The recent development of high-throughput genomics techniques and their subsequent applications have completely transformed the study of biology. The analysis, interpretation and storage of the resulting large volumes of data have created a wide range of computational challenges and opportunities that have driven the majority of recent bioinformatics research. In this thesis we focus on four research questions grounded in functional genomics and epigenomics, yielding novel methodologies and biological insights. The first research question relates to whether miRNA activity, as a general regulatory effect, is a heritable trait. To do this, we used Affymetrix Human Exon Microarray and RNA-seq data from the International HapMap project. We confirmed such an association in humans using the regulatory effect score (REscore) of a miRNA, which has previously been defined as the difference in the gene expression rank of targets of the miRNA compared to non-targeted genes. We also identified a SNP in the miRNA processing gene DROSHA, which is associated with inter-individual difference in miRNA regulatory effect. During this analysis we noted that correlations between gene expression measures from RNA-seq and gene expression microarray platforms were often relatively poor. This led us to develop a method to improve the estimation of gene expression from microarrays. Our method uses samples for which there is both microarray and RNA-seq data available and builds statistical models which learn the relationship between probe level gene expression, as measured by the microarrays, and gene level expression, as measured by RNA-seq. These models can then be used to estimate gene expression on separate sets of microarray samples. We have assessed the performance of our method in comparison to Affymetrix Power Tools (APT). To do this, we fitted models for all genes on a training set of the HapMap YRI samples and tested performance on the HapMap CEU (both microarray and RNA-seq data are available for all of these samples). Overall, our method improves within sample correlations with RNA-seq substantially, but does not achieve the same level of performance as APT in terms of across sample correlations. The third research question aimed to determine whether or not it was possible to ascertain a consistent pattern of differential methylation in a limited number of ulcerative colitis (UC) biopsies, using data generated with the Agilent Human CpG Island microarray. Although there were no statistically significant differences between the sample groups at CpG island or probe level, we did uncover evidence of overall CpG island hypermethylation in UC. Subsequently, gene set analysis (GSA) revealed highly significant results for several GO biological processes. It became apparent that these results were a consequence of a sampling effect, which stems from the large differences in numbers of probes (targeting CpG sites) associated with genes in different gene sets. The fourth and final research question consisted of the development of a method to correct the bias in GSA analysis of these data. We applied our method to both the UC microarray dataset and a previously published genome-wide CpG island study of DNA methylation in lung cancer. We obtained novel biological insights into both of these conditions, consistent with their respective pathologies. Finally, we showed that this bias is also found with next generation sequencing based methylation assays, which we demonstrated using a HELP-seq dataset. In conclusion, this thesis presents novel analytical strategies encompassing gene expression and genome-wide methylation, and it also introduces methodologies that link microarray and RNA-seq measures of expression. It documents for the first time a correction for an intrinsic bias in GSA associated with many CpG island methylation platforms, and yields results of biological consequence with regard to endogenous RNAi regulatory processes and the epigenetic characterization of several human diseases.


Nordic Immunohistochemical Quality Control (NordiQC) performs proficiency testing for about 600 pathology laboratories in more than 50 countries. All general results are published on www.nordiqc.org. Over-all, about 30% of the staining results on circulated slides from tissue micro arrays have by an expert group been assessed as insufficient for diagnostic use. This paper describes the results from the two latest NordiQC runs for CD31. Out of 476 stains submitted, 30.5% were considered insufficient, mostly due to too weak or false negative staining reactions. The best results were obtained by use of mouse monoclonal antibody JC70A with an optimized protocol based on efficient heat induced epitope retrieval and a three-step polymer/multimer conjugate as visualization system. The mouse monoclonal antibody 1A10 gave unsatisfactory results in almost all cases.


This paper's objective is to study the relationship between bank credit risk and financial performance and the contribution of risky lending to lower bank profitability and liquidity. The sample data comes from the Mergent Online database, which stores ownership, executive, and financial information about public and private companies. This study focuses on the concept of prudent lending by public state commercial banks, insider ownership, and chief executive officer compensation and tenure, which are governance related bank characteristics. Performance variables in analysis of covariance models include net interest margin, return on assets, return on equity, and cash flow to assets. Preliminary results show a negative relationship between less prudent lending (which may be interpreted as a positive effect of more prudent lending) and net interest margin. However, findings were only statistically significant when the normality assumption was relaxed through the robust regression method. Insider holdings and longer chief executive officer tenure were negatively related to bank performance. This may be a consequence of an adverse effect of the agency problem. Further research should focus on obtaining a deeper understanding of these results and of the underlying causes of the most recent financial crisis, from the viewpoint of different market participants.


Abstract Objectives The mechanism by which the home food environment (HFE) influences childhood obesity is unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between HFE and childhood obesity as mediated by diet in primary-school children. Design Cross-sectional data collected from parents and primary-school children participating in the Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle Evaluation Project. Only children aged 9–11 years participated in the study. Matched parent/child data (n 3323) were analysed. Exploratory factor analysis underlined components of twenty-one HFE items; these were linked to child diet (meeting guidelines for fruit, vegetable and non-core food intakes) and measured child BMI, in structural equation modelling, adjusting for confounders. Setting Twenty geographically bounded metropolitan and regional South Australian communities. Subjects School children and their parents from primary schools in selected communities. Results In the initial exploratory factor analysis, nineteen items remaining extracted eight factors with eigenvalues >1·0 (72·4 % of total variance). A five-factor structure incorporating ten items described HFE. After adjusting for age, gender, socio-economic status and physical activity all associations in the model were significant (P<0·05), explaining 9·3 % and 4·5 % of the variance in child diet and BMI, respectively. A more positive HFE was directly and indirectly associated with a lower BMI in children through child diet. Conclusions The robust statistical methodology used in the present study provides support for a model of direct and indirect dynamics between the HFE and childhood obesity. The model can be tested in future longitudinal and intervention studies to identify the most effective components of the HFE to target in childhood obesity prevention efforts.


PURPOSE
"Selfie" photography is increasing among teenagers, accentuates congenital anomalies, and impacts self-confidence. Tear trough deformity is most commonly due to aging, but also occurs as a congenital anomaly and can be a major source of insecurity and embarrassment.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to show the efficacy and safety of hyaluronic acid gel filler in a teenage patient with congenital tear trough deformity.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
We describe the case of a teenager who underwent hyaluronic acid gel filling to the tear trough deformity at age 14 years. Prospective follow up was assessed for 5 years.

RESULTS
The patient improved clinical appearance and self confidence. Her satisfaction level was high, and no complication occurred during entire follow up.

CONCLUSION
In this case, hyaluronic gel acid filler was safe and effective for augmentation of congenital tear trough. The patient was satisfied and experienced increased self-esteem.


Since 9/11, cries of self-implicating media failure within journalism have all but ceased in the digital, post-truth age. For some in the industry, the media failed to represent the 2001 terrorist attacks without sensationalizing the events. Then, in 2016 and among many left-leaning media, this discourse of failure persisted to condemn mass media for eschewing difficult questions and submitting to a celebrity obsession with now-President Donald Trump. However, on the political right, Trump himself moves to delegitimize most left-leaning or oppositional media outlet, claiming their reporting to be fake, thus popularizing his maxim "fake news" and linking the media's failures to abstraction. Ironically, the president reveals the inherent fakeness of our most immediate mode of meaning-making and supplier of epistemological certainty, a revelation that beguiles the media yet proves productive for my paper.
Within this mediasphere, I turn to Dan Gilroy's film Nightcrawler (2014) as a self-reflexive and self-implicating critique of media fakeness by way of its preoccupation with digital media in our purportedly "post-truth" era. Nightcrawler, with its look toward the grotesque consequences of capitalism and the voyeuristic and amputative uses of the digital, explores contemporary anxieties toward mediation. That is, Gilroy's film lays bare the material media, such as physical evidence, upon which the digital depends, thus grounding the digital during a moment of abstraction. In this way, Nightcrawler is an example of evil media, a term coined by Matthew Fuller and Andrew Goffey which reveals the apparently immaterial social relations upon which media, including both cinema and journalism, rely. Such a revelation underscores media's repressed ontology of the fake, artificial, and abstract, while also calling for a reconsideration meaning-making through media. By looking back to Nightcrawler, I argue meaning-making should maintain a flexibility and openness in its mediation of truth in democracy.


Abstract In south-central Turkey, a carbonate platform system of early middle Miocene age is exposed in three-dimensional outcrops displaying a rich variety of carbonate facies associated with exceptionally well-preserved depositional geometries. This paper presents a detailed reconstruction of the geometries and facies organization across the prograding margin of one intra-platform carbonate bank that grew during the Langhian on the Ermenek Platform. The total thickness of the margin is approximately 250 m, and it has prograded over a distance of 1.2 km. The geometrical pattern shows an alternation between sigmoid, sigmoid-oblique, and oblique accretionary units at different scales. Based on the facies distribution and the geometrical framework two large-scale depositional sequences and eight medium-scale depositional sequences were defined. The general evolution from a low-angle shelf geometry to a prograding flat-topped platform was associated with an evolution from oligophotic-dominated carbonate producers, such as large benthic foraminifera, molluscs, echinoderms, red algae and bryozoans at the base, to mesophotic and euphotic carbonate producer organisms, such as corals, red algae and porcellaneous small benthic foraminifera at the top. The eight medium cycles were defined primarily using the depositional geometries, since facies changes were observed only locally within these cycles. Several mechanisms influenced the stratigraphic architecture of this margin: (1) eustatic sea-level controlled the overall transgressive-regressive Langhian sequence, and two superposed large-scale sequences. Medium cycles were probably also influenced by higher frequency sea-level fluctuations; (b) climate change probably influenced the overall evolution of the faunal assemblage; and (c) antecedent topography determined the overall architecture of a shelf bordering a deeper basin.


With growing awareness of the devastation caused by major natural disasters, alongside integration of governance and technology networks, the parameters of humanitarian aid are becoming more global. At the same time, humanitarian instruments are increasingly recognizing the centrality of local participation. Drawing on six case studies and a survey of 69 members of the relief sector, this book suggests that the key to the efficacy of post-disaster recovery is the primacy given to local actors in the management, direction and design of relief programs. Where local partnership and knowledge generation and application is ongoing, cohesive, meaningful and inclusive, disaster relief efforts are more targeted, cost-effective, efficient and timely. Governing Disasters: Engaging Local Populations in Humanitarian Relief examines the interplay between law, governance and collaborative decision making with international, state, private sector and community actors in order to understand the dynamics of a global decentralized yet coordinated process of post-disaster humanitarian assistance.


A successful construction business is a knowledge business. And knowledge must be managed effectively to be used efficiently, especially in a complex project-oriented business such as construction, where skills acquired and lessons learned on one project need to be applied to the next. A holistic approach to knowledge management (KM) is taken in this book to incorporate all of the relevant themes, tackling technological, socio-cultural and organizational issues, with the creation of value as a focus throughout. Information is drawn from a broad range of sources to explain core theories and provide guidance on practical application. Topics covered include:

 changing business relationships in a knowledge economy
 knowledge creation processes and theories
 data, text and knowledge mining techniques
 the learning construction organization
 future technology for knowledge management.

Written by the authors of the first EU-funded KM research project in the field of construction, this textbook is uniquely well-researched, and is the perfect introduction to KM for students across the built environment. It is also a crucial guide to the topic for practitioners.


Production sharing contracts (PSC) are a pervasive fact of economic life in developing countries. They involve a government-contractor relationship with the aim of exploring, developing and producing oil within a Joint Venture environment. This public-private partnership form of collaboration often entails conflict in managing the Joint Venture because of the different strategic objectives between its partners. The rights of the host government and the obligations of the foreign contractor are central in a PSC. This proposes numerous complexities and dilemmas in managing the Joint Venture. Joint Ventures although being an increasingly common direction of corporate strategy over the past two decades have accentuated the problem of measuring the business performance. Joint Ventures performance determinants are problematic in the sense that both parties find it difficult to distinguish between bad luck and poor performance. The major difficulty in managing the performance of a Joint Venture lies in the confusion of how to identify and measure the performance. The controversy often stems from the lack of clarity of what a determinant of performance is. The development of key performance factors and indicators receives a considerable attention as being a powerful management tool. This study will present a conceptual framework of the performance management determinants of non-equity Petroleum Joint Ventures under a PSC contractual agreement. The proposed conceptual framework will contribute to the academic knowledge in managing non-equity Petroleum Joint Ventures, as well as the contribution to management practitioners in managing oil business within the oil production sharing contract system.


Fantasy sport consumer behavior research is a burgeoning area of inquiry as this growing segment of sport fans exhibits unconventional, yet robust media consumption habits. In addition, consumer motivation and market segmentation represent core principles within the study of marketing, yet the integration of these two essential concepts with regard to sport consumers is limited. The purpose of this study was to explore fantasy baseball motives, develop a motive-based taxonomy of users, and quantify the differences between segments through an examination of mediated sport consumption. An exploratory hierarchal cluster analysis with a subsequent K-means analysis was conducted to determine the number of segments. Additionally, a MANOVA was performed to ascertain behavioral differences between the motive-based clusters. Four distinct segments emerged with statistically significant differences between each with regard to mediated consumption intentions. The following paper addresses theoretical and practical implications for academics and practitioners. Future research is also suggested.


As a renewable, sustainable and alternative fuel for compression ignition engines, biodiesel instead of diesel has been increasingly fueled to study its effects on engine performances and emissions in the recent 10 years. But these studies have been rarely reviewed to favor understanding and popularization for biodiesel so far in conventional diesel engines. Biodiesels derived from vegetable oils present a very promising alternative for diesel fuel, since they have numerous advantages compared to fossil fuels. They are renewable, biodegradable, provide energy security and foreign exchange savings besides addressing environmental concerns and socio–economic issues. However drawbacks associated with biodiesel of high viscosity and low volatility which cause combustion problems in CI engines, call for engine with hot combustion chamber. They have significant characteristics of higher operating temperature, maximum heat release, and ability to handle low calorific value fuel. Investigations were carried out to evaluate the performance with low heat rejection combustion chamber with cotton seed biodiesel with varied injection pressure. It consisted of an air gap insulated piston, an air gap insulated liner and ceramic coated cylinder head cotton seed biodiesel with varied injector opening pressure. Comparative studies were made for engine with LHR combustion chamber and CE at manufacturer's recommended injection timing (27o bTDC) with biodiesel operation. Engine with LHR combustion chamber with biodiesel showed improved performance at 27o bTDC over CE.


The purpose of this thesis is to understand the marketing perceptions and practices of primary school managers, in response to attempts to introduce market forces into the provision of UK state education. The study has investigated marketing in primary schools through ten longitudinal case studies using three main sources of data: interviews with headteachers, and governors, participant observation, and market research of the perceptions of parents and other groups.
Two groups of influences combined to make diverse and complex marketing micro-environments, which conditioned the impact of marketing activities initiated by the schools: i) the local provision of primary education (the capacity, sector and status of schools, and the image of the locality), and ii) the population profile of the catchment area (numbers of local pupils, parental perceptions and population types).
A picture of marketing at the case study schools emerged which was different from the initial impression of a peripheral activity given by much of the literature, and headteachers' own accounts. Critical incident analysis revealed more extensive strategies and tactics which could be labelled as "marketing", but which were not necessarily described as such by headteachers. Events and decisions triggered marketing activities directed at a number of targets which can be grouped into the priority order of: i) internal relationships (existing parents, pupils, staff, and governors), ii) recruitment markets (new parents and feeder institutions), iii) educational agencies (LEA, DfEE, OFSTED etc.), and iv) community relationships (local media, commercial sponsors and community groups). Individuals within these target groups positioned a school according to their perceptions of its academic and environmental reputation, its locality and their degree of involvement with it. Headteachers attempted to improve their schools' market position through a mix of methods which can be summarised as four I's - information, image building, involvement, and the influence of word-of mouth communications.
Headteachers found that the most effective marketing strategies had two main components: i) marketing to improve relationships with existing parents, staff and governors was an essential precursor to any external marketing effort; and ii) marketing to targets other than prospective pupils was important in order to build up a supportive series of relationships in the micro-environment. In particular, parental involvement strategies to achieve marketing aims evolved as an acceptable response because they were not seen as overtly competitive, and they had a perceived educational value.
Headteachers seemed to share many of the marketing problems of owner-managers of small businesses. The findings reported here suggest that the private sector may have lessons to learn from the marketing management of small public organisations such as primary schools, so that a more meaningful exchange of information across the sectoral divide is indicated.


CFDP is a protocol that takes advantage of the broadcast nature of CSMA networks to speed up simultaneous one-to-many file transfers (e.g., when booting diskless workstations). The CFDP server listens and services requests for entire files or portions thereof. CFDP clients first determine whether the file they are interested in is already being transferred, in which case they "eavesdrop" and load as much of it as they can or they initiate a new transfer. The clients timeout when the server stops transmitting and if they are still missing parts of the file they request them with a block-transfer request. CFDP is a back-end protocol a front end is needed to handle naming and security issues. A simple such front end is also presented here.


In this article, we assess the effectiveness of Contextual Document Clustering (CDC) as a means of indexing within a dynamic and rapidly changing environment. We simulate a dynamic environment, by splitting two chronologically ordered datasets into time-ordered segments and assessing how the technique performs under two different scenarios. The first is when new documents are added incrementally without reclustering [incremental CDC (iCDC)], and the second is when reclustering is performed [nonincremental CDC (nCDC)]. The datasets are very large, are independent of each other, and belong to two very different domains. We show that CDC itself is effective at clustering very large document corpora, and that, significantly, it lends itself to a very simple, efficient incremental document addition process that is seen to be very stable over time despite the size of the corpus growing considerably. It was seen to be effective at incrementally clustering new documents even when the corpus grew to six times its original size. This is in contrast to what other researchers have found when applying similar simple incremental approaches to document clustering. The stability of iCDC is accounted for by the unique manner in which CDC discovers cluster themes. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Abstract Human use of arctic and alpine environments can result in damage to the natural vegetation and soils. Restoration of the damage can have limited success due to the severity of the environment, which restricts plant germination and growth and increases the potential for soil erosion. In this study, we evaluated the success of restoration of a closed track in the alpine area around continental Australia's highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko. Vegetation and soils along a 4 km walking track (that was closed and rehabilitated more than 15 yr ago) were compared with the adjacent undisturbed vegetation and soils. There was limited success in restoration with clear differences in soil nutrients, extent of vegetation cover, plant species composition, and height of vegetation between the track and adjacent natural vegetation sampled using 1 m2 quadrats. The study highlights the need for limiting disturbance in such environments, and for ongoing rehabilitation in areas that have been disturbed. It also indicates that when non-native species are used in rehabilitation, they may not necessarily be succeeded by natives, particularly if soil conditions do not return to a state similar to undisturbed areas.


A well-studied possibility is that dark matter may reside in a sector secluded from the Standard Model, except for the so-called photon portal: kinetic mixing between the ordinary and dark photons. Such interactions can be probed at dark matter direct detection experiments, and new experimental techniques involving detection of dark matter-electron scattering offer new sensitivity to sub-GeV dark matter. Typically however it is implicitly assumed that the dark matter is not altered as it traverses the Earth to arrive at the detector. In this paper we study in detail the effects of terrestrial stopping on dark photon models of dark matter, and find that they significantly reduce the sensitivity of XENON10 and DAMIC. In particular we find that XENON10 only excludes masses in the range (5-3000) MeV while DAMIC only probes (20-50) MeV. Their corresponding cross section sensitivity is reduced to a window of cross sections between $(5\times 10^{-38}-10^{-30})~{\rm cm}^{2}$ for XENON10 and a small window around $\sim 10^{-31}~{\rm cm}^{2}$ for DAMIC. We also examine implications for a future DAMIC run.


The performance of bio-sand filters (BSF) should be monitored periodically to ensure the quality of water produced for the safety of consumers. An engineering design of BSF is proposed to achieve the desired efficacy of the treatment system. Accurate designs to achieve bio-sand filtration are not available in detail for most BSFs since present physical models were not originally able to calculate design's parameters. This paper develops the mathematical models to calculate the depth of sand filter and water velocity in operating the proposed BSF especially to remove organic and suspended matter simultaneously. Parameters in the equations are all physically meaningful, experimental data validation shows the equations remained accurate. The baseline design's parameters are analyzed to contribute to bio-sand filtration process technology. The filtration rates and depths of sand filter proposed in designing of the BSF system are justified.


Genocide and settler colonialism are conceptually related ideas, although the specific relationship remains unclear. Whereas some scholars develop subcategories of "colonial genocide" or examine the historical origins of these concepts, I address the signification of "genocide" and "indigeneity." I explore the system of meanings underlying each concept to suggest that both are paradoxically rooted in otherness. The category of indigeneity reveals a basic paradox: the colonizer and Indigenous other are separate from but, simultaneously, dependent upon one another. Likewise, with genocide the perpetrator and othered victim are separate but at the same time dependent on each other. Genocide and indigeneity are conceptually related so that one can consider them as two aspects of the same phenomenon. I propose conceptualizing the relationship between indigeneity and genocide as a two-stage process of erasure in settler societies, with imposition of the category of indigeneity as a preliminary genocide that precedes a formal act of genocide.


The goal of this paper is to design an intelligent model to detect the bad accounts timely. Due to the emergence of bad accounts that results in loss of billions of dollars in the issuers each year, several modern techniques in detecting the bad credit card accounts are continually evolved and applied to the credit card industry. The detection of bad credit card accounts has advanced considerably from its early reliance on historical delinquency rates and charge-off trend analyses. This paper presents an intelligent model to detect the bad credit card accounts, where artificial intelligence (AI) techniques such as fuzzy logic (FL) and backpropagation neural network (BPN) are combined to achieve a more accurate problem detector with a higher availability. Experimental results are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model.


This essay examines the meaning and impact of the message about Christian religious institutions delivered by the mass media, especially television. Drawing on the insights of media theorist Marshall McLuhan, the argument seeks to broaden an understanding of these media, and, proposes that although it might seem that contradictory messages are conveyed-on the one hand, that the church is irrelevant; on the other, that religion is important-these are fundamentally the same. There is a "primary" message, shaped by the use, nature, and structure of a particular medium; and this message powerfully affects the patterns in which humans receive and comprehend information. Understanding this primary message, as related to portrayals of religion in the media, is an important part of the church's task as it faces the problems and potentialities of a mass-mediated culture. Season five, episode two, of Sex and the City is entitled "Unoriginal Sin." Miranda, one of the four main characters-all of whom are perpetually single females living in New York-has had a baby. The father of the baby is her ex-boyfriend Steve, and the pregnancy was unplanned. Steve has asked to have some role in his son's upbringing, but Miranda is the primary caregiver. In this episode, Steve, a lapsed Roman Catholic, suggests that they have the baby baptized; his reasons for suggesting this are twofold: it would make his mother very happy, and it would be a sort of insurance policy on their son's eternal life. Miranda is absolutely horrified. She considers atheism to be the only choice for intelligent and modern human beings, and the Sex and the City program on the whole supports this viewpoint with very little nuance. Miranda eventually agrees to the baptism, but on her conditions. She meets with the Roman Catholic priest in order to discuss the baptism and is able to demand that in the ceremony, there be no mention of "original sin," "the devil," "evil," "heaven," or "repentance." Only then does she feel comfortable in allowing the sacrament to proceed. In a voice-over, the show tells us that "the Church agreed to her demands because, in this day and age, the Church is like a thirtysomething woman in New York: desperate."1 This episode offers us a snapshot of a very real message continually delivered to our Western society through the mass media: religious faith is untenable and the church, in trying to maintain itself as an institution structured around this obsolete faith, is desperate. However, this is not the only message of the mass media concerning religious faith. In fact, in our post-9/11 culture, with George W. Bush as President of the United States, there is another, and apparently contradictory, message in strong circulation. The March 27, 2004 issue of TV Guide features a cover story entitled "God and TV." The article describes the plethora of television shows that center on issues of religious faith, including new shows Joan of Arcadia and Wonderfalls, as well as relatively veteran programs like 7th Heaven.2 God, the article suggests, is a popular and sellable commodity in todays culture. Both a rabbi-Saul Berman of Sharr Shalom Synagogue in Toronto-and a Jesuit priest-John O'Brien, director of the Jesuit Communications Desk-are quoted as pointing out that the media is simply picking up on the spiritual nature of human beings and on the questions of faith that have arisen in our society since 9/11.3 Bill Roberts, president of Canada's faith-based Vision TV network, further explains that "making the faith experience for individuals more accessible, more meaningful and less, well, sort of dire is good. If you look at any of the great spiritual traditions from Buddha to Christ, you know these were very popular and culturally close individuals. They were culturally close to their people."4 Unlike the Sex and the City episode, this magazine article tells a very different story about religious faith: religious faith is an important part of North American culture and can be found helpfully represented and reflected in the mass media. …


This study discusses the effects of social tourism for low-income groups on personal and
family development. it examines whether social tourism has wider benefits than just
providing access to holidays to groups who would usually be excluded from tourism, and
whether it could be seen as a potential measure against social exclusion. If social tourism
can reduce social exclusion, it benefits not only the participants, but also has wider
benefits for society.
In several countries in mainland Europe, such as France, Belgium and Spain, social
tourism for low-income groups is supported by public funding. This investment is usually
supported by claims that social tourism can help excluded groups achieve greater
inclusion through increased confidence, better family relations, greater independence and
wider social networks. At present, these claims are rarely supported by research evidence:
in academic tourism literature, social tourism for low-income groups is a little researched
field. The aim of this study is thus to investigate whether social tourism can indeed
reduce aspects of social exclusion, and have a beneficial effect on the holiday participants
themselves, and through them, on society. If this is the case, the study will explore
whether social tourism could be justified as a social policy.
The study will start by defining the concept of social tourism, and categorise the different
forms. Focusing on social tourism for low-income groups, it will then explore the
potential ethical foundations of social tourism. It will be shown that for a number of
ethical theories, social tourism for low-income groups can only be justified if there are
benefits involved not only for the participants, but also wider benefits for society.
Because these benefits could present themselves as a reduction of social exclusion, the
concept of social exclusion is defined and the different views of the concept are
presented. One of these views is potentially compatible with social tourism, on the
condition that social holidays can reduce certain characteristics of excluded groups, that
form the basis of their exclusion. It will then be argued that if social tourism can reduce
these characteristics, it does so via a learning process. Two theories of leaming through
experience will be examined, and strategies to maximise learning will be discussed: if
social tourism is indeed a form of leaming, the benefits could be increased by
maximising learning. These theoretical foundations formed the basis of the fieldwork for
this study.
In the fieldwork, a group of social tourism participants and their support workers was
interviewed in two stages: a first round of interviews and focus groups were conducted in
the first month after the holidays; a second round was carried out in the sixth month after
the holidays. Participants in individual holidays and support workers were interviewed
individually, participants in group holidays were interviewed together in a focus group.
The aim of the two rounds was to examine the effects of social tourism in the short term,
and in the longer term.
The findings of the fieldwork examine the effects of social tourism for low-income
groups, and investigate the conditions for successful social tourism provision (meaning
holidays that maximise learning opportunities to reduce aspects of social exclusion). The
findings indicate that social tourism for low-income groups generally has beneficial
effects on the family development of the participants in the short and the long term. They
also provide benefits for the personal development of participants, which are present in
the short term and can develop further in the long term. In the long term, it is also shown
that the holiday can act as a motivational factor in measurable behaviour change,
resulting into a reduction of factors of social exclusion. It is found that an adequate level
of support both during and after the holiday is an important condition for successful
social holidays.
This study concludes by exploring if social tourism could be justified as a part of social
policy. The costs of social holidays will be compared to other social measures with
similar aims and outcomes. Social tourism for low-income groups will be presented as
potential cost-effective strategies to counter certain aspects social exclusion.


To study the impact of inter-vehicle communications on (vehicular) transport efficiency, e.g., for traffic management purposes, there is a need for efficient and accurate large-scale simulations that jointly consider both, the vehicular traffic and the communication system. To overcome the scalability limitations of current discrete event-based network simulators like NS-2, we propose a hybrid simulation approach that can significantly reduce the number of scheduled events by making use of statistical models. Basically, we treat some data traffic, which is not the primary concern of the simulation study, as 'noise' (e.g., beaconing of nodes). While accurately modeling this background traffic we only need to simulate via discrete event-based simulation the actual application we are interested in (e.g., a data dissemination protocol). We outline how the characterization of the background traffic is gained, statistically validated and used. The achievable speed-up is demonstrated in a first application study where a speed funnel is built using inter-vehicle communications. In this scenario, the conservatively estimated speed-up factor is about 500 compared to a pure discrete event-based simulation.


National imperative of sustainable development is a strategy that combines into one social, economic and environmental policies. First of all the environmental legal education should aim to prepare people for life in an innovative type of society. To achieve this goal of environmental and legal education we should be reoriented to form a human ecological and legal culture and eco-innovative type of legal thinking and a willingness to innovative type of environmental and legal action. The successful solution of this and other challenges requires science foundation, including environmental law science. Keywords: law, environmental legal education, sustainable development, environmental safety, ecology, responsibility, ecological culture, legislation


The blue corner of the writer's color mixture diagram is dichromatic in the sense that all colors in this region can be matched by mixtures of 465 mµ and a monochromatic stimulus at the red end of the spectrum. In order to locate spectrally pure stimuli below 486.8 mµ on the mixture diagram it has been necessary to use 486.8 mµ, 520 mµ, and 674 mµ as primaries. One can also use the fact that the confusion lines are straight and converge at the alychne to increase the precision in plotting. The writer's own mixture data have been used to illustrate these principles.


This paper explores the role of the state for an effective engagement of multinational corporations (MNCs) in corporate social responsibility (CSR). In the OECD context, the "shadow of hierarchy" cast by the state is considered an important incentive for MNCs to engage in CSR activities that contribute to governance. However, in areas of limited statehood, where state actors are too weak to effectively set and enforce collectively binding rules, profit-driven MNCs confront various dilemmas with respect to costly CSR standards. The lack of a credible regulatory threat by state agencies is therefore often associated with the exploitation of resources and people by MNCs, rather than with business' social conduct. However, in this paper we argue that there are alternatives to the "shadow of hierarchy" that induce MNCs to adopt and implement CSR policies that contribute to governance in areas of limited statehood. We then discuss that in certain areas such functional equivalents still depend on some state intervention to be effective, in particular when firms are immune to reputational concerns and in complex-task areas that require the involvement of several actors in the provision of collective goods. Finally, we discuss the "dark side" of the state and show that the state can also have negative effects on the CSR engagement of MNCs. We illustrate the different ways in which statehood and the absence thereof affect CSR activities of MNCs in South Africa and conclude with some considerations on the conditions under which statehood exerts these effects.


The maize weevil Sitophilus zeamais (Motschulsky) is among the most grain damaging insect in sub-saharan Africa. The objective of the study was to determine differences in traits associated with resistance to the maize weevil in the field and in storage. Two hundred and ninenty five (295) maize genotypes comprising of 120 inbred lines, 100 hybrids and open pollinated varieties (OPVs), and 75 landraces including resistant and susceptible checks were used in the study. The test materials were planted in two rows of 5 m replicated three times in alpha lattice designs. Husk tip length (cm) was measured in 10 plants of each row. Grain texture was rated visually and mechanical hardness of grain samples determined using a force displacement meter. Grain samples of 100 grams were taken from each plot of the three replications of each of the experiments and tested in the screening laboratory for resistance to maize weevil. Analysis of variance for the individual traits, correlation analysis and weight loss (%) was performed. High phenotypic variation in traits associated with postharvest resistance was evident. Grain hardness was high in the resistant compared to the susceptible genotypes. Genotypes with flint grain texture had longer tip length. The resistant hybrids and inbred lines were flinty in texture whereas the susceptible were dent. There was a positive relationship (r=0.77) between grain texture and husk cover. The study showed that mechanisms of resistance vary among genotypes hence resistance should not be based on a single trait


Every physician who treats children with epilepsy will welcome this new Third Edition of Dr. Aicardi's internationally acclaimed text. Now coauthored by three distinguished experts--Alexis Arzimanoglou, MD, Renzo Guerrini, MD, and Jean Aicardi, MD, FRCP--this edition has been completely revised to reflect the past ten years' advances in diagnosis and therapy. The book describes in detail the types of seizures occurring during infancy, childhood, and adolescence and explains the key principles of diagnosis, prognosis, and medical and surgical treatment.


Empirical research suggests that societies that are diverse as a result of international migration have lower levels of social trust, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The authors test one possible mechanism: that conationality increases interpersonal trust and the willingness to reciprocate trust. As part of large-scale surveys in the United States, South Africa, and Switzerland, respondents were presented with trust vignettes in which information about the nationality of the interaction partner was systematically varied. Despite overall country-level differences in levels of trust and trustworthiness, no in-group bias associated with conationality was found in these types of interactions. This suggests that the negative association between ethnic diversity and social trust cannot be explained by differences in relational trust conditional on sharing the same nationality.


A good school environment is paramount to the performance and health of the pupils and teachers. However, the quality of school buildings in the Netherlands is in general not so good, with 80% of them not complying with good practices for the indoor environment, while having high energy costs. When tackling these issues, School Boards around the country have two options: building new facilities, or upgrading the existing ones. Although they usually prefer new buildings, municipalities around the country are promoting the alternative. This presents opportunities for the sustainable renovation of potentially thousands of buildings, to make them not only energy efficient, but with a high quality indoor environment as well; Energy efficient schools with good indoor environment are at the heart of the project "Developing a model for the balance of energy use and indoor environment quality in school buildings".


This paper presents qualitative research completed in two groups of hospitals in the United Kingdom, as part of a larger mixed methods study. It involved eight qualified nurses caring for patients with gastro-intestinal cancer in general surgical wards. It explored the nurses' experiences of using an online programme and their perceptions of the impact of learning on patient care delivery. The nurses volunteered to complete an online open source package www.cancernursing.org. and meet for focus group discussions and interviews following a lapse of six weeks. Two of the participants experienced difficulties completing the package and following changes to the previously attained ethical approval, a focus group was conducted with these staff. Analysis of the transcripts identified a number of issues for those considering the adoption of such modes of delivery within healthcare. Nurses referred to a lack of information technology skills and competence in computer use, access issues, organizational barriers and lack of protected study time. In spite of difficulties they gave examples of how their learning had impacted on patient care.


Copyright c © International Union of Crystallography Author(s) of this paper may load this reprint on their own web site or institutional repository provided that this cover page is retained. Republication of this article or its storage in electronic databases other than as specified above is not permitted without prior permission in writing from the IUCr. For further information see http://journals.iucr.org/services/authorrights.html


In an experiment, 200 one-day-old broiler chickens (Ross 308) were used to investigate the effects of sumac fruit ( Rhus coriaria L.) powder (SFP) on performance, plasma concentrations of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein (HDL-c), low density lipoprotein (LDL-c), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL-c) and plasma fasting blood sugar (FBS), as well as proportional abdominal fat. The chicks were divided into four treatment groups with 5 replicates and 10 birds in each. The birds were fed the basal diet (Z-SFP) or diets supplemented with 2.5 g SFP (L-SFP), 5 g SFP (M-SFP) and 10 g SFP (H-SFP) per kg diet. During the whole experimental period the H-SFP birds had a higher feed intake than the Z-SFP and L-SFP birds, though the H-SFP birds had higher feed conversion ratio compared with birds in the other treatments. No significant differences for body weight gain were recorded between the treatments. The M-SFP and H-SFP birds had lower plasma TC and VLDL-c concentrations than the Z-SFP and L-SFP birds. No significant differences between the treatments were indicated for plasma TG, HDL-c and LDL-c concentrations. Moreover the plasma FBS concentration of the H-SFP birds was lower than the birds in treatments Z-SFP and L-SFP, but no significant differences were observed between the other treatments. Furthermore, significant negative correlations were found between SFP supplementation and plasma TC, VLDL-c and FBS concentrations and a significant positive correlation between SFP supplementation and abdominal fat weight. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of SFP reduces the blood TC, VLDL-c and FBS concentrations, which can be related to decreased activity of HMG-CoA reductase and α-amylase activities. The higher abdominal fat weight of the SFP-fed birds is possibly related to changes of energy storage towards fat deposition. Keywords: Fasting blood sugar, feed conversion ratio, feed intake, performance, sumac fruit


This article presents the results of the questionnaire survey of food products purchasers on the understanding and significance of the contents of food product labels as well as the range of its use in the decision-making process. Nutritional and health-related claims on food product labels provide valuable data concerning the nutritional properties of these products. In order to use this information correctly, the consumer must be able to understand and adequately interpret it in the context of the nutritional needs of the organism. The easiness to notice them on the package is also very important for consumers. Their opinions concerning usefulness of the information on food product labels should motivate producers to give a more effective transfer of this kind of data.


Women Writing Africa: The Eastern Region. Edited by Amandina Lihamba, Fulata L. Moyo, M.M. Mulokozi, Naomi L. Shitemi, and Saida Yahya-Othman. The Women Writing Africa Project, vol. 3. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2007. Pp. xiv, 478. $75.00 cloth, $29.95 paper. As with the two previously published volumes from The Women Writing Africa Project1 (The Southern Region, and West Africa and the Sahel, 2003), this remarkable work features women's voices in a variety of genres that includes fiction, poetry, letters, speeches, songs, lullabies, tales, and riddles. The selected texts represent 300 years of history (1711-2004) and five countries that experienced British rule, listed here with the number of authors from each: Kenya (35), Malawi (10), Tanzania (24), Uganda (26), and Zambia (12). This well-documented volume, with excellent explanatory and historical materials, is a promising addition to the body of resources for teaching about Africa; it is suitable for courses in literature, history, women's studies, and cultural studies, at the upper-class undergraduate and the graduate levels. The anthology opens with "A Note on the Women Writing Africa Project" from project co-directors Tuzyline Jita Allan, Abena Busia, and Florence Howe, who guided the making of this volume. A Preface by Austin Bukenya follows, in which he introduces the country committees and coordinators-including men as well as women-who planned, collected, and prepared texts and accompanying information over a period of more than ten years. He explains that the collectors in the field focused especially on oral texts, and that selections for the volume were made according to two criteria: "women's emancipation and sociohistorical significance" (p. xxi). The anthology editors Lihamba, Moyo, Mulokozi, Shitemi, and Yahya-Othman have authored a substantial Introduction (67 pages), which examines the background of the texts in a well researched, easy to read, and interesting discussion. Focusing on the status of Eastern African women over time, they include references to individual texts, scholarly notes, and a seven-page Works Cited and Select Bibliography. The goal of the anthology, they explain, is "to conect distortions characteristic of Eastern African historiography and anthologizing," as well as to celebrate women's achievements (p. 1). They treat the following topics in chronological order: the cultural functions of oral literature in the precolonial period; Mother Earth as a theme in traditional African religions; variety in forms of slavery; the impact of Islam; colonialism and Christianity; beginning writing and publishing; the influence of settler women; the effects of capitalism; women and independence; women in Parliament; conflicts and women fighters; the late twentieth century; prostitution and HIV/AIDS; the presence of women writers (including East Africans of Indian descent); and the struggle for women's rights in the twenty-first century. The texts in the anthology are arranged chronologically into five sections: "The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries" (six texts); "The Early Twentieth Century (1900-1935)" (fifteen texts); "The Mid-Twentieth Century (1936-1969)" (forty texts); "Late Twentieth Century (1970-1995)" (nineteen texts); and "Into the Twenty-First Century (1996-2004)" (sixty-four texts, of which almost fifty are collected songs and poems). …


We address the problem of unexploded ordnance (UXO) detection in which data to be classified is available from multiple sensor modalities and multiple resolutions. Specifically, features are extracted from measured magnetometer and electromagnetic induction data; multiple-resolution data are manifested when the sensors are separated from the buried targets of interest by different distances (e.g., different sensor-platform heights). The proposed classification algorithm explicitly emphasizes features extracted from fine-resolution imagery over those extracted from less reliable coarse-resolution data. When fine-resolution features are unavailable (due to undeployed sensors), the algorithm analytically integrates out the missing features via an estimated conditional density function, which is conditioned on the observed features (from deployed sensors). This density function exploits the statistical relationships that exist among features at different resolutions, as well as those among features from different sensors (in the multisensor case). Experimental classification results are shown for real UXO data, on which the proposed algorithm consistently achieves better classification performance than common alternative approaches.


Faunal analyses of midden excavated in 2007 from the 14th century Cabana Lodge site (T12/3) at Whangamata, New Zealand are presented here, along with interpretations from collections excavated and surface-collected previously. Analyses of the 2007 assemblage indicate fish ( Pagrus auratus ) and sea mammal ( Arctocephalus forsteri ) were of primary importance in the diet; other collections also indicate that dogs were significant. Comparatively few seals from the nearby rocks of the harbour mouth or fish from the harbour and nearby beach were taken relative to shellfish from the adjacent mudflats. But, whilst shellfish are abundant in the midden, they provided comparatively low overall energy and nutritional yields. The site was an extensive, multi-function permanent settlement.


Successive plans to restore confidence in the euro area have failed. A combination of misdiagnosis, lack of political will, and dysfunctional politics across 17 nations have all contributed to the failure so far to stem Europe's growing crisis. Proposals currently on the table also seem likely to fail. Boone and Johnson say the euro area faces two major problems: First, the introduction of sovereign credit risk has made nations and subsequently banks effectively insolvent unless they receive large-scale bailouts. Second, the ensuing credit crunch has exacerbated difficulties in the real economy, causing Europe's periphery to plunge into recession, thus increasing the financing needs of troubled nations well into the future. Five measures are needed to enable the euro area to survive: (1) an immediate program to deal with excessive sovereign debt, (2) far more aggressive plans to reduce budget deficits and make peripheral nations "hypercompetitive" in the near future, (3) supportive monetary policy from the European Central Bank, (4) the introduction of mechanisms that credibly achieve long-term fiscal sustainability, and (5) institutional change that reduces the scope for excessive leverage and consequent instability in the financial sector.


Operational wavelength range for low insertion loss and high extinction ratio of GaInAs(P)-InP intersectional optical switches consisting of low-dimensional quantum-well structures, such as quantum-box, quantum-wire, and quantum-film structures, is theoretically analyzed. It is found that superior operation characteristics can be attained with the lower-dimensional quantum-well structure. For instance, an operational wavelength range of around 10 nm for an insertion loss less than 1 dB and an extinction ratio higher than 50 dB can be obtained with the device using a quantum-box structure. >


The Emerging Risks Unit has the responsibility for coordinating EFSA's activities to establish a capacity for the identification of emerging risks. A process was trialled and further developed during a pilot period of 18 months from 2010-2012. This included the implementation of an operational procedure for emerging risks identification, the assessment of selected data sources, the testing of tools for collecting information, the consolidation of knowledge networks for sharing information and the development of a methodological framework. Specific issues were identified for follow-up activities using an expert judgment approach. These include a study on climate change and the emergence of aflatoxins in cereal crops in the European Union (EU), a European-wide survey on the consumption of energy drinks, a task force on human risk assessment of chemical mixtures, an internal task force on bee health, and a foresight study on the potential impact of omics technologies on food and feed safety risk assessment. These follow-up activities will contribute to the determination of whether the issues identified can indeed give rise to emerging risks. Overall, our experience shows that emerging risks identification requires a high level of expertise due to major data gaps and uncertainties in the evaluation process. Effective networking has proven to be essential for exchanging methods, data and evaluations of emerging risks. The system piloted has shown some potential for the identification of issues that may give rise to emerging risks. Useful knowledge has been gained in the area of gathering and filtering large amounts of information and building knowledge networks on emerging risks. Next steps include the establishment of a standing Working Group (WG) on Emerging Risks, the reinforcement of the engagement with Member States and Stakeholders, the fine tuning of the revised methodological framework, and the completion of the projects on the issues identified.


ABSTRACT Neurourbanism looks to understand the relationship between urban environments and mental well-being and is well placed to assess the role of these environments on the urbanised and ageing global population. This study builds on research using mobile electroencephalography (EEG) to understand the impact of urban environments (busy, quiet and green urban spaces) on brain activity. Ninety-five older participants aged over 65 years undertook one of six walks in an urban neighbourhood, transitioning between two distinct environmental settings. This study explores changes in alpha (associated with relaxation) and beta (associated with attention) brain activity recorded during walking in differing urban environments. Neural activity significantly varies as participants walk between urban busy and green settings, with reduced levels of low beta activity in the green setting, suggesting attention changes consistent with Attention Restoration Theory. Levels of alpha activity significantly varied between the urban busy and the urban quiet settings, with increases in the urban busy setting. There were no significant differences in EEG activity between the urban green and urban quiet settings, suggesting that the magnitude of environmental contrast between the urban busy context and other urban settings is an important factor in understanding the effects of these spaces on brain activity.


The changing Information Security (IS) landscape and increased legal, regulatory and audit compliance requirements have driven organisations to collect, maintain, securely store and regularly analyse application, system and network event logs. For some organisations, collecting and storing event logs is primarily to satisfy national or industry specific compliance requirements and secondarily for event based information security monitoring. For other organisations, the collection, storage and analysis of event logs is to add an additional dimension to the increasingly multidimensional approach to information security. Monitoring the security of networks through the collection, filtering, aggregation, normalisation, correlation and analysis of archived or real-time event logs has indeed increasingly become one of the core activities in the day to day operations of information security professionals.

While event logs have in the past been primarily used for monitoring the health and operational status of networks, from purely a system and network administration perspective, they are today considered a critical source of deriving important information on the overall security status of applications, systems, networks, data and information. From a security perspective these event logs are mined or analysed to identify potential or real security threats, breaches, anomalies or any other suspicious behaviour. Beyond their storage, the presentation of event messages has also become important in order to enable timely response to any anomalies within the network, improve decision making and assist in the restoration of a network to normal operation after security breach.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) technology have in the recent decade seen an increase in adoption by organisations responding to a rapidly evolving information security landscape spurred by the complexity of information security threats currently being observed. Threats that today are in some instances appropriately name Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). The need to equip information security professionals with a level of ease in proactively identifying security threats or reactively in forensic analysis post a security breach also stand as some of the enablers for SIEM adoption. Regulatory compliance has perhaps been the most significant driver for the adoption of SIEM by organisations.

SIEM capability includes collection, filtering, aggregation, normalisation and correlation of events messages, collected from a wide range of systems, network devices and applications. These capabilities represent a significant enhancement from the basic event log collection and storage of Log Management technologies from which SIEM was an outgrowth. Log management technologies have traditionally being lacking in similar capabilities to SIEM, and as mentioned mostly capable of basic collection and storage of event logs.

This research investigated the applicability of SIEM technology within the context of IT Security, essentially researching into the role and significance thereof if any that SIEM might have in IT security. Specifically the research sought to answer the questions of whether SIEM technology enhanced the ability to monitor and respond to application, system and network security events as in an environment comprising a high volume of security, network and device system logs.


Software development for parallel computers has been recognized as one of the bottlenecks preventing their widespread use. In this thesis we examine two complementary approaches for addressing the challenges of high performance and enhanced programmability in parallel programs: automated optimizations and object-orientation. We have developed the parallel object-oriented language Charm++ (an extension of C++), which enables the benefits of object-orientation to be applied to the problems of parallel programming. In order to improve parallel program performance without extra effort, we explore the use of automated optimizations. In particular, we have developed techniques for automating run-time optimizations for parallel object-oriented languages. These techniques have been embodied in the Paradise post-mortem analysis tool which automates several run-time optimizations without programmer intervention. Paradise builds a program representation from traces, analyzes characteristics, chooses and parameterizes optimizations, and generates hints to the Charm++ run-time libraries. The optimizations researched are for static and dynamic object placement, scheduling, granularity control and communication reduction. We also evaluate Charm++, Paradise and several run-time optimization techniques using real applications, including an N-body simulation program, a program from the NAS benchmark suite, and several other programs.


Alain Badioursquo;s philosophy is generally understood to be a fundamentally mathematical enterprise, his principle categories of being, appearing, and truth being themselves thought only though specific scientific events. However the event itselfmdash;which constitutes the nexal point of his so-called lsquo;materialist dialecticrsquo;mdash;is contrarily thought not through mathematics but through art. And yet despite the fundamental role art plays in his philosophy Badioursquo;s lsquo;inaestheticrsquo; writings seem unduly proscriptive, allowing room principally for the expressly lsquo;literalrsquo; arts while eschewing for the most part those manifold arts which have little recourse to the letter. Badioursquo;s polemical writings on cinema are both symptomatic and serve as the most extreme example of this position, his cinema being one which wavers precariously on the border of art and non-art. This paper accordingly questions whether cinema can truly occupy a place in Badioursquo;s inaesthetics. I argue the hegemony of the letter in Badioursquo;s inaesthetics to be ultimately one of convenience and suggest that if cinematic truths are to be registered Badioursquo;s understanding of cinema as (what I interpret to be) an art of dis-appearance must be rejected. I conclude by contending the oppressive literality of Badioursquo;s philosophy to be symptomatic of its mathematical basismdash;a paradoxical position insofar as the very non-mathematical nature of art allows for evental thoughtmdash;the consequence of which being that Badiou regrettably neglects by and large those manifold illiterate arts that might otherwise serve to augment his thought.br /


Statistically significant differences were found in development duration of Hyas araneus L. larvae hatching on different days from the same egg batch. Larvae from different females show a decreasing trend in development time the later they hatch during the season. This trend was found in all larval instars; it was particularly apparent in the megalopa. Development durations in the 2 zoeal stages are positively correlated with each other, i.e. individuals developing slower than the average in the first larval instar tend to delay moulting also in the second instar. There are negative correlations between larval development time in all stages and the size of juvenile crabs, i.e. weak individuals tend to develop more slowly and to become smaller juveniles than the average. These larvae show lower accumulation rates of biomass already during the first zoeal stage. Larval development rates (at 12 °C) were not clearly affected by the temperature prevailing during previous embryonic development, but embryos incubated at higher temperatures tended to become smaller crabs.


The present paper contains the results of studies on the tribe Greenideini of the subfamily Greenideinae Takahashi, 1931, a primitive group of Aphididae mainly restricted to East Asia. Material could be studied of twentyseven species described by previous authors, while seven species had to be described as new. Some changes had to be effected in the systematic arrangement, so that at present six genera (old and new) are recognised in the group, together including five subgenera. In spite of repeated attempts not all the species so far described could be examined, accordingly in a final chapter notes are added on the species that were not available. The project for carrying out research work on Aphididae could be realised through the kind help of Mr. D. Hille Ris Lambers at Bennekom, who not only selected a suitable subject for these studies (the genus Greenidia and its allies), but also placed the valuable material from his private collections at my disposal together with the literature of the group from his library, and, moreover, arranged for the loan of specimens from other institutions. After having discussed at Bennekom the plans for the investigations, the work was carried out in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie at Leiden, whilst the results were supervised by Mr. Hille Ris Lambers during my repeated visits to Bennekom; I am greatly indebted to him for assiduous guidance and for hospitality received at his home. In the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie help and encouragement was received from Professor H. Boschma in various ways, while manyfold help was obtained from Dr. L. B. Holthuis, curator of Crustacea. Thanks are due to Dr. W. Vervoort, Zoological Laboratory, Leiden, for the micro-


The aim of this study is to analyze the various factors affecting the evaluation technical subjects and their influence on student learning, in order to establish guidelines for improvement in the assessment. The analysis was performed on the evaluation of students in the course "Structural Concrete", fourth year of the Degree in Edification of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, during the 2013-2014 year. The work reflects the influence on the evaluation of the basis with which students arrive, the students' perceptions of evaluation and the type of evaluation conducted. As for the subject of "Structural concrete", the analysis has been very positive, although it is proposed to review the following course teaching planning, in order to improve the performance of the learning objectives.


As a low-energy effective model emerging in disparate fields throughout all of physics, the ubiquitous $\varphi^4$-theory is one of the central models of modern theoretical physics. Its topological defects, or kinks, describe stable, particle-like excitations that play a central role in processes ranging from cosmology to particle physics and condensed matter theory. In these lecture notes, we introduce the description of kinks in $\varphi^4$-theory and the various physical processes that govern their dynamics. The notes are aimed at advanced undergraduate students, and emphasis is placed on stimulating qualitative insight into the rich phenomenology encountered in kink dynamics. The appendices contain more detailed derivations, and allow enquiring students to also obtain a quantitative understanding. Topics covered include the topological classification of stable solutions, kink collisions, the formation of bions, resonant scattering of kinks, and kink-impurity interactions.


Community engagement is the touchstone of all universities and is critical to the credibility and overall standing of academic institutions. The cardinal features of engagement include Capability, Commitment, Contribution, Continuity, Collaboration and Conscience'. However these abstract concepts are often idealized and simplistic. On the other hand, when community engagement is managed well, participatory planning can produce better substantive ideas, useful relationships and stronger agreements across stakeholder groups. However, if engagement is more ritual than reality, it can lead to technically deficient ideas, frustrated expectations, power grabs in which parochial interests dominate conflicts and mistrust. This case study describes the realignment of graduate nurse education at Edith Cowan University's School of Nursing Midwifery and Postgraduate Medicine with community stakeholders, to develop and sustain enrolment of students in the graduate program, with a focus on community engagement. In particular, the problems encountered will be identified and the ―how to‖ and ―how not to‖ manage engagement processes will be discussed. Through the realignment process the pragmatic truths of community engagement emerged; namely, a conflict of agenda, unrealistic expectations of capability and ability of stakeholders, resistance to change. This occurred despite a true intent for meaningful, sustained and beneficial partnership. The ―how to‖ emerged through assessment and involved a reality check of the power of human agents. This led to the development of a conceptual model of community engagement which embodies a change management framework. The how not to' involved developing a set behaviours and descriptors as a diagnostic tool to identify hidden agendas, white elephants, and personal shortcomings. In conclusion, the case study provides a set of practical resources for community engagement, lessons learned and strategies to overcome issues and concerns of real and perceived barriers. Further work is required to refine and test the approach in other settings.


Abstract Background The possibility of occupational exposure to bloodborne viruses such as HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an everyday reality for healthcare workers. This study reports on the extent and outcome of doctors' exposure to bloodborne viruses in Bloemfontein. MethodsA descriptive study was done. Doctors (n=441) actively involved in public and/or private medical practice were requested to anonymously complete a questionnaire regarding occupational exposure to bloodborne viruses (HIV, HBV and HCV). ResultsA response rate of 51.7% was obtained. More than half (54.2%, 95% CI [47.7%; 60.5%]) of the respondents were exposed to bloodborne viruses. Of these cases, 48.3% occurred with HIV-positive patients and 4.3% with known HBV-positive patients. No cases involved positive HCV patients. After the exposure had occurred, 68.9% of the patients were tested for HIV, 10.9% for HBV and only 4.2% for HCV infection. The frequency of serological testing for doctors immediately after exposure was 65.3% for HIV, 21.7% for HBV and 8.2% for HCV. No seroconversion to HIV or HCV was reported, while two seroconversions to HBV were reported. Most of the exposures occurred as a result of needlestick injury (85%), often in the operating theatre during procedures (59.3%). The majority (59.8%) of exposed doctors did not take any prophylactic treatment and those who did, did not always complete the treatment. ConclusionThe risk of seroconversion to HIV after occupational exposure was as expected, while seroconversion to HBV was less than expected. The lack of adequate follow-up serological testing after occupational exposure is alarming. It is the responsibility of the occupationally exposed doctor to adequately comply with prophylactic measures and undergo serological testing to ensure the least possible risk of contracting infection from a bloodborne virus.


An ultralow-index top layer is a prerequisite to preparing high-performance broadband AR coatings. When coupled with hydrophobicity and the abrasion-resistance required in practical applications, the challenge becomes even greater. In this work, a MgF2 AR coating was studied because of the low refractive index of MgF2 and its easily realized strong adhesion through low-temperature heat treatment. In order to obtain an ultralow refractive index and endow the coating with hydrophobicity, we designed several experimental routes and finally adopted MTES/TEOS co-precursors to direct MgF2 particles to form a honeycomb-like network structure without a template. A final refractive index of 1.15 and good hydrophobicity, with a water contact angle of 122°, were obtained using the MgF2–SiO2(CH3) coating. These superior properties were attributed to the incorporation of methyl groups, which not only endowed the coating with hydrophobicity, but also changed the original linear assembly of MgF2 particles to a circular assembly. Using this hydrophobic ultralow-index coating as a top layer, a high-performance double-layer AR coating was fabricated with a high average transmittance of 99.43% in the wavelength range of 400–1000 nm, good abrasion-resistance, and damp heat resistance after a low-temperature heat treatment of 250 °C. This MgF2 double-layer AR coating may be used in display devices or lenses.


In the Upper Permian continental to marginal-marine succession of the Southern Alps (Dolomites, north Italy), the ichnological record consists of diverse vertebrate footprints and non-diverse invertebrate trace fossils, mainly occurring in the "Bletterbach ichnoassociation" of the Val Gardena Sandstone Formation. After the Permian-Triassic Boundary event, vertebrate ichnoassociations are scarce until the Middle Triassic (Anisian), whereas the uppermost Permian–Lower Triassic Werfen Formation preserves a rich invertebrate trace-fossil record. To date, fish body and trace fossils ( Undichna ) are very rare in the pre- and post-extinction deposits of the Dolomites; only Undichna gosiutensis Gibert, 2001 was identified in the "Voltago Conglomerate" (Middle Anisian), whereas some unidentified fossil fish casts were found in the Permian Val Gardena Sandstone and some fish remains in the overlying Werfen Formation. Recently, for the first time, fish trails have been discovered in the Val Gardena Sandstone (Lopingian) and in the Werfen Formation (Campil member, Early Triassic, Smithian). Val Gardena Sandstone yielded Undichna cf. quina Trewin, 2000 and U. bina Anderson, 1976 and these represent the oldest fish trails found in the Southern Alps so far. Conversely, the specimens found in the Werfen Formation can be assigned to Undichna cf. britannica Higgs, 1988. They represent the oldest Mesozoic record of fish trace fossils in northern Italy and one of the few records of Undichna from marine environments. These trace fossils are consistent with the fossil association found in the two formations and reflect fish swimming activity in different environments: in very shallow, calm, brackish distal-floodplain to marginal-marine environments in the Late Permian, in association with abundant and diverse tetrapod tracks, and non-diverse invertebrate trace fossils, and in inter- to subtidal calm, shallow, marine environments in the Early Triassic, together with abundant, but not diverse invertebrate trace fossils.


This paper focuses on the work produced in the Architectural Association Diploma Unit 12 and how it incorporates the subjects of infrastructure and architecture through employing 'indexical systems'. The paper outlines the history of the unit from its inception in 2003, then tutored by Eva Castro and Holger Kehne, to the current tutors, Holger Kehne and Jeff Turko, and the development of the subject matter the studio had been focusing on. The synergies that lay between infrastructure and architecture became the setting in which the unit was to develop concepts and indexical tool sets to address the varied and complex issues. This was done by way of students developing indexical drawings and models digitally through the translation of environmental, structural, organizational, and morphological conditions into gradient fields of varying intensities. The value of these outcomes would be the basis for a subsequent design proposal. The paper then goes on describe the current developments of tools and methods employed in the Unit. First the returning to the use of the diagram, which became central to the design process again. Secondly the engagement with iconography, or rather the development of iconographic images, where the image allows to focus on the actual spatial experience itself in its quality and character. Incorporating visualization into the index in order to avoid the notion of the visual sound bite and to transform it into a means of analysis and evaluation.


Introduction The Nepticulidae are a family of about 800 named species of very small moths (wingspan less than 10 mm), of which the larvae make leaf-mines, stem-mines or rarely galls. The family is poorly known from the desert regions in Northern Africa and the Middle East, but relatively well known from Central Asian deserts (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia), thanks to the work of R. Puplesis and students (summarised in Puplesis, 1994). The family was previously hardly known from the Arabian Peninsula, except for four species, recently described from northern Oman (Puplesis & Diskus, 2003). Here the family is recorded for the first time from the UAE, with seven species, two in Stigmella Schrank, 1802, and five in Acalyptris Meyrick, 1921, of which one is described as new. Except for S. birgittae Gustafsson, 1985, these species are also new for the Arabian Peninsula. Because some of the recorded species are actually rather common and widespread in the desert regions of North Africa and Asia, but virtually unknown in the literature, several unpublished records and synonymies of these species are presented here and they are redescribed. In this way the family Nepticulidae is not only recorded for the first time from the UAE, but also from Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Stigmella omani Puplesis & Diskus, 2003, is synonymised with S. birgittae Gustafsson, 1985, S. ziziphivora Gustafsson, 1985, is synonymised with S. zizyphi Walsingham, 1911. The latter does not occur in the UAE, but is compared with the closely related S. birgittae. Nepticula liochalca Meyrick, 1916, and N. homophaea Meyrick, 1918, are both synonymised with Stigmella xystodes (Meyrick, 1916), all three described from India; this species is here reported new for many countries in the North-African-Asian warm eremic region. In Acalyptris, A. lvovskyi (Puplesis, 1984) is synonymised with the type species A. psammophricta Meyrick, 1921. Acalyptris gielisi is described as new; it is very close to the South African A. lanneivora (Vari, 1955). From a fifth species of Acalyptris, only one female has been collected. It is described, but not named here. The seven recorded species probably only represent a small portion of the actual fauna, which could best be studied additionally by searching for stem- and leaf-mines on potential hostplants. The genera Trifurcula Zeller, 1848, and Ectoedemia Busck, 1907, are also likely to occur here. DNA sequences of several specimens were used in addition to morphological characters for decisions on species identities, in particular for associating males and females. The results of the barcoding gene CO1 are discussed at the end of this chapter.


According to German legal scholar, Claus Roxin, German prosecutors are the 'most objective civil servants' in the world. Roxin's assessment of German prosecution practice reflects the conviction of many German legal scholars that prosecutors in Germany's inquisitorial system function as second judges dedicated to finding the objective "truth." In this paper I investigate how prosecutors "translate" the normative duty of objectivity enshrined in the German penal code into observable practices on the ground. I examine prosecutorial decision-making in three sexual assault trials. Sexual assault cases pose unique challenges to prosecutors as well as to the definition of objectivity. Because the crime typically occurs in private, the search for truth often focuses on the testimony of the victim and the suspect. In cases in which the physical evidence is inconclusive and the defendant claims that the victim consented, the focus of the fact finder's inquiry is often directed at the victim's credibility. Drawing on transcript and interview data, I propose three models or "faces" of prosecutorial "objectivity." Surprisingly, despite the fact that judges structure the presentation of evidence in German trials, prosecutors play a critical role in "interpreting" the facts presented at trial. In each of the cases examined in this paper, the face of objectivity is constructed through a relational process that unfolds between the presiding judge and the trail prosecutor. Although many legal scholars maintain that penal code sharply circumscribes prosecutorial discretion in major crime cases in Germany, my research demonstrates that a wide variation exists in the way that individual prosecutors interpret their duty to view the evidence objectively.


1. Posture The unfed sheep tick when at rest adopts either a 'questing' attitude with the forelegs extended or an attitude of repose with the forelegs folded. While walkingthe hungry tick waves the forelegs in the manner of antennae. 2. Sensory responses ( a ) Gravity . A tick walking on a 24 cm. vertical glass rod, which serves as a satisfactory model of natural grass or rush stems, usually climbs from the base to the tip, quests, then walks up and down near the tip before finally coming to rest there. This response involves a taxis (upward-turning near the tip) and a kinesis. Negative geotaxis may be of some significance, but reasons are given for supposing that this pattern of behaviour is partly a tactile response following arrival at the tip. ( b ) Humidity . The humidity behaviour is greatly influenced by the physiological state. When their water balance is normal, unfed ticks avoid higher humidities but come to rest with equal readiness in moist or dry air. The avoiding response (taxis) disappears after desiccation and is replaced by a kinesis: the tick is then intensely active in dry air, but soon comes to rest in moist air. On remaining in damp air the water balance is restored by water uptake through the cuticle. The first response then reappears. The operation of the kinesis does not seem to depend on sensory stimulation. The taxis is weakly developed in normal engorged ticks, but the kinesis is again strongly manifested after desiccation. ( c ) Tactile responses . Unfed ticks with their legs folded respond to vibrations by questing instantly: they readily cling to any object which brushes against them. The formation of densely packed larval clusters is a further response to contact stimulation ( d ) Temperature . Hungry ticks orienting to an odourless tube at 37°C. either approach it eagerly and climb on, or avoid it. This stimulus is usually attractive to larvae and nymphs, but repellent to adult ticks. The response is to a gradient of air temperature and not to radiant heat. Objects at any temperature higher than that of the surroundings may prove attractive, but avoiding responses are always elicited by temperatures higher than 42°C. In a linear gradient extending from 8 C.to 45°c. ticks aggregate rapidly in the coldest region after previous exposure to 25°C. Fewer cold-adapted ticks are trapped in this way; those remaining outside the coldest region show no definite 'preferendum' within the range 11-41° C. ( e ) Smell . Below 20°C. ticks are indifferent to the odour of sheep wool alone; above 20°C. wool is slightly attractive. In the presence of a temperature gradient (wool wrapped round a tube at 37° C.) this odour becomes highly attractive. Thus, hungry adults which are repelled by temperature alone are attracted when both stimuli are presented together. They respond with equal vigour to the scents of dog, rabbit, cow and horse hair. ( f ) Light . Unfed ticks at rest on a glass rod respond to a sudden fall in light intensity by questing (shading section). Engorged ticks are strongly photonegative; newly moulted ticks also avoid a directed filumination, but become indifferent as they age 3. Sense organs The following sensory structures are borne on the forelegs: (a) Huller9s organ. This composite organ includes groups of sensilla in the anterior pit and posterior capsule which are morphologically distinct and have an independent innervation. The sensilla of the anterior pit are the humidity receptors responsible for the taxis while the peg-like chemoreceptors of the capsule are olfactory. ( b ) The temperature sensilla are short, thick-walled hairs borne on the dorsal and lateral aspects of the leg. ( c ) Tactile bristles are restricted to the ventral surface of the distal articles; their stimulation by vibrations of the substratum leads to the questing response. The palpal organ , situated at the tip of the palps, is a chemoreceptor with a high threshold of stimulation. Its function lies in the attachment response rather than in orientation. Temperature sensilla and tactile bristles are also present on the other legs and on the palps. The reactions to light are due to a dermal sense. 4. Attachment By offering warm or cold membranes of various types as sites for attachment, temperature, smell and a factor of the fleece which is perceived as a contact stimulus by the palpal organ, were found to provide the necessary stimulation for inducing attachment. Most ticks still attach to the natural host if the forelegs or the palps are amputated; none attach if both are lacking. 5. Orientation mechanisms A questing response to light or vibration is often followed by movement. This mechanism (orthokinesis) is also very important in the humidity behaviour of the desiccated tick. Random changes in the direction of locomotion (klinokinesis) rarely occur. The usual response to favourable or unfavourable stimuli (e.g. temperature, smell and humidity) is directed and involves successive comparisons of intensity by the sensilla borne on the forelegs (klinotaxis). There is no tropotactic component, for ticks lacking one foreleg can still locate such stimuli accurately. 6. Orienting responses in the natural environment An important physical feature of the rough moorland grazings which form the main habitat of the sheep tick is the steep humidity gradient within the vegetation layer. Near the roots, where the tick remains quiescent for long periods, the atmosphere is permanently moist; at the tips of the vegetation, where the tick comes to rest during the 'active' period, humidities are variable but generally lower. All the sensory perceptions are of value in promoting surpival or host-finding. ( a ) First, certain reactions guide the tick to a situation--the vegetation tips--favourable for encountering the host. Of particular value in this respect is the upward-turning response summarized under § 2 ( a ). The tendency to remain near the tips is assisted at first by the humidity response, for ticks walking on the stem lattice avoid the high humidity near the roots. After an unsuccessful period of waiting the tick becomes desiccated and the kinesis comes into play: walking downwards the tick comes to rest at the roots, takes up water from the damp atmosphere, and is then prepared for a further period of activity at the tips. ( b ) Secondly, responses to tactile stimuli (unusual movements of the vegetation) and to light (shading) provide warning of the imminent approach of the host. c Thirdly,orientations ot the warmth and scent of the skin take place when the host is very near: the tick then catches hold and climbs on. After dropping from the host the movements of the engorged tick down into the deeper layer of the vegetation are guided by the avoidance of directed illumination and to some extent by sensations of contact.


An Examination of the Psychometric Properties of the Student Risk Screening Scale for Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors: An Item Response Theory Approach Sara E. Moulton Educational Inquiry, Measurement, and Evaluation, BYU Doctor of Philosophy This research study examined the psychometric properties of the Student Risk Screening Scale for Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors (SRSS-IE) using Item Response Theory (IRT) methods among a sample of 2,122 middle school students. The SRSS-IE is a recently revised screening instrument aimed at identifying students who are potentially at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). There are two studies included in this research. Study 1 utilized the Nominal Response and Generalized Partial Credit models of IRT to evaluate items from the SRSS-IE in terms of the degree to which the response options for each item functioned as intended by the scale developers and how well those response options discriminated among students who exhibited varying levels of EBD risk. Results from this first study indicated that the four response option configurations of the items on the SRSS-IE may not adequately discriminate among the frequency of externalizing and internalizing behaviors demonstrated by middle school students. Recommendations for item response option revisions or scale scoring revisions are discussed in this study. In study 2, differential item functioning (DIF) and differential step functioning (DSF) methods were used to examine differences in item and response option functioning according to student gender variables. Additionally, test information functions (TIFs) were used to determine whether preliminary recommendations for cut scores differ by gender. Results of this second study indicate that two of the items on the SRSS-IE systematically favor males over females and one item systematically favors females over males. Additionally, examination of TIFs demonstrated different degrees of measurement precision at various levels of theta for males and females on both the externalizing and internalizing constructs. Implications of these results are discussed in relation to possible revisions of the SRSS-IE items, cut scores, or scale scoring procedures.


Background Simulation is an established educational tool and its unique role in facilitating interprofessional learning is established. The use of simulation within governance structures to enhance patient safety is growing. This abstract describes an in situ safety focussed simulation program within the Emergency department at the Royal United Hospital, Bath. Methods Opportunities to improve patient care are identified through incident reporting, M+M and clinical governance meetings and informal feedback from medical and nursing staff. Processes, procedures and equipment which might benefit from stress testing in a simulated environment are also identified. Scenarios are then designed to meet the needs identified. Scenarios are run insitu in real time using real teams. The scenarios are followed by a human factor debrief, then by separate nursing and medical technical debriefs. Learning needs and improvements in equipment, ergonomics, processes and procedures are identified. Immediate actions are disseminated through weekly Team Brief and through departmental teaching programs. Actions and recommendations requiring further discussion are fed back into the ED clinical governance meeting. The minutes from these meetings are reported to Divisional and Trust Operational Governance meetings. Results A range of patient safety/clinical improvements have been identified in addition to a number of learning needs for staff groups. E.g.: Adaptations to the lay out of the paediatric resus trolley Location, use and limitations of the various thermometers in the department. Lack of familiarity with emergency procedures and equipment in the Urgent Care Centre adjacent to ED Actions have been taken to address a range of safety issues. Any changes will be integrated and tested in future simulations. Potential impact As this work refines it will become a standard requirement before any new process/piece of equipment or area becomes operational, proactively identifying risk to patients and staff and providing possible solutions. References Rosen MA, Hunt EA, Pronovost PJ. In situ simulation in continuing education for the health care professions: a systematic review. J Contin Educ Health Prof 2015;32(4):243–254 Arriaga AF, Bader AM, et al. Simulation-based trial of surgical-crisis checklists. N Engl J Med 2013;368:246–253 Geis GL, Pio B, Pendergrass, et al. Simulation to assess the safety of new healthcare teams and new facilities. Simulat Healthc 2011;6(3):125–133


Developers who set a breakpoint a few statements too late or who are trying to diagnose a subtle bug from a single core dump often wish for a time-traveling debugger. The ability to rewind time to see the exact sequence of statements and program values leading to an error has great intuitive appeal but, due to large time and space overheads, time traveling debuggers have seen limited adoption. A managed runtime, such as the Java JVM or a JavaScript engine, has already paid much of the cost of providing core features - type safety, memory management, and virtual IO - that can be reused to implement a low overhead time-traveling debugger. We leverage this insight to design and build affordable time-traveling debuggers for managed languages. Tardis realizes our design: it provides affordable time-travel with an average overhead of only 7% during normal execution, a rate of 0.6MB/s of history logging, and a worst-case 0.68s time-travel latency on our benchmark applications. Tardis can also debug optimized code using time-travel to reconstruct state. This capability, coupled with its low overhead, makes Tardis suitable for use as the default debugger for managed languages, promising to bring time-traveling debugging into the mainstream and transform the practice of debugging.