This study offers a critical examination investigating non-traditional female students studying on a Foundation Degree in Early Years programme and how the use of reflective practice enhances skills in personal and professional development. The previous Labour government developed the requirement for an Early Years Professional in every early years setting by 2015 (CWDC, 2010). This allowed those working in the early years sector to gain graduate status through means of studying a part-time foundation degree programme designed to meet the needs of working practitioners.
A theme running throughout foundation degree programmes is reflective practice however many students struggle to understand not only the concept of reflective practice but also how to practically reflect on practice. There are also many barriers that non-traditional female students have to overcome such as commitments to family (Gouthro, 2005; Vaccaro and Lovell, 2010), employment (Moss, 2006) and domestic chores (Daniels, 2010) to name a few. Daniels (2010) acknowledges that more mature women are returning to learning however their everyday lives and experiences are often misunderstood and this can create problems for female learners.
It is with this in mind that the small scale study was undertaken using the qualitative method of semi-structured interviews and included seven participants; five of whom had studied the Foundation Degree in Early Years and two who teach on a foundation degree programme. It became essential to the study that the views of those who teach on foundation degree programmes on reflective practice and personal and professional development were sought. As Boud and Walker (1998) assert, teachers themselves must have an interest in fostering reflection in order to facilitate their student's reflective practice. The study concluded that reflective practice does enhance personal and professional development however there are many barriers to overcome if students are to gain the most out of using reflection as a tool to develop themselves and their practice.


ABSTRACT Few studies have examined potential differences between social anxiety disorder (SAD) and generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) in the sensitivity to detect emotional expressions. The present study aims to compare the detection of emotional expressions in SAD and GAD. Participants with a primary diagnosis of GAD (n = 46), SAD (n = 70), and controls (n = 118) completed a morph movies task. The task presented faces expressing increasing degrees of emotional intensity, slowly changing from a neutral to a full-intensity happy, sad, or angry expressions. Participants used a slide bar to view the movie frames from left to right, and to stop at the first frame where they perceived an emotion. The frame selected thus indicated the intensity of emotion required to identify the facial expression. Participants with GAD detected the onset of facial emotions at lower intensity of emotion than participants with SAD (p = 0.002) and controls (p = 0.039). In a multiple regression analysis controlling for age, race, and depressive symptom severity, lower frame at which the emotion was detected was independently associated and GAD diagnosis (B = –5.73, SE = 1.74, p < 0.01). Our findings suggest that individuals with GAD exhibit enhanced detection of facial emotions compared to those with SAD or controls.


Available empirical research investigating the relationship that study time has with college student performance has seen mixed results. Positive, negative, and no relationship between the two variables has been reported (G. A. Krohn & C. M. O'Conner, 2005; A. G. Lahmers & C. Zulauf, 2000; R. M. Schmidt, 1983). At a time when there is overwhelming evidence that students are devoting less time to their studies (Higher Education Research Institute, 2003), it is critical for educators who desire to encourage and motivate their students to engage in productive study behavior to first understand the true nature of this relationship. The authors investigated the influence of a third variable, study habits. Based on a sample of business students, results showed some study habits had a positive direct relationship on student performance but others had a negative direct relationship. Results also showed 1 study habit moderated the relationship between study time and student performance positively, but another study habit moderated the relationship negatively. Discussion of the findings, implications, and directions for further research are also provided.


In reinforced concrete systems, ensuring that a good bond between the concrete and the embedded reinforcing steel is critical to long-term structural performance. Without good bond between the two, the system simply cannot behave as intended. The bond strength of reinforcing bars is a complex interaction between localized deformations, chemical adhesion, and other factors. Coating of reinforcing bars, although sometimes debated, has been commonly found to be an effective way to delay the initiation of corrosion in reinforced concrete systems. For many years, the standard practice has been to coat reinforcing steel with an epoxy coating, which provides a barrier between the steel and the corrosive elements of water, air, and chloride ions. Recently, there has been an industry-led effort to use galvanizing to provide the protective barrier commonly provided by traditional epoxy coatings. However, as with any new structural product, questions exist regarding both the structural performance and corrosion resistance of the system. In the fall of 2013, Buchanan County, Iowa constructed a demonstration bridge in which the steel girders and all internal reinforcing steel were galvanized. The work completed in this project sought to understand the structural performance of galvanized reinforcing steel as compared to epoxy-coated steel and to initiate a long-term corrosion monitoring program. This work consisted of a series of controlled laboratory tests and the installation of a corrosion monitoring system that can be observed for years in the future. The results of this work indicate there is no appreciable difference between the bond strength of epoxy-coated reinforcing steel and galvanized reinforcing steel. Although some differences were observed, no notable difference in either peak load, slip, or failure mode could be identified. Additionally, a long-term monitoring system was installed in this Buchanan County bridge and, to date, no corrosion activity has been identified.


The role of a glucagon/cAMP-dependent protein kinase–inducible coactivator PGC-1α signaling pathway is well characterized in hepatic gluconeogenesis. However, an opposing protein kinase B (PKB)/Akt-inducible corepressor signaling pathway is unknown. A previous report has demonstrated that small heterodimer partner–interacting leucine zipper protein (SMILE) regulates the nuclear receptors and transcriptional factors that control hepatic gluconeogenesis. Here, we show that hepatic SMILE expression was induced by feeding in normal mice but not in db/db and high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. Interestingly, SMILE expression was induced by insulin in mouse primary hepatocyte and liver. Hepatic SMILE expression was not altered by refeeding in liver-specific insulin receptor knockout (LIRKO) or PKB β-deficient (PKBβ−/−) mice. At the molecular level, SMILE inhibited hepatocyte nuclear factor 4–mediated transcriptional activity via direct competition with PGC-1α. Moreover, ablation of SMILE augmented gluconeogenesis and increased blood glucose levels in mice. Conversely, overexpression of SMILE reduced hepatic gluconeogenic gene expression and ameliorated hyperglycemia and glucose intolerance in db/db and HFD-fed mice. Therefore, SMILE is an insulin-inducible corepressor that suppresses hepatic gluconeogenesis. Small molecules that enhance SMILE expression would have potential for treating hyperglycemia in diabetes.


Abstract Two new factors have appeared on the Tibetan political scene after the recent leadership change in China. First, the 'spiritualisation' of politics: paradoxically, the atheist Chinese Communist Party (CCP), also known as The Communist Party of China (CPC) seems increasingly interested in 'spiritual' matters. The CCP has started promoting reincarnated Lamas, known in China as 'Living Buddhas', in a big way. The purpose is to prepare for the post-Dalai Lama era. The second new development is the emergence of a 'Tibet Gang'. A string of officials who have been posted to or connected with Tibet at one point or another in their career have now joined the Politburo, the government or the top rung of the Party. This article will study these developments and look at the possible implications.


In this paper I examine how labour geographer's research on the work-place, the wage relation and class have evolved and assess their implications for the sub-discipline. Since the early 1990s post-structural and post-structurally informed Marxist approaches have both challenged classical Marxism and added new insights. In particular, the former have de-centred the formal work-place as a site of value production, exploitation and class and emphasized the critical role of intersectionality of class with other identities such as gender and race. Paralleling and informing this shift has been a significant restructuring of capitalism as formerly stable employment is disrupted via (often global) outsourcing, downsizing and the blurring of enterprises and organizations. Thus post-structural perspectives have developed important insights into the active agency and the differentiated nature of labour, the work-place and class. Yet despite some congruence between post-structural and Marxist approaches I argue that there remain important empirical and theoretical concerning the work-place, the wage- relation and class. I conclude that while post-structural approaches are correct in arguing that the formal work-place and wage relation are not the exclusive sites of work, surplus production or class identity, over-emphasize the decline of the formal work-place and the wage relation's role in collectivity and class identity more traditional Marxian concerning this relationship remain powerfully relevant to both labour geography and progressive politics.


Abstract Mammalian chewing rate scales inversely to body mass (M); however, controversy exists over the value of the scaling exponent. Different mechanisms explain different values of the scaling exponent; hence, a better estimate of the exponent would provide insight into the mechanisms governing chewing rate across mammalian species. We evaluated the relationship between mean chewing cycle duration (CD; i.e., the inverse of mean chewing rate) and M in 132 species and removed phylogenetic effects by using an independent contrast method currently used in evolutionary biology studies. A one-third–power law resulted when independent contrasts were not used; however, a one-third– to one-fourth–power law resulted when independent contrasts were used to remove phylogenetic effects. We hypothesize that variation in the scaling exponent is due to natural selection acting to increase metabolic efficiency; and variation in the complexity of mandibular kinematics, motor control asymmetry, and mandibular biomechanics, which may act to increase CDs above the "ideal" one-fourth–power law. Future studies should consider effects due to jaw-movement kinematics, motor control issues, and biomechanics.


This essay is a bachelor's thesis in the field of International Relations. The purpose is to make visible and analyse how problem representations in policies can reproduce norms, and how this has changed over a limited period of time. The purpose includes the ambition to be able to illustrate deficiencies in the European Union's policies on gender equality. The essay intends to analyse the representations and norms in terms of a gender system. The theoretical framework consists of theories on normalization and gender system. The method used is called "What's the problem?" developed by Carol Lee Bacchi. To achieve gender equality the EU produces policies on gender mainstreaming, this study analyses three of these policy documents. The result of the analysis shows that there has been no major change in the representation of problems in the documents and that they are reproducing stereotypical norms. The result also shows that the representations of problems are possible to explain with the theory on gender system, which allows further studies to develop a well-grounded critique of the EU policies.


"I think that part of the (the black scholar's) responsibility is to help the people to see themselves in a new light, to see themselves not primarily as victims of America but as co-creators of the past, as co-creators of the present, and as co-creators of a new vision for creating the American future. ... Wherever and however possible, (scholars) must direct as much of their writing, their speaking (and) their teaching ... directly to the life and heart and growth of the community. ... The responsibility of black scholars is to return to people a higher, deeper, cleaner version of the light that the people have given them, for they would have nothing to write their thousand monographs about were it not for the people." Vincent Harding, "Responsibilities of the Black Scholar to the Community" (2) This issue of Afro-Americans in New York Life and History contains four articles whose primary source research and themes are connected to a public history research initiative called the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP). Each piece draws inspiration from the BAAHP's community-based work with Bronx public schools, elected officials, churches and non-profit agencies, or relies heavily on the primary source material the BAAHP has uncovered in its oral history project. The purpose of this introduction, therefore, is to explain the relationship between the BAAHP and these scholarly articles. In the process, there also will be brief discussion of the ways the BAAHP fits into long traditions that serve what Vincent Harding referred to in the above epigraph as, "the life and heart and growth of the community." Such service has been one of the chief hallmarks of African Americans' historical scholarship since at least the late nineteenth century. (3) The guest editors of this issue also contend that the original research and analytical arguments contained in these articles exemplify the types of scholarship that can emerge from a community-university collaborative endeavor such as the BAAHP. Each article highlights voices and subjects that are often overlooked in scholarship on black people in New York and indeed, the larger fields of urban history and cultural anthropology. Such scholarship has emerged, in large part, because of the BAAHP, whose mission and methodology draws much of its direction from the very same people it studies and documents. "A TREMENDOUS DEMAND FROM PEOPLE:" ORAL HISTORY'S REDEMPTIVE PROPERTIES The BAAHP is a public history research and education initiative administered by Fordham University's Department of African and African American Studies and the Bronx County Historical Society (BCHS). While these institutions provide the organizational structure for the BAAHP's work, the project's heart and soul is an ongoing community-based oral history project whose lifeblood flows through a dynamic partnership between university trained scholars and over a dozen enthusiastic, engaged individuals - artists, educators, activists, local elected officials, retirees, veterans, and local church members - known to the BAAHP as community researchers. These women and men make possible the BAAHP's research into the roles that black people have played in Bronx history and the ways twentieth century black Bronxites lived, learned, worked, worshiped, built communities and interacted with diverse groups of neighbors. Community researchers identify potential interviewees; they serve as an essential bridge between scholars in the academy and the history that is housed, literally, in the collective memory of the community; and they help shape the project's direction by advising its staff on topics to research and themes to emphasize in programs and exhibits. This partnership between academia and the Bronx community has created a remarkably rich collection of primary sources, which includes close to 250 oral history interviews (over 180 of which have been transcribed) and organization records and personal manuscript collections, all of which specifically underscore the ways people of African descent influenced political, religious, civic, economic and cultural life in New York's northern most borough. …


This paper focuses on financial disadvantage among Australians using data from the first two waves (2001 and 2002) of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Alternative Format.Four measures of poverty/disadvantage are explored in the paper: - Relative income poverty (households with less than 50% median equivalised disposable income). - Relative after-housing income poverty (50% median equivalised after-housing income). - Subjective poverty (households reporting that their household was 'poor' or 'very poor'). - Financial stress (households reporting two or more of seven financial stress items from the following list: could not pay utility bills on time, could not pay mortgage or rent on time, pawned or sold something, went without meals, was unable to heat home, asked for financial help from friends or family, and asked for help from welfare or community organisations).This paper investigates the extent of financial disadvantage in Australia according to these four dimensions, the relationships of these dimensions with other factors, and the interrelationships between these measures and their performance over time.


The Government of Cameroon's lack of priority for rural water supply has motivated rural communities to harness their internal capacity and networks for self-help community water supply projects. The emerging paradigm of joint water supply projects between communities in rural Cameroon and large corporations, with both parties as principal beneficiaries (unlike self-help projects where the principal beneficiary is the community), is examined. Our findings, based on the Mautu community and the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) joint project, suggest that this paradigm can be an attractive alternative for rural communities to gain access to piped water systems. However, to ensure long term performance of the rural community's distribution network, the more experienced corporate partner should negotiate a fair agreement, integrate capacity building for operation and maintenance, and include future growth and increased demand in the design of the community's network. Significant inequity during design of the supply to the two partners can lead to the dysfunction of the community system and trigger the perception of profiteering by the corporate partner resulting in subsequent vandalism. It is recommended that such joint partnerships be regulated and that local institutions working with rural communities should educate them on available support services.


Feedback can be given in various situations, like after examinations, project work, and course completion. It is widely accepted that feedback is important for students' learning, and it can be used in various ways, such as, written, face-to-face, and with the assistance of video recordings. This study focuses on the use of video recorded feedback to gather knowledge on how video recorded feedback can enhance the students learning. Since feedback in the study was given in video recordings, an alternate way was introduced, which add further insights for teaching and learning at university levels. The results showed that 94% preferred video recorded feedback over written feedback and they, in general, preferred face to face feedback (59%). Although, follow-up questions showed that the students found the recorded option beneficial since they could review the video several times in order to see and hear exactly what was stated and what part of their work it related to. In conclusion, video feedback of student work was perceived to be beneficial and the students and the teacher positively accepted it.


Developments in information technology have helped libraries to provide timely information to the users. The role of library is to acquire, organize information and make available to the library users. Electronic resources are the most important entity in research library and used to meet the information quickly to the users. E-resources are going to continuously increased in library. IARI library is a national library and has reach collection of electronic resources in the field of agricultural research and education. In this paper we have discusses the scientist's awareness of electronic resources in Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.


During spinal cord development, Sonic hedgehog (Shh), secreted from the floor plate, plays an important role in the production of motor neurons by patterning the ventral neural tube, which establishes MN progenitor identity. It remains unknown, however, if Shh signaling plays a role in generating columnar diversity of MNs that connect distinct target muscles. Here, we report that Shh, expressed in MNs, is essential for the formation of lateral motor column (LMC) neurons in vertebrate spinal cord. This novel activity of Shh is mediated by its downstream effector ARHGAP36, whose expression is directly induced by the MN-specific transcription factor complex Isl1-Lhx3. Furthermore, we found that AKT stimulates the Shh activity to induce LMC MNs through the stabilization of ARHGAP36 proteins. Taken together, our data reveal that Shh, secreted from MNs, plays a crucial role in generating MN diversity via a regulatory axis of Shh-AKT-ARHGAP36 in the developing mouse spinal cord.


An ad hoc wireless network contains mobile networks which creates an underlying architecture for communication without the help of traditional fixed-position routers. Nevertheless, the architecture must maintain communication routes although the hosts are mobile and they have limited transmission range. There are different protocols for handling the routing in the mobile environment. This paper will focus on two well know algorithms: Optimized Link State Routing Protocol and Optimized Linked State Routing Protocol for Energy Consumption.


Formal sector unemployment forces many workers to venture into the informal sector . The activities of day labourers are no exception. The aim of this paper is to address the lack of research on informal labour markets by focusing on the day labourers in Pretoria as a case study and to investigate the employment history of and income earned by day labourers in Pretoria. Day labourers involved in this study were mainly male, young, low skilled, earning low and uncertain levels of income and working under harsh conditions. A significant portion of day labourers in Pretoria previously held formal sector occupations. Long spells of unemployment can make it difficult for day labourers to return to the formal sector. Many activities in the informal sector can never provide a permanent solution to unemployment.


The German economy is running at full steam. Economic activity has further accelerated in the current year and leading indicators suggest that the rapid pace of expansion will continue in the coming year. We expect gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 2.3 percent in 2017 (calendar-adjusted: 2.6 percent) and by 2.5 percent in 2018 (calendar-adjusted: 2.6 percent); this is an upward revision by 0.3 percentage points in both years compared to our forecast in September. With capacity utilization already well above normal levels, the German economy is, thus, approaching a boom period. Tensions are becoming more and more apparent on the labor market. As a result, higher wages will boost the income gains of private households while employment growth is likely to slow down a bit. The inflation rate is expected to rise and to reach 2 percent in 2019. The expansion of the German economy is broad-based. Private consumption will continue to expand at a relatively high rate due to high income growth. The boom in the construction sector is ongoing, although capacity constraints will lead to a considerable increase in construction prices. Exports are likely to be further stimulated by the strong upswing in the global economy. Moreover, business investment is becoming an additional pillar of the expansion as firms increasingly move away from their previously observed wait-and-see approach, in view of high capacity utilization and favorable business prospects. Cyclical factors will lead to a high budget surplus of about 1.5 percent relative to GDP. The scope for additional expenditures is very limited, however, since the increase in revenues is only a temporary phenomenon and demographic developments will cause considerable budgetary burdens in the future.


During development, stem cells usually generate one daughter cell that differentiates and another stem cell. Ohlstein and Spradling now describe a type of stem cell in the Drosophila intestine that produces three offspring fates--a stem cell, an enterocyte, and an enteroendocrine cell. The choice in fate seems to depend on the amount of the protein Delta (which can activate the signaling receptor Notch) that is expressed in the stem cell at cell division. Daughter cells with high amounts of Delta-Notch signaling become enterocytes, those with lower amounts become enteroendocrine cells, and those with the least amount retain the stem cell fate. B. Ohlstein, A. Spradling, Multipotent Drosophila intestinal stem cells specify daughter cell fates by differential Notch signaling. Science 315, 988-992 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The Information Management Group at Dublin City University has research themes such as digital multimedia, interoperable systems and database engineering. In the area of digital multimedia, a collaboration with our School of Electronic Engineering has formed the Centre for Digital Video Processing, a university designated research centre whose aim is to research, develop and evaluate content-based operations on digital video information. To achieve this goal, the range of expertise in this centre covers the complete gamut from image analysis and feature extraction through to video search engine technology and interfaces to video browsing. The Interoperable Systems Group has research interests in federated databases and interoperability, object modelling and database engineering. This report describes the research activities of the major groupings within the Information Management community in Dublin City
University.


The growing use of multicore and networked computing systems is increasing the importance of developing reliable parallel and distributed code. Unfortunately, developing and testing such code is notoriously hard, especially for shared-memory models of programming. The actor model offers a promising alternative paradigm based on message passing. Essentially, an actor is an autonomous concurrent object which interacts with other actors only by exchanging messages. In actor-based systems, the key source of non-determinism is the order in which messages are delivered to—and processed by—the actors. Bugs can still occur in actor programs as the interleaving of messages may be incorrect, or the sequential code within an actor can have bugs. We developed a general framework, called SEJAP, for exploring possible message schedules in actor systems compiled to the Java bytecode. Specifically, in this dissertation, we present one instantiation of SEJAP for the actor library of the Scala programming language. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first framework that allows systematic exploration of Scala actor programs. We also present two optimizations that alleviate the state explosion problem typical for such exploration, and thus speed up the overall exploration of actor programs in SEJAP. We have implemented our framework, Scala instantiation, and optimizations in Java PathFinder, a widely used model checker for Java bytecode developed by NASA. Preliminary results show that SEJAP can effectively explore executions of actor programs. Further, our use of SEJAP already discovered a previously unknown bug in the sample code from a popular site for Scala.


Background:Intestinal microbiota influences the progression of colitis-associated colorectal cancer. With diet being a key determinant of the gut microbial ecology, dietary interventions are an attractive avenue for the prevention of colitis-associated colorectal cancer. Curcumin is the most active constituent of the ground rhizome of the Curcuma longa plant, which has been demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and antiproliferative properties. Methods:Il10−/− mice on 129/SvEv background were used as a model of colitis-associated colorectal cancer. Starting at 10 weeks of age, wild-type or Il10−/− mice received 6 weekly intraperitoneal injections of azoxymethane (AOM) or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and were started on either a control or a curcumin-supplemented diet. Stools were collected every 4 weeks for microbial community analysis. Mice were killed at 30 weeks of age. Results:Curcumin-supplemented diet increased survival, decreased colon weight/length ratio, and, at 0.5%, entirely eliminated tumor burden. Although colonic histology indicated improvement with curcumin, no effects of mucosal immune responses have been observed in PBS/Il10−/− mice and limited effects were seen in AOM/Il10−/− mice. In wild-type and in Il10−/− mice, curcumin increased bacterial richness, prevented age-related decrease in alpha diversity, increased the relative abundance of Lactobacillales, and decreased Coriobacterales order. Taxonomic profile of AOM/Il10−/− mice receiving curcumin was more similar to those of wild-type mice than those fed control diet. Conclusions:In AOM/Il10−/− model, curcumin reduced or eliminated colonic tumor burden with limited effects on mucosal immune responses. The beneficial effect of curcumin on tumorigenesis was associated with the maintenance of a more diverse colonic microbial ecology.


The object of this investigation was to determine the characteristics of various types of wings having sufficient depth to entirely inclose the wing bracing, and also to provide data for the further design of such sections. This type of wing is of interest because it eliminates the resistance of the interplane bracing, a portion of the airplane that sometimes absorbs one-quarter of the total power required to fly, and because these wings may be made to give a very high maximum lift. Results of the investigation of the following subjects are given: (1) effect of changing the upper and lower camber of thick aerofoils of uniform section; (2) effect of thickening the center and thinning the tips of a thin aerofoil; (3) effect of adding a convex lower surface to a tapered section; (4) effect of changing the mean thickness with constant center and tip sections; and (5) effect of varying the chord along the span.


While resource quality and predator‐derived chemical cues can each have profound effects on zooplankton populations and their function in ecosystems, the strength and direction of their interactive effects remain unclear. We conducted laboratory experiments to evaluate how stoichiometric food quality (i.e., algal carbon [C] : phosphorus [P] ratios) affects responses of the zooplankter, Daphnia pulicaria, to predator‐derived chemical cues. We compared growth rates, body P content, metabolic rates, life‐history shifts, and survival of differentially P‐nourished Daphnia in the presence and absence of chemical cues derived from fish predators. We found effects of predator cues and/or stoichiometric food quality on all measured traits of Daphnia. Exposure to fish cues led to reduced growth and increased metabolic rates but had little effect on the body %P content of Daphnia. Elevated algal C : P ratios reduced growth and body %P and increased mass‐specific respiration rates. While most of the effects of predator cues and algal C : P ratios of Daphnia were non‐interactive, reduced survival and relatedly reduced population growth rates that resulted from P‐poor food were amplified in the presence of predator‐derived cues. Our results demonstrate that stoichiometric food quality interacts with antipredator responses of Daphnia, but these effects are largely trait dependent and appear connected to animal life‐history evolution. Given the ubiquity of predators and P‐poor food in lake ecosystems, our results highlight the importance of the interactive responses of animals to predator cues and poor nutrition.


Technology development has enabled companies of all kinds, industries, and sizes to actively participate in international business. Information and communications technology (ICT), and especially e-business tools, are important for the international activities of companies. ICT empowers the company's potential to contribute significantly to economic growth, as it plays a vital role in simplifying business processes and contributes to the improvement of the competitive market presence of a company. The objective of this research is to identify the level of e-business tools adoption in Croatian exporting companies and investigate its influence on their export performance. In the analysis of the level of e-business tools adoption, a partial OECD e-commerce maturity model was used, which measures several aspects of ICT readiness and intensity of web sites and e-commerce in exporting companies. Several distinct aspects of e-business tools adoption were examined, namely e-mail usage, internet usage in market research, promotion, e-commerce, and e-payment possibilities. The export performance level was measured through three elements: the export/total business activities ratio, the export/total revenue ratio and, additionally, the existence of multilingual official websites. Our findings provide enough evidence that e-business tools adoption has a positive correlation to export performance for Croatian exporters. However, it should be noted that three e-business tools adoption factors positively correlate with export performance: namely (1) e-mail use for correspondence with partners/suppliers/buyers, (2) use of the internet as a promotional tool for foreign markets and (3) e-payment use. Two remaining e-business tools adoption factors that were measured – (1) use of the internet as an information source on foreign markets/buyers/suppliers and (2) online ordering/sales, did not record a significant correlation with export performance. These findings imply that there is still room for better implementation of e-business tools in Croatian exporting companies, particularly regarding market research and online ordering and sales that can contribute to better export performance. With regard to international market geographical orientation, we found significant differences in exporting companies oriented toward geographically and culturally distant markets (non-regional and non-EU markets) that have a statistically higher level of e-business tools implementation in comparison to those exporting dominantly to regional and EU markets. This illustrates the significance of e-business tools adoption for reaching and managing those distant markets that are important for a number of Croatian exporters.


A racetrack waveguide resonator filter was fabricated by ion exchange technology in K9 optical glass. The filter responses of the waveguide resonator were measured with two polarized input lightwaves. The polarization-dependent characteristics of the waveguide resonator were analyzed, and the results of effective indices of n_(TE)=1.5721 and n_(TM)=1.5548, coupling ratios of r_(TE)=0.731 and r_(TM)=0.761, and losses of 'alpha'_(TE)=4.35 dB/cm and 'alpha'_(TM)=6.05 dB/cm were obtained for transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes, respectively. The causes of large loss and effective index differences between TE and TM modes were discussed.


Purpose
This paper is drawn from a larger study investigating community perceptions of police legitimacy in the Monash Local Government Area (LGA), in the Australian state of Victoria. Monash had seen declining results in the official government survey in the indicators that assessed police legitimacy over the preceding decade. The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of both migrant and non-migrant participants to understand the role of migrant status in influencing assessments of police legitimacy in Monash LGA.

Design/methodology/approach
Through six focus groups, 18 interviews and one e-mail response with 31 individuals, perceptions of Victoria Police among the communities of Monash were collated and analysed.

Findings
One of the key findings of the study was that ethnic diversity and/or migrant status of community members were a key factor raised in response to questions about community perceptions of the legitimacy of Victoria Police in Monash LGA. Demographic change had been significant in Monash LGA over the preceding decade, including increasing ethnic diversity in the population and a shift in migration patterns from predominantly European to migrants from East and South Asia. In this paper, the authors suggest that the migrant status of Monash residents was a key factor that both migrant and non-migrant participants thought influenced perceptions of the police. Accordingly, because migrants make up a significant cohort of Australia's population, we afford due attention to this previously overlooked topic.

Practical implications
The practical implications of this paper are as follows: existing Victoria Police partnerships in the Monash community should be continued and expanded where possible; Victoria Police should also prioritise partnerships with large, new migrant communities, for example, Monash's Chinese communities; orientation for new migrants to Victoria around the criminal justice system, including Victoria Police, would help new migrants be more aware of their rights and what to expect of law enforcement in their new host country; police should continue to increase representation of ethnic diversity in the force via recruitment of greater numbers of ethnically diverse police members.

Originality/value
Although there have been previous Australian studies on migrant status as a factor in perceptions of criminal justice (see Murphy and Cherney, 2011, 2012; Hong Chui and Kwok-Yin Cheng, 2014), the paper identifies a distinct narrative around migrants' views of Victoria Police which the authors believe warrant further investigation using an example from a local context. Furthermore, most research in this field has been quantitative. The current study provides additional new insights through an in-depth qualitative approach.


1. Though the occurrence of intestinal mucosal uptake of intact peptides, with cellular hydrolysis to amino acids, has been established, the importance of this mode of absorption in protein absorption is not known. This paper describes a comparison of the rates of intestinal absorption of pancreatic hydrolysates of four proteins with those of the corresponding acid hydrolysates or amino acid mixtures. 2. The results show that the absorption of pancreatic hydrolysates, consisting largely of small peptides of two to six amino acid residues, is substantially more rapid than that of the corresponding mixtures of free amino acids. This shows that the small intestine has a high capacity for absorption from mixtures of small peptides such as might be produced during protein digestion, and supports the hypothesis that mucosal uptake of intact oligopeptides is an important mode of protein absorption.


We report on the synthesis of highly uniform, single phase zinc ferrite films prepared through a single step low temperature reaction by the liquid phase deposition (LPD) method. X-ray diffraction, TGA and EDX measurements support the assumption that the as-deposited films are constituted from a mixture of crystallized FeOOH and amorphous Zn(OH)2. Upon heat treatment in air at 600 °C for one hour the intermediates are subsequently converted into the corresponding zinc ferrites. The films with adjustable chemical compositions are identified as having a spinel-type crystal structure and present a spherical or rod-like microstructure, depending on the Zn content. The magnetic films present a superparamagnetic behavior above blocking temperatures which decrease with increasing Zn content, and are ferromagnetic at 5 K with coercivities ranging between 797.8 and 948.5 Oe.


As the computer system has developed much in this highly information-oriented society, database security has become a very important problem and its backup strategies need to be made more efficiently and safety. The image copy method has been used as the most simple and dependable recovery mechanism for media failure. However, this method spends high overhead costs for massive data transmission and much processing time in the normal operation of the database. To cover such weak points, incremental and full backup methods are adopted before updated trucks reach a predetermined level. Moreover, when the number of full backup files exceeded a predetermined level, we stop incremental and full backups and switch it to the image copy. This paper applies cumulative damage model to backup of files in a database system, by putting damage shock by update, failure shock by database failure and damage by dumped files, and considers the tradeoff among overhead costs of image copy and incremental, full backup methods, and discusses analytically an optimal policy for the image copy backup interval. Finally, numerical examples are given in the case of Poisson process and exponential distributions.


Overlay networks are increasingly receiving attention as a scalable and distributed platform to realise resource discovery for file-sharing applications. However, their potential application range is much broader, as they can even serve as a communications infrastructure for distributed control and automation, e.g., underlying the electricity infrastructure. This requires the support of generic primitives such as, e.g., attribute-based semantic routing. Due to their focus on file sharing, today's systems do not or inefficiently support attribute-based semantic routing. In response, this paper proposes an innovative overlay class that supports attribute-based, semantic addressing. Agora, a set of algorithms, provides an implementation of such semantic overlay network. The simulation results confirm the claims.


olitical disaffection has intensified in democratic societies and European countries have witnessed a slow but steady decline of political trust over the past decades. We argue that this is due to, in part, to sustained immigration and was exacerbated by the onset of the global financial crisis. To test this, we employ a multi-level research design using micro attitudinal data from 17 European countries (2002-14). Our findings show a strong connection between immigration to Europe and the growing distrust that European citizens have for their country's political institutions. This study provides new insight into how trends in immigration and the economic conditions of the last decade have reshaped the relationship between citizens and politics in Europe. Finally, the future implications for sociological theorizing around political trust is discussed.


Long-term monitoring data collected in the Thames estuary, UK, were used to investi- gate inter-annual trends in year-end size and growth rate of smelt Osmerus eperlanus (L.). Patterns were related to variations in the thermal opportunity for growth, defined in terms of temperature- dependent cumulative degree-days at estuarine temperatures ≥5°C. Year-end size was positively correlated to the thermal opportunity for growth, whereas growth rate was negatively correlated. Cohort-specific comparisons of estuarine growth patterns indicated significant differences in starting sizes, possibly related to the influences of temperature on early larval development. Interannual dif- ferences in within-estuary growth rate as a function of cumulative degree-days were found and sug- gested thermally dependent growth. Smelt in normal and warm years showed similar rates of growth that differed significantly from rates observed in cold years. Reductions in the proportions of older fish in warm years were also found and interpreted in the context of spatial segregation patterns found in freshwater environments. Overall results suggest that use of mid-estuarine environments during larval development and migration to colder outer-estuarine areas are growth/maturation opti- mization strategies that enhance individual fitness. Thus, smelt migration phenologies in the Thames estuary appear to be driven by short-term variations in the suitability of thermal habitat.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNA molecules of approximately 22 nucleotides that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Alterations in miRNA expression patterns correlate with a wide spectrum of pathological conditions, including cancer. miRNA profiling was mostly performed, in solid tissues, obtained by invasive diagnostic procedures. However, miRNAs in biofluids, such as serum and plasma, show high stability resulting from the formation of complexes with specific protein or incorporation within circulating exosomes or other microvesicles. Circulating miRNAs could be reliable biomarkers for early-stage cancer diagnosis, prognosis and response to therapy. In this chapter, we analyze the major pre-analytical and analytical challenges in experimental design for circulating miRNA detection, focusing on exosome fraction and microarray-based approach.


We consider the business strategy of some banks that provide relationship loans (where they have loan origination and monitoring advantages relative to capital markets) with core deposit funding (where they can pass along the benefit of a sticky price on deposits). These "traditional banks" tend to lend out less than the deposits they take in, so they have a "buffer stock" of core deposits. This buffer stock of core deposits can be used to mitigate the full effect of tighter monetary policy on their bank-dependent borrowers. In this manner, the business strategy of "traditional banks" acts as a "core deposit mitigation channel" to provide funds to bank-dependent borrowers when there are monetary shocks. In effect, there is no bank lending channel of monetary policy associated with these traditional banks. ; In contrast, other banks mainly rely on managed liabilities that are priced at market rates. These banks do not have to shift from insured deposits to managed liabilities in response to tighter monetary policy. At the margin, their loans are already funded with managed liabilities. For these banks as well, there is no unique bank lending channel of monetary policy. ; The only banks that are likely to raise loan rates substantially in response to an increase in the federal funds rate are banks with a high proportion of relationship loans that are close to a loan-to-core deposit ratio of one. These banks must substitute higher cost nondeposit liabilities, which have an external finance premium, for core deposits, which do not because of deposit insurance. Some of these banks may also face higher marginal costs as their loan-to-core deposit ratio approaches one because of the costs associated with lending to default-prone relationship borrowers. It is among these banks (which we refer to as high relationship lenders), and only these banks, that we find evidence of a bank lending channel - they significantly reduce lending in response to a monetary contraction. Importantly, these banks hold only a small fraction of U.S. banking assets. Thus, in the United States, the bank lending channel seems limited in scope and importance, mainly because so few banks that specialize in relationship lending switch from core deposits to managed liabilities in response to changes in interest rates.


Numerical programs may require a high level of guarantee. This can be achieved by applying formal methods, such as machine-checked proofs. But these tools handle mathematical theorems while we are interested in C code. To achieve this high level of confidence on C programs, we use a chain of tools: Frama-C, its Jessie plugin, Why and Coq. This requires the C program to be annotated: this means that each function must be precisely specified, and we will prove the correctness of the program by proving both that it meets its specifications and that it does not fail. Examples will be given to illustrate the features of this approach.


In MPLS and MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) environments, statically
provisioned Single-Segment Pseudowires (SS-PWs) are protected against
tunnel failure via MPLS-level and MPLS-TP-level tunnel protection.
With statically provisioned Multi-Segment Pseudowires (MS-PWs), each
segment of the MS-PW is likewise protected from tunnel failures via
MPLS-level and MPLS-TP-level tunnel protection. However, static MS-PWs
are not protected end-to-end against failure of one of the Switching
Provider Edge Routers (S-PEs) along the path of the MS-PW. This
document describes how to achieve this protection via redundant MS-PWs
by updating the existing procedures in RFC 6870. It also contains an
optional approach based on MPLS-TP Linear Protection.


A novel and effective fibre-based microfluidic methodology was developed to move and isolate charged solutes, biomolecules, and intact bacterial cells, based upon a novel multi-functional 3D printed supporting platform, with potential applications in the fields of microfluidics and biodiagnostics. Various on-fibre electrophoretic techniques are demonstrated to separate, pre-concentrate, move, split, or cut and collect the isolated zones of target solutes, including proteins and live bacterial cells. The use of knotting to link different fibre materials, and the unique ability of this approach to physically concentrate solutes in different locations are shown such that the concentrated solutes can be physically isolated and easily transferred to other fibres. Application of this novel fibre-based technique within a potential diagnostic platform for urinary tract infection is shown, together with the post-electrophoretic incubation of live bacterial cells, demonstrating the cell survival following on-fibre electrophoretic concentration.


Product codes were introduced by Elias in 1954 and generalized by Tanner in 1981. Recently, a number of generalized product codes have been proposed for forward error-correction in high-speed optical communication. In practice, these codes are decoded by iteratively decoding each of the component codes. Symmetric product codes are a subclass of generalized product codes that use symmetry to reduce the block length of a product code while using the same component code. One example of this subclass, dubbed half-product codes, was introduced by Tanner in 1981 and then generalized by Justesen in 2011. In this paper, we discuss some initial results on symmetric product codes. Our results show that: (i) these codes have a larger normalized minimum distance than the product code from which they are derived, (ii) some small constructions achieve the largest minimum distance possible for a linear code, and (iii) they can have better performance in both the waterfall region and the error floor when compared to a product code of similar length and rate.


A virus-specified polypeptide of 160,000 mol. wt. (160K) was purified more than 1000-fold from the soluble proteins present in the culture medium of cells productively infected with herpesvirus saimiri (HVS). Purified preparations of the 160K polypeptide gave rise to high titre precipitating and neutralizing antibodies in immunized rabbits, which cross-neutralized independent isolates of HVS (neutralization rate constants, k, of between 3.8 and 4.8) and specifically precipitated the 160K polypeptide from extracts of cells infected with the homologous or heterologous strains of this virus. Antiserum to the 160K polypeptide of HVS also gave low (k = 0.02) levels of neutralization of the related herpesvirus ateles. Purified preparations of the 160K polypeptide were capable of removing most or all of the neutralizing antibody sera of squirrel monkeys with naturally acquired antibodies to HVS. The 160K polypeptide was previously shown to form part of the surface of enveloped virus particles. However, we show here that the 160K polypeptide is not extensively glycosylated in infected cells. The majority of glucosamine incorporation specific to HVS-infected cells was into eight regions with apparent mol. wt. of 170K to 220K, 125K to 145K, 115K to 120K, 83K to 88K, 65K to 75K, 52K to 58K, 25K to 27K and 12.5K to 13K. It remains possible that alternative cleaved or glycosylated forms of the 160K polypeptide are also present on the virus particle or that precipitating antibody to 160K and virus-neutralizing antibodies are not identical. However, our inability to detect precipitating antibody to virus-induced proteins or glycoproteins other than the 160K polypeptide and the high titre of neutralizing antibody present in this serum, provides reasonable evidence that it is the antibodies which react with the 160K polypeptide that are responsible for virus neutralization.


Introduction: The role of natural bioactive substances in treating infections has been rediscovered as bacterial resistance become common to most of the antibiotics. Curcumin is a bioactive substance from turmeric. Owing to antimicrobial properties, its prospect as an antibacterial agent is currently under focus. Materials and Methods: We have evaluated the in vitro synergy of curcumin with antibiotics against sixty biofilm producing bacterial isolates. Congo red agar method was used to identify the biofilm producing isolates. Curcumin minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined by agar dilution method. Its antibiotic synergy was identified by the increase in disc diffusion zone size on Mueller-Hinton agar with 32 mg/L curcumin. Results: The mean MICs of curcumin against Gram-positive and Gram-negative isolates were 126.9 mg/L and 117.4 mg/L, respectively. Maximum synergy was observed with ciprofloxacin among Gram-positive and amikacin, gentamicin, and cefepime among Gram-negative isolates. Conclusions: Curcumin per se as well as in combination with other antibiotics has a demonstrable antibacterial action against biofilm producing bacterial isolates. It may have a beneficial role in supplementing antibiotic therapy.


Background: Peripheral blood basophils from 10% to 20% of donors fail to degranulate in response to cross-linking the high-affinity IgE receptor FceRI. The molecular mechanisms underlying the nonreleaser phenotype have not been established. Objectives: Our aim was to compare the expression of FceRIassociated protein tyrosine kinases between nonreleaser and releaser basophils. Methods: With use of Western blotting we investigated Syk and Lyn protein levels in highly purified basophils from 3 antiIgE nonreleasers and 2 releasers. Results: We identified 3 healthy nonatopic donors whose nonreleaser basophils express FceRI normally but fail to express protein for the tyrosine kinase Syk, which is implicated in the initiation of FceRI-mediated secretion. Protein levels for the tyrosine kinase Lyn are somewhat reduced but not absent in nonreleaser basophils. Levels of Lyn and Syk protein are similar in B cells, eosinophils, and neutrophils from releaser and nonreleaser donors. During these studies one nonreleaser "converted" into a releaser with concomitant basophil Syk expression. Conclusion: The absence of detectable Syk could explain the nonreleaser phenotype of basophils from some donors. (J Allergy Clin Immunol 1999;104:279-84.)


. During unsteady or transient ground-water flow, the fluid mass per unit volume of aquifer changes as the potentiometric head changes, and solute transport is affected by this change in fluid storage. Three widely applied numerical models of two-dimensional transport partially account for the effects of transient flow by removing terms corresponding to the fluid continuity equation from the transport equation, resulting in a simpler governing equation. However, fluid-storage terms remaining in the transport equation that change during transient flow are, in certain cases, held constant in time in these models. For the case of increasing heads, this approximation, which is unacknowledged in these models'documentation, leads to transport velocities that are too high, and increased concentration at fluid and solute sources. If heads are dropping in time, computed transport velocities are too low. Using parameters that somewhat exaggerate the effects of this approximation, an example numerical simulation indicates solute travel time error of about 14 percent but only minor errors due to incorrect dilution volume. For horizontal flow and transport models that assume fluid density is constant, the product of porosity and aquifer thickness changes in time: initial porosity times initial thickness plus the change in head times the storage coefficient. This formula reduces to the saturated thickness in unconfined aquifers if porosity is assumed to be constant and equal to specific yield. The computational cost of this more accurate representation is insignificant and is easily incorporated in numerical models of solute transport.


This paper studies institutional divergence among two types of transition economies: (1) the former socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe, which have gradually been converging to European levels of institutional quality, and (2) the countries of the Former Soviet Union, which have, on average, made much less progress with institutional reform. We aim to explain these differences in the speed of institutional reform, which we measure as improvements in four Worldwide Governance Indicators: government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law (including property rights), and control of corruption. We find that the most robust factors explaining institutional divergence are cultural/religious roots (Huntington's definition of "civilization"), the number of years under a socialist regime, and the presence of natural resource rents. Less significant factors are imperial history (whether a country used to be a member of the Russian empire) and the prospect of EU membership (as proxied by the distance to Brussels in order to avoid endogeneity problems). An interesting finding is that, when political institutions are controlled for, the impact of natural resources is no longer significant. This suggests that the influence of natural resource rents on institutional quality operates through their impact on political institutions.


We have used observations from both the Bennett ion mass spectrometer and the retarding potential analyzer on board the Atmosphere Explorer E satellite to study the longitudinally averaged O+, H+, and He+ concentrations from 150 to 1100 km in the equatorial ionosphere during the 1975–1976 solar minimum. Our results suggest that the ion mass spectrometer measurements need to be increased by a factor of 2.15 to agree with the densities from the retarding potential analyzer and with ground-based measurements. The peak H+ concentrations are about 2.5×104 cm−3 during the day and 104 cm−3 at night and vary little with season. The O+/H+ transition altitude lies between 750 and 825 km during the day and between 550 and 600 km at night. He+ is a minor species at all altitudes; its concentration is highly variable with a maximum value of about 103 cm−3 during equinox daytime.


Friedrich August von Hayek suggested that price level stability might not be consistent with neutrality of money. In the economy with permanently increasing natural output, price level stabilization requires a steadily rising money supply. This permanent injection of liquidity might be the true source of the business cycle, regardless of the behaviour of the general price level. Instead of stability of prices, smooth economic growth could be achieved by a constant stream of money, represented by the MV term in the quantity equation, and a resulting decline in the price level. This paper examines the Hayek rule of constant MV. Shifts in aggregate demand caused by LM shocks and IS shocks test robustness of the MV-rule along with the AS-shocks. It is demonstrated that in the economy with expanding natural output, the MVrule is passive only under very specific circumstances. Thus, Hayek recommendations for a stable money supply in a growing economy might not be consistent with stable MV. Secular deflation provoked by this rule may also depress the nominal interest rate to very low levels. It is examined what conditions under the MV-rule decrease the nominal interest rate to the zero lower bound. A close resemblance to Friedman rule of optimum quantity of money is studied, as both rules imply very low nominal rates of interest. The two rules coincide if the economy is at the golden rule level of capital accumulation. It is proved that the Hayek rule is less deflationary compared to the Friedman rule if the economy is dynamically efficient.


We study the effect of bank capital on the supply of mortgages. We fully control for endogenous matching between borrowers, loan contracts, and banks by submitting randomized mortgage applications to the major online mortgage broker in Italy. We find that: higher bank capital is associated with a higher likelihood of application acceptance and lower offered interest rates; banks with lower capital reject applications by riskier borrowers and offer lower rates to safer ones. Finally, nonparametric estimates of the probability of acceptance and of the offered rate show that the effect of bank capital is stronger when capital is low.


China, after years of an international isolation, begins to play a more extensive role in the world. It becomes the main world player in every branch of a single nation's activity, starting from economy through military to social and culture areas. One of the probes of the international rebirth of this great nation is its diplomatic relations with Vatican. The reason diplomatic relations with the state of Vatican were for some time out of discussion was the Chinese ideology. After it was abandoned, it appeared there are only two issues implicating those relations: Vatican's diplomatic relations with Taiwan and the Chinese Catholic Church's wish to remain independent from the Pope.
The last few years show the meaningful change of the Chinese and Vatican's approach to the problem: it appears that the, so called, border issues are defined. Vatican expects China to acknowledge the Pope as the head of the universal Church, whereas Vatican is supposed to revise its diplomatic relations with Taiwan – Vatican is now the only state in Europe to maintain the diplomatic links with Taiwan. In the research, the author has traced back the tangled relationship between the Holy See and the Middle Kingdom starting with the first footprints of Christianity in China to the current situation, when the significant thaw in bilateral relations takes place. Concluding, the article shows the signs of the real reestablishing of diplomatic relations between those two very specific states.


This paper examines the extent to which the policies towards the welfare state pursued by the Labour Government in its first fifteen months represent a break with those of its Conservative predecessor and with earlier policies put forward by Labour in opposition. Four key parts of its inheritance from the Conservatives are identified: attempts to control public spending; privatisation (more in terms of welfare provision than of its financing); the growth of means-testing; and the growth of inequality. The paper summarises the main policy developments towards the welfare state since May 1997, and identifies four linking themes: the importance to Labour of shedding its "tax and spend" image leading to tight budget constraints, but with significant reallocation towards health and education; a strong focus on the promotion of paid work; a series of measures intended to reduce inequality and relative poverty, but with controversy over benefit levels; and the new dominance of the Treasury in making welfare and social policy. Some of these policies mark clear reversals from those of the Conservatives, but in others they continue an evolution which was already underway, despite the earlier Labour rhetoric about "thinking the unthinkable" on welfare reform.


While onboard navigation systems are gaining in importance, maps are still the medium of choice for laying out a route to a destination and for way finding. However, even with a map, one is almost always more comfortable navigating a route the second time due to the visual memory of the route. To make the first time navigating a route feel more familiar, we present a system that integrates a map with a video automatically constructed from panoramic imagery captured at close intervals along the route. The routing information is used to create a variable speed video depicting the route. During playback of the video, the frame and field of view are dynamically modulated to highlight salient features along the route and connect them back to the map. A user interface is demonstrated to allow exploration of the combined map, video, and textual driving directions. We discuss the construction of the hybrid map and video interface. Finally, we report the results of a study that provides evidence of the effectiveness of such a system for route following.


List of Contributors. Acknowledgements. 1. Post--Fordism: Models, Fantasies and Phantoms of Transition: Ash Amin (University of Newcastle). Part I: New Macroeconomic Designs:. 2. Puzzling out the Post--Fordist Debate: Technology, Markets and Institutions: Mark Elam (Linkoping University). 3. The Crisis of Fordism and the Dimensions of a a Post--Fordista Regional and Urban Structure: Josef Esser (Goethe University, Germany) and Joachim Hirsch (Goethe University, Germany). Part II: New Sociologies and Geographies of Industrial Organisation: . 4. Flexible Specialisation and the Re--emergence of Regional Economies: Charles F. Sabel (MIT, USA). 5. A New Paradigm of Work Organization and Technology: John Tomaney (University of Newcastle--upon--Tyne). 6. The Transition to Flexible Specialization in the US Film Industry: External Economies, the Division of Labour and the Crossing of Industrial Divides: Michael Storper (University of California, Los Angeles, USA). 7. Competing Structural and Institutional Influences on the Geography of Production in Europe: Ash Amin (University of Newcastle--upon--Tyne) and Anders Malmberg (Uppsala University, Sweden). Part III: Policy and Politics Beyond Fordism:. 8. Post--Fordism and the State: Bob Jessop (Lancaster University). 9. Searching for a New Institutional Fix: The After--Fordist crisis and Global--local Disorder: Jamie Peck (Manchester University) and Adam Tickel (Leeds University). 10. Post--Fordist City Politics: Margit Mayer (Free University of Berlin, Germany). 11. Post--Fordism and Democracy: Alain Lipietz (CEPREMAP, Paris, France). Part IV: Post--Fordist City Lives and Lifestyles:. 12. Flexible Accumulation through Urbanization: Reflections on a Post--Modernisma in the American City: David Harvey (Johns Hopkins University). 13. City Cultures and Postmodern Lifestyles: Mike Featherstone (Teeside University). 14. The Fortress City: Privatized Spaces, Consumer Citizenship: Susan Christopherson (Cornell University, USA). Index.


We present our initial experience in laparoscopic nephrectomy. 6 patients were operated for a kidney donation and 2 for treatment of a benign disease. All procedures were completed successfully, with no conversion to laparotomy or intraoperative complications. Mean operating time was 210 minutes, and in the donor kidneys the mean warm-ischemic time was 165 seconds. There were 3 postoperative complications, and mean hospitalization was 3.5 days. The transplanted kidneys are all functioning. From our initial experience, laparoscopic nephrectomy appears to be both feasible and safe. Its implementation requires a combined team with experience in donor surgery and advanced laparoscopic skills. The procedure may increase the availability of living donor kidneys, due to the smaller impact on the donor compared to conventional donor nephrectomy.


The level of background radiation for Tekirdag province of north-western Turkey was assessed in this study. Radon concentrations in indoor air were determined using CR-39 nuclear track detectors and the average (222)Rn activity was found to be 86 Bq m(-3) (equivalent to an annual effective dose of 2.2 mSv). Measurements of gamma doses in air were performed using plastic scintillators and the average absorbed gamma dose rates for indoor and outdoor were found to be 5.7 and 5 microR h(-1), respectively, corresponding to an annual effective dose of 300 microSv. The radionuclide activity concentrations in soil samples collected from the study area were measured through gamma-ray spectrometry and the average activities were determined as 29, 39 and 580 Bq kg(-1) for the natural radionuclides (238)U, (232)Th and (40)K, respectively, and 5.2 Bq kg(-1) for the fission product (137)Cs. The natural radioactivity sources resulted in an annual effective dose of 75 microSv. The radioactivity levels of drinking water samples were measured as 0.044 and 0.1 Bq l(-1) for gross alpha and gross beta activities using a low-background counting technique (equivalent to an annual effective dose of 9 microSv). The results of this study showed that the region's background radioactivity level is in agreement with most Turkish cities.


Greywater reuse through decentralized and low-cost treatment systems emerges as an opportunity to tackle the existing demand for water. In recent years, constructed wetlands (CW) systems and microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have emerged as attractive technologies for sustainable wastewater treatment. In this study, constructed wetland microbial fuel cells (CW-MFCs) planted with Phragmites australis were tested to evaluate the potential of combining these two systems for synthetic greywater treatment and energy recovery. Open (CW) and closed circuit (CW-MFCs) reactors were operated for 152 days to evaluate the effect of energy recovery on the removal of soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD), nutrients and total suspended solids (TSS). Results indicate no significant differences for sCOD and phosphate removal efficiencies. CW-MFCs and CW reactors presented sCOD removal efficiency of 91.7 ± 5.1% and 90 ± 10% and phosphate removal efficiencies of 56.3 ± 4.4% and 61.5 ± 3.5%, respectively. Nitrate removal efficiencies were higher in CW: 99.5 ± 1% versus 86.5 ± 7.1% in CW-MFCs, respectively. Energy generation reached a maximum power density of 33.52 ± 7.87 mW m−3 and 719.57 ± 67.67 mW m−3 at a poised anode potential of −150 mV vs. Ag/AgCl. Thus, our results suggest that the incorporation of MFC systems into constructed wetlands does allow energy recovery while providing effective greywater treatment.


Problem. Recent trends in homiletics emphasize preaching about the listeners' felt-needs. Often the nature of prophetic-preaching requires the preacher to address needs that are not felt by the listeners. This present study was to create a homiletical strategy for preaching unpopular truths and about needs that are unperceived by the listeners. This study was also to identify some unpopular truths and unperceived needs of the Spokane Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church that were to be addressed in a series of sermons. Method. A biblical study was conducted into the role of the preacher as prophet. This study compared the techniques used by Jesus and various biblical characters to bring about change. The counsel o f Ellen White pertaining to the presentation of unpopular truths and preaching toward a change was analyzed. Contemporary literature pertaining to persuasive communication, conflict management, and prophetic preaching was also investigated. This research was used in devising a homiletical strategy for preaching about unpopular truths and unperceived needs. Questionnaires were devised to ascertain what listeners consider to render a sermon effective and to identify unpopular truths and unperceived needs in the Spokane Valley SDA Church. These questionnaires were administered to the Spokane Valley SDA congregation, pastors o f the Upper Columbia Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and administrators of the same Conference as well as the North Pacific Union Conference of SDA. Data acquired from these questionnaires were used in creating the homiletical strategy and for determining what were unpopular truths and unperceived needs. A series of eight sermons addressing unpopular truths and unperceived needs was preached to the Spokane Valley SDA congregation, four utilizing the homiletical strategy and four not using the strategy or ignoring it. A questionnaire was administered following each sermon, involving a preselected group of approximately 30 members, and a feedback session involving this same group was conducted at the conclusion o f the sermon series. The data received from the post-sermon questionnaires and feedback session were used to determine the effectiveness o f each sermon. Results. The homiletical strategy discovered and created was the inductive method requiring intentional consideration o f a three-pronged process— care-fronting process, prophetic process, and designing process. All sermons appeared to effectively address the unpopular truths and unperceived needs o f the Spokane Valley SDA congregation. However, there appeared to be no difference in the effectiveness of the four sermons utilizing the homiletical strategy when compared to the four sermons ignoring or not using the strategy. Conclusions. It is the calling of the preacher to follow the example of the prophet-preachers of the Bible. This will demand preaching for change in the hearts and minds of the listeners. Unpopular truths and unperceived needs may be effectively addressed in the pulpit Furthermore, although sermons employing the three-pronged homiletical strategy were not judged by listeners as being more effective than other strategies, they did prove to be just as viable. Therefore, preachers may consider using the proposed strategy when they have to preach to their listeners' unfelt needs.


We begin this guide by describing the problem of theft of customers' personal property from cafes and bars and reviewing associated risk factors. We then identify a series of questions to help you analyze your local problem, and, finally, review responses to this type of problem. At present, evaluative research-whether carried out independently or by the police-is scarce; consequently it is not possible to draw any firm conclusions as to which responses to theft of customers' personal property from cafes and bars are the most effective. Nevertheless, we review several responses to this problem and make tentative statements as to their effectiveness.

Theft of customers' personal property from cafes and bars is one aspect of the larger set of theft- and property-related problems. This guide, however, is limited to addressing the particular harms created by the unlawful removal of customers' personal property from cafes and bars. Table 1 shows some of the different types of theft that might occur in a cafe or bar environment and the extent to which the offender is visible to the victim at the time of the offense. Unless otherwise stated, the phrase 'theft of customers' personal property' will be used interchangeably with 'theft in cafes and bars.


The astonishing success story of microelectronics cannot go on indefinitely. In fact, once
devices reach the few-atom scale (nanoelectronics), transient quantum effects are expected
to impair their behaviour. Fault tolerant techniques will then be required. The aim of this
thesis is to investigate the problem of transient errors in nanoelectronic devices. Transient
error rates for a selection of nanoelectronic gates, based upon quantum cellular automata
and single electron devices, in which the electrostatic interaction between electrons is used
to create Boolean circuits, are estimated. On the bases of such results, various fault tolerant
solutions are proposed, for both logic and memory nanochips. As for logic chips, traditional
techniques are found to be unsuitable. A new technique, in which the voting approach of
triple modular redundancy (TMR) is extended by cascading TMR units composed of
nanogate clusters, is proposed and generalised to other voting approaches. For memory
chips, an error correcting code approach is found to be suitable. Various codes are
considered and a lookup table approach is proposed for encoding and decoding. We are
then able to give estimations for the redundancy level to be provided on nanochips, so as to
make their mean time between failures acceptable. It is found that, for logic chips, space
redundancies up to a few tens are required, if mean times between failures have to be of the
order of a few years. Space redundancy can also be traded for time redundancy. As for
memory chips, mean times between failures of the order of a few years are found to imply
both space and time redundancies of the order of ten.


A robust proportional integral derivative (PID) controller coupled to a feedforward compensator is designed for set-point regulation manoeuvres of an electrostatic micromechanical system. The system is linearised at multiple operating points, and the feedforward compensator provides the nominal voltage. Perturbations around these points are handled from the PID controller, whose gains are tuned via the utilisation of a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach, which guarantees robustness against the switching nature of the linearised system dynamics. The maximum microspring-stiffness parametric uncertainty that can be tolerated within this scheme, is computed through the use of the small gain theorem. Simulation studies are presented that proves the efficacy of the suggested scheme.


What determines CEO incentives? A confusion exists among both academics and practitioners about how to measure the strength of CEO incentives, and how to reconcile the enormous differences in pay sensitivities between executives in large and small firms. We show that while one measure of CEO incentives (the dollar change in CEO wealth per dollar change in firm value) falls by a factor of ten between firms in the smallest and largest deciles in our sample, another measure of CEO incentives (the value of CEO equity stakes) increases by roughly the same magnitude. We resolve the confusion about which of these measures better reflects CEO incentives by developing and solving a model that allows CEO productivity to differ for firms of different sizes. The crucial parameter is shown to be the elasticity of CEO productivity with respect to firm size. Our empirical results suggest that CEO marginal products rise significantly, and overall CEO incentives are roughly constant or decline slightly with firm size. We thus confirm Rosen's (1992) conjecture that the actions of executives in larger firms have a "chain-letter like" effect on firm performance. We also show that the appropriate measure of incentives depends on the type of CEO activity being considered. For activities whose dollar impact is the same for large and small firms (such as the purchase of a corporate jet), the dollars-on-dollars measure is appropriate, and large firms suffer significant agency problems due to their weak incentives. For activities whose percentage impact is similar across firms of different sizes (such as a corporate reorganization), the equity stake measure is better, and the incentive problem faced by large firms is not as severe. Finally, using a multi-task model, we discuss the implications of our findings for the design of control systems.


This is a lively, informative guide that shows what physics is, how it works and why it is vital to everyday life. Written in a conversational style, this book offers children an approachable source of information on key subjects such as gravity, magnetism, thermodynamics and the solar system. Illustrated with humorous drawings, cartoons and diagrams by Adam Larkum, complicated topics are kept fun with a variety of techniques including comic strips and fact boxes. Simple experiments give children working examples to learn from.


This article explores legal issues relating to the continuation of in-patient treatment for people with severe and enduring Anorexia Nervosa in circumstances where there are doubts as to treatment efficacy. In five recent cases, the Court of Protection in England and Wales has been asked to consider the capacity and best interests of patients with severe and enduring Anorexia Nervosa. Drawing upon international comparisons, this article outlines the clinical uncertainties associated with prognosis and treatment and evaluates legal assertions surrounding capacity and best interests. It is suggested that to ensure palliative management is based on need rather than diagnosis, and that capacity is decision- and not disease-specific, a closer alignment is required between the focus of any capacity and best interests assessments. Three specific recommendations are put forward: Firstly the courts should adopt a patient-centred rather than clinician-centred approach to framing the decision that is subject to a capacity assessment. Secondly where a patient with Anorexia Nervosa lacks capacity, reliance on their stated treatment preferences must be balanced with their views and hopes regarding prognosis. The value of different treatment options should be assessed in this light. Thirdly given the clinical and ethical uncertainties regarding prognosis and appropriateness of treatment, there are dangers in relying on the same court-appointed expert in all cases.


Face recognition (FR) systems have a growing effect on critical decision-making processes. Recent works have shown that FR solutions show strong performance differences based on the user's demographics. However, to enable a trustworthy FR technology, it is essential to know the influence of an extended range of facial attributes on FR beyond demographics. Therefore, in this work, we analyze FR bias over a wide range of attributes. We investigate the influence of 47 attributes on the verification performance of two popular FR models. The experiments were performed on the publicly available MAAD-Face attribute database with over 120M high-quality attribute annotations. To prevent misleading statements about biased performances, we introduced control group-based validity values to decide if unbalanced test data causes the performance differences. The results demonstrate that also many nondemographic attributes strongly affect recognition performance, such as accessories, hairstyles and colors, face shapes, or facial anomalies. The observations of this work show the strong need for further advances in making the FR system more robust, explainable, and fair. Moreover, our findings might help to a better understanding of how FR networks work, enhance the robustness of these networks, and develop more generalized bias-mitigating FR solutions.


The design of an illuminating system consisting of a reflector with a small source, which illuminates its aperture with a preassigned continuous distribution everywhere greater than the direct illuminance distribution, is, mathematically, a singular boundary-value problem. If the rays of light striking an area en the edge of the reflector next to the aperture are to be reflected to an adjacent area on the aperture, then there exist no, one, or two solutions to the problem, depending on the size of the aperture and the reflectance of the surface. If the rays striking an area on the aperture edge of the reflector are to be reflected to the diametrically opposite edge of the aperture, then we obtain a unique solution. We derive the results only for rotationally symmetric systems.


It has been proposed that cultivating calm will increase altruism and decrease parochialism, where altruism is defined as self-sacrifice in support of others, regardless of group affiliation or identity, and parochialism is defined as prosocial self-sacrifice restricted to fellow members of a group. Such could be the case with a calming meditation practice. An alternate hypothesis, coming from the study of ritual, proposes that shared practices lead to bonding, increasing parochialism, but not altruism generally. These contradictory hypotheses of the potential effects of shared cultural practices of calming meditation were explored via a formal behavioral experiment using a simple treatment and control format with a short, facilitated breath awareness practice known to produce calm. Altruism and parochialism were measured through anonymous play in Public Goods games performed with both in-group and out-group individuals. The sum of contributions of the two plays gave a measure of altruism, while the difference between the two gave a measure of parochialism. The analysis of the results using Bayesian AICc model comparison methods supports the first hypothesis that calming practices reduces parochialism and increases altruism. The hypothesis of intentional shared practice as parochialism inducing was not supported by the results in this case of a shared calming practice.


ROBYN M. DAWES: House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth. Free Press, New York, 1994, 338 pp., $22.95. Robyn Dawes writes House of Cards out of "anger and a sense of social obligation." He is angry because psychology has "abandoned a commitment ... to establish a mental health profession that would be based on research findings." Instead, Dawes complains that "too many mental health professionals rely on 'trained clinical intuition'." From his perspective, trained clinical intuition is unreliable, uncertain, and often at odds with documented scientific data. Yet, psychologists use these clinical intuitions to make paternalistic judgments about real people in both clinical and legal settings. Not only that, according to Dawes, much of the myth of clinical psychology has infiltrated into our culture and has contributed to our individualistic and egoistic obsessions. The result is a self-indulgent "new age psychology" which is bad for the community but good for psychologists. In the first part of House of Cards, Dawes reviews the "claims of mental health experts versus the [research] evidence." He finds no evidence for psychologists' claims of expertise in the areas of psychotherapy, prediction, diagnosis, clinical experience, and licensing. In other words, psychologists do not have special knowledge about people or psychotherapy and they do not deserve special licensing or privilege. They particularly do not deserve the status of "expert." Dawes does find data to support the usefulness of psychotherapy, but he finds untrained psychotherapists as beneficial as trained ones. (Dawes finds an exception in the case of the few psychologists who use behavioral techniques.) As a result, psychotherapy should be deregulated and demedicalized; anyone should be able to sell advice for a fee provided that they do not use public resources (insurance) to pay for it. The only role for licensing would be in "institutional settings," like hospitals and prisons, where the patients are unable to make informed choices about their caretakers and should be protected by society. In the second part of House of Cards, Dawes leaves the research data behind to detail "his own views" about how "a misplaced trust in professionals . . . has led to unjustifiable and pernicious obsessions: obsessions with self-esteem, with the quick attainment of desirable goals, and with an unrealistic sense of security and superiority to other people." For Dawes, "these obsessions do not have desirable consequences for our society." House of Cards comes off as a loose polemic against psychology and psychotherapy. Dawes appeal to the scientific "facts" never questions the wisdom of applying the natural science model (where the goal is explanation and prediction) to the social sciences (where the goal is often interpretation and understanding). It is far from clear that the natural science model is the best way to proceed in social science. Even if it were, Dawes never addresses the postpositivist philosophy of science literature, which demonstrates that natural science, itself, is not as objective and value free as we once hoped. …


The shift to self-pollination is one of the most prevalent evolutionary transitions in flowering plants. In the selfing plant Arabidopsis thaliana, pseudogenes at the SCR and SRK self-incompatibility loci are believed to underlie the evolution of self-fertilization. Positive directional selection has driven the evolutionary fixation of pseudogene alleles of SCR, leading to substantially reduced nucleotide variation. Coalescent simulations indicate that this adaptive event may have occurred very recently and is possibly associated with the post-Pleistocene expansion of A. thaliana from glacial refugia. This suggests that ancillary morphological innovations associated with self-pollination can evolve rapidly after the inactivation of the self-incompatibility response.


Real-time transcription provides deaf and hard of hearing people visual access to spoken content, such as classroom instruction, and other live events. Currently, the only reliable source of real-time transcriptions are expensive, highly-trained experts who are able to keep up with speaking rates. Automatic speech recognition is cheaper but produces too many errors in realistic settings. We introduce a new approach in which partial captions from multiple non-experts are combined to produce a high-quality transcription in real-time. We demonstrate the potential of this approach with data collected from 20 non-expert captionists.


The vast majority of underwater wireless optical communication systems use collimated blue/green laser beams to deliver high-speed data over a transmission range of a few metres to tens of metres. However, such systems are extremely susceptible to misalignment of the transmitter and the receiver. The mitigation techniques for misalignment reported in the literature are complex and costly at times. In this study, the authors consider the simple approach of increasing the divergence angle of the transmitted Gaussian beam to mitigate misalignment. Both plane and spherical beams are considered as the limitation cases. Using Monte Carlo simulations, the authors show that an optimum divergence angle for the maximum acceptable lateral offset exists with respect to the receiver sensitivity in clear waters while this is not an efficient method in harbour waters. Results demonstrate that there is a design trade-off between acceptable lateral offset, power loss and channel bandwidth. Furthermore, the authors show how the proposed scheme of beam divergence affects the maximum allowed link span as well as the channel bandwidth for a given distance.


The purpose of this study is to contribute to previous research on the subject of language transition in Tanzania. The aim is also that the information gained in this study can be used to improve students' prospects when they undergo the linguistic transition from primary school to secondary school. This is a qualitative study with quantitative elements, using method triangulation, which examines how students experience the linguistic transition from Kiswahili to English and how it affects them. The study also highlights the students' own opinions about which language they would prefer as the language of instruction in secondary school.Relevant information about the history of Tanzania and the linguistic situation in the country are outlined. Previous research on the subject is also presented. The two theories that are used are Bourdieu's social theory and Said's theory of Orientalism. The study uses focus groups and surveys in oder to answer the questions at hand. The research itself is conducted in two government schools in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The three questions at issue are as follows:Do the students feel that they have sufficient knowledge of English in order to be ready for the transition of the language of instruction from Kiswahili to English in secondary school?How do the students perceive that the transition of languages affects their performance in school and in their future?If the students had the opportunity to choose, which language would they prefer as the language of instruction in Secondary school in Tanzania?The conclusions are that the students feel that the linguistic transition is difficult and that they lack sufficient knowledge of English. Although several of the students struggle with the vocabulary and the pronunciation, they feel that English is the path to higher education and a good job. These are contributing factors to the fact that the majority of the students prefer English as their language of instruction in secondary school, to their own national language, Kiswahili.


Chlorine is one of the many disinfectants used to ensure bacteriological safety of drinking water. Usually residual chlorine is maintained within the distribution network to combat any probable re-contamination of the distributed water. This residual free chlorine, however, decays in water due to its reaction with the bulk water and the pipe material or deposits on the pipe walls. This study aimed at determining and modelling chlorine decay in the Kumasi water distribution network (KWDN) and determined locations where residual chlorine boosting is necessary. A double-jacketed batch reactor and a constructed pilot distribution system (PDS) were used to determine the bulk and wall decay coefficients. The PDS was run using aged PVC pipes (15–20 years), asbestos concrete pipes (40–50 years) and cast iron pipes (84 years) that have been in use in the KWDN. The SynerGEE hydraulic model was used to identify the 'zero chlorine' points and predict top-up quantities. The bulk decay coefficient was found to be 0.053 h 1 within 8 hours at 26 °C and the residual chlorine decayed within the bulk fluid by 32–34%of its initial dose. Under the conditions tested, the cast iron pipes had the highest overall decay coefficients (K). Five locations within the network were identified as probable chlorine boosting points).


Rivers transport water, sediment, and other constituents from the continent to the sea, but in route material can often become stored temporarily or permanently. Along the Atlantic Coast of the United States, coastal plain rivers such as the Tar River are characterized as low-gradient meandering systems that develop wide floodplains which are subjected to frequent and prolonged flooding. As a result, these rivers are believed to experience storage of sediment, particularly near their estuarine mouths. The lower portion of rivers and their attached estuaries are also environmentally and economically important serving as critical habitat (e.g., nurseries for fish), recreational areas, and transportation pathways. Excess sediment is often considered a significant pollutant and can have adverse effects on biota. Suspended sediment also can supply excess nutrients and trace metals from anthropogenic activity.  Previous work in North Carolina suggests that alluvial storage can make up the majority (>50%) of the total sediment delivered to rivers. This study more closely examines the nature of lower floodplain sediment storage and more specifically focuses on calculating sediment accumulation along the Tar River. Cores were collected from three sites along seven different transects perpendicular to the main channel. Analysis of 210Pb and 137Cs were employed to calculate sediment accumulation rates, and grain-size data were made to inform radionuclide and sedimentation interpretations. Sedimentation rates within the study area range from 0.09 to 1.08 cm/yr. However, several sites appear to have non-steady-state deposition possibly due to major overbank flood events. Grain-size data indicate a mixture of sand and mud at all sites with some variability in the nature of sediment accumulating. Using core observations and LiDAR topographic data, storage across the system is estimated to be approximately 1.26 x 105 t/yr or roughly 66% of the total incoming sediment measured at Tarboro, NC (1.89 x 105t/yr) in previous works.