To the Editor: Members of the genus Mycobacterium are well-established causes of granulomatous lymphadenitis in children. M. bohemicum was first described in 1998 in a patient with Down syndrome (1). The organism is characterized by a unique 16S rRNA gene sequence (1) and has been isolated from humans, animals, and the environment (2). Published data on M. bohemicum are limited to the original species description and 5 additional case reports (3–6).

We report on 4 cases of cervical lymphadenitis caused by M. bohemicum that occurred in 4 children (2 boys, 2 girls) from Austria during 2002–2006. Age range of the children was 2.5–3.5 years (Table). Each child was admitted to the hospital with a history of 2–3 weeks of submandibular swelling that did not respond to oral antimicrobial therapy.

Table

Characteristics of 4 children with cervical lymphadenitis caused by Mycobacterium bohemicum, Austria, 2002–2006*

Physical examination showed enlarged cervical lymph nodes under normal skin. Laboratory evaluation showed leukocyte and differential counts within normal limits and a negative result (<2 mg/L) for C-reactive protein. Ultrasonography demonstrated enlarged lymph nodes with heterogeneous echo and a central lacuna-like lesion.

Lymph nodes were excised from each patient. Histologic examination of the nodes demonstrated granulomatous and partly necrotizing inflammation (Table). PCR results for M. tuberculosis complex were negative. For 3 patients, the affected lymph nodes were completely removed and no antimicrobial therapy was prescribed. For the other patient, removal of the affected lymph node was incomplete, and clarithromycin and rifampicin for 3 months were prescribed. All patients remained healthy for >12 months after therapy.

From all patients, parts of the excised lymph nodes were directly used for acid-fast smear and culture for mycobacteria. All specimens were processed according to national guidelines (the German Institute for Standardization [DIN], Diagnostics for Tuberculosis DIN 58943-3, Cultural Methods for Isolation of Mycobacteria, Berlin: Beuth; 1996.)

Slides for microscopic examination were prepared directly from minced lymph nodes before decontamination, and the tissue was stained according to the Ziehl-Neelsen technique. Each sample was decontaminated, homogenized, and concentrated by using the N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide method. Samples were spread onto solid slants (Lowenstein-Jensen, Stonebrink; National Reference Center for Mycobacteria, Borstel, Germany) and inoculated into BACTEC Mycobacteria growth indicator tubes (MGIT 960; Becton Dickinson and Company, Cockeysville, MD, USA). Solid slants were incubated at 31°C and 37°C for 8 weeks and inspected for growth weekly. MGITs were incubated in and automatically read with a BACTEC MGIT instrument.

Results of nucleic acid amplification for M. tuberculosis complex by using the BD ProbeTec system (Becton Dickinson and Company) as well as the amplification of DNA coding for the mycobacterial 16S rRNA gene were negative. Growth of mycobacteria was detected after 12–17 days in liquid MGIT cultures. For species identification of the cultures, part of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced (7). The resulting sequences were compared with those in international databases (www.ridom.de; www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST). The strains were identified as M. bohemicum.

To date, >125 nontuberculous mycobacteria species have been described (www.bacterio.cict.fr/m/mycobacterium.html). Nontuberculous mycobacterial cervical lymphadenitis is most frequently caused by M. avium (80%), M. malmoense, M. kansasii, M. lentiflavum, M. haemophilum, and M. scrofulaceum (8). Because the phenotypic characteristics of M. bohemicum closely resemble those of M. scrofulaceum, these species can easily be misidentified by analysis of biochemical and cultural features only. The technique by which M. bohemicum can clearly be identified is sequence analysis (8,9).

Other than in the 4 patients reported here, M. bohemicum infection has only been reported in 5 patients worldwide (3–6). Each was a child with laterocervical and submandibular lymphadenitis. Total lymph node excision was performed with a good outcome for all patients except 1, who required additional treatment with antimicrobial drugs because the infected lymph node was incompletely excised (4). Additionally, a systemic M. bohemicum infection associated with immunodeficiency was reported recently (10). Treatment recommendations for nontuberculous mycobacterial lymphadenitis are outlined in discussions of individual nontuberculous mycobacterium species. Guidelines for localized lymphadenitis caused by any nontuberculous mycobacterium species recommend complete surgical excision of the involved lymph nodes (8). Additional antimicrobial drug therapy is recommended only for patients for whom removal was incomplete (8). Our patient who received combination antimicrobial drug treatment improved, with no relapse.

In summary we report 4 cases of M. bohemicum from Austria, a country with 8 million inhabitants. Because these cases were observed in a relatively small country, infections with M. bohemicum may be more common than previously thought. More such cases may be discovered as a result of improved microbiologic diagnostic techniques. We believe that M. bohemicum should be listed among the species that induce nontuberculous mycobacterial infections.


Emulation of business world in this time progressively mount at full speed. For that company have to can make and run correct strategy, so that exeed in emulation and can master market compartment given the existing opportunity and threat, so that company will be able to make decision the wisdom. Based on troubleshoot with background exist in company so author formulates problem that is how measures performance a company with pay attention fourth perspective in Balanced Scorecard (Financial, Costumer, Internal Business Process, Growth & Study). This research aim to analysis of performance measurement of company from fourth perspective in Balanced Scorecard. In measuremnent of company's work using Balanced Scorecard method found that finance perspective have a bad work because the company couldn't restitute the work capital (ROA) and capital (ROCE) yet. It also couldn't earn some profit, even in the last years, the company was still suffer a financial loss in their operational activity. Here also OMAX is used to check the score of each perspective index for financial was 1,908 For the customer was 2,03 For the internal business process was 4,881 and the studying & growth was 4,122. Keyword : Performance Measurement System, Balanced Scorecard, Strategy Map, Key Performance Indicator (KPI) / Measures


Discourse analysis can be used to understand and interpret culturally and socially produced meanings regarding work and to outline how specific rules and conventions can configure meaning production of work in context. The implications of some core concepts in discourse analysis pertinent to career counseling are explored, including discourse, deconstruction, power/knowledge, psy-complex, ideology, and identity. Such an exploration has the potential to initiate a process of critical self-reflection in career counseling and development so as to enhance ethical, fair, and inclusive practices in the field. According to Savickas and Baker (2005), career psychology is in need of reinvigoration to respond to the challenges of rapid transformation in a postmodern world. They argued that career psychology needs to revisit the contextual and social concerns that characterized the field in the early 20th century. One approach seldom used in career counseling or research is discourse analysis, which may be capable of innovatively addressing global psychology issues such as career development (Stead & Young, 2007), examining the social and contextual concerns alluded to by Savickas and Baker, and offering new insights to career counseling practice. Discourse analysis may enable career psychologists to expose the system of values and power relations implied in professional and client discourses. It may allow career psychologists to challenge the essentialism (i.e., the view that people have a core nature waiting to be discovered) and individualism central to U.S. psychology. Discourse analysis may relieve the individual of carrying the responsibility for social ills and injustices, which discourse analysis reveals as embedded in social and power relations. Discourse analysis is similar to social constructionism in that it is radically antiessentialist and focuses on how personal identities and social interactions are constituted through language, hence its potential use to counselors. It facilitates the application of psychological knowledge and tools across cultures and recognizes the embeddedness of human interaction in context. Discourse analysis differs from most formulations of social constructionism (see Young & Collin, 2004) and from career development theories, such as career construction theory (Savickas, 2002 ), the developmental-contextual approach (Vondracek, Lerner, & Schulenberg, 1986), and contexualist career theory (Young, Valach, & Collin, 2002), in that it is particularly useful in assisting counselors in understanding power, poi'iucs, and ideology in human interactions. Discourse analysis thereby makes explicit whose interests are being served by counseling practices. It deconstructs how discourses may be taken for granted in one context but have oppressive effects in other contexts. These features of discourse analysis may facilitate a process of critical self-reflection in career development so as to enhance ethical, fair, and inclusive practices in the field. In a similar vein, discourse analysis may also enrich the application of career development in, for example, social justice perspectives (e.g., Blustein, Perry, Kenna, & De Wine, 2007), feminist perspectives (e.g., Hopfl & Atkinson, 2000), and multicultural competency frameworks (e.g., Worthington, Soth-McNett, & Moreno, 2007). Discourse analysis is a broad and varied field encompassing a variety of understandings of social realities, methods, and applications, such as Laclau and Mouffc's (1985) discourse theory, Fairclough's (1995) critical discourse theory, Potter and WethereU's (1987) interpretative approach, and Foucault's ( 1972, 1977) poststructuralist approach. The purpose of this article is to reflect briefly on the recent origins of discourse analysis through structuralism and post/structuralism and show how important aspects of discourse analysis may possibly be applied to enhance understanding of career counseling and research. …


Teat disinfection pre- and post-milking is important for the overall health and hygiene of dairy cows. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a novel probiotic lactobacilli-based teat disinfectant based on changes in somatic cell count (SCC) and profiling of the bacterial community. A total of 69 raw milk samples were obtained from eleven Holstein-Friesian dairy cows over 12 days of teat dipping in China. Single molecule, real-time sequencing technology (SMRT) was employed to profile changes in the bacterial community during the cleaning protocol and to compare the efficacy of probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and commercial teat disinfectants. The SCC gradually decreased following the cleaning protocol and the SCC of the LAB group was slightly lower than that of the commercial disinfectant (CD) group. Our SMRT sequencing results indicate that raw milk from both the LAB and CD groups contained diverse microbial populations that changed over the course of the cleaning protocol. The relative abundances of some species were significantly changed during the cleaning process, which may explain the observed bacterial community differences. Collectively, these results suggest that the LAB disinfectant could reduce mastitis-associated bacteria and improve the microbial environment of the cow teat. It could be used as an alternative to chemical pre- and post-milking teat disinfectants to maintain healthy teats and udders. In addition, the Pacific Biosciences SMRT sequencing with the full-length 16S ribosomal RNA gene was shown to be a powerful tool for monitoring changes in the bacterial population during the cleaning protocol.


For several years now the Australian Archaeological Association (AAA) has been expanding its online presence through the Association's website, Facebook page and Twitter account. In order to ascertain whether these activities are worth the investment of time and energy required to pursue and maintain them, an audience survey was undertaken. Coupled with interrogation of Facebook and Twitter user data, the survey results were assessed to understand better AAA's online audience, the value of particular kinds of content, and the online platforms and their use, in order to tailor the Association's efforts. Results show surprising uptake and use by all age groups, despite the common perception that social media users are predominantly 'young'. Our overall assessment is that a strong understanding of one's audience leads to more sophisticated use of online media, which is proving essential to achieving the objects and purposes of the Association in terms of public education and the dissemination of archaeological information, allowing a much broader audience beyond the Association's own membership base to be reached.


The present assessment evaluates the status of the Div. 3M beaked redfish stock, regarded as a management unit composed of two populations from two very similar species (Sebastes mentella and Sebastes fasciatus). The sum of the absolute length compositions of the 1989-2002 commercial catch with the 1993-2002 by-catch is the Div. 3M redfish catch at length input of this assessment. The VPA assessment used a 1989-2002 catch at age matrix starting at age 4 and having a plus group at age 19. An Extended Survivor Analysis (Shepherd, 1999) was performed using the previous XSA framework. The consistency of the XSA results was checked with a Retrospective Analysis confined to the assessments of the most recent years, 2002-2000. A logistic surplus production model (ASPIC) which does not use the equilibrium assumption (Praguer, 1994 and 1995) was also applied using the 1959-2002 catch coupled with the STATLANT standardised CPUE series (1959-1993) and the age 4 plus EU bottom biomass (1988-2002). The ASPIC results, as regards biomass and fishing mortality trends are comparable to the ones from the XSA but with biomass declining to a lesser extent and increasing at faster rate from 1998 onwards. Either XSA or ASPIC analysis pointed out that the Div. 3M beaked redfish stock experienced a steep decline from the second half of the eighties till 1996. Fishing mortality was kept well above Fmsy over the first half of the assessment period. From 1995 onwards fishing mortality dropped and since 1997 has been kept well below the assumed natural mortality. Despite recent fluctuations biomass and female spawning biomass are generally increasing since 1997 but at slow rates, being still well bellow the levels of the first years of the time series. The stock reproductive potential has increased through the nineties compensating the SSB decline and sustaining a 1998-2002 geo-mean recruitment at age 4 identical to the former years of 1989-1993. The 1998 year-class at age 4, recruiting in 2002, is well above the 1989-2002 geo-mean recruitment (including both 1989 and 1990 above average year-classes). However by-catch mortality continued to act as a buffer on survival of pre recruits and its impact increases with the appearance of good year-classes such as the 1998 and the promising 2000 year-class. Short (2006) and medium term (20012) projections were made with the XSA survivors and recruitment randomly re-sampled, assuming two productivity scenarios: one including all recruitments (observed productivity) and the other excluding the recruitment peaks (low productivity). A single option of fishing mortality was considered, and corresponding to short term catches within an interval defined by the recent level of total catch of 4 000 tons and the actual TAC of 5 000 tons. Such option is given by 40% Fstatuquo. Taking into account the trajectories of the last Mterm projections, further increase of the stock and spawning biomass will continue so far to be dependent on keeping fishing mortality at a low level, below both the assumed natural mortality and 1 . 0 F . At the present stock size this should correspond to a level of catch not higher than 5 000 tons until the end of the present decade, regardless the recruitment regime that will prevail on the near future.


Evidence is presented that radio pulsars may be artificially engineered beacons of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) origin. It is proposed that they are beaming signals to various Galactic locations including our solar system and that their primary purpose may be for interstellar navigation. More significantly, about half a dozen pulsars appear to be conveying a message intended for our Galactic locale by marking key positional sky locations. They appear to make reference to the center of our Galaxy, which is a logical shared reference point for interstellar communication. The Millisecond Pulsar (PSR1937+21) is noted to be the closest pulsar to the point that lies one-radian from the Galactic center along the galactic plane. The chance that a pulsar would be positioned at this key location and also display the highly unique attention-getting characteristics of the Millisecond Pulsar is estimated to be one chance in 7.6 trillion. Other pulsars that appear to be involved in conveying this message include the Eclipsing Binary Millisecond pulsar (1957+20) and PSR 1930+22, both of which make highly improbable alignments relative to the Millisecond Pulsar position, the Crab and Vela pulsars, and PSR 0525+21. All display one or more unusual attention-getting characteristics. A method is proposed whereby a civilization magnetically modulates the cosmic ray flux of a neutron star to produce stationary, broadband, targeted synchrotron beams having pulsar-like signal characteristics. Also a lower tech approach is proposed that instead modulates the relativistic electron beam from a linear particle accelerator to produce a free electron laser beam. keywords: pulsars, neutron stars, CETI, extraterrestrial communication, astro-engineering


FOllowing the classical elite theorists' injunction to study variations in elite structure, we examine the elite settlement as a major, yet largely overlooked, form of political change. Elite settlements consist of broad compromises among previously warring elite factions, resulting in political stability and thus providing a necessary precondition for representative democracy. To identify the common features of elite settlements, we draw upon four historie cases: England in 1688-1689, Sweden in 1809, Colombia in 1957-1958, and Venezuela in 1958. We conclude by arguing for the extraction of elite settlements from their current embeddedness in such concepts as "bourgeois revolutions" and "democratic transitions," and we advocate greater attention to the elite paradigm in efforts to explain macropolitical outcomes. http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/tpla/8701.pdf Michael G. Burton & John Higley Elite Settlements


In 1779, driven out of his home, Calum MacDonald sets sail from the Scottish Highlands with his extensive family. After a long, terrible journey he settles his family in 'the land of trees', and eventually they become a separate Nova Scotian clan: red-haired and black-eyed, with its own identity, its own history. It is the 1980s by the time our narrator, Alexander MacDonald, tells the story of his family, a thrilling and passionate story that intersects with history: with Culloden, where the clans died, and with the 1759 battle at Quebec that was won when General Wolfe sent in the fierce Highlanders because it was 'no great mischief if they fall'.


GLM|LIC Working Paper No. 30 | June 2017 Introducing Mobile Money in Rural Mozambique Initial Evidence from a Field Experiment* The limitations of access to finance in Africa, together with the recent boom in cell phone use in that continent, created high expectations regarding the introduction of mobile money in many African countries. The success story of M-PESA in Kenya raised the bar further. We designed and conducted a field experiment to assess the impact of randomized mobile money dissemination in rural Mozambique. For this purpose we benefit from the fact that mobile money was only recently launched in the country, allowing for the identification of a pure control group. This paper reports on the first results of this ongoing project after the first wave of dissemination efforts in rural locations, which included the recruitment and training of mobile money agents, community meetings and theaters, as well as individual rural campaigning. Administrative and behavioral data both show clear adherence to the services in the treatment group. Financial literacy and trust outcomes are also positively affected by the treatment. We present behavioral evidence that the marginal willingness to remit was increased by the availability of mobile money. Finally, we observe a tendency for mobile money to substitute traditional alternatives for both savings and remittances. JEL Classification: O12, O33, G20, R23


Knowing Cuba's past is crucial in making sense of the present; that's especially true when it comes to the question of race. Racial slavery, with its peculiar Latin American characteristics, set the stage upon which the 1959 revolution began. All of the practices and ideas associated with the institution that disadvantaged Cubans of African origin had to be challenged. That task was combined with the overriding one of making Cuban sovereignty a reality for the first time. Important gains were made for Afro-Cubans that proved qualitatively favorable in comparison not only with their pre-1959 status but also with that of their cohorts in the United States. As Cold War realities intervened, conscious and explicit attention to the issue began to fade, often in the name of unity in the face of the threat from the north. And when those continuing gains began to be undermined owing to the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies in 1989, the race question was forced back onto the national agenda. Fidel Castro, as was so often the case during the revolution, took the lead in addressing the issue. For the first time since the early years of the revolution, conscious attention began to be paid to race, the all-important unfinished business that had begun in 1959. Not all Cubans began on an equal footing in the commencement of that project, thus special attention now needs to be paid to those of African origin to fulfill its egalitarian quest. It should be acknowledged that while progress has been made, much remains to be done.


Widely read with reverence, the books of the Bible have moved minds and hearts for thousands of years. The content and words of Scripture inspired the legends of the Bible. This single volume contains a selection of tales chosen from the classic The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, acknowledged as one of the world's outstanding talmudic scholars.


We analyze the conduct of fiscal policy in a financially integrated union in the presence of financial frictions. Frictions create a wedge between the return to investment and the union interest rate. This leads to an over-spending externality. While the social cost of spending is the return to investment, governments care mostly about the (depressed) interest rate they face. In other words, the crowding out effects of public spending are partly "exported" to the rest of the union. We argue that it may be hard for the union to deal with this externality through the design of fiscal rules, which are bound to be shaped by the preferences of the median country and not by efficiency considerations. We also analyze how this overspending externality -and the union's ability to deal with it effectively- changes when the union is financially integrated with the rest of the world. Finally, we extend our model by introducing a zero lower bound on interest rates and show that, if financial frictions are severe enough, the union is pushed into a liquidity trap and the direction of the spending externality is reversed. At such times, fiscal rules that are appropriate during normal times might backfire.


Teachers' perception of their work motivation: a qualitative study.
During the past few years the changes in the South African education system have come under the spotlight. These changes may have an impact on the working conditions of educators and subsequently influence their motivation. If school managers can identify the factors that influence the motivation of educators in time, they can implement and execute effective motivation strategies to ensure that educators, in the midst of the changes, can still perform their duties in an effective, enthusiastic and motivated manner. Educator motivation is influenced by two sets of factors, namely intrinsic factors that is a direct result of the work itself, and extrinsic factors that are found in the working environment. This article reports on a qualitative study to determine the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence educator motivation in the Eastern Cape.
(South African Journal of Education: 2003 22(3): 205-212)


This book is based on the authors experience with calculations involving polynomial splines. It presents those parts of the theory which are especially useful in calculations and stresses the representation of splines as linear combinations of B-splines. After two chapters summarizing polynomial approximation, a rigorous discussion of elementary spline theory is given involving linear, cubic and parabolic splines. The computational handling of piecewise polynomial functions (of one variable) of arbitrary order is the subject of chapters VII and VIII, while chapters IX, X, and XI are devoted to B-splines. The distances from splines with fixed and with variable knots is discussed in chapter XII. The remaining five chapters concern specific approximation methods, interpolation, smoothing and least-squares approximation, the solution of an ordinary differential equation by collocation, curve fitting, and surface fitting. The present text version differs from the original in several respects. The book is now typeset (in plain TeX), the Fortran programs now make use of Fortran 77 features. The figures have been redrawn with the aid of Matlab, various errors have been corrected, and many more formal statements have been provided with proofs. Further, all formal statements and equations have been numbered by the same numbering system, to make it easier to find any particular item. A major change has occured in Chapters IX-XI where the B-spline theory is now developed directly from the recurrence relations without recourse to divided differences. This has brought in knot insertion as a powerful tool for providing simple proofs concerning the shapepreserving properties of the B-spline series.


Abstract Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a continuum of endocrine and reproductive disorders characterized by hyperandrogenism, antral follicle growth arrest, and chronic inflammation. Macrophages play key role in inflammation, and the balance between M1 (inflammatory) and M2 (anti-inflammatory) macrophages determines physiological/pathological outcomes. Here, we investigated if hyperandrogenism increases ovarian chemerin altering the balance of M1 and M2 macrophages and the granulosa cell death. Ovarian chemerin was upregulated by 5α- dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in lean and overweight rats; while increased serum chemerin levels were only evident in overweight rats, suggesting that the serum chemerin may be reflective of a systemic response and associated with obesity, whereas increased ovarian chemerin expression is a localized response independent of the metabolic status. DHT altered follicle dynamics while increased the M1: M2 macrophages ratio in antral and pre-ovulatory follicles. While ovarian M1 macrophages expressing chemokine-like receptor 1 (CMKLR1) were increased, CMKLR1+ monocytes, which migrated toward chemerin-rich environment, were markedly decreased after 15 days of DHT. Androgen-induced granulosa cell apoptosis was dependent on the presence of macrophages. In humans, chemerin levels in follicular fluid, but not in serum, were higher in lean PCOS patients compared to BMI-matched controls and were associated with increased M1: M2 ratio. Our results support the concept that in PCOS, hyperandrogenemia increases chemerin expression while promotes CMKLR1+ monocytes recruitment and deregulates the immunological niche of ovaries. This study established a new immunological perspective in PCOS at the ovarian level. Hyperandrogenism is associated with upregulation of chemerin and macrophage unbalance in the ovaries. Summary Sentence Hyperandrogenism increases chemerin inducing the migration of CMKLR1+ monocytes to the ovaries where they become CMKLR1+ M1 macrophages. Macrophages induce granulosa cell apoptosis in response to the androgen.


In recent years, real-time control of prosthetic hands has gained a great deal of attention. In particular, real-time analysis of Electromyography (EMG) signals has several challenges to achieve an acceptable accuracy and execution delay. In this paper, we address some of these challenges by improving the accuracy in a shorter signal length. We first introduce a set of new feature extraction functions applying on each level of wavelet decomposition. Then, we propose a postprocessing ap- proach to process the neural network outputs. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed method enhances the accuracy of real-time classification of EMG signals up to 95.5 percent for 800 msec signal length. The proposed postprocessing method achieves higher consistency compared with conventional majority voting and Bayesian fusion methods.


Deep learning has been a long standing pursuit in machine learning, which until recently was hampered by unreliable training methods before the discovery of improved heuristics for embedded layer training. A complementary research strategy is to develop alternative modeling architectures that admit efficient training methods while expanding the range of representable structures toward deep models. In this paper, we develop a new architecture for nested nonlinearities that allows arbitrarily deep compositions to be trained to global optimality. The approach admits both parametric and nonparametric forms through the use of normalized kernels to represent each latent layer. The outcome is a fully convex formulation that is able to capture compositions of trainable nonlinear layers to arbitrary depth.


Abstract. Hydrological frequency analyses are usually focused on flood peaks. Flood volumes and durations have not been studied as extensively, although there are many practical situations, such as when designing a dam, in which the full hydrograph is of interest. A flood hydrograph may be described by a multivariate function of the peak, volume and duration. Most standard bivariate and trivariate functions do not produce univariate three-parameter functions as marginal distributions, however, three-parameter functions are required to fit highly skewed data, such as flood peak and flood volume series. In this paper, the relationship between flood peak and hydrograph volume is analysed to overcome this problem. A Monte Carlo experiment was conducted to generate an ensemble of hydrographs that maintain the statistical properties of marginal distributions of the peaks, volumes and durations. This ensemble can be applied to determine the Design Flood Hydrograph (DFH) for a reservoir, which is not a unique hydrograph, but rather a curve in the peak-volume space. All hydrographs on that curve have the same return period, which can be understood as the inverse of the probability to exceed a certain water level in the reservoir in any given year. The procedure can also be applied to design the length of the spillway crest in terms of the risk of exceeding a given water level in the reservoir.


Chemically synthesized gold-silica nanorods were incorporated into the active layer of solution processed organic photovoltaic devices to enhance the absorption of light by the surface plasmon resonance effect in metallic nanoparticles. Solution processed polymer:fullerene and small molecule:fullerene bulk heterojunction devices were studied. The polymer donors include regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and low bandgap poly[2,6-(4,4-bis-(2-ethylhexyl)- 4N-cyclopenta[2,1-b:3,4-b'] dithiophene)-alt-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] (PCPDTBT). For the small molecule device, 7,7'-(4,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-silolo[3,2-b:4,5-b']-dithiophene-2,6-diyl)bis(6-fluoro-4-(5'-hexyl-[2,2'-bithiophen]-5-yl) benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole) (p-DTS(FBTTh2)2) was used as the donor. The donors are blended with either [6,6]-phenyl- C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC60BM) or [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM). The gold-silica nanorods have an aspect ratio (length/diameter) of 3.2 and 2.3 and a shell thickness of ~10 nm. Prior to spin coating, the nanorods were added directly to the donor:acceptor blend solution in either chlorobenzene or dichlorobenzene at different weight percentage of the total donor:acceptor weight. The transverse and longitudinal surface plasmon resonance peaks of the gold-slica nanorods overlap with the absorption spectra of all three donor:acceptor blends to differing degrees. As a result, the power conversion efficiency of optimized plasmonic P3HT:PC60BM and PCPDTBT:PC70BM devices with conventional structure under AM1.5G illumination at 100mW/cm2 were increased by 9.3% (to 3.42%) and 20.8% (to 4.11%) respectively relative to the control device without nanorods. For the p-DTS(FBTTh2)2:PC70BM device, the relative improvement as compared to the control device was 24.2% (to 8.01%).


Tort law has long distinguished between misfeasance, which is accompanied by a duty of care, and nonfeasance, which is generally not. Thus a driver has a duty to brake for a pedestrian in the street, but a bystander has no duty to rescue him. Only in rare cases do parties like the bystander have an "affirmative" duty to exercise reasonable care. But the idea of affirmative duty has done more harm than good. The doctrinal treatments of nonfeasance and affirmative duties too often encompass situations that could just as easily be considered regular misfeasance cases. This, we argue, is because even textbook illustrations of misfeasance and nonfeasance reveal little real distinction between the two.
In effect, there is no such thing as affirmative duty, as tort law uses that term. This article's primary objective is to show that this is the case and explain why it is so. We reveal the descriptive and normative confusion surrounding the concept of affirmative duty. We explain the sources of this confusion, both conceptual and historical. And we begin the project of reconstructing existing law on a firmer conceptual footing. As it turns out, this does not involve the categories historically relied on by tort law. Instead, these categories contain within them other factors that help to define the scope of liability. In the end, ideas such as misfeasance and nonfeasance, and regular duties and "affirmative" duties, are largely beside the point.


-The results of development of the air infrared radiometer for the realization of monitoring of the environment from an aircraft, and also methods of him some applied applications are presented. The development results of a new methods of aerial (on a helicopter or airplane) infrared (IR) scanning of extensive spaces with the purpose of detecting weak heat sources (fire centers at an early stage of their development) to prevent the occurrence of large-scale fires are presented, and for probing gas main pipelines and detecting gas leaks also is described. IR scanning of pipelines was performed in the wavelength range 8–12 μm by a helicopter flying along the routes of pipelines. In the paper there is presented the description of the IR radiometer as well as the measurement method of point and extended thermal sources in the wavelength range of 2.5 to 5.5 and 8-12 microns.


Magic is not simply a matter of the occult arts, but a whole way of thinking, of dreaming the impossible. As such it has tremendous force in opening the mind to new realms of achievement: imagination precedes the fact. It used to be associated with wisdom, understanding the powers of nature, and with technical ingenuity that could let men do things they had never dreamed of before. The supreme fiction of this magical thinking is the Arabian Nights, with its flying carpets, hidden treasure and sudden revelations. Translated into French and English in the early days of the Enlightenment, this Arabic collection of folk and fairy tales became a huge success with intellectuals, artists and composers. The book's strangeness opened visions of transformation: dreams of flight, speaking objects, virtual money and the power of the word to bring about change. Its tales create a poetic image of the impossible and an unexpectedly modern parable of knowledge and power. Above all they have the fascination of the strange - the belief that true knowledge lies elsewhere, in a mysterious realm of wonder. As part of her exploration into the prophetic enchantments of the Nights, Marina Warner retells some of the most wonderful and lesser-known stories. She explores the figure of the dark magician or magus, from Solomon to the wicked uncle in "Aladdin"; the complex vitality of the jinn, or genies; animal metamorphoses and flying carpets. Her narrative reveals that magical thinking, as conveyed by these stories, governs many aspects of experience, even now. In this respect, the East and West have been in fruitful dialogue. Writers and artists in every medium have found themselves by adopting Oriental disguise. With startling originality and impeccable research, this groundbreaking book shows how magic, in the deepest sense, helped to create the modern world, and how profoundly it is still inscribed in the way we think today.


We investigate the long-term evolution of an initially buoyant magnetic flux tube emerging into a gravitationally stratified coronal hole environment and report on the resulting oscillations and outflows. We perform 2.5-dimensional nonlinear numerical simulations, generalizing the models of McLaughlin et al. and Murray et al. We find that the physical mechanism of oscillatory reconnection naturally generates quasi-periodic vertical outflows, with a transverse/swaying aspect. The vertical outflows consist of both a periodic aspect and evidence of a positively directed flow. The speed of the vertical outflow (20–60 km s−1) is comparable to those reported in the observational literature. We also perform a parametric study varying the magnetic strength of the buoyant flux tube and find a range of associated periodicities: 1.75–3.5 minutes. Thus, the mechanism of oscillatory reconnection may provide a physical explanation to some of the high-speed, quasi-periodic, transverse outflows/jets recently reported by a multitude of authors and instruments.


Stochastic rationing when the market does not clear draws attention because both Dreze (1975) and Benassy (1975) quantity-constrained equilibria have some undesirable features. Gale (1978)gave the existence proof of trade under uncertainty. His stochastic rationing depends on all the individual effective demands. It is too vague to characterize a rationing mechanism. Moreover, his assumption to ensure a non-trivial equilibrium is economically not clear. In this paper we extend Green (1978) to characterizing the rationing scheme as the individual effective demand times the rationing number which is a function of the aggregate quantity signals. We also construct an economy with money and overlapping generations. We show the existence of the non-trivial equilibrium and provide an example of a non-Wairasian equilibrium at the Walrasian equilibrium prices.


The process by which humans redistribute themselves and settle over connected sites may be done using the Radiation Model. Here, a mean-field approximation was used to approximate the final population density distribution over sites connected as regular and random networks. We provide explanations of the resulting steady-state settlement patterns as similar to the dynamics in smaller subnetwork configurations such as: isolated pair, linear subnetwork, and triangular network. A linear network of three nodes would either have the total population in the central node or spread equally with its edges replicating an agent-based simulation.For a triangular network with an equilateral topology, the population is expected to be evenly distributed. In the case that one of the settlement sites were to be completely evacuated, then the population would be evenly distributed between the remaining two sites. For a triangular network with an isosceles topology, the population split between the two sites that are closest to each other. Simulations on three random networks showed that the steady-state distribution obtained with the Radiation Model is independent of the initial distributions of the population. The steady-state distributions showed patterns similar to those observed for the simple triangular cases. A special case was observed for Random Geometric Networks where sparse connectivity yielded a different steady-state for different initial population distributions.


Propionic acidemia (PA) is an autosomal recessive disorder of metabolism caused by a deficiency of propionyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (PCC). Despite optimal dietary and cofactor therapy, PA patients still suffer from lethal metabolic instability and experience multisystemic complications. A murine model of PA (Pcca(-/-)) of animals that uniformly die within the first 48 hr of life was used to determine the efficacy of adeno-associated viral (AAV) gene transfer as a potential therapy for PA. An AAV serotype 8 (AAV8) vector was engineered to express the human PCCA cDNA and delivered to newborn mice via an intrahepatic injection. Greater than 64% of the Pcca(-/-) mice were rescued after AAV8-mediated gene transfer and survived until day of life 16 or beyond. Western analysis of liver extracts showed that PCC was completely absent from Pcca(-/-) mice but was restored to greater than wild-type levels after AAV gene therapy. The treated Pcca(-/-) mice also exhibited markedly reduced plasma levels of 2-methylcitrate compared with the untreated Pcca(-/-) mice, which indicates significant PCC enzymatic activity was provided by gene transfer. At the time of this report, the oldest treated Pcca(-/-) mice are over 6 months of age. In summary, AAV gene delivery of PCCA effectively rescues Pcca(-/-) mice from neonatal lethality and substantially ameliorates metabolic markers of the disease. These experiments demonstrate a gene transfer approach using AAV8 that might be used as a treatment for PA, a devastating and often lethal disorder desperately in need of new therapeutic options.


The objective of the present research is to explore the present state of EFL (English as a foreign language) in Korean culture which is assumed to be different from that of English speaking countries, and to investigate learners' attitudes toward needs and motivation for the English language. Since it seems to be recognised that language and culture are inseparable, EFL in the Korean cultural context might reflect its own typical aspects. Chapter 1 deals with problems in EFL in Korea, and the relationship between foreign language acquisition and cultural background. The meaning of culture and its importance in a foreign language learning and teaching is elaborated. Chapter 2 reflects the characteristics of Korean culture, with an account of her history, education system and national policy of EFL. Current implementation of English language teaching at Korean universities, with its developmental history, is presented with evidences obtained from previous research. Chapter 3 reviews the theoretical literature on needs, attitudes, interest, anxiety and motivation in foreign/second language learning, since they are recognised as central to foreign language acquisition. Research studies on these variables are introduced, compared with each other and critically discussed. In Chapter 4, research questions and hypotheses are drawn, based on the theoretical framework reviewed in Chapter 3. The research design (sampling, methods of and procedures for data-collection) is elaborated. Chapter 5 begins with a description of datainterpretation methods employed in the study. Data obtained from these instruments were statistically analysed through a computer programme `SPSS'. The findings of the research are presented, followed by a discussion of the results. In Chapter 6, more detailed profiles of analysis than those given in Chapter 5 are presented. Particularly, item-by-item comparison is made between the college students' and graduates' questionnaires. Chapter 7, as a closing chapter of the present research, reviews the foregoing chapters and derives conclusions, suggesting implications for further research. Key implications arising from the research are: priority for teaching EFL from intercultural perspectives, and (so far as learners are concerned) to tolerating the new approaches to teaching that are required.


The purpose of this project was to document the redesign of an existing doctoral reading course for an online environment. Potential methods for actualizing the proposed course structure in an online environment, including technology tools and interactions are discussed. The design process began within the framework of the Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model (van Merrienboer, 1997; van Merrienboer & Kirchner, 2007), which advocates a shift from topic-centeredness to a task-centered course organization, but quickly evolved into a flexible, iterative design process that was informed by prototyping, the judgment of the design team, and various theories of knowledge and knowing. The 4C/ID model represented our philosophical starting point, but our focus quickly shifted to a more flexible, eclectic process as we attempted to reconcile conflicting constraints on the final design. Along with the redevelopment of course objectives to meet strategic goals within the doctoral program came a focus on facilitating research thinking of the students rather than teaching isolated research tasks. The design process resulted in changes to the current residential course, which then provided an opportunity for further investigation.


Creative industries are seen as the wealth creating engines in the post-industrial economies. There is a tendency to organize work in these industries into temporary organizations, projects; these initiatives cut across industries and network small and large actors and appear to be well suited to rapidly moving, fluid industries and business environments, both in developed and developing economies. That being said, projects seem to fail all too often and not achieve prescribed goals. Project scopes and budgets drift and timeframes are not met; in other cases projects fail due to rapidly changing circumstances making original aims redundant. In this paper we explore the management practices and theory of projects, arguing that the current practices are often ill suited to the needs of the creative economy, as they originate from industrial and technological paradigms no longer compatible with the reality of today. We note four strategic approaches to manage projects in creative business, proposing that experimental learning and selectionist processes can help to manage the ambiguity and the unknown unknowns built into the creative economy.


New reflective systems are making it increasingly easier to make rich records of everyday activities and later reflect on these records. While these systems and other reflective tools such as Facebook Timeline are becoming more popular, few systematic studies have investigated their effects. Our work uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to demonstrate short and long-term well-being benefits of reflection and identifies two different mechanisms that mediate these benefits. We also describe new work visualizing emotional habits. Our findings have important therapeutic implications, and suggest that reflective systems support natural adaptive memory processes.


Carotenoids are interesting in avian ecology due their dietary origin and the resulting environmental dependence of certain functions and traits such as plumage pigmentation and the immune system. Carotenoids are frequently assumed to be limited for birds, but data on availability is rarely collected. Thus, to understand the role of the carotenoids as mediators of trade-offs, additional information on the whole chemical pathway of carotenoids is needed. In conjunction with previous studies on carotenoid ecology and physiology of the Great Tit Parus major living in Swedish urban vs. rural environments, I here present data on 1) carotenoid concentration in two primary carotenoid producers, birch Betula verrucosa and oak Quercus robur and 2) vegetation cover on Great Tit territories. Previous studies found lower carotenoid concentrations in caterpillars and plumage pigmentation in urban compared to rural areas. Correspondingly, urban trees had significantly lower total carotenoid concentration in comparison to rural trees, but there was no environmental difference in the relative amount of lutein and zeaxanthin (Lut:Zx ratio) in sun-exposed leaves. Second, urban Great Tits had significantly more shade in their territories than rural birds, which may affect the leaves Lut:Zx composition. The results, taken together, show that the environmental difference in carotenoid concentration of caterpillars and Great Tit yellow breast coloration, may occur because urban trees synthesise less or have used up more carotenoids in response to environmental stress compared to rural trees. Thus, tracking carotenoid content in different steps of the food chain raises questions about how fine-scale environmental heterogeneity can affect optimal foraging behaviour and individual variation in carotenoid-dependent traits.


We show in this paper that in every $3$-coloring of the edges of $K^n$ all but $o(n)$ of its vertices can be partitioned into three monochromatic cycles. From this, using our earlier results, actually it follows that we can partition all the vertices into at most 17 monochromatic cycles, improving the best known bounds. If the colors of the three monochromatic cycles must be different then one can cover $({3\over 4}-o(1))n$ vertices and this is close to best possible.


This chapter closes the first part of this project. In the preceding pages I have described the socioeconomic and political landscape of postmoder- nity, pointing simultaneously to the urgent nature of Muslim–Christian cooperation in fostering a more inclusive, just and peaceful alternative to the Western-led, neoliberal McWorld, and to the philosophical issues within the postmodern paradigm that Muslim and Christian theologians cannot afford to sidestep. Foregoing the scientism of the modern mind- set, I have urged both parties to take into account how knowledge is produced in science, through theories, models, paradigms and research projects— a process that owes a great deal to the dynamics of individuals working within the framework of received traditions in particular com- munities. I hope to have shown that Barbour's comparison between the production of knowledge in science and the working out of theology in religion is not so far-fetched as it might have first seemed. Despite the obvious differences in subject matter, one does encounter a great deal of similarity in the methodologies employed.  In both cases, the core beliefs draw from and feed into the data through the use of imagination, sym- bols, analogies and models. Though I am here highlighting the reading of sacred texts, Barbour's characterization of the data of religion as being "religious experience, story and ritual" is a good reminder that all four elements are in dynamic interaction and mutually influence one another in surprising ways. In the following section, I draw out the conclusions of the last chapter on the hermeneutics of sacred scriptures and apply them to the task at hand. I end by making explicit my own approach to the Qur'an in the following chapter.


Buchanan examines, and finds inadequate, several philosophical approaches to justifying and specifying the content of a universal right to a decent minimum of health care: utilitarian arguments, Rawlsian ideal contract arguments, and Norman Daniels' equality of opportunity argument. Also rejecting the libertarian hypothesis that there is no right to a decent minimum of care, he contends that the claim that society should guarantee certain health care services can be supported by a pluralistic approach encompassing special right-claims, harm prevention, prudential arguments emphasizing public health benefits, and beneficence.


A useful guide to the geology of the Austin area has long been a goal. It should be useful to students, secondary school-teachers, and to any others with an interest in some aspect of geology. The many printings, several decades ago, of guide books to various aspects of the natural history of the Fort Worth area by Hortense and Professor W. M. Minton of Texas Christian University are ample proof of the popularity of such guides if properly done.
In 1973 several graduate students, Diana Grunig, M. A. Jordan, Donald F. Parker, and Bill Williams, suggested that they would be willing to aid in such a project if they could in some way receive credit for the work. This was arranged by enrolling them in Cretaceous Stratigraphy - Geology 380K. The present volume has resulted.
Not only should the above authors be acknowledged, but several students of The University of Texas at Austin Student Geological Society (SGS) have laboured to produce and publish an adequate format. Among them, Charles Stone edited and computerized the text, and, with the aid and instruction in the dark-room by John Pigott, edited the figures.
Keith Young
August, 1977


Abstract. In the 1990's, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted the International Hydrographic Office's (IHO) S-57 performance standards for Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC), which enforce standardized content, structure, and format. The IMO also revised its Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) chapter V regulations to require Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) onboard certain SOLAS class vessels, starting from 2018. These systems allow for navigating with ENC data, which has several advantages over paper charts; however, many mariners still prefer traditional paper or raster charts. Through the feedback of key stakeholders such as local pilot associations, it has become apparent that the preference for raster or paper charts is due to the inclusion of non-critical S-57 land features. These S-57 land features, which are typically not added to ENC products, such as roads and elevation contours, can supplement navigational positioning systems by providing visual references, particularly when other landmarks (e.g., spot elevations on major topographic features) are not present on the ENC. Moreover, charting roads on ENC products can be useful for locating water access points. This paper discusses the addition of roads and land elevation contours to NOAA's re-schemed ENC suite in an effort to supplement currently charted marine features and land features crossing over water. General cartographic guidelines have also been developed for the representation of these features through ENC scales (i.e., usage bands 3 to 5). Additionally, this paper includes a discussion on the benefits and challenges of incorporating publicly available land transportation data versus traditional sources on ENC products.


The article reports on a study of the views and actions of nearly a hundred scholars – mostly academic researchers from four European countries and four disciplines – in regard to scholarly reputation in the Science 2.0 age. It specifically looks at the role that 'emerging reputational mechanisms and platforms are playing in building, maintaining, and showcasing scholarly reputation in the digital age. Popular examples of such platforms are ResearchGate and Academia.edu. Data were obtained through one‐to‐one interviews and focus groups, supported by desk research. The main findings were: (a) it is early days and uptake is light and patchy with platforms largely used for non‐reputational purposes, such as sharing documents; (b) most users were passive and did not fully engage with the social aspects of the platforms; (c) the reputational focus was very much on just one scholarly activity (research), on just two outputs of that activity (publications and conferences) and one measurement of that activity (citations), but there are the stirrings of change; (d) young researchers are set to profit most from the emerging platforms.


Structural engineering has progressed from design for life safety limit states to performance based engineering, in which energy dissipation systems in structural frameworks assume prime importance. A visco-hyperelastic device is a completely new type of passive energy dissipation system that not only combines the energy dissipation properties of velocity and displacement dependent devices but also provides additional stability to the structure precluding overall collapse. The device consists of a viscoelastic material placed between two steel rings. The energy dissipation in the device is due to a combination of viscoelastic dissipation from rubber and plastic dissipation due to inelastic behavior of the steel elements. The device performs well under various levels of excitation, providing an excellent means of energy dissipation. The device properties are fully controlled through modifiable parameters. An initial study was conducted on motorcycle tires to evaluate the hyperelastic behavior and energy dissipation potential of circular rubber elements, which was preceded by preliminary finite element modeling. The rubber tires provided considerable energy dissipation while displaying a nonlinear stiffening behavior. The proposed device was then developed to provide additional stiffness that was found lacking in rubber tires. Detailed finite element analyses were conducted on the proposed device using the finite element software package ABAQUS, including parametric studies to determine the effect of the various parameters of device performance. This was followed by a nonlinear dynamic response history analysis of a single-story steel frame with and without the device to study


Objective: To describe the technique and results of mucosectomy; A surgical technique that is easy to perform, and has a lower morbidity and complication rate as compared to standard appendectomy in cases of complicated appendicitis.
Study Design: Quasi-experimental study.
Place and Duration of Study: Surgical - A Unit, Ayub Teaching Hospital, in Abbottabad, from Mar 2017 to Mar 2019.
Methodology: Patients included were those who presented with appendicular mass, phlegmon, recurrent appendicitis, appendicitis in uncommon locations, presence of adhesions, those cases of appendicular mass and phlegmon which was either not responding to medical treatment, or diagnosed per operatively being clinically not palpable or not seen on ultrasound. Per operative and post-operative variables were documented and analyzed. In mucosectomy, thesubserosal portion of the appendix i-emuscularis and mucosa of the appendix was dissected out from the serosa after ligation of the appendicular base, or ligation done after delivering the appendix out of the serosa. The serosa that was adherent to the surrounding gut, omentum or other viscera was left intact.
Results: A total of 192 patients were included in this study, half of which underwent standard appendectomy and a mucosectomy was performed on the rest. The mean time of surgery was 30 ± 1.2min as compared to the standard appendectomy group (55min ± 3.6). More than half of the patients undergoing standard appendectomy required extension of the incision (56.2%), only 8% required so from those on whom mucosectomy was performed. Per operative hemorrhage was seen in 32.2%, however inmucosectomy group only 1%.


Partial results of an investigation into the business value of Information Systems/Information Technology (IS/IT) investments in the Financial Services Sectors (FSS) in Australia are presented. Using Case Study methodology to develop and refine a conceptual model of the relationship between IS/IT investment and organisational performance. The preliminary results from a Credit Union case reported indicate support for components of the conceptual model. Further, analysis indicates the existence of intermediary factors (operations, product delivery, customer service and staff). Directing IS/IT investments to these areas is likely to have a positive impact on organisational performance.


Coaches and practitioners recognize that talent identification and development have a crucial role in the pursuit of excellence. National governing bodies routinely allocate youth participants, irrespective of biological age, to chronological age categories in an effort to ensure developmentally fair competition and opportunity. However, differences in the timing and tempo of maturation provide evidence to exclude chronological age and can lead to the misclassification of children in relation to their biological maturity. The purpose of this study was to explore coaches' perceptions of how they use chronological age and biological age in coaching practice, and the importance they place on the measurement and utilization of biological age to develop young athletes. We conducted semi-structured interviews with six coaches and analyzed data using a qualitative description methodology. The results revealed three main themes relating to the delivery of the long-term athlete development model, the limited or lack of knowledge of all aspects of the long-term athlete development model, and a desire for a different model. Results provide scholars and practitioners with a greater understanding of coaches' perspectives of the use of chronological and biological age in the identification and development of talented athletes.


A general analysis of the sensitivities of neutron \ensuremath{\beta}-decay experiments to manifestations of possible interaction beyond the standard model is carried out. In a consistent fashion, we take into account all known radiative and recoil corrections arising in the standard model. This provides a description of angular correlations in neutron decay in terms of one parameter, which is accurate to the level of $~{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$. Based on this general expression, we present an analysis of the sensitivities to new physics for selected neutron decay experiments. We emphasize that the usual parametrization of experiments in terms of the tree-level coefficients $a,A$, and B is inadequate when the experimental sensitivities are at the same or higher level relative to the size of the corrections to the tree-level description.


Stock options are priced numerically using space- and time-adaptive finite difference methods. European options on one and several underlying assets are considered. These are priced with adaptive numerical algorithms including a second order method and a more accurate method. For American options we use the adaptive technique to price options on one stock with and without stochastic volatility. In all these methods emphasis is put on the control of errors to fulfill predefined tolerance levels. The adaptive second order method is compared to an alternative discretization technique using radial basis functions. This method is not adaptive but shows potential in option pricing for one and several underlying assets. A finite difference method and a Monte Carlo method are applied to a new financial contract called Turbo warrant. A comparison of these two methods shows that for the case considered the finite difference method is superior.


The design and implementation of an interactive music system is a difficult task. It necessitates the description of complex interplays between two design layers at least : the real time synchronous layer for audio processing, and at the symbolic event based layer for interaction handling. Tiled programming is a recent proposal that aims at combining with a single metaphor: tiled signals, the distinct programmatic features that are used in these two layers. The libTuiles experiment presented in this paper is a first experimental implementation of such a new design principle.


This article examines the phenomena of dissent within WTO dispute settlement panels and within Appellate Body divisions ("horizontal disagreement") and the failure of certain WTO dispute settlement panels to follow previous rulings of the Appellate Body ("vertical disagreement"). With respect to horizontal disagreement, the article responds to a recent critique of my earlier piece on the subject (The Lack of Dissent in WTO Dispute Settlement, 9 J. INT'L ECON. L. 895 (2006)). With respect to vertical disagreement, the article examines whether there are textual or normative reasons why panels should not disagree with the Appellate Body. It argues that the series of panels that have declined to follow previous Appellate Body decisions (in the context of the zeroing disputes) have been engaging in a dialectical process with the Appellate Body in an attempt to signal difficulties with the Appellate Body's prior reasoning. The article goes on to identify parameters within which it might be appropriate for panels to diverge from previous Appellate Body rulings; in particular, it identifies examples of what might be, in the words of the Appellate Body, "cogent reasons" not to follow prior Appellate Body decisions.


Abstract The killing of cattle for human consumption (slaughtering) can take place in a slaughterhouse or on farm. The processes of slaughtering that were assessed for welfare, from the arrival of cattle until their death (including slaughtering without stunning), were grouped into three main phases: pre‐stunning (including arrival, unloading from the truck, lairage, handling and moving of cattle); stunning (including restraint); and bleeding. Stunning methods were grouped into two categories: mechanical and electrical. Twelve welfare consequences that cattle may be exposed to during slaughter were identified: heat stress, cold stress, fatigue, prolonged thirst, prolonged hunger, impeded movement, restriction of movements, resting problems (inability to rest or discomfort during resting), social stress, pain, fear and distress. Welfare consequences and their relevant animal‐based measures are described. In total, 40 welfare hazards that could occur during slaughter were identified and characterised, most of them related to stunning and bleeding. Staff were identified as the origin of 39 hazards, which were attributed to the lack of appropriate skill sets needed to perform tasks or to fatigue. Measures to prevent and correct hazards were identified, and structural and managerial measures were identified as those with a crucial role in prevention. Outcome tables linking hazards, welfare consequences, animal‐based measures, origin of hazards, and preventive and corrective measures were developed for each process. Mitigation measures to minimise welfare consequences are proposed.


Transnational armed conflicts between states and non-state armed groups have emerged as a defining characteristic of twenty-first century warfare. Humanitarian actors tend to classify such conflicts (e.g., between the United States and ISIL) as non-international armed conflicts rather than international armed conflict. This classification is subject to considerable debate; yet both sides present their views as the inevitable result of the interpretation of the relevant International Humanitarian Law (IHL) treaty articles. This Article demonstrates that the classification of transnational armed conflicts as non-international armed conflicts does not merely concern the application of the relevant laws, but represents a fundamental shift in the attitude of humanitarian actors: while IHL has traditionally been considered the most effective legal constraint on the brutality of warfare, the current trend perceives International Human Rights Law as the desirable legal regime for regulating asymmetrical conflicts. Humanitarian actors prefer to classify these conflicts as non-international armed conflicts because the relative lack of IHL norms applicable to that class of conflict enables extensive application of the more protective international human rights law as a complementary mechanism. Nonetheless, the adoption of this classification by the U.S. Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld may have been a Pyrrhic victory for this novel approach due to the United States' reluctance to apply international human rights law norms to extraterritorial conflicts. Thus, instead of the full application of IHL norms, only the vague norms relevant to non-international armed conflicts apply, without the benefit of applying international human rights law as a complementary legal regime.


Recent research has identified important characteristics of barley grain as feed for cattle. Of these, low ruminal dry-matter digestibility (DMD) is of particular importance as it is highly correlated with animal performance and with animal health. This research attempts to identify genetic loci that contribute to the ruminal DMD of barley grain. The utility of the barley ant18 mutation for decreasing ruminal DMD was investigated. The DMD of several barley cultivars and their ant18 mutations was investigated in a randomized complete block design in two environments. Genotype by environment interaction was present: in the greenhouse the DMD of ant18 mutants was less than that of the wildtype, and in a dryland field the reverse was true. Because of this interaction, ant18 is not likely to be a reliable method of modulating DMD. With the aim of identifying markers for marker-assisted selection (MAS), a 123-member inbred population was developed from a cross of Haxby and PI 28624. PI 28624 is a low DMD accession from the USDA barley collection. The grain of this population was evaluated for DMD at the F6 generation and F5 DNA genotyped using SSR and AFLP markers, allowing genetic map construction and quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis. Two QTL were detected on chromosome 6H and 7H explaining 19 and 17% of phenotypic variation, respectively. Due to the low estimated genome coverage of this map (50 to 65%), 86 F7 lines were genotyped using the GoldenGate SNP genotyping technology. Use of this technology allowed accurate assessment of genome coverage, which is quite complete with the exception of the extreme short arms of 2H, 5H, and 6H. 3H and 6H, though apparently quite complete, are of much shorter centiMorgan length than the consensus maps of these chromosomes. Possible causes of this phenomenon are discussed. In addition to the previously detected QTL, two new QTL for DMD were detected in this F7 sub-population, on chromosomes 1H and 7H. These QTL may be useful for MAS if they can be validated in other populations. This population will be useful for other genetic studies in barley.


The rapid depletion of finite fossil fuel resources and the increase in greenhouse gasses due to
fossil fuel use has led to greater efforts into the search for alternative fuels for transportation.
Many studies of alternative fuels have shown that hydrogen is one of the clean and
inexhaustible fuels that can become a part of the overall solution to the transportation fuel
debate. This thesis covers the research of a totally closed loop system of producing hydrogen
from electrolysis as well as the use of hydrogen as a fuel in a converted standard gasoline
internal combustion engine car.
Due to the increase in use and application of hydrogen as an energy carrier for stationary and
mobile applications, there is increasing pressure to ensure the safe handling and monitoring
of this highly combustible gas. The associated equipment to monitor and measure the
explosion limit of any leakage together with the pressure and flow rate is very expensive.
Any reliable mathematical or empirical means to estimate and predict those safety features of
hydrogen will greatly assist in avoiding expensive instrumentation. In this thesis, Artificial
Intelligent predictive models including Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Adaptive
Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) are presented as virtual sensors for the accurate
estimation of hydrogen parameters such as the percentage lower explosive limit, hydrogen
pressure and hydrogen flow rate. These parameters are shown as a function of different input
conditions of the power supplied (voltage and current), the feed of de-ionised water and
various system parameters of a proton exchange membrane electrolyser. All results are
obtained from experimental tests of the Hogen®20 electrolyser. This includes the installation
of de-ionised water and electrolyser sensors; National Instrument data acquisition system;
LABVIEW user interfaces, as well as utilising Windows Diagnostic Software Operation. It
was shown that, using neural networks, hydrogen safety parameters were predicted with an
inaccuracy of less than 5% of percentage average root mean square error. The outcomes of
the system are useful, as virtual sensors, for operators to monitor hydrogen safety on the shop
floor. This is also an innovative way of avoiding expensive instrumentation for hydrogen
monitoring.
A good understanding and parallel progress of the hydrogen internal combustion engine
technology is essential when the unit cost of hydrogen production is affordable. One of the
v
major aspects of an internal combustion engine running on hydrogen is system calibration. It
is required to build appropriate engine tuning maps for ignition and injection timing to
achieve smoother knock-free combustion. This aspect is particularly exasperated when tailormade
engine management systems are integrated into the hydrogen internal combustion
engine without prior matrix of data to refer to for online tuning. While the process of
exhaustive experimentation and subsequent table-filling processes are time-consuming, an
intelligent system-estimating ignition and injection timing with respect to the engine desired
performance parameters will be of great use in the eventual fine-tuning. The research presents
the implementation of different intelligent fine-tuning methods for the conversion of a Toyota
Corolla four-cylinder, 1.8-litre hydrogen-powered car. This is done through the investigation
of past research, theoretical analysis and the creation of a fuzzy expert system as well as
Model-based Calibration and Calibration Generation techniques that use engine parameters
and control variables. While traditional control methodology does not cope with the
exponential increases in control parameters and the algorithm complexity of hydrogen
internal combustion engines, the research methodology determines the optimal of hydrogen
engine performances in terms of power, fuel economy and emissions, in a smart process that
can be seen as a generic application for all current and future hydrogen internal combustion
engine control system parameters.
All results achieved from the real tests are used to investigate the application of artificial
intelligent models as virtual sensors to predict relevant emissions of the converted hydrogenfuelled
car. Emissions were predicted with an inaccuracy of less than 4% of percentage
average root mean square error. These predictions are based on the study of the qualitative
and quantitative effects of engine-operating parameters on the harmful exhaust gas emissions.
This study is a step towards a full understanding of hydrogen production, modelling of virtual
sensors on a sound mathematical basis including hydrogen-fuelled engines, their
performances and associated environmental benefits.


According to Crofton's formula, the surface area S(A) of a sufficiently regular compact set A in Rd is proportional to the mean of all total projections pA (u) on a linear hyperplane with normal u, uniformly averaged over all unit vectors u. In applications, pA (u) is only measured in k directions and the mean is approximated by a finite weighted sum bS(A) of the total projections in these directions. The choice of the weights depends on the selected quadrature rule. We define an associated zonotope Z (depending only on the projection directions and the quadrature rule), and show that the relative error bS (A)/S (A) is bounded from below by the inradius of Z and from above by the circumradius of Z. Applying a strengthened isoperimetric inequality due to Bonnesen, we show that the rectangular quadrature rule does not give the best possible error bounds for d =2. In addition, we derive asymptotic behavior of the error (with increasing k) in the planar case. The paper concludes with applications to surface area estimation in design-based digital stereology where we show that the weights due to Bonnesen's inequality are better than the usual weights based on the rectangular rule and almost optimal in the sense that the relative error of the surface area estimator is very close to the minimal error.


We seek to illuminate reasons why undertaking mathematics coursework assessment as part of an alternative post-compulsory, pre-university scheme led to higher rates of retention and completion than the traditional route. We focus on the students' experience of mathematical activity during coursework tasks, which we observed to be qualitatively different to most of the other learning activities observed in lessons. Our analysis of interviews found that these activities offered: (i) a perceived greater depth of understanding; (ii) motivation and learning through modelling and use of technology; (iii) changes in pedagogies and learning activities that supported student-centred learning; and (iv) assessment that better suited some students. Teachers' interviews reinforced these categories and highlighted some motivational aspects of learning that activity during coursework tasks appears to provide. Thus, we suggest that this experience offered some students different learning opportunities, and that this is a plausible factor in the relative success of these students.


The past federal election campaign would be a good joke if the issues facing the country were not
so serious. These include climate change, how not to dissipate our next resource windfall, the twospeed
economy, education, asylum seekers and refugees, to name just a few. But neither party
has campaigned on any of these matters in any other than populist terms. Short term political
incentives have wholly trumped longer term policy needs. National interests have been sidelined.


Categorising works by genre can be controversial in literature. Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro are two examples of writers who have been vocal in denouncing the genre their works have been boxed into. Yet genre is an essential part of the writing process, because specific language, styles and structures are used within different social contexts to communicate purpose. This paper is a practice-led study that analyses the evolution in genre of what became a memoir, to illustrate how experimenting with different genres shaped the final form, structure and genre of the piece. While genre did not dictate the writing process from the first time I sat down to write, communicating my purpose the way I intended depended on finding the right genre. I worked on the memoir over a few years, and in that time the text began as a short story and then morphed to poetry, an essay, and finally, to a memoir. Once a completed work is published, the labelling of that work is then out of the writer's hands. Yet separate to the role genre plays in selling books, genre is key in text construction and a tool that writers have at their disposal during the writing process to enrich their work.


Osteoporosis is a major public health issue affecting a large proportion of the population aged over fifty years. It leads to a huge burden through the increased morbidity and mortality associated with fragility fractures. Although the age-specific incidence of fractures has been increasing over the last 40 years in the West, this now seems to be plateauing. However, with the predicted increase in the world population, particularly the over 65's, over the next 40 years, the future burden of fractures will increase substantially. There is a large genetic component to peak bone mass, which is polygenic in origin. Increasingly it is recognised that environmental factors not only affect the rate of bone loss, but also affect peak bone mass gained. This has led to a new approach, based on the idea of "foetal programming". Patient assessment has, in the past, been based on bone mineral density and the relative risk of fracture. New approaches involve determining a patient's 5-10 year absolute risk of fracture, which will allow better targeting of today's more effective but expensive treatments.


The American criminal justice system is under tremendous pressures, increasingly collapsing under its heavy weight, thus requiring inevitable change. One notable feature responsible for this broken system is over-criminalization: the scope of criminal law is constantly expanding, making individuals liable to conviction and punishment for an ever-wider range of behaviors. One area where over-criminalization is most notable concerns victimless crimes, namely, individuals who engage in consensual conducts which inflict only harm on themselves but not on third parties, such as prostitution, pornography, sadomasochism, gambling, and most notably, drug crimes. Despite increasing scholarly critique of the continued criminalization of these behaviors, particularly drug offenses, significant limits on the scope of victimless crimes have not yet been adopted. Two features characterizing criminal law account for this: first, in contrast with criminal procedure, constitutional law has not placed any significant limits on substantive criminal law, and second, there is no coherent theory of criminalization that sets clear boundaries between criminal and non-criminal behaviors. This article proposes a constitutional constraint to limit criminalization of victimless crimes, and particularly to alleviate the pressures on the criminal justice system emanating from its continuous "war on drugs." To accomplish this goal, the article explores the concept of human dignity, a fundamental right yet to be invoked in the context of substantive criminal law. The U.S. Supreme Court's jurisprudence invokes conflicting accounts of human dignity: liberty as dignity, on the one hand, and communitarian virtue as dignity on the other. However, the Court has not yet developed a workable mechanism to reconcile these competing concepts in cases where they directly clash. The article proposes guidelines for balancing these contrasting interests and then applies them to drug crimes, illustrating that adopting such guidelines would result in constraining the scope of substantive criminal law.


Background: Stroke is the leading cause of serious long-term disability. In recent studies hyponatremia as a risk factor for stroke. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was to evaluate serum zinc level in serum sodium over the first 24 hours after the onset of stroke. Different intensities were determined on Stroke Scale NIH (National Institute of Health) (mild 4-1) and (average moderate 15-5) and (moderate to severe 20-16) and (extreme severe 42- 21). Determination intensity of stroke after admission and discharge with Modified Rankin Scale and Barthel index. Blood serum concentrations of sodium 0.5 mL of venous blood were taken and sodium serum level was performed with Latex particle agglutination test in Ayatollah Rouhani Hospital. That normal range was defined 136-146 meq / L Findings: 125 patients were entered into this study; the prevalence of hyponatremia in female was 70% vs 60% in male. Of stroke patients included in this study 66% of them had hyponatremia and the frequency of hyponatremia in ischemic and hemorrhagic was 82% and 63%, respectively. Increase in hyponatremia with disability period of admission had statistically significant (10(12) mild vs 40(32) moderate, 32(25.6) severe, p=0.01) also with disability before discharge (24(19.2) mild, 26(20.8) moderate, 32(25.6) severe, p=0.03). Conclusions: Hyponatremia can effect on severity of the stroke and can be considered as a predictor of increased stroke severity and disability at admission and discharge.


The growth and development of e-government communities is shown as a
sovereign asset in developing societies, as a way for governments to employ new
technologies, make people more accessible to government information and
services, improve the quality of these services and provide the possibility of
people's participation in democratic processes and activities. The purpose of
this study is to evaluate the feasibility and importance of using metadata in
the implementation of e-government services. In this research, which was
conducted over a period of 6 months, 146 senior, operational and middle
managers of Islamic Azad University in Khorasan Razavi province were selected
through stratified random sampling. The research tool was a questionnaire whose
validity was confirmed by experts and its reliability was confirmed by
Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Based on partial least squares analysis (PLS)
which is a model fitting based on validity and reliability analysis, the
results showed that macro data volume, macro data speed, and macro data
variability are based on three criteria of e-government implementation ie
e-government core. , The extended layer of e-services and the outer layer of
e-services based on the t-statistic, which is higher than 1.96, has a positive
and significant effect.


Lucha Libre has played an important role in Mexican culture since the late 1950s. The sport became famous mainly due to its masked wrestlers, who incorporated their own family traditions, beliefs and fears into the design of their masks, transforming an ordinary person into a fearless character. After the introduction of the Monsters Cinema in the 1930s, Mexican audiences welcomed and adopted characters like Dracula, Nosferatu, Frankenstein and The Werewolf. The success of Monster Cinema in Mexican culture was based on the integration of national legends and beliefs, placing them in local and identifiable concepts in the Mexican popular imagination. Later, Lucha Libre Cinema mixed with Monster Cinema resulting in the birth of new heroes and myths. These emergent paladins of the Mexican metropolis set the cultural and moral standards of that time and how Mexicans wanted to be perceived. Through an anthropological and historical analysis of Mexican Cinema and Lucha Libre, this paper investigates the main social interaction of male wrestlers who perform as heroes inside the celluloid world and outside of it. We explore how masculinity and the male figure evolves in Lucha Libre Cinema, and the processes that wrestlers have to undergo in order to be able to portray themselves as superheroes of an evolving and fast growing Mexico.


The study was aimed to improve the productive performance of white laying hens, using two types of medicinal herbs, including turmeric and Artemisia Herba. In the experiment 63 laying hens (white shevar) were used at an age of 24 weeks, hens were divided randomly in to three treatment 21 hens pre treatment with 3 replicate of 7 hens per replicate. A standard ration was used without any addition, which was considered as the control treatment (T1), the basic ration, plus turmeric powder (0.5%) (T2), while the treatment (T3) represented the basic ration plus Artemisia Herba powder by 0.5%. The study included the measurements of egg production, egg weight, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio and egg mass. The results showed a significant improvement (P<0.05) in the characteristics of egg production ratio, feed conversion ratio and egg mass for the treatment with the addition of Artemisia Herba flower (T3) compared with other treatments, and significant decrease (P<0.05) in the amount of feed consumed (T2, T3) as compared with the control treatment (T1), while the results did not show any significant differences to addition of turmeric to the ration (T2) in the productive performance as compared to the control treatment. It was concluded from that the addition of Artemisia Herba to the ration resulted in a significant improvement in most of the productive performance of laying hens as compared to other treatments.


We have been developing a new mobility-aid robotic vehicle, "Tread-Walk 2 (TW-2)", which supports walking for the elderly. TW-2 is controlled by the natural walking movement, especially using ground reaction force during gait. In our previous work, we tried to estimate the user's anteroposterior force from the motor current value without a force sensor. But, a user of this vehicle experienced some discomfort both when he started walking and when he stopped walking. This problem is caused by inaccurate estimation of the user's anteroposterior force at the heel contact and the toe off. The estimation of the user's anteroposterior force is greatly related to inaccurate estimation of the vertical component of the ground reaction force, which is approximated by the square waveform in the stance phase. In this paper, we proposed the new approximation that reflects the characteristics of the ground reaction force during the human gait. This paper describes the novel method to approximate the waveforms of the vertical forces as isosceles trapezoidal waves. By comparing the estimated anteroposterior force using the new method with the measured value using the force plate, for two young subjects whose physical characteristics were different, the waveform pattern of the estimated force was found to be similar to that of the measured force. This showed that the proposed method could possibly be useful for accurate estimation of anteroposterior force. The technology to estimate the user's anteroposterior force accurately is a key to construct a control algorithm to improve the operability of TW-2.


Continuous cropping and minimum tillage have changed the agricultural landscape in WA, and it is important to monitor the system to determine if our farming system is under threat. In the context of disease; the implication is that the threat of diseases in cereal crops will increase over time. For example, if the soil-borne disease Crown Rot increases from one year to the next over successive years, then the farming system will become increasingly risky, as cereal crops will be less resistant to terminal drought. In seasons that are marginally profitable, such an increase in crown rot could turn a moderately profitable season into a loss making season.

For this reason, it is prudent to monitor the disease status of fields across the wheat belt, and determine whether the dominant diseases of Crown Rot and Rhizoctonia are increasing, decreasing, or remaining constant. Each disease has two measurable components; the level of inoculum (measured in this survey using the SARDI predictaB service, and an estimate of disease incidence (made in this instance by a DAFWA plant pathologist). The infection and expression of the disease is a consequence of both the level of inoculum and the conduciveness of the season, therefore it is important to monitor the pathogen and the disease to determine whether the farming system may be vulnerable to soil-borne diseases. Furthermore, trends may appear at a regional level and if an increase in a particular disease is detected, it is important to determine whether such an increase has occurred on specific paddocks, or occurs randomly throughout the wheatbelt. Of considerable concern is whether break crops are performing their expected function and reducing the expression of disease in both the break crop and in subsequent cereal crops.

Here, we explore the regional trends in the two major diseases of wheat Crown Rot and Rhizoctonia from 2010 to 2013. We then consider whether the problem sustains itself in an individual field, or whether management actions can successfully reduce the disease in the following season. Finally we explore the break crops and pastures and test whether the break crops are indeed reducing the disease levels.


Many computer science researchers are pursuing the vision of service-oriented software architectures through which end-users can seamlessly access customised, potentially disposable services to aid them carry out a myriad of everyday tasks. Full realisation of this vision requires deployment of facilities for the dynamic discovery, composition, interoperation and execution monitoring of preexisting networked software services, possibly administered by different organisations or originated by multiple developers. Significant research efforts are addressing the development of frameworks and process-oriented techniques for service composition, much of it focussing on specification of services in terms of formal process semantics. Although increasingly powerful methodologies, languages and algorithms supporting the construction, execution and adaptation of dynamically composed services have emerged, little attention has been paid to the supporting infrastructure necessary for their widespread deployment. In particular, accounting systems target charging of services on a one-by-one basis; they do not consider the possibility that services can be collectively orchestrated in an arbitrary manner to fulfil changing requirements. Existing accounting systems, including their rating engines, typically are manually configured to account for specific services at the time those services are initially deployed. However, in environments where services can be dynamically composed this approach is no longer possible: service compositions are created and executed within a short time span, so there is no time for manual configuration of appropriate accounting operations. Accounting operations must be automatically configured when service compositions are initially constructed, or subsequently modified. In this paper we present a two-phase rating process incorporating an algorithm that generation of charge for dynamically composed services. The algorithm treats composed services as a tree structure in which groups of services comprise a composed service which can itself be part of a group of services comprising a composed service at the next level upwards of the tree. The tree is traversed in a depth first fashion, in order to attribute charges to all composed services. To do so the algorithm calculates changes in charges for those services based on the presence or lack of presence of named services in the group of service comprising that composed service. Application of this algorithm enables the rating engine to generate charges for services that are dynamically composed and for which the rating engine can have no prior knowledge. This method also provides a means to closely map real-world business relationships between service providers to the charges applied when their services are used together.


Matters related to religion and faith are often accorded great importance by refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and faith-based organizations (FBOs) are increasingly playing a critical role in performing refugee support work in various parts of the world. Despite this, little academic work has been produced exploring the work of FBOs with refugees and IDPs. This article examines the experiences of one FBO in particular, Islamic Relief, which is involved in working with refugees and IDPs in various parts of the world. The experiences of this organization reveal the importance of faith both in terms of building trust amongst refugee communities as well as in facilitating a greater sensitivity to the spiritual needs of refugees. Examples cited demonstrate the possibilities of interfaith cooperation amongst FBOs and the importance of such cooperation in areas that have experienced conflict. Finally, the experiences of Islamic Relief also demonstrate the possible complications arising because of its faith-based status in certain contexts.


Abstract Self-continuity – the sense that one's past, present, and future are meaningfully connected – is considered a defining feature of personal identity. However, bases of self-continuity may depend on cultural beliefs about personhood. In multilevel analyses of data from 7287 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations, we tested a new tripartite theoretical model of bases of self-continuity. As expected, perceptions of stability, sense of narrative, and associative links to one's past each contributed to predicting the extent to which people derived a sense of self-continuity from different aspects of their identities. Ways of constructing self-continuity were moderated by cultural and individual differences in mutable (vs. immutable) personhood beliefs – the belief that human attributes are malleable. Individuals with lower mutability beliefs based self-continuity more on stability; members of cultures where mutability beliefs were higher based self-continuity more on narrative. Bases of self-continuity were also moderated by cultural variation in contextualized (vs. decontextualized) personhood beliefs, indicating a link to cultural individualism-collectivism. Our results illustrate the cultural flexibility of the motive for self-continuity.