Simultaneous inversion of P wave arrivals of 262 local earthquakes, recorded in the region of the Dead Sea, was carried out to model the velocity stratification in the underlying crust and uppermost mantle. The resulting tomographic model delineates several large magmatic domes, rising from the lower crust, at depth of approximately 20 km, and ascending more than 12 km into the overlying intermediate crust. Commonly, the domal ascent took place along the boundary faults of the Dead Sea rift. The domes are elliptical in shape, measuring nearly 5 × 15 km in diameter, and are spaced about 20 km apart. Earthquake foci are abundant around the diapirs but rare within them. The occurrence of these magmatic diapirs under the Dead Sea implies anomalously high temperatures with metastable stratification in the lower crust and suggests magmatic upwelling.


The wide spread adoption of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the passage to Semantic Web, the increasing amount of information daily produced in various languages and the growing need to gain access to multilingual information have generated interest in the development of techniques for Multilingual Information Retrieval (MLIR). MLIR is defined as the task of searching either a specific database or a set of databases, or the web for relevant information by using criteria in a chosen language (preferable in mother tongue) and retrieve all documents which match all the search criteria, regardless of the language of the documents or the indexed language and present them in a unified list. This study aimed to investigate users' experiences when searching for images in multilingual environments. In particular, it aimed to explore users' specific behaviours and search strategies while searching for images in different languages and the factors that affected and/or informed these behaviours. In this context, FlickLing a basic cross-language search front-end to the well-known web application Flickr was adopted as a test object. The task assigned to 24 users was to search for the first three known, non-annotated images in FlickLing. The users did not know in advance in which of the six languages (English, German, Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian) supported by FlickLing the three images were described in forcing them to use both monolingual and multilingual modes to search for these. In this context, an Inductive approach was employed and Grounded Theory (GT) served as the methodology for carrying out the data collection and analysis phase. In terms of data collection, Mixed Methods Research was adopted aiming to offset, complete and triangulate the data collected by four different methods such as questionnaire, observation, retrospective thinking aloud and interview. In terms of analysis, coding in process as described in Straussian GT was employed. This presentation will focus on the procedural analysis undertaken. In particular, details regarding the way in which all the data collected were analyzed during the three phases (open, axial and selective coding) are presented.


The co-culture of juvenile sea cucumber Holothuria scabra (Jaeger), or 'sandfish', with juvenile blue shrimp Litopenaeus stylirostris (Stimpson) was tested by growing groups in co-culture and monoculture for 3 weeks in tanks with enriched sand substratum. Feed was supplied on trays, accessible only to shrimp. Survival of shrimp and sandfish was high in all treatments (73–100%). Growth of shrimp did not differ between monoculture and co-culture, but sandfish grew significantly slower in co-culture (P=0.03), although their sand burying and surface foraging were apparently unaffected by shrimp (P=0.76). However, shrimp increased the levels of total ammonia-N in tanks, which related inversely with sandfish growth (P=0.04). Conversely, sandfish did not appear to lower the water quality for shrimp culture. While sandfish bioturbate sediments and eat organic deposits, the juveniles did not significantly reduce the organic content of sand in tanks. Co-culturing juveniles of the two species in earthen ponds appears feasible, with no detriment to shrimp production, presenting a cost-effective method for growing sandfish to larger sizes for restocking. These findings underpin further studies to test the viability of commercial co-culture of sandfish with blue shrimp at later stages in the production cycle of shrimp.


Irrigation is a key part of successful root canal treatment as it fulfils several important mechanical, chemical and (micro) biological functions including the healing of periapical tissues.


An increasing amount of research papers is devoted in modeling Web functions. This effort is coming from many diverse disciplines like Computer Science, Economics, Mathematics, Social studies and others. At this stage, a set of definitions concerning the basic Web functions is needed in order to elaborate a more fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue about the Web. The objective of the present paper is to contribute towards a common understanding of the economic behavior in the Web. Existing analysis of network goods is insufficient for the Web because does not account for the drastic effects of the Editors' function on the Web network and does not incorporates in the demand and supply of a network good the distinctive characteristics of digital goods. Respectively, digital goods underestimate the network structure of the Web. Web goods (WGs) are introduced as payoff-relevant bit strings with an assigned URI that affect the utility of Users. Their market value stems from the information they are composed from and a specific part of it, the hyperlinks, which facilitates navigation over a network of WGs. Contrastingly, to information's and knowledge's controversial definitions, WGs qualify as commodities. Users are partitioned to Navigators and Editors of WGs. Navigators are consuming information by navigating the Web and Editors are producing WGs by creating, updating or deleting online content and links. Navigation creates traffic streams for Editors, which is transformed to income mainly through advertising. Finally, the economic aspect of User's functions is incorporated into a more general framework of Web functions.


In recent years, techniques have been developed to explore spatial non-stationarity and to model the entire distribution of a regressand. The former is mainly addressed by geographically weighted regression (GWR), and the latter by quantile regression (QR). However, little attention has been paid to combining these analytical techniques. The goal of this article is to fill this gap by introducing geographically weighted quantile regression (GWQR). This study briefly reviews GWR and QR, respectively, and then outlines their synergy and a new approach, GWQR. The estimations of GWQR parameters and their standard errors, the cross-validation bandwidth selection criterion, and the non-stationarity test are discussed. We apply GWQR to U.S. county data as an example, with mortality as the dependent variable and five social determinants as explanatory covariates. Maps summarize analytic results at the 5, 25, 50, 75, and 95 percentiles. We found that the associations between mortality and determinants vary not only spatially, but also simultaneously across the distribution of mortality. These new findings provide insights into the mortality literature, and are relevant to public policy and health promotion. Our GWQR approach bridges two important statistical approaches, and facilitates spatial quantile-based statistical analyses.


We analyze the relation between CEO compensation and networks of executive and non-executive directors for all listed UK companies over the period 1996-2007. We examine whether networks are built for reasons of information gathering or for the accumulation of managerial influence. Both indirect networks (enabling directors to collect information) and direct networks (leading to more managerial influence) enable the CEO to obtain higher compensation. Direct networks can harm the efficiency of the remuneration contracting in the sense that the performance sensitivity of compensation is then lower. We find that in companies with strong networks and hence busy boards the directors' monitoring effectiveness is reduced which leads to higher and less performance-sensitive CEO compensation. Our results suggest that it is important to have the 'right' type of network: some networks enable a firm to access valuable information whereas others can lead to strong managerial influence that may come at the detriment of the firm and its shareholders. We confirm that there are marked conflicts of interest when a CEO increases his influence by being a member of board committees (such as the remuneration committee) as we observe that his or her compensation is then significantly higher. We also find that hiring remuneration consultants with sizeable client networks also leads to higher CEO compensation especially for larger firms.


Abstract The influence of VAT applied to financial services on the size of the financial sector is analyzed empirically. The authors use data from 36 European Union and OECD countries for the period from 1961 to 2012. Dynamic panel data techniques are used, concretely the GMM System. An unbalanced panel is handled. The results allow the authors to support the theoretical analysis that financial VAT has no significant effect on financial sector development. Results are robust to the specifications of the dependent and target variables and to the econometric method applied.


This book presents the first comprehensive typology of purpose clause constructions in the world's languages. Based on a stratified variety sample of 80 languages, it uncovers the unity and diversity of the morphosyntactic means by which purposive relations are coded, and discusses the status of purpose clauses in the syntactic and conceptual space of complex sentences. Explanations for significantly recurrent coding patterns are couched in a usage-based approach to language structure, which pays due attention to the cognitive and communicative pressures on usage events involving purpose clauses, to frequency distributions of grammatical choices in corpora, and to the ways in which usage preferences conventionalize in pathways of diachronic change. The book integrates diverse previous strands of research on purpose clauses with a thorough empirical analysis in its own right and thus reflects the current state of the art of crosslinguistic research into this distinctive type of adverbial clause.An appendix to A Typology of Purpose Clauses can be found on the author's website: www.kschmidtkebode.de/purpose.html


The effects of the highway deicing activities on the Peshastin Creek watershed were studied over a 6-month period from December 1999 to May 2000. Three threatened and/or endangered species, steelhead (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus), inhabit the stream and, therefore, a study of the effects of deicing activities was warranted. Five reaches along Peshastin Creek and its tributaries were selected for the collection of weekly grab samples and three of these reaches were outfitted with continuous monitoring equipment. Water quality tests, Microtox (registered trademark) toxicity tests, benthic macro invertebrate enumeration and streambed substrate sieve analyses were used to evaluate the influence of deicing activities (application of traction sand and IceBAN, a liquid deicer) on Peshastin Creek. Chloride exhibited signs of preferential elution and was also found to be significantly higher in concentration in areas adjacent to the US Highway 97. The maximum recorded chloride concentration in Peshastin Creek was 3.3 and 2.7 mg/L at Reach 2 and Reach 4, respectively. The non-impacted reaches of Peshastin yielded an average chloride concentration of 0.62 mg/L. Heavy metal concentrations (soluble and total) were much lower than the US EPA recommended limits. The benthic macro invertebrate study, although qualitative in nature, suggested that the deicing activities did not adversely impact the three fish food organisms that were quantified. Streambed substrate analyses indicated that the traction sand used in deicing activities had no measurable negative impact on known spawning locations. The physical, chemical, and biological parameters evaluated in this study indicate that deicing activities along SR 97 had no measurable negative impact on Peshastin Creek.


A abstract. A heat transfer model of a raccoon (Procyon lotor) in a hollow tree was designed and tested by simulating an overwintering raccoon with a fur-covered, electrically-heated cylinder in a closed den. A comparison was made between predicted and observed fur surface temperatures, and heat losses from the top, side, and bottom. Under these conditions, transfer coefficients derived from engineering relationships can be dependably used in the field; the average difference between predicted and observed fur surface temperatures was 1.6? C, and the sum of the predicted fluxes through the surfaces of the model was within 5% of the measured total. Total heat loss increased approximately linearly as inside wall temperature decreased, but the contribution by convection and radiation to the total changed substantially. As inside wall temperature decreased, convective flux was an increasing percentage of the total, whereas radiation loss decreased to a minimum value of 56% of the total flux at the minimum wall temperature. Twenty-five percent of the total flux was lost from the top, 62% from the side, and 13% from the bottom. More than 65% of the total resistance to heat loss through the model side was in the fur. The air space presented 17%, with the rest in the den wall. With respect to heat loss through the base of the den, only 6% of the total resistance was in the compressed fur. But because of the high resistance of the den base, the loss was half that of the top. Small variations in den wall thickness are not a major factor in reducing heat loss since the wall accounts for only about 18% of total heat flow resistance. Energy loss and average monthly weather screen air temperature are correlated.


'Lavishly illustrated and extremely comprehensive ...a bargain' - "Antiques Magazine". 'The evolution of pottery ...is fascinating, and this book does it justice' - "The Good Book Guide". 'An epic tale ...a book to buy and to treasure' - "Crafts Magazine". This is the definitive British Museum reference book reissued with a beautiful new jacket design and pbk-with-flaps cover. This is the classic, comprehensive, colour survey of ceramic art and production worldwide, from prehistory to the present day. It offers a mine of information for students and anyone interested in pottery. Pottery is one of the earliest and most widespread of human activities and its history can be traced back to the Stone Age. This comprehensive account begins with the earliest civilizations of the Near and Middle East and follows the production of pottery chronologically around the globe. The final chapters analyse the development of ceramics as a medium of personal expression by artist and studio potters from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. The breathtaking wealth of illustrations drawn from major collections all over the world includes examples of all the major styles, materials and forms from all periods. Emmanuel Cooper is an internationally renowned potter, writer, critic and broadcaster and is editor of the highly respected and influential magazine "Ceramic Review". He has written widely on both modern and historical ceramics. Since 1999, he has been Visiting Professor of Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art and is a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain.


The EDIINT AS1, AS2 and AS3 message were designed specifically for the
transport of EDI documents. Since multiple interchanges could be
placed within a single EDI document, there was not a need for sending
multiple EDI documents in a single message. As adoption of EDI-INT
grew, other uses developed aside from single EDI document transport.
Some transactions required multiple attachments to be interpreted
together and stored in a single message. This informational draft
describes how multiple documents, including non-EDI payloads, can be
attached and transmitted in a single EDI-INT transport message. The
attachments are stored within the MIME Multipart/Related structure. A
minimal list of content-types to be supported as attachments is
provided.


Background Minority populations have been under-represented in mental health research studies. The systematic treatment enhancement program for bipolar disorder developed the Community Partners Program (CPP) to address this issue in a large, prospective treatment study of persons with bipolar disorder. Purpose The primary goal of CPP was to develop a community-based infrastructure for studying bipolar disorder that would enhance the ethnic/racial and socioeconomic diversity of participants. Methods Selected academic sites partnered with local clinics (n = 6 partnerships in five cities). This report describes the conceptualization, implementation, and qualitative evaluation of CPP, as well as quantitative analysis of clinical and sociodemographic differences between the samples recruited at academic versus community sites. Results Quantitative analysis of the 155 participants from the six partnerships revealed enrollment of 45% from minority populations (vs. 15% in academic sites). Significant sociodemographic differences were evident not only between academic and community sites, but within minority and non-minority groups across site types. Notably, clinical differences were not evident between participants from academic and community sites. Review of qualitative data suggests that certain factors around implementation of research protocols may enhance community participation. Conclusions Moving research recruitment and participation into community sites was more successful in increasing minority enrollment than efforts to attract such individuals to academic sites. Recommendations for creating and maintaining academic/community partnerships are given. Limitations Several important variables were not considered including mood severity, hospitalization, or treatment differences. Minority participants were grouped by combining African American and Hispanics, which may have obscured subgroup differences. A derivation of standard qualitative methods was used in this study. Clinical Trials 2009; 6: 344—354. http://ctj.sagepub.com


This paper deals with calculated and semi-analytical evaluations of VVER-1000 reactor core neutron source distributions and their influence on measurements and calculations of the integral through-vessel neutron leakage. Neutron activation measurements analyzed in the paper were carried out in an ex-vessel air cavity at different nuclear power plant units with VVER-1000 during different fuel cycles. The time-integrated neutron source distributions used for DORT calculations were prepared via two different approaches based on (a) calculated fuel burnup (standard routine procedure) and (b) in-core measurements by means of self-powered detectors (SPDs) and thermocouples (TCs) (new approach). Considering that fuel burnup distributions in operating VVER may be evaluated now by the use of analytical methods (calculations) only, it is necessary to develop new approaches for the testing and correction of calculated evaluations of a neutron source. The results presented in this paper allow one to consider the reverse task of the alternative estimation of fuel burnup distributions. The proposed approach is based on the adjustment (fitting) of time-integrated neutron source distributions, and thus fuel burnup patterns, in some part of the reactor core, taking into account neutron leakage measurements, neutron-physical calculations, and in-core SPD and TC measurement data. (authors)


Gail Albert Halaban: Paris Views is a continuation of Halabans 2012 series Out My Window. In this new set of images, Halaban shifts her focus from New York to Paris while continuing to steady her gaze through the windows of her neighbors and others in the community. The photographs, taken between 2012 and 2013, feature cinematic atmospheres and intimate domestic stills. Through Halabans lens, the viewer is welcomed into the private worlds of ordinary people. The photographs in Gail Albert Halaban: Paris Views explore the conventions and tensions of urban lifestyles, the blurring between reality and fantasy, feelings of isolation in the city, and the intimacies of home and daily life. In these meticulously directed, window framed versions of reality, Halaban allows the viewer to create his or her own fictions about the characters, activities, and interiors illuminated within. This invitation to imagine renders the characters and settings both personal and mysterious. Halaban's seductive photography appeals to the flaneur in all of us.


Default prediction is relevant to equity investors in Zimbabwe. The study examined the performance of two bankruptcy prediction models, the accounting ratio-based (Z-Score) model and the market based (KMV distance to default) model. The Z-Score model developed has two variables, market value to long term debt and EBIT to current liabilities and uniquely describe Zimbabwe's corporate environment. The research concluded that accounting model (Z-Score) has superior bankruptcy prediction power. The model achieved 0.959 accuracy ratio against the market based model 0.509. Companies that went bankrupt during the period had shown signs of poor financial performance in prior years.


We analyze the interconnection between the sovereign and banking sector risk in the peripheral euro area countries over the 2004Q4-2013Q2 period. Applying the contingent claims methodology, we build indicators of sovereign and banking sector risk (incorporating both market and balance sheet based information) and assess their interconnection in comparison with existing market-based indicators of banking and sovereign distress. We use three different statistical measures of interconnection based on principal components analysis, Granger causality network and Diebold-Yilmaz's connectedness index, and apply them to quarterly credit risk data. The empirical results shows strong connectedness and comovement between country-level banking and sovereign risk indicators. We find evidence of bi-directional bank-sovereign linkage for Spain and Italy during the European sovereign debt crisis period. For the late crisis period, we find weak interconnection and more divergence across the various risk indicators. Our findings also suggest that secondary and derivatives market indices are more driven by common underlying factors than are contingent claim based risk measures.


Viral sequence integration into the mammalian genome has long been perceived as a health risk. In some cases, integration translates to chronic viral infection, and in other instances, oncogenic gene mutations occur. However, research also shows that animal cells can benefit from integrated viral sequences (e.g., to support host cell development or to silence foreign invaders). Here we propose that, comparable with the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats that provide bacteria with adaptive immunity against invasive bacteriophages, animal cells may co-opt integrated viral sequences to support immune memory. We hypothesize that host cells express viral peptides from open reading frames in integrated sequences to boost adaptive B cell and T cell responses long after replicating viruses are cleared. In support of this hypothesis, we examine previous literature describing (1) viruses that infect acutely (e.g., vaccinia viruses and orthomyxoviruses) followed by unexplained, long-term persistence of viral nucleotide sequences, viral peptides, and virus-specific adaptive immunity, (2) the high frequency of endogenous viral genetic elements found in animal genomes, and (3) mechanisms with which animal host machinery supports foreign sequence integration.


The total synthesis of peniphenones A-D has been achieved via Michael reactions between appropriate nucleophiles and a common o-quinone methide intermediate. This strategy, which was based on a biosynthetic hypothesis, minimized the use of protecting groups and thus facilitated concise syntheses of the natural products. The most complex target, the benzannulated spiroketal peniphenone A, was synthesized enantioselectively in nine linear steps from commercially available starting materials.


This paper studies the interaction between economic and environmental performance. Applying the directional output distance function approach, the purpose is to compare estimates of Luenberger total factor productivity indicators, including and excluding bad outputs. Specifically, based on unique firm level data from Swedish manufacturing covering the period 1990 to 2008, we explore to what extent excluding bad outputs leads to erroneous productivity measurement. The main conclusion is that bad outputs should not only be included in the estimations, but also reduction in bad outputs should be credited. From this point of view the directional output distance function approach and the Luenberger indicator serves as an appropriate basis of productivity measurement.


The object of the present study is to introduce a means of comparing the Vostok and marine chronologies. Our strategy has been to use the δ18O of atmospheric O2 (denoted δ18Oatm) from the Vostok ice core as a proxy for the δ18O of seawater (denoted δ18Osw). Our underlying premise in using δ18Oatm as a proxy for δ18Osw is that past variations in δ18Osw (an indicator of continental ice volume) have been transmitted to the atmospheric O2 reservoir by photosynthesizing organisms in the surface waters of the world's oceans. We compare our record of δ18Oatm to the δ18Osw record which has been developed from studies of the isotopic composition of biogenic calcite (δ18Oforam) in deep-sea cores. We have tied our δ18Oatm record from Vostok to the SPECMAP timescale throughout the last 135 kyr by correlating δ18Oatm with a δ18Osw record from V19-30. Results of the correlation indicate that 77% of the variance is shared between these two records. We observed differences between the δ18Oatm and the δ18Osw records during the coldest periods, which indicate that there have been subtle changes in the factors which regulate δ18Oatm other than δ18Osw. Our use of δ18Oatm as a proxy for δ18Osw must therefore be considered tentative, especially during these periods. By correlating δ18Oatm with δ18Osw, we provide a common temporal framework for comparing phase relationships between atmospheric records (from ice cores) and oceanographic records constructed from deep-sea cores. Our correlated age-depth relation for the Vostok core should not be considered an absolute Vostok timescale. We consider it to be the preferred timescale for comparing Vostok climate records with marine climate records which have been placed on the SPECMAP timescale. We have examined the fidelity of this common temporal framework by comparing sea surface temperature (SST) records from sediment cores with an Antarctic temperature record from the Vostok ice core. We have demonstrated that when the southern ocean SST and Antarctic temperature records are compared on this common temporal framework, they show a high degree of similarity. We interpret this result as supporting our use of the common temporal framework for comparing other climate records from the Vostok ice core with any climate record that has been correlated into the SPECMAP chronology.


ABSTRACT The most relevant issues related to headway variability in public transport planning, operations and quality of service are reviewed in this paper. We discuss the causes and consequences of headway variability, the alternative metrics that have been proposed to measure it, the preventive and reactive strategies to control headway variability in both research and practice, including the role of drivers and of present and future technology, and how service provision contracts might deal with headway variability through metrics and financial incentives. The most influential elements that explain headway variability along a route are the irregularity at which vehicles are dispatched, the scheduled frequency, the distance travelled or route length, the passenger demand and associated dwell times, and the number of stops. We conclude that there is a large gap between the state-of-the-art and the state-of-practice in terms of identification of headway variability issues, as well as in the development of mitigation and control measures. It is therefore paramount that future research will contribute to closing this gap by addressing organisational, contractual and technological barriers in the implementation of measures aimed at mitigating headway variability in public transport services.


By performing pump-probe experiments, we study the relaxation dynamics of spin-polarized excitons in a wurtzite GaN/AlGaN quantum well (QW)grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. The circular degree of polarization of the differential reflectivity signal reaches 55-60 % for the heavy-hole exciton when it is resonantly excited before decaying in a few picoseconds. This is an indication that, even if excitons are confined in the growth direction, their propagation in the well plane makes them very sensitive to scattering processes which are responsible for exciton dephasing and, therefore, for efficient spin relaxation. Above 80 K the thermal escape of excitons toward the AlGaN barrier increases the spin-relaxation rate. However, when compared to bulk GaN epilayers, where no spin polarization could be detected above 50 K, the optical orientation is preserved in those QWs up to about 100 K.


In a recent published paper, Generoso et al. (2003) describe a method for improving the spatial and temporal distribution of pyrogenic aerosol emission inventories. In the course of their analysis, the authors note several significant discrepancies in the seasonality of burning as observed by the Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) and four other biomass burning data sets derived from satellite observations. In this commentary we explain the source of these discrepancies and clarify the origin of the VIRS observations that were used by Generoso et al.


The PASW Statistics 18 Guide to Data Analysis is a friendly introduction to both data analysis and PASW Statistics 18 (formerly SPSS Statistics), the worlds leading desktop statistical software package. Easy-to-understand explanations and in-depth content make this guide both an excellent supplement to other statistics texts and a superb primary text for any introductory data analysis course. With this book, youll learn how to describe data, test hypotheses, and examine relationships using PASW.Author Marija Noruis incorporates a wealth of real data, including the General Social Survey and studies of Internet usage, opinions of the criminal justice system, marathon running times, library patronage, and the importance of manners, throughout the examples and expanded chapter exercises. This unique combination of examples, exercises, and contemporary data gives you hands-on experience in analyzing data and makes learning about data analysis and statistical software relevant, unintimidating, and even fun!A data CD-ROM is included with this book.


ABSTRACT Since the end of the Suharto New Order regime and Indonesia's transition to democracy in 1998, the country has struggled to address past serious human rights violations, in particular the 1965–66 anti-communist violence. Half a million members and sympathizers of the Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia, PKI) and its mass organizations were killed and hundreds of thousands were detained, most without trial. Although these individuals seem to have the clearest claims to victimhood, they still cannot easily gain such recognition, facing opposition from the military and representatives of civilian organizations implicated in the violence. The contested nature of the status of victim, and in particular how to accommodate claims from those who were less central to the experience of political persecution but who nonetheless suffered as part of the government and military's anti-communist strategy, is the subject of this article. Drawing on scholarly literature on victims, victimhood and collective memory, I analyse a case study of a group of villagers in south Blitar, East Java and how their being implicated in providing support for leftist fugitives in that area in 1966–68 has influenced how they are perceived by society. Representations of this group of villagers by the military and government have resulted in the rise of a collective victimhood across generations, but a victimhood that nonetheless remains striated by victim hierarchies and difficulties in identifying as victim. As a result of these factors, this complex victim group has, by and large, been excluded by mainstream transitional justice processes, except for limited efforts by two small non-government organizations in the local area, discussed in this article. The resurgence of anti-communism since the election of President Joko Widodo, however, creates new difficulties for the victims and these organizations.


This presentation argues that trade policy in the region has been too focused on removing tariffs, to the detriment of trade facilitation, particularly in transportation. It explores the impact of transport costs on trade in Latin America and the Caribbean, and argues that transport costs have assumed an unprecedented strategic importance to the region. The main objective of the presentation is to answer the questions: i) How do transport costs compare to tariffs? ii) How do transport costs in the LAC region compare to those elsewhere in the world? iii) How "transport-intensive" are LAC exports? iv) What are the main determinants of transport costs in the LAC region? v) What is the impact of transport costs on trade in the region? It was presented at Latin America/Caribbean and Asia/Pacific Economics and Business Association (LAEBA)'s 4th Annual Meeting held in Lima, Peru on June 16th, 2008.


Abstract Four driving conditions were examined to characterize how speeds and loads of a medium-duty diesel engine affect resultant diesel exhaust particulates (DEPs) in terms of number concentrations (≤400 nm), size distribution, persistent free radicals, elemental carbon (EC), and organic carbon (OC). At the medium engine load (60%), DEPs surged in number concentrations at around 40–70 nm, whereas DEPs from the full engine load (100%) showed a distinctive bimodal distribution with a large population of 30–50 nm and 100–400 nm. Under the full engine load, engine speeds insignificantly affected resultant DEP number concentrations. When the engine load decreased from 100% to the medium level (60%), DEPs of ultrafine size and 100–400 nm decreased at least 1.4 times (from 5.6 × 108 to 4 × 108 #/cm3) and more than 3 times (from 2.7 × 108 to 0.8 × 108 #/cm3), respectively. The same reduction in the engine load significantly decreased persistent free radicals in DEPs up to approximately 30 times (from 123 × 1016 to 4 × 1016 #spin/g). Decreasing the engine load from 100 to 60% also concurrently reduced both EC and OC in total DEPs around 2 times, from 27.3 to 13.9 mg/m3, and from 17.6 to 9.2 mg/m3, respectively. For DEPs smaller than 1 µm, under the full engine load, EC and OC consistently peaked at 170–330 nm under an engine speed of 1800 rpm or 94–170 nm under an engine speed of 3000 rpm, reflecting processes of nucleation, cluster-cluster agglomeration, and condensation. Decreasing the engine load from 100 to 60% reduced EC and OC in DEPs (smaller than 1 μm) at least 3 times (0.6 to 0.2 mg/m3) and 2 times (0.4 to 0.2 mg/m3), respectively. Taken together, decreasing the full engine load to a medium (60%) level effectively reduced the number concentrations (≤400 nm), persistent free radicals, EC, and OC of total DEPs, as well as the concentration of EC and OC in ultrafine and accumulation-mode DEPs.


The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genetic system has long proven to be useful for studying the demographic history of our species, since their proposed Southeast/East African origin 200 kya. Despite the weak archaeological and anthropologic records, which render a difficult understanding of early intra- continental migrations, the phylogenetic L0-L1'6 split at about 140-160 kya is thought to represent also an early sub-structuring of small and isolated communities in South and East Africa. Regional variation accumulated over the following millennia, with L2 and L3 lineages arising in Central and East Africa 100-75 kya. Their sub-Saharan dispersal not later than 60 kya, largely overwhelmed the L0'1 distribution, nowadays limited to South African Khoisan and Central African Pygmies. Cyclic expansions and retractions of the equatorial forest between 40 kya and the "Last Glacial Aridity Maximum" were able to reduce the genetic diversity of modern humans. Surviving regional-specific lineages have emerged from the Sahelian refuge areas, repopulating the region and contributing to the overall West African genetic similarity. Particular L1- L3 lineages mirror the substantial population growth made possible by moister and warmer conditions of the Sahara's Wet Phase and the adoption of agriculture and iron smelting techniques. The diffusion of the farming expertise from a Central African source towards South Africa was mediated by the Bantu people 3 kya. The strong impact of their gene flow almost erased the pre-existent maternal pool. Non-L mtDNAs testify for Eurasian lineages that have enriched the African maternal pool at different timeframes: i) Near and Middle Eastern influences in Upper Palaeolithic, probably link to the spread of Afro-Asiatic languages; ii) particular lineages from West Eurasia around or after the glacial period; iii) post-glacial mtDNA signatures from the Franco-Cantabrian refugia, that have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and iv) Eurasian lineages tracing back to the Neolithic or more recent historical episodes. Finally, the non-random sub-Saharan spread of North African lineages was likely mediated by the ancestors of Fulani, nomadic pastoral communities in the Sahel.


In a previous contribution, a welding diagnostics approach based on plasma optical spectroscopy was presented. It consisted of the employment of optimization algorithms and synthetic spectra to obtain the participation profiles of the species participating in the plasma. A modification of the model is discussed here: on the one hand the controlled random search algorithm has been substituted by a particle swarm optimization implementation. On the other hand a feature selection stage has been included to determine those spectral windows where the optimization process will take place. Both experimental and field tests will be shown to illustrate the performance of the solution that improves the results of the previous work.


Astrocytes are acutely sensitive to 1,3-dinitrobenzene (1,3-DNB) while adjacent neurons are relatively unaffected, consistent with other chemically-induced energy deprivation syndromes. Previous studies have investigated the role of astrocytes in protecting neurons from hypoxia and chemical injury via adenosine release. Adenosine is considered neuroprotective, but it is rapidly removed by extracellular deaminases such as adenosine deaminase (ADA). The present study tested the hypothesis that ADA is inhibited by 1,3-DNB as a substrate mimic, thereby preventing adenosine catabolism. ADA was inhibited by 1,3-DNB with an IC(50) of 284 μM, Hill slope, n = 4.8 ± 0.4. Native gel electrophoresis showed that 1,3-DNB did not denature ADA. Furthermore, adding Triton X-100 (0.01-0.05%, wt/vol), Nonidet P-40 (0.0015-0.0036%, wt/vol), or bovine serum albumin (0.05 mg/ml or changing [ADA] (0.2 and 2 nM) did not substantially alter the 1,3-DNB IC(50) value. Likewise, dynamic light scattering showed no particle formation over a (1,3-DNB) range of 149-1043 μM. Kinetics revealed mixed inhibition with 1,3-DNB binding to ADA (K(I) = 520 ± 100 μM, n = 1 ± 0.6) and the ADA-adenosine complex (K(IS) = 262 ± 7 μM, n = 6 ± 0.6, indicating positive cooperativity). In accord with the kinetics, docking predicted binding of 1,3-DNB to the active site and three peripheral sites. In addition, exposure of DI TNC-1 astrocytes to 10-500 μM 1,3-DNB produced concentration-dependent increases in extracellular adenosine at 24 h. Overall, the results demonstrate that 1,3-DNB is a mixed inhibitor of ADA and may thus lead to increases in extracellular adenosine. The finding may provide insights to guide future work on chemically-induced energy deprivation.


This study investigates the potential for development of a regional environmental certification scheme through which beef producers in northeast Victoria, who were employing a high standard of environmental care, produced premium quality beef that could attract an improved financial return over regular market prices. Beef producers, butchers, domestic consumers and the restaurant industry were surveyed to identify the level of interest in the community for organic food and 'clean and natural' beef. Beef producers were further surveyed to identify their views on some elements of sustainable agricultural production. The findings conclude that there is a potential niche market for 'clean and natural' beef in Northeast Victoria. A certification scheme for 'clean and natural' beef could utilise existing quality assurance schemes such as Livestock Production Assurance Program, Meat Standards Australia and Environmental Management Systems to demonstrate food quality and environmental management credentials.


Since the publication of its strategy in 2012, the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway continues to develop across the National Probation Service and prison estate. The relational crux of the Pathway exists between the probation officer and service user, with the former holding the lead professional role. This study aimed to develop an understanding of practitioners' experience of inhabiting this role, in order that enhanced insight into the relationship at the centre of the Pathway could emerge. Discussion focuses on the implications of the findings for enabling relational security and psychologically informed practice in complex and risk averse systems.


This thesis explores how performance measurement in organisations is effected by the human value systems of those concerned with measurement. Its origins lie in the observation that despite many efforts to devise useful measures of performance, problems continued to exist. It was subsequently hypothesised that problems are generic rather than job specific. This led to research in four very different organisations and the consequent exploration of human values theory in a systemic context.

For the purpose of this thesis performance measurement is taken to be any form of assessment of organisation or individual accomplishment. Such measures may stand alone, be combined with others or checked against a pre-set standard When combined they are often referred to as performance indicators or league tables.

Values are beliefs about what seems right and important; they are not necessarily virtues. People, families, societal and work organisations all possess value systems. Values are inculcated early in the life of both humans and organisations and are reinforced over time and experience. Both individuals and groups typically hold more than one value, usually they have combinations that form value systems.

Human values theory is linked to systems science by investigating the behaviour of groups of values. It is argued that value systems have the emergent properties of attitudes and behaviours. These are essentially a response to other values and value systems. This emergence is likely to be unpredictable when faced with unfamiliar, cogent or inflexible norms. Consequently it is not only important to be clear about the value systems embodied in performance measurement but also those rated highly by those being measured

This thesis concludes that performance measurement needs to be more closely matched to the values of the people being measured if it is to be successful. It is argued that singling out individual values is not the most useful way of applying values theory as changes occur swiftly and subconsciously in human activity systems. Instead it is proposed that statements representing world-views give a better picture of the environment into which performance measurement might be introduced. A selection of such value statements are suggested here but it is stressed that these need to be adapted to the organisation concerned in order to be most useful. These can be used to assess priorities but should at all times be considered in combination with other values so that emergence is not ignored.


Action selection is a way of characterizing the most basic problem of intelligent systems: what to do next. In artificial intelligence and computational cognitive science, the action selection problem is typically associated with intelligent agents and animats – artificial systems that exhibit complex behaviour in an agent environment. The term is also sometimes used in ethology or animal behaviour.


This study investigates the African Christian's views with regard to the resurrection of the body. An attempt is done to do an intensive research regarding the aspects such as the origin of man, the soul/spirit, body, death, burial, ancestral spirits, and the resurrection of the body. The Bible is taken as the point of departure; hence, each of these aspects is then biblically evaluated to derive to a clear conclusion. In Chapter 2 the African views have been outlined, and at the same time a scientific questionnaire was developed in order to gather more information about those views. Scripture was utilised even in this regard to give clear doctrinal interpretations and clear-cut conclusions. In Chapter 3 all the portions that define the aspect of the resurrection both in the OT and the NT were investigated, interpreted, summarised, and then conclusions were given. In this regard the Reformed Confessions (which are based on the Bible) are utilised to defend the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Therefore in Chapter 4 an integration of information gathered from chapter 2 and 3 is done. A critical evaluation takes place in order to come to a contextual conclusion. Chapter 5 gives some conclusive remarks. It also looks into the implications, consequences, and recommendations with regard to the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.


This dissertation consists of three essays which are organized as chapters. On the first chapter, I compute welfare-maximizing monetary and fiscal policy feedback rules using a calibrated DSGE model with sticky prices, monopolistic competition in the intermediate goods market, and tax distortions. The exogenous government spending is considered to be productive. Therefore, the preferences of the representative household and the technology of the production function include government spending which is decomposed into public consumption and investment. The optimal policy rules under which the nominal interest rate reacts to inflation, and the tax rates responds to public debt are associated with the highest level of welfare which is surprisingly equal to richer and baseline rules. The inflation volatility is closed to zero. On the second chapter, I evaluate the impact of tax and monetary policy rules with disaggregated government purchases on welfare, real exchange rate and business cycle in a small open economy using a new-Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium frame work. The model predicts that the government consumption has more impact than government investment on both private consumption and investment, but less impact on the real GDP. Besides, the government purchases-real exchange rate puzzle is generated by the model. In this sense, the government consumption contributes more on generating the puzzle than the government investment. Moreover, both government consumption and investment have positive impact on welfare for any policy rules. The optimized policy rules have a pronounced anti-inflation stance and entail significant nominal and real exchange rate volatility for monetary policy. For tax policy rules, the iii public debt stance is the optimized rules. The last chapter tries to answer the following question: what are the effects of liquidity facilities (unconventional credit policy) on macroeconomic and financial variables when a small open economy faces a liquidity shock? To answer this question, we introduction the external sector with foreign private paper and bonds in a DSGE model with both nominal and real rigidities. The main result of this paper is that both unconventional credit policy has large quantitative effects on macroeconomic and financial variables. In fact, with the quantitative easing, output, consumption and investment stops to decrease after two quarters and then become positive. However, without the liquidity facilities, output, consumption and investment would have dropped continuously up to 10%, 15% 10%, respectively. This result is closely related to DEFK 's finding in terms of sign. Besides, the domestic inflation, the objective of the conventional monetary policy, falls and becomes negative after four quarters. Then, it raises and becomes positive up to two percent (2%) after eight quarters. Furthermore, a negative liquidity shock under the quantitative easing has positive impact on employment. Nominal and real exchange rates depreciate due to a negative impact of liquidity shock. Finally, the liquidity shock has positive impact on the financial variable (domestic and foreign spreads). The domestic and foreign spreads increase up to 100 and 120 basis points, respectively.


Cells of the cranial paraxial mesoderm give rise to parts of the skull and muscles of the head. Some mesoderm cells migrate from locations close to the hindbrain into the branchial arches where they undergo muscle differentiation. We have characterised these migratory pathways in chick embryos either by DiI-labelling cells before migration or by grafting quail cranial paraxial mesoderm orthotopically. These experiments demonstrate that depending on their initial rostrocaudal position, cranial paraxial mesoderm cells migrate to fill the core of specific branchial arches. A survey of the expression of myogenic genes showed that the myogenic markers Myf5, MyoD and myogenin were expressed in branchial arch muscle, but at comparatively late stages compared with their expression in the somites. Pax3 was not expressed by myogenic cells that migrate into the branchial arches despite its expression in migrating precursors of limb muscles. In order to test whether segmental plate or somitic mesoderm has the ability to migrate in a cranial location, we grafted quail trunk mesoderm into the cranial paraxial mesoderm region. While segmental plate mesoderm cells did not migrate into the branchial arches, somitic cells were capable of migrating and were incorporated into the branchial arch muscle mass. Grafted somitic cells in the vicinity of the neural tube maintained expression of the somitic markers Pax3, MyoD and Pax1. By contrast, ectopic somitic cells located distal to the neural tube and in the branchial arches did not express Pax3. These data imply that signals in the vicinity of the hindbrain and branchial arches act on migrating myogenic cells to influence their gene expression and developmental pathways.


This research aims to model tourism demand for South Africa from the UK and the USA by using an almost ideal demand system. An error correction almost ideal demand system (EC-AIDS) is used to quantify the responsiveness of UK and USA tourism demand to South Africa relative to changes in tourism prices and expenditure or income. Short-term own-price, cross-price and expenditure elasticities are derived from the EC-AIDS models. One of the key findings of the paper is that tourism from the UK and USA is not sensitive to price changes in South Africa in the short-term. Tourism to South Africa is found to be more income elastic than price elastic, indicating that the country is vulnerable to changing world economic conditions. Even though price competitiveness does not seem to be a key concern yet, significant substitution effects are present, with especially Spain and Malaysia benefitting from a decline in South Africa's price competitiveness.


Does the political thinking of ordinary citizens change during periods of crisis? Marc Lendler addresses this question by investigating the story behind an unusually prolonged and ultimately successful strike -- a five-year conflict at the Colt Firearms Company in Hartford, Connecticut, in the 1980s. Lendler documents how the participants' political consciousness evolved during this period, showing what they thought about American politics and institutions.Although American blue-collar workers seem to accept the political and economic order during normal times, their core beliefs about fairness, the availability of opportunity, redistribution, and the importance of government changed significantly in this nonnormal situation, Lendler finds. Drawing on surveys, extended interviews with workers and managers, and historical data, Lendler measures participants' views and compares them with the responses of workers in more normal settings. He evaluates his findings in a way different from most investigations of political thinking, combining rather than contrasting various explanations of resistance and accommodation. Lendler admits the usefulness of theories of trade-offs and "hidden transcripts" as explanations for public quiescence, but he contends that hegemony theory, helps explain how political beliefs changed so rapidly when people were thrown into uncharted territory.


When disaster strikes, the weak suffer mightily, the strong only slightly. That is the lesson from stock market reactions to COVID-19. Strong firms had a robust financial position, advanced environmental and social performance, and were not severely exposed to social distancing and lockdowns. Firms with significant international exposure suffered more, at least at first. The ultimate effects of policy interventions, including those by central banks, have yet to be revealed. The market recovery in the second quarter of 2020 is like a patient recovering from COVID-19: hopeful but still uncertain. Managers and policymakers should project the future with great caution.


Sedimentation rates and mixing depths have been estimated from the application of a two‐layer biodiffusion model to 210Pb profiles in sediment cores collected in the Laurentian Trough in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence. Sedimentation rates decrease exponentially with distance seaward from 0.70 cm yr−1 (0.47 g cm−2 yr−1) near the head of the Trough to 0.04 cm yr−1 (0.03 g cm−2 yr−1) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Mercury (Hg) sediment profiles exhibit subsurface maxima that decrease from concentrations of 0.6 ug g−1 near the entrance to the Saguenay Fjord to 0.04 µg g−1 in the central part of the Gulf. Hg release data for a chloralkali plant on the Saguenay River were used as the input function for the biodiffusion model and provided accurate simulation of measured profiles when mixing was permitted to extend into the deep (>10 cm) sediment layer. Estimates of Hg sediment inventories indicate that 100–130 tonnes (t) of Hg have been retained within the sediments of the St. Lawrence Estuary, which, combined with an Hg inventory of 30 t estimated for the sediments of the Saguenay Fjord, approximately balance the 136 t of Hg released from the chloralkali plant since 1947. 137Cs and 239,240Pu sediment‐depth profiles were also simulated by the biodiffusion model using input functions based on atmospheric fallout modified by radionuclide transport through the St. Lawrence River drainage basin.


A 48-year-old man presented to our outpatient clinic with 15 days history of left-sided epiphora that started after septoplasty and B/L SMD. The clinical examination show grayish cyst under the right inferior turbinate, while no cyst was seen under the left inferior turbinate. His preoperative coronal CT-Scan demonstrated the existence of B/L moderate 'cyst' beneath the left and right inferior turbinate together with dilation of the nasolacrimal duct. The postoperative coronal-sinus CT failed to reveal cyst under the left inferior turbinate. Full ophthalmologic and otolaryngologic assessment was conducted for this patient.


Background/Aims: Ferric citrate hydrate (JTT-751) is being developed as a treatment for hyperphosphatemia in chronic kidney disease patients, and shows serum phosphorus-reducing effects on hyperphosphatemia in hemodialysis patients. We examined whether JTT-751 could reduce phosphorus absorption in normal rats and prevent the progression of ectopic calcification, secondary hyperparathyroidism and bone abnormalities in chronic renal failure (CRF) rats. Methods: Normal rats were fed a diet containing 0.3, 1 or 3% JTT-751 for 7 days. The effects of JTT-751 on phosphorus absorption were evaluated with fecal and urinary phosphorus excretion. Next, a CRF model simulating hyperphosphatemia was induced by feeding rats a 0.75% adenine diet. After 21 days of starting the adenine diet feeding, 1 or 3% JTT-751 was administered for 35 days by dietary admixture. The serum phosphorus levels and mineral parameters were measured. Calcification in the aorta was examined biochemically and histopathologically. Hyperparathyroidism and bone abnormalities were evaluated by histopathological analysis of the parathyroid and femur, respectively. Results: In normal rats, JTT-751 increased fecal phosphorus excretion and reduced phosphorus absorption and urinary phosphorus excretion. In CRF rats, JTT-751 reduced serum phosphorus levels, the calcium-phosphorus product and calcium content in the aorta. Serum intact parathyroid hormone levels and the incidence and severity of parathyroid hyperplasia were also decreased. JTT-751 reduced femoral bone fibrosis, porosity and osteoid formation. Conclusions: JTT-751 could bind with phosphate in the gastrointestinal tract, increase fecal phosphorus excretion and reduce phosphorus absorption. JTT-751 could prevent the progression of ectopic calcification, secondary hyperparathyroidism and bone abnormalities in rats.


Shallow parsers or Chunkers that create word groups based on local dependencies are considered essential for many NLP related tasks such as Machine Translation, Speech Synthe-sis and Information Retrieval. The linguistic stature of chunks is accepted even though their definition varies with the linguistic theory, specific task and even practical con-cerns of system building. The psychological reality of a chunk in linguistic performance is under-explored for Indian languages. In this study we conduct a set of psycholinguistic experiments in Bangla and Hindi in an attempt to understand how linguistically structured chunks correspond to a naive native speaker's perception of chunk in an attempt to understand the correlations between performance and linguistic structures. The results reaffirm the cognitive basis of chunks and show some interesting patterns in their correspondence with linguistic structure. This may have consequences for how speech synthesis models prosodic phrasing and also the computationally appealing notion of a local dependency based chunk.


Ad hoc networks allow wireless devices to form a network without any pre-existing knowledge of configuration or topology. Large-scale networks consist of hundreds or more nodes and are unable to use traditional broadcast routing algorithms due to lack of scalability. Geographic algorithms use nodes' geographical locations to route traffic without topology knowledge, but still require knowledge of the destination node's location. This location is often provided up by location service protocols although many of these too use broadcast schemes which limit their scalability. This work describes a location server that uses self-organising behaviour that is often seen in nature to minimise transmission overhead and maximize scalability. The approach outperforms existing solutions by significant margins.


Several studies have shown the antimutagenic DNA protective functions of some naturally occurring phenolic phytochemicals. Emerging research also indicates that synergistic functionality of these phytochemicals in whole foods benefits the management of many diseases. Here we have investigated the potential antimutagenic properties of cranberry phenolics, ellagic acid (EA), rosmarinic acid (RA) and their synergistic interactions on enhancing antimutagenic properties in Salmonella typhimurium tester system against mutagens sodium azide and N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. Ability of these phytochemical treatments to protect oxidative damage to DNA was also investigated using the supercoiled DNA strand scission assay. Results showed that EA was most effective in inhibiting the mutations in S. typhimurium system, whereas RA and EA were equally effective in protecting the DNA from oxidative damage. Results also showed that the antimutagenic functionality of cranberry powder (CP) made from juice extracts was significantly enhanced when 30% (w/w) of phenolics in CP was substituted with RA and EA possibly because of synergistic redox modulation that can influence mutagen function. It is also suggested that the synergistic mixture of cranberry phenolics with RA could also be protecting the cell from mutations by modulating DNA repair systems.


The problem of matching two sets of features appears in various tasks of computer vision and can be often formalized as a problem of permutation estimation. We address this problem from a statistical point of view and provide a theoretical analysis of the accuracy of several natural estimators. To this end, the minimax rate of separation is investigated and its expression is obtained as a function of the sample size, noise level and dimension of the features. We consider the cases of homoscedastic and heteroscedastic noise and establish, in each case, tight upper bounds on the separation distance of several estimators. These upper bounds are shown to be unimprovable both in the homoscedastic and heteroscedastic settings. Interestingly, these bounds demonstrate that a phase transition occurs when the dimension d of the features is of the order of the logarithm of the number of features n. For d = O(log n), the rate is dimension free and equals σ(log n)1/2, where σ is the noise level. In contrast, when d is larger than c log n for some constant c < 0, the minimax rate increases with d and is of the order of σ(d log n)1/4. We also discuss the computational aspects of the estimators and provide empirical evidence of their consistency on synthetic data. Finally, we show that our results extend to more general matching criteria.


Green building is the modern method adopted to attain global sustainability through individual house level. The user's demand for housing is increasing every day, also the demand for other house utility increases. These demands may include energy and water supply, refuse management, provision of new infrastructures etc. most of these demands are necessary for every user to survive. Therefore, most users engage in afforestation, increases carbon emission and rise in the Greenhouse gases level production to meet up with their demands, these activities causes' disasters to our planet. Therefore users need and green approach to sustainability are two opposite factors. This paper examines the user's need and comfort in designing or purchasing green buildings in Kano state, Nigeria. Relevant kinds of literature were revised in this work with the addition of a case study which was analysed using the descriptive approach method. A case study was picked in Kano state, Gwale Yan-Alawa quarters as an example of green building, which was analysed and rated using BREEAM and LEED assessment criteria. The result shows about 80% of user satisfaction was recorded. Also, the demand for green building keeps increasing in Kano state, which adds value to it.


In this paper, we propose a method to recognize motions of assistant referees in soccer games. Since the major motions of assistant referees in soccer games are closely related to the direction of pointing the flag, positional information of the flag and the upper body can be utilized as an important clue for motion recognition. Based on this observation, we propose to generate and utilize a heatmap image which reveals the contrast between colors of the flag and the upper body. For quantitative evaluation, we used K-league 2017 dataset, and our proposed method achieved 97.56% accuracy surpassing various deep learning-based classifiers. We expect that this study would be used as a useful benchmark for researchers developing sports event recognition systems.


Monitoring-Oriented Programming (MOP1) [21, 18, 22, 19] is a formal framework for software development and analysis, in which the developer specifies desired properties using definable specification formalisms, along with code to execute when properties are violated or validated. The MOP framework automatically generates monitors from the specified properties and then integrates them together with the user-defined code into the original system. The previous design of MOP only allowed specifications without parameters, so it could not be used to state and monitor safety properties referring to two or more related objects. In this paper we propose a parametric specification formalism-independent extension of MOP, together with an implementation of JavaMOP that supports parameters. In our current implementation, parametric specifications are translated into AspectJ code and then weaved into the application using off-the-shelf AspectJ compilers; hence, MOP specifications can be seen as formal or logical aspects. Our JavaMOP implementation was extensively evaluated on two benchmarks, Dacapo [14] and Tracematches [8], showing that runtime verification in general and MOP in particular are feasible. In some of the examples, millions of monitor instances are generated, each observing a set of related objects. To keep the runtime overhead of monitoring and event observation low, we devised and implemented a decentralized indexing optimization. Less than 8% of the experiments showed more than 10% runtime overhead; in most cases our tool generates monitoring code as efficient as the hand-optimized code. Despite its genericity, JavaMOP is empirically shown to be more efficient than runtime verification systems specialized and optimized for particular specification formalisms. Many property violations were detected during our experiments; some of them are benign, others indicate defects in programs. Many of these are subtle and hard to find by ordinary testing.


In this article, we offer a reading after-the-fact of interviews with Lebanese adolescents born at the end of the so-called civil war (1975-1990), experiencing their intersubjective and social relations in situations of fragility and precariousness in Karm Al Zaitoun (a neighborhood in east Beyrouth). Three spaces of circulation influence the formation of identity processes in these Lebanese adolescents : the « tradition »space, the « day-to-day survival » space, and the « imported models for identification » space. Here we will speak more specifically of the relation that the Lebanese adolescent maintains with the « tradition » space and the « day-to-day survival »space. The latter is marked by identification with heroic figures, territorial domination and the rituals of daily practices. This daily space functions as a space for survival, in which adolescents have a deep investment. The space of tradition provides the adolescent with protection and a form of continuity of self, but it remains threatening and aleatory, insofar as it is marked by a break with the past tied to the war. The absence of confrontation of space with generational time does not facilitate reference to a shared, legitimized past, that could guarantee continuity of self.


Plants have evolved intracellular NLR receptors to recognize pathogen effectors and trigger a robust immune response (ETI). The Arabidopsis NLR gene pair RPS4 (Resistance to Pseudomonas syringae 4) and RRS1 (Resistance to Ralstonia solanacearum 1) cooperates genetically and physically to recognize, amongst others, the Pseudomonas syringae effector AvrRps4. A second RPS4/RRS1-like gene pair (RPS4b/RRS1b) contributes to AvrRps4 recognition.
Transient or stable overexpression of RPS4, but not RRS1 induces immunity, and RPS4, but not RRS1 depends on a canonical ATP-binding pocket for its function. Also, RRS1 interacts with both RPS4 and pathogen effectors, suggesting a model where RRS1 as a sensor recognizes effectors and conveys the information to the executor RPS4, releasing it from RRS1 negative regulation to trigger immunity. However, RRS1 contributes to effector-independent autoimmunity in RPS4 overexpressing Arabidopsis, indicating an additional positive regulatory function apart from the suggested effector sensing.
The work presented here re-evaluates the role of RRS1 in RPS4 induced signaling. In the absence of both RRS1a and RRS1b, RPS4 autoimmunity such as plant stunting and transcriptional reprogramming is decreased. Also, RPS4 protein accumulation is substantially reduced without RRS1, suggesting RRS1 positively contributes to RPS4 induced signaling by stabilizing RPS4 to allow sufficient immune complex formation.
To gain insight into these RPS4-associated immune complexes and to connect RPS4 activation with defense outputs like cell death and transcriptional reprogramming, RPS4 co-purified proteins in pre- and post-activation complexes were analyzed by mass-spectrometry. Identified candidates are involved in processes such as protein synthesis and stability control, redox regulation and secretion. Their potential roles in immunity are discussed in this study.
For several NLR receptors, nuclear localization is necessary for defense activation, and recently direct interactions between NLRs and transcription factors were reported, pointing at a close connection of these NLRs, including RPS4, to the chromatin. RRS1 contains a C-terminal WRKY transcription factor domain, and disruption of its DNA binding causes autoimmunity in the Arabidopsis slh1 mutant. To unravel the importance and dynamics of RRS1 DNA-association in plant immunity, transgenic RRS1 lines were characterized and used for chromatin-immunoprecipitation (ChIP). To allow conclusive evaluation of ChIP results, targeted mutations were inserted into RRS1 to generate loss- or gain-of-function alleles as ChIP controls.
Summarizing published information and data obtained from this work, a new model of RPS4 and RRS1 interaction is discussed where distinct immune complexes are formed in different cellular compartments to mediate cell death in the cytoplasm and transcriptional reprogramming in the nucleus.


The infra-red absorptivity of vitreous silica has been investigated in the region 100–15 cm–1 at 300 and 100 K. Above 18 cm–1 the absorptivity is independent of temperature and is undoubtedly caused by fundamental vibrations. A theory suggests that the absorptivity divided by the frequency squared should be more closely related to the density of vibrational states than should the direct spectrum. There is a maximum in this function at about 38 cm–1 which is due to the vibrations that can be considered as derived from the transverse acoustic maximum of cristobalite when it is vitrified. There is no evidence of fine structure in the infra-red spectrum, and it seems likely that the greatly increased heat capacity of vitreous silica at low temperatures over that of cristobalite is partly caused by the broadening of the transverse acoustic maximum.


1. In a recent paper [6], the spectrum of the Cesàro operator C on c0 (the space of null sequences of complex numbers with the sup norm) was obtained by finding the eigenvalues of the adjoint operator on and showing that the operator (C–λI)−1 lies in B(c0) for all λ outside the closure of this set of eigenvalues. In this paper we apply a similar method to find the spectrum of the two-dimensional Cesàro operator on a space of double sequences c0(c0) (defined in §2). We shall introduce a simplification to the proof in [6] by observing that (C – λI)−1, when it exists, is a Hausdorff summability method (see page 288 of [11] for the single variable case on the space of convergent sequences c), and the crux of our proof is to show that the moment constant associated with the method (C – λI)−1 is regular for the space c0(c0) and the set of λ under consideration. It turns out that c0(c0) ≅ c0c0 (see page 237 of [7]) and that the two-dimensional Cesàro operator on c0(c0) is the tensor product C ⊗ C of the Cesàro operator C on c0. Thus our result gives a direct proof that the spectrum σ(C ⊗ C) equals σ(C)σ(C), which is a special case of the result of Schechter in [8].


In our perinatal unit we applied the ten steps of WHO/UNICEF for Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative and evaluated the percentage of exclusive (EBF) or complementary breastfeeding (CBF), and of formula fed (FF) healthy full-term infants (HFI) at hospital discharge (HD). HFI performing EBF at HD were 85.3%, a quite high value. At the age of 3 mths EBF percentage ranged between 59-62.4%, and at 6 mths it decreased to 51.7-37.7%. Customer satisfaction questionnaire at HD ranked "good" to "very good" in 92.8%. Causes of breastfeeding reduction with time and comparison with previous and actual situation in Italy and civilized countries are discussed.


Students have been deserting IS and ICT courses in droves over the last three or four years, despite forecasts that job prospects in the IS/ICT industry are improving and that there is an impending skills shortage. This paper discusses implications of the current crisis, suggesting that there are in fact two related crises, before outlining a local national response and then proposing a framework for defining an IS career that recognizes the changes in the IS/ICT industry since the turn of the century. Broad career streams that emphasise the importance of IS students being given broad knowledge that includes people, business and technology skills are described. This framework needs to be further developed to provide a foundation to promote a businessfocussed, vibrant and important IS industry overall that will appeal to prospective students in order to provide the graduates to address the predicted skills shortage.


This article argues that some ostensible advantages of Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains (OT-CC) over classic OT are actually liabilities. OT-CC correctly predicts that Chamorro umlaut occurs only when trigger and target are adjacent. But OT-CC is incompatible with similar phenomena like Central Venetan metaphony, and attempts to modify OT-CC to produce metaphony impair the theory's handling of umlaut. Classic OT provides a superior approach: constraints grounded in prominence asymmetries produce the umlaut facts, and there is no conflict with analyses of metaphony. This result suggests that despite OT-CC's advancements in treatments of opacity, the theory's machinery remains inadequate in important ways.


BACKGROUND
Tobacco, alcohol and/or illicit drug use during pregnancy are risk factors for neonatal complications. In Puerto Rico, the Department of Health reports that 32% of pregnant women use alcohol and 3% use illicit drugs. Nineteen percent (19.1%) of newborns are born prematurely. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of illicit drug use during pregnancy in mothers of premature infants.

METHODS
This study included the data of 218 mothers of premature infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the University Pediatric Hospital during 2002 to 2005 enrolled in an educational program.

RESULTS
Fourteen women (6%) reported using illicit drugs during pregnancy (cocaine 2%, marihuana 3%, heroin 2%, methadone 2%, and ecstasy 1%). Mothers using drugs during pregnancy were more likely to start prenatal care after the first trimester (21% vs. 10% in nonusers; p < 0.01) and to smoke cigarettes (36% vs. 8% in nonusers; p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
The most important maternal-prenatal risk factor for drug use in this group of mothers, was failure to receive prenatal care during the first trimester, and cigarette use. The use of illicit drugs during pregnancy complicated by a premature delivery is underestimated and many times unknown to physicians. The physicians should be assertive in gathering this information while interviewing women during pregnancy and in the postpartum period since women who use drugs during pregnancy are at higher risk of social problems, future preterm deliveries and may impair adequate follow up of their premature babies.


Temperate forests are globally important carbon stores that are, in the face of recent improvements in their conservation, likely to increase their storage capacity in the future. Despite this, these ecosystems are poorly understood, especially over longer time periods. To remedy this and to better understand these important ecosystems, we monitored marked stems >5 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) in a 0.52 ha forest plot on the Cape Peninsula over 26 years. Aboveground biomass (AGB), calculated from stem diameter, increased from 203 to 226 Mg ha−1 over this period. The AGB residence time was greater than a century. Stem mortality was relatively high (1.2% per annum [p.a.]) and exceeded recruitment (0.2% p.a.). The recruitment of a large number of smaller stems of species not presently represented in the forest canopy suggests that compositional changes will occur in the future. Overall, these results suggest that the forest is in a post-disturbance recovery phase, although favourable climatic conditions over the last three decades may also have had an influence on AGB accumulation.


Nanopores have seen broad applicability as single-molecule sensors because of their spatiotemporally localized transduction and high intrinsic gain. In this dissertation, we seek to increase the bandwidths accessible to nanopore measurements through improvements to nanopores, associated measurements electronics, and their integration. Solid-state pores, in particular, can generate signals that are often more than an order of magnitude larger than their biological counterparts. These larger signals make solid-state pores much more amenable to high-bandwidth measurements. Earlier work showed DNA translocation measurements with sub-microsecond temporal resolution using silicon nitride nanopores. In this dissertation, we further improve the temporal resolution to 100 ns by a recently developed CMOS nanopore amplifier (CNP2) with 10 MHz bandwidth capacity using silicon nitride pores thinned with electronic beam techniques to < 3 nm thickness, with pore diameter compatible for ssDNA that hugs the molecules as it translocates. Overall signal-to-noise-ratio-limited bandwidth is optimized through appropriate choice of pore size, salt and bias voltage. To further reduce Cpore, we are passivating silicon-nitride pores with thick dielectrics. We have previously reported on fused-silica based solid state membrane carrying platform which allows us to reduce Cpore to values < 1 pF. We also make use of this versatile, low-capacitance platform to suspend other thin, two-dimensional membrane such as MoS2 to take advantage of the atomic thickness of these 2D materials to increase spatial resolution. In this dissertation, we present data of improvements in DNA translocation recordings in both time resolution and signal to noise ratio (SNR) from combining our custom electronics with these low-capacitance, high-conductance ultra-thin pores. The ultra-low measurement noise allows us to observe an excess current dependent noise due to the pore itself, and the rich dynamics as DNA translocate through the nanopore. We also explore other applications beyond single nanopore such as nanopore arrays and nanoribbon-nanopore devices. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Physics & Astronomy First Advisor Marija Drndic Second Advisor Eleni Katifori


Currently, detecting and isolating faults in hybrid systems is often done manually with the help of human operators. In this paper we present a novel model-based diagnosis approach for automatically diagnosing hybrid systems. The approach has two parts: First, modelling dynamic system behaviour is done through well-known state space models using differential equations. Second, from the state space models we calculate Boolean residuals through an observer-pattern. The novelty lies in implementing the observer pattern through the use of a symbolic system description specified in satisfiability theory modulo linear arithmetic. With this, we create a static situation for the diagnosis algorithm and decouple modelling and diagnosis. Evaluating the system description generates one Boolean residual for each component. These residuals constitute the fault symptoms. To find the minimum cardinality diagnosis from these symptoms we employ Reiter's diagnosis lattice.For the experimental evaluation we use a simulation of the Tennessee Eastman process and a simulation of a four-tank model. We show that the presented approach is able to identify all injected faults.


Among novel non-destructive evaluation techniques for structural health monitoring, the magnetostrictive (MS)-tagged fiber-reinforced composites stands out as especially suitable due to: (a) distributed sensory properties, (b) non-contact damage detection, and (c) straightforward manufacturing implementation. Experimental data and mathematical modeling of a MS-tagged fiber reinforced composite beam under bending (flexural) loading are presented. A brief review of the state of the art identifies previous work on axially loaded MS composites, but finds no previous work on bending. Description of bending beam design and fabrication is followed by theoretical analysis and by the description of the experimental set-up and equipment used. Several analysis models were used. Test data, with and without applying magnetic bias field between loading cycles, is presented and results are discussed. Numerical values for the stress and strain versus magnetic flux density coefficients are given for both annealed and non-annealed cases. Piezomagnetic coefficients for the MS composite are calculated. The correlation between the results developed in the present paper for bending and previously published results for axial loading is found to be within 10% after correction factors depending on the quantity of the MS material.


The EAS conference theme "Craftsmanship & Artistry" confers the image that general music education in 21st western century society moves from a work-based (cf. Small 1998: 2) towards a performance-based definition of music. An example is the work of the MayDay-Group, which formulates many of its seven ideals for general music education in terms of music making (Regelski e.a. 2009: xxxii).
This centrality of musicianship is not straightforward. Music is not one but a set of activities (Clarke 2005: 204), and for many music is meaningful in daily life without performance being central. Based on my own research of a varied selection of individuals narrating the importance of music in their lives, this article argues that craftsmanship and artistry are only two of many more ways of describing what music essentially "is".
We must take Cavicchi's (2009) thesis on the bifurcation of everyday and institutionalized musicality and the resulting "irrelevance of music education" seriously. Musicianship can't be positioned a-priori at the core of music education; its core must be located on the basis of research into what music means in the actual lives of actual people. This leads towards a more learner-centered approach to general music education in which each learner's idio-syncratic "musicker-ship" is the starting point.


Using a dual approach of wind tunnel experimentation and the development of an analytical model, the dispersion of pollutants from road vehicles has been investigated. A series of novel tests were conducted in an environmental wind tunnel which looked at the dispersion of propane in the wake of a 1=50th scale model of a lorry which was fired across the wind tunnel using a special rig. Time histories of concentration and air flow were taken as the lorry sped across the tunnel. Two experimental scenarios were investigated. The first, a simulation of a typical rural boundary layer, confirmed the existence of a wake behind the moving lorry. Concentration measurements revealed that the dispersion was largely Gaussian in nature and that at low cross wind speeds the vehicle-induced turbulence was the dominant mixing effect. Measurements were taken as the lorry passed along a model of an idealized urban street canyon. Time histories for individual firings exhibited two peaks as the propane was swept around the canyon in the resident vortex. Ensemble averages of several firings allowed a quantitative assessment of the rate of dispersal from the canyon to be made.

A computer model has been developed which predicts the dispersion of vehicular pollutants in both the rural and the urban street canyon environments. The model, based around the Gaussian Puff Method, extends the range of applicability of earlier models in several areas. It is a transient model which enables the investigation of traffic congestion and non-steady above canyon wind fields. It is also the first model to include individual vehicles as sources of both pollutant and turbulence. A detailed sensitivity study is presented, followed by an application of the model which attempts to predict probability distributions of pollutant in a street canyon.

Finally, a comparison between the analytical model and the experimental program is presented which demonstrates that the model is capable of modelling a real situation to a good degree of accuracy but also demonstrates that further validation is required.


The political acceptance and policy implementation of the right to health long remained uncertain in the United States, leaving it until recently as the only developed nation without policies to realise universal health coverage. By reengaging longstanding debates on government obligations to secure the health of every American, the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act or ACA) draws on an internationally recognised conception of a human right to health, seeking to progressively realise the 'highest attainable standard of physical and mental health' through policies that ensure the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of health care. With the US Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of most key aspects of the Affordable Care Act, this precedent-setting decision has created an imperative for health care reform in the United States and a model for realising universal health coverage pursuant to the right to health. This article examines the evolution, implementation, and implications of US efforts to realise health-related rights through health care policy. In the evolution of norms for health, Part 2 examines the intertwined history of US development of a right to health in international law and implementation through national health care reforms. Culminating in the promulgation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, Part 3 analyses how this national policy effort corresponds with the principles of the international right to health – even as it neglects any explicit recognition of the right to health. With the Affordable Care Act immediately challenged as a violation of the US Constitution, Part 4 looks to the first major challenges to the Affordable Care Act, analysing the Supreme Court's decision on these challenges. As the Supreme Court has now largely upheld the government's constitutional authority for health care reform, Part 5 considers the continuing challenges to the Affordable Care Act and the precedential impact of this decision on rights-based health reforms throughout the world. This article concludes with a hopeful assessment of the role of the United States as it moves progressively toward universal health coverage and frames an agenda for renewed American participation in global efforts to realise the highest attainable standard of health.


The study of multimodality is comparatively less developed for affective interfaces than for their traditional counterparts. However, one condition for the successful development of affective interface technologies is the development of frameworks for the real-time multimodal fusion. In this paper, we describe an approach to multimodal affective fusion, which relies on a dimensional model, Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD) to support the fusion of affective modalities, each input modality being represented as a PAD vector. We describe how this model supports both affective content fusion and temporal fusion within a unified approach. We report results from early user studies which confirm the existence of a correlation between measured affective input and user temperament scores.


The regulation of audiovisual media under the WTO has always been controversial, highlighted by the difficulties in negotiations exhibited in the Uruguay Round, which formed the WTO as we know it today. This paper addresses the divide between those favouring trade liberalisation and those who argue that such media should not be regulated like other products or services, as they should come under a "cultural exception". It discusses recent negotiations in the Doha Round, which show the continuing tensions between the two perspectives. Additionally, the paper assesses WTO-Members' commitments under GATS, their National cultural policies, regarding audiovisual media, and provisions in GATT and GATS that allow for National flexibility, with respect to cultural policies. It concludes by analysing issues which have yet to be resolved. Specifically, whether an SCM-like agreement should be created for audiovisual services, the appropriateness of the classification system (as a consequence of changing technology), National rules regarding technical standards and licensing procedures and whether they could be barriers to trade, and the balance between maintaining competition and safeguarding cultural diversity. An updated version is published as Audio-visual Policy: The Stumbling Block of Trade Liberalisation. THE WTO AND GLOBAL CONVERGENCE IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND AUDIOVISUAL SERVICES, Damien Geradin and David Luff (eds), pp. 165-214, Cambridge University Press, 2004.


Plea-bargaining literature predicts that parties strike plea bargains in the shadows of expected trial outcomes. In other words, parties forecast the expected sentence after trial, discount it by the probability of acquittal, and offer some proportional discount. This oversimplified model ignores how structural distortions skew bargaining outcomes, causing them to diverge from trial outcomes. Part I of this Article explores the various structural forces that warp plea bargains. Agency costs, attorney compensation and workloads, resources, sentencing and bail rules, and information deficits all skew bargaining. In addition, psychological biases and heuristics warp judgments. Part II applies recent research from behavioral law and economics and cognitive psychology to critique plea bargaining. Overconfidence, denial, discounting, risk preferences, loss aversion, framing, and anchoring all affect bargaining decisions. Skilled lawyers can partly counteract some of these problems, but they can also overcompensate. The oversimplified shadow-of-trial model of plea bargaining needs to be supplemented by a structural-psychological perspective. On this perspective, uncertainty, money, self-interest, and demographic variation greatly influence plea bargains. Part III explores how to respond to the various structural and psychological influences that warp plea bargains. Reforming systems of defense counsel, bail rules, and the structure of sentencing rules, and increasing use of mediators and judges in bargaining could ameliorate some of these influences. Other problems, such as demographic variations in psychology, are very difficult to correct. These influences cast light on how civil and criminal bargaining differ in important respects.


This thesis is a contribution to cross-national studies of professional officer education and training. It describes and evaluates a junior officer preparation programme at King Khaled Military Academy (KKMA), Saudi Arabia, in a comprehensive way. Both positive and negative aspects of the programme are included in this study, along with an extensive literature survey highlighting common features of programme effectiveness and potential barriers to success.

The research develops an innovative five-point "star model" for the evaluation of junior officer preparation programmes, deemed appropriate for the investigation of five programme components: recruitment and selection, indoctrination, vocational preparation, liberal education,
and physical fitness.

To obtain multiple viewpoints in evaluating KKMA's junior officer programme, the study adopts a multiple method design integrating the use of questionnaires, interviews, and documentary evidence, in order to permit triangulation. It is also guided by three questions: "How is it done? "; "How well is it done? "; and "How can it be improved". In total, one hundred graduating cadets, forty seven teaching staff members, and three high-ranking military officers took part in this study.

The study is organised as follows. Chapter one introduces the research, chapter two explores issues surrounding the professional education and training of the modem military officer, chapter three surveys the relevant literature, chapter four explains the study's methodology, chapters five to nine present the results and chapter ten discusses the main findings and draws conclusions.

The major findings of this research are as follows: based mainly on the perceptions of the research participants, (1) KKMA's recruitment and selection system was judged to be
unsystematic and ineffective despite the huge efforts and resources invested in it annually; (2) the evidence pointed to a mixed verdict with regard to KKMA's indoctrination programme, recognising that it was strong in terms of military culture, but weak because it emphasised
soldiering over leadership training; (3) the Academy's vocational programme was overall rated as moderately effective and balanced, although improvements were needed in the provision of technical, technological, and leadership skills; (4) the liberal education programme was also judged to be on balance moderately effective despite imperfections, particularly in terms of relevance to military needs; finally (5) KKMA's physical fitness programme equally emerged as moderately effective despite weaknesses and barriers impeding its success, its greatest
deficiency being that it did not teach cadets how to coach others.

Practical implications include the need to review and update every aspect of KKMA's junior officer preparation programme, if it is to continue to enjoy high esteem for excellence and integrity, and if its graduates are to merit the status of professionals.


Abstract This paper sets out to investigate Chinese university students' ELF awareness, which is conceptualised with regards to language education. The study, based on 24 semi-structured interviews, demonstrates that Chinese university students are still framing their understanding of English with the affiliation to idealised notions of monolingual origin of native English, despite being situated in a changing world where multilingual speakers of English are becoming the majority of English users and ELF is becoming a prominent communicative phenomenon. The participants' account reveals the role of language education as the interface between language ideology and linguistic reality in China. Based on the study, this paper suggests ways of minimising the gap in ELF awareness. While this paper appreciates Chinese philosophy of education, the focus is on promoting awareness of English in relation to its sociocultural context and considering "imagined communities" in the learning so as to come to terms with sociolinguistic reality.


Objective: Laws that prohibit certain individuals from owning firearms also pertain to ammunition. Whereas retail sales of firearms to criminals are regularly disrupted by instant background checks, sales of ammunition are essentially unchecked and the rate at which criminals acquire ammunition is unknown. This research describes the ammunition market and estimates the rate at which criminals are acquiring ammunition. Design: Criminal background checks conducted on individuals purchasing ammunition in the City of Los Angeles in April and May 2004. Setting: Los Angeles, CA, USA. Subjects: Ammunition purchasers. Main outcome measures: Criminal activity that prohibits one from owning, purchasing, or possessing ammunition. Results: 2.6% (95% CI 1.9% to 3.2%) of ammunition purchasers had a prior felony conviction or another condition that prohibited them from possessing ammunition. During the study period prohibited possessors purchased 10 050 rounds of ammunition in Los Angeles. Conclusions: These estimates suggest that monitoring ammunition transactions may help reduce the supply of ammunition to criminals and the frequency of injuries from felonious gun assaults. Such a record can also provide information for generating leads on illegal firearm possession.