserve species more effectively under climate change.


Speed-dependent automatic zooming (SDAZ) interfaces allow rapid navigation through large visual information spaces by automatically zooming out when the user moves quickly through the dataspace. We have implemented a variety of SDAZ interfaces that provide compelling mapbased demonstrations of the technique. In particular, our 'globe browser' demonstrates fluid and rapid navigation that fluidly integrates street-level details with continental views. Although other systems such as Keyhole Inc.'s EarthViewer3DPro (www.earthviewer.com) allow similar visual effects, they require the user to switch between distinct control modes to navigate the information space. Our modeless SDAZ interfaces are rapidly and naturally controlled simply by dragging the mouse. A video demonstration is accessible at: http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~andy/sdaz.mov


This study focuses on second-generation Turkish-Australian Muslim women who formed their ethnic and religious identities within certain contexts. This study examines the views of 14 second-generation married Turkish-Australian Muslim women regarding issues of family, community, ethnicity, gender and marriage partner choices. It provides insight into some of the complex and diverse ways they define their experience of modernisation, cultural values and practices such as marriage, family and community values in Australia. It explores themes relating to issues of gender, Muslim women, Islam and Western theory on gender and Islam. The findings in the thesis indicate that the cultural and religious identities of the women emerged heavily influenced by family and social forces that exist in and around their lives. In particular, it shows how parents use cultural and religious tools to draw boundaries around ideal and stigmatized gender norms around their daughters' identification. This highlights how daughters learn to govern and control their social behaviours which contribute to how marriage partner choices are determined. Thus, it demonstrates the importance of social inclusion and social integration amongst their ethnic society which manages the ways in which they move about and give meaning to their socially stratified world. The thesis also highlights that ethnic identity is a complex process in which the participants utilise social, cultural and religious resources simultaneously to negotiate multiple identities. The different interpretations of social practices within vast parameters of ethnic, cultural and religious boundaries indicate there is the need to re-examine theoretical notions of ethnicity, gender and religion in order to better understand their constructed identities. The thesis demonstrates how the participants resist parental and community expectations while negotiating ways to construct their Turkish-Australian Muslim identities while residing in Australia.


Catheter-based intra-arterial drug therapies have proven effective for a range of oncologic, neurologic, and cardiovascular applications. However, these procedures are limited by their invasiveness, as well as the relatively broad drug spatial distribution that is achievable with selective arterial catheterization. The ideal technique for local pharmacotherapy would be noninvasive and would flexibly deliver a given drug to any region of the body. Combining polymeric perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions with existent clinical focused ultrasound systems could in principle enable noninvasive targeted drug delivery, but it has not been clear whether these nanoparticles could provide the necessary drug loading, stability, and generalizability across a range of drugs to meet these needs, beyond a few niche applications. Here, we directly address all of those challenges and fully develop polymeric perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions into a generalized platform for ultrasound-targeted drug delivery with high potential for clinical translation. We demonstrate that a wide variety of drugs may be effectively uncaged with ultrasound using these nanoparticles, with drug loading increasing with hydrophobicity. We also set the stage for clinical translation by delineating production protocols that hew to clinical standards and yield stable and optimized ultrasound-activated drug-loaded nanoemulsions. Finally, as a new potential clinical application for these nanoemulsions, we exhibit their in vivo efficacy and performance for cardiovascular applications, by achieving local vasodilation in the highest flow vessel of the body, the aorta. This work establishes the power of polymeric perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions as a clinically-translatable platform for effective noninvasive ultrasonic drug uncaging for myriad targets in the brain and body.


In a postcolonial world, where structures of power, hierarchy, and domination operate on a global scale, writers face an ethical and aesthetic dilemma: How to write without contributing to the inscription of inequality? How to process the colonial past without reverting to a pathology of self-disgust? Can literature ever be free of the shame of the postcolonial epoch--ever be truly postcolonial? As disparities of power seem only to be increasing, such questions are more urgent than ever. In this book, Timothy Bewes argues that shame is a dominant temperament in twentieth-century literature, and the key to understanding the ethics and aesthetics of the contemporary world.

 Drawing on thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon, Theodor Adorno, and Gilles Deleuze, Bewes argues that in literature there is an "event" of shame that brings together these ethical and aesthetic tensions. Reading works by J. M. Coetzee, Joseph Conrad, Nadine Gordimer, V. S. Naipaul, Caryl Phillips, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Zoe Wicomb, Bewes presents a startling theory: the practices of postcolonial literature depend upon and repeat the same structures of thought and perception that made colonialism possible in the first place. As long as those structures remain in place, literature and critical thinking will remain steeped in shame.

 Offering a new mode of postcolonial reading, The Event of Postcolonial Shame demands a literature and a criticism that acknowledge their own ethical deficiency without seeking absolution from it.

 Timothy Bewes is associate professor of English at Brown University. He is the author of Cynicism and Postmodernity and Reification, or the Anxiety of Late Capitalism.


Multilingualism is enshrined in the European treaties. Its implementation, which ensures that European citizens have access to information and legislation produced by the European institutions in their languages, entails the translation of this information by translation services integrated within these institutions. The translation profession has undergone dramatic changes with the advent of computer technology, but new needs require innovative technological means as well as training and organisational strategies to meet these new needs in an environment in which 24 official languages co-exist.


This paper provides the first empirical test of the Portia Hypothesis: females with masculine monikers are more successful in legal careers. Utilizing South Carolina microdata, we look for correlation between an individual's advancement to a judgeship and his/her name's masculinity, which we construct from the joint empirical distribution of names and gender in the state's entire population of registered voters. We find robust evidence that nominally masculine females are favored over other females. Hence, our results support the Portia Hypothesis.


This paper describes the methodology and data used for the construction of a collaborative work tool focused on REDD+ projects and called ID-RECCO, which stands for 'International Database on REDD+ Projects linking Economic, Carbon and Communities data'. ID-RECCO links 110 variables informing on several aspects of REDD+ projects: carbon certification, sources of financing, socio-economic expected impacts, project proponents and general features of the project. As of October 2014, we have collected data on 410 projects, 57 countries and 362 project proponents. This database is innovative in the sense it is the first time such a large amount of information is collected on REDD+ projects globally, in a format adequate for research purpose and analysis.The database will be available online by the end of 2015 to serve the REDD+ community. It will be particularly useful for researchers who work on REDD+ issues, but it will also constitute a unique learning unit for project proponents and governments who are implementing REDD+ actions at different scales.


Abstract The Desmostylia, an extinct order of mammals related to sirenians and proboscideans, are known from the late Oligocene to late Miocene of the North Pacific. Though often categorized as marine mammals on the basis of fossil occurrences in nearshore deposits, reconstructions of desmostylian habitat and dietary preferences have been somewhat speculative because morphological and sedimentological information is limited. We analyzed the carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope compositions of enamel from Desmostylus and co-occurring terrestrial and marine taxa from middle Miocene sites in California to address the debate surrounding desmostylian ecology. The δ13C value of tooth enamel can be used as a proxy for diet. Desmostylus had much higher δ13C values than coeval terrestrial or marine mammals, suggesting a unique diet that most likely consisted of aquatic vegetation. Modern aquatic mammals tend to exhibit lower variability in δ18O values than terrestrial mammals. Both fossil marine mammals and Desmostylus exhibited low δ18O variability, suggesting that Desmostylus spent a large amount of time in water. Finally, the Sr isotope composition of marine organisms reflects that of the ocean and is relatively invariant when compared with values for animals from land. Sr isotope values for Desmostylus were similar to those for terrestrial, rather than marine, mammals, suggesting Desmostylus was spending time in estuarine or freshwater environments. Together, isotopic data suggest that Desmostylus was an aquatic herbivore that spent a considerable portion of its life foraging in estuarine and freshwater ecosystems.


Background: This paper reports on the methodology undertaken and some results achieved within a study of drivers using aftermarket and nomadic devices (the TeleFOT project). Objective: To evaluate the methodology for conducting Field Operational Tests for Information and Communication Technology whilst also providing an example of the method applied in the context of mobility within the TeleFOT project. Method: 'Top down, bottom up' approach to the derivation of research questions and hypotheses is described. Statistical analysis has been undertaken on data collected through Field Operational Tests and Travel Diaries considering the impact of information functions (such as navigation, traffic information and green driving) upon journey length. Results: A summary of the results relating specifically to how the length of a journey can be affected by information functions indicates that Navigation and Traffic information can reduce the length of journeys whilst Green Driving functions tend to increase the journey length. Conclusion: The FOT methodology was successfully applied in the TeleFOT project as was the novel method for generating research questions. When turning the theoretical FOT method developed in FESTA into practice, several good innovations were made which and can be recommended for future FOTs; collation of metadata, the use of comparable origin / destination pairs for analysis, centralised processing of raw data into legs in order to simplify the analysis of the huge datasets collected in the project.


Many indebted consumers carry multiple credit cards with significant balances and do not generate enough income to pay off these balances in full at the end of each repayment period. In managing their debt over time, these consumers must decide how to allocate repayments across their debt accounts. This research examines how different monthly repayment allocations, varying from entirely concentrated into one debt account (i.e., a concentrated strategy) to equally dispersed across all debt accounts (i.e., a dispersed strategy), influence consumers' motivation to repay their debts. Evidence from a field study of indebted consumers with multiple debt accounts and from three experiments shows that concentrated (vs. dispersed) repayment strategies tend to boost consumers' motivation to become debt free, leading them to repay their debts more aggressively. Importantly, this motivating effect is most pronounced when the repayments are concentrated into consumers' smallest accounts because consumers tend to infer overall progress in debt repayment from the greatest proportional balance reduction (proportion of starting balance repaid) within any one account. These findings advance our understanding of how consumers repay their debts and help pinpoint the psychological process by which debt repayment strategies affect consumers' motivation to get out of debt.


Background: Coronary heart disease is known as the leading cause of death in industrialized and developing countries. Measuring the CRP in the study of cardiovascular disease, the cost is reasonable and one study has shown that it can have a strong and independent prognostic value of myocardial infarction and unstable angina. So, we decided to study the relationship between hs-CRP serum levels and the results of cardiac perfusion SPECT imaging in patients with suspected coronary disease. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 1393 at Shafa hospital in Kerman; Patients with suspected coronary heart disease , candidates for perfusion scan to confirm or reject the ischemic heart disease were recruited into the study. hs-CRP levels in both groups were compared by normal and abnormal perfusion scans. In the end, the level of hs-CRP in both groups, and the correlation between hs-CRP and sex, age, and risk factors were analyzed. Findings: The mean age of patients with normal perfusion scan was 64.05 and 59.68 in the group with abnormal perfusion scan. (P=0.744). Average CRP in the group with normal perfusion scan was 1.96 and in the group with abnormal perfusion scan, 3.3. The difference in these two groups was statistically significant. (P=0.012). There was no significant difference between CRP levels and age, sex and risk factors. (P-value respectively: 0.727, 0.924, 0.329) Conclusion: In general, given the correlation between hs-CRP in patients with abnormal perfusion scan and the role of hs-CRP in infection and inflammation as causes of atherosclerosis inducer, the serum levels of hs-CRP test before ETT, the impact of scan results enhanced accuracy, especially in cases of suspected attenuation.


Single-ISA heterogeneous multicore systems are emerging as a promising direction to achieve a more suitable balance between performance and energy consumption. However, a proper utilization of these architectures is essential to reach the energy benefits. In this paper, we demonstrate the ineffectiveness of popular OpenMP scheduling policies executing Rodinia benchmark on the Exynos 5 Octa (5422) SoC, which integrates the ARM big.LITTLE architecture.


Background To explore effective interventions for child accidental injury prevention and to reduce the incidence of injury. Methods Cluster random sampling method was adopted, and children in 19 kindergartens in Henggang, Shenzhen and their parents were selected as the objects of study. Nineteen kindergartens were randomly divided into intervention group and control group to carry out the injury intervention case-control study. Results through a series of interventions, there were certain effects. After the end of the project, the injury incidence rates of the intervention group and the control group were 4.91%, 10.64%, and the difference was significant; the average costs of treatment for injuries of the intervention group and the control group were 168.4 Yuan and 206.8 Yuan, and the difference was statistically significant; compared with prior to the implementation of the project, the rate of various types of injuries after the end of the project declined, in which, the rate of mechanical injury, pet bites, accidental falls, burns and traffic accidents decreased significantly. The differences were significant. Conclusions Injury interventions can effectively prevent and control the occurrence of injury. Funding Shenzhen Medical Research Fund (No: 201102096 )


The editors' clinical framework identifies variables that heighten risk for individual, couple, or family dysfunction and describes key processes that foster healing and growth. Chapters by leading authorities reveal how the family response to loss affects all members and their relationships across the life cycle and the generations. New chapters address such topics as spirituality, gender issues, suicide and other traumatic deaths, unacknowledged and stigmatized losses, and resilience-based approaches to family and community recovery from major disaster. In a completely new section, prominent family therapists offer poignant reflections on their own legacies of loss. Throughout Living Beyond Loss, Second Edition, readers will find valuable therapeutic guidelines for working with threatened loss and end-of-life dilemmas, the immediate aftermath of traumatic loss, and long-term complications. Case illustrations address a wide range of loss situations, show their ripple effects, and suggest ways to address hidden losses when other symptoms are presented. Therapists and counselors will find their own lives and practices deeply enriched by this new volume.


The management of patients with heart failure (HF) is complex and often benefits from a patient-tailored approach. Since the early 1990s, HF disease management programs have been developed and implemented to improve outcomes of patients with HF. The body of evidence of the effectiveness of these programs is still growing, but meta-analyses of disease management program studies show various results on outcomes. This raises questions regarding the optimal organizational structure and components of a most cost-effective HF management program. Case management has been described as a solution to improve outcomes in complex patients and as a possible link to effective disease management. This raises the question of what case management can add to the disease management of patients with HF and which patients might benefit. The aim of this article is to discuss the potential contribution of case management in the disease management of patients with HF.


As noted in the WMO/UNEP Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2006, halogenated very short-lived substances (VSLS) contribute to the atmospheric budget of halogens and thereby lead to substantial decreases in ozone and increases in surface UV radiation in the tropics and mid-latitudes. Halogenated VSLS are primarily of natural origin; oceanic emissions constitute the largest source providing 90-95% of the total global flux to the atmosphere. Macro algae in the ocean appear to be an important source of polyhalogenated VSLS. Oxidation of halogenated VSLS in the atmosphere (i.e. photolysis and reactions with OH) produces halogen oxide radicals (e.g. ClO, BrO, IO) which have been suggested as the main component of gas-phase halogens. Countries with long coastlines and little land suitable for forestation are investigating the possibility of industrial scale marine kelp farming as a means of carbon sequestration. This marine analogy of the Kyoto Protocol forest has been thought as a means to contribute to climate change mitigation. Knowledge of how natural emissions of VSLS will respond to both the drivers of climate change (e.g. changes in CO2 and land use) and to the consequences of climate change (e.g. changes in sea surface temperature and wind stress) is very limited. As a result, it is imperative that observational studies are performed to quantify the contributions of these natural VSLS to halogen loading in the troposphere and, subsequently, in the stratosphere. For this, transport and degradation processes of the source gases and product gases need to be studied and quantified. A key question surfacing from the WMO Assessment is to what extent halogenated VSLS contribute to atmospheric Bry and Iy. During a field campaign conducted during the spring of 2009, measurements of BrO and IO were made along the coastline of the South Island of New Zealand using a portable Multi Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) spectrometer with the aim of determining coastal sites where high active halogen release could be observed. The selected sites had high biomass concentration of marine algae that would be exposed by low tides. Local macro algae type, tidal height, sunlight, temperature, and wind speed were recorded and correlated to the resulting data in order to better understand the environmental factors that modulate the emissions of halogen oxides from the marine environment to the troposphere. Results of this multi-disciplinary approach to studying brominated VSLS and their atmospheric implications are presented. As well, the chemical processes taking place and producing these halogen oxides are discussed in a thorough manner. This study contributes to a better understanding of the origin of bromine and iodine in the lowermost atmosphere (i.e. marine boundary layer). Particularly, the role that natural emissions of halogenated VSLS from the ocean may play in the halogen budget of the lower atmosphere is addressed by quantitatively understanding key links in this chain so that its potential future impacts on atmospheric chemistry, surface UV radiation, and the biosphere can be thoroughly assessed.


We investigate the impact of political connection on corporate risk-taking by connected firms, their industry counterparts, as well as non-rival firms from 48 countries. We find that political connection induces higher risk taking by connected firms. By contrast, we do not find evidence that political connection, with the attendant potential competitive distortions in the industry, induces higher risk taking by competitors. We focus on non-financial industries. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the inability to avail themselves of political rents compels the non-connected rivals to adopt more conservative strategies. However, large rival firms, generally considered to be too-important-to-fail, exhibit evidence of higher risk taking. The top size quartile industry rivals take as much risk as the politically connected firms. The higher risk exhibited by large rivals of politically connected firms suggests that our baseline regression results of lower risk-taking among rivals of politically connected firms are biased upward by firms that would be considered too-big-to-fail. This finding also suggests that the too-big-to fail phenomenon is not unique to banks. Our results are robust to the use of alternative measures of risk, to the exclusion of privatized and state-owned firms, and to controlling for the effects of financial crisis.


Social enterprise software is a highly promising software application for firms, though it is still in an infancy state. It offers rapid real-time information transfer based on business collaboration tools or instant messaging. The software collects and processes customer data from surveys, consumer feedback, reviews, blogs or social networks. This enables firms to build up detailed customer profiles potentially anticipating upcoming trends. We analyze the determinants of social enterprise software adoption based on the literature on the adoption of new technologies. In our analysis, we control for factors like firm size, intensity of information and communication technology, human capital and international competitive situation. Exploiting recent German firm-level data and a model controlling for sample selection, the results reveal that firms with highly qualified workers, a large share of young employees and international business activity are more likely to adopt social enterprise software. Larger and more ICT-intensive firms and recent innovators also have a higher propensity to use social enterprise software. In addition, firms belonging to the service sector are more eager to implement social enterprise software applications than manufacturing firms.


Multi-year nationwide survey data is used to estimate maize yield response functions and determine profitability of fertilizer use by small-scale farmers in Zambia. There has been a dearth of empirical studies on economics of fertilization in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper we identify major methodological issues arising from using survey data and estimate maize yield response functions for small-scale rural households that have various management practices and soil conditions in two major agro-climatic zones. Profitability of fertilizer use is determined for each group of households. Our findings provide the following key messages. First, households that obtained fertilizer on time and used animal draught power or mechanical power for land preparation are more likely to find fertilizer use profitable than other households with similar agro-ecological and market access conditions. Second, farmers' proximity to the provincial centers has a significant impact on the profitability of fertilizer use. Greater distances and transport costs from provincial centers erode the profitability of fertilizer use. Third, high interest rates also reduce the profitability of fertilizer use. Small farmers may find fertilizer use unprofitable until efforts are made to reduce transportation costs and interest rates as well as to ensure more timely delivery of fertilizer.


Homebuyers make their purchase decisions based on a number of structural, environmental and neighborhood characteristics. Using Geographic Information Systems data and a hedonic price model this study attempts to empirically demonstrate the value placed on one of the environmental characteristics: unobstructed mountain views. Home sales data from Buncombe County, North Carolina in 2005 provided 626 observations, from which a log-linear model was employed to assess the impact of view degradation measured by the number of houses visible from an observer house. The study hopes to further the discussion of ideal land-use policy given the mutually exclusive nature of land development and scenic view maintenance. 4


Abstract. Deposition nucleation on two mineral species, kaolinite and illite, was studied using a flow cell coupled to an optical microscope. The results show that the S ice conditions when ice first nucleated, defined as the onset S ice ( S ice,onset ), is a strong function of the surface area available for nucleation, varying from 100% to 125% at temperatures between 242 and 239 K. The surface area dependent data could not be described accurately using classical nucleation theory and the assumption of a single contact angle (defined here as the single-α model). These results suggest that caution should be applied when using contact angles determined from S ice,onset data and the single-α model. In contrast to the single-α model, the active site model, the deterministic model, and a model with a distribution of contact angles fit the data within experimental uncertainties. Parameters from the fits to the data are presented.