What students learn about science and science practice can be inferred by examining student work about science other than their class work. There are two components to this study. The first is a broad examination of projects participating in a national science fair over several years to ascertain what types of inscriptions (from which orders of variables can be inferred) are used in their projects. This data is compared to patterns of inscriptional use at professional science conferences. The second component is a detailed examination of six specific randomly-selected projects to gain insights about use of inscriptions by students in their presentations. Results suggest that there are broad-based (considering the data source) issue with how data representation/graphing is taught in schools, and that teacher education programs need to specifically focus on this issue so that student teachers are better prepared to deal with these issues.


In order to assess cognitive function in multiple sclerosis (MS) and the effect of cholinergic modulation, experiments were conducted using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the brain activation during cognitive tasks. A study comparing the processing of verbal working memory with an N-back task found that patients showed smaller increase in activation than healthy controls with greater task difficulty, suggesting a reduced functional reserve. Controls and patients showed differences of correlations between brain regions activated. Interactions between prefrontal regions may provide an adaptive mechanism that could limit clinical expression of the disease distinct from recruitment of novel processing regions. The effect of Rivastigmine on the cognitive processing in MS patients was tested in a longitudinal study, involving serial fMRI scans. Changes in the brain activation patterns were demonstrated with drug administration, without any changes in behavioural measures. Rivastigmine may act to increase the functioning of the normal neural network reducing the need for previously recruited compensatory mechanisms in MS patients. A study on healthy subjects examined the effect of cholinergic inhibition on cognitive processing and brain activation. Changes in functional activation due to Hyoscine during verbal working memory were found analogous to that in MS patients without any changes in behavioural measures. Processes that potentially impair brain cognitive function may recruit similar compensatory functional adaptive mechanisms. Studies on rats and MS patients explored the effect of Rivastigmine on the relationship of the BOLD fMRI signal with the underlying neural activity. Rivastigmine may be influencing the cortical excitability after direct cortical stimulation but showed only a small effect on the BOLD signal under more physiological neural activity. The neural activity in response to visual stimulation is slightly increased with Rivastigmine in MS patients, a change not detected with functional imaging. These studies suggest that changes in BOLD signal do represent sufficiently large changes of underlying neural activity in the presence of Rivastigmine. The relationship of damage in MS to measures of connectivity was studied using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Correlation was found between measures of connectivity and callosal size, a measure of fibre loss. The distribution of lesions was spatially correlated with changes in connectivity due to MS. Thus DTI could be utilized to explore the connectivity changes associated with MS, and the relationship with changes in functional activation.


The Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) conducted satellite solar occultation measurements for 14 years ending on 21 November 2005. HALOE contained a calibration wheel, which included three neutral density filters that were used to examine response linearity through a combination of ground and on-orbit measurements. Although measurement uncertainties preclude a confident assessment of the true extent of nonlinearity, the on-orbit data lead to the conclusion that any existing response nonlinearity has changed by less than 2% over the mission lifetime. This conclusion eliminates a potentially significant uncertainty when using HALOE data for studies of long-term atmospheric trends.


This chapter highlights how the motives, utility and benefits, and challenges of Mobile Money Systems (MMS) shape the financial inclusion in today's dynamic environment and increase its sustainability. Recently, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have been acting as financial service providers to tap the unbanked population at the Base of the Pyramid market (BoP). This approach of bankless banking requires a network of private, non-governmental, retail agents, and governmental organizations to develop and implement a sustainable MMS. Such networks are constantly changing and growing and it is vital for the successful enhancement and evolution of these systems that they adapt to these changes. Appropriate development of a correct system in accordance to different institutions' needs helps to reconcile different (sometimes conflicting) economic and social goals and maintain high level of sustainability.

The environment of MMS development represents a wicked problem situation that requires an inclusive Kantian approach to reconcile the disparate views of individuals, groups, and organizations that constitute this type of information society. "People only see what they are prepared to see" (Ralph Waldo Emerson cited in Holmes, 2007). Interestingly enough that it has been said long time ago and we all know it very well, yet ironically people fail to accept, digest or even see other perspectives or different point of views other than their own (Mitroff&Linstone, 1993). Their various viewpoints are contingent by their indigenous experiences and day-to-day situations and no party can be claimed as the holder of all strands of knowledge or absolute truth.

It is argued that while the financial sector in Egypt has been resilient to the global financial crises and the political unrest following the 25th of Jan revolution, it has failed to provide stable and equitable access to finance (Farazi et.al, 2011).During this period of time the position of each actor in the payment and the transfer value chain remains highly awkward in the proposed mobile solutions. Macro-level actors (e.g., Central Bank) do not want to lose control, while others would like to fully control the end-user relationship (e.g., MNOs).Therefore, tussles are likely in any solution, if we want to go forward. This explains why numerous actors which have attempted to launch systems with a full control or who have sought to by-pass the current incumbent (i.e., Microfinance Institutions, MNOs) have faced dismal results.

This motivated us to analyze the unique case of e-Masaryfor mobile money and payment services from multiple perspectives (i.e. From organizational, technical and personal views) (Linstone, 1989). This trilogy will help to investigate how multilayer stakeholders see the benefits and challenges of MMS being developed in the case of e-Masary and how to make it more sustainable. In doing so, the Multiview framework (Avison & Wood-Harper, 1998) has been adopted as a methodology for data collection and interpretation aiming to capture a rich picture of the study results and deeper understanding of the phenomenon.


A microcosm of exaggerated societal extremes-poverty and wealth, vice and virtue, elitism and equality-New Orleans is a tangled web of race, cultural mores, and sexual identities. Jennifer Spear's examination of the dialectical relationship between politics and social practice unravels the city's construction of race during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Spear brings together archival evidence from three different languages and the most recent and respected scholarship on racial formation and interracial sex to explain why free people of color became a significant population in the early days of New Orleans and to show how authorities attempted to use concepts of race and social hierarchy to impose order on a decidedly disorderly society. She recounts and analyzes the major conflicts that influenced New Orleanian culture: legal attempts to impose racial barriers and social order, political battles over propriety and freedom, and cultural clashes over place and progress. At each turn, Spear's narrative challenges the prevailing academic assumptions and supports her efforts to move exploration of racial formation away from cultural and political discourses and toward social histories. Strikingly argued, richly researched, and methodologically sound, this wide-ranging look at how choices about sex triumphed over established class systems and artificial racial boundaries supplies a refreshing contribution to the history of early Louisiana.


Furandione 1 was reacted with 2,4,6-trichlorophenylhydrazine to give the 1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylic acid 2 together with a new pyridazinone derivative 3. Then 2 was converted into the corresponding ester 5 or amide 6 derivatives, respectively, via reactions of its acid chloride 4 with various alcohols or N-nucleophiles. Nitrile derivative 7 was obtained by dehydration of 6a in a mixture of SOCl2 and DMF. Condensation reactions of 2 with some hydrazines led to the formation of pyrazolo [3,4-d] pyridazinone 8 derivatives.


The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will observe several Deep Drilling Fields (DDFs) to a greater depth and with a more rapid cadence than the main survey. In this paper, we describe the 'DeepDrill' survey, which used the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) to observe three of the four currently defined DDFs in two bands, centred on 3.6 and 4.5 μm. These observations expand the area that was covered by an earlier set of observations in these three fields by the Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS). The combined DeepDrill and SERVS data cover the footprints of the LSST DDFs in the Extended Chandra Deep Field–South (ECDFS) field, the ELAIS-S1 field (ES1), and the XMM-Large-Scale Structure Survey field (XMM-LSS). The observations reach an approximate 5σ point-source depth of 2 μJy (corresponding to an AB magnitude of 23.1; sufficient to detect a 10$^{11} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ galaxy out to z ≈ 5) in each of the two bands over a total area of $\approx 29\,$ deg2. The dual-band catalogues contain a total of 2.35 million sources. In this paper, we describe the observations and data products from the survey, and an overview of the properties of galaxies in the survey. We compare the source counts to predictions from the Shark semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. We also identify a population of sources with extremely red ([3.6]−[4.5] >1.2) colours which we show mostly consists of highly obscured active galactic nuclei.


Land-cover change and habitat loss are widely recognised as the major drivers of biodiversity loss in the world. Land-cover maps derived from satellite imagery provide useful tools for monitoring land-use and land-cover change. KwaZulu-Natal, a populous yet biodiversity-rich province in South Africa, is one of the first provinces to produce a set of three directly comparable land-cover maps (2005, 2008 and 2011). These maps were used to investigate systematic land-cover changes occurring in the province with a focus on biodiversity conservation. The Intensity Analysis framework was used for the analysis as this quantitative hierarchical method addresses shortcomings of other established land-cover change analyses. In only 6 years (2005-2011), a massive 7.6% of the natural habitat of the province was lost to anthropogenic transformation of the landscape. The major drivers of habitat loss were agriculture, timber plantations, the built environment, dams and mines. Categorical swapping formed a significant part of landscape change, including a return from anthropogenic categories to secondary vegetation, which we suggest should be tracked in analyses. Longer-term rates of habitat loss were determined using additional land-cover maps (1994, 2000). An average of 1.2% of the natural landscape has been transformed per annum since 1994. Apart from the direct loss of natural habitat, the anthropogenically transformed land covers all pose additional negative impacts for biodiversity remaining in these or surrounding areas. A target of no more than 50% of habitat loss should be adopted to adequately conserve biodiversity in the province. Our analysis provides the first provincial assessment of the rate of loss of natural habitat and may be used to fulfil incomplete criteria used in the identification of Threatened Terrestrial Ecosystems, and to report on the Convention on Biological Diversity targets on rates of natural habitat loss.


Claims for the distinctiveness of third sector organisations are a relatively widespread and familiar feature of third sector commentary and analysis. This paper reviews relevant theoretical and empirical research to examine the idea of distinctiveness, arguing that such claims remain inconclusive. Informed by a view of the third sector as a contested 'field', and drawing on Bourdieu's notion of 'distinction', the paper suggests that research attention should focus additionally on the strategic purpose of claims for distinctiveness, rather than simply continue what might be a 'holy grail' search for its existence. The paper uses this argument to complicate and extend the idea of the third sector as a 'strategic unity', and concludes by suggesting some further lines of enquiry for third sector research.


Green tea is well known for its various physiological effects, but there are few studies relating the tastes of tea catechins to their biological activities. We have focused on the interaction of tea catechins with phospholipids to clarify the relationship. The galloyl-type catechins, epicatechin gallate (ECg) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg) usually show beneficial properties including chemopreventive, antimutagenic and antioxidant actions more potently than the nongalloyl-type catechins, epicatechin (EC) and epigallocatechin (EGC). The difference in their chemical structures is correlated with their affinity for phospholipid membranes and incorporated amounts into liposomes. This indicates that the interaction of the galloyl-type catechins with phospholipids is always stronger than the nongalloyl-type catechins. Molecular-level insights into how tea catechins interact with lipid membranes were acquired using NMR spectroscopy. Based on solution and solid-state NMR studies with isotropic bicelles and liposomes as models of phospholipid membranes, it is proposed that ECg and EGCg interact with the surface of lipid membranes via the choline moiety of the phospholipids. Since the galloyl-type catechins have been reported to be more bitter and astringent than the nongalloyl-type catechins, both of their tastes and biological activities could be ascribed to the interaction.


In the Netherlands the greenhouse sector is a major user of energy. It accounts for 7% of the total amount of energy used in the Netherlands and for 79% of the total amount of energy used in agriculture. In order to sustain this sector on the long term, it is important that its use of energy is lowered. One way of reducing energy use for horticultural producers is investing in energy-saving systems. The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the investment behavior of farm operators. A two-stage econometric model has been applied to analyze the factors influencing the decision of farmers to invest and the level of investments.


Optimal monetary policy analysis can be viewed as a constrained optimization problem: the policymaker chooses a competitive equilibrium allocation that maximizes social welfare among the set of all feasible competitive equilibrium allocations. Part of the solution to this problem is a monetary policy rule that determines how variables that are under direct control of the policymaker -- the monetary policy instruments -- are set. An optimal policy rule is said to implement the optimal allocation if, conditional on the policy rule, the allocation is the unique rational expectations equilibrium of the economy. For a simple monetary model, we study the implementation of full-commitment and Markov-perfect policies when the policymaker uses a money-stock instrument. For a local approximation of the economy, we show that both policy rules implement the respective optimal allocations. We also show that the results for local approximations do not necessarily extend to a global analysis of the economy: the Markov-perfect policy rule is not implementable, and there is no proof that the full-commitment policy rule is implementable.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop the empirically tested framework about the knowledge and perception about sustainability of building materials in Prishtina, Kosovo from the perspective of users, construction industry and facility managers.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey of representative sections of the population was designed and carried out in the capital city of Kosovo to determine the knowledge and perception of the population about the sustainability of building materials and to determine the main criteria of selection of sustainable building materials. The study may be used as guidelines for sustainable real estate developers in Prishtina during the materials selection process. Qualitative interviews were conducted with architects, consulting engineering companies, construction companies and facility managers from the region of Prishtina with open-ended questions also being used.

Findings

Results of quantitative research find that embodied energy, durability and low energy consumption are used as key criteria that influence the materials selection process on the part of users. The results of the cross-case analysis of qualitative measure the perceptions of construction industry and facility managers, according to which durability to a large degree is the main criterion for selection of sustainable building materials followed by embodied energy and low energy consumption.

Research limitations/implications

The study of measurement of level of knowledge and perception about sustainability of building materials in Kosovo focuses only on one pilot city; hence, further research is needed throughout Kosovo to validate the empirically tested tool within other geographical settings in Kosovo.

Originality/value

This survey represents the first quantification of knowledge and perception regarding the sustainability of building materials among users, construction sector and facility managers.


Abstract : Gun violence in America must be addressed at the highest levels of society. Newtown, Aurora, and Virginia Tech were attacks on the very fabric of America. School shootings represent attacks on our nation's future. A public health approach to gun violence focuses on prevention. Public safety professionals, educators, and community leaders are squandering opportunities to prevent these horrific acts of extreme violence. Preparedness is derived by planning, which is critical to mobilizing resources when needed. Rational public policy can work. Sensible gun legislation, which is accessible through a public health approach to gun violence, neither marginalizes nor stigmatizes any one group. University administrators must fully engage the entire arsenal of resources available to them to confront this pernicious threat. The academic community can create powerful networks for research, collaboration, and information sharing. These collective learning environments are investments in the knowledge economy. For the police to remain relevant, they must actively engage the community they serve by developing the operational art necessary to cultivate knowledge, relationships, and expertise. Police departments must emphasize strategies that improve performance. Police officers must understand the mission and meaning of To Protect and Serve, and the consequences of public safety, which often comes at their personal peril. Gun violence in America is a public health epidemic and preventing it requires a collective responsibility.


I present my joint view for efficient development of efficient and dependable ERTS (Embedded Real-Time Systems). This view is based on the three main viewpoints of (1) the software designer, (2) the analysis tools, and (3) the code synthesis tools/run-time environment. Our position is that any approach that is to achieve (i) decreased development effort, (ii) increased software quality, and (iii) efficient resource utilization, needs to take all three viewpoints into consideration. I exemplify how our work with execution-model independent software components fits into this joint view and outline some research directions.


Background: Exclusive breastfeeding is the single most effective intervention for child survival. The purpose of the study was to assess knowledge, attitude of mothers about exclusive breastfeeding.
Materials and methods: Data has been collected by structured questionnaire and interview from Iranian mothers referring to Health Care Centers in Zabol. In a cross sectional study 268 women who had children less than two years selected via cluster random sampling technique.
Results: Mean age of mothers was 27.33 ± 6.13, 64.6% of children used breastfeeding and 39.5% of them had exclusive breastfeeding till 4 months after birth and 28% had exclusive breastfeeding till end of 6 months. 9.7% of the subjects had poor knowledge, 59.7% of them had a moderate awareness and 30.6% had a good knowledge about breastfeeding. Moreover 41.8% had a moderate attitude and 58.2% had a good attitude towards breastfeeding. According to Pearson correlation, no significant relationship was found between knowledge with attitude and age of mothers in the 1st pregnancy, (P˃0.05), but there was a significant positive relationship with between knowledge and age (r = 0.28, P˂0.05) and the time of initiating of supplementary food (r = 0.166, P˂0.05). No significant relationship observed between attitude with knowledge and age, age of mothers in the 1st pregnancy and the time of initiating of supplementary food (P˃0.05).
Conclusion: There is an urgent necessity to provide accurate prenatal education that focuses on methods and long-term benefits of infant feeding to mothers, family and health professionals.


Interferometry is an approach to extract the Green's function between two receivers as if the virtual source is at one of the receiver locations. The Green's function which is the response to an impulsive source, accounts for the wave propagation in the medium between the two receivers. It is commonly thought that Green's function estimates obtained from interferometry accurately represent the full Green's function, but this is not always the case. In fact, the accuracy of the retrieved Green's function, which consists of the surface and body waves, is in practice restricted by the limited distribution of the sources of field fluctuations. We demonstrate the importance of adequate source distribution for the accuracy of the retrieved Green's function, using examples from interferometry applications. In these examples, sources are controlled (as in exploration seismology) or uncontrolled (as in crustal seismology).


This paper surveys fluid dynamic-acoustic mechanisms that may explain low-frequent, broadband hull excitation experienced on board of ships and caused by propeller cavitation. Observations obtained from sea trials and model scale experiments are used to describe the hydrodynamics involved in each particular mechanism. The investigations are still ongoing and aim to identify causes of broadband inboard noise and vibration on passenger vessels in the frequency range of 20 to 70 Hz.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


BACKGROUND
The etiology of age-related olfactory loss is still unclear, but it has been claimed that polypharmacotherapy may contribute to olfactory dysfunction, particularly in the elderly, who are more likely to need multiple drugs. The present pilot study investigated the relationship between smell and the number and type of drugs taken in a group of elderly.

METHODOLOGY
50 elderly volunteers (over 64 years old) who were healthy from the sinonasal standpoint (SNOT-22 under 1) and had no cognitive impairments [Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE over 18) were administered the Screening 12 test and tested on their n-butanol olfactory threshold. Their olfactory performance was then connected with the number and type of drugs participants used.

RESULTS
The mean age of the included volunteers was 74 plus/minus 7 years. No association emerged between odor identification and number of drugs taken. The number of drugs taken correlated directly with a worse olfactory threshold and with a worse MMSE score, meaning a worse cognitive status. Odor identification significantly worsened with age. Comparing those volunteers taking only one drug known to not influence olfaction with another sub-group of volunteers taking five or more drugs, it was evident that subjects taking only one drug scored significantly better in olfactory threshold test and MMSE, and marginally better in olfactory identification test. For what concerns the difference between male and female volunteers, no difference in olfactory test result was shown, both for threshold and identification. Univariate analysis showed a direct correlation between the consumption of calcium channel blockers, beta-blockers, acetylsalicylic acid and olfactory threshold, meaning a worse sense of smell. Acetylsalicylic acid also correlated inversely with odor identification, meaning again a worse sense of smell, and so did potassium-sparing diuretics. Multivariate analysis showed that MMSE scores correlated with a better sense of smell, that is a lower olfactory threshold, and that beta-blockers and acetylsalicylic acid negatively affected olfactory threshold, meaning a worse sense of smell. Acetylsalicylic acid also correlated inversely with odor identification, meaning again a worse sense of smell.

CONCLUSIONS
The number of drugs taken demonstrated to be significantly correlated with a worse olfactory threshold and worse MMSE. Larger studies on elderly volunteers are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.


Over the last couple of years, research on indoor environments has gained a fresh impetus; more specifically applications that support navigation and wayfinding have become one of the booming industries. Indoor navigation research currently covers the technological aspect of indoor positioning and the modelling of indoor space. The algorithmic development to support navigation has so far been left mostly untouched, as most applications mainly rely on adapting Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm to an indoor network. However, alternative algorithms for outdoor navigation have been proposed adding a more cognitive notion to the calculated paths and as such adhering to the natural wayfinding behaviour (e.g. simplest paths, least risk paths). These algorithms are currently restricted to outdoor applications. The need for indoor cognitive algorithms is highlighted by a more challenged navigation and orientation due to the specific indoor structure (e.g. fragmentation, less visibility, confined areas…). As such, the clarity and easiness of route instructions is of paramount importance when distributing indoor routes. A shortest or fastest path indoors not necessarily aligns with the cognitive mapping of the building. Therefore, the aim of this research is to extend those richer cognitive algorithms to three-dimensional indoor environments. More specifically for this paper, we will focus on the application of the least risk path algorithm of Grum (2005) to an indoor space. The algorithm as proposed by Grum (2005) is duplicated and tested in a complex multi-storey building. The results of several least risk path calculations are compared to the shortest paths in indoor environments in terms of total length, improvement in route description complexity and number of turns. Several scenarios are tested in this comparison: paths covering a single floor, paths crossing several building wings and/or floors. Adjustments to the algorithm are proposed to be more aligned to the specific structure of indoor environments (e.g. no turn restrictions, restricted usage of rooms, vertical movement) and common wayfinding strategies indoors. In a later stage, other cognitive algorithms will be implemented and tested in both an indoor and combined indoor-outdoor setting, in an effort to improve the overall user experience during navigation in indoor environments.


We begin with the observation that some Korean elementary school children in English class, confined to a single situation and even a single language exponent in a role play, appear to produce far more coherent dialogue than the previous week when they were allowed completely free choices in language. We note that at the same time as their dialogue becomes longer, their sentences become shorter (tall and thinner on the printed page), and we suggest that the grammatical complexity is consciously unpacked as discourse complexity. When we turn to a large corpus of longitudinal and cross sectional data, we see, however, that "thinner" dialogue with short utterances is not always more creative, at least not grammatically. We see that the children are deliberately and consciously choosing more elliptical and less creative expressions when they speak. We generalize from this data to show that the problem is no mere artifact of the data sample. We theorize from this generalization to show that the development of the child's free will in syntax is related to a long chain of such constraints, leading from instincts to habits to intelligent choices oriented toward the immediate environment to acts of free will which are genuinely voluntary and which admit no sovereign but the child's developing self. Indeed, we shall argue that the exercise of this sovereignty is precisely how the child develops a self in the first place.


Financial crises have some common storylines, among them bursting asset bubbles, bank failures, sharp tightening of credit, and downturn in trade. They are also different from one another. Some start with sudden reversal of international capital flows, others with domestic credit implosions. A challenge to economic research is to integrate common as well as disparate threads into a coherent analytical framework that is at the same time empirically testable. In Understanding Global Crises, Assaf Razin offers a review of an emerging paradigm that is consistent with the key features of recent global financial crises. This paradigm presents in a transparent way basic analytical elements of the theories of financial and monetary crises and how these elements fit together in macroeconomic analysis of global crises. Razin surveys the credit implosion that led to a severe banking crisis in Japan in the 1990s, the Asian financial crisis that began in 1997, the global meltdown of 2008, and the Euro-zone crisis. He reviews the analytics of financial fragilities, credit frictions, currency crises, and balance of payments crises, and addresses international capital flows with information frictions. He then presents key developments in the New Keynesian analytical framework by examining the surge of re-modeling efforts aimed at the development of an analytical framework to underpin monetary and fiscal policy in the post-2008 economic era.


Despite the common knowledge that there is something "Pythagorean" about Charles Peirce's phenomenology and classification of signs there is a manifest lack of inquiries into the matter. Perhaps there is too little to go on, as Pythagoras himself did not leave us any writings to consult. Nevertheless, much of ancient Greek philosophy bears an unmistakable Pythagorean stamp, and Iamblichus' bio - graphy of Pythagoras provides us with enough to get such inquiries started. This paper examines the development of triads, beginning with the Pythagorean one (body, soul, and intellect) and proceeds to those of Immanuel Kant (Experience, Understanding, and Reason) and Peirce's compatriot and family acquaintance Pliny Earle Chase (Motivity, Spontaneity, and Rationality). The article concludes with an examination of the various triads in Peirce's early writings, especially around the time of his discovery of Chase's "Intellectual symbolism".


Sustainability is a concept that has become ubiquitous in sports development policy and practice. Despite this ubiquity, there remains a lack of clarity in practical understandings of the concept of sustainability. Moreover, research on sport and sustainability is limited and lacks theoretical underpinning. This article addresses these problems by proposing frameworks that can be used to examine and understand sustainability in sports development. In particular, two frameworks are developed through synthesising sustainability concepts presented in the literature on health programmes and adapting them to sports development through consideration of recent policies and programmes. The first framework addresses definitional issues by identifying four forms of sustainability that may be addressed by sports development programmes, namely individual, community, organisational and institutional sustainability. The second framework allows classification of processes that affect sustainability according to dimensions that concern the level of control held by agencies responsible for sports development sustainability and the level of integration between processes to achieve desired sports development outcomes and processes to achieve sustainability. Presentation of a case study of sustainability in the New Opportunities for PE and Sport Activities programme in Scotland enables discussion of the applicability of the frameworks to sports development as well as identification of implications that are derived from application of the frameworks. On the basis of this analysis, conclusions are drawn concerning the relationships between different forms of sustainability and the effectiveness of sports development programmes and the types of processes that affect different forms of sustainability. The implications for future research on sports development sustainability are discussed.


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] All over the world, big cats are disappearing because humans have not learned to coexist with them. In a research collaboration with government biologists and university educators, K-12 students in the Cle Elum-Roslyn (CER) School District in eastern Washington are investigating where cougars (Puma concolor) go when their habitat gives way to new housing developments. Now in its seventh year, Project Cougars and Teaching (CAT) is taking the education and science partnership a step further by incorporating civics into the environmental education curriculum (see "On the web" at the end of this article). Through this model, students become civically engaged by conducting field investigations of the indigenous cougar's ecology and making public presentations to the community. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This article describes the project's use of two curriculum models--one for field investigations and one for civic participation--in the context of studying human/ cougar interactions. These models can also be used to guide other community studies. In addition, the curriculum is a prime example of how a community wildlife problem is bringing together diverse community interests to address a given need (CEE 2002; Quitadamo and Campanella 2005). Field investigations of natural systems In 2003, Pacific Education Institute (PEI), an organization involved in Project CAT, convened a panel of experts, including teachers and wildlife biologists working on the project, to define three types of field investigations for science inquiry--descriptive, comparative, and correlative. Descriptive field investigations involve describing or quantifying parts of a natural system. In comparative field investigations, data is collected on different populations or organisms, or under different conditions (e.g., times of year, locations) to make a comparison. Correlative field investigations involve measuring or observing two variables and searching for a pattern (Windschitl et al. 2007). Many field investigations, regardless of type, begin with counts to gather baseline data; later, measurements are intentionally taken in different locations (e.g., urban and rural, or where some natural phenomenon has created different plot conditions) because scientists suspect they will find a difference based on location. The field investigation model has supported curriculum reform efforts by creating a common language, or inquiry framework, among students, teachers, and scientists. Using the field investigation model in Project CAT, elementary, middle, and high school students are tracking cougar locations to answer descriptive, comparative, and correlative research questions (Figure 1). All K-12 students involved in the project study cougar prey by reporting elk, deer, and dog locations along rural country roads. While elementary students study natural components of cougars' local environment (e.g., species of fish and wildlife, habitat, water, forests), middle and high school students map cougar locations and study cougar growth and development. The field investigations that students conduct involve essential features of scientific inquiry (Content Standard A), such as asking "a question about objects, organisms, and events in the environment," planning a systematic approach to data collection, and developing "descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence" (NRC 1996, pp. 122, 145). In addition, the investigations help students develop skills, such as mapping and perspective-taking, to study community sites (CEE 2002). A comparative study In the following sections, the field investigation model is described with a focus on a comparative study of male versus female cougar habitat range. Middle and high school students collect and analyze data through time. Working alongside wildlife biologists, students capture cougars, tag them with global positioning system (GPS) collars--which provide more than 2,000 location readings for each animal per year--mark them with ear tags, and collect physical data (i. …


Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) have been extensively used in a wealth of tele‐ com and datacom applications as a powerful building block that features large optical gain, all-optical gating function, fast response, and ease of integration with other func‐ tional semiconductor devices. As fabrication technologies are steadily maturing toward enhanced yield, SOAs are foreseen to play a pivotal role in complex photonics integrated circuits (PICs) of the near future. From a design standpoint, accurate numerical modeling of SOA devices is required toward optimizing PICs response from a system perspective, while enhanced circuit complexity calls for efficient solvers. In this book chapter, we present established experimentally validated SOA numerical modeling techniques and a gain parameterization procedure applicable to a wide range of SOA devices. Moreover, we describe multigrid concepts and implicit schemes that have been only recently pre‐ sented to SOA modeling, enabling adaptive time stepping at the SOA output, with dense sampling at transient phenomena during the gain recovery and scarce sampling during the steady-state response. Overall, a holistic simulation methodology approach along with recent research trends are described, aiming to form the basis of further develop‐ ments in SOA modeling.


Many high school teachers are prohibited from interacting with students in social media sites despite the fact that the majority of teenagers actively use them. The first opportunity most students have to interact with instructors in an online environment is in higher education. University and college librarians can take the lead in providing social media literacy instruction by developing courses and workshops using the Information Literacy Competency Standards developed by ACRL. This article discusses the development and instruction of a freshmen orientation course at Oregon State University titled Social Media: A Life Lived Online.


Microforming technology has attracted more and more attention because of its high utilization in almost every field. However, due to size effect, the conventional scale mechanical processing theories could not be applicable. Further, the characteristic of each single grain involved in the deformed area activates to play a significant role in the manufacturing process. In order to reflect and investigate the relationship among these grains better, this paper represents a pre-process modeling method with Voronoi tessellation to reveal the grained heterogeneity of workpiece numerically in order to obtain high accuracy and prediction result in finite element (FE) modelling of microforming process. Corresponding micro V-bending experiments have been carried out, and the experimental results are in good agreement with simulation results in terms of final angles after micro bending with consideration of springback.


We present an efficient face tracking method that is robust, especially when the face is turned away from the frontal view to the side view (out-of-plane rotation). The proposed method, consisting of three steps, utilizes the horizontal and vertical projection histograms of a face region to model the visual appearance of the face. The vertical and horizontal positions of a face are sequentially determined. First, the horizontal projection histogram of each potential face region in the current frame near the corresponding face region in the previous frame is used as an input to a back-propagation neural network (BPNN) to reliably estimate the vertical position of the face, based on the observation that the distribution of the horizontal projection histogram of a face region is stable, even when the head is rotating about an axis parallel to the vertical axis of an image plane. Second, the vertical projection histogram of an eye region derived from the estimated vertical position of the face as well as output values from the BPNN is used to estimate the horizontal position of the face. Third, the detected face region is refined by head boundary detection. These three steps are repeatedly applied to track faces in each shot of an input video. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.


Although the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) was, at its origin, intended for all tradeable assets, it is rarely applied to bonds. Rather than appraising risk with respect to a market portfolio, bond portfolio managers rely on directly observable measures. The authors build a model for corporate bonds that stands close to this practice in that it converts ad hoc risk appraisals into a singular variance forecast. The model provides as such a pertinent definition of corporate bond market risk. The model sheds new light on an ongoing debate over which factors to focus on in a corporate-bond investment. Equity-style factors are being proposed, such as size, value, and momentum, which are tested in an off-key CAPM framework. The authors' model gives insight into how these factors accord with the conventional risk measures. TOPICS: Fixed-income portfolio management, analysis of individual factors/risk premia, factor-based models Key Findings • Bond factor investing remains underdeveloped compared to equity factor investing, the reason being that the notion of bond factors is unclear—more precisely, it is not clear where market risk ends and factor risk starts. • We build a risk model that marks the divide between systematic market risk and style factor risk for corporate bonds. • We provide evidence that the bond style factors proposed to date are ambiguous. Their outperformance is largely due to active market bets, not style bets.


Embryo freezing technologies have widely been used in human IVF practice and in animal industry. In this chapter, we will review the development of embryo freezing technology and the application of the method, which will concentrate on discussion of the arguments in favor of and against freezing, as well as the latest results of success rates, comparing them with the other basic assisted reproductive technologies methods. Then, we will present our viewpoint for the future application of embryo freezing methods and their place in reproductive medicine. The analysis of facts and suggestions should enable researchers to rethink the position of cryobiology in reproductive medicine. It should be considered that the method of cryopreservation is not only a technology for storing embryos but also a method of embryo treatment that can potentially improve the success rates in infertile couples. There is also a theory that describes the "treatment" effect of freezing an embryo, which may explain the higher success rates of frozen embryo transfer (FET) compared to fresh embryo transfer (ET). The authors of the "Theory about the Embryo-Cryo treatment" believe that freezing and thawing could activate endogenous survival and repair mechanisms in preimplantation embryos.


With emerging IPv6-based standards such as 6LowPAN and ISA100a, full IPv6 sensor networks are the next major step. With millions of deployed embedded IPv6 devices, interoperability is of major importance, both within the sensor networks and between the sensors and the Internet hosts. We present uIPv6, the first IPv6 stack for memory-constrained devices that passes all Phase-1 IPv6 Ready certification tests. This is an important step for end-to-end interoperability between IPv6 sensors and any IPv6 capable device. To allow widespread community adoption, we release uIPv6 under a permissive open source license that allows both commercial and non-commercial use.


We consider the routing and spectrum allocation (RSA) problem of protecting all-optical multicast sessions against a single link failure in elastic optical networks (EONs). A tree is derived to support a multicast session and can be considered as a set of paths originating from a common source. We use a scheme to protect each of the paths by an arc-disjoint backup path in the case of any link failure. For this problem, we provide a node-arc integer linear programming (ILP) formulation and propose a heuristic algorithm for this protection scheme. We evaluate the improvement achieved by the flexible grids adopted in EONs over the fixed-grid wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks. The evaluation is done by considering static modeling based on ILP and heuristics as well as dynamic simulations. We consider two approaches for heuristic algorithms: one is a two-step (TS) approach that computes the routing trees then allocates spectrum. The other uses the spectrum window plane (SWP) and constructs auxiliary graphs for the relevant range of spectrum to jointly solve the RSA problem. We evaluate the performances of the proposed algorithms under static and dynamic traffic models. Based on the studied scenarios, we observe consistent improvement in efficiency of flexible grid EONs over fixed-grid WDM networks. Moreover, we demonstrate that the network size (likely because of the availability of more alternative routes) can significantly affect the benefit in efficiency achieved by the SWP-based approaches over the TS approaches.


Fear of Satan becomes murder in the name of God. Newly orphaned, the God-fearing and heart-broken Lois is sent across the Atlantic to live with her uncle's family in Salem, but on her arrival she finds herself the object of cruel hostility, potent jealousy and mad desire. When the local Pastor's daughters are contorted and convulsed by apparently satanic powers, the whole town is whipped into a hysterical witch hunt. And when Lois' cousins start to resent her presence in their household, life becomes precarious and an old woman's curse returns to haunt her.


In August 2003, Liberia emerged from over 20 years of upheaval badly bruised and war weary, with 14 years of civil war fuelled primarily by ill-gotten wealth from its natural resources. In August 2013, the country celebrated ten years of uninterrupted peace. Although a major milestone in Liberia's history, much of the last decade of peace has not fundamentally changed how the state operates. Big business and political elites continue to jockey for power over the country's natural resources, and the overreliance on concession wealth has eroded relations between the state and its citizens. There have been considerable strides in transforming the legal frameworks underpinning Liberia's natural resources sector, yet the lack of political will to implement broad sweeping reforms remains a major challenge. In the past decade, civil society has emerged as a major player in pushing for a 'positive peace' agenda, one that insists on an overhaul of rules, regulations, attitudes, behaviours, norms, and processes that fuel inequality, impunity, and graft—major causes of Liberia's civil war. One such organisation, the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), has insisted on a complete break from the past. Although the SDI was initially conceived in its embryonic stages in 2002, the organisation was formally birthed as a full-fledged civil society player in Liberia in 2004. With only three staff, few resources, and very little clout, the SDI set out to address the continued marginalisation and exclusion of ordinary citizens from
natural resources decision-making processes. In the last decade alone, the SDI has mobilised and empowered local communities across Liberia and advocated for them to have an active role and a space in decision-making in natural resources governance. According to Nora Bowier, Coordinator, Community Rights and Corporate Governance Programme (SDI), the organisation has also "advocated for improved laws, policies and provisions that protect community rights, promote benefit sharing, improve transparency and accountability, and increase civil society participation." SDI has also increased its staffing, expanded its resource base, and gained recognition (and sometimes notoriety) domestically and internationally as the 'go-to' source of research, advocacy, and policy-making in Liberia's natural resources sector. According
to its founder, Silas Kpanan'Ayoung Siakor, the SDI "is viewed by diverse stakeholders as a credible and strategic thinking organisation, and one that often has an alternative and informed viewpoint on issues related to natural resources." In 2006, Siakor received on behalf of the SDI the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest prize honouring grassroots environmentalists. The SDI story proves that 'people's power' can ultimately prevail over corporate greed and the politics of the day.


We construct a Teichmüller space for the C^{1+}-conjugacy classes of hyperbolic dynamical systems on surfaces. After introducing the notion of an HR structure which associates an affine structure with each of the stable and unstable laminations, we show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between these HR structures and the C^{1+}-conjugacy classes. As part of the proof we construct a canonical representative dynamical system for each HR structure. This has the smoothest holonomies of any representative of the corresponding C^{1+}-conjugacy class. Finally, we introduce solenoid functions and show that they provide a good Teichmüller space.


1. During the past twenty years the world saw the development of the phenomenon of "Truth and Reconciliation Commissions" as an approach to resolve fractures within communities and nations, especially after periods of civil unrest, civil war, and other forms of violence and tension. Two basic questions emerge: What is reconciliation, and how does a society know that reconciliation has been accomplished? 2. Insights of theological ethics can provide a source for examination of the process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC). Response to the questions may provide a view of the process to clarify the impact of the TRC on reconciliation in South Africa. 3. The TRC was a political creation, established through negotiations for an end to conflict that extended over decades. To provide insight into complex problems relating to reconciliation, Section II presents a history of the influences in South Africa relevant to apartheid and those conflicts. 4. Section III covers the formation and operation of the TRC, including participation of Christian leadership under Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others. 5. Section IV presents the "Cradock Four" case study. 6. Ubuntu is a decidedly African understanding of community. Christian ubuntu is a deeper understanding of community where individuals are seen as made in the image of God and the community as the kingdom of God. Section V presents and expands these concepts, unfamiliar to the western world. Concepts of Bernard Lonergan that guided examination of the material are included. 7. The conclusion, Section VI, presents the examination of the TRC and case study in light of the understanding of Christian ubuntu and the methods of Lonergan. The conclusions shift the focus of the original questions to suggest reconciliation as a process rather than a solution concluding a process. Success or decline within reconciliation is subject to continuing examination and evaluation. On earth the kingdom of God strives for unity with God and others. Glimpses of what unity might look like are in the work.


This research was aimed to impart antimicrobial and stain repellent finishes to polyester fabrics using atmospheric pressure plasma-aided graft copolymerization of active monomers. The process consists of multiple steps; first, surface activation of fabric samples via atmospheric pressure plasma, followed by polymerization reaction of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and a quaternary ammonium chitosan derivative (HTCC) compound to produce polyester⁄GMA⁄antimicrobial agent. Next perfluorodecyl acrylate is bound to the polyester⁄GMA⁄antimicrobial agent via polymerization reaction in atmospheric pressure plasma.

Samples were exposed to plasma, which has 99% helium and 1% oxygen, for times up to 2 ½ minutes with incremental exposure times to determine the optimal exposure to plasma. Samples were conditioned in an environmental chamber prior to plasma exposure. Weight changes were recorded to determine the percent add-on in each step. Samples were analyzed post plasma exposure and inclusion of the active agents using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Standard washing tests were conducted to determine the effectiveness of grafting after washing.

Antimicrobial assays and stain repellent tests were conducted on treated samples and compared to control.


An ample literature exists documenting the destructive effects hurricanes have upon offshore barrier islands and coastlines. The Gulf of Mexico region has been especially heavily impacted because of its unique position with respect to the storm track of tropical cyclones and the large area of unprotected shoreline around its perimeter. While abundant descriptions can be found documenting effects of storms on exposed geomorphological features, little information is available illustrating changes involving submarine erosion. From a geological standpoint, these are equally striking. Studies carried out in Apalachicola Bay, Florida and Mobile Bay, Alabama have shown that the passage of hurricanes can not only incise sizeable submarine channels but can also remove vast quantities of sediment. The passage of Hurricane Elena near Apalachicola Bay in 1985 removed some 87 million tons of sediment from the bay; Hurricane Frederic's near miss of the Mobile, Alabama area in 1979 removed an incredible amount of sediment that was estimated at nearly 300 million tons. When placed in a geological framework, the latter hurricane's passage swept a volume of sediment from the bay equivalent to that deposited by the Mississippi River in a one year period.


This is a case study of peasant farming in Maridi District, Western Equatoria Province, Southern Sudan. The object is to explore the impact and inter-relationship of economic, environmental and ecological factors on the changes that have occurred in 'traditional' farming in the study area. Special attention is paid to internal as well as external forces leading to changes, and peasant farmers' own understanding of the change processes, as well as the externally-induced explanations of change. It is hypothesised that agricultural development in Third World countries cannot be fully appraised without an understanding of the farming knowledge and attitudes of farmers whom it is supposed to benefit. Some basic concepts are reviewed and the hypotheses and methods of data collection and problems encountered are presented, A background survey of the nature of the physical and human environments in which farmers base their decisions is provided. The spatial organisation and nature of 'traditional' agricultural changes and their importance to households' sustenance is noted. Farmers' environmental and agricultural knowledge, and some of the hazards and pressures of agricultural change from the farmers' viewpoint, and how they interpret and respond to these constraints are outlined. The socio-economic characteristics of farmers and the current farming activities and the nature of change taking place, including farmers' involvement in a cash economy, are examined. Emphasis is laid on the adaptive rationality/of existing modes of production and the importance of the web of social and economic networks surrounding the individual farmer and influencing his activities. Changes in the pattern of 'traditional' agriculture in an historical and regional perspective are elucidated. A discussion of the existing patterns and processes of agricultural change, and the diffusion of innovations through the formal and informal channels, and farmers' attitudes and response demonstrating their rationality is shown. In a broad analysis of farmers' world-view, the individual's attitude to farming is studied including the extent of his farming knowledge, his degree of interest in this activity, his needs and problems, land-use trends, and desired changes. A case study of coffee as a cash crop innovation and its socio-economic impact on 'traditional' land-use systems now and in the .future is considered. A brief concluding section summarises research findings and some of the practical and theoretical implications for policy consideration. This study mainly concludes that only by identifying farmers' management strategies, circumstances and their analysis of problems on their own behalf can a development programme and research be formulated which has technologies appropriate to them.


High School Modeling Workshops are designed to improve high school physics teachers' understanding of physics and how to teach using the Modeling method. The basic assumption is that the teacher plays a critical role in their students' physics education. This study investigated teacher impacts on students' Force Concept Inventory scores, (FCI), with the hopes of identifying quantitative differences between teachers. This study examined student FCI scores from 18 teachers with at least a year of teaching high school physics. This data was then evaluated using a General Linear Model (GLM), which allowed for a regression equation to be fitted to the data. This regression equation was used to predict student post FCI scores, based on: teacher ID, student pre FCI score, gender, and representation. The results show 12 out of 18 teachers significantly impact their student post FCI scores. The GLM further revealed that of the 12 teachers only five have a positive impact on student post FCI scores. Given these dif...


Osteoporosis remains a largely silent and under-diagnosed disease. As few as one in five women with an osteoporotic fracture may receive treatment. It is defined as a reduction in the strength of bone via low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration leading to an increased risk of fractures. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines osteoporosis as a bone density falling 2.5 standard deviations below the mean for a young healthy adult of the same gender.


Pretrained masked language models (MLMs) require finetuning for most NLP tasks. Instead, we evaluate MLMs out of the box via their pseudo-log-likelihood scores (PLLs), which are computed by masking tokens one by one. We show that PLLs outperform scores from autoregressive language models like GPT-2 in a variety of tasks. By rescoring ASR and NMT hypotheses, RoBERTa reduces an end-to-end LibriSpeech model's WER by 30% relative and adds up to +1.7 BLEU on state-of-the-art baselines for low-resource translation pairs, with further gains from domain adaptation. We attribute this success to PLL's unsupervised expression of linguistic acceptability without a left-to-right bias, greatly improving on scores from GPT-2 (+10 points on island effects, NPI licensing in BLiMP). One can finetune MLMs to give scores without masking, enabling computation in a single inference pass. In all, PLLs and their associated pseudo-perplexities (PPPLs) enable plug-and-play use of the growing number of pretrained MLMs; e.g., we use a single cross-lingual model to rescore translations in multiple languages. We release our library for language model scoring at https://github.com/awslabs/mlm-scoring.


Carbon replicas were developed with two montmorillonites as the template and sucrose as the carbon source. The fabrication procedures included sucrose doping, polymerization with H2SO4, carbonization at 500–900°C, and liberation of carbon replicas from the template skeleton. N2 adsorption isotherms indicated the all of the resulting carbon replicas contained both micropores and mesopores. A higher carbonization temperature typically led to greater initial N2 adsorption, suggesting the presence of a greater number of micropores. Since no measurable micropores were found in the parent montmorillonites, those observed in the carbon replicas may have developed via activation of inherent water due to dehydration of montmorillonite clay or sucrose during the high temperature carbonization. XRD examination confirmed the formation of both graphite-like structure and amorphous carbon. The C content, C/H molar ratio, and the extent of πelectron resonance of the carbon replicas increased as the carbonization temperature rose, indicating that a higher temperature caused more thorough carbonization in the montmorillonite templates. Toluene adsorption experiments at 1000–8000 ppmv and 30–90°C demonstrated the effectiveness of carbon replicas with regard to capturing toluene. Model simulations further suggest that pore filling of toluene inside the mesopores of template carbon may occur, because the adsorption data showed better agreement with the DR model.


We studied music majors' perception of intonation in accompanied solo performances of trumpet, violin, and voice. We were interested in whether listeners would judge pitch deviations of equal magnitude in the three solo performances as equivalent in intonation. Participants were 150 graduate and undergraduate music majors drawn from two large music schools and included 50 students representing each of the following areas of applied music study: voice, wind instruments, and string instruments. Listeners heard solo trumpet, violin, and soprano performances of Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod) accompanied by piano. Pitch performances of the soloists were altered in four sections of the excerpt and deviated in either the sharp or flat direction within a section by 0, 10, 20, and 30 cents relative to the accompaniment. Listeners judged pitch deviations in the flat direction as more out of tune for the trumpet than equivalent alterations of violin and voice, especially for magnitudes of 20 and 30 cents. In sharp direction changes, violin and trumpet were heard similarly and as more out of tune than the vocal soloist. Additionally, differences in pitch judgments were found between listener groups representing different areas of applied study.


Thermo-mechanical treatment is a technique for wood modification in which samples are densified by means of heat and mechanical compression, applied perpendicularly to fibers, which under different combinations of time, temperature, and pressure increases wood density and thus improve some of its properties. This study aimed to treat thermo-mechanically parica plywood and observe the effects on its physical and mechanical properties. Specimens were submitted to two treatments, 120 and 150 oC, remaining under pressure for seven minutes and, subsequently, under zero pressure for 15 minutes. Results showed a significant increase in specific mass from 0.48 g cm-3 to an average of 0.56 g cm-3, and a compression ratio of about 31.7% on average. Physical properties also varied significantly and results showed that treated samples swelled and absorbed more water than those untreated, leading to a greater thickness non-return rate. This indicates the proposed thermal treatments did not release the internal compressive stress generated during panel pressing, not improving its dimensional stability as a result. On the other hand, mechanical properties were positively affected, leading to an increase of 27.5% and 51.8% in modulus of rupture after treatments at 120 and 150 oC, respectively. Modulus of elasticity and glue-line shear strength did not vary statistically and Janka hardness was 29.7% higher after treatment at 150 oC.


The recent decision by Baroness Ashton to end the mandate of a number of European Union Special Representatives (EUSRs) and her proposal to integrate these posts within the European External Action Service have raised concerns among member states. In the view of Erwan Fouere, these developments underline the urgency of a more comprehensive and strategic discussion between Baroness Ashton and the member states on the future role of EUSRs in the EU's expanding foreign policy tool box.


Stochastic program optimizations are computationally very expensive, especially when the number of scenarios are large. Complexity of the focal application, and the slow convergence rate add to its computational complexity. We propose a split-and-merge (SAM) method for accelerating the convergence of stochastic linear programs. SAM splits the original problem into subproblems, and utilizes the dual constraints from the subproblems to accelerate the convergence of the original problem. Our initial results are very encouraging, giving up to 58% reduction in the optimization time. In this paper we discuss the initial results, the ongoing and the future work.


It
is increasingly recognized that asthma represents
a syndrome, and there is clinical and pathobiological heterogeneity. Many genes
are reported to be associated with asthma, and may be involved in the disease
heterogeneity. Diverse cells, such as T helper 1 (Th1)-cells, Th2-cells,
Th17-cells, airway epithelial cells, and innate and adaptive immunity
associated cells, contribute to the pathobiology of asthma independently of
each other or they can also coexist and interact. Although, generally, Th2
immunity is important in most asthma endotypes, non- Th2-driven inflammation
tends to be difficult to manage. Recently, increased attention has been focused
on severe asthma and glucocorticoid (GC)-resistant (GC-R) asthma, in which
diverse inflammatory processes may be involved. Treatment approaches should
take into account pathological differences.


We introduce novel discriminative learning algorithms for dynamical systems. Models such as conditional random fields or maximum entropy Markov models outperform the generative hidden Markov models in sequence tagging problems in discrete domains. However, continuous state domains introduce a set of constraints that can prevent direct application of these traditional models. Instead, we suggest to learn generative dynamic models with discriminative cost functionals. For linear dynamical systems, the proposed methods provide significantly lower prediction error than the standard maximum likelihood estimator, often comparable to nonlinear models. As a result, the models with lower representational capacity but computationally more tractable than nonlinear models can be used for accurate and efficient state estimation. We evaluate the generalization performance of our methods on the 3D human pose tracking problem from monocular videos. The experiments indicate that the discriminative learning can lead to improved accuracy of pose estimation with no increase in computational cost of tracking.


This book presents a theoretical treatment, as well as a summary of practical methods of computation, of the forces and moments that act on marine craft. Its aim is to provide the tools necessary for the prediction or simulation of craft motions in calm water and in waves. In addition to developing the required equations, the author gives relations that permit at least approximate evaluation of the coefficients so that useful results can be obtained. The approach begins with the equations of motion for rigid bodies, relative to fixed- and moving-coordinate systems: then, the hydrodynamic forces are examined, starting with hydrostatics and progressing to the forces on a moving vehicle in calm water and (after a review of water-wave theory) in waves. Several detailed examples are presented, including calculations of hydrostatics, horizontal- and vertical-plane directional stability, and wave-induced motions. Also included are unique discussions on various effects, such as fin-hull interactions, numerical stability of integrators, heavy torpedoes, and the dynamics of high-speed craft. The book is intended to be an introductory level graduate text and a reference for the practicing professional.


The Morris Kitsch Archive is an installation created by British artist David Mabb that contains over 720 images, largely drawn from shopping pages on the Internet, of commercially produced domestic objects, including tote bags, clothes, cushions, mugs, sofas, stationery, tea cozies and tools decorated with the textile and wallpaper designs of the extremely well-known and influential nineteenth-century English interior designer, writer, and social activist William Morris. Morris was the founder of the Socialist League and a standard-bearer of Socialism; he maintained a fierce hatred of capitalism and likely would be shocked to see the many money-making projects that his designs have inspired since his death. Today, Morris' designs have entered the mainstream and become very much a part of the international consumer market. According to Mabb, "The archive illustrates how Morris' designs have been appropriated for a mass consumer society. The designs have become widely available at the expense of the qualities and values inherent to Morris' original utopian project, which offered in its vision of the fecundity of nature the hope of alternative ways of living in the world." The images are individually laminated in A4 sheets and displayed in 12 blocks of 60 images each. This exhibition is offered in connection with an important international symposium, Useful and Beautiful: The Transatlantic Arts of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites, taking place October 7-9, 2010, at the University of Delaware (Newark, DE) the Delaware Art Museum, and the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate (Wilmington, DE), and organized with the assistance of the William Morris Society.


PURPOSE
To implement and validate spiral slip-ring CT for use in cerebrovascular studies.

METHODS
Continuous data were acquired from an experimental, first-pass, iodine contrast, bolus study by unidirectional X-ray tube rotation, and images were reconstructed at 100-millisecond intervals. Functional maps of cerebral blood volume (CBV) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) were constructed with voxel-by-voxel gamma variate fitting. Reproducibility studies, different injection volumes and sites, and CO2 challenge were applied to verify the technique.

RESULTS
Average absolute cortical gray and white matter and basal ganglia results were reproducible within +/- 0.8 ml/100 g for CBV and +/- 20 ml/100 g per minute for CBF, CBV response to changing arterial CO2 tension was significant only in cortical gray matter and basal ganglia; CBF response was significant in gray and white matter, as well as in the basal ganglia.

CONCLUSION
Functional CT and constructed functional maps provide an optimal, high-resolution tool with which to visualize cerebrovascular parameters and their changes.


Abstract. Sea salt aerosols (SSA) produced on sea ice surfaces by blowing snow events
or the lifting of frost flower crystals have been suggested as important
sources of SSA during winter over polar regions. The magnitude and relative
contribution of blowing snow and frost flower SSA sources, however, remain
uncertain. In this study, we use 2007–2009 aerosol extinction coefficients
from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument
onboard the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation
(CALIPSO) satellite and the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model to
constrain sources of SSA over Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. CALIOP retrievals
show elevated levels of aerosol extinction coefficients (10–20 Mm−1)
in the lower troposphere (0–2 km) over polar regions during cold months.
The standard GEOS-Chem model underestimates the CALIOP extinction
coefficients by 50 %–70 %. Adding frost flower emissions of SSA
fails to explain the CALIOP observations. With blowing snow SSA emissions,
the model captures the overall spatial and seasonal variation of CALIOP
aerosol extinction coefficients over the polar regions but underestimates
aerosol extinction over Arctic sea ice in fall to early winter and
overestimates winter-to-spring extinction over Antarctic sea ice. We infer
the monthly surface snow salinity on first-year sea ice required to minimize
the discrepancy between CALIOP extinction coefficients and the GEOS-Chem
simulation. The empirically derived snow salinity shows a decreasing trend
between fall and spring. The optimized blowing snow model with inferred snow
salinities generally agrees with CALIOP extinction
coefficients to within 10 % over
sea ice but underestimates them over the regions where frost flowers are
expected to have a large influence. Frost flowers could thus contribute
indirectly to SSA production by increasing the local surface snow salinity
and, therefore, the SSA production from blowing snow. We carry out a case
study of an Arctic blowing snow SSA feature predicted by GEOS-Chem and
sampled by CALIOP. Using back trajectories, we link this feature to a blowing
snow event that occurred 2 days earlier over first-year sea ice and was also
detected by CALIOP.


Background: The aim of present study was to determine the influence of stress management on affective control and distress tolerance in mothers of children with sensory-motor disabilities. Methods: This current study was a study with pretest-posttest and treatment group. The thirty mothers of children with sensory-motor disabilities were selected from sensory-motor disabilities center in Qum by 2015. The participants were randomly divided into control (n=15) and experimental (n=15) groups. Stress management training was conducted on experimental group during 8 sessions (90 minutes, twice per week). The research instrument was Affective Control Scale (ACS, 1997) and Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS, 2005). Participants were taken pre-test measures one week prior to the start of this training. Then the questionnaire was administered at post-test. Statistical analysis was performed using analysis of variance. Results: The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the pretest and post-test scores in distress tolerance (±SD: 30.2±8.1, 33±9.3; F= 7.58) anxiety (±SD:40.5± 9.2, 44±8; F=1.79), anger (SD:±25.4±4.1, 39.4±5.6; F=1.03), and depressed mood (SD± 27.7± 5.3, 38.6± 7.4; F=1.70) in the experimental group (p<0.05). Additionally, the significant difference was not observed between score of pretest and posttest in positive emotion (SD± 41.7±9.9, 39±7.48; F=1.08) in the experimental group (p<0.05). Conclusions: The finding emphasized that the stress management reduced the level of distress tolerance, stress, anxiety, and anger in mothers with sensorymotor disability children. Hence, it can be considered enhancing the affective control in mothers of sensory-motor disability children in therapeutic intervention.


It is important to protect critical buildings (shopping centres, government buildings and embassies), infrastructure and utilities, train and underground stations against being damaged, destroyed or disrupted by deliberate acts of terrorism, criminal activity and malicious behaviour. Normal regulations and building guidelines do not generally take into account these threats. The introduction of regulations or guidelines should support the resilience of the buildings and infrastructure against explosive incidents. In order to protect the infrastructure, methods are required to quantify the resistance of structural elements against explosive loading and to assess the hazards resulting from failure of an element. The applicable state-of-the-art techniques may be either experimental or numerical methods, or a combination of both. Therefore, the thematic group (TG) on the resistance of structures to explosion effects was formed in order to bring the required expertise together, make it commonly available and to find and define harmonised methods and solutions which can be provided to the decision-makers responsible for critical infrastructure protection. This first report of the TG gives a comprehensive summary of the existing methods which can be used to analyse and test the resistance of glazing and windows under blast-loading conditions. Within this context, the experimental methods of testing using high explosives and testing using blast simulators called shock tubes is presented and explained. In addition, the potential of numerical simulations is highlighted in terms of their applicability to the different glass materials. A short, comprehensive theoretical background is given for each method. Based on this, each method is described with its requirements, realisation and the related measurement techniques. Furthermore, an interpretation of the measurements is highlighted. For the numerical simulations, the basic discretisation and calculations schemes are presented in combination with the available constitutive material descriptions for the different significant materials. Finally the chances for verification and validation of the numerical results are presented. Hence the report builds the basis for an actual evaluation of the different test methods and their applicability to certain problems, and provides helpful information for critical infrastructure stakeholders, owners and operators considering the structural resistance of the infrastructure to the effects of explosion in a comprehensive document.


Stimulation of mammalian cells often results in an increase in the intracellular Na(+) concentration, brought about by Na(+) influx into the cell via Na(+)-permeable ion channels. In some cell types, particularly renal epithelia and mast cells, non-hydrolysable analogues of GTP, such as GTP[S] (guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate), activate a non-voltage-activated Na(+)-selective current. We have carried out whole-cell patch-clamp experiments to examine how GTP[S] activates the Na(+) current in a rat mast cell line. The ability of GTP[S] to activate Na(+) influx was prevented by including GTP in the pipette solution, indicating the involvement of small G-proteins. Brefeldin A and Arf-1-(2-17), inhibitors of Arf-1 (ADP-ribosylation factor-1) proteins, suppressed the activation of Na(+) entry by GTP[S]. However, non-active succinylated Arf-1-(2-17) or an N-terminal myristoylated peptide directed towards Arf-5 were ineffective. Arf proteins modulate the cytoskeleton, and disruption of the cytoskeleton with cytochalasin D or its stabilization with phalloidin impaired the development of the Na(+) current. Disaggregation of microtubules was without effect. Dialysis with cAMP or inhibition of cAMP phosphodiesterase with caffeine both decreased the extent of Na(+) entry, and this was not prevented by pre-treatment with broad-spectrum protein kinase inhibitors. Collectively, our results suggest that the mechanism of activation of a mammalian non-voltage-activated Na(+)-selective current requires an Arf small G-protein, most probably Arf-1.


In what is one of the finest autobiographies to come out of the First World War, the distinguished poet Edmund Blunden records his experiences as an infantry subaltern in France and Flanders. Blunden took part in the disastrous battles of the Somme, Ypres and Passchendaele, describing the latter as 'murder, not only to the troops, but to their singing faiths and hopes'. In his compassionate yet unsentimental prose, he tells of the heroism and despair found among the officers. Blunden's poems show how he found hope in the natural landscape; the only thing that survives the terrible betrayal enacted in the Flanders fields.


Objective To understand how the emerging public health issue of chemsex relates to broader patterns of sexualised drug use (SDU) among men who have sex with men (MSM), which has been understudied. Methods Potential participants were invited to take part in an anonymous, cross-sectional online survey through Facebook advertising and community organisations' social media posts (April–June 2018). Multivariable logistic regression was used to compare MSM who engaged in recent SDU (past 12 months) with those who did not, and those who engaged in chemsex (γ-hydroxybutyrate/γ-butyrolactone, crystal methamphetamine, mephedrone, ketamine) with those who engaged in other SDU (eg, poppers, cocaine, cannabis). Results Of the 1648 MSM included, 41% reported recent SDU; 15% of these (6% of total, n=99) reported chemsex. Factors associated with SDU were recent STI diagnosis (aOR=2.44, 95% CI 1.58 to 3.76), sexual health clinic attendance (aOR=2.46, 95% CI 1.90 to 3.20), image and performance-enhancing drug use (aOR=3.82, 95% CI 1.87 to 7.82), greater number of condomless anal male partners, lower satisfaction with life and greater sexual satisfaction. Predictors of chemsex compared with other SDU were not being UK-born (aOR=2.02, 95% CI 1.05 to 3.86), living in a densely populated area (aOR=2.69, 95% CI 1.26 to 5.74), low sexual self-efficacy (aOR=4.52, 95% CI 2.18 to 9.40) and greater number of condomless anal male partners. Living with HIV, taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and experiencing or being unsure of experiencing sexual contact without consent were significantly associated with SDU and chemsex in bivariate analyses but not in the multivariable. Conclusion Health and behavioural differences were observed between MSM engaging in chemsex, those engaging in SDU and those engaging in neither. While some MSM engaging in chemsex and SDU appeared content with these behaviours, the association with life satisfaction and sexual self-efficacy indicates psychosocial support is needed for some. The association with sexual risk and sexual consent also indicates the importance of promoting harm reduction among this population (eg, condoms, PrEP, drug knowledge).


In this study the "disintegration hypothesis" is tested. It is examined whether the Vanguard Real Estate Investment Trust and iShares Dow Jones US Real Estate Index Fund exchange traded funds disintegrate from their underlying indexes during the recent financial crisis. Failure to support the "disintegration hypothesis" of the exchange traded fund and underlying index is found. It is also found that the Vanguard Real Estate Investment Trust exchange traded fund is consistently cointegrated with its underlying index the MSCI US REITs Index, before, during and after the financial crisis. It is also found that the iShares Dow Jones US Real Estate Index Fund before the financial crisis is not cointegrated with its underlying index, the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index; whereas during and after the crisis the exchange traded fund and index are cointegrated. Additionally, it is documented that the tracking error of these two exchange traded funds increases and becomes more volatile during the financial crisis relative to the before and after crisis period.


Purpose of review To highlight the human studies published over the past year examining the influence of vitamin D on risk of colorectal cancer. Recent findings Studies over the past year have added more support to the idea that higher levels of vitamin D may decrease risk of colorectal cancer. Further, typical dietary intakes such as 200–400 IU/day may be too low to exert appreciable benefits, and protection may occur with higher levels of vitamin D associated with exposure to sunshine. Recent studies also suggest a potential benefit of vitamin D on other digestive-tract cancers, and that vitamin D status at the time of diagnosis and treatment may influence survival of cancer. However, the evidence for these latter findings is based on limited data and needs to be confirmed. Higher vitamin D levels may also be associated with a higher rate of apoptosis in colorectal mucosa. Summary Recent studies add more support to a potential role of vitamin D on risk of colorectal cancer, but suggest that intakes higher than customary are required if solar ultraviolet-B exposure is low. More studies are required to determine the optimal levels and intakes of this vitamin to reduce cancer risk. Potential benefits of vitamin D on other digestive-tract cancers and on survival in patients with colorectal cancer have been suggested by recent studies, but require confirmation.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Antibiotic locks in catheter-dependent chronic hemodialysis patients reduce the rate of catheter-related blood stream infections (CRIs), but there are no data regarding the long-term consequences of this practice.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
Over a 4-year period, from October 1, 2002, to September 30, 2006, we initiated a gentamicin and heparin lock (GHL) protocol in 1410 chronic hemodialysis patients receiving dialysis through a tunneled catheter in eight outpatient units.

RESULTS
Within the first year of the GHL protocol, our CRI rate decreased from 17 to 0.83 events per 1000 catheter-days. Beginning 6 months after initiation of the GHL protocol, febrile episodes occurred in 13 patients with coagulase-negative Staphylococcus bacteremia resistant to gentamicin. Over the 4 years of GHL use, an additional 10 patients developed 11 episodes of gentamicin-resistant CRI (including 7 with Enterococcus faecalis), in which there were 4 deaths, 2 cases of septic shock requiring intensive care unit admission, and 4 cases of endocarditis. Because of these events, the GHL protocol was discontinued at the end of 2006.

CONCLUSIONS
Although the use of GHL effectively lowered the CRI rate in our dialysis population, gentamicin-resistant CRIs emerged within 6 months. Gentamicin-resistant infections are a serious complication of the long-term use of GHLs. Alternative nonantibiotic catheter locks may be preferable to decrease the incidence of CRIs without inducing resistant pathogens.


Pore‐scale flow and transport processes are generally difficult to simulate using conventional models. Two state‐of‐the‐art approaches are adopted in this study of solute transport in porous media. The first approach is a lattice Boltzmann model with the Bhatnagar, Gross, and Krook simplification (BGK) to determine both the advection and diffusion components of the transport process, while the second approach uses the BGK model to calculate the velocity field in conjunction with a random walk (RW) model to characterize diffusion (BGK/RW). Both approaches yield similar results. The BGK/RW model is an attractive alternative to the BGK model when it is necessary to simulate small values of the diffusion coefficient so as to avoid instabilities in the numerical solution. Nevertheless, the BGK/RW model is less accurate than the BGK model alone when compared with the analytic solution of the well‐known Taylor–Aris dispersion model.


A first impression of the geochemistry and quality of European ground water was obtained by using bottled mineral water as a sampling medium. In total, 1785 bottled waters were purchased from supermarkets of forty European countries, representing 1247 wells/drill holes/springs at 884 locations. All bottled waters were analysed for 72 parameters at the laboratories of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) in Germany. The European geochemical maps give a first impression of the natural variation in ground water at the continental scale. The majority of European bottled waters are classified as of Ca-HCO3 type, because of the widespread carbonate lithologies, but there is considerable variation from Na-HCO3 type related to granitic rocks to Na-Cl type associated with deep saline brines. Since, the dominating lithology in Hellas comprises limestone, dolomitic limestone, marble, and mafic-ultramafic rocks (ophiolites), the dominant major ions in Hellenic bottled waters are Ca2 +, Mg2 +, CO3 2- and HCO3-, and are, thus, classified in the Ca2 +-Mg2 +-HCO3- hydrochemical facies. The source aquifers of Hellenic bottled water are apparently continuously replenished by fresh water. Chromium, V and U are discussed, because of their importance in Hellenic ground water. In Europe, the former is clearly related to ophiolites, whereas V indicates the presence of recent volcanism and basaltic rocks, and U is associated with granitic intrusions and Bunter (central England) and Keuper (central Europe) sandstone of early and late Triassic, respectively. It can, therefore, be concluded that geology is one of the key factors influencing the observed element concentrations for a significant number of elements


Space robots were the topic of this paper. While on earth, nobody would follow such advice; in space, there are few other options than to replace a malfunctioning spacecraft. There are no repair shops and gas stations in the Earth orbit. Because of the lack of so-called on-orbit servicing (OOS) opportunities, some malfunctioning spacecraft continue operational work with reduced or hardly any performance. The only general modification, which can currently be undertaken to an arbitrary spacecraft in orbit, is a software update. In this paper, exploration and manipulation capabilities of space robots were discussed. Teleprescence through a data relay satellite and teleoperation capabilities were mentioned and discussed.


Tourism is increasingly viewed as a key strategy for promoting local economic development. The integrated development planning (IDP) process of the Beaufort West municipality on the north-eastern border of the Western Cape identified tourism as a key to economic progress. Starting from this tourism-orientated approach to local economic development, a three-month survey of visitors examined the tourist potential of the town, a possible tourism product, and an approach to marketing the town as a destination. The findings suggested that Beaufort West should develop a 'destination brand', portraying the town as a 'tourism gateway' through which important sectors such as eco-tourism could be marketed. The profile of the survey participants revealed that tourist industries are not fully aware of their customer profile and should adjust their offerings to attract family visitors. The impact of the N1 route through town was also confirmed in the survey, which demonstrated that significant expenditure emanated from the high levels of traffic through the town.


A modification of "AATCC Test Method 100-1999" was used for assaying for bacteriostatic/antibacterial properties of denim containing various flax concentrations. Since no direct evidence that increasing the flax content of fabric imparted the fabric with increased bacteriostatic properties was found against the control bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae, other possible explanations for the long held presumption that flax fabric exhibited antibacterial properties was sought. Because the appearance of having antibacterial or bacteriostatic properties might be imitated if the flax content would decrease the time fabric would be moist enough for bacterial growth, the effect of drying was evaluated. When flax fabric was saturated and the moisture lost during incubation was measured, there was no improved drying associated with increased flax content. When untreated nonwoven flax was evaluated as possibly containing more 'antibacterial' or bacteriostatic components than scoured nonwoven flax material, the population densities increased. This increase suggests that the unscoured nonwoven flax contain compo-nents that support bacterial growth to the extent that bacteriostatic or antibacterial components, if any, are overwhelmed by the components that support bacterial growth. In tests involving the control bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae, increasing the flax content of flax fabric did not demonstrate increased antibacterial properties.


This paper presents experimental measurements of the performance of a new film cooling hole geometry - the Converging Slot-Hole or Console. This novel, patented geometry has been designed to improve the heat transfer and aerodynamic loss performance of turbine vane and rotor blade cooling systems. The physical principles embodied in the new hole design are described, and a typical example of the console geometry is presented.The cooling performance of a single row of consoles was compared experimentally with that of typical 35° cylindrical and fan-shaped holes and a slot, on a large-scale, flat-plate model at engine representative Reynolds numbers in a low speed tunnel with ambient temperature main flow. The hole throat area per unit width is matched for all four hole geometries. By independently varying the temperature of the heated coolant and the heat flux from an electrically heated, thermally insulated, constant heat flux surface, both the heat transfer coefficient and the adiabatic cooling effectiveness were deduced from digital photographs of the colour play of narrow-band thermochromic liquid crystals on the model surface.A comparative measurement of the aerodynamic losses associated with each of the four film-cooling geometries was made by traversing the boundary layer at the downstream end of the flat plate.The promising heat transfer and aerodynamic performance of the console geometry have justified further experiments on an engine representative nozzle guide vane in a transonic annular cascade presented in Part 2 of this paper [1].Copyright © 2001 by ASME


Even a cursory reading of the eleventh chapter of Judges suggests obvious parallels between the Jephthah story and Blake's Visions of the Daughters of Albion; however, Blake's six illustrations of Judges (including two of Jephthah and his daughter) irrefutably document his appropriation of the story. No critic has connected the Jephthah story of virgin sacrifice to Oothoon's fate, nor have Blake's illustrations of the Judges narrative received much attention. My argument is that Blake's contrary reading of the book of Judges should inform our critical reading of Visions. This intertextual analysis emphasizes the poem's representation of the female body as a site of sacrifice and how both Blake's illustrations and the poem position readers for this spectacle of virginity and violence. Reading Blake's illustrations of the Jephthah narrative—visual revelations of issues of sexual power—amplifies the poem's cultural power, its iconic representation of a patriarchal obsession with virginity, demonstrable in late eighteenth-century British culture but with ties to biblical, Hebraic representations of virginity and violence. Blake's culturally-targeted revision of Jephthah's daughter defies eighteenth-century British cultural strictures about female purity and marital customs by transforming the daughter virgin's lament at not being able to marry into Oothoon's redefinition of sexual purity. Further, my reading refutes the widespread critical opinion that in the ending of the poem, the heroine Oothoon offers free love that is, in Mellor's words, a "male fantasy," serving the interests of the "male libertine, "and underscores the poem's critique of mandated female virginity and culturally-endorsed violence. Finally, Finally, the illustrations and the poem document Blake's engagement with this biblical book where Israel's destiny unfolds through accounts of judges who again and again misjudge, who enact sexual violence and fail to see its connection with their own violent ends. Blake's Visions begins and ends with a chorus of daughters—in between it chronicles the horrors of exploitation, rape, slavery, cultural imperialism and links those to individual sexual repression, like Theotormon's troubled image of Oothoon, like Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter, truly a "sick man's dream."