Abstract. Future climate change will have impact on global and regional terrestrial carbon balances. The fate of African tropical forests over the 21st century has been investigated through global coupled climate carbon cycle model simulations. Under the SRES-A2 socio-economic CO2 emission scenario of the IPCC, and using the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace coupled ocean-terrestrial carbon cycle and climate model, IPSL-CM4-LOOP, we found that the warming over African ecosystems induces a reduction of net ecosystem productivity, making a 38% contribution to the global climate-carbon cycle positive feedback. Most of this contribution comes from African grasslands, followed by African savannahs, African tropical forest contributing little to the global climate-carbon feedback. However, the vulnerability of the African rainforest ecosystem is quite large. In contrast, the Amazon forest, despite its lower vulnerability, has a much larger overall contribution due to its 6 times larger extent.


Detecting abnormal activities from sensor readings is an important research problem in activity recognition. A number of different algorithms have been proposed in the past to tackle this problem. Many of the previous state-based approaches suffer from the problem of failing to decide the appropriate number of states, which are difficult to find through a trial-and-error approach, in real-world applications. In this paper, we propose an accurate and flexible framework for abnormal activity recognition from sensor readings that involves less human tuning of model parameters. Our approach first applies a Hierarchical Dirichlet Process Hidden Markov Model (HDP-HMM), which supports an infinite number of states, to automatically find an appropriate number of states. We incorporate a Fisher Kernel into the One-Class Support Vector Machine (OCSVM) model to filter out the activities that are likely to be normal. Finally, we derive an abnormal activity model from the normal activity models to reduce false positive rate in an unsupervised manner. Our main contribution is that our proposed HDP-HMM models can decide the appropriate number of states automatically, and that by incorporating a Fisher Kernel into the OCSVM model, we can combine the advantages from generative model and discriminative model. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by using several real-world datasets to test our algorithm's performance.


Purpose – This chapter explores the commercially successful and critically acclaimed motion picture The Dark Knight as a cultural artifact that both reflects and influences popular notions of crime and justice in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Design/methodology/approach – From a cultural criminological perspective, this chapter examines ideological messages pertaining to crime and justice presented in the film, including the framing of conflict as one between good and evil, justifications for extralegal violence, and reliance on absolute power as a means of social control. This chapter assesses reactions to the film as a "ritual moral exercise" in which viewers assuage their anxieties and insecurities in a post-9/11 world.

Findings – This chapter investigates representations of justice in the film, including the construction of the villain as "other," the perception of constitutional procedures as impediments to justice, the embrace of vigilantism, and the willingness to sacrifice transparency of government authorities while accepting widespread surveillance in a time of crisis. Such themes resonated with some viewers who interpreted the film as offering explicit vindication for many of the questionable tactics used in the war on terror.

Originality/value – This chapter argues that popular media, specifically fictional entertainment media, play a role in reflecting and informing collective sentiments of justice. It offers an analysis of The Dark Knight as celebrating individualized, American-style retributive justice in a post-9/11 context.


We investigate a new model for fluid flows in diatomite formations recently introduced by Barenblatt, Patzek, Prostokishin and Silin. We provide numerical evidences of the existence of a sharp front between the damaged and the undamaged rock, and we study the structure of this front. Finally, we simulate some infield operations and we set up a qualitative model control problem to maximize the profit during the oil extraction.


This paper identifies two developmental dynamics contributing to apostasy from religious fundamentalisms – heterodyning (Streib, 2001) and sociocognitive conflict (Doise and Mugny, 1984). Heterodyning refers to the combination of elements and products from otherwise transitional styles of cognition. I suggest that fundamentalisms represent examples of sophisticated heterodyning between mythic-literal and rationalist styles. For some individuals, heterodyning produces sociocognitive conflict. Sociocognitive conflict refers to the dissonance produced when an individual's cognitive operations generate questions and answers that are incompatible with the sociocultural conventions of their group. The identification and application of these developmental dynamics is based on a three-year study of apostasy from religious fundamentalisms. The study involved a coded content analysis of over 100 apostate narratives and 100 apostate questionnaire responses. This analysis was informed by three complementary theories of development including James Fowler's (1981) faith development theory (FDT), Oser and Gmunder's (1991) stages of religious judgment, and Helmut Reich's levels of relational and contextual reasoning (2002). I suggest that heterodyning and sociocognitive conflict are developmental dynamics that produce diverse trajectories of development which find expression in religious, spiritual, and secular forms. Furthermore, I suggest that an account of these dynamics and trajectories is essential to religious or secular claims to developmental maturity.


The EM algorithm is widely used to develop iterative parameter estimation procedures for statistical models. In cases where these procedures strictly follow the EM formulation, the convergence properties of the estimation procedures are well understood. In some instances there are practical reasons to develop procedures that do not strictly fall within the EM framework. We study EM variants in which the E-step is not performed exactly, either to obtain improved rates of convergence, or due to approximations needed to compute statistics under a model family over which E-steps cannot be realized. Since these variants are not EM procedures, the standard (G)EM convergence results do not apply to them. We present an information geometric framework for describing such algorithms and analyzing their convergence properties. We apply this framework to analyze the convergence properties of incremental EM and variational EM. For incremental EM, we discuss conditions under these algorithms converge in likelihood. For variational EM, we show how the E-step approximation prevents convergence to local maxima in likelihood.


Pregnancy is a diabetogenic state manifested by insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. The resistance stems from the placental secretion of diabetogenic hormones, including growth hormone, corticotropin-releasing hormone, placental lactogen, and progesterone. Appropriate metabolic adaptations occur in normal pregnant women to ensure that the fetus has an ample supply of fuel and nutrients at all times. These adaptations are associated with large fluctuations in serum glucose and insulin concentrations depending upon whether the pregnant woman is fasting or has recently eaten. Fasting is a form of accelerated starvation, in which alternative fuels are made available to the mother while glucose is reserved for the fetus [1]. After an overnight fast, for example, maternal fasting capillary blood glucose concentrations fall to between 55 and 65mg/dL and venous plasma equivalent to 63 to 75mg/dL [2], while serum ketone and free fatty acid concentrations rise [3,4].


Within the EU ILHAIRE Project, researchers of several disciplines (e.g., computer sciences, psychology) collaborate to investigate the psychological foundations of laughter, and to bring this knowledge into shape for the use in new technologies (i.e., affective computing). Within this framework, in order to endow machines with laughter capabilities (encoding as well as decoding), one crucial task is an adequate description of laughter in terms of morphology. In this paper we present a work methodology towards automated full body laughter detection: starting from expert annotations of laughter videos we aim to identify the body features that characterize laughter.


Comorbidity patterns have become a major source of information to explore shared mechanisms of pathogenesis between disorders. In hypothesis-free exploration of comorbid conditions, disease-disease networks are usually identified by pairwise methods. However, interpretation of the results is hindered by several confounders. In particular a very large number of pairwise associations can arise indirectly through other comorbidity associations and they increase exponentially with the increasing breadth of the investigated diseases. To investigate and filter this effect, we computed and compared pairwise approaches with a systems-based method, which constructs a sparse Bayesian direct multimorbidity map (BDMM) by systematically eliminating disease-mediated comorbidity relations. Additionally, focusing on depression-related parts of the BDMM, we evaluated correspondence with results from logistic regression, text-mining and molecular-level measures for comorbidities such as genetic overlap and the interactome-based association score. We used a subset of the UK Biobank Resource, a cross-sectional dataset including 247 diseases and 117,392 participants who filled out a detailed questionnaire about mental health. The sparse comorbidity map confirmed that depressed patients frequently suffer from both psychiatric and somatic comorbid disorders. Notably, anxiety and obesity show strong and direct relationships with depression. The BDMM identified further directly co-morbid somatic disorders, e.g. irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, or migraine. Using the subnetwork of depression and metabolic disorders for functional analysis, the interactome-based system-level score showed the best agreement with the sparse disease network. This indicates that these epidemiologically strong disease-disease relations have improved correspondence with expected molecular-level mechanisms. The substantially fewer number of comorbidity relations in the BDMM compared to pairwise methods implies that biologically meaningful comorbid relations may be less frequent than earlier pairwise methods suggested. The computed interactive comprehensive multimorbidity views over the diseasome are available on the web at Co=MorNet: bioinformatics.mit.bme.hu/UKBNetworks.


This study investigates the effects of supplementing a control diet (CON) with chitosan (CHI) or ivy fruit saponins (IVY) as natural feed additives. Both additives had similar abilities to decrease rumen methanogenesis (–42% and –40%, respectively) using different mechanisms: due to its antimicrobial and nutritional properties CHI promoted a shift in the fermentation pattern towards propionate production which explained about two thirds of the decrease in methanogenesis. This shift was achieved by a simplification of the structure in the bacterial community and a substitution of fibrolytic (Firmicutes and Fibrobacteres) by amylolytic bacteria (Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria) which led to greater amylase activity, lactate and microbial protein yield with no detrimental effect on feed digestibility. Contrarily, IVY had negligible nutritional properties promoting minor changes in the fermentation pattern and on the bacterial community. Instead, IVY modified the structure of the methanogen community and decreased its diversity. This specific antimicrobial effect of IVY against methanogens was considered its main antimethanogenic mechanism. IVY had however a negative impact on microbial protein synthesis. Therefore, CHI and IVY should be further investigated in vivo to determine the optimum doses which maintain low methanogenesis but prevent negative effects on the rumen fermentation and animal metabolism.


Random Access Cooperative Systems by Christopher R. Hunter User-cooperation has been studied extensively in the literature. This mechanism achieves many of the same gains that can be had by using multi-antenna (MIMO) communications in applications where the size of a node is limited. Existing analysis assumes that the system is scheduled; both the relay knows to listen when a packet is being sent. We present analysis of a class of random-access cooperative systems and show that the same performance as the scheduled systems can be achieved as long as certain requirements are met in the packet detection scheme of the relay. In particular, we find that a static decision threshold on energy detection results in a cooperative network that performs asymptotically no better than a simple point-to-point network with no relay at all. However, a decision threshold that dynamically shifts with average SNR allows the system to achieve full spatial diversity.


Nowadays, e-resources are easily accessible in a university library and very prominent among library users. This study aims at exploring the impact of e-resources on university libraries. The present study identifies the various e-resources, databases available in Manonmaniam Sundaranar University Library in Tirunelveli. The researcher investigated the preferences and importance of e-resources along with identifying purpose and problems faced while accessing online resources by the post graduates and research scholars. A well structured questionnaire was designed and distributed among the users of MS University library, Tirunelveli in order to evaluate the e-resource facility. The study reveals that 80% of respondents are aware of the availability of OPAC, e- resources etc. The study says that 38.67% of respondents explore electronic books followed by 32% electronic Journals. This survey reveals that 73.33% respondents are satisfied with e-resources available in the library. It is suggested that the library needs to provide user training and new techniques like controlled vocabulary and advanced search strategies which can enable electronic search process much faster and easier


The study of the dynamicity of the response of the heart ventricles to external stimuli is of major interest to assess the risk of sudden death. The given task is to predict the changes of the so called QT duration in function of the instantaneous changes of the RR interval. The QT interval measures the duration of activation and inactivation of the heart ventricles while the RR interval represents the heart rate. These two intervals are measured on the body-surface Electrocardiogram (ECG). In this paper multilayer perceptrons (MLP) are used to create predictive models of the QT-RR relationship. It's however difficult to obtain good quality signals covering all possible values of RR and QT, making the choice of the learning set a major challenge. Therefore, in addition to real data, simulated data are used for the design of the MLPs and the assessment of their performances. Learning and predicting the simulated data allowed to understand the generalization behavior of MLPs outside learning zones. These data also permitted to test the predictive quality of MLP trained on real signals allowing, in case of differences between predicted QTs and measured ones, to understand if the differences are due to a model dysfunction or a physiological phenomenon.


We consider the empty freight car distribution problem (DP) at DB Schenker Rail Deutschland AG under a wide range of application relevant constraints and real data sets. The (DP) is an online assignment problem between geographically
distributed empty freight car supplies and customer demands for such cars in preparation of good transport. The objective is to minimize transport costs for empty cars while distributing them effectively with respect to the constraints.

In our case, one major constraint is given by prescheduled freight trains: obviously a supply can only be assigned to a demand if it reaches the latter in time. Further, the variety of goods (bulk cargo, steel coils, etc.) to be transported requires distinct types of freight cars. Freight cars of a certain type can be exchanged by cars of other types with respect to a given substitution scheme and different 'exchange rates'. Allowed substitutions are therefore another major constraint of the (DP).

We describe further `hard' and `soft' constraints and sketch the current work flow at DB Schenker Rail Deutschland AG to
find an adequate solution for the (DP) on a daily base in practice. The (DP) is currently solved separately for groups of car types and in several steps. Moreover, some steps contain manual pre- and post-processing to ensure certain constraints. Hence global sub-optimal distributions
can occur. We therefore integrate all constraints into a generalized network flow model for the (DP). A global optimal distribution is then provided by an integral minimum cost flow in the network. To find such a flow is NP-hard in general. We show that a general substitution scheme makes our notion of the (DP) also NP-hard. Hence independent of the applied model and with respect to practical runtime requirements, we have to find a compromise between solution time and quality.

We do so in two ways. Instances of the (DP) which correspond to classical flow networks are solved by an integral minimum cost flow, which can be obtained in polynomial time. We use such instances to polynomially obtain minimum cost flows of fixed bounded fractionality for certain general instances. For those instances occurring in the application we obtain half-integral flows, which can be rounded to approximate or heuristic distributions in linear time. Moreover, we develop
a network-based reoptimization approach, which yields optimal solutions for subsequent instances with
few changes very fast.

This thesis was inspired and funded by a 2-year research and development project of DB Schenker Rail Deutschland AG in
cooperation with the work group Faigle/Schrader of the University of Cologne and the work group of Prof. Dr. Sven O. Krumke at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. The project included the implementation of the generalized network model and the reoptimization, approximation and
heuristic methods. The software is designed as a future optimization kernel for the (DP) at DB Schenker Rail Deutschland AG.


Our ability to prepare an action in advance allows us to respond to our environment quickly, accurately, and flexibly. Here, we used event-related functional MRI to measure human brain activity while subjects maintained an active state of preparedness. At the beginning of each trial, subjects were instructed to prepare a pro- or antisaccade to a visual cue that was continually present during a long and variable preparation interval, but to defer the saccade's execution until a go signal. The deferred saccade task eliminated the mnemonic component inherent in memory-guided saccade tasks and placed the emphasis entirely on advance motor preparation. During the delay while subjects were in an active state of motor preparedness, the blood oxygen level-dependent signal in the frontal cortex showed 1) a sustained elevation throughout the preparation interval; 2) a linear increase with increasing delay length; 3) a bias for contra- rather than ipsiversive movements; 4) greater activity when the specific metrics of the planned saccade were known compared with when they were not; and 5) increased activity when the saccade was directed toward an internal versus an external representation (i.e., anticue location). These findings support the hypothesis that both the human frontal and parietal cortices are involved in the spatial selection and preparation of saccades.


To examine the relation between climate and glacier extent, we compared gridded, monthly temperature and precipitation data to the altitudinal range of glaciers in British Columbia, Canada. We related glacier relief to ablation season temperature (June—August), accumulation season precipitation (September— March), and morphometric variables that included slope, glacier order, and a shape index for 523 alpine glaciers that ranged from 5 to 15 km2 in surface area. A 1°C increase in mean June—August temperature equates to a 109 to 182 m decrease in glacier relief, and a 1 mm increase in mean monthly September— March precipitation equates to a 0.78 to 2.20 m increase in glacier relief. The most important morphometric controls on this glacier—climate relation include average surface slope, glacier order (analogous to stream order), and the ratio of upper accumulation area to lower ablation area width, all of which are positively related to glacier relief. We note strong relations between glacier relief and climate in all mountain regions of British Columbia, with glaciers of the interior ranges being most sensitive to spatial climatic variability. We show how our approach can be used to estimate past climatic conditions based on historical ice extents, such as at the 'Little Ice Age' maximum, and to predict potential future equilibrium glacier extents in a changed climate regime, such as those predicted by general and regional circulation models.


Oxcarbazepine (OXC) is widely used nowadays due to its similar therapeutic effects of carbamazepine (CBZ) but with fewer side effects. The prescribed consumption of OXC has increased significantly in some countries, and its environmental pollutions have become a major concern. This paper firstly reported the degradation of OXC by heat-activated persulfate. Effects of temperature, dosage of persulfate and pH on the oxidation of OXC were examined. OXC degradation followed a pseudo-first-order decay model. The rate of OXC oxidation rose with the increase of persulfate (2.0 mM to 6.0 mM) and pH (5.0 to 9.0). OXC can be oxidised almost completely within 10 min by persulfate (4.0 mM, pH 9.0, 50°C). HO was the major active free radical, 9-oxo-9, 10-dihydroacridine-4-carbaldehyde and 9, 10-dihydroacridine-9-carbaldehyde were the major intermediates of OXC degradation by heat-activated persulfate. The heat-activated persulfate demonstrating high potential for the degradation of OXC, is a promising technique for its removal.


Along with the exploding attention to globalization, issues of global justice have become central elements in political philosophy. After decades in which debates were dominated by a state-centric paradigm, current debates in political philosophy also address issues of global inequality, global poverty, and the moral foundations of international law. As recent events have demonstrated, these issues also play an important role in the practice of international law. In fields such as peace and security, economic integration, environmental law, and human rights, international lawyers are constantly confronted with questions of global justice and international legitimacy. This special issue contains four papers which address an important element of this emerging debate on cosmopolitan global justice, with much relevance for international law: the principle of sovereign equality, global economic inequality, and environmental law.


Background: IMAgINE 1 assessed 52-week efficacy and safety of adalimumab in children with moderate to severe Crohn's disease. Long-term efficacy and safety of adalimumab for patients who entered the IMAgINE 2 extension are reported. Methods: Patients who completed IMAgINE 1 could enroll in IMAgINE 2. Endpoints assessed from weeks 0 to 240 of IMAgINE 2 were Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index remission (Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index ⩽ 10) and response (Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index decrease ≥15 from IMAgINE 1 baseline) using observed analysis and hybrid nonresponder imputation (hNRI). For hNRI, discontinued patients were imputed as failures unless they transitioned to commercial adalimumab (with study site closure) or adult care, where last observation was carried forward. Corticosteroid-free remission in patients receiving corticosteroids at IMAgINE 1 baseline, discontinuation of immunomodulators (IMMs) in patients receiving IMMs at IMAgINE 2 baseline, and linear growth improvement were reported as observed. Adverse events were assessed for patients receiving ≥1 adalimumab dose in IMAgINE 1 and 2 through January 2015. Results: Of 100 patients enrolled in IMAgINE 2, 41% and 48% achieved remission and response (hNRI) at IMAgINE 2 week 240. Remission rates were maintained by 45% (30/67, hNRI) of patients who entered IMAgINE 2 in remission. At IMAgINE 2 week 240, 63% (12/19) of patients receiving corticosteroids at IMAgINE 1 baseline achieved corticosteroid-free remission and 30% (6/20) of patients receiving IMMs at IMAgINE 2 baseline discontinued IMMs. Adalimumab treatment led to growth velocity normalization. No new safety signals were identified. Conclusions: Efficacy and safety profiles of prolonged adalimumab treatment in children with Crohn's disease were consistent with IMAgINE 1 and adult Crohn's disease adalimumab trials.


During one year throughfall was measured in four Level II forest sites in the Netherlands as part of the PAN European monitoring programme for the Intensive Monitoring of Forest Ecosystems. The data for the monitoring year 2001 are reported and a canopy exchange model was applied to estimate the atmospheric deposition to these sites. The measurements made so far between 1995 and 2001 at these sites were reanalysed and the temporal variation is show.


AIM
To investigate the efficacy and safety of combined antiviral and immunosuppressant therapy in adult hepatitis B virus-associated glomerulonephritis (HBV-GN) patients.

METHODS
A computerized literature search was carried out in the PubMed database, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Chinese BioMedical Literature on disc, Chinese Medical Current Contents, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang and VIP (Chinese Technological Journal of Database) to collect articles between June 1980 and December 2010 on therapy with immunosuppressants, e.g., glucorticosteroids, mycophenolate mofetil and leflunomide, combined with antivirals, e.g., interferon, lamivudine, entecavir and adefovir dipivoxil, in adult HBV-GN patients. The primary outcomes were remission of proteinuria, clearance of HBV e-antigen, and elevation of serum albumin. The secondary outcomes were blood levels of alanine aminotransferase, serum creatinine, and HBV-DNA titer. Meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.1. Fixed or random effect models were employed to combine the results after a heterogeneity test. The effects of the combined therapy were analyzed for different doses of glucorticosteroid and different types of HBV-GN.

RESULTS
Twelve clinical trials with 317 patients were included. A significantly higher incidence of HBV-GN was found in male patients (relative risk = 2.40, 95% CI: 1.98-2.93). Combined therapy reduced the proteinuria significantly with a mean difference of 4.19 (95% CI: 3.86-4.53) and increased the serum albumin concentration significantly with a mean difference of -11.95 (95% CI: -12.97-10.93) without significant alterations of liver function (mean difference: 4.62, 95% CI: -2.55-11.79) and renal function (mean difference: 10.29, 95% CI: 0.14-20.45). No significant activation of HBV-DNA replication occurred (mean difference: 0.12, 95% CI: -0.37-0.62). There was no significant difference between the high dose glucorticosteroid group and the low dose glucorticosteroid group in terms of proteinuria remission (P = 0.76) and between different pathological types of HBV-GN [membranous glomerulonephritis (MN) vs. mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis, P = 0.68; MN vs membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, P = 0.27].

CONCLUSION
Combined antiviral and immunosuppressant therapy can improve the proteinuria in HBV-GN patients without altering HBV replication or damaging liver and renal functions.


ABSTRACT Green-building certification systems aim at improving the design and operation of buildings. However, few detailed studies have investigated whether a green rating leads to higher occupant satisfaction with indoor environmental quality (IEQ). This research builds on previous work to address this. Based on the analysis of a subset of the Center for the Built Environment Occupant Indoor Environmental Quality survey database featuring 11,243 responses from 93 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-rated office buildings, this study explores the relationships between the points earned in the IEQ category and the satisfaction expressed by occupants with the qualities of their indoor environment. It was found that the achievement of a specific IEQ credit did not substantively increase satisfaction with the corresponding IEQ factor, while the rating level, and the product and version under which certification had been awarded, did not affect workplace satisfaction. There could be several reasons for this, some of which are outside the control of designers and beyond the scope of rating systems based primarily on design intent. The challenges and priorities facing building professionals, researchers and green building certification systems are discussed for the creation of more comfortable, higher performing and healthier green-rated buildings.


We propose a new theoretical framework for analyzing the multiple-instance learning (MIL) setting. In MIL, training examples are provided to a learning algorithm in the form of labeled sets, or "bags," of instances. Applications of MIL include 3-D quantitative structure-activity relationship prediction for drug discovery and content-based image retrieval for web search. The goal of an algorithm is to learn a function that correctly labels new bags or a function that correctly labels new instances. We propose that bags should be treated as latent distributions from which samples are observed. We show that it is possible to learn accurate instance - and bag-labeling functions in this setting as well as functions that correctly rank bags or instances under weak assumptions. Additionally, our theoretical results suggest that it is possible to learn to rank efficiently using traditional, well-studied "supervised" learning approaches. We perform an extensive empirical evaluation that supports the theoretical predictions entailed by the new framework. The proposed theoretical framework leads to a better understanding of the relationship between the MI and standard supervised learning settings, and it provides new methods for learning from MI data that are more accurate, more efficient, and have better understood theoretical properties than existing MI-specific algorithms.


Although there exists no rigid guideline delineating society's obligation to provide health care, at a minimum Americans are entitled to an adequate level of care without excessive burdens being placed upon them. Fulfilling this ostensibly simple mandate, however, presents an enormous challenge. The need to allocate limited financial and human resources increasingly clashes with the moral desire to provide health care resources to elder Americans beyond their years of economic productivity. As a result, health care professionals face the difficult task of weighing against society's other priorities the efficiency of distributing limited health care resources to the elderly. This demand places upon health care professionals, particularly physicians, a unique burden. Today's physician must become the "gatekeeper," a designated guardian of society's resources. It is reasoned that the physician can be forced to conserve society's limited health care resources by controlling the administration of medical treatments. Inevitably, the demands placed on health care administrators results in a balancing test that challenges the breadth of elderly health care services by forcing difficult and sometimes controversial health care decisions to be reached in order to avoid an economic catastrophe. Health care considerations for older Americans so often involve disabled, ill, poor or lonely persons. Moreover, members of society tend to place different values on each of these groups and, as such, no collective societal obligation to such groups emerges. A continuous process that allows for the examination and re-examination of health care costs and benefits, coupled with an evolving assessment of value judgments and ethical concerns, would move towards establishing an equitable elder health care allocation program or, at least, a template for humane decision making. And, if combined with a firm grasp of the formal discipline of ethics, allowing for the critical and rational objective examination of competing values, an acceptable long-term societal solution towards elderly health care allocation will result.


This paper reports on the testing of a novel tool for batch processing of star sensor imagery and camera performance and design assessment. Star sensors based on pattern recognition provide the most accurate attitude solution available for spacecraft, even when using large field of view cameras. Due to advances in CCD, CMOS, integrated circuit technologies, and robust algorithms, star sensors are becoming more and more a viable alternative to solutions that were traditionally cheaper. A great many star sensor hardware is thus currently under development worldwide. This trend creates a market for generic design support software, automated batch processing of imagery resulting from real-sky tests and automated camera performance assessment. For this purpose, the Attitude Determination Test Environment (ADTE) tool was developed (formerly known as SSATT). The major novelty of the ADTE is that it contains a generic interface to batch process real-sky test imagery that provides as output the average directional accuracy of the camera, lens deviation correction estimates and performance distributions as a function of star magnitude or star class. No sophisticated test set-up or idealized mathematical performance analysis is necessary. The tool includes camera simulation settings and up-to-date detection/rejection, centroiding and pattern recognition algorithms including upgraded versions of Liebe, Quine and Delta-Utec Douma Extension (DUDE). Pattern data storage and retrieval is based on the very fast multidimensional pointer-based array algorithms. Various recursive validation techniques maximize the number of recognized stars per image. The ADTE tool was first used for the real-sky test of the MEFIST-II camera in the Negev desert. This paper shortly explains the functionality of the tool and algorithms behind it and focuses on the analyses and results performed for MEFIST-II. 1. ADTE functionality The Attitude Determination Test Environment (ADTE) is


Students, professors and general readers alike have relied upon the Oxford Annotated Bible for essential scholarship and guidance to the world of the Bible for four decades. Now a new editorial board and team of contributors have completely updated this classic work. The result is a volume which maintains and extends the excellence the Annotated's users have come to expect, bringing new insights, information, and approaches to bear upon the understanding of the text of the Bible. The new edition includes a full index to all of the study material (not just to the annotations), and one that is keyed to page numbers, not to citations. And, to make certain points in the text clearer for the reader, there are approximately 40 in-text, line drawing maps and diagrams. With the best of the Annotated's traditional strengths, and the augmentation of new information and new approaches represented in current scholarship, the Third Edition will continue to serve as the reader's and student's constant resource.


The complexity loss paradox, which posits that individuals suffering from disease exhibit surprisingly predictable behavioral dynamics, has been observed in a variety of both human and animal physiological systems. The recent advent of online text-based therapy presents a new opportunity to analyze the complexity loss paradox in a novel operationalization: linguistic complexity loss in text-based therapy conversations. In this paper, we analyze linguistic complexity correlates of mental health in the online therapy messages sent between therapists and 7,170 clients who provided 30,437 corresponding survey responses on their anxiety. We found that when clients reported more anxiety, they showed reduced lexical diversity as estimated by the moving average type-token ratio. Therapists, on the other hand, used language of higher reading difficulty, syntactic complexity, and age of acquisition when clients were more anxious. Finally, we found that clients, and to an even greater extent, therapists, exhibited consistent levels of many linguistic complexity measures. These results demonstrate how linguistic analysis of text-based communication can be leveraged as a marker for anxiety, an exciting prospect in a time of both increased online communication and increased mental health issues.


Hailed as a landmark in the development of experimental methods when it appeared in 1975, Design and Analysis of Time-Series Experiments is available again after several years of being out of print. Gene V Glass, Victor L. Willson and John M. Gottman have carried forward the design and analysis of perhaps the most powerful and useful quasi-experimental design identified by their mentors in the classic Campbell & Stanley text Experimental and Quasi-experimental Design for Research (1966). In an era when governments seek to resolve questions of experimental validity by fiat and the label "Scientifically Based Research" is appropriated for only certain privileged experimental designs, nothing could be more appropriate than to bring back the classic text that challenges doctrinaire opinions of proper causal analysis. Glass, Willson & Gottman introduce and illustrate an armamentarium of interrupted time-series experimental designs that offer some of the most powerful tools for discovering and validating causal relationships in social and education policy analysis. Drawing on the ground-breaking statistical analytic tools of Box & Jenkins, the authors extend the comprehensive autoregressive-integrated-movingaverages (ARIMA) model to accommodate significance testing and estimation of the effects of interventions into real world time-series. Designs and full statistical analyses are richly illustrated with actual examples from education, behavioral psychology, and sociology.


Abstract. Synoptic and satellite-derived cloud property variations for the southeast Pacific stratocumulus region associated with changes in coastal satellite-derived cloud droplet number concentrations (Nd) are explored. MAX and MIN Nd composites are defined by the top and bottom terciles of daily area-mean Nd values over the Arica Bight, the region with the largest mean oceanic Nd, for the five October months of 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. The ability of the satellite retrievals to capture composite differences is assessed with ship-based data. Nd and ship-based accumulation mode aerosol concentrations (Na) correlate well (r = 0.65), with a best-fit aerosol activation value dln Nd dln Na of 0.56 for pixels with Nd>50 cm−3. The adiabatically-derived MODIS cloud depths also correlate well with the ship-based cloud depths (r=0.7), though are consistently higher (mean bias of almost 60 m). The MAX-Nd composite is characterized by a weaker subtropical anticyclone and weaker winds both at the surface and the lower free troposphere than the MIN-Nd composite. The MAX-Nd composite clouds over the Arica Bight are thinner than the MIN-Nd composite clouds, have lower cloud tops, lower near-coastal cloud albedos, and occur below warmer and drier free tropospheres (as deduced from radiosondes and NCEP Reanalysis). CloudSat radar reflectivities indicate little near-coastal precipitation. The co-occurrence of more boundary-layer aerosol/higher Nd within a more stable atmosphere suggests a boundary layer source for the aerosol, rather than the free troposphere. The MAX-Nd composite cloud thinning extends offshore to 80° W, with lower cloud top heights out to 95° W. At 85° W, the top-of-atmosphere shortwave fluxes are significantly higher (~50%) for the MAX-Nd composite, with thicker, lower clouds and higher cloud fractions than for the MIN-Nd composite. The change in Nd at this location is small (though positive), suggesting that the MAX-MIN Nd composite differences in radiative properties primarily reflects synoptic changes. Circulation anomalies and a one-point spatial correlation map reveal a weakening of the 850 hPa southerly winds decreases the free tropospheric cold temperature advection. The resulting increase in the static stability along 85° W is highly correlated to the increased cloud fraction, despite accompanying weaker free tropospheric subsidence.


The objective of the present work was to separate, identify and characterize the degradation products of Prasugrel hydrochloride under hydrolytic and oxidative stress conditions according to the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guideline Q1A (R2). The drug degraded under acidic, basic, and oxidative stress. Five degradation products were formed, which were separated using preparative TLC. Mass fragmentation pathway of the drug was first established with the help of GC/MS studies. The degradation products were subjected to FTIR and 1H NMR studies. The obtained mass spectral data were employed to characterize the degradation products and assign structures. The degradation products were identified as 5-(2- cyclopropyl-1-(2-fluorophenyl)-2-oxoethyl)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridin-2(3H)-one, 5-(2-cyclopropyl- 1-(2-fluorophenyl)-2-oxoethyl)-5,6,7,7a-tetrahydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridin-2(4H)-one, 2-acetoxy-5-(2-cyclopropyl- 1-(2-fluorophenyl)-2-oxoethyl)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridine 5-oxide, 1-cyclopropyl-2-(2- fluorophenyl)ethane-1,2-dione and 4,5,6,7-tetrahydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridin-2-yl acetate.


Sophisticated ligands are now being designed that do far more than just fulfil their traditional spectator roles by binding to the metal and providing a sterically-defined binding pocket for the substrate in homogeneous transition metal catalysis. This Focus review emphasizes selected cases in which ligands carry additional functional groups that change the properties of the ligand as a result of an external stimulus or undergo catalytically-relevant ligand-based reactivity. These include proton responsive ligands capable of gaining or losing one or more protons, ligands having a hydrogen bonding function, electroresponsive ligands capable of gaining or losing one or more electrons, and photoresponsive ligands capable of undergoing a useful change of properties upon irradiation. Molecular recognition ligands and proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) are briefly discussed.


The Bologna process is a process of reform aiming to create European Higher Education Zone until the year 2010 which was formed by 47 membering countries and was sustained by them. This study aims at analysing the teacher training undergraduate programmes which are included in educational sciences from the perspective of content in the Bologna process. The research is restricted to pedagogical courses offered in the undergraduate programmes of Gazi Faculty of Education at Gazi University. The survey model was employed in the research and thus an attempt was made to exhibit the current situation. The method of document analysis was used for this purpose. Consequently, it was found through the research that various programmes were offered under the name of teaching profession knowledge in the sections of 8 different academic departments of Gazi Faculty of Education, but that the courses included in the programmes were inconsistent in content with the course contents announced by the Board of Higher Education (YOK). Besides, it was also found that even though the names of some of the courses were included in the undergraduate programmes, their contents were not taught, and that some of the courses declared by the Board of Higher Education were not included in the pedagogy courses in the undergraduate programmes


There is considerable evidence that value stocks, which have low market multiples, earn higher long-term returns than growth stocks, which have high market multiples, but the relative efficiency of different value measures remains unclear. This research investigates whether composite value measures can be used to enhance the performance of value portfolios. It examines the relative efficiency of individual value measures and determines whether there is a significant value premium for a broad cross-section of tradable U.S. stocks.


ABSTRACT Alteration of primary igneous minerals was studied in sedimentary volcanic deposits of the middle Eocene Aycross formation, Pitchfork formation, and early basic breccia of the Absaroka Range, Wyoming. Olivine, hypersthene, augite, hornblende, and plagioclase are altered to varying extents in these beds. Chlorite, clay, barite, calcite, and chalcedony are present in pseudomorphs after the primary igneous minerals. The sequence of deposition, shown above from earliest to latest, is indicated by replacement relations in pseudomorphs and by successive coatings and replacements in amygdules. A groundmass of recrystallized clay minerals and authigenic chlorite characterizes the beds in which alteration is most complete. Zeolite and koninckite occur as authigenic minerals in some of the sedi entary deposits. Alteration of igneous minerals to clay was accomplished by weathering in a warm, humid climate after the sediment was deposited; later replacements by barite, calcite, and chalcedony took place after burial. Different degrees of alteration are explained by differences in rate of burial and depth of the water table. This alteration of primary igneous minerals greatly affects the reliability of stratigraphic correlations based upon mineral analyses, and may also lead to misidentification of the original composition of the volcanic material.


Abstract In Biology, symbiosis describes two unlike organisms living together, and one can distinguish between parasitism and mutualism. In the former only one organism benefits at the expense of the other, while in the latter both organisms benefit from the symbiosis. In this contribution, we will show how corporations and business, once expected to provide a benefit to society, have evolved into organizations whose only concern is to maximize shareholder profits, often at the detriment of stakeholders (e.g. employees and communities) and the environment. Several recent particularly significant examples will be used in order to illustrate this point. We will also provide a thorough but accessible overview of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable management theory in order to show how businesses and management education are responding to recent events. Keywords: Business & Society, Symbiosis, Sustainability, Triple Bottom Line, Corporate Social Responsibility, Critical Management Studies Introduction In Biology, symbiosis occurs when two unlike organisms live together. A symbiotic relationship can be further subcategorized into mutualism or parasitism, the former indicating a relationship where both parties gain while the latter indicates a relationship where only one party gains from the relationship (Sapp, 2004). In this work, we will show how many corporations, previously expected to provide for the common good, have mostly evolved into organizations which generate profits for shareholders but ignore any form of social responsibility. With decisions on wages, corporations influence poverty and wealth dispersion. Through operational decisions, they consume resources e.g. virgin material and landfill space and impact the environment. Unfortunately, while some firms might genuinely seek to give back to society, many others shun such responsibility and seek only to profit. In this contribution, we will examine the symbiosis between corporations and society and call for a more mutually beneficial relationship. In the next section, we will begin by examining the historical role of corporations. We will see that corporations, once expected to provide a benefit to society, have evolved into profit-maximizing organizations whose only goal is to generate returns for shareholders. One can follow the relationship.s evolution from mutualism to parasitism. In Section 3, we will provide some fairly recent examples of corporate greed, and irresponsible and unsustainable business practices. We draw on examples from finance, human resources, and supply chain management and highlight parasitic behavior. Section 4 provides an overview on some of the responses of business academics and practitioners to justify a more holistic view of firm performance with emphasis on the common good. This section will show how management education can help return the relationship to a mutualistic one. Concluding remarks will draw lessons from the examples and provide suggestions for ways that corporations can remain helpful, productive members of society. History of the American Corporation . From Public Good to Public Parasite It is only a relatively recent development that corporations are merely responsible to contribute to shareholder gains. In fact, at one point, corporations were merely chartered to better serve the needs of communities and societies. In the past corporations were given charters to perform a function for the public good. The first corporations came about in Europe during the 17th Century and were chartered to perform public functions such as building hospitals. Making profit was not even a concern of corporations until the mid 19th Century in either Europe or the United States. At all times, in the United States, legislatures had tight control over corporations and could revoke their charters at any time for the public good (New Internationalist, 2002). In early American history, the corporate existence was viewed as a "grant" of privilege from the state, and corporations were allowed to exist only to "perform a [public] service considered of general value. …


The Northern Sicilian-Maghrebian Chain courses W-E from the Trapani Mts. to the Peloritani Mts. and is composed by a set of tectonic units deriving from the Neogene deformation of the Northern African Continental Margin. Inside it three main geotectonic elements ("external", Sicilide and "Austroalpine") are present, today juxtaposed from west to east. The thrust tectonics-related structures are displaced by a variously trending high-angle faults, generally interpreted as a neotectonic dip-slip extensional tectonics-related system, which starts since the early Pliocene, following the Miocene Maghrebian Chain-related thrusting. The tectonic edifice is represented by an uplifting zone along the Northern Sicily coastal areas, while, in the southern Tyrrhenian off-shore, a subsiding discontinuous basinal zone is located, filled by several Plio-Pleistocene clastic deposits and interposed between morphostructural highs. The opening and subsidence history of these basins appear diachronous towards the east. In the present paper a complicated grid of Plio-Pleistocene net-and strike-slip fault system is described, which occurred owing to the genesis of tectonic depressions in the northern off-shore areas and some contemporaneous outcropping transpressional structures of the Sicilian Chain. This neotectonic system may be related to a W-E trending simple shear system, which controls the Tyrrhenian Basin development.


The topic of this thesis is optimizing the offshore production of oil and gas on a day-to-day basis. Optimization is based on a model of the production. Designing such production models is very complex and challenging, and as a result models will always be subject to some uncertainty in practice. In this thesis a data-driven approach to production modeling and model updating is suggested. Simple model structures are inferred from observations of measured production, motivated by the concepts of system identification and a desire for models which are sufficiently accurate while being easily solved numerically. A production model needs to be updated periodically to reflect changes in reservoirs and wells. Updating models against observations of recently measured data describing normal operations is suggested, motivated by a desire for an updating scheme which requires little human intervention and does not require frequent additional experimentation, for instance in the form of well-tests. The suggested approach to model-updating is based on parameter estimation against production data stemming from normal operations. As data describing normal operations may have low information content, parameters estimated in this manner may be subject to significant uncertainty. Bootstrapping is considered as a means of estimating uncertainty in fitted parameters. Methods for the explicit treatment of such uncertainty based on Monte-Carlo analysis are investigated. Methods for estimating lost potential due to uncertainty, result analysis, excitation planning and choosing active decision variables are suggested. Since uncertainty will never be completely eliminated in practice, some method is needed to adapt to uncertainty when implementing changes in production suggested by optimization. Motivated by how operators implement such changes in practice, an "operational strategy" approach is suggested to link optimization with implementation and monitoring by iteratively implementing smaller changes while monitoring profits and constraints. The models considered are low in complexity, which may simplify designing and updating models and may reduce numerical issues. Since the suggested methods rely on measurements, the success of the suggested methods will depend on measurement quality. Also, although the methods suggested do not require exotic measurements, the suggested methods could benefit from additional instrumentation on some fields. The methods suggested together constitute a novel, structured approach to optimization of offshore oil and gas production in the presence of uncertainty. Modeling methods are applied to real-world production data from two offshore oil fields. Implementation of the suggested methods are studied by simulations against an analog of one of the fields considered.


The quality and significance of scientific research in any society could be used as mirrors of its prosperity. By comparing two cases of prosperous scientific management, of South Korea and Slovenia, with the problems of poor scientific and industrial productivity typically faced by the developing countries and illustrated using the example of Serbia, a few general guiding lines for the evolution of a society towards higher scientific and social prominence are outlined. It is argued that the most favorable pattern of growth should be based on a parallel progress in control of scientific policies on one side and in the excellence of scientific and basic education on the other. The "leapfrog" tactics, according to which, the less developed countries should learn from the natural cycle of alternate progressions and regressions that the developed countries experience, is invoked as an essential systemic strategy to be adopted. Applied research is demonstrated to be most productive when it is carried out on the basis of already established infrastructural and industrial prosperity. Examples are given in favor of the fact that the technological design and industrial solutions shown as successful in the context of a developed society often turn out to be disastrously impractical and inefficient when simply transformed to less developed social circumstances. As a result, the strategy of an adjustment of production capacities to local needs has to be considered when implementing a new technology on different social, political and economic grounds. Finally, it is concluded that to provide conditions for efficient transfer and implementation of know-how and technologies, embedment into international science and engineering networks is required as much as strong local scientific and technological bases.


The botanical composition and regeneration characteristics are described for a Melaleuca ericifoliaLeptospermum
lanigerum forest from northwestern Tasmania. The size classes of the two dominant species are highly
correlated with tree age. Size class analysis shows that the dominants are regenerating continuously. The relationship of
this forest type to rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest are discussed.


"You have a unique viewpoint from which to write about Jack as no one else has or could write. I feel very deeply that this book must be written. And no one else, I repeat, can write it."-William S. Burroughs Edie Parker was eighteen years old when she met Jack Kerouac at Columbia University in 1940. A young socialite from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, she had come to New York to study art, and quickly found herself swept up in the excitement and new freedoms that the big city offered a sheltered young woman of that time. Jack Kerouac was also eighteen, attending Columbia on a football scholarship, impressing his friends with his intelligence and knowledge of literature. Introduced by a mutual friend, Jack and Edie fell in love and quickly moved in together, sharing an apartment with Joan Adams (who would later marry William S. Burroughs). This is the story of their life together in New York, where they began lifetime friendships with Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and others. Edie's memoir provides the only female voice from that nascent period, when the leading members of the Beat Generation were first meeting and becoming friends. In the end, Jack and Edie went their separate ways, keeping in touch only on rare occasions through letters and late-night phone calls. In his last letter to Edie, written a month before his death, Kerouac ended it with the encouraging phrase: "You'll be okay." It was from that note that the title of this book was taken.


This paper investigates how changing the ZnO nanorod size and concentration in a smectic liquid crystal affect the order of the liquid crystal and the current-voltage (I-V) curves in these ZnO nanorods - octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB) liquid crystal nanocomposites. 7 × 5 × 5 and 18 × 7 × 7 nm3 nanorods show an improvement in the alignment of the liquid crystal with increasing weight percentage of ZnO nanoparticles, up to a concentration of approximately 35% wt., similar to our previous results on ZnO nanoparticles with 8CB. The resulting I-V curves are comparable to those obtained in other organic materials used for photovoltaic applications. The I-V response of these nanorod-liquid crystal nanocomposite represents an order of magnitude improvement over what was obtained with spherical nanoparticles.


Based on our recent contributions on direct data driven control scheme, this paper continues to do some new research on direct data driven control, paving another way for latter future work on advanced control theory. Firstly, adaptive idea is combined with direct data driven control, one parameter adjustment mechanism is constructed to design the parameterized controller online. Secondly, to show the input-output property for the considered closed loop system, passive analysis is studied to be similar with stability. Thirdly, to validate whether the designed controller is better or not, another safety controller modular is added to achieve the designed or expected control input with the essence of model predictive control. Finally, one simulation example confirms our proposed theories. More generally, this paper studies not only the controller design and passive analysis, but also some online algorithm, such as recursive parameter identification and online subgradient descent algorithm. Furthermore, safety controller modular is firstly introduced in direct data driven control scheme.


Women's responses to rape have taken many forms over the past three decades, from guerrilla actions targeting individual assailants to the founding of rape crisis centers. This timely book illuminates the movement's importance to the broader women's movement and discusses the public policy implications of this activism. Maria Bevacqua locates the roots of rape consciousness, traces the evolution of an anti-rape ideology on the feminist agenda, describes how the rape issue moved to the wider public agenda, and investigates the various manifestations and strategies of anti-rape politics. She examines how feminists first articulated the rape experience as a women's issue, traces the evolution of anti-rape ideology over a thirty-year period, and considers recent tensions in the movement, including allegations of a feminist date rape "hype" in the media and in the academy. The author untangles the public and legislative responses to the rape issue, analyzing both the political context that made policymakers receptive to anti-rape goals and the effect of the anti-rape movement on American political and social life.


We study the anomalous asymptotic behavior of the Debye integral far from focus that occurs in the vicinities of the axis of the focusing system and the boundary of the geometrical-optics shadow. The first terms in the asymptotic power series of the far field valid on the axis, on the shadow boundary, in the shadow, and in the geometrical illuminated region off axis are obtained to show how they change discontinuously as the field point passes from one region to another. We obtain the second-order term in the asymptotic power series valid in the last-named region to show how it grows without limit as the field point approaches the axis or the shadow boundary. We then derive an approximation valid far from focus that remains continuous as the field point approaches the axis and the shadow boundary. This approximation agrees with the asymptotic power-series results where they are valid. The continuous approximation is applied to determine the sizes of the regions where the field does not approximate the geometrical-optics field.


In recent years, issues concerning the future of "multicultural Sweden" have become a salient feature in Swedish politics. One important actor in recent years' debates about the problems confronting "multicultural Sweden" is the Swedish Liberal Party. Since the general election of 2002, the party has gained both publicity and electoral support by focusing the question of "integration of immigrants" in terms of assimilation and intensified demands aimed at the "immigrant Others". In this article, the party's recent developments in the area of integration policy is analysed within the framework of two general processes in contemporary politics, the politics of racialisation and the medialisation of politics. The party's successful interventions in the area of integration policy are built on an intimate as well as complex interplay between racialisation and medialisation. The agenda articulated by the party, further, has several similarities with the agenda of "authoritarian populist" movements throughout Europe.


We construct an asset market in a finite horizon overlapping-generations environment. Subjects are tested for comprehension of their fundamental value exchange environment and then reminded during each of 25 periods of the environment's declining new value. We observe price bubbles forming when new generations enter the market with additional liquidity and bursting as old generations exit the market and withdrawing cash. The entry and exit of traders in the market creates an M shaped double bubble price path over the life of the traded asset. This finding is significant in documenting that bubbles can reoccur within one extended trading horizon and, consistent with previous cross-subject comparisons, shows how fluctuations in market liquidity influence price paths. We also find that trading experience leads to price expectations that incorporate fundamental value.


Measuring vertical price transmission (VPT) has become a widespread means to evaluate the performance of food value chain. To do so, agricultural economists employ time series methods on spatially aggregated data of prices at a regional/ national level. The conclusions of these studies are sometimes used to derive conclusions on the behavior of individual economic agents, e.g. retailers. This is based on a strong (implicit) assumption that the results derived from the studies using aggregated data apply, at least on average, at the disaggregated level. Two main issues could result from this assumption. First, measuring VPT using aggregated data to derive conclusions on individual behavior can be misleading on the real performance of the value chain. For instance, the retail sector can be studied as an aggregate by using weighted averages on retail prices to check how the sector transmits changes in prices from the upstream (wholesale) to the downstream of the value chain. The results of such studies can only provide an imprecise picture on how every retail store included in the weighted averages transmits its prices individually. Second, units under statistical investigation are likely to behave very differently when studied on different scales (e.g., aggregated/ disaggregated). For instance, while aggregated retail prices display unit root behavior, a typical retail price at the store level tends to persist and most deviations from the "regular" price are negative. This is often because of temporary sales prices (TSP) or promotions. The magnitude of the use of these marketing tools varies across store formats. For instance, hypermarket use High-Low pricing strategy' whereas the discount stores employ everyday low pricing strategy. These differences in the pricing strategies of the chains can lead to different outcomes on how they transmit the prices. Therefore, academic research has recently started to use disaggregated scanner data to assess VPT, which can help to cast light on how prices are transmitted at the individual retail chain; however, finding consistent methods to employ is a challenge. For instance, to capture price dynamics, the most common approach is the use of first difference in prices, which are mostly zero at the individual retail stores because at this level retail prices are rigid.
This dissertation addresses these literature gaps by studying the VPT at the individual retail store. Building up on three paper, each paper deals with each of the aforementioned issues. The first paper explicitly studies the impact of TSP on VPT processes. The results of this paper show that TSP increase the speed and asymmetry of VPT, which add a potential cause of asymmetry to those that have already been identified in the literature. The second paper builds on the results of the first one. After filtering out the TSP, we investigate why VPT for the same product is symmetric within some retail chains and asymmetric within others. We show that asymmetric pricing depends on store membership to a specific chain and that market power expresses itself in the adoption of a specific pricing strategy, namely: Every Day Low Pricing or High-Low, which in turn can lead to different outcomes, including asymmetric pricing in VPT. Finally, in the third paper of this dissertation, we provide some new insights on how prices are determined and transmitted at the individual retail store. We employ an approach which consists in linking dichotomous retail chains' decision of changing prices versus displaying rigid prices to factors such as retail marketing margins.


Background: Different mediators are involved in pain and edema induction during different stages of inflammation. Then, treatment of them encounters some difficulties. Medicinal plants are an important source of substances which are claimed to induce anti-inflammatory effects. This study was aimed to investigate anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of Olea europaea L.methanolic extract on male NMRI mouse. Methods: Methanolic extraction was done for leaf of Olea europaea L. and different doses (200, 300 and 400 mg/kg) were intraperitoneally (i.p.) adminstered to male NMRI mice. Analgesic and antiinflammatory effects of extract was measured during both phases of Formalin test, Acetic acid induced visceral pain and xylene inflammation tests. A standard analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug such as indomethacin, dexamethasone and morphine were administered in positive control groups where appropriates. Results: Results indicated significant dose-dependent analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of methanolic extract of Olea europaea L. leaf on pain which induced by formalin (both phase) and acetic acid, and inflammation caused by xylene. Conclusion: Our findings Showed that administration of methanolic extract of Olea europaea L.leaf can suppress pain and inflammation dose dependently which, may mediate via different components of extract. However, more investigations need to be done.


As a result of the Bradley Review (2008) of higher education, Australian universities are under pressure to enrol more students from diverse social and educational backgrounds. This paper considers how the recognition of lifelong and life-wide learning (commonly known as 'recognition of prior learning' or RPL) might be used to enhance higher education access for a larger and more diverse group of students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Within a critical theoretical framing, the paper presents selected findings from a larger research study of the admission policies and practices of different types of universities. The focus here is on the Australian Technology Network (ATN) group, which prides itself on championing principles of participation and equity, consistent with the goals of the Bradley Review. To complement a discourse analysis of university policy documents, findings from interviews with staff involved in the development and enactment of admission policy at one ATN university are analysed. Findings reveal that the ATN group is well-positioned to deliver increased enrolments of students from disadvantaged backgrounds through RPL. However there is evidence that current admission policies and practices focus on notions of academic quality and meritocracy, and this might act to undermine attempts to make the sector more accessible. Implications for admissions policy development which harmonise with the Bradley reforms are also discussed.


This article reports the synthesis of new carbazole based polymers and their application as hosts in sky-blue polymer light emitting devices (PLEDs) with a solution-processed emitting layer doped with a cyclometalated Ir(III) complex. We systematically investigate their effect on the PLED performance. A current efficiency of 19.7 cd A−1 and a brightness of 1850 cd m−2 were achieved with these polymers. The roll-off in electrophosphorescent quantum efficiency in PLEDs was shown to arise mainly from triplet–triplet annihilation between dopants in the hosts with tert-butyl groups. It has been shown that in the devices with hosts without tert-butyl groups the efficiency roll-off is additionally affected by electric field quenching. In these carbazole based polymers, triplet dimers are formed and tert-butyl groups do not limit the intermolecular interactions to prevent triplet dimer formation, nevertheless tert-butyl groups reduce charge transport.


Background Parenteral nutrition-associated cholestasis (PNAC) results in significant morbidity and mortality. Progression to end-stage liver disease and subsequent hepatic failure is the most feared complication. A number of approaches have been proposed for the prevention and treatment of PNAC with mixed results. Purpose To investigate the alteration of liver blood tests and the parenteral nutrition (PN) characteristics that trigger PNAC. Materials and Methods Clinical blood tests and PN data of adults on artificial nutrition from January to August 2012 were collected. Survival studies were conducted for each liver parameter studied. Primary endpoint was to fall above the upper limit of normal, considering them for women and men respectively: aspartate transaminase (ASP): 32, 40 IU/L; Alanine transaminase (ALT): 78, 78 IU/L; gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT): 55, 85 IU/L; alkaline phosphatase (ALP): 136, 129 IU/L; bilirubin: <1, <1 mg/dl. PASW Statistics 19.0 and Microsoft Office 2007 were used. Results One thousand eight hundred and ten PN bags for 124 patients (55% men) with mean 61 years old (18–95) were analysed. Percentage of patients with values within limits after follow-up: bilirubin 92%; ALT 76%; ASP 59%; ALP 54%; GGT 27%. Time until values went out of normal limits (days): ALT (13); ALP (13); ASP (12); bilirubin (12); GGT (6). Age, gender, liver enzymes value before PN, and PN characteristics (volume, timing of infusions, calories, nitrogen and carbohydrates) were not significant PNAC trigger factors when considered individually. Risk factor: initial value of bilirubin (each 0.1 mg/dL before PN, multiplies the risk of hyperbilirubinaemia by 14.5 times). Protective factor: PN fat content (each gramme reduces the risk of high serum GGT concentration by 3.6%). Conclusions The results show that PN poses a risk factor for PNAC, GGT being the test most affected. However, none of the factors surrounding the PN and the patient, individually, account for the majority of the liver damage. On the contrary it is a conglomerate of different factors contributing to the final impairment. The lack of enteral nutrition also predisposes to PNAC. This makes it difficult to find the right approach when prescribing PN. The indications for PN should be considered responsibly as should a return to enteral feeding whenever possible. No conflict of interest.


Background:Olanzapine is a highly tolerable and easily affordable atypical antipsychotic drug which has been commonly prescribed in both inpatient and outpatient settings for several mental disorders. Olanzapine overdose is commonly seen in psychiatric patients, who attempt suicide by intoxicating themselves with their own prescribed medications. Increased olanzapine use is associated with increased incidence of overdosing. Case Presentation:We are reporting a case of olanzapine overdosage as a cause of pinpoint pupils and altered sensorium with exclusion of other differentials. The mainstay of managementof olanzapine overdose is general supportive and symptomatic measures. Discussion: Pinpoint pupils with altered sensorium and agitation are always an alarming situation for a clinician, because of differentials like organophosphorus poisoning, pontine hemorrhage and opium overdosing. Due to olanzapine overdosage, similar clinical picture can be confusing in the emergency department and early identification of such cases is helpful to decrease the risk of fatality. Conclusion: This case highlights the significance of olanzapine overdosing as a differential diagnosis for patients presented with altered sensorium and pinpoint pupils in the emergency department. Olanzapine overdosage is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Although there is no specific antidote for olanzapine overdose, appropriate history, assessment and early diagnosis are very useful for the better outcome.


We studied the synchronism between the seasonal occurrence of fish larvae and their prey in ice-covered southeastern Hudson Bay, Canada, in spnng 1988, 1989 and 1990. Arctic cod Boreogadus saida and sand lance Ammodytes sp. larvae hatched several weeks before ice break-up and fed primarily on copepod nauplii. The timing of 50% yolk resorption was the same every year (1 1 to 18 May for Arctic cod and 5 to 11 June for sand lance) but the availability of copepod naupli~ varied substantially between years, both in magnitude (7-fold) and timing (4 to 6 wk), lnterannual differences in the under-ice abundance of nauplii were linked to variations in the abundance of female cyclopoid copepods, and appeared unrelated to the timing of the ice-algal or phytoplankton blooms. Interannual differences (2to 4-fold) in the feeding success of fish larvae (percent feeding incidence at length and mean feeding ratio at length) were related to the availability of copepod nauplii Consistent with the match/mismatch hypothesis, the fixity of the spawning season in relation to a variable cycle of prey abundance accounted for the observed variations in feeding success and apparent growth (length at date) of fish larvae. Yet, in this particular ecosystem, a match or mismatch between Arctic cod or sand lance larvae and their prey may depend more on the dynamics of cyclopoid copepods during the previous winter than on the timing of the spring algal blooms.


Abstract MRI diffusion-tensor tracking (DTT) was performed in 17 high-functioning adolescents/adults with autism and 17 pairwise-matched controls. White matter pathways involved in face processing were examined due to the relevance of face perception to the social symptoms of autism, and due to known behavioral and functional imaging findings in autism. The hippocampo-fusiform (HF) and amygdalo-fusiform (AF) pathways had normal size and shape but abnormal microstructure in the autism group. The right HF had reduced across-fiber diffusivity (D-min) compared with controls, opposite to the whole-brain effect of increased D-min. In contrast, left HF, right AF, and left AF had increased D-min and increased along-fiber diffusivity (D-max), more consistent with the whole-brain effect. There was a general loss of lateralization compared with controls. The right HF D-min was markedly low in the autism subgroup with lower Benton face recognition scores, compared with the lower-Benton control subgroup, and compared with the higher-Benton autism subgroup. Similar behavioral relationships were found for performance IQ. Such results suggest an early functionally-significant pathological process in right HF consistent with small-diameter axons (with correspondingly slower neural transmission) and/or higher packing density. In left AF and HF, changes were interpreted as secondary, possibly reflecting axonal loss and/or decreased myelination. (JINS, 2008, 14, 933–946.)


Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rare movement disorder and a member of a group of neurodegenerative diseases referred to collectively as the 'parkinsonian syndromes'. Characteristic of these syndromes is that the patient exhibits symptoms of 'parkinsonism', viz., a range of problems involving movement, most typically manifest in Parkinson's disease (PD) itself1, but also seen in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and to some extent in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). MSA is a relatively 'new' descriptive term and is derived from three previously described diseases, viz., olivopontocerebellar atrophy, striato-nigral degeneration, and Shy-Drager syndrome. The classical symptoms of MSA include parkinsonism, ataxia, and autonomic dysfunction.6 Ataxia describes a gross lack of coordination of muscle movements while autonomic dysfunction involves a variety of systems that regulate unconscious bodily functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, bladder function, and digestion. Although primarily a neurological disorder, patients with MSA may also develop visual signs and symptoms that could be useful in differential diagnosis. The most important visual signs may include oculomotor dysfunction and problems in pupil reactivity but are less likely to involve aspects of primary vision such as visual acuity, colour vision, and visual fields. In addition, the eye-care practitioner can contribute to the management of the visual problems of MSA and therefore, help to improve quality of life of the patient. Hence, this first article in a two-part series describes the general features of MSA including its prevalence, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, pathology, and possible causes.


Abstract. Aerosol measurements at Barrow, Alaska during the past 30 years have identified the long range transport of pollution associated with Arctic Haze as well as ocean-derived aerosols of more local origin. Here, we focus on measurements of aerosol chemical composition to assess (1) trends in Arctic Haze aerosol and implications for source regions, (2) the interaction between pollution-derived and ocean-derived aerosols and the resulting impacts on the chemistry of the Arctic boundary layer, and (3) the response of aerosols to a changing climate. Aerosol chemical composition measured at Barrow, AK during the Arctic haze season is compared for the years 1976–1977 and 1997–2008. Based on these two data sets, concentrations of non-sea salt (nss) sulfate (SO4=) and non-crustal (nc) vanadium (V) have decreased by about 60% over this 30 year period. Consistency in the ratios of nss SO4=/ncV and nc manganese (Mn)/ncV between the two data sets indicates that, although emissions have decreased in the source regions, the source regions have remained the same over this time period. The measurements from 1997–2008 indicate that, during the haze season, the nss SO4= aerosol at Barrow is becoming less neutralized by ammonium (NH4+) yielding an increasing sea salt aerosol chloride (Cl−) deficit. The expected consequence is an increase in the release of Cl atoms to the atmosphere and a change in the lifetime of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including methane. In addition, summertime concentrations of biogenically-derived methanesulfonate (MSA−) and nss SO4= are increasing at a rate of 12 and 8% per year, respectively. Further research is required to assess the environmental factors behind the increasing concentrations of biogenic aerosol.


Early-life experiences, including maternal interaction, profoundly influence hormonal stress responses during adulthood. In rats, daily handling during a critical neonatal period leads to a significant and permanent modulation of key molecules that govern hormonal secretion in response to stress. Thus, hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression is increased, whereas hypothalamic CRH-messenger RNA (mRNA) levels and stress-induced glucocorticoid release are reduced in adult rats handled early in life. Recent studies have highlighted the role of augmented maternal sensory input to handled rats as a key determinant of these changes. However, the molecular mechanisms, and particularly the critical, early events leading from enhanced sensory experience to long-lasting modulation of GR and CRH gene expression, remain largely unresolved. To elucidate the critical primary genes governing this molecular cascade, we determined the sequence of changes in GR-mRNA levels and in hypothalamic and amygdala CRH-mRNA expression at three developmental ages, and the temporal relationship between each of these changes and the emergence of reduced hormonal stress-responses. Down-regulation of hypothalamic CRH-mRNA levels in daily-handled rats was evident already by postnatal day 9, and was sustained through postnatal days 23 and 45, i.e. beyond puberty. In contrast, handling-related up-regulation of hippocampal GR-mRNA expression emerged subsequent to the 23rd postnatal day, i.e. much later than changes in hypothalamic CRH expression. The hormonal stress response of handled rats was reduced starting before postnatal day 23. These findings indicate that early, rapid, and persistent changes of hypothalamic CRH gene expression may play a critical role in the mechanism(s) by which early-life experience influences the hormonal stress-response long-term.


Focusing high marble deposition, Hanwoo feedlot system uses high-energy diet over the prolonged fattening period. However, due to the individual genetic variation, around 40% of them are graded into inferior quality grades (QG), despite they utilized the same resources. Therefore, focusing to develop a genomic-based precision management model, this study was to evaluate the response to the divergent selection on genetic merit for marbling score (MS), under different dietary TDN (total digestible nutrient) levels. Total of 112 calves were genotyped and initially grouped for estimated breeding value (high and low) for marbling score (MS-EBV). Subsequently, managed under two levels of feed TDN%, over the growing period, early, middle, and final fattening periods following 2X2 factorial arrangement (figure 1). Carcasses were evaluated for MS, Backfat thickness (BFT) and Korean beef quality grading standard. As the direct response to the selection was significant, the results confirmed the importance of initial genetic grouping of Hanwoo steers for MS-EBV. However, dietary TDN level did not show an effect (P > 0.05) on the MS. Further, no genetic-by-nutrition interaction for MS (P > 0.05) was also observed. The present results showed no correlation response on BFT (P > 0.05), indicating that the selection based on MS-EBV can be used to enhance the MS without undesirable effect on BFT. Ultimate turnover of the Hanwoo feedlot operation is primarily determined by the QGs. The present model shows that the initial grouping for MS-EBV increased the proportion of carcasses graded for higher QGs (QG1++ and QG1+) by approximately 20%. Moreover, there appears to be a potential to increase the proportion of QG 1++ animals among the high-genetic group by further increasing the dietary energy content. Overall, this precision management strategy suggests the importance of adopting an MS based initial genetic grouping system for Hanwoo steers with a subsequent divergent management based on dietary energy level.


of a thesis at the University of Miami. Thesis supervised by Professor Alexandra Quittner. No. of pages in text. (63) Children with hearing loss, who have substantial delays in language development, are likely to experience deficits in various aspects of social competence, such as social skills, emotional awareness, and interpersonal problem-solving. To date, few studies have measured and compared social competence in children with cochlear implants (CIs) and their hearing peers, and no studies have compared their longitudinal outcomes. Using parent, teacher, and child reports from two standardized measures, this study compared social competence in children with CIs and their hearing peers, followed by an analysis of discrepancies among these respondents over five years. Further, a latent variable of social competence was created and then modeled over time using data from parents. Several hypotheses were tested: 1) Children with CIs would have significant delays in social competence compared to their hearing peers on all measures and across all raters; 2) Fewer deficits in social competence would be observed in children implanted before vs. after age two; 3) A greater magnitude of rater discrepancies would be found between parents and teachers in the CI vs. hearing groups; 4) A greater magnitude of rater discrepancies would be found between parents and children in the CI vs. hearing groups; and 5) Using longitudinal modeling, children with CIs would display worse social competence at 48 months, but exhibit more improvement in social skills than their hearing peers over time. Results showed that children with CIs were rated as significantly delayed compared to hearing peers at all time points, according to both parent and child report. However, teachers reported no differences between the CI and hearing groups. Longitudinal modeling of the parent data revealed that children with CIs were significantly delayed compared to their hearing peers at 48, 72, and 96 months postimplantation and demonstrated minimal evidence of catch-up over a 5-year period. The magnitude of interrater discrepancies did not vary as a function of hearing status, but correlations among raters were low. These results indicated that children with CIs continue to experience delays in social competence even 8 years following implantation and, to date, no interventions exist to address these deficits.


The road is a means of land transportation which consists of some materials, such as coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, filler (filler) and bitumen. In the process of maintenance, damage sometimes occur earlier than the service one of which is caused by the water factor. This study aimed to determine the effect of immersion (water) against the Marshall properties such as stability, flow on plastic, Results For Marshall, and air cavities. By using the same binder content (optimum), ie 2.5%, then the specimen is made of 3 x 9 specimens (for statistical tests), which is a cylinder with volume of 1200 grams of weight. The variation of immersion time used in this study were 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours and for each - each variation of immersion time using 3 specimens. The results showed that there is the effect of immersion on the Stability of Marshall on the nature Lasbutag Mixed Heat, which is shown by the equation: Y = - 9.618x + 2098.2 (F-count regression = 7706> F-table = 4:24 at probability level 0.05). Marshall stability and is expected to reach below the
requirements after the age of 140.18 hours. As for the plastic flow, Results For Marshall and air cavities less effect on the period of immersion. Where to values on plastic flow, with the equation: Y = 1982 + 0.0268X - 0.0005X2 + 4E-07 (F-count regression = 1105 <F-table = 3:01 at probability level 0.05). For the results shown for Marshall equation: Y = 16,744 - 0.4906X - 0.0058X2 (F-count regression = 1.65 <F-table for the level of probability = 5.61 0.01). And for the air cavity is indicated by the equation: Y = 9.8285 - 0.0162X (F-count regression = 1:21 <F-table = 4:24 at probability level 0.01).


Avant-garde artists of the 1920s and 1930s discovered a new role, that of designers for the printing industry--what is today known as graphic design. As illustrated by the numerous stunning, high quality, color reproductions in this book, designers stripped away printers' ornaments and drawn illustrations; they no longer created captions on the page; and they brought in abstract, geometrical forms, photographs, plain typefaces and simple lettering, white space, and asymmetrical layouts. Included are examples of posters, prints, book designs, and political and commercial ephemera. "Avant-Garde Graphics" focuses on the designs of many of the leading practitioners of the Modernist movement working between 1918 and 1934--from the Dutch members of the De Stijl and the German Bauhaus to the Constructivists of the USSR and central Europe. Artists include Jean Arp, Herbert Bayer, Theo van Doesburg, El Lissitzky, Liubov Popova, Vladimir and Georgii Stenberg, Solomon Telingater and others.


There is convergence among researchers of the 'Big Five' personality traits taxonomy, that the dimension of conscientiousness best explains differences in work performance. This research is a literature review on the interrelationship between certain traits of the conscientiousness dimension and human virtues, or character traits. It also analyzes whether or not it is rational to argue that the continuous improvement culture enhances the exercise of these character traits. The personal effort to develop one's conscientiousness enriches one's character or way of being, and this development is a consequence of character moulding through an intellectual and willful effort enabling one not only to develop personal habits but also to improve task performance. Continuous improvement culture, on the one hand, should provide a work environment where employees can practice virtues, including those contained in conscientiousness. On the other hand, the requirement is that continuous improvement culture should be developed in an environment that respects the freedom and purpose of the individual.


Hard phases are important features of wear-resistant materials. Hard metals and most tool steels thus consist of a high amount of hard phases, such as carbides and nitrides embedded in a softer metallic matrix. The mechanical properties and wear resistance of the system are controlled by the mechanical properties of the hard phases and the matrix. Since hard phases are brittle and have sizes in the range of microns, mechanical characterization with standard test methods, such as the tensile test, is often impossible. Nanoindentation, however, can be used to determine important mechanical parameters, such as hardness or Young's modulus, of brittle phases on a small scale. This paper deals with the mechanical characterization of different hard phases (NbC, VC, TiC, and WC) using nanoindentation. The measurements reveal significant differences in the mechanical properties and deformation behavior of the investigated phases. The deformation behavior was investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis for the determination of chemical composition. The influence of the matrix on the indentation result of small hard phases embedded in a softer metallic matrix was evaluated using finite element method (FEM) simulations. These simulations give an insight into the complex deformation behavior during indentation of an embedded hard phase.


WITH GREAT INTEREST, I read the afterward of the re-released biography Farewell to Manzanar, just months after September 11, 2001. The authors comment that these attacks, seen by some as the Pearl Harbor of the twenty-first century, give Farewell to Manzanar a new timeliness. The big difference, sixty years later, was the response of the media and the federal government. In 1942 the flames of racial blaming were fueled and fanned by radio broadcasters and major newspapers. The president of the United States signed the executive order authorizing the forced confinement of an entire ethnic group.... In 2001 the widely scattered threats and acts of reprisal against Arab Americans had no encouragement from national or local media nor any support from any level of government. Indeed, the president expressed strong disapproval of such behavior, as did the major networks and large metropolitan papers. (2) The authors observe that this is a dramatic change, one clearly in the tenor of what it means to be a democratic nation. However, that early responses to September 11 moved us as a nation to consider all Arabs a threat, just as we did with the Japanese in 1943, means that we still have issues of justice to address. They remind us that we must never forget our history as we forge a future. In particular, I strongly feel that educators cannot be silent. Educators have the opportunity and, I believe, the responsibility to help build a more just society. One of the goals of our Constitution, explicitly stated, is to "establish justice." (3) Certainly, every human being deserves justice in all its forms, but just what exactly is justice? Is it equal access to food, clothing, shelter, and education, as well as love and a sense of belonging-which provide the foundation for a self-sufficient or fulfilling life? Is it "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights" among which are "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" as listed in our Declaration of Independence? (4) Or is it defined by one of many current issues, as featured on the website, www.justicelearning.org, such as affirmative action, civil liberties in war, the death penalty, gun control, or juvenile justice? (5) Is the concept of justice easier to understand than the practice of justice? I would argue that justice is indeed easier to define than to deliver, but defining it is no easy task either. Nevertheless, the first is necessary if we are to achieve the second--creating a more just world. Clearly, this is crucial to building our students' civic competence, a major purpose of social studies programs. (6) Expectations of Excellence, the standards set by NCSS, further elucidates this perspective: As citizens of a democracy, we support our republic's most important ideals: the common good, i.e., the general welfare of all individuals and groups within the community. The common good is supported when all citizens become aware that the meaning and purpose of education in a democratic republic is the intellectual and ethical development of "student-citizens," young people who will soon assume the role of citizen. Individuals must understand that their self-interest is dependent upon the well-being of others in the community. Attention to the common good means putting first things first. If educators address the ethical and intellectual habits of students, other priorities will be realized. (7) So, as educators, how do we help our students first conceptualize justice and then live this understanding in community--specifically in schools, the world where our existence with students plays out? Literature that honors, raises awareness of, and advocates for social justice may be just the means. It's critical that in our classrooms we nurture a "just" perspective, both in word and deed. …


Abstract Family D DNA polymerase (PolD) is the essential replicative DNA polymerase for duplication of most archaeal genomes. PolD contains a unique two-barrel catalytic core absent from all other DNA polymerase families but found in RNA polymerases (RNAPs). While PolD has an ancestral RNA polymerase catalytic core, its active site has evolved the ability to discriminate against ribonucleotides. Until now, the mechanism evolved by PolD to prevent ribonucleotide incorporation was unknown. In all other DNA polymerase families, an active site steric gate residue prevents ribonucleotide incorporation. In this work, we identify two consensus active site acidic (a) and basic (b) motifs shared across the entire two-barrel nucleotide polymerase superfamily, and a nucleotide selectivity (s) motif specific to PolD versus RNAPs. A novel steric gate histidine residue (H931 in Thermococcus sp. 9°N PolD) in the PolD s-motif both prevents ribonucleotide incorporation and promotes efficient dNTP incorporation. Further, a PolD H931A steric gate mutant abolishes ribonucleotide discrimination and readily incorporates a variety of 2′ modified nucleotides. Taken together, we construct the first putative nucleotide bound PolD active site model and provide structural and functional evidence for the emergence of DNA replication through the evolution of an ancestral RNAP two-barrel catalytic core.