The limited execution speed of current full system simulators restricts their applicability for dynamic analysis to short-running workloads. When analyzing memory contents while simulating a kernel build with Simics, we encountered slow-downs of more than 5000x resulting in 10 months of total simulation time. Prior work improved the simulation speed by simulating virtual CPU cores on separate physical CPU cores simultaneously or by applying sampling and extrapolation methods to focus costly analyses on short execution windows. However, these approaches inherently suffer from limited scalability or trading accuracy for speed. SimuBoost is a novel idea to parallelize functional full system simulation of single-cores. Our approach takes advantage of fast execution through virtualization, taking checkpoints in regular intervals. The parts between subsequent checkpoints are then simulated and analyzed simultaneously in one job per interval. By transferring jobs to multiple nodes, a parallelized and distributed simulation of the target workload can be achieved, thereby effectively reducing the overall required simulation time. As no implementation of SimuBoost exists yet, we present a formal model to evaluate the general speedup and scalability characteristics of our acceleration technique. We moreover provide a model to estimate the required number of simulation nodes for optimal performance. According to this model, our approach can speed up conventional simulation in a realistic scenario by a factor of 84, while delivering a parallelization efficiency of 94%.


The process of design is a key component of engineering that relies heavily on student collaboration and language use. One important aspect of design is the need for designers to develop solutions capable of solving specific engineering problems. Engineers enact recognizable epistemic practices and often rely on data as a means for justifying their designed solutions. Indeed, when striving to meet a specific client's requests, engineers must make claims that rely on collected data as a means for justifying their design decision. This study examined how two groups of elementary students engaged with this specific practice (i.e., using data to support design decisions) by investigating the justifications for their espoused design decisions during an engineering design challenge. Using discourse analysis methods, this ethnographic microanalysis examined the ways in which students legitimized their design choices, in addition to investigating how those justifications were or were not validated by the classroom teacher. Findings indicated students used either their personal authority, or the data and expert authority it provided to support their engineering design decisions. Additionally, the classroom teacher mostly validated student justifications constructed using applicable sources of data while providing few opportunities for students to enact their personal authority. Findings highlight the need for instruction that purposefully connects students' personal authority with specific aspects of the design problem space so students can feel empowered to pursue and test the validity of their initial design ideas using applicable data.


The present paper deals with popular culture in school and specifically with the case study of a well-known telenovela applied to a 5 th grade class of a public primary school. It was an important chapter of an extended unit on Media Education, which concerned the holistic approach of the media ecosystem. Typically, the school gives the sense that the pupil's informal media experiences don't have a place in class. However, in media pedagogy the teaching topics emerge from pupil's lives. In this way, the children's informal experiences are shifted from the periphery to the central scene of the class. The study showed that the insertion of the popular culture in the class gives voice and chances of success to all children without exceptions, particularly to those who ordinarily do not show interest in traditional teaching ways. Furthermore, it creates a pleasant and democratic learning space and cultivates critical awareness.


Living cells are the product of gene expression programs involving regulated transcription of thousands of genes. Lee et al. used immunoprecipitation and microarray studies to build a global analysis of transcriptional regulatory networks in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Patterns observed were characterized as motifs that were then combined by an automatic process into a network structure. Such transcriptional regulation represents a network of interactions, and similar networks underlie apparently unrelated systems, such as food webs and electronic circuits. To examine their fundamental design features, Milo et al. (see the Perspective by Oltvai and Barabási) looked at local organizing principles of networks, expressed as motifs of how different interactors are joined, that occurred at more than random frequencies. Motifs shared by food webs had features that were not shared by transcription networks from yeast and from Escherichia coli or by electronic circuits, although similarities were seen in information-processing circuits. T. I. Lee, N. J. Rinaldi, F. Robert, D. T. Odom, Z. Bar-Joseph, G. K. Gerber, N. M. Hannett, C. T. Harbison, C. M. Thompson, I. Simon, J. Zeitlinger, E. G. Jennings, H, L. Murray, D. B. Gordon, B. Ren, J. J. Wyrick, J.-B. Tagne, T. L. Volkert, E. Fraenkel, D. K. Gifford, R. A. Young, Transcriptional regulatory networks in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Science 298, 799-804 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text] R. Milo, S. Shen-Orr, S. Itzkovitz, N. Kashtan, D. Chklovskii, U. Alon, Network motifs: Simple building blocks of complex networks. Science 298, 824-827 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text] Z. N. Oltvai, A.-L. Barabási, Life's complexity pyramid. Science 298, 763-764 (2002). [Summary] [Full Text]


Marketers have always aimed at improving quality of relationship with consumers. Recent efforts exploring into brand-consumer relationships indicates that individuals use the interpersonal relationship elements to forge associations with brands and stores. This paper draws from interpersonal literature to develop a value-congruity model of relationship where four district circles are identified. Each circle is associated with a set of values and relationship progression is conceived of as a movement inwards based on value-congruity.


Radiation Oncology residents at UCSF rotate through Mt. Zion Medical Center and Moffitt/Long Hospital. By car or by shuttle, they are within approximately 20 minutes of each other. Exposure to the combination of varied attending staff and diversified clinical exposure at these sites contributes enormously to the breadth and depth of education of our residents. As a result, our residents have the opportunity to study areas of radiation oncology which may not all be available elsewhere, including Gamma Knife radiosurgery, intraoperative radiotherapy, high-dose rate brachytherapy, permanent brachytherapy, and intensity modulated radiotherapy.


Echinoderm diseases have attracted little interest in contrast to the other commercial marine organisms. This study reports the pathogenesis pattern of juvenile Holothuria scabra. 11 pure bacteria were isolated from lesions of juvenile H. scabra with the symptoms of skin ulceration disease. Phylogenetic identification based on 16S rRNA gene sequences analysis revealed that they belonged to the genera Arcobacter bivalviorum , Pseudoalteromonas citrea , Pseudoalteromonas sp . , Vibrio azureus , V. fortis, V. owensii, V. parahaemolyticus, V. rotiferianus, V. tubiashi and Vibrio sp . .This study is the first report which find V. owensii, V. azureus and V. fortis as potential pathogens of holothuroids. All isolated bacteria showed in vitro susceptibility to the common antibiotics imipenem, chloramphenicol and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid. These antibiotics might be effective in reducing the incidence of the skin ulceration disease in case of emergency.


Extension program assistants' turnover intention is a key indicator of human resource development practice and overall effectiveness of organizational leadership. We used a survey design with four instruments to investigate the factors that influenced 149 Ohio State University Extension program assistants' turnover intention. The data showed significant associations between employees' age, years of service, job satisfaction, supervisor satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention. Organizational commitment mediated the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. The research concludes with recommendations that may help to decrease extension program assistants' turnover intention.


Background and the purpose of the study: The aim of this study was to investigate whether Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from osteoporotic patients have a different expression profile of inflammatory and osteoimmunology markers. In addition, the in vitro anti-inflammatory properties of 1,25(OH)2D3 in osteoporotic patients was assessed. For this purpose, cytokines profile and RANKL/OPG system in osteoporotic patients in comparison with healthy controls was investigated . Methods: Monocytes were isolated from peripheral blood of participants by the Ficoll density method, cultured and induced with vitamin D. Cells were harvested several times. RNA was extracted and then cDNA was synthesized. Inflammatory markers (IL-1β, IL- 6 and TNFα), bone metabolism markers (Osteoprotegrin and RANKL), vitamin D receptor (VDR) and β-actin genes were quantified by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase . Results and major conclusion: The expressions of the cytokines IL-6, TNF-α, IL-1, were all down regulated by 1,25(OH)2D3 in monocytes of all participants. Monocytes from healthy control in comparison to osteoporotic patients had a clear suppression pattern of inflammatory cytokines upon vitamin D3 incubation. Of noteworthy is that mRNA expressions of inflammatory cytokines in osteoporotic patients were clearly higher than controls. Results indicated that inflammation may have critical role in osteoporosis whereas osteoporotic patients have elevated pro- inflammatory profile. Vitamin D and its receptor may have Immunomodulatory effects in osteoimmunology. This regulatory function of VDR adds substance to the inflammatory theory behind osteoporosis pathogenesis.


Victimization narratives arise out of the experience of historical and ongoing injury, and often intersect or, in part, constitute identity narratives. Unless transformed through reconciliation, these narratives can be used to mobilize violent behavior aimed at restoring justice or preventing further victimization. Victimization narratives arise from lived experiences, whether by contemporary generations, or through intergenerational narratives, charging the present generation with the task of ending present or preventing future injury. Those experiences, however, can be mythologized or distorted, particularly when appropriated in support of an ideological agenda. Cycles of violence, therefore, cannot be ended in a sustainable manner unless victimization narratives are transformed and cycles of violence disrupted. This is the work of conflict transformation and sustainable post-conflict democratic institution-building. Since the present global political landscape is made up of thousands of identity or communal groups living in just under two hundred states with complicated histories of intergroup conflict and historical injury, most, if not all states are to some degree post-conflict societies. This article examines both victimization experiences and narratives through the eyes of peace activists and leaders who work in a binational capacity with Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. Hundreds of peace organizations active in Israel and Palestine, this project focuses on those specifically directed toward opening and cultivating spaces for empathetic engagement across the lines of identity. These include, for example, the Abrahamic Reunion, Breaking the Silence (Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) Veterans offering witness testimony on the human rights violations under the occupation), the Bereaved Families Forum, and Combatants for Peace. This article reports preliminary findings from four of 26 interviews conducted with binational peace activists during the summer of 2016.


Global gene expression and proteomics tools have allowed large-scale analyses of the transcriptome and proteome in eukaryotic cells. These tools have enabled studies of protein abundance changes that occur in cells under stress conditions, providing insight into regulatory programs required for cellular adaptation. While the proteome of yeast has been subjected to the most comprehensive analysis of any eukary-ote, each of the existing datasets is separate and reported in different units. A comparison of all the available protein abundance data sets is key towards developing a complete understanding of the yeast proteome. We evaluated 19 quantitative proteomic analyses performed under normal and stress conditions and normalized and converted all measurements of protein abundance into absolute molecules per cell. Our analysis yields an estimate of the cellular abundance of 97% of the proteins in the yeast proteome, as well as an assessment of the variation in each abundance measurement. We evaluate the variance and sensitivity associated with different measurement methods. We find that C-terminal tagging of proteins, and the accompanying alterations to the 3' untranslated regions of the tagged genes, has little effect on protein abundance. Finally, our normalization of diverse datasets facilitates comparisons of protein abundance remodeling of the proteome during cellular stresses.


This paper discusses a simulation and modeling package developed at Texas A&M University, V-Elph 2.01. V-Elph facilitates in-depth studies of electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid EV (HEV) configurations or energy management strategies through visual programming by creating components as hierarchical subsystems that can be used interchangeably as embedded systems. V-Elph is composed of detailed models of four major types of components: electric motors, internal combustion engines, batteries, and support components that can be integrated to model and simulate drive trains having all electric, series hybrid, and parallel hybrid configurations. V-Elph was written in the Matlab/Simulink graphical simulation language and is portable to most computer platforms. This paper also discusses the methodology for designing vehicle drive trains using the V-Elph package. An EV, a series HEV, a parallel HEV, and a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) driven drive train have been designed using the simulation package. Simulation results such as fuel consumption, vehicle emissions, and complexity are compared and discussed for each vehicle.


Machine learning is used extensively in recommender systems deployed in products. The decisions made by these systems can influence user beliefs and preferences which in turn affect the feedback the learning system receives - thus creating a feedback loop. This phenomenon can give rise to the so-called "echo chambers" or "filter bubbles" that have user and societal implications. In this paper, we provide a novel theoretical analysis that examines both the role of user dynamics and the behavior of recommender systems, disentangling the echo chamber from the filter bubble effect. In addition, we offer practical solutions to slow down system degeneracy. Our study contributes toward understanding and developing solutions to commonly cited issues in the complex temporal scenario, an area that is still largely unexplored.


This study assesses the causes of forest resource depletion in the Poba reserve forest, Assam, India. Although many activities, such as hunting and grazing, are banned, the Poba reserve forest is being degraded. The results of a household survey show local communities have experienced a decrease in forest resources in 2012 compared to 2002. Lack of community-based institutions and proper forest management plan has opened access to the forest, resulting in illegal logging and over extraction of forest products. These activities have limited the ability of Poba reserve forest to deliver ecosystem goods and services, and prevented forest restoration. Change is forest cover and availability of forest products has adversely affected the livelihoods of more than two-thirds of local households. The study suggests that participatory involvement of local communities in forest management can reverse trends in deforestation and forest degradation and restore the ecosystem. The forest cannot stand alone; it needs active support of the local community.


In response to McVay calls for more research to provide additional cross-sectional tests of classification shifting, the current paper examines whether Jordanian public companies engage in earnings management through classification shifting. Using a sample consisting of 112 public firm from Jordan during the 2010-2014 period, this study applies McVay (2006) Model to investigate the relationship between the non-recurring items (NREC) and the variation in unexpected core earnings (UCE). This analysis was supplemented with employing Fan et al., (2010) Model as a robustness check. Our empirical results reveal that managers in Jordan misclassify their recurring expenses to inflate their core earnings. More precisely, we find that non-recurring items (NREC) are significantly and positively associated with the variation in unexpected core earnings (UCE), thus, classification shifting is a common practice among Jordanian firms. Additionally, we find out stronger evidence on classification shifting when our sample was restricted to those firms with a more significant opportunity to misclassify recurring items (firms with positive NREC). This study contributes to the body of accounting literature by providing the first empirical evidence in the Middle East region overall on the use of classification shifting by Jordanian firms. We are also the first to apply McVay (2006) and Fan et al., (2010) models in the Middle East region. Our findings have important policy implications for standard setters, regulators, auditors and investors in their attempts to constrain earnings management practices and improve the financial reporting quality in Jordan.


In most backarc basins, extension is perpendicular to the arc. Thus individual spreading ridges extend approximately parallel to the arc. In the North Fiji Basin, however, several ancient and active spreading ridges strike 70°-90° to the New Hebrides arc. These high-angle spreading ridges relocated southward during the asymmetric opening of the North Fiji Basin. We have simulated the structural development of the North Fiji Basin and the New Hebrides arc with scaled analogue models, and the results have inspired us to come to several tentative conclusions. We interpret the orientation of the high-angle spreading ridges to be related to the asymmetric opening of the backarc basin around a hinge, where they form close to the hinge. Relocation of these spreading ridges is most likely related to subduction of the West Torres Plateau along the New Hebrides Trench. This resulted in localized collision, retarded rollback of the subducting slab along the northwest corner of the trench, and reduced extension and shearing in the northwest corner of the North Fiji Basin. Backarc extension continued in the rest of the North Fiji Basin owing to continued rollback of the southern part of the subducting slab. Here, active extension was separated from the slightly or nonextending northwest corner by a zone striking at high angle to the New Hebrides arc, i.e., the Hazel Holme extensional zone. Moreover, impingement of the d'Entrecasteaux Ridge into the overriding plate led to local deformation and fragmentation of the arc.


With increasing depth of cover, control of gas emissions and prevention of gas outbursts has become a more and more important issue in mine design and mine operation. Long term experience in these fields exists, especially in Australia, Germany, China, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Based on local conditions including geology, market conditions and mining regulations, different approaches have been developed in these countries. Changes in these parameters have however exposed the limitations of traditional solutions. While the Australian approach is based on the premise that gas content will be reduced below specific threshold values ahead of mining, opportunities of pre-drainage are limited in low permeability coal such as that encountered e.g. in Germany and China. In the case of multi seam mining, a highly effective increase in permeability can however be achieved through pressure relief by unconventional mining sequences. Although practiced at several mines in Europe and Asia, realising this in open market conditions requires a high quality of planning in regard to mine layout, mine development and gas drainage as well as the appropriate geotechnical assessments. A key factor is access and extraction of the first seam at or near to virgin gas contents. Mining at high gas contents by applying local exploration and pressure relief drilling has been practiced in a successful and safe way in several European mines. This has to be connected with a proper management system and safety system, allowing efficient reactions to identified hazards. Apart from international experience and development, the paper will also discuss current and future approaches of technology transfer. Merging the future development in gas drainage with unconventional approaches is therefore an opportunity for accessing deep and difficult deposits.


Colouring the Rainbow uncovers the often hidden world of Queer and Trans Blak Australia and tells it like it is. Twenty-two First Nations people reveal their inner reflections and outlooks on family and culture, identity and respect, homophobia, transphobia, racism and decolonisation, activism, art, performance and more, through life stories and essays. The contributors to this ground-breaking book not only record the continuing relevance of traditional culture and practices, they also explain the emergence of homonormativity within the context of contemporary settler colonialism. Colouring the Rainbow is a real, searing and celebratory exploration of modern culture in post-apology Australia. [Book Synopsis]


This Article responds to two critiques of postmodern legal scholarship published by Dennis W. Arrow in the Michigan and Texas Law Reviews. Arrow raises the modernist criticisms that are most often leveled against postmodern legal scholars. If Arrow and the other critics were to be believed, postmodernists are muddle-headed thinkers who write indecipherable jargon-filled nonsense. Even worse, they are irresponsible nihilists who lack political convictions. Such criticisms of postmodernism are unpersuasive because the typical modernist depiction of postmodern legal thought is seriously inaccurate. It is little more than a caricature.The modernists, in other words, are imprecise and downright wrong. Now, some of the critics, including Arrow, might be smiling and thinking their response: 'Aha! You can't even use the word 'wrong' without contradicting yourself because, after all, you're a postmodernist. And postmodernism repudiates concepts like truth and falsity, and rightness and wrongness. And precision. How can a postmodernist demand precision with a straight face.' But this modernist response is precisely the problem. The typical modernist characterization of postmodernism - as rejecting all conceptions of rightness, goodness, and judgment - is wrong. And I use that word again purposefully to stress that concepts like truth and falsity, rightness and wrongness, and so forth are entirely consistent with postmodernism. Indeed, as explained in this Article, postmodernism explains how we understand such concepts in the first place.


FR Tomlinson Commemorative Lecture held on 6th June 2006 at Elsenburg. Abstract Agricultural policy in the past was characterized by elementary objectives such as stabilisation, protectionism, deregulation and producer interests. Future policy direction faces the complexity associated with post-modernism. In this regard, global markets are considered increasingly saturated, unfair, inequitable, volatile, concentrated and dominated by supply chains and retailers. Agricultural firms are moving beyond a producer orientation towards firms that focus on creating value from size, non-farm business, service orientation, more open management style, greater human capital, accelerated self-renewal, innovation, marginalizing commodities, retaining and unlocking further value from traditional business. Furthermore, contemporary issues like land reform and empowerment remain key challenges but suffer from deficiencies in bureaucracy, beneficiary selection, forms of ownership, and generally incentives to engage markets. Empowerment efforts however favour asset acquisition instead of human capital formation and entrepreneurship. Addressing these challenges requires a reconceptualisation of the role of the state and markets. The argument strongly advanced is for greater integration between state and market whereby markets are incentivised to perform and execute economic programmes.


Thermal elevations experienced by bone during orthopaedic procedures, such as cutting and drilling, exothermal reactions from bone cement, and thermal therapies such as tumor ablation, can result in thermal damage leading to death of native bone cells (osteocytes, osteoblasts, osteoclasts and mesenchymal stem cells). Osteocytes are believed to be the orchestrators of bone remodeling, which recruit nearby osteoclast and osteoblasts to control resorption and bone growth in response to mechanical stimuli and physical damage. However, whether heat-induced osteocyte damage can directly elicit bone remodelling has yet to be determined. This study establishes the link between osteocyte thermal damage and the remodeling cascade. We show that osteocytes directly exposed to thermal elevations (47°C for 1 minute) become significantly apoptotic and alter the expression of osteogenic genes (Opg and Cox2). The Rankl/Opg ratio is consistently down-regulated, at days 1, 3 and 7 in MLO-Y4s heat-treated to 47°C for 1 minute. Additionally, the pro-osteoblastogenic signaling marker Cox2 is significantly up-regulated in heat-treated MLO-Y4s by day 7. Furthermore, secreted factors from heat-treated MLO-Y4s administered to MSCs using a novel co-culture system are shown to activate pre-osteoblastic MSCs to increase production of the pro-osteoblastic differentiation marker, alkaline phosphatase (day 7, 14), and calcium deposition (day 21). Most interestingly, an initial pro-osteoclastogenic signaling response (increase Rankl and Rankl/Opg ratio at day 1) followed by later stage pro-osteoblastogenic signaling (down-regulation in Rankl and the Rankl/Opg ratio and an up-regulation in Opg and Cox2 by day 7) was observed in non-heat-treated MLO-Y4s in co-culture when these were exposed to the biochemicals produced by heat-treated MLO-Y4s. Taken together, these results elucidate the vital role of osteocytes in detecting and responding to thermal damage by means of thermally induced apoptosis followed by a cascade of remodelling responses.


The Chagga people have lived and worked on Mount Kilimanjaro for more than 250 years. Through traditions and social practices within their communities and families, strong bonds are established between the Chagga and their home on the mountain. Kilimanjaro National Park and Forest Reserve (KINAPA) was established in the 1970s to protect and conserve the mountain, based on a long history of colonialism and western ideals. As KINAPA has attempted to preserve the flora and fauna on the uppermost portion of Mount Kilimanjaro, they have alienated local residents from the land through a conservation approach that relies on "fences and fines."

By analyzing the interaction between the organization of Kilimanjaro National Park (KINAPA) and the Chagga people who live near its boundaries, I emphasize the social side of a conservation scenario by focusing on the cultural roots of the Chagga people's sense of place and its influence on their interaction with the mountain. I take as a premise that place and culture are closely connected, and that both, in conjunction with an encroaching western influence in environmental approaches, influence environmental conservation in important ways at the local level on Kilimanjaro. By better understanding the motivations and priorities of the people who surround the lands they hope to protect, KINAPA could tap into some of the social resources it needs to sustain Mount Kilimanjaro.


Abstract. Observations from the Odin/Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (SMR) instrument have been assimilated into the DIAMOND model (Dynamic Isentropic Assimilation Model for OdiN Data), in order to estimate the chemical ozone (O3) loss in the stratosphere. This data assimilation technique is described in Sagi and Murtagh (2016), in which it was used to study the inter-annual variability in ozone depletion during the entire Odin operational time and in both hemispheres. Our study focuses on the Arctic region, where two O3 destruction mechanisms play an important role, involving halogen and nitrogen chemical families (i.e. NOx  =  NO and NO2), respectively. The temporal evolution and geographical distribution of O3 loss in the low and middle stratosphere have been investigated between 2002 and 2013. For the first time, this has been done based on the study of a series of winter–spring seasons over more than a decade, spanning very different dynamical conditions. The chemical mechanisms involved in O3 depletion are very sensitive to thermal conditions and dynamical activity, which are extremely variable in the Arctic stratosphere. We have focused our analysis on particularly cold and warm winters, in order to study the influence this has on ozone loss. The winter 2010/11 is considered as an example for cold conditions. This case, which has been the subject of many studies, was characterised by a very stable vortex associated with particularly low temperatures, which led to an important halogen-induced O3 loss occurring inside the vortex in the lower stratosphere. We found a loss of 2.1 ppmv at an altitude of 450 K in the end of March 2011, which corresponds to the largest ozone depletion in the Northern Hemisphere observed during the last decade. This result is consistent with other studies. A similar situation was observed during the winters 2004/05 and 2007/08, although the amplitude of the O3 destruction was lower. To study the opposite situation, corresponding to a warm and unstable winter in the stratosphere, we performed a composite calculation of four selected cases, 2003/04, 2005/06, 2008/09 and 2012/13, which were all affected by a major mid-winter sudden stratospheric warming event, related to particularly high dynamical activity. We have shown that such conditions were associated with low O3 loss below 500 K (approximately 20 km), while O3 depletion in the middle stratosphere, where the role of NOx-induced destruction processes prevails, was particularly important. This can mainly be explained by the horizontal mixing of NOx-rich air from lower latitudes with vortex air that takes place in case of strongly disturbed dynamical situation. In this manuscript, we show that the relative contribution of O3 depletion mechanisms occurring in the lower or in the middle stratosphere is significantly influenced by dynamical and thermal conditions. We provide confirmation that the O3 loss driven by nitrogen oxides and triggered by stratospheric warmings can outweigh the effects of halogens in the case of a dynamically unstable Arctic winter. This is the first time that such a study has been performed over a long period of time, covering more than 10 years of observations.


Context. Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) harbor progenitors of high-mass stars. Little is known of the parental molecular clouds of IRDCs. Aims. We demonstrate the feasibility of the near-infrared (NIR) dust extinction mapping in tracing the parental molecular clouds of IRDCs at the distances of D ≈ 2.5−8 kpc. Methods. We derive NIR extinction maps for 10 prominent IRDC complexes using a color-excess mapping technique and NIR data from the UKIDSS/Galactic Plane Survey. We compare the resulting maps to the 13CO emission line data, to the 8 μm dust opacity data, and to the millimeter dust emission data. We derive distances for the clouds by comparing the observed NIR source densities to the Besançon stellar distribution model and compare them to the kinematic distance estimates. Results. The NIR extinction maps provide a view of the IRDC complexes over the dynamical range of AV ≈ 2−40 mag, in spatial resolution of ∼30′′ . The NIR extinction data correlate well with the 13CO data and probe a similar gas component, but also extend to higher column densities. The NIR data reveal a wealth of extended structures surrounding the dense gas traced by the 8 μm shadowing features and sub-mm dust emission, showing that the clouds contain typically 10 times more mass than traced by those tracers. The IRDC complexes of our sample contain a relatively high amount of high-column density material, and their cumulative column density distributions resemble active nearby star-forming clouds like Orion rather than less active clouds like California. Conclusions. The NIR dust extinction data provide a new powerful tool to probe the mass distribution of the parental molecular clouds of IRDCs up to the distances of D ∼ 8 kpc. This encourages deeper NIR observations of IRDCs, because the sensitivity and resolution of the data can be directly enhanced with dedicated observations. In addition to mass distributions, the NIR data provide relatively reliable distance estimates.


Precision near infrared (NIR) measurements are essential for the next generation of ground and space based instruments. The SuperNova Acceleration Probe (SNAP) will measure thousands of type Ia supernovae up to a redshift of 1.7. The highest redshift supernovae provide the most leverage for determining cosmological parameters, in particular the dark energy equation of state and its possible time evolution. Accurate NIR observations are needed to utilize the full potential of the highest redshift supernovae. Technological improvements in NIR detector fabrication have lead to high quantum efficiency, low noise detectors using a HgCdTe diode with a band-gap that is tuned to cutoff at 1.7 μm. The effects of detector quantum efficiency, read noise, and dark current on lightcurve signal to noise, lightcurve parameter errors, and distance modulus fits are simulated in the SNAPsim framework. Results show that improving quantum efficiency leads to the largest gains in photometric accuracy for type Ia supernovae. High quantum efficiency in the NIR reduces statistical errors and helps control systematic uncertainties at the levels necessary to achieve the primary SNAP science goals.


Continental shelf waters are subject to the greatest impact by humans. If marine ecosystems are to be efficiently managed and protected from the adverse effects of human activities, then identification of the types of marine habitats and the communities they contain is required. Research cruise data and existing data were collected at three diverse study sites on polar, temperate and tropical continental shelves within Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). This project conducted a multi-disciplinary analysis of satellite imagery, multibeam sonar, seismic profiles, oceanographic data, underwater video, and the results of sediment sampling. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was utilised to model the spatial boundaries of the physical and biological datasets. Spatial and multivariate statistical analyses were conducted on the GIS models and datasets to explore the relationships between abiotic and biotic patterns. GIS was used to map the spatial distribution of benthic habitats at each study site within a hierarchical context.
The East Antarctic continental shelf has had few studies examining the macrobenthos structure or relating biological communities to the abiotic environment. On the George V Shelf, GIS was used to map the geomorphology, surficial sediment and near-seabed water mass boundaries. A study of underwater photographs and the results of biological sampling provided information to infer the dominant trophic structure of benthic communities within geomorphic features. A hierarchical method of benthic habitat mapping was applied to the Geomorphic Unit and Biotope levels at the local (10s of km) scale. The study revealed that mud content, iceberg scour, and oceanic currents are the likely dominant abiotic factors in the broad-scale distribution of macrofauna on the George V Shelf.
To better understand the relationships between the geology of the seabed and associated biological communities, a multibeam sonar survey was conducted over New Zealand Star Bank, eastern Bass Strait, Australia. Through spatial and multivariate analyses of surficial sediment composition and underwater video, the biological assemblage patterns were related to the variation in geomorphology and substrate. A hierarchical method of benthic habitat mapping was applied to the Secondary Biotope and Biological Facies levels at the site (<10 km) scale. The major differences which control the distribution of biological communities in the New Zealand Star Bank area appear to be related to variations in substrate.
To help answer the question whether geophysical data from habitats can be used to predict the occurrence of benthic biodiversity, a multibeam sonar survey was conducted in the northern Great Barrier Reef - Gulf of Papua region. Multivariate statistical analyses were applied to the biological and physical datasets to determine patterns in the distribution of megabenthos, and the relationship with abiotic variables. A hierarchical method of benthic habitat mapping was applied to the Secondary Biotope and Biological Facies levels at the site (<10 km) scale. The combination of substrate type, sedimentary dynamics and physical processes related to nearseabed currents appear to be a dominant control on the benthic communities in the northern Great Barrier Reef - Gulf of Papua region.
Benthic habitat mapping plays a vital part in understanding marine ecosystems and the processes which influence the spatial distribution of benthos. The results of this research have made significant in-roads in the development of a framework for ecosystem-based management of the study areas, the contribution to the ongoing bioregionalisation of Australia, and through an examination of the use of geophysical proxies for the occurrence of biological assemblages, which are fundamental to the establishment of Marine Protected Areas.


Excerpt] By 1999, the combination of organizing victories and employment expansion in unionized industries resulted in a net gain of 265,000 in union membership, the first such gain in more than twenty years (AFL-CIO, 2000). The great American decline in union organizing may have finally bottomed out. Yet, in order to reverse the decline in organizing and regain their power at the bargaining table and in the broader community, American unions are going to have to organize millions, not hundreds of thousands, of workers each year. We can only hope that other nations learn both from our mistakes and our belated attempts at revitalization, so that they can stem their own decline before it reaches the same depths as in the USA.


In many countries there is a deep concern about shortages of Science and Engineering workers (S&E). This article focuses on the effectiveness of policies aimed at stimulating the supply of S&E workers in the Netherlands. Despite the 'common wisdom' of severe and increasing shortages, we do not find evidence for a tight labour market of S&E workers. Instead, the data suggest that S&E workers have become less scarce since 1996. Stimulating enrolment in S&E studies may not be an effective policy for increasing R&D activity in the Netherlands because the majority of Dutch S&E freshmen do not end up working in R&D. They drop out during their S&E study or choose other jobs. In addition, the internationalization of the market for S&E workers tends to counter the effects of supply-side policies because the growing supply of foreign S&E graduates puts downward pressure on wages. As a result, demand-side policies may be more effective because they are directly targeted at fostering R&D.


Export controls on space technology are notoriously strict in the United States, where all space technology is deemed to be munitions and is therefore subject to the burdensome International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) – even if the technology is purely commercial in nature. The burdens of ITAR are a particular threat to the global operations of U.S. companies engaged in the human spaceflight industry. As action from the Obama administration is awaited in this area, promising indications of a more reasonable application of ITAR are emerging. For example, Bigelow Aerospace announced in April of 2009 that the United States Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) had responded favorably to its commodity jurisdiction request to ease its regulatory burden under ITAR. Prior to this decision, the presence of foreign nationals on a Bigelow space station would have been treated as an "export" of space technology under ITAR – thus requiring a license from the DDTC in addition to other burdens. Bigelow Aerospace's successful commodity jurisdiction request has removed these obstacles and, as a result, has breathed new life into the private spaceflight industry. However, whether the ruling will be extended to the companies that will transport private passengers into space remains to be seen. The DDTC's ruling in this case may signal a broader shift in the application of ITAR. At a minimum, the ruling is an encouraging indication of the DDTC's sensitivity to the needs of the commercial spaceflight industry, which could result in the continued relaxation of export controls over commercial space technology. The DDTC ruling is also of interest to scholars of administrative law as an example of how discretion granted to administrative agencies can serve to remedy flaws in federal law when political dynamics prevent Congress from providing the remedies itself.


IN the first half of 1986 crude oil prices fell to about $12 a barrel, back to their level of 1974 and, when adjusted for changes in the general price level, close to the real oil price that prevailed in 1973 just before the first OPEC price increase. This paper reviews the 1986 oil price collapse, discusses why it came as a surprise, and assesses what it means for oil prices in 1986-87 and beyond. The first section of the balance of the paper presents an overview of the 1970-86 world oil market: price, demand and supply by region, and output and revenue for OPEC. The next section reviews the record of expert opinion since the first big price increases in 1973-74, paying special attention to the 1980-81 World Oil study by the Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) and to the results from a series of polls of energy analysts since 1981 by the International Energy Workshop. The third section presents an explanation of the 1986 price collapse, together with a simulation of the choices facing OPEC for 1986 and thereafter. The fourth section examines the question of what should have been expected for 1985-86, going as far back as 1980. Included there are econometric estimates of oil demand functions for the United States and five other countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The paper concludes with a discussion of the outlook for the world oil market. The conclusions of the paper are briefly as follows. The 1986 price collapse was the result of a decision by Saudi Arabia and some of its neighbors to increase their share of the oil market. Unlike other produc-


In the past, domestic prosecutions of foreign corporations were not noteworthy. Federal prosecutors now advertise a muscular approach targeting major foreign firms and even entire industries. High-profile prosecutions of foreign firms have shaken the international business community. Not only is the approach federal prosecutors have taken novel, but corporate criminal liability is itself a form of American Exceptionalism, and few other countries hold corporations broadly criminally accountable. To study U.S. prosecutions of foreign firms, I assembled a database of publicly reported corporate guilty plea agreements from the past decade. I analyzed U.S. Sentencing Commission data archives on federal corporate prosecutions and also data concerning federal deferred and non-prosecution agreements with corporations. Not only are large foreign firms prosecuted with some frequency, but they typically plead guilty, are convicted, and then receive far higher fines than otherwise comparable domestic firms. In this Article, I develop how foreign corporate convictions have become common in distinct substantive criminal areas, and how they share important features. The prosecutions are concentrated in crimes prosecuted by Main Justice, and international treaties and cooperation agreements have facilitated extraterritorial prosecutions. Larger and public foreign firms are prosecuted, and the typical resolution involves not only higher fines, but also a guilty plea and not pre-indictment leniency. I argue that due to their new prominence, we should consider foreign corporation prosecutions as a group so that we can better evaluate and define the emerging prosecution approach.


ABSTRACT Late in adenovirus assembly, the viral protease (AVP) becomes activated and cleaves multiple copies of three capsid and three core proteins. Proteolytic maturation is an absolute requirement to render the viral particle infectious. We show here that the L1 52/55k protein, which is present in empty capsids but not in mature virions and is required for genome packaging, is the seventh substrate for AVP. A new estimate on its copy number indicates that there are about 50 molecules of the L1 52/55k protein in the immature virus particle. Using a quasi-in vivo situation, i.e., the addition of recombinant AVP to mildly disrupted immature virus particles, we show that cleavage of L1 52/55k is DNA dependent, as is the cleavage of the other viral precursor proteins, and occurs at multiple sites, many not conforming to AVP consensus cleavage sites. Proteolytic processing of L1 52/55k disrupts its interactions with other capsid and core proteins, providing a mechanism for its removal during viral maturation. Our results support a model in which the role of L1 52/55k protein during assembly consists in tethering the viral core to the icosahedral shell and in which maturation proceeds simultaneously with packaging, before the viral particle is sealed.


In 2005, the New York Historical Society opened an exhibit titled "Slavery in New York," bringing attention to the fact that slavery was not limited to the South. Fourteen years before, in 1991, the discovery of human remains by construction workers in lower Manhattan brought attention to the African Burial Ground, where slaves in New York City were buried. These developments and previous studies by scholars have emphasized that New York City practiced slavery well into the 19th Century. However, most studies on slavery in New York mention other New York state cities and towns only intermittently. It should be emphasized that slavery was widespread throughout New York State, and that the capital of New York State, Albany, had a significant history with the institution. This article will discuss the evolution of slavery in Albany, prominent slaveowners in Albany, the type of work slaves did, and how slaves fared under the laws of Albany. The story of slavery in Albany, New York began with the establishment of the Dutch West India Company in 1621. Prior to the company's establishment, its parent company, the Dutch East India Company, sponsored exploration in the Americas in the hopes that they would repeat the same success as its nemesis Spain. English seaman Henry Hudson was commissioned by the company in 1609 to find the elusive Northwest Passage. Instead, Hudson sailed along a river valley that would later bear his name. Although his journey was a failure, his journey fostered the establishment of New Netherland in 1624. The northernmost point of New Netherland was Fort Orange, which evolved into present-day Albany. To achieve the goals of permanent settlement and agricultural production, the Dutch West India Company instituted the patroon system, in which landowners were given tracts of land to settle and develop. As with the English colonies, indentured slaves from the European settlement population were initially used to meet the demand for labor. However, this proved to be unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. A 1626 report by the Director and Council of New Netherland best describes the reasons: "Many servants daily run away from their masters, whereby the latter are put to great inconvenience and expense; the corn and tobacco rot in the field, the whole harvest is at a standstill, which tends to the serious injury of this country, to their master's ruin, and to bring the magistracy into contempt." (2) To correct this, the Dutch West India Company instituted the following policy: "In like manner, the incorporated West India Company shall allot to each patroon twelve men and women out of the prize in which Negroes shall be found, for the advancement of the colonies of New Netherland." (3) Eager to accelerate Dutch colonization of New Netherlands, the act was later changed to provide as many slaves as possible. One possible reason for the change was the role the Dutch played in the Atlantic Slave Trade at the time. Via piracy of Spanish slave ships and shrewd dealings by the Dutch West India Company, enslaved Africans found their way to the Dutch West Indies and New Netherland. Of those who went to New Netherland, the majority were found in urban areas such as present-day New York and Albany. At the same time, patroonships in rural areas used slave labor to duplicate the riches of plantations in the American South and Caribbean. The patroon system in New Netherland proved to be unsuccessful for most Dutch settlers. However, there was one Dutch family that held the only successful patroonship in the colony: the Van Rensselaer family. Considered one of the first families of New York, the Van Rensselaers settled in the Albany area and held dominance in New York economic and political affairs from the early 1600's well into the mid 19th century. The Van Rensselaer patroonship began in 1629 when Killian Van Rensselaer, a diamond merchant and trader, purchased an immense tract of land surrounding Fort Orange. …


This report provides a comprehensive review of the lithostratigraphy of the Ordovician and
Silurian sedimentary, excluding volcaniclastic, strata within the Lake District Lower Palaeozoic
Inlier, the nearby northern England inliers of Cross Fell, Cautley and Dent, Craven and Teesdale,
and the Isle of Man. It gives summary definitions of all the existing lithostratigraphical units, and
attempts to resolve some of the inevitable anomalies resulting from the more than 20 years of
recent research by members of the Lake District Regional Geological Survey team and academic
collaborators. That research has led to publication of a new set of British Geological Survey
(BGS) maps. This report complements the previously published review of the volcanic strata and
intrusive igneous rocks of the same region (Millward, 2004, BGS Research Report RR/01/07).
The Ordovician sedimentary rocks of Cumbria comprise the Skiddaw Group, whereas those of
the Isle of Man form the Manx Group. These groups are correlatives and the stratigraphy is
essentially that previously published by the BGS, but with definitions expanded where required.
The main change is that the Tailbert Formation is now re-assigned to the Borrowdale Volcanic
Group, in recognition of its dominantly volcaniclastic composition and its unconformable
relationships with the underlying rocks of the Skiddaw Group; in this respect it resembles the
Latterbarrow Sandstone Formation seen at the base of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group in the
west of its outcrop. As its definition was omitted from Millward (2004), the Tailbert Sandstone
Formation is included in Appendix 4.
The Ingleton Group is considered here because of its long history of correlation with Lower
Palaeozoic rocks in the Lake District. However, the absence of biostratigraphically significant
fossils means that the group may equally be considered to be Precambrian in age. Though this
conundrum remains unsolved, the petrological, structural and metamorphic characteristics of the
Ingleton Group suggest that, on balance, these rocks should be regarded as Neoproterozoic in
age.
The uppermost Ordovician and Silurian rocks of the region are included within the Windermere
Supergroup, wholly divided into groups that reflect the dominant packages of lithofacies present:
in ascending order they are the Dent Group, of Ordovician age, succeeded by the Silurian
Stockdale, Tranearth, Coniston and Kendal groups. The definition of the Windermere
Supergroup is now widened to include the Silurian (Wenlock) Dalby Group in the Isle of Man to
emphasise likely correlation.
Only minor revisions have been made to the established constituent formations and their
members, though definitions of many of these entries in the BGS Lexicon of named rock units are
to be amplified from diverse literature sources. The most significant changes are summarised as
follows:
• Within the Dent Group, the Low Scales Sandstone Member, formerly at the base of the
Kirkley Bank Limestone Formation in the Furness district, is transferred to the Stile End
Formation, remaining at the same rank. In the same area, the Ireleth Member of the
Kirkley Bank Limestone Formation is replaced by the Kentmere Limestone Member of
the same formation.
• In the Cross Fell Inlier, the term Swindale Shales is replaced by the Lake District Ash
Gill Mudstone Formation.
• In the Craven inliers, it is recommended that the Llandovery rocks are assigned to the
historic Stockdale Group and its constituent Skelgill and Browgill mudstone formations,
rendering the relatively recently named Crummack Formation and its component
Hunterstye and Capple Bank members obsolete.
In the Craven inliers, it is further recommended that the term Arcow Formation is
replaced by Coldwell Siltstone Formation which is in use across the rest of the region.
• Also in the Craven inliers, the Austwick Formation (Tranearth Group) is redefined to
comprise only the sandstone-dominated succession, with its original lower part assigned
to the Brathay Mudstone Formation. It is also recommended that the Horton Formation
reverts to its earlier definition; consequently, its parent is the Tranearth Group. The
Studfold Sandstone is elevated to formation rank within the Coniston Group. The
siltstone succession (also previously part of the Horton Formation), overlying the
Studfold Sandstone Formation and underlying the Neals Ing Sandstone Formation, is
newly defined as the Sannat Hall Siltstone Formation.
• Within the Kendal Group of the southern Lake District, the Underbarrow Flag and Scout
Hill formations become redundant and the strata subsumed within the Kirkby Moor
Sandstone Formation.


In the Eastern Alps (Austria) several marine successions, which were deposited ranging from shallow shelf to bathyal slope and abyssal basin, provide detailed records across the Paleocene/Eocene-boundary. These records indicate a two-step event starting with a prominent sea-level fall and followed by climatic changes. At the northern and southern shelves that fringed the Penninic Basin, the shallow-water sedimentary records are incomplete across the Paleocene/Eocene transition. Erosional surfaces indicate a major sea-level drop, which was terminated by an early Eocene (Ypresian) transgression within calcareous nannoplankton Zone NP12. As a proxy for the onset of this sea-level fall a strong increase in the terrestrially-derived input into the Penninic Basin can be used. The abyssal Anthering section from the northern part of the basin comprises a complete succession from NP9 to the upper part of NP10 (upper Thanetian-lower Ypresian). The thickest turbidite beds of this 250 m thick succession appear just before the carbon isotope event in the upper part of zone NP9, which is used to recognize the Paleocene/Eocene-boundary. A major lithological change from a sandstone-dominated facies to a claystone-dominated facies occurs at the onset of the carbon isotope event. This might be the result of a climatic change, resulting in increased intra-annual humidity gradients and increased physical erosion of the hinterland. Consequently, mainly fine-grained suspended material would have come into the basin and caused an increase in hemipelagic sedimentation rates by about a factor of 6. A similar value has been calculated for the bathyal Untersberg section, which was deposited on the southern slope of the basin, where an increased input of siliciclastic material is associated with a carbonate dissolution event during the carbon isotope event. At the southern shelf, a stratigraphic gap within the Gosau Group in the Krappfeld area (Carinthia) comprises the Maastrichtian and Paleocene. After a sea-level rise nummulitic marlstone and limestone were deposited in the lower part of zone NP12. Since the northern and southern shelves of the Penninic Basin belonged to different tectonic domains, with different potentials of crustal subsidence, the temporal similarity of sea-level changes on both shelves in the latest Paleocene and earliest Eocene suggests that these sea level fluctuations were mainly eustatic in origin.


This article introduces the R package ExtremeBounds to perform extreme bounds analysis (EBA), a sensitivity test that examines how robustly the dependent variable of a regression model is related to a variety of possible determinants. ExtremeBounds supports Leamer's EBA that focuses on the upper and lower extreme bounds of regression coefficients, as well as Sala-i-Martin's EBA which considers their entire distribution. In contrast to existing alternatives, it can estimate models of a variety of user-defined sizes, use regression models other than ordinary least squares, incorporate non-linearities in the model specification, and apply custom weights and standard errors. To alleviate concerns about the multicollinearity and conceptual overlap of examined variables, ExtremeBounds allows users to specify sets of mutually exclusive variables, and can restrict the analysis to coefficients from regression models that yield a variance inflation factor within a prespecified limit.


Anisotropic light-switching properties are of great importance in advanced photodetectors, light-gated transistors, and energy storage devices. However, controlling the light-switching conductance of anisotropic materials remains challenging because of the difficulties in tuning the electronic interactions and microstructure in the longitudinal and transverse directions, respectively. We present a transparent and flexible photo-responsive film of azobenzene–poly(methyl methacrylate) (Azo–PMMA) close-packed on the sidewalls of horizontally aligned carbon nanotubes (HACNTs). The alignment leads to an anisotropic electrical conductivity (σ). The aligned composite film shows a steady increase in σ in the longitudinal (σ∥) and transverse directions (σ⊥) during UV irradiation and a continuous decrease after irradiation. The light-switching conductance shows good cycling performance over 25 cycles, which is consistent with the isomerisation of the azobenzene groups in Azo–PMMA. Light-switching conductance is demonstrated in two directions, originating from the light-induced switch to a greater proportion of more conductive cis-Azo isomers, photo-doping and the film contracting during the trans-to-cis photo-isomerisation. The anisotropic Azo–PMMA/HACNT composite film with a light-switchable conductivity paves the way towards the fabrication of anisotropic photo-controllable materials by molecular design and microstructure modulation.


-Contract Law Directions combines an engaging writing style with carefully chosen learning features to make this the ideal text for those new to studying contract law
-Diagrams and flowcharts in a two colour text design help you to visualise and understand concepts
-Everyday scenarios illustrating how contract law applies to real-life situations in each chapter
-Problem and essay questions are provided at the end of every chapter and suggested answers are on the Online -Resource Centre to reinforce your learning
-Extensive range of informative online resources including MCQs, suggested approaches to answering the questions at the end of each chapter, updates, web links and a glossary of key terms. For lecturers, there are versions of the diagrams in the book for use in lectures and handouts.

New to this Edition:
-Chapter 6 completely revised and updated in light of new Consumer Rights legislation
-New cases including two Supreme Court cases and a number of other significant Court of Appeal and High Court decisions
-The text has also been thoroughly revised and now includes more extended treatment of a number of issues with additional illustrative cases including acceptance by electronic communication (Thomas v BPE Solicitors), the contra proferentum rule (The Mercini Lady), Privity (Avraamides v Colwill) and lost opportunity damages (Van de Garde v Force India Formula One)


Advances in information and communications technology have enabled the adoption of wireless communication techniques in all sectors for the transmission of information in all forms between any two points. Wireless communications and distributed computing have promoted the development of vehicle- monitoring systems to reduce the maintenance and inspection requirements of railway systems while maintaining safety and reliability. This paper surveys existing wireless techniques used in the railway industry for both communications and signalling purposes. Finally we present our work in progress on low-cost, low-power wireless sensor networking architecture to monitor the health of railway wagons attached to a moving locomotive.


This paper examines how competition among suppliers affects their willingness to provide trade credit financing. Trade credit extended by a supplier to a cash constrained retailer allows the latter to increase cash purchases from its other suppliers, leading to a free rider problem. A supplier that represents a smaller share of the retailer's purchases internalizes a smaller part of the benefit from increased spending by the retailer and, as a result, extends less trade credit relative to its sales. In consequence, retailers with dispersed suppliers obtain less trade credit than those whose suppliers are more concentrated. The free rider problem is especially detrimental to a trade creditor when the free-riding suppliers are its product market competitors, leading to a negative relation between product substitutability among suppliers to a given retailer and trade credit that the former provide to the latter. We test the model using both simulated and real data. The estimated relations are consistent with the model's predictions and are statistically and economically significant.


Although acrylates and methacrylates are the state-of-the-art monomers for protective and decorative coatings, skin and inhalation irritancy and potential cytotoxicity of monomers present serious health hazards. Monomers like vinyl carbonates or vinyl carbamates can overcome these problems with their generally lower cytotoxicity and yet similar photoreactivity to (meth)acrylates. The reviewed classes of monomers have not attracted industry's attention until now due to expensive synthetic methods though recently developed affordable routes offer prospect for their increasing use (88 references).


A brief history of work on the 4 x 4 magic square is presented, with particular reference to Frenicle's achievement over 300 years ago of establishing 880 as the number of essentially different squares by using the method of exhaustion (not convincingly repeated except by computer in 1976). He also established several central theorems. Our paper confirms the number 880 by a wholly new method of Frenicle quads and 'part sums', which leads to the classification of all solutions into, initially, six genera one of which has no members and thence to the enumeration of all possible solutions by analytical methods only. The working leads also to the first analytical proof independent of solutions that 12 and only 12 patterns formed by linking'complementary' numbers within a square are necessary and sufficient to describe all solutions - a fact which has been known since 1908, but not hitherto proved. A second method of construction and partial proof) greatly shortened by what has gone before, is also described. This yields a highly symmetrical list of the 880 magic squares. Together the two methods combine to explain many of the special characteristics and otherwise mysterious properties of these fascinating squares. The complete symmetrical list of squares ends the paper.


We developed an automated system based on deep neural networks for fast and sensitive image segmentation of cortical gray matter from fetal brain MRI. The lack of extensive/publicly available annotations presented a key challenge, as large amounts of labeled data are typically required for training sensitive models with deep learning. To address this, we: (i) generated preliminary tissue labels using the Draw-EM algorithm, which uses Expectation-Maximization and was originally designed for tissue segmentation in the neonatal domain; and (ii) employed a human-in-the-loop approach, whereby an expert fetal imaging annotator assessed and refined the performance of the model. By using a hybrid approach that combined automatically generated labels with manual refinements by an expert, we amplified the utility of ground truth annotations while immensely reducing their cost (283 slices). The deep learning system was developed, refined, and validated on 249 T2-weighted scans obtained from the Developing Human Connectome Project 's fetal cohort, acquired at 3T. Analysis of the system showed that it is invariant to gestational age at scan, as it generalized well to a wide age range (21 – 38 weeks) despite variations in cortical morphology and intensity across the fetal distribution. It was also found to be invariant to intensities in regions surrounding the brain (amniotic fluid), which often present a major obstacle to the processing of neuroimaging data in the fetal domain.


In 1804, the Scottish physician Thomas Trotter declared that drunkenness was a disease. He came up with the idea while writing his MD dissertation. He thought it was a new idea. It wasn't. Earlier writers had described inebriety as a medical condition. One of them was Benjamin Rush, whose 1785 monograph on ardent spirits is a classic. Still, alcoholism didn't become widely accepted as a disease until the 19th century, and Trotter's book was partly responsible. It was a charming work and was translated into several languages. It was one of those pivotal works that influence generations to come, often without the generations knowing the history of the influence. The Tavistock Classics in the History of Psychiatry has published the book in its original form, with the quaint 18th century spellings where s resembles f and "epilepsy" is spelled "epilepfy." Whether readability is more important than verisimilitude can be argued,


Eight persons, representing the seven Colorado River Basin state and the Secretary of the Interior, managed a severe, sustained drought in the basin. The drought was portrayed by a simulation model of the hydrologic, engineering, legal, and economic system. The subjects interacted dynamically with each other, and with the unfolding drought in three gaming exercises. The rules governing their interactions during the three exercises were (1) existing collective decision making rules, (2) an interstate compact commission and, (3) free interstate water marketing. The gaming disclosed that (1) consumptive water uses are well protected from drought, (2) non-consumptive water uses are highly vulnerable to drought, (3) non-consumptive uses are highly competitive with consumptive uses, (4) existing rules distribute drought risk unevenly between states, (5) easily-achieved rule changes have little effect on drought impacts, (6) states were able to manage drought most effectively by adjusting their own internal water allocation and management rules and, (7) the lower basin's vulnerability to chronic water shortages and the upper basin's vulnerability to sporadic drought create the opportunity for adopting positive-sum rule changes.


With the support of the Jisc-led Strategic Content Alliance (SCA), Ithaka S+R has developed this guide to support those who are actively managing digital projects and are seeking to develop funding models that will permit them to continue investing in their projects, for the benefit of their users, over time. This report updates Sustainability and Revenue Models for Online Academic Resources (2008) in two major ways: first, by expanding the list of revenue models covered in order to take into account emerging models, including highlighting those methods that are compatible with open access. Second, the report places the notion of 'revenue generation' in the context of the fuller range of funding activities we have observed in higher education and the cultural sector. In addition to practices more often seen in the commercial world like advertising and corporate sponsorships, the report devotes time to discussions of a range of philanthropic sources of support as well as support offered by host institutions.


How does modality affect our ability to create a new communication system? This paper describes two experiments that address this question, and extend prior related findings by drawing from a significantly more extensive list of concepts (over 1000) than has been used previously. In Experiment 1, participants communicated concepts to a partner using either gestures or non-linguistic vocalizations (sounds that are not words). Experiment 1 confirmed that participants who gesture 1) produce more strongly 'motivated' signs that physically resemble the concepts they represent (i.e., are iconic), 2) are better able to correctly guess the meaning of a partner's signs, and 3) show stronger alignment on a shared inventory of signs. Experiment 2 addressed a limitation of Experiment 1 (concurrent feedback only in the gesture condition). In Experiment 2 concurrent feedback was eliminated from the gesture and vocal conditions. Gesture again outperformed vocalization on communication effectiveness and sign alignment.


This thesis is a literary investigation of sacrifice in works of tragic literature and the Bible. In Part I, this thesis critiques Rene Girard's scapegoating model of sacrifice and demonstrates the interpretive limitations that his theory of sacrifice imposes upon works of tragic literature and the Bible. In the first chapter, this thesis examines Eurpides' play The Bacchae. Contrary to Girard's assessment of works of classical Greek tragedy as texts that come to the defense of the tragic victim, I argue that this play participates in an elaborate re-mystification of scapegoating. Next, I conduct a tragic reading of the first twelve chapters of Exodus—focusing specifically on the birth of Moses and the story of the Passover. Contrary to a Girardian reading which simplifies the conflicts in Exodus to an irreducible opposition between Egypt and Israel, a tragic reading of the biblical narrative reveals a much more complex relationship between these groups. Using Christopher Fry's play The Firstborn as a literary framework for investigating the biblical narrative, I read Moses as a tragic figure who struggles to come to grips with his own identity as a man raised by Egyptians and yet born an Israelite. Most importantly, Fry's play dramatically highlights the sacrificial costs of the Israelites' deliverance in Exodus—namely the infanticidal genocide of the firstborn of Egypt. In Part II of this study, I describe an alternative to Girard's model of sacrifice which appears in the Gospel of Mark as well as in the work of Flannery O'Connor. In my reading of the Gospel of Mark as a work of Christian tragedy, I argue that at the Last Supper Jesus poetically improvises a model of eucharistic sacrifice that radically reconfigures the relationship between humans and the divine. According to this eucharistic model of sacrifice, the sacred is configured within the very materials of artistic representation. Consequently, the Jesus of Mark's Gospel not only transfigures the opposition between oppressors and the oppressed but most importantly the opposition between the sacred and the profane. This study concludes with an investigation of the Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor. Through a close reading of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and Wise Blood, I argue that O'Connor's work employs a model of eucharistic sacrifice to bring about a moment of transfiguration that defies interpretive closure. Finally, this thesis argues that by exploring this eucharistic model of sacrifice it may be possible to conceive of new approaches to imagining the relationship between readers, texts and the sacred.


ABSTRACT This article examines how German print media have represented male migrants with Muslim backgrounds in relation to mainstream society and the stereotypes drawn on and created, including that of the migrant Muslim man as a criminal and sexual perpetrator. Media reports about 'lecherous refugees' have risen in the wake of wider social controversies about the 'European refugee crisis' and the consequences of welcoming over 1.5 million refugees from predominantly Muslim countries into Germany in recent years. Many of these reports reflect the Cologne New Year's Eve 2016 sexual attacks by migrant men against German women. This study of German print media identifies a racialisation and 'islamicisation' of sexual violence and proposes the original theoretical concept of intersectional stereotyping to conceptualise the intersecting of religious, racialised and gendered patterns in media representations of male Muslim migrants. The research combines and extends the analytical frameworks of intersectionality and stereotyping to develop a new concept useful in media studies and beyond. The article provides a previously unexplored insight into racialised anti-Muslim stereotyping in German society in socio-political and historical context through the lens of print media.


Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are bio-inspired models of neural computation that have proven highly effective. Still, ANNs lack a natural notion of time, and neural units in ANNs exchange analog values in a frame-based manner, a computationally and energetically inefficient form of communication. This contrasts sharply with biological neurons that communicate sparingly and efficiently using isomorphic binary spikes. While Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) can be constructed by replacing the units of an ANN with spiking neurons (Cao et al., 2015; Diehl et al., 2015) to obtain reasonable performance, these SNNs use Poisson spiking mechanisms with exceedingly high firing rates compared to their biological counterparts. Here we show how spiking neurons that employ a form of neural coding can be used to construct SNNs that match high-performance ANNs and match or exceed state-of-the-art in SNNs on important benchmarks, while requiring firing rates compatible with biological findings. For this, we use spike-based coding based on the firing rate limiting adaptation phenomenon observed in biological spiking neurons. This phenomenon can be captured in fast adapting spiking neuron models, for which we derive the effective transfer function. Neural units in ANNs trained with this transfer function can be substituted directly with adaptive spiking neurons, and the resulting Adaptive SNNs (AdSNNs) can carry out competitive classification in deep neural networks without further modifications. Adaptive spike-based coding additionally allows for the dynamic control of neural coding precision: we show empirically how a simple model of arousal in AdSNNs further halves the average required firing rate and this notion naturally extends to other forms of attention as studied in neuroscience. AdSNNs thus hold promise as a novel and sparsely active model for neural computation that naturally fits to temporally continuous and asynchronous applications.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the study of knowledge management (KM) in China. It focuses on what does KM mean to China based upon KM studies, with a brief review in order to provide insightful understanding on KM from China perspective. The summary of recent studies and analysis of these give a solid research foundation in further KM research.Design/methodology/approach –The research is formed with structured literature review and analysis, to outline the KM scenarios and research questions in China. Data are collected through difference sources with a structured framework of the research aims.Findings – The role of KM in China is analyzed. The meaning of KM and its function in China are highlighted. How organizations in China were viewing and performing KM are discussed within a timeline. Practical implications –The view on KM is changing during the KM development in China, which gives an important background when conducting KM researches such as knowledge sharing and innovation in the future.Originality/value – KM is a relatively new topic in China that still under developing. China KM practices have its uniqueness. It is proven that to better understand KM in China, a developing point of view is necessary when conducting KM studies.Keywords: Knowledge Management, China, ReviewPaper type: research


From late 2020 to early 2021, the Sanitation Learning Hub (SLH) collaborated with local government actors and development partners from three sub-national areas to explore ways of increasing local government leadership and prioritisation of sanitation and hygiene (S&H) to drive progress towards area-wide S&H. For some time, local government leadership has been recognised as key to ensuring sustainability and scale and it is an important component of the emerging use of systems strengthening approaches in the S&H sector. It is hoped that this work will provide practical experiences to contribute to this thinking. Case studies were developed to capture local government and development partners' experiences supporting sub-national governments increase their leadership and prioritisation of S&H in Siaya County (Kenya, with UNICEF), Nyamagabe District (Rwanda, with WaterAid) and Moyo District (Uganda, with WSSCC), all of which have seen progress in recent years. The cases were then explored through three online workshops with staff from the local governments, central government ministries and development partners involved to review experiences and identify levers and blockages to change. This document presents key findings from this process.


The general analytic expression for the polynomial smoothing function of any degree for equally spaced data points is presented. In addition to the explicit formula, a simple recursion relation is also given. The determination of numerical coefficients in the convolution equation involves only integer arithmetic. These results are further used to describe in some detail the effectiveness of digital polynomial smoothing, or filtering, of sampled spectral data in their dependence on the degree K of the polynomial, the number S of smoothing passes, and the range T of points in the smoothing interval. Then it can be shown that the sharpness of the frequency cutoff increases with the degree of the polynomial, the high-frequency attenuation increases with the number of smooths, and the cutoff of the filter moves toward lower frequencies as the range of points in the smoothing interval increases. The values of these three parameters should not be chosen entirely independently of one another, but the first two should be selected before the third.


This paper presents an investigation of natural inspired intelligent computing and its corresponding application towards visual information processing systems for viticulture. The paper has three contributions: (1) a review of visual information processing applications for viticulture; (2) the development of natural inspired computing algorithms based on artificial immune system (AIS) techniques for grape berry detection; and (3) the application of the developed algorithms towards real-world grape berry images captured in natural conditions from vineyards in Australia. The AIS algorithms in (2) were developed based on a nature-inspired clonal selection algorithm (CSA) which is able to detect the arcs in the berry images with precision, based on a fitness model. The arcs detected are then extended to perform the multiple arcs and ring detectors information processing for the berry detection application. The performance of the developed algorithms were compared with traditional image processing algorithms like the circular Hough transform (CHT) and other well-known circle detection methods. The proposed AIS approach gave a Fscore of 0.71 compared with Fscores of 0.28 and 0.30 for the CHT and a parameter-free circle detection technique (RPCD) respectively.


This paper explores the politics of interpretation from the perspective of hermeneutic theory. It presents a reading of Kafka's novel The Castle focused on critique of the business of interpretation, where suspicion unfolds in distorted, possibly fraudulent, sense-making between protagonist, narrator and reader. The protagonist's mission is neither heroic nor a call to resistance to bureaucratic absurdity, but instead, the result of hubris, hoax, or even a slip of the pen, and it becomes impossible to unpick the perils of bureaucracy from the perils of interpretation, or to distinguish between error and insight. In mining discrepancies between justification, effort and reward of interpretation, Kafka punctures the mythology of understanding, rupturing the near-sacrosanct hermeneutic connection between interpretation and meaning. His work undermines both objective and subjective understandings, leaving us distrustful of both expert and experiential perspectives. In a post-truth era with its 'alternative facts', The Castle feels startlingly fresh and relevant.


Terrestrial plants lose water primarily through stomata, pores on the leaves. The hormone abscisic acid (ABA) decreases water loss by regulating opening and closing of stomata. Here, we show that phospholipase Dα1 (PLDα1) mediates the ABA effects on stomata through interaction with a protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) and a heterotrimeric GTP-binding protein (G protein) in Arabidopsis. PLDα1-produced phosphatidic acid (PA) binds to the ABI1 PP2C to signal ABA-promoted stomatal closure, whereas PLDα1 and PA interact with the Gα subunit of heterotrimeric G protein to mediate ABA inhibition of stomatal opening. The results reveal a bifurcating signaling pathway that regulates plant water loss.


Across the Appalachian orogen of New England, the splitting of core-refracted shear waves from a wide range of arrival directions indicates the presence of two nearly uniform horizontal layers of anisotropic upper mantle. The anisotropy in the lower layer has a fast axis nearly parallel to the absolute motion of the North American plate and thus is attributed to basal shear as the plate plows through asthenospheric mantle. The anisotropy of the upper layer is inferred to be a fossil fabric, residing in lithospheric mantle. The finite extension direction of the upper fabric is subhorizontal and oriented normal to the local trend of the Appalachian orogen. The upper fabric is consistent over a broad region beneath and west of the New England Appalachians, which indicates that it formed after Devonian closure of the Iapetus ocean, probably during or after the Paleozoic Acadian and Alleghany orogenies. Tectonic scenarios for synconvergent or postconvergent extension, developed for Tibet, predict rapid surface uplift and increased heat flow due to lithospheric thinning, consistent with coeval late orogenic mantlederived magmatism in both the northern Appalachians and Morocco.


: Economics of corporate governance treats the ownership structure of shares as an independent variable. This follows the scheme by Berle and Means (1932) that asserts the fact that the broad dispersion of stock ownership promotes "management control" by managers. However, Chandler's (1977) review of the cases of the telephone and railways at the time indicate that the arrow of cause and effect for the telephone is pointed in reverse, and the pursuit of a larger scale of capital by outstanding managers leads to a dispersion of stock ownership. In railways, management work was extremely complex, and management was left to managers since specialized skills and training were required. In other words, ownership structure was not an independent variable for the separation of ownership and control. In actuality, salaried managers acquired power in Japan's zaibatsu , which had no dispersion of ownership, at the time.


Mints emit diverse scents that exert specific biological functions and are relevance for applications. The current work strives to develop electronic noses that can electronically discriminate the scents emitted by different species of Mint as alternative to conventional profiling by gas chromatography. Here, 12 different sensing materials including 4 different metal oxide nanoparticle dispersions (AZO, ZnO, SnO2, ITO), one Metal Organic Frame as Cu(BPDC), and 7 different polymer films, including PVA, PEDOT:PSS, PFO, SB, SW, SG, and PB were used for functionalizing of Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) sensors. The purpose was to discriminate six economically relevant Mint species (Mentha x piperita, Mentha spicata, Mentha spicata ssp. crispa, Mentha longifolia, Agastache rugosa, and Nepeta cataria). The adsorption and desorption datasets obtained from each modified QCM sensor were processed by three different classification models, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), and k-Nearest Neighbor Analysis (k-NN). This allowed discriminating the different Mints with classification accuracies of 97.2% (PCA), 100% (LDA), and 99.9% (k-NN), respectively. Prediction accuracies with a repeating test measurement reached up to 90.6% for LDA, and 85.6% for k-NN. These data demonstrate that this electronic nose can discriminate different Mint scents in a reliable and efficient manner.


The study objective was to identify the socio-demographic profile and the level of quality of life of caregivers of persons with disabilities met with the Foundation to Support Integrated Patient with Physical Disabilities (FUNAD) in the city of Joao Pessoa, in the state Paraiba, Brazil. The study had 51 participants, caregivers of people with disabilities in the age group 19-63 years (36.29±11.10). For the evaluation, we used two instruments: a structured form, with questions about personal and social profiles, and World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-bref), to analyze the level of quality of life. The results showed that most caregivers were women (92.2%), mothers (68.6%), single (43.1%) and had attended up to elementary school (47%). Statistical significance (p<0.05), a positive correlation between age and time working as a caregiver present (p=0.000) and negative correlation between schooling and daily care time (p=0.009). It was found that the physical and emotional stress leads caregivers to encumber themselves, directly affecting the quality of life. We highlight the importance of research in lifestyle of caregivers, in order that social action and health are developed by institutions assisting people with disabilities. KE yw ORDS : caregivers; disabled persons; quality of life.


ABSTRACT There are increasing concerns that social pressures, such as family changes and social media, are 'invading' the sanctuary of the bedroom with the result that students arrive at school tired and stressed. This paper seeks to examine whether these concerns are justified and contribute to the growing literature on the social dimensions of sleep through examining the rest and routines of two cohorts of young people aged 12–13 and 14–15 years old. Our research indicates that, in general, most young people have 'reasonable' amounts of sleep and routines. But, a significant proportion does go to school tired, with apparent negative consequences for their well-being. The paper examines some of the within-cohort variations, in particular, the significance of volume of sleep, routines and engagement with social media and how these may reflect the material and cultural circumstances of the young people. The paper concludes by arguing for more research on the complex social causes and consequences of sleep deprivation among today's youth.


This paper discusses some of the design criteria for a linguistic ontology that can be used to support multilingual and crosslinguistic searches and queries on the Internet. It focuses on integrating linguistic concepts and instances into an upper-level ontology, and shows that the result can be understood and analyzed as a feature (structure) system. It considers various types of linguistic structure ranging from segment types to grammatical properties and relations, and linguistic inventories including phoneme tables, inflectional paradigms, lexicons, and grammatical descriptions.


Objective Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is used to bypass the cardiopulmonary system in a severe heart or/and lung failure, mainly in intractable conditions where all other therapy options fail or are unfeasible. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a well-established therapeutic option in such circumstances for neonatal, pediatric, and adult patients. Managing a patient with ECMO requires dedicated and specific management. The importance and necessity of this essential technology in life-threatening cardio-respiratory rescue prompted Rambam Health Care Campus to implement it and make it available as a service to the population in northern Israel. This article includes a brief review of extracorporeal life support and a report of our single-center experience since the establishment of the service. Methods The ECMO unit was established in 2014 under the responsibility of the Cardiac Surgery Department. The ECMO service was initiated by a well-planned program with consideration of all aspects including economics, education and training, the specialist team and equipment needed, strategies for medication, and ethical challenges. Results Between February 2014 and May 2018, 65 patients were treated with ECMO; 43 patients received veno-arterial ECMO for cardiac support (66%), while 22 received veno-venous ECMO for respiratory support (34%). The in-hospital mortality was 56%. Conclusions Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is an effective therapy that is constantly growing in use and provides a therapy that can replace previous options. To establish such a service requires a planned program and concerted effort. Our single-center experience presented a good learning curve and showed the feasibility as well as the efficacy of the ECMO procedure in life-threatening conditions.


Urban furniture can be defined as aesthetics and comfort elements that reflect the identity of a city and enable the urban space to become livable. Urban furniture is an important element of the city in order to improve the quality of urban life, to create a comfortable and reliable environment and to meet the needs of the users in the best way. For designing these elements, the social, economic, cultural and architectural structure of the city should be considered and evaluated. It is important to adapt the urban furniture to the urban texture and to the cultural structure achieving an urban identity, in order to ensure the survival and sustainability of the historical environments. In this study, a study was carried out in the context of urban furniture in Nicosia Walled City, which has many architectural cultures with its historical texture. In this context, firstly the concept of urban identity and urban furniture was explained and then, information about urban furniture was given in historical circles with urban furniture samples from different countries. As a field study, a main axis was determined and the streets and squares on this axis were discussed. These areas have been explored starting from Kyrenia Gate in North Nicosia; İnönü Square, Girne Street, Atatürk Square, Arasta Square, Lokmacı Barricade and on the south side Ledra Street and Eleftherias Square. In this context, the existing furniture in the North and South were determined and evaluated in terms of urban identity accordingly. As a result, it can be suggested that the existing street furniture equipments, especially on the north side, do not have any characteristic to emphasize the urban identity. According to the findings, it was determined that the urban furniture in the streets and squares on the north side is generally older and neglected, and does not provide a unity with the environment, whereas on the south side, these elements on the street and square are relatively new, functional and environmentally compatible.Key words: urban furniture, historical environment, urban identity, Nicosia Old City


Usually, Trichloroethane has been used for the deoiling and cleaning of machine parts. But its production and import have been prohibited since 1995 because of its possibility to destroy the ozone layer. Generally for biological and environmental safety, the de-oiling should be done with the physical method instead of the chemical method. As one of the physical method, a cleaning by a steam flow in a packed bed of machine parts was proposed. Usual machine parts have complicated and non-spherical shapes. As the existing flow models are based on spherical particle beds, an experiment for non-spherical particles was conducted by using a steam. Actual rivets of different sizes were used as the non-spherical particles. Also a prediction method for the flow resistance was proposed and good agreements with the experimental results were obtained.


We are a nation of immigrants, but we also are a nation that loves to debate immigration policy, and that debate reflects the battle over how we define who is an American. The anti-immigrant movement in the United States is as strong as ever. Immigrant bashing is popular among politicians, talk radio hosts, private militiamen, and xenophobic grassroots organizations. They take full advantage of the high-tech era in which we live, as they complain about the "illegal alien invasion." Their common thread is the rhetoric of fear. This hysteria leads to tragic policies that challenge us as a moral society. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, enormous funding for border enforcement, anti-immigrant ordinances and state laws, and record levels of detention are manifestations of the venom, while immigrants and citizen relatives are forced to suffer. Arizona's SB 1070 is an example of the hysteria-driven results. The controversial law would make it a state crime for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying the required documents, bar state and local officials from enacting sanctuary laws, and crack down on those sheltering, hiring, and transporting undocumented aliens. The intent of the legislation is to make life miserable for the undocumented in Arizona in hopes of achieving "attrition through enforcement." Critics charge that the law invites racial profiling and exceeds state authority. In this keynote essay, delivered at Loyola University New Orleans on November 5, 2010, Professor Hing provides an overview of the background on local and state laws that attempt to regulate immigration, how much of the racist attitudes toward immigrants have become institutionalized within the current immigration system, and current enforcement strategies that prey heavily on immigrant workers who are victims of trade policies and globalization. I argue that given an understanding of how our nation's immigration laws have evolved in the context of globalization we should calm down and stop the anti-immigrant rhetoric. We should gather ourselves and use our collective wisdom to address immigration policy and the need for reform in a thoughtful, reasoned manner.


Many pathogenic bacteria, including Streptococcus gordonii, possess a pathway for the export of a single serine-rich-repeat protein that mediates the adhesion of bacteria to host cells and the extracellular matrix. These adhesins are O-glycosylated by several cytosolic glycosyltransferases and require three accessory Sec proteins (Asp1-3) for export, but how the adhesins are processed for secretion is not well defined. Here, we show that O-glycosylation of S. gordonii adhesin GspB occurs in a sequential manner by three enzymes (GtfA/B, Nss, Gly) that attach N-acetylglucosamine and glucose to Ser/Thr residues. The modified substrate is subsequently transferred from the last glycosyltransferase to the Asp1/2/3 complex. Crystal structures show that both Asp1 and Asp3 are related to carbohydrate binding proteins. Asp1 also has an affinity for phospholipids, which is attenuated by Asp2. These results suggest a mechanism for the modification of adhesin in the cytosol and its subsequent targeting to the export machinery.