This study analyzes the foreign aids and sustainable growth in Africa using Nigeria as a point of reference. The study employs annual data sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI) 2017 spanning from 1970 to 2017 in determining the effects of foreign aid on sustainable growth in Africa while adopting quantile regression model after testing for the stationarity tests using both the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips–Perron (PP) tests. The estimation result from the quantile regression shows that external debt (EXD) and official development assistance (ODA) have a negative and statistically significant effect of sustainable growth in Africa. Foreign direct investment (FDI) also has a positive influence on sustainable growth but with a significant insufficient result. Equally, the estimation result only shows that technical cooperation grants (TCG) are the only variable with a positive influence and statistically significant result on sustainable growth in Africa. Based on these findings, African leaders should put more efforts in proper utilization of the technical cooperation grant to further engender growth and its sustainability in the economies of Africa.


This paper analyzes and compares workers' memories of the late socialist regimes in East Germany and Hungary. It presents the results of an oral history project conducted in two factories, Rába MVG in Győr (Hungary) and Carl Zeiss in Jena (Germany) between 2002 and 2003. Both factories were large enterprises of the socialist period and both were considered to be "model" factories. The two enterprises survived systemic change but with considerably reduced personnel. Forty life-history interviews were made in both factories with an equal number of people who were still employed there, and with those who had lost their jobs during re-structuring. The selection of the interviewees had two main criteria: 1) an equal number of men and women; 2) the age of at least 40 so that the interviewees had work experience under the socialist regime. To find interviewees, I used the snowball method and newspaper advertisements. The partly similar, partly different experiences of transformation influenced the construction of the memories of socialism in the two countries. Although it cannot be said that the socialist system left only negative memories behind in East Germany – in fact, most of the interviewees argued that the school system, health care system and child care institutions were better, and the state gave more support to working mothers than after 1989 – no-one wanted to return to Honecker's GDR. Most of the interviewees said that they were happy that the Wende had come. The memories of the Kádár regime in Hungary showed a more varied picture. Some narrators claimed that they lived better under the old system and they expressed a desire for the return of the Kádár regime. Although most people accepted systemic change to be necessary, they thought that privatization benefited the old elite. The change of regime in Hungary was therefore linked with a new exclusion and dispossession of the people.


ABSTRACT Background: Although a review of literature on Cooperative Learning (CL) in Physical Education (PE) has shown that CL can facilitate student learning in all legitimate learning domains for PE [Casey, A., and V. A. Goodyear. 2015. "Can Cooperative Learning Achieve the Four Learning Outcomes of Physical Education? A Review of Literature." Quest 67 (1): 56–72. doi:10.1080/00336297.2014.984733], we need further knowledge about student learning which results from the sustained implementation of the model beyond the initial unit. Purpose: This paper draws on 24 lessons of CL over two academic years investigating students' learning journey through (a) teachers' perceptions on students' learning journey through CL, and (b) students' experiences of their learning journey through CL. Method: The study is part of a larger participatory action research project and follows students through four related six-week interventions in PE. The study draws on different data sources such as interviews, observation notes and the researcher's reflective diary in order to acquire an in-depth understanding of students' learning journey. Through first author's close presence throughout the project, Lars was very familiar with the data. Hence, the analysis adopted an abductive approach [Alvesson, M., and K. Sköldberg. 2018 Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research. 3rd ed. Los Angeles, CA: Sage] in which the empirical data were examined with the aid of pre-established theoretical concepts. Findings: Three themes emerged from the analysis. The first, 'shifting attitudes' highlighted how students changed their attitudes towards CL from being reluctant to positive. The second, 'the influence of having learning objectives' shows that working systematically with learning objectives over time, helped students understand that physical education is, in fact, a subject for learning. The final theme, 'social- and emotional learning', identified aspects of students' learning that eventually results in all students being capable of working alongside their peers to master academic tasks in physical education. Conclusion: After experiencing learning through CL as meaningful, many students developed a positive attitude towards CL and working with their peers in small groups. The paper shows that having learning objectives is something most students appreciate and value. Nevertheless, working with learning objectives must be undertaken systematically over time so that students understand that they are expected to learn in physical education. While other studies have suggested that it took a few weeks for students to work comfortably together [Casey, A., B. Dyson, and A. Campbell. 2009. "Action Research in Physical Education: Focusing Beyond Myself Through Cooperative Learning." Educational Action Research 17 (3): 407–423. doi:10.1080/09650790903093508], students in this project required up to 17 lessons before they were able to function in their groups. At the same time, all students, with different motor, social, cognitive and affective challenges, can be capable of learning through CL. However, this did not happen by chance, and the teacher must carefully adapt the delivery of the CL model to meet the needs of all students.


The latest volume from respected scholar and researcher Marvin Zuckerman is a masterful examination of three contemporary scientific approaches to the study of personalitythe psychodynamic, the trait-psychobiological, and the cognitive. The book also focuses on corresponding theoretical frameworks that continue to guide much of the research on personality disordersAttachment and Separation, the psychobiological paradigm, and cognitive frameworks. Most books on personality theories devote little attention to the applied, clinical realm. Yet Personality Science engages the reader in a discussion of applied personality theories on psychopathology and the crucial contemporary research they have generated: prospective studies from childhood to adulthood, and concurrent studies of the biological correlates of major personality traits. In the concluding chapters of this work, Professor Zuckerman applies the three approaches to the psychopathology of depressionspecifically, to Major Depressive Disorder and dysthymiasurveying the theories and research on the etiology of depression, and exploring clinical applications of the three personality approaches (i.e., psychodynamic and cognitive therapy, and psychopharmacological therapy) to the treatment of the disorder.


We measured the transmission of MgF(2), CaF(2), BaF(2), and fused-silica window materials, using 0.8-ps optical pulses at 193 nm with intensities from 1 to 300 GW/cm(2). The two-photon absorption coefficients beta are extracted from these measurements. The excited excitonic fluorescence in CaF(2) and BaF(2) shows a quadratic dependence on the irradiation intensity in a wide range.


In Kabye society, the commonest sacrificial rites include a device that may
prompt celebrants to question their own ritual practice. As in other West African societies,
the acceptance or refusal of an offering by a divinity is read in the death throes
of the first chicken to be sacrificed. If the fowl does not die in the expected position,
the ceremony is interrupted. Celebrants scrutinize the execution of the rite to identify
the mistake that led to the sacrifice's refusal, and they submit their hypothesis to the
divinity. However, the resumption of the rite is not conditioned by the correction of
the mistake. It is often sufficient that officiants recognize and reassert the rule that they
should have followed. The case of a bull sacrifice demonstrates how the celebrants' self-critical
practice may promote a ritual effectiveness in connection with the dialogical
and pragmatic nature of the rite.


According to scholars and organizations that focus on the performance of organizations in the nonprofit sector, retaining loyal and engaged donors has been a critical component of sustainability. Through the conceptual lens of single- and double-loop learning and organizational communications theory, this single-case study explored donor communication strategies used by 3 executive-level leaders of a nonprofit organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Data collected from semistructured interviews, organizational documents, and Guidestar, an online information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies, were manually coded and thematically analyzed. Two key themes emerged: effective processes for donor communication strategy development and organizational learning strategy development. Strategy development may assist this Minneapolis company's organizational leaders with improving retention of donors and participants in the company's programs and services, increasing action plan completion rates, and integrating the lessons learned process during the development and implementation of communication strategies to increase donor retention. By bridging the gap between performance arts and social responsibility, this company's leaders may engage both donors and participants, resulting in favorable retention rates. These findings have implications for positive social change. Nonprofit leaders' models of effective communications strategies and processes to improve participant and donor engagement may ensure leaders' ability to serve and improve their communities by engaging at-risk youth in programs designed to develop performance arts and leadership skills.


OBJECTIVES
To identify the optimal treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) after the regression of lymphoproliferative disorders (LPDs).

METHODS
The subjects were 232 patients with RA who developed LPD between 2000 and 2017 at seven hospitals participating in the LPD-WG study. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional regression analyses were performed to determine the factors associated with the rate of LPD relapse and the retention of biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs).

RESULTS
Treatment for RA was resumed in 138 patients after spontaneous regression of LPD after the discontinuation of methotrexate and in 52 patients after chemotherapy for LPD (persistent-LPD). LPD relapses occurred in 23 patients. Not DMARDs use but Hodgkin's lymphoma was identified as a risk factor for LPD relapse. In 88 RA patients treated with bDMARDs [tocilizumab, 39 patients; abatacept 20 patients; tumor necrosis factor inhibitor, 29 patients], the one-year retention rate was 67.8%. The risk factors for discontinuation of bDMARDs were persistent-LPD, non-diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (non-DLBCL), and a high clinical disease activity index (CDAI). Tocilizumab showed the highest retention rate among bDMARDs, particularly in DLBCL.

CONCLUSION
Although any bDMARD could be used in patients after LPD regression, effectiveness and risk for relapse should be carefully assessed for each LPD subtype.


A total of 44 different berry and fruit wines and liquors with total phenolic contents between 91 and 1820 mg/L, expressed as gallic acid equivalents (GAE), were evaluated for antioxidant activity. Dealcoholized wine extracts were added to methyl linoleate (MeLo), and the oxidation in the dark at 40 degrees C was followed by conjugated diene measurement. Wines made of mixtures of black currants and crowberries or bilberries (240-275 µM GAE) were slightly superior to reference red grape wines (330-375 µM GAE) and equally as active as the control antioxidant, alpha-tocopherol (50 µM), in inhibiting MeLo hydroperoxide formation. Also, raw materials including apple, arctic bramble, cowberries, cranberries, red currants, or rowanberries possessed antioxidant activity. Thus, these raw materials contain phenolic compounds, some of which are capable of protecting lipids against oxidation also in a hydrophobic lipid system. Liquors, apart from arctic bramble liquor, were less active than wines. However, the total phenolic content did not correlate with the antioxidant activity of the berry and fruit wines and liquors, therefore alleviating the importance of further characterization of the phenolic antioxidants present in berry and fruit wines.


The crowned eagle Harpyhaliaetus coronatus is a large Neotropical eagle categorized as Endangered throughout its range. However, the threats to this species are poorly understood. We present data on the causes of death of crowned eagles in semi-arid forests of La Pampa province, central Argentina. Data was obtained from field surveys and from interviews with 62 local landowners during 1999–2004. Over this period five eagles were shot, one killed by a car, one was found dead in a cattle water trough, and one was found in captivity. From the interviews information was obtained about a further 10 cases of eagles being shot, disturbed or trapped. Five (13%) of 38 interviewed landowners who positively identified the species admitted having killed or disturbed eagles in the past but only two (5%) mentioned predation of eagles upon livestock as a problem. Persecution seems to be a significant threat to this species in central Argentina and future research and conservation action should be focused not only on gaining a better knowledge of the biology of the species but also on conservation and educational programmes involving local people.


This paper examines a UK Jat Sikh Punjabi diasporic community. Existing studies of such communities focus upon processes of identity formation within the UK. We suggest that British Asian identities are shaped by social processes within South Asia as well as the UK. In particular, we argue that meanings of home, amongst the UK diasporic group studied, are being importantly shaped by dynamic social and cultural processes within East Punjab. Because our research is transnational, ethnography within the UK and India, we are able to illustrate that meanings of home, as part of diasporic identities, can be context-dependent, contradictory and are 'intrinsically linked with the way in which processes of inclusion or exclusion operate and are subjectively experienced under given circumstances' (Brah 1996: 192).


Anatomical studies describe the vastus medialis (VM) as being subdivided into two morphologically distinct components, the vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) and the vastus medialis longus (VML). However, there are discrepancies regarding the functional differentiation of these components. The aim of this study was to compare the levels of activation of the VMO and th e VML by high density surface electromyography. Twelve healthy young women (age: 21.4 ± 2.0 years; weight: 58.1 ± 7.5 kg; height: 1.6 ± 0.1 m), performed an open kinetic chain knee exercise during which the EMG activity of the VMO and the VML was recorded with twodimensional matrices of 32 surface electrodes. The exercises were performed with three levels of resistance (5, 10 and 15 % of the body weight (BW)), considering three phases: concentric, isometric and excentric. In the isometric phase the VMO had greater activat ion than the VML with the three levels of resistance (p<0.05). In the excentric phase, the VMO also showed greater activation than the V ML wit the 10 and 15 % BW resistance levels, while in the concentric phase, the VMO showed greater activity than the VML with only the 15 % BW resistance. The results indicated significant differences in the activation level of the two components of the VM. This bear s importance in the development of exercises intended to achieve a greater or more selective activation of the VMO. In the sample subjected to evaluation, the EMG recordings describe a greater activation of the VMO in comparison to the VML, which is more important in th e isometric and excentric phases of the flexion/extension of the knee in an open kinetic chain. These findings suggest a function al compartmentalization of the VM.


Over the years, new synthesis routes of the cathode electrochemical active material for lithium-ion batteries have improved remarkably to optimize their capacity and cycle life performance. This review study focused on the use of some techniques to synthesize the common cathode materials (LiCoO2, LiMn2O4, LiFePO4). The most common and simplest synthesis method was the mixing of powders in their solid-state form and heating them at relatively high temperatures over long periods. Other methods included the formation of sol-gel products that could be either heat-treated more or could be used directly by means of a spray pyrolysis method producing the desired active material. The spray pyrolysis method showed that suitable cathode oxide materials formed in shorter periods, resulting in small homogenous particles with narrow particle size distribution. The spray pyrolysis method allowed for making doped or coated cathode materials easily of the various base forms LiCoO2, LiMn2O4 and LiFePO4, with doping elements such as Zr, Mn, Ni, Co, B or Mg. Coating of the particles could also be done with materials such as glassy lithium boride oxide, TiO2 or carbon. These additives to the cathode material improved the active material's physical morphology and electrochemical properties.


This powerful book offers the first detailed examination of the law's response to the crimes of the Holocaust. In vivid prose it offers a fascinating study of five exemplary proceedings - the Nuremberg trial of the major Nazi was criminals, the Israeli trials of Adolf Eichmann and John Demjanjuk, the French trial of Klaus Barbie, and the Canadian trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel. These trials, the book argues, were 'show trials' in the broadest sense: they aimed to do justice both to the defendants and to the history and memory of the Holocaust. With insight Douglas explores how prosecutors and jurors struggled to submit unprecedented crimes to legal judgment, and in so doing, to reconcile the interests of justice and pedagogy. Against the attacks of such critics as Hannah Arendt, Douglas defends the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials as imaginative, if flawed, responses to extreme crimes. By contrast, he shows how the Demjanjuk and Zundel trials turned into disasters of didactic legality, obfuscating the very history they were intended to illuminate. In their successes and shortcomings, Douglas contends, these proceedings changed our understandings of both the Holocaust and the legal process - revealing the value and limits of the criminal trial as a didactic tool.


In this article we deal with the identification problem within the Dynamic Linear Models family and show that using Bayesian estimation procedures we can deal better with these problems in comparison with the traditional Maximum Likelihood estimation approach. Using a Bayesian approach supported by Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques, we obtain the same results as the Maximum likelihood approach in the case of identifiable models, but in the case of non-identifiable models, we were able to estimate the parameters that are identifiable, as well as to pinpoint the troublesome parameters. Assuming a Bayesian approach, we also discuss the computational aspects, namely the ongoing discussion between single- versus multi-move samplers. Our aim is to give a clear example of the benefits of adopting a Bayesian approach to the estimation of high dimensional statistical models.


Freedom to operate (FTO) is the ability to proceed with research, development and commercialization of a crop science product, while fully accounting for any potential risks of infringing activity, that is, whether a product can be made, used, sold, offered for sale, or exported, with a minimal risk of infringing the unlicensed intellectual property rights (IPRs) or tangible property rights (TPRs) of another. An FTO analysis begins with the 'FTO team' systematically dissecting the crop science product into the components, combination of components, processes and germplasm that went into its research and development. This is followed by generating a series of FTO analytical questions, whereby each piece of the product is carefully scrutinized for the presence of potential IPRs, TPRs and germplasm property rights held by other parties. Finally, patent counsel may render an FTO opinion, indicating the likelihood of the risk of infringing the unlicensed IPRs or TPRs of another should research, development or commercialization proceed. FTO is not absolute. The proprietary landscape is in a continual state of flux, both in time and in space, as in the case where patents issue/expire in countries around the world. Therefore, an FTO analysis is a risk-management tool which is only applicable for a given product, at a given time, in a given jurisdiction, and, as such, must to periodically updated.


Within the domain of French literary analysis, gender criticism has until now focused primarily on women's writing and has drawn largely on the writings of French feminist theorists, even though male-authored texts provide an equally revealing window through which to analyze gender. Except by mainly male critics working predominantly in the field of gay and queer studies, the issue of how 'maleness' informs the construction of the self and the creative act more broadly has been virtually ignored. Further, even though much more work has been done on women, it can be argued that the construction of 'femaleness' is most profitably illuminated by an approach that allows for a comparison between the sexes. This book starts with the premise that sex and gender are fundamental components of the autobiographical writing of both sexes. This is demonstrated through close readings of works by a number of twentieth-century authors who are paired, one male with one female. In tackling, amongst other things, colonial and postcolonial writing, Aids writing, the question of photography and fetishism, queer politics and culture in writings by Sartre, Beauvoir, Gide, Duras, Guibert, Cardinal, Leduc and Doubrovsky, this book provides an excellent model for analyzing gender and the autobiographical act more broadly.Winner of the R. H. Gapper Prize 2000


The zonation pattern of suspension-feeder communities in a 80 m long cave of the Gulf of Naples has been evaluated by standard, visually oriented. and photographic samplings. Light and water movement intensities have been measured and their gradients have been compared with the distribution of the considered taxa (Porifera, Hydroida, Bivalvia, Serpuloidea, and Bryozoa). The so-called "biocoenosis of semi-dark caves (GSO)" is restricted to the entrance and its presence seems mainly related to light values. On the contrary, the "biocoenosis of dark caves (GO)" occupies the rest of the cave, where light is almost absent, and is likely to be mainly influenced by water movement. The individuality of cave communities is discussed, stressing that also other habitats are colonized by species assemblages which are referable to GSO and GO. The evolution of species retained as "typical" of shallow water marine caves of the Mediterranean is hypothesized as having occurred mainly in cryptic or bathyal environments. The colonization of caves possibly occurred as a secondary event and therefore can be defined as "secondary troglobiosis". As a consequence, the denomination of cave-inhabiting communities should be reformulated.


In this paper I investigate differences and similarities in the definitions of human being and human essence as proposed by two of the most influential thinkers of 20 th -century world philosophy, namely Mou Zongsan and Martin Heidegger. I first examine a number of interpretations put forth by scholars that assess the philosophical compatibility of the thought of the two philosophers. Each of these assessments tend to agree that they are incompatible with each other based on what they perceive as an absolute distance between Mou's and Heidegger's ways of thinking. Although these studies are pioneering and show an in-depth understanding of Mou's thought, none demonstrate a correct understanding of Heidegger's philosophy. Therefore, I will attempt to demonstrate that, despite their differences, the ontological and ethical theses of Mou and Heidegger have several striking points of contact. I will also put forth the claim that Heidegger's post-turn philosophy is more compatible with Mou's philosophy than Kant's system.


The Supreme Court's 2010 Term decision in Connick v. Thompson held that Orleans Parish, Louisiana may not be held liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for its prosecutors' violations of in their constitutional duty to disclose favorable evidence to the defense under Brady v. Maryland, based on a theory that the District Attorney's Office failed to train those prosecutors in the substance of Brady's requirements. The Court rejected the claim of former death row inmate John Thompson, now exonerated and by all accounts the victim of unconstitutional evidence suppression by prosecutors, that a district attorney has a duty in creating a training program to anticipate the risk of Brady violations occurring. The narrow fallout from the opinion was dramatic and important: a jury verdict reversed and fourteen-million dollar judgment overturned; an exonerated former prisoner left essentially without a remedy for the Brady violations that by all accounts wrongly landed him on death row; a rare oral dissent from the bench by Justice Ginsburg. The broader implications of the decision, however, are less clear. This chapter in a forthcoming edition of the Handbook of Section 1983 Litigation suggests that the Connick's impact as a precedential matter in the arena of civil rights litigation will be more limited than proponents of civil liability might fear. In particular, the chapter identifies the Court's reasoning as thoroughly grounded in an attitude of prosecutorial exceptionalism that is deeply entrenched across a range of substantive areas in the Court's jurisprudence. This is an outlook that has hobbled any effort to involve courts in prosecutorial oversight, but that in this instance might serve to effectively cabin Connick's applicability to future municipal suits outside the context of prosecutor action.Nevertheless, the chapter urges that Connick's systemic fallout will be more damaging to the development and enforcement of constitutional rights than reading the case in isolation might suggest. Connick is emblematic of a broader trend in the Court's constitutional remedies jurisprudence which I have elsewhere dubbed "remedial rationing": The availability of constitutional claims is frequently restricted – for example, through immunity doctrine in civil litigation, or restrictions on remedies like the exclusionary rule in criminal litigation – with the promise of some alternative avenue of remediation. Frequently that proffered alternative is municipal liability. Against that backdrop, Connick's restrictive account of the role of municipal liability for civil rights violations has the quality of a bait and switch. The opinion threatens to be all the more systemically distorting given that the restrictions the Court announces with respect to municipal liability echo the very doctrines – namely qualified and absolute immunity – against which municipal liability has been cited as a remedial hedge. The possibility that Connick foretells future potential for convergence between municipal liability and individual immunity doctrines is perhaps, from the standpoint of the viability of constitutional remedies, the darkest and most far-reaching impact of the decision.


We present the results of a photometric survey of rotation rates in the Coma Berenices (Melotte 111) open cluster, using data obtained as part of the SuperWASP exoplanetary transit-search programme. The goal of the Coma survey was to measure precise rotation periods for main-sequence F, G and K dwarfs in this intermediate-age (similar to 600 Myr) cluster, and to determine the extent to which magnetic braking has caused the stellar spin periods to converge. We find a tight, almost linear relationship between rotation period and J - K colour with an rms scatter of only 2 per cent. The relation is similar to that seen among F, G and K stars in the Hyades. Such strong convergence can only be explained if angular momentum is not at present being transferred from a reservoir in the deep stellar interiors to the surface layers. We conclude that the coupling time-scale for angular momentum transport from a rapidly spinning radiative core to the outer convective zone must be substantially shorter than the cluster age, and that from the age of Coma onwards stars rotate effectively as solid bodies. The existence of a tight relationship between stellar mass and rotation period at a given age supports the use of stellar rotation period as an age indicator in F, G and K stars of Hyades age and older. We demonstrate that individual stellar ages can be determined within the Coma population with an internal precision of the order of 9 per cent (rms), using a standard magnetic braking law in which rotation period increases with the square root of stellar age. We find that a slight modification to the magnetic-braking power law, P proportional to t0.56, yields rotational and asteroseismological ages in good agreement for the Sun and other stars of solar age for which p-mode studies and photometric rotation periods have been published.


The earliest symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis result from inflammation of the joints between the pelvic bones (the ilia) and the base of the spine (the sacrum). These joints are called sacroiliac joints, and inflammation of these joints is known as sacroiliitis. The inflammation gradually spreads to the joints between the vertebrae, causing a condition called spondylitis. Ankylosing spondylitis can involve other joints as well, including the shoulders, hips, and, less often, the knees. As the disease progresses, it can affect the joints between the spine and ribs, restricting movement of the chest and making it difficult to breathe deeply. People with advanced disease are also more prone to fractures of the vertebrae.


ABSTRACT The highly variable residential landscapes of Rio de Janeiro are changing rapidly in response to intersecting vectors: a cycle of global mega-events that has accelerated real estate speculation, the occupation of strategic favelas by state military police, and the implementation of state-led urban development projects. The general trend has been toward an increase in rents across the metropolitan region with an identifiable process of gentrification occurring in select neighborhoods. By examining data from Rio de Janeiro's primary online real estate search engine (zap.com.br), newspaper reports, interviews with residents and personal experience, this paper examines the processes of gentrification in four different regions of the city: (1) Flamengo, a centrally located middle-class neighborhood; (2) the Zona Portuaria, a port region undergoing state-financed, privately led "revitalization"; (3) the Vidigal favela in Rio's Zona Sul; (4) the suburban neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca, site of closed-condominium real estate speculation and Olympic-led infrastructure investment (Figure 1). The paper examines what kinds of gentrification are happening in Rio de Janeiro, suggesting a multiplicity of gentrifications within a mega-city in the Global South.


Enhanced radiosensitizing effects of a combination of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), a glycolytic inhibitor and 6-aminonicotinamide (6-AN) an analogue of nicotinamide, which inhibits hexose monophosphate shunt (HMP) have been demonstrated in vitro. The purpose of the present studies is to investigate in vivo effects of this combination in Ehrlich ascites tumor (EAT) bearing mice. EAT tumor was grown in Swiss albino strain A mice. Treatment induced growth delay and tumor free animal survival were evaluated as parameters of radiation response. Focal irradiation of the tumor with a single fraction of 10 Gy induced a moderate delay in tumor growth but did not lead to complete regression of the tumor. Intravenous administration of either 6-AN or 2-DG immediately before irradiation enhanced radiation-induced growth delay with a cure rate of 45%. However, administration of a combination of 2-DG (2 g/kg b.wt.) and 6-AN (2 mg/kg b.wt.) immediately before irradiation led to complete regression of tumor in 80% animals resulting in survival of more than 300 days. A similar response (≈80%) was observed when 2-DG dose was reduced to 1 g/kg in combination with 6-AN. It is concluded that 6-AN enhances the radiosensitizing effects of 2-DG and the combination may have potential application in improving radiotherapy of tumors.


This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of computer simulations and conventional teaching in Physics concept learning on high school students.
The descriptive-experimental design was used in this study. The teacher-made test and evaluation questionnaire were used for gathering data. The data gathered were statistically treated and analyzed using SPSS software.
Findings of the study revealed that there were 40 or 50% male student respondents and 40 or 50% female. The pre-test score of the experimental and control groups did not differ significantly, while pre-test and posttest of the experimental and control groups were found to be significantly different. The evaluation of the teachers and students on lecture with computer simulation and conventional lecture methods did not differ significantly in terms of effectiveness/appropriateness, students' participation/interaction, influence on cognitive skills and influence on content knowledge. There was a significant relationship between the sex and performance of the student respondents who were exposed to lecture with computer simulation method while the performance of the male and female student respondents exposed in conventional lecture method did not differ.
Based on the findings of this research, the use of computer simulation as instructional material in teaching Physics is recommended. This may be used to improve the performance of the students. It may be tried in other schools and respondents. Further studies may be undertaken in other Science subjects to establish the validity of the effectiveness of Lecture with Computer Simulation in teaching-learning process. Developers of instructional materials may improvise other teaching aids that may suit the needs and interest of the students.


Abstract This paper differs from previous studies in arguing that sectarianism has overwhelmingly been created consensually by/or as a result of the elites' behavioral patterns. Religious or communal pluralism does not categorically lead to political sectarianism; The development of pluralism into political sectarianism can thus be adduced as dependent upon other factors—first and foremost the behavioural patterns of the elite. While the imperial legacy, theological controversies, and socio-economic gaps feed political sectarianism, in and of themselves they are insufficient to cause it. A survey of the history of Egypt and the other countries in the Fertile Crescent reveals that the development of political sectarianism or sectarian violence has been organically linked to elites' political behaviors and interests. sectarianism takes the form of the instrumental exploitation of a religious or communal identity or framework in order to enable political organization, the gaining of political legitimacy, the promotion of political change, or the preservation of the control held by interest groups. While in the eyes of many critics, sectarianism forms a striking example of the elites' intrinsic weakness, sectarianism is first and foremost a product of the elites' quest for power.


Human activities can cause large alterations in biogeochemical cycles of key nutrients such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). However, relatively little is known about how these changes alter the proportional fluxes of these elements across ecosystem boundaries from rivers to lakes. Here, we examined environmental factors influencing spatial and temporal variation in particulate C : N : P ratios across the Lake Erie watershed from its tributaries to its outflow. Throughout the study, particulate nutrient ratios ranged widely (C : N 2.0–25.8, C : P 32–530, N : P 3.7–122.9), but mean values were generally lower than previous estimates from different aquatic environments. Particulate C : N ratios varied the least across all environments, but C : P and N : P ratios increased between tributaries and coastal areas and throughout the growing season in coastal environments. These ratios also differed temporally in offshore waters as particulate C : P and N : P were higher in the spring and summer and lower in the fall and winter. Particulate C : P ratios also increased between the western/central and eastern basins indicating differential nutrient processing across the lake. These stoichiometric changes were associated with unique environmental factors among ecosystems as tributary stoichiometry was related to terrestrial land use and land cover, coastal ratios were a product of mixing between riverine and offshore waters, and offshore patterns were influenced by differences in temperature and particulate nutrient loading among basins. Overall, by studying changes in particulate C : N : P ratios across the Lake Erie watershed, our study demonstrates the power of using mass balance principles to study nutrient transformations along the aquatic continuum.


Addressing uncertainty is critical for autonomous systems to robustly adapt to the real world. We formulate the problem of model uncertainty as a continuous Bayes-Adaptive Markov Decision Process (BAMDP), where an agent maintains a posterior distribution over latent model parameters given a history of observations and maximizes its expected long-term reward with respect to this belief distribution. Our algorithm, Bayesian Policy Optimization, builds on recent policy optimization algorithms to learn a universal policy that navigates the exploration-exploitation trade-off to maximize the Bayesian value function. To address challenges from discretizing the continuous latent parameter space, we propose a new policy network architecture that encodes the belief distribution independently from the observable state. Our method significantly outperforms algorithms that address model uncertainty without explicitly reasoning about belief distributions and is competitive with state-of-the-art Partially Observable Markov Decision Process solvers.


The minimum description length (MDL) principle can be used to train the hidden units of a neural network to extract a representation that is cheap to describe but nonetheless allows the input to be reconstructed accurately. We show how MDL can be used to develop highly redundant population codes. Each hidden unit has a location in a low-dimensional implicit space. If the hidden unit activities form a bump of a standard shape in this space, they can be cheaply encoded by the center of this bump. So the weights from the input units to the hidden units in an autoencoder are trained to make the activities form a standard bump. The coordinates of the hidden units in the implicit space are also learned, thus allowing flexibility, as the network develops a discontinuous topography when presented with different input classes.


The physics laboratory has long been a distinctive feature of physics education. It has been given a central role in the teaching and learning of physics at school and undergraduate levels in universities. The literature indicates that science educators have suggested that there are academically rich benefits in the learning and understanding of physics based on laboratory work. However, some educators have begun to raise serious and valid questions about the effectiveness of the learning through laboratory work in science subjects and the heavy cost for the establishment and maintenance of laboratories. This research paper provides perspectives on these issues through a brief review of the history, goals and objectives related to the physics undergraduate laboratory. An empirical research study was conducted to determine the university students' perceptions, views and opinions with regard to physics learning during undergraduate laboratory work. This involved 143 students from first and higher years and the evidence was gathered by survey and focus group interviews, the former using a variety of types of questions. The evidence from the students is positive and suggests that undergraduate physics laboratory work may well be contributing towards the achievement of specific desirable goals.


Insects commonly resist parasites using melanotic encapsulation. Many studies measuring immune response use the amount of melanin deposited on an artificial object that has been inserted into the animal as a proxy of the amount of resistance that the host is capable of mounting to natural parasites. 2. The relevance of this methodology to immune response in natural insect populations needs further study. Here, we examined two temperate damselfly species to elucidate the relationships among damselfly size, natural resistance to mites, and the immune response mounted by the same damselflies against nylon filaments. 3. The damselfly species that had high rates of melanotic encapsulation of mites in nature deposited more melanin on the nylon inserts than the species with low rates of natural resistance. 4. In females of this species, those that had resisted mites naturally melanised the nylon filament more aggressively than those that did not resist mites. 5. Our results show some support for the use of nylon filaments to assess natural patterns of immune response in these damselflies, but also suggest that caution should be used in interpreting the responses.


The northern part of theWestern Carpathians suffered polyphase deformation at the boundary between their Central and Outer parts. Palaeostress analysis in the Orava region revealed the existence of five different stress fields in the period from the Late Eocene to the Quaternary. The evolution of the stress fields was determined by detailed structural analysis of the fault slip and fold orientation data. The orientation of the stress fields shows an apparent clockwise rotation from the Late Eocene to the Quaternary. During the Late Eocene to Oligocene, E–W compression and perpendicular tension affected this area. This was the time when the Central Carpathian Palaeogene Basin formed.After this compression, the palaeostress field rotated approximately 40–50°, and NW– SE compression and NE–SWtension took place in the EarlyMiocene. TheMiddleMiocene to Pliocene was characterised by progressive rotation of the palaeostress field from NW–SE to the NE–SW direction of the maximum principal compressional stress axis (σ 1 ). This clockwise rotation of the Oligocene to Quaternary palaeostress fields here is explained by the effect of the counterclockwise rotation of theALCAPAmicroplate, and by the regional stress field changes in this region. The Quaternary stress field was reconstructed on the basis of structural measurements in the Pliocene sedimentary formations of the Orava–Nowy Targ Basin. The results of the palaeostress analysis show that the Quaternary stress field is characterised by E–W-oriented S h (minimum horizontal compression) and N–S-oriented S H (maximum horizontal compression).


Fluorescence Diffuse Optical Tomography (FDOT) uses Near Infra-Red (NIR) light to monitor physiological changes in internal organs. NIR light being less energetic in nature can be used for continuous monitoring of tumor infected biological tissue, neonatal brain and many such applications where high energy radiation can cause severe damage. In this paper, a comparative study on the 3D modeling (i.e. both forward and inverse model) of breast cancer using NIRFDOT is discussed. Fluorescence diffuse optical tomography relies on the presence of fluorophore molecules in tissue that re-radiate fluorescent light after illumination by excitation light of a different wavelength. The reconstructed images demonstrated significant tumor contrast compared to typical endogenous optical contrast in breast. The forward model and the reconstruction are simulated using the Wave Optics Module of COMSOL Multiphysics® software. The forward problem of DOT, which involves obtaining of the radiance values of light at the boundary of the specimen (with known μa and μs values) after irradiating it with NIR radiation, can be described by the Radiative Transfer Equation used with diffusion approximation .This equation is represented in the form of an Helmholtz Equation in COMSOL Multiphysics®. A mesh model of human breast is created and the flux intensity values are modeled using FEM with the coefficients (quantum yield, molar extinction coefficient, etc.) obtained from the in-vitro studies. Where the values of the quantum yield and molar extinction coefficient obtained for an estrogen conjugate fluorescent dye are 0.144 and 6.25e5 M-1cm-1 respectively. Both the excitation (754nm) and emission (787nm) equations are inverted using iterative LevenbergMarquardt method with Tikhonov minimization of measurement and calculated matrix. At the system level, a complete DOI setup consists of five functional blocks: the light source, imaging platform, photo detector, hardware controller, and signal processor. The signal processor is mainly a computer with various software, including mathematical models, signal processing algorithms and reconstruction methods. Simulations in COMSOL Multiphysics® were carried out to obtain the 3D forward and inverse model of breast cancer for multiple fluorescent inclusions. The fluorescent phenomenon in biological media is successfully simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics®.


Concentrations of inorganic nitrogen (N) in non-polluted and undisturbed northern rivers are often lower during summer than during the dormant season. The great difference between summer and winter N concentrations probably reflects higher soil water N contents in the dormant season compared with the growing season, when inorganic N is usually retained effectively. Microbial activity in soil is observed even in sub-zero temperatures and it is generally assumed that in the northern latitudes some N mineralization occurs during winter. The dynamic, semi-distributed INCA (Integrated Nitrogen in Catchments) model was applied to the Simojoki river basin in the boreal zone in northern Finland. With this model process rates and loads of N can be simulated in different land use modes. The INCA model was not able to simulate the high inorganic N concentrations in the river water in winter unless N processes in sub-zero temperatures were included. The aim of this study was to compare the simulated N mineralization in two different land use modes: boreal forests on mineral soil and agricultural fields. Net N mineralization occurring during the season when soil is mainly frozen (November-April) accounted for 43% of the annual N mineralization. This work indicates the importance of over-winter N processes in northern areas, which should be taken into account when modelling nutrient leaching.


The Indo-Pacific lionfish, Pterois miles and P. volitans , have recently invaded the U.S. east coast and the Caribbean and pose a significant threat to native reef fish communities. Few studies have documented reproduction in pteroines from the Indo-Pacific. This study provides a description of oogenesis and spawn formation in P. miles and P. volitans collected from offshore waters of North Carolina, U.S.A and the Bahamas. Using histological and laboratory observations, we found no differences in reproductive biology between P. miles and P. volitans . These lionfish spawn buoyant eggs that are encased in a hollow mass of mucus produced by specialized secretory cells of the ovarian wall complex. Oocytes develop on highly vascularized peduncles with all oocyte stages present in the ovary of spawning females and the most mature oocytes placed terminally, near the ovarian lumen. Given these ovarian characteristics, these lionfish are asynchronous, indeterminate batch spawners and are thus capable of sustained reproduction throughout the year when conditions are suitable. This mode of reproduction could have contributed to the recent and rapid establishment of these lionfish in the northwestern Atlantic and Caribbean.


SUMMARY The effect of oral administration of antibiotics on the intestinal flora of conventional mice and their resistance to colonization by orally introduced Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was studied. Colonization resistance (CR) was expressed as the log of the oral bacterial dose followed by a persistent take in 50 % of the contaminated animals. The intestinal flora was virtually eliminated by the antibiotics and this elimination was accompanied by a precipitous fall of CR. CR gradually returned to normal values during the period of repopulation of the intestinal tract by the organisms surviving the treatment. Antibiotic treatment resulted in the disappearance of Enterobacteriaceae, enterococci, staphylococci and yeasts and, under appropriate housing conditions, the animals remained free of these organisms indefinitely. Germ-free mice contaminated with the intestinal flora of an antibiotic-treated animal and their offspring housed in a germ-free isolator showed high values of CR. Their intestinal flora consisted of anaerobic bacteria only. Apparently, these anaerobes are responsible for CR in these and in conventional mice.


Abstract. Boreal lake and river ecosystems receive large quantities of organic nutrients and carbon (C) from their catchments. How bacterioplankton respond to these inputs is not well understood, in part because we base our understanding and predictions on total pools , yet we know little about the stoichiometry of bioavailable elements within organic matter. We designed bioassays with the purpose of exhausting the pools of readily bioavailable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC), bioavailable dissolved nitrogen (BDN), and bioavailable dissolved phosphorus (BDP) as fast as possible. Applying the method in four boreal lakes at base-flow conditions yielded concentrations of bioavailable resources in the range 105–693 µg C L−1 for BDOC (2 % of initial total DOC), 24–288 µg N L−1 for BDN (31 % of initial total dissolved nitrogen), and 0.2–17 µg P L−1 for BDP (49 % of initial total dissolved phosphorus). Thus, relative bioavailability increased from carbon (C) to nitrogen (N) to phosphorus (P). We show that the main fraction of bioavailable nutrients is organic, representing 80 % of BDN and 61 % of BDP. In addition, we demonstrate that total C : N and C : P ratios are as much as 13-fold higher than C : N and C : P ratios for bioavailable resource fractions. Further, by applying additional bioavailability measurements to seven widely distributed rivers, we provide support for a general pattern of relatively high bioavailability of P and N in relation to C. Altogether, our findings underscore the poor availability of C for support of bacterial metabolism in boreal C-rich freshwaters, and suggest that these ecosystems are very sensitive to increased input of bioavailable DOC.


In the last three years the migrant labor hostels of South Africa, particularly those in the Transvaal, have gained international notoriety as theaters of violence. For many years they were hidden from public view and neglected by the white authorities. Now, it seems, hostel dwellers may have chosen physical violence to draw attention to the structural violence of their appalling conditions of life. Yet we should not lose sight of the fact that the majority of hostel dwellers are peace-loving people who have over the years developed creative strategies to cope with their impoverished and degrading environment. In this challenging study, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele documents the life of the hostel dwellers of Cape Town, for whom a bed is literally a home for both themselves and their families. Elaborating the concept of space in its many dimensions-not just physical, but political, ideological, social, and economic as well-she emphasizes the constraints exerted on hostel dwellers by the limited spaces they inhabit. At the same time, she argues that within these constraints people have managed to find room for manoeuvre, and in her book explores the emancipatory possibilities of their environment. The text is illustrated with a number of black-and-white photographs taken by Roger Meintjes in the townships and hostels.


Load transients are prevalent in every electronic device including semiconductor memory, card readers, microprocessors, disc drives, piezoelectric devices, and digitally based systems. They are capable of producing voltage stress, introducing noise, and degrading device functionality. In order to avoid damage to the device, a feedback control loop is implemented with system compensation to regulate the output voltage deviations by the converter. Because designing compensation networks can be rather complicated, DC-DC converters with integrated feedback control topologies help minimize design time and complexity of converter compensation at the expense of design flexibility. This thesis widens the limitations of an integrated DC-DC converter with a stability optimization technique that utilizes the feedback network to create a phase boost centered at the bandwidth of the converter to increase the phase margin and improve its transient response. Ideal modeling verifies stability optimization while non-ideal modeling that introduces PCB parasitics to the control loop suggest an additional phase boost in the feedback network. Experimental data confirms this non-deal model for parasitic capacitances higher than calculated. The modified non-ideal model shows more accuracy compared to the experimental data which indicates that there may be PCB parasitics that is unaccounted for. Modeling the modified non-ideal model to high orders may yield more accuracy. This thesis gives both DC-DC converter and PCB layout designers insight and considerations into PCB effects on the stability of DC-DC converters and the optimization of integrated compensation.


The rate of groundwater flow has long been recognized as a critical control on solute transport in the subsurface. However, information about groundwater flux and its variability in space is rarely available, especially at the resolution required for investigations at sites of groundwater contamination. Recently, high‐resolution information about vertical variations in groundwater flux was obtained using fiber‐optic distributed temperature sensing technology to monitor the temperature response to active heating in a well. A series of vertical thermal profiles were acquired at a 1.4 cm resolution in a sand and gravel aquifer. These high‐resolution profiles, which display many of the same general features as hydraulic conductivity (K) profiles obtained using multiple techniques at the same well, provide new insights into site hydrostratigraphy. In particular, the near‐continuous profiles reveal the existence of thin zones of relatively high or low velocity that would be difficult to detect using other methods. These profiles also demonstrate that vertical variations in K may not be an accurate indicator of vertical variability in groundwater flux in highly heterogeneous aquifers.


This paper is a bibliographic review dealing with composite aircraft and rotorcraft crashworthiness. The paper focuses on structural aspects of large composite aircraft or rotorcraft parts (fuselage parts, barrels or larger parts). Material topics, such as the experimental characterization and numerical modelling of the dynamic behavior of composite materials, of composite joints (details) and of energyabsorbing components (elementary parts) are mentioned but not discussed in detail. More information about this topic can be found, for instance, in another bibliographic review. The first section of the paper deals with work performed in various labs since the early '90s. The second section describes the global strategy of the French Aerospace Lab in the matter of studying composite aircraft or rotorcraft crashworthiness over the same period, following a quite different strategy. Lessons learnt from all of these works are discussed in detail, which can be derived into best practices for young engineers or researchers working in this field. Indeed, the complexity of the composite materials, and hence the structure behavior under crash conditions, is so great (due to potentially very versatile rupture behaviors) that great care must be taken when studying their crash response. As a conclusion of the review paper, the need for a numerical/experimental building-block approach up to the barrel level is clearly evidenced, which should not be done without wellassessed V&V (verify and validate) strategies for the virtual part of the process.


We show that it is possible to determine the magnitude of the three principal refractive indices of a biaxial crystal from the measurement of the double-refraction effect at the exit of the crystal cut as a millimetric sphere and illuminated with a laser beam. By this way, we determined the indices of a monoclinic crystal, Ca4YO(BO3)3, at λ=0.6328 μm with an accuracy of 6×10−3. The sphere method, which we implemented several years ago, is now self-sufficient for a complete characterization of the linear and nonlinear optical properties of any new biaxial crystal.


This foreword recommends the forthcoming second edition of Scholarly Writing: Ideas, Examples, and Execution by Jessica L. Clark and Kristen E. Murray. The book, published by Carolina Academic Press, is a welcome tool and useful resource for students embarking on their scholarly writing endeavors. Having supervised hundreds of LL.M. candidates struggling to complete a thesis, J.D. students attempting to fulfill a scholarly note requirement dominating their second-year law journal experience, and J.D. and LL.M. candidates writing seminar papers or independent research and writing projects, the author encourages students to invest in Scholarly Writing as a helpful and instructive lifeline. The author recommends the book not only to students writing scholarly papers, but also to faculty colleagues supervising students' scholarly writing projects. The book's companion website provides links to valuable examples, such as the student notes and other resources mentioned throughout the book. The site also provides updated information about scholarly writing developments and resources.


The most fatal virus known to science, rabies - a disease that spreads avidly from animals to humans - kills nearly one hundred percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. In this critically acclaimed exploration, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart four thousand years of the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh and often wildly entertaining look at one of humankind's oldest and most fearsome foes. "A searing narrative." (The New York Times). "In this keen and exceptionally well-written book, rife with surprises, narrative suspense and a steady flow of expansive insights, 'the world's most diabolical virus' conquers the unsuspecting reader's imaginative nervous system...A smart, unsettling, and strangely stirring piece of work." (San Francisco Chronicle). "Fascinating...Wasik and Murphy chronicle more than two millennia of myths and discoveries about rabies and the animals that transmit it, including dogs, bats and raccoons." (The Wall Street Journal).


Prediction markets offer contingent securities with payoffs linked to future events. The market price of a security reveals information about traders' beliefs, but prediction markets often suffer from low liquidity, which can prevent trades from occurring. One way to inject liquidity into a market is through the use of an automated market maker, an algorithmic agent willing to accept some risk in order to facilitate trades. Abernethy et al. [2013] proposed a general framework for the design of automated market makers, defining a set of axioms that a market should satisfy, and characterizing the class of market makers that satisfy these axioms. However, the liquidity of any market in their class, quantified in terms of the rate at which prices adapt to trades, is fixed a priori and does not change as the volume of trade increases. Othman and Sandholm [2011] proposed a class of liquidity-adaptive markets, but gave little guidance for how to choose a market from within this class. Combining ideas from Abernethy et al. [2013] and Othman and Sandholm [2011], we provide an axiomatic characterization of a parameterized class of automated market makers with adaptive liquidity. A primary advantage of our framework is the ability to analyze important market properties, such as its ability to aggregate information or make a profit, in terms of market parameters, which we do using techniques from convex analysis and geometry. For example, we show that the curvature of the price space can be used to manage a trade-off between information loss and profit. This analysis offers guidance for market designers who wish to choose a particular market maker to implement.


Climate extremes, characterized by droughts and floods, have become one of the major constraints to sustainable improvement of rice productivity. Variety choice, considered as one of the main adaptation measures, could help farmers reduce yield loss resulting from these extremes. Based on a three-year panel survey of 1,080 Chinese rice farms in major rice producing provinces, we study the effect of adopting weather tolerant variety rice as a main adaptation measure against climate extremes. Taking into account the endogeneity of adoption behavior, we employ an endogenous switching regression to separately estimate the treatment effects of adoption for adopters and non-adopters. We find that farmers who adopted the new variety increased yield by 537 kg/ha (about 7%), compared with the counterfactual case of no-adoption. In contrast, the farmers who did not adopt, would increase rice yield by 272 kg/ha (about 4 %) if they adopted, much smaller than the adopters. However, adoption of new variety demands more knowledge, better education, more intensive management, and higher seed costs. As a policy implication, expansion of public extension services could help relax these restrictions.


Objectives: Work aims to create a portable tool with a decision support, providing relevant methods for purposes of physical activity evaluation in real-time.
Methods: We have utilized accelerometer equipped ez430Chronos watch in conjunction with a preconfigured RaspberryPi-based setup. Wireless transmission of accelerometer data into a running web application instance, which served as a user frontend, is provided through the WebSocket protocol. Decision support is based on a Weka classifier.
Results: The proposed framework is ready to be used for the annotation and basic evaluation of physical activity data in a Wi-Fi covered areas. Minor issues are related to the occasional instability of data transmission, which has to be handled consequently.
Conclusions: We found the overall framework architecture robust enough to serve its purpose. Next steps in the development will lead to an expansion of outlined functionality.


In this work, the seasonal dependency of the E region electric field (EEF) at the dip equator is examined. The eastward zonal (Ey) and the daytime vertical (Ez) electric fields are responsible for the overall phenomenology of the equatorial and low‐latitude ionosphere, including the equatorial electrojet (EEJ) and its plasma instability. The electric field components are studied based on long‐term backscatter radars soundings (348 days for both systems) collected during geomagnetic quiet days (Kp ≤ 3+), from 2001 to 2010, at the São Luís Space Observatory (SLZ), Brazil (2.33°S, 44.20°W), and at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO), Peru (11.95°S, 76.87°W). Among the results, we observe, for the first time, a seasonal difference between the EEF in these two sectors in South America based on coherent radar measurements. The EEF is more intense in summer at SLZ, in equinox at JRO, and has been highly variable with season in the Brazilian sector compared to the Peruvian sector. In addition, the secular variation on the geomagnetic field and its effect on the EEJ over Brazil resulted that as much farther away is the magnetic equator from SLZ, later more the EEJ is observed (10 h LT) and sooner it ends (16 h LT). Moreover, the time interval of type II occurrence decreased significantly after the year 2004, which is a clear indication that SLZ is no longer an equatorial station due to the secular variation of the geomagnetic field.


This article studies the preventive pillar of the responsibility to protect (R2P) norm and focuses on its normative development, robustness, normative fit and its chances of becoming a legal norm, based on the sources of international law and the theory of interactional law. This article argues that prevention is the pillar of R2P with the widest level of international support and is based on increasingly deeper and more precise shared understandings. The institutionalisation process and a norm cascade - possibly leading to internalisation - are materialising simultaneously while the interpretation and application of the norm are still being contested. To be more robust and more effective in practice, the norm 'responsibility to prevent' has to gain in specificity. Prevention of mass atrocities finds increasing support in the sources of international law. For an interactional legal norm to emerge, the exact content and division of responsibilities has to become clearer, officials have to act in line with the norm and practices of legality have to emerge.


The trade-off between agricultural production stability and environmental sustainability is a growing concern. The two major Canadian farm income stabilization programs of 1991, GRIP (Gross Revenue Insurance Plan) and NISA (Net Income Stabilization Account), are being considered for their resource neutrality impacts. This report presents a conceptual framework designed to evaluate the environmental impacts of GRIP and NISA, focusing on land use, technology, and soil degradation shifts. The approach involves a multidisciplinary effort to create a system that permits evaluation of important relationships between policy, agricultural production and the environment. The focus is on development of an integrated agro-ecological economic system built around Agriculture Canada's Regional Agricultural Model (CRAM) and the Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) model. CRAM, a risk-neutral, aggregate resource allocation model, is modified to include a more detailed technology specification and producer risk due to production and net return variability. Environmental impact indicator functions are developed using EPIC simulations based on experimental design and metamodeling techniques. The integrated system will be used to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of alternative policies.


This report analyses the European Union (EU) – Ukraine relationship by looking at the impact of EU conditionality regarding the anti-corruption framework on the use and distribution of EU funding between 2007 and 2014. It shows that, historically, the EU concern with good governance in Ukraine has been materialised in the form of numerous anti-corruption conditions attached to transnational aid flows. Despite important improvements at institutional levels – particularly the set-up of the National Anticorruption Bureau, the Ukrainian practices and everyday routines have not changed fundamentally. Assessing the impact of EU funding in such a context marked on the one hand by pervasive corruption and on the other hand by a profound desire for change, can be a challenging task, especially due to the fact that a large share of international aid received has been directed to budget support, thus making it impossible to asses if it has been affected by corruption. Using secondary data analysis and interviews with key stakeholders, the report shows that the efficiency of EU assistance could be improved by increasing the levels of control, enhancing transparency and establishing a closer relationship with international partners who are more experienced in tackling EU funding fraud and grand corruption.


Tone mapping operators (TMO) have recently raised interest for their capability to handle illumination changes. However, these TMOs are optimized with respect to perception rather than image analysis tasks like key point detection. Moreover, no work has been done to analyze the factors affecting the optimization of TMOs for such tasks. In this paper, we investigate the influence of two factors-Correlation Coefficient (CC) and Repeatability Rate (RR) of the tone mapped images for the optimization of classical Retinex based models to enhance key point detection under illumination changes. CC-based optimized models aim at increasing the similarity of the tone mapped images. Conversely, RR-based optimized models quantify the optimal detection performance gains. By considering two simple Retinex based models, i.e., Gaussian and bilateral filtering, we show that estimating as precisely as possible the illumination, CC-based optimized models do not necessarily bring to optimal key point detection performance. We conclude that, instead, other criteria specific to RR-based optimized models should be taken into account. Moreover, large gains in performance with respect to existing popular TMOs motivate further research towards optimal tone mapping technique for computer vision applications.


Researchers have become increasingly interested in disentangling selection and influence processes. This literature review provides context for the special issue on network–behavior dynamics. It brings together important conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions focusing on longitudinal social network modeling. First, an overview of mechanisms underlying selection and influence is given. After a description of the shortcomings of previous studies in this area, the stochastic actor-based model is sketched; this is used in this special issue to examine network–behavior dynamics. The preconditions for such analyses are discussed, as are common model specification issues. Next, recent empirical advances in research on adolescence are discussed, focusing on new insights into moderating effects, initiation of behaviors, time heterogeneity, mediation effects, and negative ties.


Mobile apps are notorious for collecting a wealth of private information from users. Despite significant effort from the research community in developing privacy leak detection tools based on data flow tracking inside the app or through network traffic analysis, it is still unclear whether apps and ad libraries can hide the fact that they are leaking private information. In fact, all existing analysis tools have limitations: data flow tracking suffers from imprecisions that cause false positives, as well as false negatives when the data flow from a source of private information to a network sink is interrupted; on the other hand, network traffic analysis cannot handle encryption or custom encoding. We propose a new approach to privacy leak detection that is not affected by such limitations, and it is also resilient to obfuscation techniques, such as encoding, formatting, encryption, or any other kind of transformation performed on private information before it is leaked. Our work is based on blackbox differential analysis, and it works in two steps: first, it establishes a baseline of the network behavior of an app; then, it modifies sources of private information, such as the device ID and location, and detects leaks by observing deviations in the resulting network traffic. The basic concept of black-box differential analysis is not novel, but, unfortunately, it is not practical enough to precisely analyze modern mobile apps. In fact, their network traffic contains many sources of non-determinism, such as random identifiers, timestamps, and server-assigned session identifiers, which, when not handled properly, cause too much noise to correlate output changes with input changes. The main contribution of this work is to make black-box differential analysis practical when applied to modern Android apps. In particular, we show that the network-based non-determinism can often be explained and eliminated, and it is thus possible to reliably use variations in the network traffic as a strong signal to detect privacy leaks. We implemented this approach in a tool, called AGRIGENTO, and we evaluated it on more than one thousand Android apps. Our evaluation shows that our approach works well in practice and outperforms current state-of-the-art techniques. We conclude our study by discussing several case studies that show how popular apps and ad libraries currently exfiltrate data by using complex combinations of encoding and encryption mechanisms that other approaches fail to detect. Our results show that these apps and libraries seem to deliberately hide their data leaks from current approaches and clearly demonstrate the need for an obfuscation-resilient approach such as ours.


The data taken up for analysis are from' Results obtained at the Pearl oyster Farm,
Krusadai Island, Gulf of Mannar, and their application to problems relating to
pearl fisheries in the Gulf of Mannar—Part I,' by Devanesan arid Chidambaram
(1956), which shall hereafter be referred to simply as the' Report'. ' Several appendices
of measurements and body weights are appended to this report not only for
reference but also with the object of stimulating other interested workers to try and
isolate more precious metal from the inadequately assayed ore.' It is found from
the Report that the analysis done was only on age and length, age and body weight
and age, length and body weight and that too limited to oysters up to the one and
half year age group only. Direct analysis on length-weight relationship alone had
not been attempted. Since not much of work has so far been done on the length weight
relationship of Indian oysters, some of the raw data given in the Report were
taken up for detailed analysis in an attempt to see whether any relationship exists
between length and weight and if so, whether the relationship was the same for
different groups and, if different, the probable reasons for the same and also to
provide a better yardstick for predicting the time for pearl fishing.


James Putnam was co-curator of 'Glasstress: White Light White Heat', with Adriano Berengo, Director of Berengo Studio a collaborative event for the 55th Venice Biennale 2013, staged on two sites in Venice at the Palazzo Franchetti, Venice and the Berengo Centre for Contemporary Art and Glass, Murano. A total of 63 international artists were invited to respond to Putnam's themes of light and heat, both fundamental to glass making - light is integral to our perception of glass while heat is required to shape it. His curatorial role included developing new commissioned works in collaboration with Berengo Studio where the glass works were made and commissioning two artist performances. His objective was to build upon previous 'Glasstress' exhibitions that featured only Fine Artists, the first of which was at the Venice Bienniale in 2009, to develop a curatorial concept that encompassed works to include fine art, fashion, performance and installation. Two notable examples were Cai Guo-Qiang's Full body Scan; 'Next!' an installation of mannequins in suicide jackets forged in glass and a performance and Ron Arad's Last Train, an interactive drawing installation incorporating new technology. Putnam's research involved examining the glass blowing/moulding techniques used by the Venetian artisans and necessitated the study of glass making history and the Wallace Collection's display of historic Venetian glass. This included research in specialist libraries, museums, archives, and also researching modern and contemporary artists' use and attitude towards glass. A fully illustrated publication accompanied the project, including an essay by Putnam with an extract from the essay featured in the official Biennale catalogue. The exhibition was reconstituted at two venues in London, The Wallace Collection & The Fashion Space Gallery, University of the Arts, London.


In "Descriptive indexicals and indexical descriptions" Nunberg claimed that only indexicals among singular terms may have descriptive uses, i.e. have nonsingular contributions to the propositions they are used to express. In this respect they differ from proper names or definite descriptions. In "Lessons from Descriptive Indexicals", Sæbø shows that this conjecture is untenable, providing examples of the descriptive uses of both proper names and definite descriptions. This paper offers an account of the descriptive uses of all of the singular terms and provides an alternative to Saebø's account. Sæbø's analysis rests on the assumption that the propositional contribution of all singular terms used descriptively is a singular concept. I will argue against this assumption and my proposal will offer a uniform analysis of the descriptive uses of singular terms that is not constrained by it.


Oxfam India is part of a global movement working to fight poverty, injustice and inequality. In India, it works in seven states. Oxfam India's programme on Fair Sharing of Natural Resources is aimed at promoting tribal livelihoods, food security and environment protection, and control and sustainable management of natural resources by facilitating access to rights, like the Forest Rights Act, recognised by government. In Odisha, Oxfam India has been working with Regional Centre for Development and Cooperation (RCDC), an NGO, since 2010 to enhance capacities of communities to claim their rights, facilitate participatory natural resource management, conserve and manage forest resources, and promote livelihoods.This paper gives an overview of the programme and some of its work so far.


A large number and variety of compounds (acetylcholine, adenosine diphosphate, adenosine triphosphate, arachidonic acid, bradykinin, Ca2+ ionophores, calcitonin gene-related peptide, histamine, hydralazine, substance P, thrombin, and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide) have been shown to relax arterial smooth muscle indirectly. The endothelium in muscular arteries from several species appears to have receptors for these vasodilators. Binding of one of these compounds to its endothelial receptors results in the release (and presumably synthesis) of substance (s) that act on arterial smooth muscle to cause relaxation. The name endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) has been proposed for the substance or substances responsible for inhibition of contraction. Studies to determine additivity of endothelium-dependent relaxing agents and sensitivity of EDRF-mediated responses to a variety of inhibitors suggest that a single factor or a single common mechanism induces relaxation of vascular smooth muscle. Pharmacological studies have been equivocal with regard to the postulated involvement of phospholipases or arachidonic acid and to the suggestion that EDRF is an oxidative, noncydooxygenase product of arachidonate. Experiments on transfer of EDRF and reversal of endothelium-dependent relaxation consistently indicate that EDRF is quite labile. There is convincing evidence that EDRF activates smooth muscle guanylate cyclase, which results in an increase in intracellular cyclic guanosine 3′,5′-monophosphate levels. The stimulation of guanylate cyclase by EDRF provides a valuable and sensitive parameter for studies with arteries as well as cells in culture. At present, the identity of EDRF and its role in cardiovascular homeostasis are unknown.


Faster urbanization plays a key role in the Chinese economic transformation. However, at the Lewis turning point, the hukou institution constitutes a serious risk to the process, as it restricts the access of migrants to public services offered by cities. To attract further migration, firms started to accept a premium on top of the wage. Thus, the social discrimination introduced by the hukou system is partially compensated by the reactions of market participants, as migrant workers receive additional pay. Based on huge cross sections of private households, this paper provides insights into the size and the evolution of the wage premium. After controlling for standard wage determinants, such as sex, education, experience and ownership of firms, we find that the premium amounts to 7 percent of the hourly wage. Because of the premium, the share of non-wage labor costs is on the rise, especially for low-skilled migrants. To avoid further distortions and reduce inefficiencies, the hukou status should be unified. Migrants should obtain urban hukou as long as they live in cities. They should keep their land use rights when they are in the rural areas. Otherwise, the system could constitute a significant barrier for further urbanization. The removal of institutional bias could restore the link between wages and productivity and improve the allocation of labor.


The terms "hero," "heroism," and, more recently, "heroine," are broad, wide ranging, and contested terms prominent within academia yet there remains a general consensus that heroes are, historically, an essential component to society. This paper will identify that there are diverse Western cultural conceptions surrounding the hero. It is therefore important to trace the meaning behind the concept and draw conclusions as to whether or not the hero narrative has developed or shifted over time. Through an intensive review of the literature on the "hero," this research paper critically identifies the historical constructions, empirical observations, and theoretical analyses in order to explore and understand how the hero narrative has changed or retained timeless qualities of meaning or myth. As the hero developed from the Classical times to the present, through the periods of oral tradition to electronic media, those who are identified as a "hero" became more and more far-reaching. This paper constructs several empirical tables that identify similarities and differences concerning how Western society's classification of heroes has developed. By taking into account the different types of heroic figures that have existed across time, including Greek gods, soldiers, community workers, and celebrities, this paper establishes whether or not the conception of the "hero" changes depending on war, gender, race, popular culture, historical time period, and changes in communication technology.


ESSAYS ON HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: INSIGHTS FROM ANALYSES OF BIG DATASETS BY Langtao Chen 4/5/2016 Committee Chair: Dr. Detmar W. Straub, Dr. Aaron M. Baird Major Academic Unit: Computer Information Systems The current dissertation provides an examination of health information technology (HIT) by analyzing big datasets. It contains two separate essays focused on: (1) the evolving intellectual structure of the healthcare informatics (HI) and healthcare IT (HIT) scholarly communities, and (2) the impact of social support exchange embedded in social interactions on health promotion outcomes associated with online health community use. Overall, this dissertation extends current theories by applying a unique combination of methods (natural language processing, machine learning, social network analysis, and structural equation modeling etc.) to the analyses of primary datasets. The goal of the first study is to obtain a full understanding of the underlying dynamics of the intellectual structures of HI and its sub-discipline HIT. Using multiple statistical methods including citation and cocitation analysis, social network analysis (SNA), and latent semantic analysis (LSA), this essay shows how HIT research has emerged in IS journals and distinguished itself from the larger HI context. The research themes, intellectual leadership, cohesion of these themes and networks of researchers, and journal presence revealed in our longitudinal intellectual structure analyses foretell how, in particular, these HI and HIT fields have evolved to date and also how they could evolve in the future. Our findings identify which research streams are central (versus peripheral) and which are cohesive (as opposed to disparate). Suggestions for vibrant areas of future research emerge from our analysis. The second part of the dissertation focuses on comprehensively understanding the effect of social support exchange in online health communities on individual members' health promotion outcomes. This study examines the effectiveness of online consumer-to-consumer social support exchange on health promotion outcomes via analyses of big health data. Based on previous research, we propose a conceptual framework which integrates social capital theory and social support theory in the context of online health communities and test it through a quantitative field study and multiple analyses of a big online health community dataset. Specifically, natural language processing and machine learning techniques are utilized to automate content analysis of digital trace data. This research not only extends current theories of social support exchange in online health communities, but also sheds light on the design and management of such communities.


We evaluate a technology entrepreneurship training program by comparing career decisions among applicants accepted into the program with unaccepted applicants who are program finalists. We find that program participation is associated with an increased likelihood of subsequent entrepreneurship but that this is not uniform across participants; the estimated relationship between program participation and subsequent entrepreneurial activity is disproportionately lower for applicants with ex-ante resources and capabilities in entrepreneurship, measured by prior entrepreneurship experience. Moreover, we only observe this reduced impact of the program on subsequent entrepreneurial activity for participants that have prior experience in founding a technology company as opposed to other forms of entrepreneurial activity. This suggests the program is more effective for individuals that have otherwise limited access to technology entrepreneurship opportunities.


We measured uptake length of 15NO3− in 72 streams in eight regions across the United States and Puerto Rico to develop quantitative predictive models on controls of NO3− uptake length. As part of the Lotic Intersite Nitrogen eXperiment II project, we chose nine streams in each region corresponding to natural (reference), suburban‐urban, and agricultural land uses. Study streams spanned a range of human land use to maximize variation in NO3− concentration, geomorphology, and metabolism. We tested a causal model predicting controls on NO3− uptake length using structural equation modeling. The model included concomitant measurements of ecosystem metabolism, hydraulic parameters, and nitrogen concentration. We compared this structural equation model to multiple regression models which included additional biotic, catchment, and riparian variables. The structural equation model explained 79% of the variation in log uptake length (SWtot). Uptake length increased with specific discharge (Q/w) and increasing NO3− concentrations, showing a loss in removal efficiency in streams with high NO3− concentration. Uptake lengths shortened with increasing gross primary production, suggesting autotrophic assimilation dominated NO3− removal. The fraction of catchment area as agriculture and suburban‐urban land use weakly predicted NO3− uptake in bivariate regression, and did improve prediction in a set of multiple regression models. Adding land use to the structural equation model showed that land use indirectly affected NO3− uptake lengths via directly increasing both gross primary production and NO3− concentration. Gross primary production shortened SWtot, while increasing NO3− lengthened SWtot resulting in no net effect of land use on NO3− removal.


Cellular molecule spurs growth of prostate cancer, may provide target for treatment, study indicates By LESLIE H. LANG; UNC School of Medicine CHAPEL HILL - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists have identified a molecule that stimulates the aggressive growth of prostate cancer. The molecule, Ack1, a member of the growth-promoting tyrosine kinase gene family, stimulates tumor formation in part by signaling prostate cells to rid themselves of a tumor-suppressor protein. Normally, this suppressor protein would inhibit rapid cell growth by signaling the cell to destroy itself. A report on the study, which appeared November 15, 2005 in the journal Cancer Research, also points to Ack1 as a potential target for developing novel drugs against prostate cancer. The study's senior author, Dr. Shelton Earp, directs the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and is Lineberger professor of cancer research and a professor of pharmacology and medicine. Tests of Ack1 demonstrate a profound effect on tumor growth in experimental systems, Earp said. "It's a remarkable effect. Tumors grew more rapidly and invaded as if they were converted to advanced prostate cancer." Another major finding of the study involved an experimental drug developed by the National Cancer Institute, called geldanamycin. In laboratory tests, the UNC Lineberger group found Ack1 activity could be inhibited through interference with its molecular interactions, thus offering a target for treatment. First, the group discovered that Ack1 bound to a protein called Hsp90 (heat shock protein 90), which associated with many oncogenic, or cancer-causing, signaling proteins. "If you add geldanamycin to the prostate cancer cell, the drug knocks Hsp90 off oncogenic signaling molecules. This dramatically decreases Ack1 activity and slows tumor formation," Earp said. In addition, the team compared Ack1 activation in advanced prostate cancer tissue from patients with that found in benign prostatic hypertrophy, or non-cancerous prostate enlargement. The team showed the levels of the activated Ack1 to be much higher in the advanced tumors. In earlier work, Earp's UNC laboratory was the first to clone a cell surface tyrosine kinase, Mer. "We saw that Mer was expressed at reasonably high levels in prostate cancer cells. And so Dr. Nupam Mahajan, the study's first author, decided to look at whether Mer had an effect on prostate cancer growth signaling," Earp said. In experiments, which used the university's Michael Hooker Proteomics Core Facility, the team discovered that Mer activated Ack1. This finding led to the current study. "Because we found Ack1 is more active in advanced prostate tumors, and its inhibition blocks experimental tumor growth, we believe Ack1 should be a target for novel drug development." Along with Earp, UNC collaborators include UNC Lineberger members Dr. Nupam P. Mahajan, assistant professor of pharmacology; and Dr. Young E. Whang, assistant professor of medicine. Dr. James L. Mohler, chairman of the department of urologic oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., and a UNC Lineberger member, also collaborated on the study. The research was funded by the National Cancer Institute. UNC Lineberger contact: Dianne Shaw, (919) 966-7834 or firstname.lastname@example.com


OBJECTIVE
To examine whether vascular calcifications on hand films in RA might aid in determining mortality risk.

METHODS
Hand radiographs from 906 RA patients were scored as positive or negative for vascular calcifications. Patient characteristics associated with vascular calcifications were assessed using multivariable logistic regression, and associations with mortality were examined using Cox proportional hazards regression. Cytokines and multiplex ACPA were measured in both groups.

RESULTS
A total of 99 patients (11%) demonstrated radiographic vascular calcifications. Factors independently associated with vascular calcifications included diabetes [odds ratio (OR) 2.85; 95% CI 1.43, 5.66], cardiovascular disease at enrolment (OR 2.48; 95% CI 1.01, 6.09), prednisone use (OR 1.90; 95% CI 1.25, 2.91), current smoking (OR 0.06; 95% CI 0.01, 0.23) and former smoking (OR 0.36; 95% CI 0.27, 0.48) vs never smoking. In cytokine and ACPA subtype analysis, IL-4 and anti-citrullinated apolipoprotein E were significantly increased in patients with vascular calcifications in fully adjusted multivariable models. After multivariable adjustment, vascular calcifications were associated with an increase in all-cause mortality (hazard ratio 1.41; 95% CI 1.12, 1.78; P = 0.004).

CONCLUSION
Vascular calcifications on hand radiographs were independently associated with increased all-cause mortality in RA. Mechanisms underpinning the associations of IL-4 and select ACPA with vascular calcifications and their utility as biomarkers predictive of cardiovascular disease risk in RA merit further study.


Purpose of the article: This paper deals with the dependence of the gross domestic product of the Czech Republic based on the development of stock markets. Author aim is to present the development of the Prague's, Frankfurt's and New York's index and their comparison with the development of the Czech economy by regression analysis.
Scientific aim: The main scientific goal of this paper is to answer following questions: Which one of the above-mentioned indices is the best to determine the direction of future development of the Czech economy? How early advance is possible to predict the development of GDP and with what reliability?
Methodology/methods: The correlation analysis for all stated indicators was used to determine the dependance of the Czech economy. For domestic indicators are used quarterly data. For foreign indicators are used annual data. The choice of foreign stock exchanges and their indexes was not random. Frankfurt was chosen due to high exports of the Czech Republic to Germany. New York was chosen due to the capitalisation of stock market. The specific index NYSE (Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50) was chosen due to its portfolio, which is based only on companies that are resident in the euro area.
Findings: GDP of the Czech Republic is mainly based on the index of the Prague Stock Exchange. Trend of GDP develops according to PX, with a delay of five quarters. Despite the fact that the PSE is not highly developed capital market, like the other two.
Conclusions: Economy of the Czech Republic depends on the development of stock markets. The reaction to stock market development is not always visible, but the delay about five quarters became evident. This result is also supported by the research mentioned by Kislingerova (2001) in her book.


In this paper we analyse semimartingale properties of a class of Gaussian periodic processes, called convoluted Brownian motions, obtained by convolution between a deterministic function and a Brownian motion. A classical
example in this class is the periodic Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. We compute their characteristics and show that in general, they are neither
Markovian nor satisfy a time-Markov field property. Nevertheless, by enlargement
of filtration and/or addition of a one-dimensional component, one can in some case recover the Markovianity. We treat exhaustively the case of the bidimensional trigonometric convoluted Brownian motion and the higher-dimensional monomial convoluted Brownian motion.