The accurate calibration of the force constant of the probe in atomic force microscopy and optical tweezers applications is extremely important for force spectroscopy. The commonly used silicon detectors exhibit a complex transfer function for wavelengths >850 nm, which limits the detection bandwidth leading to serious errors in the force constant determination. We show that this low-pass effect can be compensated for using the frequency response of the detector. This is applicable for calibrations in both atomic force microscopy and optical tweezers. For optical tweezers an additional correction method is discussed based on fitting an expression in which the low-pass characteristics are already accounted for.


Ecological causes are championed not only by lobbyists or hikers. While mainstream environmentalism is usually characterized by well-financed, highly structured organizations operating on a national scale, campaigns for environmental justice are often fought by poor or minority communities. Environmentalism and Economic Justice is one of the first books devoted to Chicano environmental issues and is a study of U.S. environmentalism in transition as seen through the contributions of people of color. It elucidates the various forces driving and shaping two important examples of environmental organizing: the 1965-71 pesticide campaign of the United Farm Workers and a grazing conflict between a Hispano cooperative and mainstream environmentalists in northern New Mexico. The UFW example is one of workers highly marginalized by racism, whose struggle--as much for identity as for a union contract--resulted in boycotts of produce at the national level. The case of the grazing cooperative Ganados del Valle, which sought access to land set aside for elk hunting, represents a subaltern group fighting the elitism of natural resource policy in an effort to pursue a pastoral lifestyle. In both instances Pulido details the ways in which racism and economic subordination create subaltern communities, and shows how these groups use available resources to mobilize and improve their social, economic, and environmental conditions. Environmentalism and Economic Justice reveals that the environmental struggles of Chicano communities do not fit the mold of mainstream environmentalism, as they combine economic, identity, and quality-of-life issues. Examination of the forces that create and shape these grassroots movements clearly demonstrates that environmentalism needs to be sensitive to local issues, economically empowering, and respectful of ethnic and cultural diversity.


This study investigates Kinyarwaanda sexuality taboo words and their meaning in Rwandan culture to enable the youth to improve their communication and the values of Rwandan culture. It explores whether the use of Kinyarwaanda sexuality taboo words is a good way to communicate with one another or is a transgression of Rwandan culture. Its intent is to see the value that Rwandans assign to verbal taboos, particularly sexuality taboo words, to see how these taboos regulate Rwandans lives, to see the attitudes Rwandans hold towards them, and to find out the link there might be between sexuality taboo words, the information dissemination on HIV/AIDS and the spread of AIDS.


We present a method to simplify simulation techniques for determining liquid-crystal director orientation in geometries with sharply defined edges and for surfaces with strong anchoring without preferred direction. We show analytically that close to such edges, the liquid crystal can be described by just a few parameters. After examining the solutions, it is explained how these results can avoid the numerical problems that arise when simulating such configurations.


Relational regularized autoencoder (RAE) is a framework to learn the distribution of data by minimizing a reconstruction loss together with a relational regularization on the latent space. A recent attempt to reduce the inner discrepancy between the prior and aggregated posterior distributions is to incorporate sliced fused Gromov-Wasserstein (SFG) between these distributions. That approach has a weakness since it treats every slicing direction similarly, meanwhile several directions are not useful for the discriminative task. To improve the discrepancy and consequently the relational regularization, we propose a new relational discrepancy, named spherical sliced fused Gromov Wasserstein (SSFG), that can find an important area of projections characterized by a von Mises-Fisher distribution. Then, we introduce two variants of SSFG to improve its performance. The first variant, named mixture spherical sliced fused Gromov Wasserstein (MSSFG), replaces the vMF distribution by a mixture of von Mises-Fisher distributions to capture multiple important areas of directions that are far from each other. The second variant, named power spherical sliced fused Gromov Wasserstein (PSSFG), replaces the vMF distribution by a power spherical distribution to improve the sampling time in high dimension settings. We then apply the new discrepancies to the RAE framework to achieve its new variants. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments to show that the new proposed autoencoders have favorable performance in learning latent manifold structure, image generation, and reconstruction.


The Landscape Institute is an educational charity and chartered body which through advocacy, education and accreditation of professional standards pursues its purpose to protect, conserve and enhance the natural and built environment for the benefit of the public. Landscape Institute Northern Ireland (LINI) represents the professional membership within Northern Ireland. I was asked by the LINI committee to prepare this paper for LINI to give the LINI position on DOE proposals for Planning Reform in Northern Ireland. The paper proposes a vision for a reformed planning system in Northern Ireland, as a resource management system availing of good design skills to work in the public interest for the creation, repair, enhancement, protection, and sustaining of quality landscape (or place). The paper states that these precepts are already embedded within the European Landscape Convention (ELC), to which the Northern Ireland government is obliged to adhere. The ELC establishes a method of Landscape Planning which, unlike the current planning system built around restricted designated areas of 'quality', embeds management guidelines within all areas of landscape (rural, urban, peri-urban, quality, degraded, ordinary etc, and at all scales) throughout an entire nation. In order to meet the requirements of the ELC, the paper tasks the DOE to fully review the Northern Ireland Landscape Character Assessment (LCA), and originate all development plans in the guidelines of the LCAs within them. As landscape is an interaction between land and the society living within it, LCAs must have robust management guidelines drawn up with the involvement of the communities in those places. The landscape units to which these place-communities relate might not equate to district administrative boundaries, and the system must be able to align with landscape rather than arbitrary boundaries. The paper advises that the planning system must be supported by experts in landscape and design, and alerts the DOE to the worrying under-capacity of its current staff to provide this skill resource. The paper ends by proposing a PPS in Landscape matters.


This thesis is a desk-based archaeological analysis of the historic landscape of Newburn manor, now an urban suburb some five and a half miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne. Despite continuing urbanisation however, this research has shown that landscape features dating back to the earliest periods of settlement survive. Enclosure and industry have been shown to have been the main historical forces behind landscape change. Agricultural improvement coincided with the process of enclosure and this work has shown clear evidence of the implementation of the type of innovations which typified the periods known as the Agricultural Revolution and era of High Farming. Industry stamped its mark on the rural landscape from the medieval period and in time Newburn developed into an industrial settlement. The main agency of landscape change was the landowner. This work has demonstrated the integral relationship between people, places and landscape development. In the medieval period the manor remained rural under the ownership of various religious orders, the needs of the landowner being restricted to maintaining self-sufficiency. After the Dissolution, land management under the Earls and Dukes of Northumberland evolved into a commercial enterprise. The manor's agricultural and industrial resources became a source of rental income. Industrial influence has been shown to have extended beyond the sinking of collieries, extraction of quarries and construction of waggonways. Patronage by the industrial magnates of the day was responsible for the transformation of farming and fishing villages into industrial suburbs. Of greatest importance is the symbiotic connection between the town of Newcastle and its hinterland. During a period of major industrial growth, Newcastle relied on Newburn to supply its markets and industries. Without this provision the town could not have flourished, and without this trade Newburn would not have existed.


There is increased interest, in high-performance computing as well as in commercial data centers, in so-called scale-out systems, where large numbers of low-cost and low-power-dissipation servers are used for workloads which have available coarse-grained parallelism. One target class of devices for building scale-out systems is the class of low-power processors, such as those based on the ARM architecture, the Power Architecture, and the Intel Atom processor. This article presents a detailed characterization of three contemporary low-power processors covering all the aforementioned IS As, all implemented in state-of-the-art 45nm semiconductor processes. Processor performance, power dissipation, thermal load, and board-level power dissipation apportionment are presented, via a combination of hardware performance counters, OS-level timing measurements, current measurements, and thermal imaging via a microbolometer array. It is demonstrated that while certain processors might provide low power dissipation, the most energy-efficient platform depends on the characteristics of the application, and the design of the entire platform (including integrated versus on-board peripherals, power supply regulators, etc.). The lowest-power platform showed a power-efficiency advantage of almost four times lower idle power dissipation, and almost five times lower active power dissipation for a single-threaded workload, versus the highest-power-dissipation platform studied. The latter however achieved a factor of two better energy-efficiency than its closest competitor, when executing a throughput-oriented workload, due to significantly better compute performance and available hardware concurrency.


Theobroma cacao, the source of cocoa, suffers significant losses to a variety of pathogens resulting in reduced incomes for millions of farmers in developing countries. Development of disease resistant cacao varieties is an essential strategy to combat this threat, but is limited by sources of genetic resistance and the slow generation time of this tropical tree crop. In this study, we present the first application of genome editing technology in cacao, using Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation to introduce CRISPR/Cas9 components into cacao leaves and cotyledon cells. As a first proof of concept, we targeted the cacao Non-Expressor of Pathogenesis-Related 3 (TcNPR3) gene, a suppressor of the defense response. After demonstrating activity of designed single-guide RNAs (sgRNA) in vitro, we used Agrobacterium to introduce a CRISPR/Cas9 system into leaf tissue, and identified the presence of deletions in 27% of TcNPR3 copies in the treated tissues. The edited tissue exhibited an increased resistance to infection with the cacao pathogen Phytophthora tropicalis and elevated expression of downstream defense genes. Analysis of off-target mutagenesis in sequences similar to sgRNA target sites using high-throughput sequencing did not reveal mutations above background sequencing error rates. These results confirm the function of NPR3 as a repressor of the cacao immune system and demonstrate the application of CRISPR/Cas9 as a powerful functional genomics tool for cacao. Several stably transformed and genome edited somatic embryos were obtained via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, and ongoing work will test the effectiveness of this approach at a whole plant level.


Fetal hydrops, fetal pleural effusions, hydrothorax, and chylothorax, may be associated with various genetic disorders, in particular with the Noonan, cardio‐facio‐cutaneous and Costello syndromes. These syndromes, collectively called RASopathies, are caused by mutations in the RAS/MAPK pathway, which is known to play a major role in lymphangiogenesis. Recently, germline mutations in the Casitas B‐cell lymphoma (CBL) gene were reported in 25 patients and of these, 20 had juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML). The disorder was named "CBL syndrome" or "Noonan syndrome‐like disorder with or without juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia" (NSLL). To date, prenatal abnormalities have not been reported and it is still debated whether the CBL syndrome falls into the category of a RASopathy, or represents a different entity. Here we report on three unrelated patients with CBL mutations manifesting with hydrops fetalis, fetal pleural effusions and/or congenital hydro‐/chylothorax. Our findings further connect the CBL syndrome with the RASopathies. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This article explores the continuities and ruptures of modern Islamic social movements starting with the reformist salafiyya of Egypt, North Africa, and the Levant, moving through the Islamic political activism of the Muslim Brotherhood along with its various affiliated political parties in the Middle East and North Africa ( MENA ), and finally the radical Jihadist militant groups calling for armed insurgency in parts of the MENA as well as globally. After an extensive overview of the varied movements within Salafism in its global context, I will hone in on its articulation in Morocco, its relations with other Islamist movements, as well as with the Moroccan monarchical authoritarian system. I argue that in the wake of post-Islamist adopting of human rights discourse and notions of pluralism in the workings of the Justice and Development Party ( PJD ) government, the Salafi trend is also undertaking a transformation in Morocco. Placed in its historical and social contexts, however, I show that this trend has never been static and continues to change in relation to competing and collaborating Islamist trends as well as toward the Moroccan government.


Background:Depressive symptoms and clinical depression are highly prevalent in low-income mothers and negatively affect their infants and toddlers. Objectives:The aim of this study was to test interpersonal psychotherapy combined with parenting enhancement on depressive symptoms and parenting behavior, compared with an equal attention-control condition. Methods:Mothers (n = 226) of Early Head Start infants and toddlers from the southeastern and northeastern United States were randomized to the intervention delivered in-home by psychiatric mental health advanced practice nurses or an equal attention-control condition delivered by generalist nurses. Rigorous clinical depressive symptom and depression assessments and videotaped, coded mother–child interactions were used as baseline and 14-, 22-, and 26-week postintervention measures. Results:Both the intervention and control groups had significantly reduced Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression scores at each subsequent time point compared with baseline (p < .0001). However, only mothers receiving the intervention showed a significant increase in positive involvement with their child, as measured by closeness, positive effect, affection, and warm touch at T4 (t = 2.22, df = 156, p < .03). Discussion:Both intervention and control conditions resulted in symptom reduction, but only the intervention mothers showed significant interaction changes with their child, an essential step in reducing the negative child outcomes associated with maternal depressive symptoms. Results suggest that a combination of generalist and specialist nurses could be used to treat depressive symptoms in these mothers. Further study with longer postintervention observation is needed to see if, over time, the intervention led to longer-lasting symptom reduction.


Five families of Theobroma cacao L. between three and eleven years of age were evaluated for yield at Gurabo, Corozal and Yabucoa. Parents involved in the combination of the families were such well-known clones as 'Pound-7', 'Scavina (SCA)-6', 'Scavina-12', and IMC, EET and UF selections which have been widely used to produce controlled-pollinated seed in Central America and elsewhere. Eight months after transplant, the temporary shade provided by plantains was removed, and the trees were grown under full sunlight and intensive management. Between 1986 and 1993 individual tree yield data were obtained. In September 1989, hurricane Hugo destroyed the Yabucoa experiment but the evaluation continued at Gurabo and Corozal until December 1993. At the termination of the first four-year evaluation period (1988 to 1989), families EET-400 x SCA-12 and SCA-6 x EET-62 were significantly superior yielders at Gurabo with an average total production of 5,538 kg/ha of dry beans. None of the families maintained superiority at Corozal and Yabucoa. The average total yield for all families was 5,950 and 5,225 kg/ha at Corozal and Yabucoa, respectively. The individual tree yield data showed that regardless of location only 2 or 3% of the trees within a family were high yielders and accounted for more than 60% of the total family production. At the termination of the eight-year evaluation period (1986- 1993), families EET-400 x SCA-12 and SCA-6 x EET-62 maintained their superior yielding ability at Gurabo, with an average total production of 14,368 kg/ha. All families performed similarly at Corozal with an average total production of 14,930 kg/ha.


The Central Nigerian Nok Culture and its well-known terracotta figurines have been the focus of a joint research project between the Goethe University Frankfurt and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Nigeria since 2005. One major research question concerns chronological aspects of the Nok Culture, for which a period from around the middle of the first millennium BC to the first centuries AD had been suggested by previous investigations. This paper presents and discusses the radiocarbon and luminescence dates obtained by the Frankfurt Nok project. Combining the absolute dates with the results of a comprehensive pottery analysis, a chronology for the Nok Culture has been developed. An early phase of the Nok Culture's development begins around the middle of the second millennium BC. Its main phase, in which terracotta figurines and iron production appear, starts in the 9 th century BC and ends in the 4 th century BC. A later phase with vanishing evidence extends into the last centuries BC. On sites dating from the first centuries AD onwards no more Nok terracotta or pottery are found; the end of the Nok Culture is thus set around the turn of the Common Era.


Importance It is well established from different population-based studies that visual impairment is associated with increased mortality rate. However, to our knowledge, the association of visual impairment with increased mortality rate has not been reported among indigenous Australian individuals. Objective To assess the association between visual impairment and 10-year mortality risk among the remote indigenous Australian population. Design, Setting, and Participants Prospective cohort study recruiting indigenous Australian individuals from 30 remote communities located within the central Australian statistical local area over a 36-month period between July 2005 and June 2008. The data were analyzed in January 2017. Exposures Visual acuity, slitlamp biomicroscopy, and fundus examination were performed on all patients at recruitment. Visual impairment was defined as a visual acuity of less than 6/12 in the better eye. Main Outcomes and Measures Mortality rate and mortality cause were obtained at 10 years, and statistical analyses were performed. Hazard ratios for 10-year mortality with 95% confidence intervals are presented. Results One thousand three hundred forty-seven patients were recruited from a total target population number of 2014. The mean (SD) age was 56 (11) years, and 62% were women. The total all-cause mortality was found to be 29.3% at 10 years. This varied from 21.1% among those without visual impairment to 48.5% among those with visual impairment. After adjustment for age, sex, and the presence of diabetes and hypertension, those with visual impairment were 40% more likely to die (hazard ratio, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.16-1.70; P = .001) during the 10-year follow-up period compared with those with normal vision. Conclusions and Relevance Bilateral visual impairment among remote indigenous Australian individuals was associated with 40% higher 10-year mortality risk compared with those who were not visually impaired. Resource allocation toward improving visual acuity may therefore aid in closing the gap in mortality outcomes between indigenous and nonindigenous Australian individuals.


A page of history is now at 100 hundred years rewritten and the digital media and authors use it for promotion. The study has two parts, historical facts and a short analyse on the tools used to promote it. Historical context starts, on June 5, 1918, the Treaty of Peace imposed on Romania by the Central Powers was ratified by Parliament and forwarded to the King for promulgation; he postponed the signing of this treaty. As the French army began to cross the Danube, on November 10, at Giurgiu, Zimnicea, Turnu Magurele and other points, the Romanian army re-joined the war, Romania proving "de facto" that it is in the allied camp. In this setting, on 11 November 1918, the Compiegne Armistice, between Germany and the Allied Powers, was signed, acknowledging, among other things, the caducity of the Bucharest Peace Treaty. At the same time, the end of the war brought with it the completion of the process of unification of all the Romanian provinces under one standard. And as the complete unity of Romania could not have been made without the inhabitants of Transylvania, the "cradle of the formation of the Romanian nation" for which the Romanian army had crossed the Carpathians, on 18 November / 1 December 1918, the Great National Assembly in Alba Iulia voted "the unification of all the territories inhabited by the Romanians from the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy with Romania". The digital development of this page of history was approached by both historians and media. The study show that the papers has a 27% of the covering of the event, the rest being covert by various encyclopaedia, blogs and essays. By channel by far Facebook covers the news on that event followed by Youtube and What's Up.


This essay reports from a long-term research project 1 which interviewed participants in a post-war U.K. youth culture called "casuals" about all aspects of its history, especially the styles of music and fashion and its connection to British soccer spectatorship from the late 1970s to the present day.  Original interview and ethnographic material from the project is presented and discussed, and situated within a context of the sociology of youth culture in general and soccer fandom in particular. The essay suggests some theoretical and methodological signposts for the future study of youth culture whilst outlining some specific aspects of the research conducted. This new work on youth culture also rethinks earlier work on rave culture and football hooligan subcultures in the light of appreciation and critique of such work in various recent youth subcultural theory debates. The research reported on here mapped the history of the "moments" of the birth of casual in the late 1970s and the coming together of the football hooligan and rave subcultures in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as the later remixing, recycling and "mash up" of these moments in a present in which "pop culture" is said by some to be "addicted to its own past" (Reynolds, 2011).


In this thesis the relation between the everyday meal, the doings of family and the reproduction of difference in Swedish everyday family life is explored. The thesis has a qualitative approach and interviews with parents from different class and ethnic backgrounds and family constellations, but all with children under the age of 8 years old, is the empirical basis. Using sociological and feminist theories that focus on peoples' experiences and doings and how they are related to relations of ruling, the analysis aims to understand how family is done in Sweden. Taking the point of departure in questions such as how can the practice of feeding be understood as a central hub for how family is done? What does the work of feeding imply in relation to assumptions of the gender equal Sweden? How do the parents interviewed relate to norms about feeding and parenting and what importance do these attitudes have for how class is experienced and reproduced? In the thesis it is argued that the practice of feeding is fundamental for how family is established in today's Sweden. It is also an important point of departure to understand how relations of class and gender are being reproduced in everyday life. It is also argued that children play a central part in what is considered as "family" in Sweden. The practice of feeding is at the same time a unifying and separating practice where communion between family members, generations, friends and others is established but also a practice where difference is recreated and manifested. Even though Sweden has a long history of approaching gender equality women still continues to have the main responsibility for housework and care of children and a significant relationship between gender and feeding work is identified. Here it is argued that there is a need of an expanded work-concept that also includes the emotional and caring work. The work is not only about performing certain tasks but also how (mainly) the women live with and keep the family and its needs "in their head". It is also argued that certain types of food, products and ingredients (such as sugar) are fundamental for how a division of class is recreated on a level of everyday life in Swedish families and that there is a strong relationship between "good" meals and "good" and respectable parenting. By taking the point of departure in the practice of feeding the dissertation contributes to the understanding of how family is done in today's Sweden and how unequal relationships are recreated in one of the most central practices of everyday life. (Less)


The crystallization of norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin – antibacterial fluoroquinolone compounds – with fumaric acid resulted in the isolation of six distinct solid forms of the drugs with different stoichiometries and hydration levels. Each salt can be selectively obtained by mechanochemical treatment in the presence of water/organic mixtures of a particular composition. The new phases were analysed using TG, DSC and PXRD, and their structural parameters were determined using single crystal X-ray diffraction. Despite having the same counterion, the ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin fumarates crystallise to form distinct crystal structures, which consequently determine the differences in the relative stability and the corresponding physicochemical properties of the solid forms. The influence of water activity (aw) on the solid form stability and transformation pathways of anhydrous and hydrated fumarates was elucidated. The solubility and phase stability of the salts were also investigated in pharmaceutically relevant buffer solutions with pH 6.8 and pH 1.2. The largest solubility improvement relative to the parent drug (≈33 times) in the pH 6.8 medium was observed in the case of ciprofloxacin hemifumarate sesquihydrate. In turn, the norfloxacin fumarates showed a moderate 3-fold enhancement in solubility.


"How I Came to Know Fish (1974)" is Ota Pavel's magical memoir of his childhood in Czechoslovakia. Fishing with his father and his Uncle Prosek - the two finest fishermen in the world - he takes a peaceful pleasure from the rivers and ponds of his country. But when the Nazis invade, his father and two older brothers are sent to concentration camps and Pavel must steal their confiscated fish back from under the noses of the SS to feed his family. With tales of his father's battle to provide for his family both in wealthy freedom and in terrifying persecution, this is one boy's passionate and affecting tale of life, love and fishing.


We extend the concept of phase tuning, a ubiquitous mechanism among sensory neurons including motion and disparity selective neurons, to the motion contrast detection. We demonstrate that the motion contrast can be detected by phase shifts between motion neuronal responses in different spatial regions. By constructing the differential motion opponency in response to motions in two different spatial regions, varying motion contrasts can be detected, where similar motion is detected by zero phase shifts and differences in motion by non-zero phase shifts. The model can exhibit either enhancement or suppression of responses by either different or similar motion in the surrounding. A primary advantage of the model is that the responses are selective to relative motion instead of absolute motion, which could model neurons found in neurophysiological experiments responsible for motion pop-out detection.


© Academy of Management Learning & Education. Although supportive of calls for business schools to learn the lessons of history to address contemporary challenges about their legitimacy and impact, we argue that our ability to learn is limited by the histories we have created. Through contrasting the contested development of the case method of teaching at Harvard Business School and the conventional history of its rise, we argue that this history, which promotes a smooth linear evolution, works against reconceptualizing the role of the business school. To illustrate this, we develop a "counterhistory" of the case method-one that reveals a contested and circuitous path of development-and discuss how recognizing this would encourage us to think differently. This counterhistory provides ameans of stimulating debate and innovative thinking about how business schools can address their legitimacy challenges, and, in doing so, have a more positive impact on society.


The Norwegian Annual Informatics Conference (NIK) has served as the most important national meeting point for the academic community in Norway during the last thirty years. National conferences often have a reputation of being of lesser quality than international conferences. Yet, NIK have practiced peer review with relatively low acceptance rates which is a trait of quality. Based on the assumption that quality and impact are related, this study set out to explore the actual impact of NIK in terms of citations over its thirty-year lifetime. As NIK is not being systematically indexed there are no readily available source of citation data and these were thus manually extracted. The results show that NIK papers do get cited at a level comparable to reputable international conferences, and the ratio of papers that are cited is increasing. The results also show that the title length and the number of authors per paper have increased, whereas papers written in Norwegian do not get cited.


The evolution towards virtualized network functions (VNFs) is expected to enable service agility within the telecommunications industry. To this end, the software (or VNFs) from which such services are composed must be developed and delivered over very short time scales. In order to guarantee the required levels of software quality within such tight schedules, software reliability tools must evolve. In particular, the tools should provide development teams spread across geography and time with reliable and actionable insights regarding the development process. In this paper, we present BRACE - a cloud-based, integrated, one-stop center for software reliability tools. BRACE is home to tools for software reliability modeling, testing, and defect analysis each of which is provided as-a-service to development teams. Initial implementation of BRACE includes a software reliability growth modelling (SRGM) tool. The SRGM tool is currently being used to enable real-time prediction of the total number of defects in software being developed, and for providing the required analytics and metrics to enable managers make informed decisions regarding resource allocation for defect correction so as to meet set deadlines


Colorless nonfluorescent chlorophyll (Chl) catabolites (NCCs) are formyloxobilin-type phyllobilins, which are considered the typical products of Chl breakdown in senescent leaves. However, in degreened leaves of some plants, dioxobilin-type Chl catabolites (DCCs) predominate, which lack the formyl group of the NCCs, and which arise from Chl catabolites by oxidative removal of the formyl group by a P450 enzyme. Here a structural investigation of the DCCs in the methylesterase16 mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana is reported. Eight new DCCs were identified and characterized structurally. Strikingly, three of these DCCs carry stereospecifically added hydroxymethyl groups, and represent bilin-type linear tetrapyrroles with an unprecedented modification. Indeed, DCCs show a remarkable structural parallel, otherwise, to the bilins from heme breakdown.


Pancreatic b-cells secrete insulin in response to various stimuli to control blood glucose levels. This insulin release is the result of a complex interplay between signalling, membrane potential and intracellular calcium levels. Various nutritional and hormonal factors are involved in regulating this process. N-acyl taurines are a group of fatty acids which are amidated (or conjugated) to taurine and little is known about their physiological functions. In this study, treatment of pancreatic b-cell lines (HIT-T15) and rat islet cell lines (INS-1) with N-acyl taurines (N-arachidonoyl taurine and N-oleoyl taurine), induced a high frequency of calcium oscillations in these cells. Treatment with N-arachidonoyl taurine and N-oleoyl taurine also resulted in a significant increase in insulin secretion from pancreatic b-cell lines as determined by insulin release assay and immunofluorescence (p<0.05). Our data also show that the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channel is involved in insulin secretion in response to N-arachidonoyl taurine and N-oleoyl taurine treatment. However our data also suggest that receptors other than TRPV1 are involved in the insulin secretion response to treatment with N-oleoyl taurine.


In the mid-Victorian era, liberalism was a practical politics: it had a party, it informed legislation, and it had adherents who identified with and expressed it as opinion. It was also the first British political movement to depend more on people than property, and on opinion rather than interest. But how would these subjects of liberal politics actually live liberalism? To answer this question, Elaine Hadley focuses on the key concept of individuation - how it is embodied in politics and daily life and how it is expressed through opinion, discussion, and sincerity. These are concerns that have been absent from commentary on the liberal subject. "Living Liberalism" argues that the properties of liberalism - citizenship, the vote, the candidate, and reform, among others - were developed in response to a chaotic and antagonistic world. In exploring how political liberalism imagined its impact on Victorian society, Hadley reveals an entirely new and unexpected prehistory of our modern liberal politics. A major revisionist account that alters our sense of the trajectory of liberalism, "Living Liberalism" revises our understanding of the presumption of the liberal subject.


Automated User's Training Operations Facility Utilization Request (AutoFUR) is prototype software that administers a Web-based system for requesting and allocating facilities and equipment for astronaut-training classes in conjunction with scheduling the classes. AutoFUR also has potential for similar use in such applications as scheduling flight-simulation equipment and instructors in commercial airplane-pilot training, managing preventive- maintenance facilities, and scheduling operating rooms, doctors, nurses, and medical equipment for surgery. Whereas requesting and allocation of facilities was previously a manual process that entailed examination of documents (including paper drawings) from different sources, AutoFUR partly automates the process and makes all of the relevant information available via the requester s computer. By use of AutoFUR, an instructor can fill out a facility-utilization request (FUR) form on line, consult the applicable flight manifest(s) to determine what equipment is needed and where it should be placed in the training facility, reserve the corresponding hardware listed in a training-hardware inventory database, search for alternative hardware if necessary, submit the FUR for processing, and cause paper forms to be printed. Auto-FUR also maintains a searchable archive of prior FURs.


ABSTRACT The impact of financial crises on the youth unemployment rate (YUR), compared to the total unemployment rate (UR), is estimated for a panel of OECD countries over the period 1981–2009, using bias-corrected dynamic panel data estimators of short- and long-run coefficients. Both YUR and UR are found highly persistent. Also, short- and long-run effects of financial crises on YUR are significantly large, respectively, some 1.9 and 1.5–1.7 times higher than the short- and long-run effects on UR. Similar results are found for the unemployment impacts of GDP growth lagged 1 year and institutional variables. These results are robust to various dynamic specifications.


Over the past years, coregistered EEG-fMRI has emerged as a powerful tool for neurocognitive research and correlated studies, mainly because of the possibility of integrating the high temporal resolution of the EEG with the high spatial resolution of fMRI. However, additional work remains to be done in order to improve the quality of the EEG signal recorded simultaneously with fMRI data, in particular regarding the occurrence of the gradient artefact. We devised and presented in this paper a novel approach for gradient artefact correction based upon optimised moving-average filtering (OMA). OMA makes use of the iterative application of a moving-average filter, which allows estimation and cancellation of the gradient artefact by integration. Additionally, OMA is capable of performing the attenuation of the periodic artefact activity without accurate information about MRI triggers. By using our proposed approach, it is possible to achieve a better balance than the slice-average subtraction as performed by the established AAS method, regarding EEG signal preservation together with effective suppression of the gradient artefact. Since the stochastic nature of the EEG signal complicates the assessment of EEG preservation after application of the gradient artefact correction, we also propose a simple and effective method to account for it.


Somatic mutations must happen often during development because of the large number of cell divisions to expand from a single-cell zygote to a full organism. A mutation in development carries forward to all descendant cells, causing genetic mosaicism. Widespread genetic mosaicism may influence diseases that derive from a few genetically altered cells, such as cancer. I show how to predict the expected amount of mosaicism and the variation in mosaicism between individuals. I then calculate the predicted risk of cancer derived from developmental mutations. The calculations show that a significant fraction of cancer in later life likely arises from developmental mutations in early life. In addition, much of the variation in the risk of cancer between individuals may arise from variation in the degree of genetic mosaicism set in early life. I also suggest that certain types of neurodegeneration, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), may derive from a small focus of genetically altered cells. If so, then the risk of ALS would be influenced by developmental mutations and the consequent variation in genetic mosaicism. New technologies promise the ability to measure genetic mosaicism by sampling a large number of cellular genomes within an individual. The sampling of many genomes within an individual will eventually allow one to reconstruct the cell lineage history of genetic change in a single body. Somatic evolutionary genomics will follow from this technology, providing new insight into the origin and progression of disease with increasing age.


We design a one-dimensional compound photonic crystal constituted of a periodic arrangement of electromagnetic-induced transparency atomic vapor. It is shown that, when a stochastic electromagnetic beam propagates through the compound photonic crystal, the spectral degrees of polarization and cross polarization of the beam can be modulated by changing the parameters of the supercells of the compound photonic crystal.


Fresh water has become scarce and will become even more so in the coming years, as continued population growth places ever greater demands on the supply of fresh water. At the same time, options for increasing that supply look to be ever more limited. No longer can we rely on technological solutions to meet growing demand. What we need is better management of the available water supply to ensure it goes further toward meeting basic human needs. But better management requires that we both understand the history underlying our current water regulation regime and think seriously about what changes to the law could be beneficial. For Golden Rules, Mark Kanazawa draws on previously untapped historical sources to trace the emergence of the current framework for resolving water-rights issues to California in the 1850s, when Gold Rush miners flooded the newly formed state. The need to circumscribe water use on private property in support of broader societal objectives brought to light a number of fundamental issues about how water rights ought to be defined and enforced through a system of laws. Many of these issues reverberate in today's contentious debates about the relative merits of government and market regulation. By understanding how these laws developed across California's mining camps and common-law courts, we can also gain a better sense of the challenges associated with adopting new property-rights regimes in the twenty-first century.


One of the issues that post-acquisition integration fails to achieve the intended benefits is attributed to poor leadership (Covin et al, 1997; Graebner, 2004; Haspeslagh and Jemison, 1991; Javidan et al, 2004; Nemanich and Keller, 2007; Marks and Mirvis, 1998; Pablo, 1994; Sitkin and Pablo, 2004). These studies point to the fact that effective leadership will lead to the harmonisation of the post-acquisition integration process and that in turn will
yield enhanced acquisition performance. However, the association between leadership and post-acquisition performance is not clear, as it is a phenomenon that has not been studied thoroughly and the existing studies indicate conflicting results. Moreover, this association is
often complicated by various influences such as the intended level of integration of the two entities, as well as a range of contingency factors such as the motives of the acquisition, acquisition experience, size and relatedness (Birkinshaw et al, 2000; Chatterjee et al, 1992;
Datta, 1991; Weber, 1996).

Therefore, against this background the main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between leadership and post-acquisition organisational performance. The
objectives of this study arc; (a) to extend the literature on leadership-performance relationship in dynamic environments by empirically investigating the extent to which leadership influences performance in the context of acquisitions, (b) to establish how leadership styles act as a determinant of performance under different acquisition conditions. In meeting this objective the companies that were selected were from both the service and manufacturing industries and had engaged in both domestic and cross-border acquisitions, (c) to establish the extent the relationship between leadership style and performance is
contingent upon the degree of integration adopted by the acquiring firm. In meeting this objective this study seeks to further integrate the study of leadership with the literature on the acquisition process.

In order to meet these objectives a thorough review of the literature on the post-acquisition integration process was carried out. This review revealed that there are four schools of thought in the literature. After a critical assessment, it was concluded that this study will
focus on the process school of thought but will also draw from the organisational behaviour school of thought and the culture school. This enables for a multidisciplinary assessment of the predictors of performance and the role that leadership plays in this context. Established
constructs were used to assess the predictors and performance was measured by employing both financial and non-financial indicators overcoming limitations that were present in the literature. This mixture of indicators will allow for a more coherent assessment of performance moving away from the traditional finance literature that has dominated M&A research. The study's variables are: the motives for the acquisition, relatedness (organisational. strategic and organisational culture fit), relative size, previous acquisition experience, transfer of resources, capabilities and knowledge, leadership styles and post-acquisition organisational performance.

To identify potential respondents for participation in the study certain criteria were established. The total population that met these criteria was 764. The response level consists of 139 acquisitions (18.7%) and is satisfactory. In order to investigate this relationship
multiple and hierarchical regression analyses were used. To meet the second objective the sample was split into two sub-groups according to their industrial classification and
market/geographic relatedness. To meet the third objective the sample was divided according to the degree of integration between the acquiring and the target organisation. Finally, backward deletion regression was used to find out the most significant determinants of post-acquisition organisational behaviour in different settings.

The results from testing the first objective indicated that leadership has an important role in managing the post-acquisition integration process and enhancing post-acquisition organisational performance. Moreover, following Bass's (1985) classification of leadership styles further investigation of what attributes constitute an effective leader in the post-acquisition integration process were assessed. The results from testing the second and third objective indicated that in different settings different emphasis on leadership will be placed. It was found that in domestic acquisitions leadership does not emerge as a predictor of performance whereas, in cross-border acquisitions leadership has a significant role in achieving higher results. Similarly, in manufacturing firms there were other significant predictors of performance and not leadership, whereas, in service firms leadership was the
most significant predictor. The reasons for these differences arc explicitly analysed in the implications of this study.

This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge in four distinct areas. It covers the gap in the literature regarding the role of leadership in enhancing post-acquisition organisational performance. It extends and further contributes to the understanding of the process school of thought in acquisitions. It also provides an integrated model of measuring post-acquisition organisational performance combining both financial and non-financial indicators. Finally, it contributes to the literature on the relationship between leadership and performance in dynamic environments. Few studies have focused on this relationship and most of them have been conducted in stable environments (Bass et al, 2003; Nemanich and Keller, 2007) and not in dynamic processes such as an acquisition. This study has successfully placed the study of leadership within the literature on the acquisition process.


Experiments were performed to analyse the interaction between a vortex ring and a sloped sediment layer. Attention focussed on interactions under "critical" conditions, in which sediment motion was only just induced by the ring's flow field. Both hydraulically smooth and hydraulically rough bedforms were analysed, using near-spherical monodisperse sediments with relative densities of 1.2 and 2.5 and mean diameters (d p ) ranging between 80 and 1087 μm. Measurements of the vortex-ring flow field were obtained, during the interaction, using two-dimensional particle imaging velocimetry. The threshold conditions for incipient sediment motion were analysed in terms of the critical Shields parameter (N c ), defined in terms of the peak tangential velocitymeasured adjacent to the bed surface. Bed-slope effects were investigated by tilting the sediment layer at various angles between the horizontal and the repose limit for the sediment. In all cases, the propagation axis of the vortex ring was aligned normal to the bed surface. The measured values of N c were compared with a force-balance model based on the conditions for incipient grain motion on a sloping bed. For hydraulically smooth bedforms, where the bed roughness is small compared to the boundary-layer depth, the model was derived to account for how viscous stresses affect the drag and lift forces acting on the near surface sediment. For hydraulically rough bedforms, where this viscous-damping effect is not present, the model assumes the drag and lift forces scale with the square of the near-bed (inviscid) velocity scale. In both cases, the model predicts that bedforms become more mobile as the bed slope is increased. However, the damping effect of the viscous sublayer acts as a stabilizing influence for hydraulically smooth bedforms, to reduce the rate at which the bed mobility increases with bed slope. The measured values of N c were in agreement with the trends predicted by this model, and exhibit a transition in behaviour between the smooth-bed and rough-bed cases when d p /δ s ≈ 20 (where δ s is the viscous-sublayer length scale).


– In Monte Carlo simulations of k-eigenvalue problems for optically thick fissile systems with a high dominance ratio, the eigenfunction is often poorly estimated because of the undersampling of the fission source. Although undersampling can be addressed by sufficiently increasing the number of particles per cycle, this can be impractical in difficult problems. Here, we present a new functional Monte Carlo (FMC) method that minimizes this difficulty for many problems and yields a more accurate estimate of the k-eigenvalue. In the FMC method, standard Monte Carlo techniques do not directly estimate the eigenfunction; instead, they directly estimate certain nonlinear functionals that depend only weakly on the eigenfunction. The functionals are then used to more accurately estimate the k-eigenfunction and the eigenvalue. Like standard Monte Carlo methods, the FMC method has only statistical errors that limit to zero as the number of particles per cycle and the number of cycles become large. We provide numerical results that illustrate the advantages and limitations of the new method.


For many years, despite a rich coordination chemistry, gold (Au) was judged as being catalytically inactive for the formation of carbon–carbon bonds. In mid-1970, few reports demonstrated that Au salts could be very useful reagents to catalyze organic transformations. In recent years, homogeneous catalysis by Au has received considerable attention by the scientific community. It was shown that Au(I) or (III) catalysts are specific and more reactive than most of the other soft Lewis acids such as Hg(II), Cu(II), Pt(II), and Pd(II). Taking advantage of the affinity of cationic phosphine Au complexes to triple bonds, we conceived a Au(I)-catalyzed 6-endo-dig cyclization of cyclic enol ether to prepare bridged and fused bicyclic ketone. Keeping in mind that 5-exo-dig cyclizations can be a competitive process, we surveyed various Au(I) complexes.


Latvia's transition from Soviet republic to restored nation-state has been most clearly seen in the transition to democracy and the market economy. Externally, however, the Baltic State has had to negotiate complex challenges in both the local and wider security complex. In this essay I argue that the development and evolution of Latvian foreign policy illustrates a transition to post-existential politics and illuminates the nature of geo-politics in the Baltic subregion in general. Initially, Latvia had to create a foreign policy agenda with limited resources such as knowledge and capacity. The 1995 Latvian foreign policy guidelines formally established the move to the 'West' generally as well as membership of the EU and NATO specifically. The guidelines show that the nature of insecurity in the region was by and large dictated by Russian dominance and political transition. With the accession into the EU and NATO, we can see that Latvia's foreign policy objectives have shifted away from balancing in the subregion to integration in the larger security architecture. This includes fulfilling the niche capabilities in the North Atlantic infrastructure as well as engaging with other post-Soviet States as they move towards the 'West'. Furthermore, Latvia's objectives have moved beyond the subregion to include military missions in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Overall, I argue that a review of Latvia's foreign policy development illustrates the evolving nature of cooperation and conflict on the threshold between East and West.


Social network analysis encompasses the study of networked data and examines questions related to structures and patterns that can lead to the understanding of the data and the intrinsic relationships, such as identifying influential nodes, recognizing critical paths, predicting unobserved relationships, discovering communities, etc. All of these analyses, germane to a variety of application domains, are typically done on static information networks; that is, a fixed snapshot of the information network. Yet, a social network changes and understanding the evolution of the network and detecting these changes in the underlying structures is paramount for a multitude of applications. Looking at networks as fixed snapshots misses the opportunity to capture the evolutionary patterns. In this paper, we present a framework for modeling community evolution in social networks by tracking of events related to the life cycle of a community. We illustrate the capabilities of our framework by applying it to real datasets and validate the results using topics extracted from the tracked communities.


There is abundant literature focusing on the palm oil sector, which has grown into a vigorous sector with production originating mainly from Malaysia and Indonesia, and on increased palm oil consumption in many countries around the globe, particularly European Union states, China and India. This sector expansion has become quite controversial, because while it has negative social and environmental impacts, it also leads to positive benefits in generating fiscal earnings for producing countries and regular income streams for a large number of large- and small-scale growers involved in palm oil production. This document reviews how the social, ecological, and environmental dynamics and associated implications of the global palm oil sector have grown in complexity over time, and examines the policy and institutional factors affecting the sector's development at the global and national levels.This work examines the geographies of production, consumption and trade of palm oil and its derivatives, and describes the structure of the global palm oil value chain, with special emphasis on Malaysia and Indonesia. In addition, this work reviews the main socioenvironmental impacts and trade-offs associated with the palm oil sector's expansion, with a primary focus on Indonesia. The main interest is on the social impacts this has on local populations, smallholders and workers, as well as the environmental impacts on deforestation and their associated effects on carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. Finally, the growing complexity of the global oil palm value chain has also driven diverse types of developments in the complex oil palm policy regime governing the sector's expansion. This work assesses the main features of this emerging policy regime involving public and private actors, with emphasis on Indonesia.There are multiple efforts supporting the transition to a more sustainable palm oil production; yet the lack of a coordinated public policy, effective incentives and consistent enforcement is clear and obvious. The emergence of numerous privately driven initiatives with greater involvement of civil society organizations brings new opportunities for enhancing the sector's governance; yet the uptake of voluntary standards remains slow, and any push for the adoption of more stringent standards may only widen the gap between large corporations and medium- and smallscale growers. Greater harmonization between voluntary and mandatory standards, as well as among private initiatives is required. Commitments to deforestation-free supply chains have the potential to reduce undesired environmental impacts from oil palm expansion, and while this risks excluding smallholders from the supply chains, such commitments may function to leverage the upgrading of smallholder production systems. Their success, however, will require greater public and private sector collaboration.


This paper presents a management model for the Barents Sea capelin and cod fisheries including juvenile herring in the biological model as the young herring influences the cod-capelin system. The objective of the study is to balance model-complexity of biology and economics when investigating possible optimal catch strategies given that one aims to maximize economic rent in the fishery. The three species constitute a highly dynamic system, also because prey-predation relations are functions of ages within each stock. A top-down approach is employed and the biological growth equations relate to stock biomass estimates. Economic relations are based on empirical data and previous studies. Optimal fishing strategies are identified by employing a numerical feedback rule for optimal fishing through dynamic programming. The feedback rule suggests that previous TAC (total allowable catch) levels on average have been too large for both capelin and cod over the past 30 years, according to the management objectives assumed in the study. Moreover, presence of some herring in the system is important for the economic yield although the herring fishery is closed. This indicates that a focus only on the capelin-predator role of herring is too narrow, as herring is also an important prey for cod.


Off-policy evaluation learns a target policy's value with a historical dataset generated by a different behavior policy. In addition to a point estimate, many applications would benefit significantly from having a confidence interval (CI) that quantifies the uncertainty of the point estimate. In this paper, we propose a novel deeply-debiasing procedure to construct an efficient, robust, and flexible CI on a target policy's value. Our method is justified by theoretical results and numerical experiments. A Python implementation of the proposed procedure is available at https://github.com/RunzheStat/D2OPE.


Many tertiary educational institutions are interested in upgrading teaching standards. However this process is especially slow in parts of the world where finances or traditional education systems make the introduction of improved techniques a challenge (Vosper, 2009). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a public speaking skills program as a method of improving lecture delivery standards, developing better student contact, increasing student interest in the lecture material and improving retention of the information presented (Knight & Wood, 2005; Visioli, Lodi, Carrassi & Zannini, 2009). The program was designed to be inexpensive to implement and suitable even for institutions possessing only basic facilities.

A mixed methods approach was used in this study. A group of eleven lecturers from a private university in Malaysia participated in the Public Speaking for Educators program and were involved in the study. Data were collected through the use of questionnaires given to students and lecturers. These questionnaires revealed both the lecturers' and the students' view of the effectiveness of the program. The lecturers were also interviewed regarding their perceptions of the public speaking program and its impact on their lecturing. Analysis was carried out on final student grades, comparing results of students taught by lecturers not participating in the program with the results of students of lecturers who did participate in the program, as well as results from classes taught by the participant lecturers before and after their public speaking training.

The results of this study reveal that the public speaking program correlated with greater self confidence amongst the participating lecturers, iv although the students generally did not rate their lecturers any more highly than before the program. Final grades were, however, significantly higher for the students of the lecturers trained in public speaking, both in comparison to other lecturers and to previous classes from the same lecturers before the program commenced. The results indicate that successful training in public speaking benefits both students and lecturers and has potential to improve the value of lecturing as a method of student instruction.


This study was conducted to evaluate the protective effects of graded doses of methanol and aqueousextract of Ocimumbasilicum(L.)(MAEOB) onthe oxidative stress induced by ethanol toxicity. Forty male albino rats of Wister strain were divided into eight groups of five rats each andfour groups were named as positive control(PC) and another four as experimental groups(EX). The experimental groups(EX) were treated with graded doses of extract together with alcoholand a pretreated group , the treatment was carried out for 30 days and the blood and liver tissue were collected for histopathological and biochemical estimations.In the four experimental groups,the biochemical estimations indicated that the extract could control and prevent the toxic effects produced during alcohol metabolism in a dose dependent manner. The results indicated that there were no significant difference between the EX group and normal control in all the parameters checked. The control groups were used to compare the results with all the parameters checked.The results were compared with the pretreated groups in both PC and EX groups showed that there was a slight improvement on the antioxidant status in the pretreated groups. This result was also supported by the biochemical estimations and the histopathological studies of the liver tissue.The use of antioxidants is an important preventive method to minimize the pathological and toxic effects of oxidative stress induced by alcohol. Ocimumbasilicumis a naturally occurring medicinal herb with antioxidants, which can be effectively used in preventing the harmful effects of ethanol toxicity without many side effects.


On the basis of lists of numbers saved on individuals cell phones and other evidence, it is argued here that lowincome Jamaicans use the cell phone to establish extensive networks, a practice identified as linkup. Linkup has many of the same characteristics as those found by R. T. Smith in a classic study of Jamaican kinship and genealogy. However, the new evidence suggests that kinship merely exemplifies a pattern that may be found in a wider range of Jamaican networking strategies including the creation of spiritual and church communities, the search for sexual partners, and the coping strategies adopted by lowincome households. Linkup also accounts for the rapid adoption of cell phones and the patterns of their use by lowincome Jamaicans and highlights the importance of understanding the local incorporation of cell phones and local forms of networking enacted through new communication technologies.


The effective application of knowledge management (KM) practices is important for the successful delivery of projects especially as the demands of these projects grow. Studies have continued to show that KM enhances organizational processes; therefore there is little doubt that effective application of KM can improve project competencies and engender project maturity. However, studies have also revealed that KM is not being applied effectively in IT projects. This claim is further supported by the continued reports of high failure rates which may be attributed at least in part, to ineffective KM. In an effort to better understand this phenomenon, a case study of a project management office (PMO) is applied to explore their experiences and challenges in applying KM. The findings underlined that there are challenges in formally applying KM consistently, however there also some positives in terms of tacit components that are sometimes taken for granted in a team collaborative environment that enhances knowledge processing, incidences of contribution to knowledge repositories and the use and application of knowledge that directly impact the management and execution of their projects.


Maximum likelihood methods were developed for estimation of the six parameters relating to a marker-linked quantitative trait locus (QTL) segregating in a half-sib design, namely the QTL additive effect, the QTL dominance effect, the population mean, recombination between the marker and the QTL, the population frequency of the QTL alleles, and the within-family residual variance. The method was tested on simulated stochastic data with various family structures under two genetic models. A method for predicting the expected value of the likelihood was also derived and used to predict the lower bound sampling errors of the parameter estimates and the correlations between them. It was found that standard errors and confidence intervals were smallest for the population mean and variance, intermediate for QTL effects and allele frequency, and highest for recombination rate. Correlations among standard errors of the parameter estimates were generally low except for a strong negative correlation (r = -0.9) between the QTL's dominance effect and the population mean, and medium positive and negative correlations between the QTL's additive effect and, respectively, recombination rate (r = 0.5) and residual variance (r = -0.6). The implications for experimental design and method of analysis on power and accuracy of marker-QTL linkage experiments were discussed.


In recent years, proposals have been made to replace the federal income tax with a postpaid consumption tax - that is, a federal value added tax ("VAT"), a federal retail sales tax ("RST"), or a federal cash-flow (consumed income) tax. Because these taxes can be constructed so that they are indistinguishable at the level of the ultimate consumer in terms of their principal effects, and because a prominent recent proposal is the RST approach, I have written this article in terms of an RST/income tax comparison. The analysis, however, would be mostly the same if the income tax was compared with the other forms of postpaid consumption taxes. Commentators and analysts have often noted that complete replacement of the federal income tax with a consumption tax regime would cause a substantial downward shifting of the federal tax burden to low and middle income taxpayers. This article, however, does not deal with that important point. Instead, it argues that complete replacement would create an unlimited federal obligation to match all private saving, regardless of the amount or purpose of that saving and regardless of the saver's income level, and that the wealthiest taxpayers would benefit from the largest match. This argument produces a new lens through which to examine other facets of the income tax versus consumption tax debate and this scrutiny shows that a postpaid consumption tax with progressive rates arguably does not impose any greater burden on investment income than a flat-rate postpaid consumption tax and that the wage tax/postpaid consumption tax equivalence is not essential to an understanding of the effects of a postpaid consumption tax. Using the new lens, the article also re-examines familiar matters that are generally related to the debate over whether investment income is taxed once under a comprehensive income tax and not at all under a postpaid consumption tax, or is taxed twice under a comprehensive income tax and once under a postpaid consumption tax. I conclude that within its premises, the income tax does not double-tax investment income.


Progestasert (Alza Corporation Palo Alto California) achieves relatively high rates of contraceptive effectiveness through the release of a sex hormone--progesterone. Currently it is recommended that Progestaserts be replaces every 12 months and most copper-bearing IUDs every 3 years. To improve on Progestaserts 1-year replacement interval Alza Corporation modified the Progestasert by increasing the amount of pregesterone contained in the IUD (from 38 to 52 mg) without changing the average daily release of 65mg. This long-acting progestasert called the Intrauterine Progesterone Contraceptive System (IPCS) was designed to have a useful life of 3 years before replacement was required. The IPCS is identical in appearance to the Progestasert and its contraceptive action in the same as that of the Progestasert. The effectiveness of either is through the effects of an intrauterine foreign body and through the effects of the progesterone on the encometrium. The IPCS system was designed to provide maximum contraceptive protection over a 3-year period and to reduce IUD-related bleeding pain and expulsion problems. Results from Alza monitored trials of the IPCS in the US and Mexico indicate that the cumulative life-table pregnancy rate increased from 3.6/100 women after 25 to 30 months of use to 10.6/100 women after 30 to 36 months of use. Laboratory evaluations of removed IPCS devices indicates that after 30 months of IPCS use the release rate of progesterone may not be adequate to prevent pregnancy effectively. The World Health Organization (WHO) evaluated the IPCS in 2 multiclinic studies. Postinsertion complications and complaints for the IPCS and T Cu-200 are shown. The include cervical perforation ectopic pregnancy pelvic inflammatory disease dysmenorrhea bleeding spotting and pelvic pain. The IPCS seemingly offers no particular advantages for use in developing countries.


A drawn short animation film (3 mins) produced by Bringas in collaboration with Monika Forsberg as director. They won a joint
BAFTA nomination for it. The film tells a tongue in cheek story of love and romance, though a self-conscious recycling of codes and conventions of female popular novels.
His Passionate Bride was commissioned by Channel Four's Animator in Residence scheme and produced on £40K budget to
full broadcast and theatrical specifications. Bringas (producer) and Forsberg (director)) were nominated for a BAFTA in 2005.
The film screened on 35 mm film at festivals, including Melbourne, Annecy, Ottowa, Toronto, Dresden, Creteil, Upsalla.
Clermont Ferrand. It was also shown at MOMA, New York; ICA, London; and British Animation Awards; and broadcast on C4
and SBS (Australia) in 2004. The film won Best Animation award at Granada International Film Festival (2005). It is distributed
on British Animation Awards' DVD 'Sexuality and Desire: Animating the Unconscious'.
His Passionate Bride uses a distinctive graphic approach which has evolved from the development of Forsberg's personal style
into new territory through collaboration with Bringas. The characters are stylised in a fluid manner that does not fit the rigid
working practices of cartoon animation. The technique is based in metamorphosis rather than the principles of caricature,
eschewing the graphic continuity and elasticity that define more orthodox forms of cartoon. Other elements of the style involved
using rough cycling textures for colouring in the graphic elements, a stylistic concept devised and implemented by Bringas.
Production lasted 8 months. Development processes were kept fluid with Bringas and Forsberg working collaboratively on the
first animatics, writing dialogues, recording a guide track, and ultimately working with editor Nicolas Chaudeurge to produce a
final project with an understandable narrative. Sound design and music were composed according to joint directions from
Bringas and Forsberg.
Bringas works in a collaborative relationship with her directors, with ongoing dialogue about all creative decisions, and has
established herself internationally as a leading producer of innovative animation. Bringas and Forsberg are currently writing an
animated series based on this film.


The collapse of thin-walled micro-grooved heat pipes is a common phenomenon in the tube flattening process, which seriously influences the heat transfer performance and appearance of heat pipe. At present, there is no other better method to solve this problem. A new method by heating the heat pipe is proposed to eliminate the collapse during the flattening process. The effectiveness of the proposed method is investigated through a theoretical model, a finite element(FE) analysis, and experimental method. Firstly, A theoretical model based on a deformation model of six plastic hinges and the Antoine equation of the working fluid is established to analyze the collapse of thin walls at different temperatures. Then, the FE simulation and experiments of flattening process at different temperatures are carried out and compared with theoretical model. Finally, the FE model is followed to study the loads of the plates at different temperatures and heights of flattened heat pipes. The results of the theoretical model conform to those of the FE simulation and experiments in the flattened zone. The collapse occurs at room temperature. As the temperature increases, the collapse decreases and finally disappears at approximately 130 °C for various heights of flattened heat pipes. The loads of the moving plate increase as the temperature increases. Thus, the reasonable temperature for eliminating the collapse and reducing the load is approximately 130 °C. The advantage of the proposed method is that the collapse is reduced or eliminated by means of the thermal deformation characteristic of heat pipe itself instead of by external support. As a result, the heat transfer efficiency of heat pipe is raised.


This paper describes a graph-theoretic complexity measure and illustrates how it can be used to manage and control program complexity. The paper first explains how the graph-theory concepts apply and gives an intuitive explanation of the graph concepts in programming terms. The control graphs of several actual Fortran programs are then presented to illustrate the correlation between intuitive complexity and the graph-theoretic complexity. Several properties of the graph-theoretic complexity are then proved which show, for example, that complexity is independent of physical size (adding or subtracting functional statements leaves complexity unchanged) and complexity depends only on the decision structure of a program.


Human cytochrome P4501A1 (CYP1A1) occurs extrahepatically and is polymorphic, the common form having Ile at position 462 and the rare form having Val. The rare allele has been associated with enhanced susceptibility to lung cancer. To resolve its role in cancer we have constructed CYP1A1-Val462 cDNA by site-directed mutagenesis from CYP1A1-Ile462, as confirmed by sequencing and allele-specific PCR. Both alleles were expressed in Escherichia coli, and CYP1A1-Ile462 and -Val462 were purified to electrophoretic homogeneity. The secondary structures of both forms were virtually identical, with high alpha helix content, as assessed by circular dichroism. The P450s stereoselectively and regioselectively catalyzed the metabolism of (R)- and (S)- warfarin, in reconstituted systems, with very similar profiles. Both P450s produced (R)-6- and 8-hydroxy-warfarin with Km values of 0.40 +/- 0.06 and 0.43 +/- 0.05 mM, respectively, and Vmax values of 84.0 +/- 6.8 and 137.7 +/- 8.9 pmol/min/nmol CYP1A1-Val462, respectively, 1.0 +/- 0.1 and 1.0 +/- 0.1 mM, respectively, and 46.7 +/- 2.5 and 80.0 +/- 4.4 pmol/min/nmol CYP1A1-Ile462, respectively. Reconstituted CYP1A1-Val462 catalyzed ethoxyresorufin metabolism at a slightly but significantly higher rate than did CYP1A1-Ile462; Vmax values were 4.4 +/- 0.6 and 3.1 +/- 0.3 nmol/min/nmol CYP1A1, respectively. However, with the carcinogen benzo(a) pyrene as substrate, reconstituted CYP1A1-Ile462 together with epoxide hydrolase produced 7,8- and 9,10-dihydrodiols at comparable rates than did CYP1A1-Val462. Thus, the apparently greater susceptibility of the CYP1A1-Val462 genotype to lung cancer is probably not related to greater extents of carcinogen bioactivation.


This collage features extreme perspective with the piers in yellow and orange moving from the center foreground straight to the horizon line depicted by the blue background meeting the black sky. In the left background area are several green geometric shapes that resemble buildings. A pink orb with a hole in the center floats in the left sky area while a purple one floats in the right hand portion of the sky area. Piercing each of these is a long hollow spear that spills tiny black, blue, white, gray and green circles into the foreground.


The structure of a large corporation can often be a very complex conflagration of parent corporations, divisions, subsidiary corporations, sister corporations, holding companies, merged entities, corporate spin-offs and the like. Tracking down all of the related relationships between these entities can be an equally complex process of deep investigation into federal, state, tax, credit and corporate records.
An increasing trend in recent years has been for some U.S. corporations to establish subsidiary operations overseas. In some cases it may be simply because it's more effective to have a subsidiary manage their operations within the country or region. However, a growing tactic among corporations is to use overseas subsidiaries to take advantage of lower foreign tax rates. This concept – often known as tax avoidance – has been an increasing part of a company's strategy to minimize tax obligations by moving revenue and profits into locations that have lower tax rates. Unlike tax evasion which is illegal, tax avoidance is the use of legal strategies and systems within the tax laws of both the home country, such as the U.S., and the overseas country. However, this has become a political and business controversy as a number of large companies, particularly major information industry companies such as Google, Facebook, and Apple have been criticized for using these strategies to "avoid" or reduce their United States tax obligations.


During thousands of years of Turkish History, camels were always important in their life. In the past camels were used as transport, pack, ride, war, food, and sport animal by Turks. After industrialization and modernization since 20th century, camel lost their importance and nowadays they are only a sport and tourism material in Turkey. Hence the camel population in Turkey decreased in number of about 1.000 recently. The camel population is mostly used for camel wrestling events in West Anatolia. The camel wrestling events are organized about in 60-70 places annually during winter season. Wrestling events are on Sundays and followed by not only men spectators but also women and children. Because of this side, camel wrestling events is a family sport. Although camel wrestling equipment, accessories, ornaments, wages of take carers, transport for wrestling from city to city, accommodation, catering are quite expensive, camel owners are not so rich people, but low or middle income people. Hence, those organizations and camel owners should be supported by the state more in order to survive this traditional event.


Cold-formed steel (CFS) sections, have been recognised as an important contributor to environmentally responsible and sustainable structures in developed countries, and CFS framing is considered as a sustainable 'green' construction material for low rise residential and commercial buildings. However, there is still lacking of data and information on the behaviour and performance of CFS beam in composite construction. The use of CFS has been limited to structural roof trusses and a host of nonstructural applications. One of the limiting features of CFS is the thinness of its section (usually between 1.2 and 3.2 mm thick) that makes it susceptible to torsional, distortional, lateral-torsional, lateral-distortional and local buckling. Hence, a reasonable solution is resorting to a composite construction of structural CFS section and reinforced concrete deck slab, which minimises the distance from the neutral-axis to the top of the deck and reduces the compressive bending stress in the CFS sections. Also, by arranging two CFS channel sections back-to-back restores symmetricity and suppresses lateraltorsional and to a lesser extent, lateral-distortional buckling. The two-fold advantages promised by the system, promote the use of CFS sections in a wider range of structural applications. An efficient and innovative floor system of built-up CFS sections acting compositely with a concrete deck slab was developed to provide an alternative composite system for floors and roofs in buildings. The system, called Precast Cold-Formed Steel- Concrete Composite System, is designed to rely on composite actions between the CFS sections and a reinforced concrete deck where shear forces between them are effectively transmitted via another innovative shear transfer enhancement mechanism called a bent-up triangular tab shear transfer (BTTST). The study mainly comprises two major components, i.e. experimental and theoretical work. Experimental work involved small scale and large-scale testing of laboratory tests.


Abstract Objectives: To assess the acceptance of popular maize food products (phutu, thin porridge and samp), prepared with yellow, provitamin A-biofortified maize varieties, in 212 subjects between the ages of three and 55 years, from rural KwaZulu-Natal. Design: A cross-sectional study. Method: Preschool, primary school and secondary school subjects were randomly selected from two primary schools and one secondary school, respectively, while adult subjects constituted a convenience sample. Pre- and primary school children completed a paired preference test. Secondary school and adult subjects completed a five-point facial hedonic and a preference ranking test. Focus group discussions were conducted using adult subjects. Results: Preschool children preferred yellow maize to white maize food products: phutu (81% vs. 19%; p-value < 0.001), thin porridge (75% vs. 25%; p-value < 0.001) and samp (73% vs. 27%; p-value < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in preference for white and yellow maize by primary school children. Secondary school and adult subjects preferred white maize to yellow maize. Focus group discussions confirmed the preference for white maize by the adults. Conclusion: The study findings suggest that yellow, provitamin A-biofortified maize has the potential to succeed as a new strategy of dealing with the serious problem of vitamin A deficiency, especially among children of preschool age. However, in older groups, this strategy is unlikely to be successful, unless other strategies are implemented, including intensive nutrition education programmes on the nutritional benefits of the maize, targeting the market price at which yellow maize is sold, increasing its availability in local grocery stores, and improving its sensory properties through breeding.


A 71-year-old woman presented with a 2-week history of abdominal and back pain. She had undergone right radical nephrectomy about 2 years ago due to renal cell carcinoma. Computed tomography (CT) scans of the abdominopelvic area revealed enhancing masses with prominent necrotic change in the aortocaval and left paraaortic spaces, which were about 7.4 and 1.5 cm in size, respectively (Fig. 1). After full evaluation, she was diagnosed with recurrent renal cell carcinoma with multiple lymph node metastases and she received palliative chemotherapy with weekly temsirolimus (25 mg intravenous injection over 1 hour). The initial treatment plan was that chemotherapy would be continued until disease progression or development of an unacceptable side effect, and she received repeat chemotherapy due to best response with partial remission without any serious side effects. At 80 weeks after treatment, CT scan of the abdominopelvic area showed newly developed internal calcification in and around the aortocaval and left para-aortic areas, which was considered as dystrophic calcification during treatment (Fig. 2). The calcified metastatic lymph nodes showed no significant interval change, and the patient is alive with palliative chemotherapy at 157 weeks after being diagnosed with recurrence. Dystrophic calcification occurs in degenerated or necrotic tissues with normal serum calcium levels, and it can be associated with a wide variety of neoplastic and non-neoplastic conditions. Epithelioid, mesenchymal, lymphoid, and germ cell tumors are malignant etiologies of dystrophic calcification. Calcifications may be primary or may arise during treatment. Although calcifications during treatment are frequently associated Dystrophic calcification after palliative chemotherapy in a patient with renal cell carcinoma


SUMMARY: Dilyara Suleymanova's article reconstructs the discourse on the recent population census in the Tatar-language press in Tatarstan. As she shows, the census, which offered 130 options of self-determination for representatives of the cumulative group of "Tatars," stimulated a wave of political mobilization in the Tatar press around the threat of the imperial policy of disassociating the Tatar national body. The rhetoric of the Tatar press noticeably differed from that of the Russian-language press published in Tatarstan: it evoked anti-imperial tropes, heavily relied on historical and cultural (especially linguistic) arguments and addressed the danger of internal "pluralism" within the "Tatar nation" (the possibility of freely choosing one's identity; the priority of individual interpretations of identity over collective ones; etc.). The two most actively discussed external and internal threats analyzed in the article are the so-called Kriashen (baptized Tatars) problem and the Tatar–Bashkir conflict.


Cholera remains a problem in developing countries. This is attributed to the unavailability of proper water treatment, sanitary infrastructure and poor hygiene. As a consequence, countries facing cholera outbreaks rely on interventions such as the use of oral rehydration therapy and antibiotics to save lives. In addition to vaccination, the provision of chlorine tablets and hygiene sensitization drives have been used to prevent new cholera infections. The implementation of these interventions remains a challenge due to constraints associated with the cost, ease of use and technical knowhow. These challenges have been reduced through the use of solar water disinfection (SODIS). The success of SODIS in mitigating the risk associated with the consumption of waterborne pathogens has been associated with solar irradiation. This has prompted a lot of focus on the solar component for enhanced disinfection. However, the role played by the host immune system following the consumption of solar-irradiated water pathogens has not received any significant attention. The mode of inactivation resulting from the exposure of microbiologically contaminated water results in immunologically important microbial states as well as components. In this review, the possible influence that solar water disinfection may have on the immunity against cholera is discussed.


Financial principles of project investment analysis deal with the cost and benefit flows over time. Invariably, the correct future cash flows and exact risks are unknown. The agricultural academic literature devotes substantial energy to discussing the estimation of the cash flows but it is relatively silent on applied estimation of risk. Empirical studies on agri-food ventures have made little or no attempt to estimate appropriate risk adjusted discount rates or other risk measures. Choice of discount rate has been arbitrary. Thus little guidance has been given to practitioners analysing agri-food investments as to the appropriate risk adjusted discounts rates. The Capital Market Line provides a relatively straightforward way to calculate risk premiums for project investments by non-diversified investors. These risk premiums can then be used in Net Present Value investment analysis.


We study on how a larger local government budget on infrastructure does not reflect into good quality of road in forty-one district/city across Indonesia given the fact of low infrastructure quality and low government spending on infrastructure. This study excels its preceded studies done by Tanzi and Davoodi (1997) at country level. The methodology used is a combination of quantitative and qualitative approach since our main research query is to seek facts on why a larger government spending is not followed by better quality of infrastructure. Our empirical strategy proved that corruption has aff ected government spending directly reflecting cost of corruption has been included as infrastructure project cost. We argue that corruption does aff ect quality of infrastructure negatively through government spending. Given the fact of Indonesian decentralization system enabling local election at district/city level it gives more room for decision-making process that has never been conducted before under centralized system. Corruption tends to occur in situation where the monitoring effort of central bureaucrat does exist while participation of local civil society is low. Although a district has already implemented e-procurement system intended to reduce opportunity of corruption incidence, it still exists through hidden-agreement between bureaucrat and such contractor who agree upon the project announcement process. They agree to set bid-price at lower level so that the contractor can win the project. This unfair process is suspected to happen since the budgetary process taking place at legislative where political bargaining is massive.


Objectives: A newly proposed surveillance definition for ventilator-associated conditions among neonatal and pediatric patients has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality among ventilated patients in cardiac ICU, neonatal ICU, and PICU. This study aimed to identify potential risk factors associated with pediatric ventilator-associated conditions. Design: Retrospective cohort. Setting: Six U.S. hospitals Patients: Children less than or equal to 18 years old ventilated for greater than or equal to 1 day. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: We identified children with pediatric ventilator-associated conditions and matched them to children without ventilator-associated conditions. Medical records were reviewed for comorbidities and acute care factors. We used bivariate and multivariate conditional logistic regression models to identify factors associated with ventilator-associated conditions. We studied 192 pairs of ventilator-associated conditions cases and matched controls (113 in the PICU and cardiac ICU combined; 79 in the neonatal ICU). In the PICU/cardiac ICU, potential risk factors for ventilator-associated conditions included neuromuscular blockade (odds ratio, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.08–4.87), positive fluid balance (highest quartile compared with the lowest, odds ratio, 7.76; 95% CI, 2.10–28.6), and blood product use (odds ratio, 1.52; 95% CI, 0.70–3.28). Weaning from sedation (i.e., decreasing sedation) or interruption of sedation may be protective (odds ratio, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.18–1.11). In the neonatal ICU, potential risk factors included blood product use (odds ratio, 2.99; 95% CI, 1.02–8.78), neuromuscular blockade use (odds ratio, 3.96; 95% CI, 0.93–16.9), and recent surgical procedures (odds ratio, 2.19; 95% CI, 0.77–6.28). Weaning or interrupting sedation was protective (odds ratio, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.01–0.79). Conclusions: In mechanically ventilated neonates and children, we identified several possible risk factors associated with ventilator-associated conditions. Next steps include studying propensity-matched cohorts and prospectively testing whether changes in sedation management, transfusion thresholds, and fluid management can decrease pediatric ventilator-associated conditions rates and improve patient outcomes.


Leafrollers are pests of many fruit crops, and insecticides are used to control their numbers in commercial orchards. However, little is known about how much their natural enemies contribute to their control. Over two summers, larvae of two leafroller species were established in leaf rolls on potted poplar plants, which were placed along shelterbelts in 16 kiwifruit orchards. After a minimum of 38 hours, the leafrollers were retrieved and reared to determine parasitism rates and parasitoid identities. Egg batches and tethered larvae were also placed in the shelterbelts, with some monitored by video cameras, to determine predation rates and predator identities. Up to 3% of larvae in leaf rolls were parasitised in some orchards, by four different parasitoids, with the fly Trigonospila brevifacies accounting for the majority. Rates of predation were higher, with up to 40% of eggs, and 37.2% of larvae being taken. Fourteen different predator taxa were observed feeding on eggs and larvae, with the mite Anystis baccarum, earwigs, and spiders being the primary predators. Understanding which natural enemies are suppressing leafroller populations offers the potential for conserving or increasing those predator and/ or parasitoid numbers in cropping environments.


Calculations of the nonlinear-optical behavior are developed for model composites of nanospheres with a metallic core and nonlinear shell or with a nonlinear core and metallic shell suspended in a nonlinear medium. Optical phase conjugation is shown to be enhanced from each nonlinear region because the optical field can be concentrated in both the interior and the exterior neighborhoods of the particle and magnified at the surface-mediated plasmon resonance. For the model composite with a metallic core, a limited range of resonance tunability can be achieved by adjustment of shell thickness; the frequency range is dependent on the dielectric dispersion of the metal. For the composite with a metallic shell instead of a metallic core, this restriction is reduced so that tunability from ultraviolet to infrared can be attained. Enhancement of the phase-conjugate signal is calculated for the electrostrictive mechanism dominant in the microsecond time scale and for the electronic mechanism dominant in the picosecond time scale. Calculations based on the dielectric functions for gold and for aluminum indicate that phase-conjugate reflectivity enhancements of 108 can be achieved. The imaginary components of the composite dielectric functions are shown to limit the magnitude of the field enhancement at the surface-plasmon resonance and determine the absorption and figure of merit of the composite.


This paper aims to explore practicing teachers' perceptions of the approach adopted in their pre-service training programs with regard to educational technology. The paper also investigates the extent to which the teachers employ technology to accomplish pedagogical goals as well as the instructional methodology they embrace when they use ICT in the classroom. The thrust of the argument in the current study is that the way practicing teachers use educational technology is reflective of the inadequacy of the pre-service training programs that still insist on disentangling ICT from pedagogy and content. Informed by TPACK, a four-section, five-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to 56 ELT practitioners in middle and secondary education in the province of El-Jadida. It was found that the integration of technology, pedagogy and content was left to the discretion of the teachers. This approach resulted in limited ICT implementation for instructional purposes and inconsistent interpretations of how ICT can best be used in the classroom. Although the teachers reported that they embraced a student-centered methodology while using ICT, they also fell back on teacher-centered instructional principles. On the basis of the results obtained, a number of implications will be offered for an effective ICT-oriented ELT teacher education.

Keywords: ELT; TPACK; Pre-service teacher education; ICT; Middle and secondary education.