A method is presented for fractional-octave smoothing that, for spectra that are originally symmetric in log-frequency, preserves said symmetry after smoothing. Unlike an existing method, which requires interpolation of the FFT spectra to a log-frequency scale, the proposed method uses analytically-derived smoothing windows and operates directly in the FFT domain, thereby retaining compatibility with well-established spectral smoothing techniques such as complex smoothing. In this work the proposed method is compared with two existing methods, the first of which is nearly ubiquitous in the field, by smoothing the magnitude response of an analog band-pass filter (which is symmetric on a log-frequency scale) and subsequently calculating a "center of mass" of the smoothed spectra to quantify any loss of symmetry. The first existing method uses symmetric (on a linear scale) smoothing windows, which exhibit the correct bandwidths but do not span the correct fractional-octave frequency ranges, whereas the second interpolates the spectrum to logarithmically-spaced frequencies and then uses a symmetric fixed-width smoothing window. Results show that the proposed method achieves nearly identical smoothed spectra to the second method, but without the need for interpolation, and that the first method indeed skews the log-symmetry of the original spectra.


Dispersal kernels are the standard method for describing and predicting the relationship between dispersal strength and distance. Statistically-fitted dispersal kernels allow observations of a limited number of dispersal events to be extrapolated across a wider landscape, and form the basis of a wide range of theories and methods in ecology, evolution and conservation. Genetic parentage data are an increasingly common source of dispersal information, particularly for species where dispersal is difficult to observe directly. It is now routinely applied to coral reef fish, whose larvae disperse over many kilometers and are too small to follow directly. However, it is not straightforward to estimate dispersal kernels from parentage data, and existing methods each have substantial limitations. Here we develop and proof a new statistical estimator for fitting dispersal kernels to parentage data, applying it to simulated and empirical datasets of reef fish parentage. The method incorporates a series of factors omitted in previous methods: the partial sampling of adults and juveniles on sampled reefs; the existence of unassigned dispersers from unsampled reefs; and post-settlement processes (e.g., density dependent mortality) that follow dispersal but precede parentage sampling. Power analyses indicate that the highest levels of sampling currently used for reef fishes is sufficient to fit accurate dispersal kernels. Sampling is best distributed equally between adults and juveniles, and over more than ten populations. Importantly, we show that accounting for unsampled or unassigned individuals – including adult individuals on partially-sampled and unsampled patches – is essential for a precise and unbiased estimate of dispersal.


"As we enter the 21st century our best efforts must be directed toward the humanization of society through the nurture of our children." Globalization has brought about dramatic changes in social attitudes. As confirmation, one can compare the way the world regards the commercial sexual exploitation of children today with that of only a decade ago. A review of news reports and magazine articles around 1990 offers sparse evidence that an extensive trade in child sex existed in any part of the world. The media focused largely on domestic abuse, as the possibility that the prostitution of children occurred had not been widely considered. The phrase "child sex tourism" did not yet enter our lexicon. And the word "pedophile" was rarely seen in print. The reasons for this have been well canvassed. The sexual abuse of children has always been one of the least understood of all crimes. Even hardened criminals accept an unwritten code of relativity by which some crimes are more acceptable than others. Once in prison, the child abuser is the most despised of all and is often persecuted to the point where he has to be kept in solitary confinement for his own protection. Moreover, society at large finds it difficult to accept the existence of such people within the community who systematically prey on vulnerable children. As a consequence, child abuse had been surrounded by a culture of denial. In the past, when a teacher, priest or youth leader was found to be abusing children, the organizations involved simply moved the offender to another position and kept the whole episode hidden from the media. Concern for the organization over-rode any concern for the damage the abuser had done and would continue to do to children. Today, child sex abuse is far more prevalent than anyone had realized. Courts of law in North America and Europe are flooded with civil cases against sex abusers--some of whom committed the crime 30 or more years ago. Similarly, the commercial sexual exploitation of children is now openly discussed and recognized as a major social problem. For the first time in history, social workers, law enforcement officers and governments have initiated a serious of investigations into this previously hidden aspect of society. The globalization of the flow of information gave impetus to this impressive movement against the commercial child sex trade. The Internet quickens our interest in events around the world and provides tools for responding to situations of injustice, wherever they occur. It gives the possibility of instant global communication the capability to counter an area of crime that is now largely international. The Internet alerts people to the pervasiveness of sexual deviation within different societies, permits nations to cooperate on a global level and protects the future of the world. Yet, for all the benefits the Internet provides, it also has its drawbacks, especially providing a vehicle to spread child pornography quickly. As will be discussed later, increasing ties among nations provides the pedophile with the opportunity to hide from the immediate community, to operate within residence, to encounter a global network of like-minded individuals and worst of all, to discover an endless supply of victims. CHANGES IN APPROACH Among the significant catalysts towards collective efforts, two events should be noted: the first evolved out of an investigation in Thailand and the second arose through a United Nations resolution. A small consultation in 1990 helped bring the issue of child prostitution into prominence. A little-known non-governmental organization in Thailand initiated research into rumors that children were being kept in brothels in many parts of Asia. The Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism, a small church organization based in Thailand that was set up to monitor tourism in Asia, contracted social workers in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Taiwan, as well as Thailand, to investigate the situation. …


This chapter examines the effects of the Cold War upon the states of the Middle East. Although the region was not so profoundly affected as other parts of the world in terms of loss of life or major revolutionary upheaval, it is clear that the lack of democracy and many decades of distorted political development in the Middle East are in great part a legacy of the region's involvement at the interstices of Soviet and American foreign policy. After a brief discussion of early manifestations of USSR–US rivalry in Greece, Turkey, and Iran at the beginning of the Cold War, the chapter uses Iraq as a case study of the changing nature of the relations between a Middle Eastern state and both superpowers from the 1940s until the collapse of the Soviet Union.


A post-communist condition has arisen from the fall of the Berlin Wall and later the Soviet Empire: this book looks at how this condition has manifested itself globally in the production of post-communist film. It argues post-communism is a shared experience on a geopolitical level, unlimited by national state borders, and examines post-communist cross culturalism and global totalitarianism within film.

The book examines different national cinemas and dissimilar cinematic modes - from Russian blockbuster cinema to Chinese independent cinema; from Serbian city films to revolutionary films of Mozambique - all formulated as within the postcommunist condition. It considers the postcommunist film in terms of transnational and World cinema. It covers a wide range of films from small and independent filmmaking to mainstream, popular cinema, and explains post-communist signifiers as manifested in visual culture both inside and outside former, and current, communist countries.


Inferencing is essential for effective communication for two reasons. Firstly, the conventional meaning of lexis is not always a clear indicator of the intended message of speakers/ writers (e.g. Grice, 1975). Secondly, �discourse rarely provides us with a fully explicit description of a situation� (Eysenck, 1990: 224); therefore, we usually have to fill in the missing information (see also Clark & Clark, 1977: 96-98). It seems wise then for foreign language teachers and materials writers to take account of the clues and procedures involved in language interpretation. But how is inferencing achieved? That is, how do we understand more than (or even something different from) what the actual words seem to denote? What knowledge and clues do we use? What processes take place in our minds? As far as ELT is concerned, what are the implications for decision-making, materials-writing and classroom practice? In other words, what is it that teachers and materials writers need to know about inferencing, and how can they translate this knowledge into teaching materials and procedures? In Part 1 I discuss the clues provided by speakers/writers, as well as the clues and thinking processes used by listeners/readers in order for successful inferencing to take place. This outline will draw on Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis and Psycholinguistics. I will also provide examples of (in)effective communication, and will discuss the use of specific clues and procedures. In Part 2, I briefly discuss the implications for the learning/ teaching of English as a foreign language.


It is well known that language is the major teaching and learning issue encountered by international students studying in Australian universities (University of Melbourne, 2004). According to Brumjit (2004), world language practices have witnessed "the emergence of English as the default language of international communication..."(p. 163). The implications for educational practice in this international, multicultural perspective are reflected in the changes in the projessional status of language and academic support staff which have occurred
over the past 10 years. The role has been influenced by a move away from models of remedial English or deficit teaching which compare the differences perceived between the learning styles of international students and those used by local students (Biggs, 2003).

In the present paper the progress of two Chinese scholars who audited classes in the School of Business over 2 semesters at James Cook University are reported. In order to improve their academic writing and oral communication in economics and business, the scholars met with other international postgraduate students face-to-face each week for one semester (12 weeks); the aim for these sessions was to review, edit and revise work-in-progress following student-centred principles. In these peer tutor groups reciprocal reflection of teaching and learning, together with genre-based instruction were the main approaches to develop oral and written communication skills.

Initially the scholars expected to improve their writing and speaking overnight, but they soon came to realise that learning to communicate according to discipline-specific discourse is ongoing and involves a long term developmental
process. Nonetheless, some of the short term outcomes reported were gains not only in their academic spoken and written English, but also in their confidence, empowerment and future expectations. The scholars identified the collaborative efforts to write and deliver a conference paper with a staff member in the School of Business as highly beneficial. Moreover, they described the online discourse community as useful when practising daily written communication.


Raspberry production in Utah is concentrated to a large extent in Utah county. According to the 1940 census, Utah county contains 62 percent of the state acreage of 611 acres. Average raspberry acreage in Utah is only about one-half acre per farm on farms reported as growing raspberries. With such small acreage the average producer cannot afford to devote very much time and effort to the production and marketing of raspberries. In the majority of cases raspberry production is carried on by the farmer's wife, as a means of gaining "pin" money for use in the household. Proceeds from raspberries are one of the first cash incomes of the year received from fruit production. The harvesting of raspberries begins about the 25th of June and lasts until the end of July in Utah county. Because of the small acreage per grower, short production season, and high perishability of raspberries, a problem of marketing arises. Previous to 1939, the Salt Lake Public Market was over-supplied with raspberries during peaks of production. This resulted in low prices. Peddlers and truckers dictated the price received by producers. Thus, low prices often resulted and caused the berries to be left on the vines as the prices would not pay the cost of picking and packing. In order to provide better market outlets, establish satisfactory grades and standards, and provide for more orderly marketing, the producers in Utah county organized a Cooperative Marketing Association in 1939. This association was organized for the purpose of marketing raspberries grown by producers in Utah county from Mapleton to Pleasant Grove. The purpose of this study is: (1) to show the problems relating to the marketing of raspberries in Utah, (2) to analyze data made available by the Utah Berry Growers' Association order to show market areas, methods of marketing, price received by method of sale, marketing expenses and to determine sales and prices received on week days and holidays, (3) to analyze the possibility of extending the markets for Utah raspberries.


Since gray wolf reintroduction in 1995, wolf populations in the northern Rocky Mountains have increased dramatically. Incidents of wolf predation on livestock have increased with wolf populations. Although rough tallies of livestock death or injury losses caused by wolf predation are made each year, we know almost nothing about the indirect effects of wolf-livestock interactions on cattle production. Research projects were initiated during 2004 in central Idaho and 2007 in western Idaho-northeastern Oregon to evaluate habitat use, activity budget, and productivity responses of range cattle to increasing wolf predation pressure. Global positioning system (GPS) tracking collars were used to locate mature beef cows every 30 minutes or every 5 minutes throughout 3to 6-month grazing seasons. Effects of wolf presence on cattle preference for riparian/upland habitats, terrain use, bunching/dispersion, and activity budgets are being evaluated relative to forage conditions, cattle age/experience, and other production system and environmental factors. Preliminary results suggest individual cows exhibit considerable variability in their preference for near-stream habitats ( less than 100 yards from perennial streams). Annual variability in near-stream preference was noted and the relationship between this variability and wolf presence levels is being evaluated. Annual variability in cattle activity budgets was detected and evaluations are underway to determine if this variability is an effect of recent technology upgrades or is a consequence of variability in wolf presence. We found GPS tracking technology accurate enough to detect predator-avoidance behavior in cattle, including bunching and sustained-flight events, even at the coarse, 30-min collection interval. The northern Rocky Mountains is a very complex ecological system involving numerous interacting factors; consequently, it will require at least several more years of data collection before we can begin to draw conclusions from these studies. When developing grazing plans, however, cattle producers and natural resource managers of the northern Rockies should consider that the presence of reintroduced gray wolves may be influence cattle distribution and behavior and these effects may continue for some time after wolves have left or have been removed from the grazing area.


Peacebuilding is successful in ending wars, but rarely leads to democratic postwar regimes. The peacebuilding literature typically explains this outcome by cooperation problems between the warring parties, by a lack of capacity within postwar society, or by underfunded and poorly coordinated missions. This paper provides an alternative explanation. It argues that the single most important factor explaining a democratic outcome is local demand for democracy. But elites in postwar countries only rarely demand democracy, because the adoption costs are too high. Adoption costs are low only when democratization is linked to a war for independence or when democracy is seen as a way out of a stalemate. Peacebuilders have only a limited impact on postwar democratization. They rarely use their leverage over local elites in order to push for democratic reforms, because they prioritize stability over democratic reforms. These arguments are tested using nine empirically thick case studies of recent peacebuilding missions.


The terrorist attacks of 9/11—in which al-Qaeda operatives flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and attempted to crash an additional plane into the Capitol Building in Washington, DC—highlighted for many the role religion could play in terrorism. Al-Qaeda, an Islamist terrorist network striving to undermine U.S. influence in Muslim countries, combined a global religious ideology with brutal violence in a way that caught the attention of policymakers and scholars. Since then, academics have been attempting to analyze and understand how religion and terrorism intersect.
 Scholars have debated whether religion is a distinctive aspect of contemporary terrorism or is secondary in importance to other factors, such as nationalism and rational calculations. Some scholars take a critical approach to the topic, pointing to normative concerns with the study of religion and terrorism, and disparate other scholars have analyzed how religion and terrorism relate to a vast array of topics from public opinion to political repression.
 After surveying the literature, it is difficult to question the distinctiveness of religious terrorism. Yet it also appears that terrorism does not arise inevitably from religious beliefs, nor is it unique to Islam. Moreover, religion seems to be connected to the transnational nature of contemporary terrorism. One particularly useful approach moving forward may be to draw on the relational approach to contentious politics that scholars such as Charles Tilly have formulated.
 This article's approaches religious terrorism as violence or the threat of violence motivated by religion that intends to effect political change. This article will thus focus on how acts of violence that fall within the above definition relate to "religious imperatives," and what the effects of these connections are. Charles Tilly's approach to political violence, which conceptualizes terrorism as one manifestation of the range of political violence types, extends from brawls and riots to full-scale civil war. As a result, insights into how religion affects related forms of political violence can inform our understanding of religion and terrorism. Terrorism can also be understood as a nonstate phenomenon. Although states can commit terroristic acts, terrorism as a distinct tactic involves nonstate actors. State behavior—particularly religious repression—can have significant impact on the incidence and severity of religious terrorism in a country, however.


The present study examines input–output relations in the emergence of verbal affixes that mark modal distinctions in Turkish, a morphologically rich language. Longitudinal naturalistic speech data were analyzed from two girls between ages 1;3–2;6 and their caregivers. Four stages of development were identified. Significant associations between verb inflection and modal notion, observed to be stable across the stages in the input, were noted to develop gradually in the children's speech. Order of emergence of modal inflections was found to be related to input frequency and transparency of inflectional types, whereas development of inflectional paradigms was observed to be related to inflectional diversity. Conceptual accessibility and pragmatic relevance of the modal notions were considered as child-related factors in this development.


Digital libraries (DLs) are increasingly common on the Web, providing ordered, vetted digital collections to targeted user groups. To date, much of DL research has focused on the acquisition and representation of digital objects, optimizing and personalizing user services, and interoperability efforts. Few DLs employ mirrors, much less some of the more sophisticated, non-client-server architectures found in WWW deployment, e.g. peer-to-peer systems and distributed storage architectures. Although these new architectures have been succesfully applied to a large number of Internet services, they have had little impact on DL research. Are they technically suitable for DL use, or do social and economic issues prevent their adoption?


The myelinating and nonmyelinating Schwann cells in peripheral nerves are derived from the neural crest, which is a transient and multipotent embryonic structure that also generates the other main glial subtypes of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Schwann cell development occurs through a series of transitional embryonic and postnatal phases, which are tightly regulated by a number of signals. During the early embryonic phases, neural crest cells are specified to give rise to Schwann cell precursors, which represent the first transitional stage in the Schwann cell lineage, and these then generate the immature Schwann cells. At birth, the immature Schwann cells differentiate into either the myelinating or nonmyelinating Schwann cells that populate the mature nerve trunks. In this review, we will discuss the biology of the transitional stages in embryonic and early postnatal Schwann cell development, including the phenotypic differences between them and the recently identified signaling pathways, which control their differentiation and maintenance. In addition, the role and importance of the microenvironment in which glial differentiation takes place will be discussed. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Our project takes place in Motherwell, a former township and suburb located 20 km from the city centre of Port Elizabeth in the metropolitan area that constitute Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality. Motherwell Township was planned and built during the 1980s as an isolated residential area for black people. The location and the segregated physical structure within the area was a result of apartheid politics. Today the area is flat and featureless with a number of sites, for example school sites, which remain undeveloped resulting in very low density. Density in the area must be increased to create a critical mass and make it possible to provide public facilities and transportations. Our main focus has been to develop proposals in order to increase density,improve accessibility within the area and to surroundings,improve the conditions for pedestrians and create well defined usable public spaces. Information about the planning conditions was gathered during our three months stay in Port Elizabeth, through municipal documents and inventory of the project area. As a theoretical background and analyse methods we used, the City Structure analysis by Kevin Lynch, a Space syntax analysis provided by the municipality and the book "Life between buildings- Using Public Space" by Jan Gehl. Our inventory and the theoretical background led to the formulation of three guiding principles for our proposals; densification, accessibility and public space for public use. The proposal is made at two levels, an overall structure of land use and detailed proposals of high density residential and development of nodes-local centres. In the overall structure we propose a grid structure on the vacant land next to Motherwell Town Centre which will be a dense area; primarily for residential purposes, but public functions will also be integrated in the area. To densify the Neighbourhood Units we propose; infill housing on undeveloped school sites and public places, and multilevel houses with mixed use in local centres- nodes. New pedestrian links and design interventions on streets in the existing residential area connected to the new part will lead to a higher accessibility and a more pleasant street environment. Improvements in the overall structure of public space are suggested through developing existing spaces and adding several new ones within the new residential area. Some of these will be connected to "Green links", which are pedestrian and bicycle lanes planned to function not only for transportation, they also aim to fulfil recreational purposes. A structure of high density blocks with dwellings, public space and facilities and design principles for a node- local centre with mixed use are presented in our individual parts of the project. A proposal of high density residential is made by Karin Tellden and proposals for nodes- local centres are made by Ulrika Hellsten.


In response to disturbances, a self-healing system reconfiguration that splits a power network into self-sufficient islands can stop the propagation of disturbances and avoid cascading events. This paper proposes an area partitioning algorithm that minimizes both real and reactive power imbalance between generation and load within islands. The proposed algorithm is a smart grid technology that applies a highly efficient multilevel multi-objective graph partitioning technique. Thus, it is applicable to very large power grids. The proposed algorithm has been simulated on a 200- and a 22,000-bus test systems. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm improves the voltage profile of an island after the system reconfiguration compared with the algorithm that only considers real power balance. In doing so, the algorithm maintains the computational efficiency.


Little empirically-based information is available regarding how best to intervene with substance-abusing homeless mothers. This study pilot-tested a comprehensive intervention with 15 homeless women and their 2- to 6-year-old children, recruited from a local family shelter. All participants were offered integrated intervention with three major components. The first component was housing which included 3 months of rental and utility assistance, and these services were not contingent upon women's abstinence from drugs or alcohol. The second and third components included 6 months of case management services and an evidence-based substance abuse treatment (Community Reinforcement Approach; CRA). Analysis revealed that women showed reductions in substance use (F 2,22 = 3.63; p < .05), homelessness (F 2,24 = 25.31; p < .001), and mental health problems (F 2,20 = 8.5; p < .01). Further, women reported reduced internalizing (F 2,22 = 4.08; p < .05) and externalizing problems (F 2,24 = 7.7; p = .01) among their children. The findings suggest that the intervention is a promising approach to meet the multiple needs of this vulnerable population. These positive outcomes support the need for future research to replicate the findings with a larger sample using a randomized design.


Abstract The conventional electrorefiners to treat a metallic spent fuel equipped with a steel cathode have a sticking characteristic that hinders their overall processing efficiency. The critical question in order to enhance their throughput is how to decrease the sticking coefficient of the cathode. In order to realize this purpose, the conventional steel cathode was replaced with a graphite one. The graphite cathode exhibited self-scraping behavior in which the electrodeposited uranium dendrite falls from the cathode surface on its own without any kind of mechanical operation such as a scraping and rotation of the electrode. This self-scraping phenomenon of the graphite cathode was interpreted to be due to the formation of a uranium graphite intercalation compound. In this self-scraping mechanism, uranium atoms elongate at the graphite's outermost layer by an intercalation reaction, so the deposited uranium dendrite falls off spontaneously as the gravitational force exceeds the bonding strength of the layers. Based on our preliminary work, a self-scraping should increase the efficiency of an electrorefiner due to the elimination of a mechanical scraping as well as the electrolytic stripping steps of the cathode.


Group G streptococcus has been increasingly reported as a cause of bacteremia and infective endocarditis. The association between various groups of streptococcus with malignancy has been well established. Such association is particularly observed in group D Streptococcus bovis which is commonly reported in association with carcinoma of the colon. We herein report a case of a 72-year-old male who presented with severe sepsis, iron deficiency anemia and newly diagnosed cardiac murmur. Further workup confirmed group G streptococcus bacteremia, infective endocarditis and newly diagnosed carcinoma of the colon. This case highlights a unique association between invasive form of group G streptococcus and colon cancer.


The study investigated, for the first time, the effect of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) secreted by Escherichia coli, as an immunomodulator, against infection with giardiasis caused by Giardia lamblia in Rattus rattus norvegicus. The pathological changes occurred in the rats treated with LPS, were followed in comparison with the control groups, along the experiments period, depending on many criteria, included the changes in total and differentiated count of leukocytes. The results showed an elevation in the total count of leukocytes, expressed by elevation in neutrophils, variation in monocytes numbers accompanied with a decrease in lymphocytes numbers in treated rats in comparisons with the control groups. Results are provided that (LPS) modulates the immune defence of rats against infection with giardiasis.


A RING finger-containing protein (AO7) that binds ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes (E2s) and is a substrate for E2-dependent ubiquitination was identified. Mutations of cation-coordinating residues within AO7's RING finger abolished ubiquitination, as did chelation of zinc. Several otherwise-unrelated RING finger proteins, including BRCA1, Siah-1, TRC8, NF-X1, kf-1, and Praja1, were assessed for their ability to facilitate E2-dependent ubiquitination. In all cases, ubiquitination was observed. The RING fingers were implicated directly in this activity through mutations of metal-coordinating residues or chelation of zinc. These findings suggest that a large number of RING finger-containing proteins, with otherwise diverse structures and functions, may play previously unappreciated roles in modulating protein levels via ubiquitination.


The Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say), which had been a quarantine pest to Iran until 1984, has become the most injurious pest of potatoes in Ardabil plain at northwest of the country, where more than 25000 ha of irrigated land is allocated to potato production and more than 20% of the annual potato production of the country is produced. Uncontrolled populations of the first generation of the Colorado potato beetle may completely defoliate potato plant and destroy the crop. Potato growers in Ardabil region almost always apply insecticides to control the pest, yet little information on the economic benefits of these control measures are available. This study was carried out in years 2004 and 2005 in Ardabil. At each of two study years experiments were conducted in three different locations in Ardabil plain. At each location a randomized complete block experiment with four replications and five treatments were used. Treatments were densities of zero, 5, 10, 15 and 20 late (3 rd and 4 th instars) larvae per plant of the first generation that were caged on a potato plant. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between different densities of the first generation larvae of the Colorado potato beetle and the yield of the potato cultivar 'Agria' and to establish economic injury level for the pest. A linear relationship was observed between the insect density and the marketable yield in 2004 and 2005 at all three locations. The overall linear regression of two study years for three locations accounted for 93.39% of variation among the treatments. Economic injury levels of the pest were calculated as 5 and 6.458 late larvae per plant for 'Agria' cultivar in years 2004 and 2005 respectively. Therefore, based upon the results obtained in this research the control measure for the Colorado potato beetle is not recommended at pest densities of lower than 5 late larvae per plant , because the chemical control at lower densities is not only economically unfeasible but also by producing deleterious effect on natural enemies causes damage to the environment.


A dynamic approach to the acquisition of morphologically complex words assumes that, initially, all words are interpreted holistically. At later stages of acquisition, increasingly more words are analyzed and morphological regularities are discovered. When productivity is defined as the chance that a newly formed word is produced on the basis of a particular affix (Baayen and Lieber 1991), discovering morphological regularity can be interpreted as discovering productivity. This study finds evidence that contradicts an earlier study (Lowie 2000) which suggested that morphological productiv ity starts playing a role only at the most advanced levels of acquisition. The current study used response latencies to test productivity cross-section ally by comparing English native speaker response rates to those of Dutch learners of English at different levels of proficiency. Using this paradigm, productivity was evident from the earliest stages of acquisition and, at advanced levels, awareness was found even of the productivity of marginally productive affixes.


ABSTRACT The protective efficacy of antibodies (Abs) to Cryptococcus neoformans glucuronoxylomannan (GXM) is dependent on Ab fine specificity. Two clonally related immunoglobulin M monoclonal Abs (MAbs) (12A1 and 13F1) differ in fine specificity and protective efficacy, presumably due to variable (V)-region sequence differences resulting from somatic mutations. MAb 12A1 is protective and produces annular immunofluorescence (IF) on serotype D C. neoformans, while MAb 13F1 is not protective and produces punctate IF. To determine the Ab molecular determinants responsible for the IF pattern, site-directed mutagenesis of the MAb 12A1 heavy-chain V region (VH) was followed by serological and functional studies of the various mutants. Changing two selected amino acids in the 12A1 VH binding cavity to the corresponding residues in the 13F1 VH altered the IF pattern from annular to punctate, reduced opsonic efficacy, and abolished recognition by an anti-idiotypic Ab. Analysis of the binding of the various mutants to peptide mimetics revealed that different amino acids were responsible for GXM binding and peptide specificity. The results suggest that V-region motifs associated with annular binding and opsonic activity may be predictive of Ab efficacy against C. neoformans. This has important implications for immunotherapy and vaccine design that are reinforced by the finding that GXM and peptide reactivities are determined by different amino acid residues.


This essay examines how in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Edmund Burke formulates a physiological model based on both ocular and immunological reflex in order to articulate the most "natural" means by which Britons could protect themselves against the dangers of the French uprising. On the one hand, Burke draws from his account of visual trauma first developed in his theory of the sublime in the Philosophical Enquiry (1757; 2nd ed. 1759), whose description of the eye's function stressed the body's therapeutic recovery, along with tangible social and political benefits. On the other, he deploys an extensive vocabulary of contagion and vulnerable self-immunization, whose precarious logic often undermines the prospect of securing Britain's safety. In the historical context of Britain's emerging endorsement of inoculation's medical utility, the result is an intricate, often volatile physio-politics that, in Burke's subsequent arguments in Letters on a Regicide Peace (1795–97), produces an ever more urgent political aggression, including his repeated calls for "a long war" on France.


The purpose of this study is to examine the American public's reaction to US aid policy toward Israel as reflected in the editorial pages of two American newspapers. The study describes and analyzes press reaction to events in the Middle East at critical stages of the evolving relationship within the context of broader regional and international systems. These findings aim to provide an understanding of the attitudes towards Israel that prevailed in America during the period examined. "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post" were singled out because they are considered to be two of America's most prestigious and influential papers both in the United States and abroad. In order to achieve an evaluation of these papers' attitudes toward US aid policy vis-a-vis Israel, every editorial and commentary that appeared in each paper during the period from 1948 to 1973 has been examined.


The purpose of this study was to examine and evaluate further the psychometric properties of a self-report inventory of cognitive distortions using a nonclinical, community sample. A group of 474 individuals were contacted via the social networking site, Facebook, and through a college list-serve and were asked to complete multiple measures and also to send the link to other individuals, thus utilizing a snowball sample. The measures used included the Inventory of Cognitive Distortions (ICD), Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and a brief questionnaire to collect demographic information on each participant. Results revealed positive psychometric properties for the Inventory of Cognitive Distortions and were generally consistent with findings from the initial study, which utilized a clinical sample in order to examine the factor structure. Internal consistency reliability analysis of the total scale was found to be strong with a Coefficient Alpha of .97, which is consistent with the previous study (alpha = .98). Factor analysis revealed 12 factors, eight of which closely resemble factors from the original study. The eight common factors included, Magnification, Fortune-Telling, Externalization of Self-Worth, Perfectionism, Emotional Reasoning, Minimization, Comparison to Others and Emotional Reasoning and Decision Making. Four new factors were identified, including Discounting the Positive and Personalization, Absolutistic or Dichotomous Thinking, Should Statements, and Catastrophizing. The ICD correlated significantly with both the DAS (p < .001) and PSS (p < .001) measures. The current study also examined differences in overall levels of cognitive distortions as measured by the ICD across three demographic variables, gender, age, and level of education. Females were found to endorse significantly higher levels of cognitive distortions than COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS vii males (p = .006); however, the effect size was relatively small (d = -0.30). Participants who were within 18-29 years of age indicated significantly higher levels of cognitive distortions than individuals 41-85 years of age (p < .001, η = 0.35 – large effect size), and there was generally a gradual decrease in cognitive distortions across the age ranges. Level of cognitive distortions was not influenced by level of education (p = .68). Last, participants' levels of cognitive distortions were able to predict, significantly, levels of perceived stress (p < .001). Future research should include continued testing of the ICD with a larger clinical population, include the ability to assess changes in cognitive distortions over time during treatment, and examine the overall utility of the ICD to the practicing clinician. COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iv Abstract vi Table of


The degung is a small game lan that is unique to the Sundanese people of West Java. Originating as a prestigious ensemble for the local nobility and formerly confined to the region's administrative courts, the provincial capital city of Bandung has been the geographic focus for the degung tradition since the first decades of the 20'h century. Following sixteen months of fieldwork in Bandung, the dissertation examines the evolution of the gamelan degung in the musical melting pot of this bustling urban centre. Situating the ensemble within the heterogeneous landscape of Bandung's regional arts scene, it considers the way in which degung has come to be positioned as a musical 'common ground' for performers hailing from a variety of socio-cultural and musical backgrounds, as well as a site for the negotiation and assimilation of repertoires and performance practices drawn from across the wider Sundanese music complex. Central to this investigation is the theme of musical transformation, a topic that is explored from several interrelated perspectives. Piecing together a history of the ensemble, the study correlates musical innovations to socio-cultural, politico-economic and technological developments, as well as to broader shifts in Sundanese music as a whole. Specific attention is paid to the ongoing popularisation of degung by the local cassette industry and the role that 'invented' ceremonials have played in the ensemble's postcolonial renaissance. Interweaved into this chronological survey are more focused analyses of the core and specialist skills of the musicians and the intrinsic malleability of the music systems that lie at the heart of such musical change. Transformation is identified as a primary domain of Sundanese musical competence, with processes of transfer and adaptation shown to permeate the creation and realisation of degung repertoires. These diachronic and synchronic accounts of musical transformation are considered to complement rather than to contrast with one another; it is argued that the manner in which the degung has adapted to its altering 'external' environment over time has been determined, at least in part, by the essential constitution and 'internal' dynamics of the larger musical culture in which the ensemble is rooted.


The orders of linkages that stabilise evolving media worlds are far from obvious. Often undertaken in media 'laboratories', the collaborative processes which combine a range of disciplines to develop media worlds are also far from straightforward. Enablers and constraints are as likely to be non-human as they are the people associated with the project. Plugs, wires, switches, protocols and standards things whose detail can be mind numbingly boring all have to be worked into effective and stable sets of associations. This thesis describes two knowledge pathways that track through such a project. The first describes the development of a prototype for a website, imagined as a portal for a range of interests around children and media in New Zealand/Aoteoroa. As media worlds are continually being reconfigured and as data circulates across increasingly linked access technologies, many nongovernment organisations are migrating their work to 'the web'. 'The Media Clearinghouse' project was one of these. Latour's analytical concept of immutable mobiles provides a way to make sense of some of the work observed whilst his direction to 'simply follow' worlds of interest provided the methodological challenge. The second pathway, traces the bibliographic threads of literatures that come from the descriptive genres of Science Technology Studies (STS). Significant amongst these are Leigh Star and Geoffrey Bowker who have elaborated the concept of boundary objects and infrastructures. Star and Griesemer's seminal description of the Museum of Invertebrate Zoology is compared with a description of an early laboratory by Bruno Latour. These and other writers elaborate on methods that offer ways to render visible the messy, chaotic performances of design and invention. They follow inscriptions tables, lists, maps, sketches and so on. These things work between the micro and the macro and enable very huge terrains to be assembled in small, ordered spaces. The thesis assembles a list of methods that have some utility for following and describing web design work and perhaps, other information worlds. Having followed and described this writer's work through the invention of the prototype it is argued that a combinative method has successfully enabled a description that moves in and out of a new information 'laboratory'.


Resonances of the six-wave mixing susceptibility χ(5)(ω1, ω1, ω1,-ω2,-ω2) at frequency 3ω1-2ω2 of a system of two-level atoms dissipating through the spontaneous emission and collisions and driven by a weak bichromatic external field of frequencies ω1 and ω2 in a finite Q cavity are analyzed. It is shown that the atomic collisions not only induce the usual Bloembergen resonances but that they also play a major role in enhancing the transitions among the higher-order dressed states, thereby bringing out some of the quantum resonances that are suppressed in the absence of collisions. The important contribution of collisions in this higher-order nonlinear process is the generation of the subharmonic resonances at ±1/2 times the hyperfine splitting of the first and the second excited manifolds.


A novel carbonaceous nanocomposite pellicle was prepared by one-step mild hydrothermal carbonization of bacterial cellulose pellicle soaked in glucose solution. The nano-fibrous structure of bacterial cellulose remains intact while carbonaceous spheres with nanometre sizes were generated from glucose during hydrothermal carbonization at 180 °C for 3 h. The carbonaceous spheres formed in situ and anchored on the nanofibers' surface expanded the nanostructure of bacterial cellulose and the water-holding capacity decreased slightly from 98% to 93%. Approximately 80% w/w of the dried carbonaceous pellicle was found to be nanometre sized carbonaceous spheres. The size of carbonaceous spheres decreased significantly but had a 60% increase of surface carboxyl groups when the carbonaceous pellicle was prepared in the presence of acrylic acid. The carbonaceous spheres in the never-dried pellicle demonstrate a high adsorption capacity towards heavy metal ions. Approximately, 200 mg of Pb(II) and 1134 mg of Fe(III) can be adsorbed per gram of carbonaceous pellicle, respectively.


We present an approach for generating face animations from large image collections of the same person. Such collections, which we call photobios, are remarkable in that they summarize a person's life in photos; the photos sample the appearance of a person over changes in age, pose, facial expression, hairstyle, and other variations. Yet, browsing and exploring photobios is infeasible due to their large volume. By optimizing the quantity and order in which photos are displayed and cross dissolving between them, we can render smooth transitions between face pose (e.g., from frowning to smiling), and create moving portraits from collections of still photos. Used in this context, the cross dissolve produces a very strong motion effect; a key contribution of the paper is to explain this effect and analyze its operating range. We demonstrate results on a variety of datasets including time-lapse photography, personal photo collections, and images of celebrities downloaded from the Internet. Our approach is completely automatic and has been widely deployed as the "Face Movies" feature in Google's Picasa.


This article focuses on the fundamental role that emotion memories play in constructing autobiographical narrations. It suggests that the analysis of emotion memories can provide a deep insight into a variety of processes and fields of individual and social life (Cavarero, 2000). Based on the analysis of emotion memories in life-story interviews, this article will show the deep-rooted interrelatedness between the self and its social environment with emotion memories as an influential element. This article aims to show that strong emotional experiences mould the interviewees' narrations because they penetrate and shape the remembered past and anticipated future by enhancing, suppressing and hence shaping past and future experiences. If turned into emotion memories, these experiences allow the channelling, taming and/or evoking of emotions. This practice relates different memories and life-story moments with each other and puts them into a new context. This article claims that emotion memories have therefore a crucial structuring effect for autobiographical narrations and are therefore also a valuable element of analysis of interviews. We claim that emotion memories become visible and therefore analysable as emotional expressions or emotives, as emotion performances intentionally performed or accidentally caused (Austin, 1975; Reddy, 2001).


Numerical multiphysics modeling of the photoinductive imaging (PI) effect was performed with a 2-D transient to characterize corner cracks at the edge of a specimen with a bolt hole. We present how the finite-element method (FEM) can be utilized to model the PI effect and observe the influence of critical factors on the coil probe impedance for a rectangular crack in the Ti-6Al-4V specimen. As anticipated, the proposed model can show that the PI method has a higher spatial resolution in the defect in 2-D models compared to the conventional eddy current testing method. The FEM simulation results for 0.25-, 0.50-, and 0.75-mm rectangular notches are shown and discussed. The effects of coil current frequency, laser-point temperature, and lift-off distance on the PI signal are also examined and analyzed. We demonstrate that the PI effect is a novel sensing method for characterizing the geometric shape of cracks and that the enhanced output signals of the coil probe can also be obtained given an appropriate quantity of factors.


Digital revolution and recent advances in telecommunications technology enable to design communication systems which operate within the regions close to the theoretical capacity limits. Ever-increasing demand for wireless communications and emerging numerous high-capacity services and applications mandate providers to employ more bandwidth-oriented solutions to meet the requirements. Trend and predictions point out that marketplace targets data rates around 10Gbps or even more within the upcoming decade. It is clear that such rates could only be achieved by employing more bandwidth with the state-of-the-art technology. Considering the fact that bands in the range of 275GHz-3000GHz, which are known as Terahertz (THz) bands, are not allocated yet for specific active services around the globe, there is an enormous potential to achieve the desired data rates. Although THz bands look promising to achieve data rates on the order of several tens of Gbps, realization of fully operational THz communications systems obliges to carry out a multidisciplinary effort including statistical propagation and channel characterizations, adaptive transceiver designs, reconfigurable platforms, advanced signal processing algorithms and techniques along with upper layer protocols equipped with various security and privacy levels. Therefore, in this study, several important statistical parameters for line-of-sight (LOS) channels are measured. High resolution frequency domain measurements are carried out at single-sweep within a span of 60GHz. Impact of antenna misalignment under LOS conditions is also investigated. By validating exponential decay of the received power in both time and frequency domain, path loss exponent is examined for different frequencies along with the frequency-dependent path loss phenomenon. Furthermore, impact of humidity is also tested under LOS scenario. Measurement results are presented along with relevant discussions and future directions are provided as well.


The thermal properties of 68TeO2-15BaF2-5SrF2-10LaF3-2KF glass were measured by different temperature analysis (DTA). Up-conversion luminescence of Er3+ ion in the obtained glass was investigated. Mechanism of up-conversion emission was discussed. The result shows that the obtained oxyfluoride tellurite glass 68TeO2-15BaF2-5SrF2-10LaF3-2KF has a good thermal stability ('Delta'T = 153.6 Celsius degree) and strong up-conversion green emissions around 527 nm and 549 nm and red emission at 660 nm. This glass can be a promising host material for up-conversion fiber lasers.


The purpose of this study is to develop a Chinese version the Form C of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (CMHLC form C) scale using two-way translation and then examined reliability and validity. This study executed in two phases. In the first, the researchers translated the English version MHLC form C scale into Chinese using forward and backward translation. In the second, this study was to establish internal consistency and construct validity data for the CMHLC form C scale in community-dwelling adults with glucose intolerant subjects. The CMHLC Form C scale consisted of 17-item and revealed a clear pattern of loading across the three factors named 'chance', 'internal' and 'other people' with good internal consistency (0.82). Confirmatory factor analysis was performed and results showed that χ2=229.49 (df=116, p=0.00), χ2=1.978 and GFI=0.89 were somewhat below expectation; however, the CFI of 0.94, the IFI of 0.94, and RMSEA of 0.068 were indicative of good model fit. Results suggest that the CMHLC Form C scale can be a reliable and valid outcome assessment tool for using in community-based studies of glucose intolerant subjects. Also, this scale is very useful in understanding the health behavior control in diabetic patients in Chinese people in Taiwan.


Labour's share of GDP in most OECD countries has declined over the last two decades. Some authors have suggested that these changes are linked to deregulation of product and labour markets. To examine this we focus on a large quasi-experiment in the OECD: the privatization of many network industries (e.g. telecommunications and utilities). We present a model with agency problems, imperfect product market competition and worker bargaining which makes clear predictions on how the labour share, employment and wages respond to privatization and other regulatory changes. We exploit cross-country panel data on several network industries and find that privatization can account for a significant proportion of the fall of labour's share (a fifth overall, but over half in Britain and France). The impact of privatization has been offset by falling barriers to entry, which consistent with theory, dampens profit margins.


Gender justice as envisaged in the South African Constitution serves as a transformative project intended to engender an inclusive society. The historical antecedent of the transformation agenda created a situation which systematically excluded people particularly women from being productive members of society. By means of the constitutional principle of substantive equality, the court creates avenue to remedy the injustices of the past. Twenty-four years into democracy, poverty and inequality remain persistent with women bearing the huge adverse impact. The restrictions to economic empowerment faced by women are largely due to cultural practices and a labour market that are insensitive to contributions made by women particularly at the household level. Other exclusionary factors that inhibit the socio-economic development of the people include race, gender and ethnicity. The interventions made so far with a view to eliminating poverty and inequality in South Africa by way of substantive equality and affirmative action unfortunately fall short of the desired goal. This article proposes the right to development as a tool to promote and realise economic inclusivity. The Right to Development (RTD) is an appropriate process of development that prioritises the human person and by implication the holistic approach to eliminate poverty in South Africa.


Writing from a place of courage and conviction lifted from doubt and pain, author Kenji Yoshino emotively sheds layers of his covered self to make real his case for human authenticity in his book "Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights." Yoshino offers us a work that infuses cultural insight into legal argumentation, interlaced with his own exquisitely narrated story as a gay, Asian-American man. In his book, Yoshino elaborates on the concept of "covering" as termed by sociologist Erving Goffman, explaining that covering is the act of downplaying a disfavored identity—even when this identity is known or apparent to others—in order to present oneself more palatably as part of the so-called American mainstream. Yoshino begins his discussion from the vantage point of gay covering as this relates most closely to his own experience, followed by a broader examination of other forms of group identity–based covering: racial covering, sex-based covering, disability-based covering, and religious covering. All of these behaviors may seem harmless, and even beneficial in the name of American assimilation, but Yoshino maintains that the cultural imperative to conform to dominant-group norms is the under-noticed harm of assimilation—a harm that impedes the full advancement of historically marginalized groups. Yoshino acknowledges that assimiliation is, to some extent, a necessary part of social life. He nonetheless wants us to seriously consider the ways in which assimilation serves to undermine the goals of the civil-rights movement by maintaining the cultural status quo of dominant groups.


The peninsula effect is a biological diversity pattern found in peninsulas in which the number of species decreases toward the tip of the peninsula. The geometry hypothesis, as one proposed cause of the peninsula effect, attempts to predict this pattern by examining the peculiarities of peninsular geometry. As peninsulas are characterized by their isolated positions, it has been suggested that a decreased immigration-to-extinction rate is the cause of the decrease in species diversity from the base to the tip of a peninsula. We aimed to test the geometry hypothesis on tree species in the Florida peninsula by modeling the latitudinal abundance pattern using sample-based tree inventory data. We postulated that the current abundance distribution of a species is a ramification of past immigration–extinction dynamics in a peninsula, as well as an important indicator of such dynamics in the future. The latitudinal abundance patterns of 113 tree species in Florida in the southeastern United States were simulated with the Huisman–Olff–Fresco (HOF) model using the USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) database. Evidence species for the geometry hypothesis were then selected if the simulated latitudinal abundance pattern was asymmetric with its abundance maxima occurring within the Florida peninsula (i.e., approximately 31.5° latitude or lower). Our HOF model results found that most species (87% of 113 species) did not experience any steep abundance decline along the Florida peninsula when compared with their general trend across the range, suggesting that the observed diversity pattern of tree species in Florida could merely be a continuation of latitudinal diversity gradients in the southeastern United States, independent of peninsular geometry.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether variant alleles in the coding portion of the mannose-binding lectin (MBL) gene are associated with increased susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and concomitant infections.

METHODS
MBL alleles and serum concentrations were determined by polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively, in 91 Danish patients with SLE and in 250 controls.

RESULTS
Homozygosity for MBL variant alleles was observed in 7.7% of the SLE patients compared with 2.8% of the controls (P = 0.06), while no difference was seen for heterozygosity (33.0% versus 34.4%). Homozygotes had an increased risk of acquiring serious infections compared with patients who were heterozygous or homozygous for the normal allele (odds ratio 8.6, 95% confidence interval 1.5-47.6, P = 0.01). The time interval from the diagnosis of SLE to the first infectious event was shorter (P = 0.017), and the annual number of infectious events was 4 times higher, among homozygotes (P = 0.00002). They were especially prone to acquire pneumonia (P = 0.00004). CONCLUSION; Homozygosity for MBL variant alleles may explain much of the increased risk of complicating infections seen in SLE patients. Additionally, it is a minor risk factor for acquiring SLE.


PurposeEvaluation and measurement (E&M) remains a critical and debated topic among communication scholars and practice. Substantial research and professional efforts have been devoted to discussing what should be measured and which methods should be applied. Most of the E&M models seem to carry a positivist imprint. But, in real-life, organizations could not have clear aims, enough resources, or adequate informative systems to support E&M. Moreover, several contextual factors could affect the implementation of E&M management processes. The communication literature rarely highlights these factors. To fulfill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to theorize the contextual factors relevant to the management of the evaluation process.Design/methodology/approachA scoping literature review was carried out exploring the role of contextual factors and impact of contextual factors on E&M management processes. More specifically, the review examines the contribution provided by program evaluation and performance measurement (PM) fields of research.FindingsThe paper provides a scoping review of program evaluation and PM approaches. Additionally, it explains how both streams of thought argued the importance of contextual factors, such as organizational, relational, cultural and communicative factors, for the success of any evaluation processes. The study underlined that the main evaluation models used in the field of communication have overlooked these studies and put on evidence the role of contextual factors in effectively executing communication E&M.Originality/valueThe paper enriches the dominant rationale concerning the E&M management processes by incorporating literature on: program evaluation; and PM. The analysis could provide useful insights also from a professional perspective, by helping practitioners for a contextual assessment of strategic communication programs and activities.


In this article, we propose an FPGA-based SQL query processing approach exploiting the capabilities of partial dynamic reconfiguration of modern FPGAs. After the analysis of an incoming query, a query-specific hardware processing unit is generated on the fly and loaded on the FPGA for immediate query execution. For each query, a specialized hardware accelerator pipeline is composed and configured on the FPGA from a set of presynthesized hardware modules. These partially reconfigurable hardware modules are gathered in a library covering all major SQL operations like restrictions and aggregations, as well as more complex operations such as joins and sorts. Moreover, this holistic query processing approach in hardware supports different data processing strategies including row- as column-wise data processing in order to optimize data communication and processing. This article gives an overview of the proposed query processing methodology and the corresponding library of modules. Additionally, a performance analysis is introduced that is able to estimate the processing time of a query for different processing strategies and different communication and processing architecture configurations. With the help of this performance analysis, architectural bottlenecks may be exposed and future optimized architectures, besides the two prototypes presented here, may be determined.


1. The management of threatened species is an important practical way in which conservationists can intervene in the extinction process and reduce the loss of biodiversity. Understanding the causes of population declines (past, present and future) is pivotal to designing effective practical management. This is the declining-population paradigm identified by Caughley. 2. There are three broad classes of ecological tool used by conservationists to guide management decisions for threatened species: statistical models of habitat use, demographic models and behaviour-based models. Each of these is described here, illustrated with a case study and evaluated critically in terms of its practical application. 3. These tools are fundamentally different. Statistical models of habitat use and demographic models both use descriptions of patterns in abundance and demography, in relation to a range of factors, to inform management decisions. In contrast, behaviour-based models describe the evolutionary processes underlying these patterns, and derive such patterns from the strategies employed by individuals when competing for resources under a specific set of environmental conditions. 4. Statistical models of habitat use and demographic models have been used successfully to make management recommendations for declining populations. To do this, assumptions are made about population growth or vital rates that will apply when environmental conditions are restored, based on either past data collected under favourable environmental conditions or estimates of these parameters when the agent of decline is removed. As a result, they can only be used to make reliable quantitative predictions about future environments when a comparable environment has been experienced by the population of interest in the past. 5. Many future changes in the environment driven by management will not have been experienced by a population in the past. Under these circumstances, vital rates and their relationship with population density will change in the future in a way that is not predictable from past patterns. Reliable quantitative predictions about population-level responses then need to be based on an explicit consideration of the evolutionary processes operating at the individual level. 6. Synthesis and applications. It is argued that evolutionary theory underpins Caughley's declining-population paradigm, and that it needs to become much more widely used within mainstream conservation biology. This will help conservationists examine critically the reliability of the tools they have traditionally used to aid management decision-making. It will also give them access to alternative tools, particularly when predictions are required for changes in the environment that have not been experienced by a population in the past.


Phytoplankton biomass and production in lakes tend to be increased by phosphorus input and decreased by grazing or high levels of colored, dissolved organic carbon (DOC). We estimated and compared the effects of these three factors by using data from three lakes that were manipulated during 1991–1995, and data from a reference lake. Multivariate probability distributions of chlorophyll or primary production, as predicted by P input rate, DOC, and grazer length, were fit to the data. All three factors had substantial effects on chlorophyll, primary production, and their variability. Comparable reductions in the mean and variance of chlorophyll and primary production were achieved by reducing P input rate from 5 to 0.5 mg m2 d−l, increasing DOC from 5 to 17 mg C liter−l, or increasing mean crustacean length from 0.2 to 0.85 mm. The negative effect of mean crustacean length (an index of size‐selective predation) results from grazing by herbivorous zooplankton. The negative effect of DOC on primary producers could be explained by shading. The results suggest that natural variation in colored DOC concentrations is a major cause of variation in primary production.


Introductions: Hearing loss and chronic otitis media among school-aged children in developing countries is reported to be a significant health problem. This problem in children influences the overall development of behavioral and communication skills. The main objective of this study was to study the hearing impairment and chronic otitis media in school going children in Pokhara. Methods: This was a cross sectional study done in Pokhara district, Kaski, Western Region Nepal in two private schools and one government school of Pokhara, selected randomly. All these children were interviewed for history taking and the examinations included tuning fork examination (Rinne's, Weber's and absolute bone conduction tests) and examination of the ear using otoscope. Results: A total of 215 school children were included in the study. The mean age was 12.04 (SD=1.108), male 48.4% and female 51.6%. Hearing impairment was found in 21.4% and chronic otitis media in 9.8%. Among hearing impairment, 71.7% had conductive and 28.3% had sensorineural type of hearing losses. Out of total number of children, 12.1% had tympanic membrane perforation. Conclusions: The prevalence of hearing impairment was seen in one fifth and chronic otitis media in one tenth of local school children of Pokhara city, Nepal. Country wide prevalence and causes for preventive measures should be studied. Keywords: chronic otitis media, hearing impairment, tympanic membrane perforation, Nepal


Conceptual clustering combines two long-standing machine learning tasks: the unsupervised grouping of similar instances and their description by symbolic concepts. In this paper, we decouple the problems of finding descriptions and forming clusters by first mining formal concepts (i.e. closed itemsets), and searching for the best k clusters that can be described with those itemsets. Most existing approaches performing the two steps separately are of a heuristic nature and produce results of varying quality. Instead, we address the problem of finding an optimal constrained conceptual clustering by using integer linear programming techniques. Most other generic approaches for this problem tend to have problems scaling. Our approach takes advantageous of both techniques, the general framework of integer linear programming, and high-speed specialized approaches of data mining. Experiments performed on UCI datasets show that our approach efficiently finds clusterings of consistently high quality.


This study describes the phlebotomine communities and their seasonal variation in areas of leishmaniasis transmission in the urban-rural interface of the mining municipality of Juruti, Pará State, in the Amazon Region. Monthly captures of phlebotomine sand flies were performed over two years in two sentinel locations: Santa Maria and Paraense. CDC traps were placed on intra and peridomestic environments. A sample of 36,408 phlebotomine sand flies contained 32 species. The most frequent were Lutzomyia longipalpis (76.8%) and Lutzomyia walkeri (19%). Species richness was greater in Paraense, despite the abundant presence of Lu. longipalpis (85%, 23,878/27,951), especially during the Amazonian winter (r = 0.8; p < 0.05). In Santa Maria, the presence of Lu. longipalpis, which occurs rarely, showed no seasonal variation. In the interior of residences, exclusively in Paraense, there was also the occurrence of phlebotomine sand flies naturally infected by Leishmania sp.: Lu. longipalpis (0.12%; 1/821), vector of Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum and Lutzomyia antunesi (1.16%; 2/173), most likely the vector of Leishmania (Viannia) lindenbergi. The high frequency of Lu. longipalpis during the rainy season, but only in Paraense, reveals local influences that determine the phlebotomine community composition and the abundance of species. Integrated actions for the prevention of leishmaniasis must be continuous and preferably intensified from September to November, months preceding rainfall in that region.


The spring loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) is used to model human running. It is based on a characteristic feature of human running, in which the linear-spring-like motion of the standing leg is produced by the joint stiffness of the knee and ankle. Although this model is widely used in robotics, it does not include human-like pelvic motion. In this study, we show that the pelvis actually contributes to the increase in jumping force and absorption of landing impact. On the basis of this finding, we propose a new model, SLIP2 (spring loaded inverted pendulum with pelvis), to improve running in humanoid robots. The model is composed of a body mass, a pelvis, and leg springs, and, it can control its springs while running by use of pelvic movement in the frontal plane. To achieve running motions, we developed a running control system that includes a pelvic oscillation controller to attain control over jumping power and a landing placement controller to adjust the running speed. We also developed a new running robot by using the SLIP2 model and performed hopping and running experiments to evaluate the model. The developed robot could accomplish hopping motions only by pelvic movement. The results also established that the difference between the pelvic rotational phase and the oscillation phase of the vertical mass displacement affects the jumping force. In addition, the robot demonstrated the ability to run with a foot placement controller depending on the reference running speed.


Early Reading Instruction is a comprehensive analysis of the research evidence from early writing systems to computer models of reading. In this book, Diane McGuinness provides an innovative solution to the "reading war" -- the century-old debate over the efficacy of phonics (sound-based) versus whole-word (meaning- based) methods. She has developed a prototype -- a set of elements that are critical to the success of a reading method. McGuinness shows that all writing systems, without exception, are based on a sound unit in the language. This fact, and other findings by paleographers, provides a platform for the prototype. Other elements of the prototype are based on modern research. For example, observational studies in the classroom show that time spent on three activities strongly predicts reading success: learning phoneme/symbol correspondences, practice at blending and segmenting phonemes in words, and copying/writing words, phrases, and sentences. Most so-called literacy activities have no effect, and some, like sight word memorization, have a strongly negative effect. The National Reading Panel (2000) summarized the research on reading methods after screening out thousands of studies that failed to meet minimum scientific standards. In an in-depth analysis of this evidence, McGuinness shows that the most successful methods (children reading a year or more above age norms) include all the elements in the prototype. Finally, she argues, because phonics-type methods are consistently shown to be superior to whole-word methods in studies dating back to the 1960s, it makes no sense to continue this line of research. The most urgent question for future research is how to get the most effective phonics programs into the classroom.


Wetland restoration projects across the United States commonly lack the species and hydrology of the targeted community being restored. A better understanding of natural wetlands would help restoration project designers achieve community composition and hydrologic regimes that more closely resemble natural conditions. We investigated two different methods to identify patterns in hydrologic regime useful to restoration design. The first method was based on success criteria commonly used by North Carolina wetland mitigation projects. The second method was based on The Nature Conservancy's Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration. To test these two methods, we collected hydrologic and compositional data across the natural variation of nonriverine wet hardwood forest stands, a rare wetland community type commonly restored in North Carolina. Our results show that hydrologic parameters from the first method, based on current success criteria used in North Carolina, are not related to community composition. Hydrologic parameters from the second method, e.g. the maximum water table level over a 3‐day span, explained much of the variation in nonriverine wet hardwood forest community composition. Our results found that clear relationships do exist between hydrologic regime and community composition. Hydrologic parameters that are related to community composition need to be used as success criteria in future restoration designs. This will ensure that projects establish the appropriate hydrologic regime necessary to foster the desired wetland community type. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Two potential driving forces of house price fluctuations are commonly cited: credit conditions and beliefs. We posit some simple empirical calculations using direct measures of credit conditions and beliefs to consider their potentially distinct roles in house price fluctuations at the aggregate level. Changes in credit conditions are positively related to the fraction of riskier non-conforming debt in total mortgage lending, while measures of beliefs are unrelated to this ratio. Credit conditions explain quantitatively large magnitudes of the variation in quarterly house price growth and also predict future house price growth. Beliefs bear some relation to contemporaneous house price growth but have little predictive power. A structural VAR analysis implies that shocks to credit conditions have quantitatively important dynamic causal effects on house price changes.


E-Learning systems can support real-time monitoring of learners' learning desires and effects, thus offering opportunities for enhanced personalized learning. Recognition of the determinants of dyslexic users' motivation to use e-learning systems is important to help developers improve the design of e-learning systems and educators direct their efforts to relevant factors to enhance dyslexic students' motivation. Existing research has rarely attempted to model dyslexic users' motivation in e-learning context from a comprehensive perspective. The present work has conceived a hybrid approach, namely, combining the strengths of qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, to motivation modeling. It examines a variety of factors that affect dyslexic students' motivation to engage in e-learning systems from psychological, behavioral, and technical perspectives, and establishes their interrelationships. Specifically, the study collects data from a multi-item Likert-style questionnaire to measure relevant factors for conceptual motivation modeling. It then applies both covariance-based (CB-SEM) and variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approaches to determine the quantitative mapping between dyslexic students' continued use intention and motivational factors, followed by discussions about theoretical findings and design instructions according to our motivation model. Our research has led to a novel motivation model with new constructs of Learning Experience, Reading Experience, Perceived Control, and Perceived Privacy. From both the CB-SEM and PLS-SEM analyses, results on the total effects have indicated consistently that Visual Attractiveness, Reading Experience, and Feedback have the strongest effects on continued use intention.


Entrepreneurship in education must be observed from the viewpoint of creation, generation of ideas, and implementation of pedagogical innovations that allow teachers to develop their potential as entrepreneurs and manage the development of entrepreneurial skills in students. The purpose of this document is to present the current status of a research plan for a doctoral thesis concerning training for the development of educational and social entrepreneurship competences in future teachers by implementing training models with open, experiential education, using educational resources, open practices, and evidence aimed to create innovation and generate social value. To understand the problems on which the research topic focuses, we present an advance of the literature review, as well as the proposal for the design of a mixed-integrated methodology that embeds an explanatory sequential method to collect quantitative and qualitative data. With the results, we hope to propose an innovative training model that links the professional training of teachers with educational and social entrepreneurship competences that contribute to sustainable development. The progress of this research to date shows the theoretical contributions underlying our theoretical framework and the methodology.


In this paper we study the behavior of local descriptor object recognition methods with respect to 3D geometric transformations and image resolution variations. As expected performance decreases with accentuated perspective and decrease in resolution. To improve performance and robustness, we propose a scheme to fuse color and gradient local descriptors. This approach is motivated by the discriminative power of color in man-made object recognition. The problem of color feature extraction is addressed as well as the considerations on the fusion process and steps to train such fusion. We used SOIL-47A database for experiments and shown a 7% to 10% relative improvement when compared with state-of-the-art gradient based descriptors.


Decisions related to the production of lithic technology involve landscape-scale patterns of resource acquisition and transport that are not observable in assemblages from any one single site. In this study, we describe the stone artifacts from a discrete cluster of stone artifacts assigned to the Robberg technocomplex (22-16 ka) at the open-air locality of Uitspankraal 9 (UPK9), which is located near two major sources of toolstone in the Doring River catchment of Western Cape, South Africa. OSL dating of the underlying sediment unit provides a terminus post quem age of 27.5 ± 2.1 ka for the assemblage. Comparison of near-source artifact reduction at UPK9 with data from three rock shelter assemblages within the Doring watershed – Putslaagte 8 (PL8), Klipfonteinrand Rock Shelter (KFR), and Mertenhof Rock Shelter (MRS) – suggests that "gearing-up" with cores and blanks occurred along the river in anticipation of transport into the wider catchment area. The results reveal an integrated system of technological supply in which raw materials from different sources were acquired, reduced, and transported in different ways throughout the Doring River region.


Estimates of abundance of medium-to-large mammals by traditional mark-recapture models may be unreliable because quantity and quality of trapping data are low. The proposed closed-subpopulation model provides a flexible framework to increase the amount of data used for estimation of demographic parameters, by taking into account characteristics of the population and using ancillary non-trapping data. This model defines a subsection of the population that is known to be alive and within the study area during a certain period, regardless of which animals were actually caught. Population size is estimated from the proportion of animals in this closed subpopulation that were actually captured. We used this model to estimate size of a partly culled population of Eurasian badgers ( Meles meles ). Number of badgers included in the closed subpopulation was maximized by using data from trapping, road-traffic accidents, and radiotelemetry, and by assuming that no additions occurred to the population of young between trapping occasions. Probabilities of capture varied by season and age-class but not sex, trapping, or radio-tagging. Population estimates appeared reliable because estimated number of times individual badgers were trapped in a year corresponded with observed frequencies and estimated size of the young and adult populations corresponded favorably with estimates based on a mark-resight procedure.


When applying corpus linguistic techniques to historical corpora, the corpus researcher should be cautious about the results obtained. Corpus annotation techniques such as part of speech tagging, trained for modern languages, are particularly vulnerable to inaccuracy due to vocabulary and grammatical shifts in language over time. Basic corpus retrieval techniques such as frequency profiling and concordancing will also be affected, in addition to the more sophisticated techniques such as keywords, n-grams, clusters and lexical bundles which rely on word frequencies for their calculations. In this paper, we highlight these problems with particular focus on Early Modern English corpora. We also present an overview of the VARD tool, our proposed solution to this problem, which facilitates pre-processing of historical corpus data by inserting modern equivalents alongside historical spelling variants. Recent improvements to the VARD tool include the incorporation of techniques used in modern spell checking software.


We present a computationally efficient, semi-parametric, non-stationary framework for statistical regression analysis of extremes with systematically missing covariates based on the Generalized Extreme Value distribution (GEV). It is shown that the involved regression model becomes non-stationary if some of the relevant model covariates are systematically missing. The resulting non-stationarity and the ill-posedness of the inverse problem are resolved by deploying the recently introduced Finite Element time series analysis Methodology with Bounded Variation of model parameters (FEM-BV). The proposed FEM-BV-GEV approach allows a well-posed problem formulation and goes beyond probabilistic a priori assumptions of methods for analysis of extremes based on, e.g., non-stationary Bayesian mixture models, smoothing kernel methods or neural networks. FEM-BV-GEV determines the significant resolved covariates, reveals directly their influence on the trend behavior in probabilities of extremes and reflects the implicit impact of missing covariates. We compare the FEM-BV-GEV approach to the state-of-the-art GEV-CDN methodology (based on artificial neural networks) on test cases and real data according to the four criteria: (1) information content of the models; (2) robustness with respect to the systematically missing information; (3) computational complexity; (4) interpretability of the models. email@example.com Corresponding author: email@example.com


Principal component analysis has been used since 1990 in many recognition algorithms to get a face feature representation and to exploit the dimensionality reduction characteristic of the principal component analysis (PCA). The way to determine the optimal dimension of the reduced space is still not available. Another critical point when working with PCA is the influence of the training set, denoted here as PCA construction set. In this paper we are working on the behaviour of the signal/residual information of the PCA-eigenspectrum in order to determine an optimal threshold that could be used for the dimensionality reduction. We also study the influence of different sets used to construct the PCA representation. Our experiments are done on the FRGCV21 database, using the BEE PCA baseline software. We also use images from the BANCA database for the construction of the PCA representations


The reliability of sustainability report is important for accounting companies' performance to stakeholders. The issues covered in a sustainability report inform stakeholders of the company sustainability strategies and practices. However, the drawing up of the sustainability report involves the risk of misleading communications for green washing purposes. This topic is much discussed in the scientific literature but, to date, without or with insufficient support of quantitative analyses. This paper focuses on the corporate policies of CO2 reduction, for investigating the existing relations between the reported environmental performance of companies and their CO2 emissions. In order to test the possible subsistence of the green washing practices, the sustainability reports of a sample of 50 Italian companies are analysed. Particularly, the number of environmental indicators of the sustainability reports have been compared with the environmental performance (CO2 emissions) of the companies for investigating if the accuracy and completeness of the sustainability reports are associated with actual sustainable corporate strategies and practices. Keywords: sustainability report; greenwashing; CO2 emissions; GRI


Stress-induced changes of gene expression are crucial for survival of eukaryotic cells. Regulation at the level of translation provides the necessary plasticity for immediate changes of cellular activities and protein levels. In this study, we demonstrate that exposure to oxidative stress results in a quick repression of translation by deactivation of the aminoacyl-ends of all transfer-RNA (tRNA). An oxidative-stress activated nuclease, angiogenin, cleaves first within the conserved single-stranded 3′-CCA termini of all tRNAs, thereby blocking their use in translation. This CCA deactivation is reversible and quickly repairable by the CCA-adding enzyme [ATP(CTP):tRNA nucleotidyltransferase]. Through this mechanism the eukaryotic cell dynamically represses and reactivates translation at low metabolic costs.


OBJECTIVE--To determine the safety and efficacy of intra-articular injections of hyaluronan in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee. METHODS--A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial was carried out on 91 patients with radiologically confirmed osteoarthritis of the knee who were recruited from the outpatient clinics. RESULTS--It was found that weekly intraarticular injections of 20 mg of hyaluronan of M(r) = 750,000 (Hyalgan) in 2 ml of buffered saline performed no better than the inert vehicle alone over a five week period. The principal side effects of a transient increase in pain and swelling in the affected knee was observed in 47% of the treatment group compared with 22% of the placebo group. A few patients with radiologically mild disease treated with Hyalgan appeared to experience medium to long-term symptomatic improvement over matched placebo controls as judged by a delayed return to previous NSAID therapy or analgesia other than paracetamol. Patient numbers in the survival groups, however, were too small to be meaningful. CONCLUSION--It is concluded that intraarticular administration of this preparation of 750 kD hyaluronan offers no significant benefit over placebo during a five week treatment period, but incurs a significantly higher morbidity, and therefore has no place in the routine treatment of osteoarthritis.


Fingered flow rapidly moves water and pollutants from the root zone to the groundwater through a limited fraction of the unsaturated zone, limiting the possibilities for decay and adsorption. The onset of wetting front instability and the characteristics of the flow pattern under nonponding infiltration have received limited attention. We aim to theoretically and experimentally advance our understanding of pre‐fingered flow, and contrast fingered flow under ponding and nonponding conditions. We developed a Green‐Ampt based expression for the pressure head in a developing induction zone (from which fingers protrude) for the time before fingers developed. A uniform, nonponding water flux was applied to the surface of two‐dimensional glass bead porous media with a dry region above a capillary fringe. Microtensiometers recorded pressure heads in the induction zone. The pressure head data confirmed both the theoretical early‐time pre‐finger model, and a model developed earlier for late‐time lateral flow toward fully developed fingers. The physically more realistic constant flux boundary condition of our experiments gave larger finger spacings and travel times, compared to the frequently used set‐up with ponding infiltration into a fine‐over‐coarse porous medium.


ABSTRACT By using a so-called differential-integral method on the chemical potential of a hard-sphere fluid, a special variant of our previously developed expression that describes the interaction between charged plates immersed in an electrolyte, is introduced to examine the hard-sphere fluid mediated pressure in a slit. The resulting expression consists of a kinetic contribution and a hard-sphere contribution, and it is formulated as a function of the single-particle direct correlation function and the density distribution of a hard-sphere fluid. It allows us to conveniently apply the classic density functional theory to explicitly investigate the influence of the hard-sphere excluded-volume effect on the interaction pressure between surfaces. In this study, a newly proposed weighted correlation approach (WCA)-Denton and Ashcroft (DA) method is employed to predict the interaction pressure as well as its pressure components for a hard-sphere fluid inside a slit pore. Comparisons with the results from the Monte Carlo simulations and the fundamental measure theory suggest that the WCA-DA method is able to accurately capture the detailed characteristic pattern of the pressure-separation curves at different fluid densities. It is also found, both qualitatively and quantitatively, that the hard-sphere pressure contribution dominates over the kinetic pressure contribution in determining the oscillatory behaviour of the interaction pressure curves, especially when a hard-sphere fluid of high density is concerned. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


"This paper analyzes the role of social cohesion in economic and institutional development and, broadly, the creation of welfare in Latin America. The paper defines the concept of social cohesion with reference to the notions of social capital and inequality. Using data and literature on Latin America, the paper argues that low interpersonal trust and entrenched inequality interfere with cohesion. The paper develops and introduces an exploratory index of cohesion structured around the definition proposed. Relying on correlations, and with appropriate caveats, the paper uses this index to explore tentative linkages between levels of cohesion and development outcomes. The paper presents evidence of positive linkages among social cohesion and economic growth, investment and innovation capacity, governmental effectiveness, the quality of public policies, and the predictability of the policy environment. Finally, the paper discusses the significance of these findings and some of the policy implications." from Author's Abstract


Dingane was ruler of Zululand and Natal for over a decade (1828–40) and incurred, by the murder of Piet Retief and his followers, the seemingly undying hatred of historians. Almost every commentator on this period of Zulu history has portrayed him as a man with hardly a redeeming quality: blood-thirsty, capricious, treacherous, self-indulgent, an absolute despot, an ingrate and an inveterate liar. What is remarkable about this consensus among historians is that Dingane, as will be shown subsequently, lacked all these unflattering attributes. Many reasons could be given for this grievous error on the part of scholars. Among these must be included their failure to resolve the glaring contradictions between the promises and actions of the Zulu king, and an inability to understand the dynamics of an alien society.


Diet plays a significant role in maintaining lifelong health. In particular, lowering the dietary protein: carbohydrate ratio can improve lifespan. This has been interpreted as a direct effect of these macronutrients on physiology. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we show that the role of protein and carbohydrate on lifespan is indirect, acting by altering the partitioning of limiting amounts of dietary sterols between reproduction and lifespan. Shorter lifespans in flies fed on high protein: carbohydrate diets can be rescued by supplementing their food with cholesterol. Not only does this fundamentally alter the way we interpret the mechanisms of lifespan extension by dietary restriction, these data highlight the important principle that life histories can be affected by nutrient-dependent trade-offs that are indirect and independent of the nutrients (often macronutrients) that are the focus of study. This brings us closer to understanding the mechanistic basis of dietary restriction.


We investigate methods for combining multiple selfsupervised tasks—i.e., supervised tasks where data can be collected without manual labeling—in order to train a single visual representation. First, we provide an apples-toapples comparison of four different self-supervised tasks using the very deep ResNet-101 architecture. We then combine tasks to jointly train a network. We also explore lasso regularization to encourage the network to factorize the information in its representation, and methods for "harmonizing" network inputs in order to learn a more unified representation. We evaluate all methods on ImageNet classification, PASCAL VOC detection, and NYU depth prediction. Our results show that deeper networks work better, and that combining tasks—even via a na¨ýve multihead architecture—always improves performance. Our best joint network nearly matches the PASCAL performance of a model pre-trained on ImageNet classification, and matches the ImageNet network on NYU depth prediction.