Introduction Environmental considerations are rapidly emerging as a very important issue for business and management in the 90s (Klassen, 1993; Hutchinson and Chaston, 1994; Green Economy Working Group Report, 1994). Legal and public pressure in Europe on the attainment of good environmental practice is mounting. A significant proportion of this pressure has been directed at business which is often identified as the major source of pollution. In addition, the 1991 British Social Attitudes report (Jowel, 1991) indicates that consumer buying patterns are changing with environmental considerations permeating society more widely. Consequently, organisations are having to respond to the demands of the modern, environmentally aware consumer by developing products/ services which, for example, use less packaging, cause less pollution and/or reduce energy consumption. Government has played a significant role in putting pressure on companies through environmental legislation. For example, environmental considerations have been built into the legislative framework for many years, with legislation covering air and water pollution, public health and safety, as well as more recent measures to control the use of products, processes and wastes which may harm the environment. The United Kingdom Environmental Protection Act (EPA) which builds on previous measures, is a key piece of environmental legislation which has drawn together and overhauled the regulatory structures and requirements of environmental protection in the UK. Much of the content of the EPA has been motivated by the activities of the European Union and will better enable the framework of UK pollution control to meet the demands of European environmental policy. It should be noted that within Northern Ireland, the EPA does not come into force for at least another year. Until relatively recently, the environment debate in organisations has largely been one of rhetoric rather than action. Business Advice Guides for environmental improvement provided the first guidelines for business environmental improvement (Davis, 1991 and Ralston and Church, 1991). These were swiftly followed by more formalised environmental management systems, such as BS7750. This British Standard provides a generic model that assists organisations in establishing, developing and maintaining their own environmental management system. In recent years, a number of authors have conducted surveys dealing with environmental management issues. For example, Polonksky et al (1992) investigated environmental commitment in large firms within the Australian context. In the United Kingdom, there have been a number of regional studies dealing with the difficulties that SMEs have experienced in developing and implementing environmental policies (Hutchinson and Chaston, 1994; Patton et al, 1994; Welford, 1994). With regard to Northern Ireland only one study was found which dealt with the existing and potential employment opportunities created by environmentally based activities (Green Economy Working Group Report, 1994). The study reported in this article concentrates on the management perception of the environmental threats and opportunities arising, both currently and in the future for businesses in Northern Ireland. It is anticipated that the findings from this survey should be of interest to strategic planners in the public and private sector, as well as environmental groups, industry trade associations and management consultants who are involved in designing and implementing environmental policy. The objectives of the survey were to establish: * The level of awareness, analysed by size and sector, regarding current and impending environmental legislation/management systems and their implications to the organisation in terms of affecting the strategic and operational planning process. * To identify the main factors influencing environmental policy within an organisation. …


In this thesis, a variety of topics related to high speed optoelectronic devices and measurement techniques using ultrafast optical pulses are presented. Following a brief introduction, the second chapter describes a Q-switched semi-conductor laser using a multi-quantum well active layer both for gain and as an intracavity loss modulator. While Q-Switching does not produce as short a pulse as modelocking, it does offer the advantage of adjustability of the repetition rate making it attractive as a source for digital communication links. It is also found to be preferred to the similar approach of gain switching due to less demanding requirements on the rf modulation power level and waveform. Results include a pulse width of ~ 20 ps which is fairly independent of the repetition rate, and a limiting repetition rate of 3.2 GHz. The onset of an irregular pulse train which limits the maximum modulation frequency, is analyzed by a graphical approach. The potential for optical interconnects has motivated a marriage between the two technologies of Si VLSI and GaAs optoelectronics. Direct integration by the growth of GaAs on Si had been impossible, but the MBE and MOCVD techniques now enable the growth of such layers and of a quality suitable for devices. The third chapter describes the operating characteristics of GaAs-on-Si lasers and photodiodes with particular attention to their high speed performance. Both the lasers and photodiodes show comparable high speed performance to similar structures fabricated on GaAs, with most of the shortcomings being in their dc characteristics. In the fourth chapter, a novel approach to improving the resolution of photoconductive sampling is presented, called differential sampling. This technique obviates the need for carrier lifetime reduction usually used to improve temporal resolution, and is in principal only limited by a small (few ps) RC circuit time. An analysis of the minimum detectable signal voltage shows the technique does quite well compared with lifetime reduction techniques which also tend to reduce mobility and dark resistance. An experimental demonstration of this technique is presented in chapter five. Using a two gap sampler, accurate measurement (10 ps resolution) of a 60 ps pulse response from a photodiode is achieved using photoconductors with a recovery time of only 150 ps. Performance near the fundamental Johnson noise limit is also attained, though the minimum detectable signal is higher than predicted due to low response of the photoconductors (probably due to poor contacts). Finally, in chapter six, the possibility of retrieving an impulse response from its autocorrelation is explored. The use of the logarithmic Hilbert transform for phase retrieval has been discounted in the literature since most such work is concerned with imaging problems for which it is not appropriate due to their symmetric nature. However, causality and the decay nature of transient phenomena make this technique very suitable for use with the impulse response of passive devices. Conditions for the validity of this technique for temporal problems are presented. Simulated retrieval of two functions with similar autocorrelations is demonstrated with sufficient clarity to distinguish them, as well as showing good agreement with the original. Practical limitations and aspects -- such as noise, finite time domain, etc. -- are also simulated and discussed.


There has been a paradigm shift from Black′s "extension for prevention" to a minimal intervention approach in the recent time. To diagnose earliest stages of enamel demineralization, accurate and reliable detection of white spot lesions is very important. The newer diagnostic aids would enable the dentist to detect and diagnose early such lesions and direct appropriate preventive measures to promote remineralization and conservation of the tooth substance. A high level of caries experience necessitates preventive strategies which are more cost-effective than surgical intervention and restorative procedures. The goal of modern dentistry is to manage white lesions non-invasively through remineralization in an attempt to prevent disease progression, and to improve strength, esthetics, and function of teeth.


Extracted from text ... REVIEW
Southern African Journal of Anaesthesia & Analgesia - February 2004 23
Perioperative care of a pregnant trauma
victim: a review of anesthetic
considerations
while decreasing the time available and the margin of safety.
The pregnant trauma victim presents a unique spectrum of
challenges to the trauma healthcare team. The surgical diagnosis
may be unknown at the time of incision, as may be the
nature and extend of the procedure being undertaken. The fact
that pregnancy may not always be known to be present to the
health care team (at the scene of transportation accidents, in
the emergency room, ..


Aortic arch (AA) is a prolongation of aorta ascendens and forms a part of mediastenum superius. It begins right above the joint of sternum and the second rib at the posterior right half of manubrium sterni. Presently, aorta has been pointed out not only to perform the duty of a canal but in fact has been shown to have a significant role in regulating left ventricular function and myocardial perfusion. To be well aware of the arterial patterns of this area is of significant importance in situations that require urgent interventions and cardio-thoracic surgery. The objective of this study was to determine the various different AA branching patterns belonging to Turkish population. We are convinced that the results obtained will be of significant importance to anatomists, chest surgeons and radiologists attempting cardio-vascular intervention. This study was done on 94 patients (32 females 64 males) who had applied to the Radio-diagnostic Department for computerised tomography (CT) angiography, during 2010-2011 at Mevlana University Medical Hospital. In our study, seven different branching patterns belonging to AA were observed. AA was found to give out minimum of two and maximum of five branches. Being aware of this variations and its determination prior to medical intervention would be of vital importance in relation to treatment process of the patient. Therefore we believe that the results obtained in our study will be of particular importance to anatomists, cardio-vascular surgeons, chest surgeons and radiologists carrying out vascular intervention applications.


Abstract. The integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) and the Building Information Modeling (BIM) referred to as the merging of the two systems for the purpose of data interoperability. The need to share information between the two systems is what motivated the integration process purposely for geospatial analysis. This can be achieved through their data exchange formats such as; City Markup Language (CityGML) and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The formats are the two most prominent key schemas of GIS and BIM systems respectively. The integration is a step towards information exchange or sharing (data interoperability) between the two systems. The selection of the two most prominent data exchange formats is as a result of their widespread applications in the GIS and BIM domains. However, the differences in geometric and the semantics information hinders data interoperability (information sharing) between GIS and BIM. Also, coupled with the difference in schema structure and the level of information richness between IFC and CityGML. This paper, propose a geometry transformation process that can be used to extract and transform IFC building objects to that of CityGML building objects to enable 3D model design and constructed using BIM tool to be easily reused in 3D GIS applications which will be able to support the CityGML model format. Where the geometric information will be extracted using the IFC tree-structure (hierarchy) and transformed to destination CityGML.


Bias-based aggression at school in the form of homophobic name-calling is quite prevalent among early adolescents. Homophobic name-calling is associated with low academic performance, higher risky sexual behaviors, and substance abuse, among other adverse outcomes. This longitudinal study examined risk and protective factors across multiple domains of the social ecology (individual, peer, family, school and community) and levels of analysis (within- and between-person) associated with homophobic name-calling perpetration and victimization. Students from four middle schools in the U.S. Midwest (N = 1,655; X ¯ age = 12.75; range = 10–16 years) were surveyed four times (Spring/Fall 2008, Spring/Fall 2009). For homophobic name-calling perpetration, significant risk factors included impulsivity, social dominance, traditional masculinity, family violence, and neighborhood violence; while empathy, peer support, school belonging, and adult support were significant protective factors. For homophobic name-calling victimization, significant risk factors included empathy (between-person), impulsivity, traditional masculinity, family violence, and neighborhood violence, while empathy (within-person), parental monitoring, peer support, school belonging, and adult support were significant protective factors.


McQuilling, Mark Wayne. Ph.D. Engineering Ph.D. Program, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Wright State University, 2007. Design and Validation of a High-Lift Low-Pressure Turbine Blade. This dissertation is a design and validation study of the high-lift low-pressure turbine (LPT) blade designated L2F. High-lift LPTs offer the promise of reducing the blade count in modern gas turbine engines. Decreasing the blade count can reduce development and maintenance costs and the weight of the engine, but care must be taken in order to maintain turbine section performance with fewer blades. For an equivalent amount of work extracted, lower blade counts increase blade loading in the LPT section. The high-lift LPT presented herein allows 38% fewer blades with a Zweifel loading coefficient of 1.59 and maintains the same inlet and outlet blade metal angles of conventional geometries in service today while providing an improved low-Reynolds number characteristic. The computational design method utilizes the Turbine Design and Analysis System (TDAAS) developed by John Clark of the Air Force Research Laboratory. TDAAS integrates several government-funded design utilities including airfoil and grid generation capability with a Reynolds-Averaged NavierStokes flow solver into a single, menu-driven, Matlab-based system. Transition modeling is achieved with the recently developed model of Praisner and Clark, and this study validates the use of the model for design purposes outside of the Pratt & Whitney (P&W) design system where they were created. Turbulence modeling is achieved with the Baldwin and Lomax zero-equation model. The experimental validation consists of testing the front-loaded L2F along with a previously designed, mid-loaded blade (L1M) in a linear turbine cascade in a low-speed wind tunnel over a range of Reynolds numbers at 3.3% freestream turbulence. Hot-wire anemometry and pressure measurements elucidate these comparisons, while a shear and stress sensitive film (S3F) also helps describe the flow in areas of interest. S3F can provide all 3 components of stress on a surface in a single measurement, and these tests extend the operational envelope of the technique to low speed air environments where small dynamic pressures and curved surfaces preclude the use of more traditional global measurement methods. Results are compared between the L1M and L2F geometries along with previous data taken in the same wind tunnel at identical flow conditions for the P&W Pack B geometry.


Grapevine (Vitis vinifera) roots and leaves represent major carbohydrate and nitrogen (N) sources, either as recent assimilates, or mobilized from labile or storage pools. This study examined the response of root and leaf primary metabolism following defoliation treatments applied to fruiting vines during ripening. The objective was to link alterations in root and leaf metabolism to carbohydrate and N source functioning under conditions of increased fruit sink demand. Potted grapevine leaf area was adjusted near the start of véraison to 25 primary leaves per vine compared to 100 leaves for the control. An additional group of vines were completely defoliated. Fruit sugar and N content development was assessed, and root and leaf starch and N concentrations determined. An untargeted GC/MS approach was undertaken to evaluate root and leaf primary metabolite concentrations. Partial and full defoliation increased root carbohydrate source contribution towards berry sugar accumulation, evident through starch remobilization. Furthermore, root myo-inositol metabolism played a distinct role during carbohydrate remobilization. Full defoliation induced shikimate pathway derived aromatic amino acid accumulation in roots, while arginine accumulated after full and partial defoliation. Likewise, various leaf amino acids accumulated after partial defoliation. These results suggest elevated root and leaf amino N source activity when leaf N availability is restricted during fruit ripening. Overall, this study provides novel information regarding the impact of leaf source restriction, on metabolic compositions of major carbohydrate and N sources during berry maturation. These results enhance the understanding of source organ carbon and N metabolism during fruit maturation.


In highly iterative development processes, functionality is continuously added while existing faults are repaired simultaneously. Therefore, practitioners need means to predict the fault inflow, i.e. the number of faults at the a certain project stage, in order to allocate resources adequately. This study investigates the use of software reliability growth models (SRGMs) for predicting fault inflow. Additionally, a simple linear model is developed and compared to the SRGMs. The paper provides results from applying these models on fault data from three different industrial projects. One of the key findings of this study is that SRGMs are applicable for predicting fault inflow in highly iterative processes. Moreover, the results show that a linear model provides reasonably accurate predictions as well and therefore, represents a valid alternative to the SRGMs.


This thesis seeks to demonstrate the extent to which the figure of Eve operated in twelfth-century commentary on Genesis as a crucial means by which to examine some of the most fundamental and problematic areas of the hexaemeron and fall narratives.

Amid the twelfth-century's flourishing corpus of writing on the creation and fall of mankind, Eve emerges not as an expedient model of female iniquity or a credulous victim of diabolic casuistry, but as a valued equivalent and peer to Adam ('nec ancilla nec domina sed socia', in the words of Hugh of St Victor). Moreover, Eve lies at the heart of twelfth-century debate surrounding the challenging issues of how and why mankind was created, why the existence of sin and evil was permitted, the action of temptation and sin, and the composition of the created world.

However, there has been no substantial treatment of representations of Eve in the central middle ages, and modern scholarship has frequently been content to assume that medieval responses to the first woman are universally misogynistic. This thesis aims both to address this historiographical lacuna, and to examine the hitherto neglected function of Eve as a means by which to elucidate some of the major theological and philosophical preoccupations of this formative period.

In order to do this, the thesis examines representations of Eve as the first woman (Chapter I), the first wife/mother (Chapter II) and the first sinner (Chapter III) in a corpus of texts centred around six of the major twelfth-century treatments of Eve and the creation/fall narrative. These are Guibert of Nogent's Moralia in Genesim, Abelard's Expositio in hexameron, Hugh of St Victor's De sacramentis, Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias, Peter Lombard's Sentences, and the Anglo-Norman Jeu d'Adam.


ABSTRACT A frequently stated aim of the increasing internationalisation of higher education (HE) is the incorporation of intercultural elements. This has recently been conceptualised through the notion of intercultural citizenship with universities promising to equip graduates with the necessary knowledge and skills to engage in global workplaces and communities. However, the extent to which intercultural citizenship goes beyond promotion and marketing and is meaningfully incorporated into university curricula and teaching practices is still unclear. Most significantly, there is little evidence that students themselves are aware of, motivated by, or develop a sense of intercultural citizenship at international universities. In parallel to the expansion of internationalisation in HE has been an increase in English medium instruction (EMI) programmes. This link between the use of English and internationalisation is therefore likely to also influence perceptions of intercultural citizenship but has so far received little attention in research. To address these gaps this study investigated the perceptions and experiences of international students towards intercultural citizenship and its links to language before, during and after their study via interviews and a focus group. Findings showed intercultural citizenship was generally positively perceived and strongly linked to English, but reported development was uneven during study abroad.


Members of the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) family regulate essential processes like cell proliferation, cell death, and developmental morphogenesis. The Smad proteins carry signals from activated TGF-β receptors to the nucleus where they promote transcription of target genes. This process requires a series of protein-protein interactions that, as the details emerge, appear like a highly orchestrated dance in which the regulated Smad (R-Smads) spin deftly from partner to partner on their way from the cell membrane to the nucleus. Just how the R-Smad recognizes the appropriate partners at the correct time is clarified by the work of Qin et al. In the course of activation, Smad3 interacts with the TGF-β receptor, SARA (Smad anchor for receptor activation), and the common mediator Smad (Co-Smad) Smad4. All of these interactions occur through a single domain of Smad3 (the effector or MH2 domain). Qin et al. analyzed crystal structures of monomeric and trimeric Smad3 and of a complex of the MH2 domain of Smad3 with the Smad-binding domain of SARA. The structures revealed that monomeric Smad3, which is brought to the receptor by interaction with SARA, undergoes a conformational change when phosphorylated by the receptor to form activated Smad3 trimers. This structural change disrupted interaction with SARA but enhanced interaction of Smad3 (again through the MH2 domain) with another partner, the proto-oncogene product Ski, which functions to repress transcriptional activation by Smad3. It thus appears that in the absence of receptor activation, SARA acts to suppress Smad3 activation by favoring the monomeric state of Smad3. The activating phosphorylation by the receptor then promotes formation of Smad3 trimers, which interact in the nucleus with the negative feedback component Ski and probably with other coactivators, corepressors, and regulatory molecules. Moustakas and Heldin discuss these results. B. Y. Qin, S. S. Lam, J. J. Correia, K. Lin, Smad3 allostery links TGF-β receptor kinase activation to transcriptional control. Genes Dev. 16, 1950-1963 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text] A. Moustakas, C-H. Heldin, From mono- to oligo-Smads: The heart of the matter in TGF-β signal transduction, Genes Dev. 16, 1867-1871 (2002). [Full Text]


Angiogenesis, the formation of blood vessels, may be described as a process whereby capillary sprouts are formed in response to externally supplied chemical stimuli. The sprouts then develop and organize themselves into a dendritic structure. Angiogenesis occurs during embryogenesis, wound healing, arthritis and during the growth of solid tumours. In this paper we present a mathematical model which describes the rôle of angiogenesis as observed during (soft-tissue) wound healing. We focus attention on certain principal players involved in this complex process, namely capillary tips, capillary sprouts, fibroblasts, macrophage-derived chemical attractants, oxygen and extracellular matrix. The model consists of a system of nonlinear partial differential equations describing the interactions in space and time of the above substances. Numerical simulations are presented which are in very good qualitative agreement with experimental observations.


PURPOSE: To evaluate the influence of corneal suturing on the clinical course of iatrogenic keratectasia after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK), in order to improve quality of vision and to avoid progressive deterioration of visual acuity. METHODS: Three patients (four eyes) who had a perforation during LASIK or became keratectatic after LASIK received corneal suturing with 10-0 nylon immediately or up to 11 days after LASIK. Sutures were left in place for 1 to 4 months. Patients were followed for 20 to 23 months after suturing. RESULTS: All eyes had a significant improvement in uncorrected and best spectacle-corrected visual acuity after suturing. The improvements in visual acuity for all patients remained unchanged after suture removal. In patient 1, keratectatic changes were not detected in the sutured eye although they were detected in the contralateral unsutured eye. In patient 2, both eyes were sutured, one immediately and the other 11 days after LASIK; no keratectatic changes were noted in either eye. Slight progression of corneal protrusion was observed in patient 3, who had corneal suturing after development of prominent keratectasia 2 weeks after LASIK. This eye showed stable but moderate keratectatic change 9 months after suture removal. CONCLUSIONS: Flap suturing in patients during the course of keratectasia after LASIK improved both aided and unaided visual acuity. Prompt suturing seemed to provide a means of preventive management for iatrogenic keratectasia in anticipation of keratoplasty.


Carrier and gain depletion due to cross-cavity interactions in actively coupled vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser arrays cause nonlinear-cavity frequency pulling. As a result the collective mode structure departs significantly from earlier studied linearly coupled eigenmodes. Theory and simulations find that array eigenmodes have uniform amplitude and density distribution over the interior array sites, accompanied with boundary-layer formation at the edges. Exact zero or pi phasing among adjacent sites is achieved, depending on the coupling-strength sign. In contrast, in linearly coupled array modes neglecting cross-cavity hole burning, the phase difference cannot be exactly zero or pi, yielding a sinusoidal amplitude distribution over the array sites. The exact zero phasing and the uniform intensity distribution in nonlinearly coupled arrays offer advantages for practical applications.


In a pattern similar to that of the previous year, the U.S. economy appeared to slow down this past winter. The Bureau of Economic Analysis currently estimates that gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 0.6% (at an annualized rate) in the first quarter of 2015. And as in the previous year, harsh winter weather has been cited by some observers as being responsible for the slowdown. However, there is substantial disagreement on the impact of weather on economic activity.


Pearl millet ( Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) is an important cereal in semi-arid tropics in Africa and India. Conventionally, millet has good amounts of grain minerals compared to other cereals. Estimation of genetic parameters would be useful in developing appropriate breeding and selection strategies. The present study was conducted to evaluate the local pearl millet accessions to assess the magnitude of variability and to understand the heritable component of variation present in the yield and nutritional characters. A field trial was laid under the complete randomized block design (RCBD) with three replications; observation were recorded on eight morphological and seven nutritional characters (as detailed in material and methods) including anti-nutritional properties such as phytate content among 61 genotypes collected from millet collection. The phenotypic co-efficient of variation (PCV) was greater than genotypic co-efficient of variation (GCV) for all the characters studied; this shows the influence of environmental factors on the characters. The phosphorus content had expressed the highest phenotypic and genotypic variances (845.30 and 772.08, respectively). The magnitudes of phenotypic and genotypic variances were low for the 100 grain weight (0.001 for both phenotypic and genotypic variance). High estimates of genetic co-efficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance were exhibited by iron and crude fat content. Heritability is a measure of possible genetic advancement under selection. High heritability was observed for all the traits under study except seed weight which had moderate heritability. High value of heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean were recorded for number of productive tillers, crude protein, crude fat, phytate, phosphorus, calcium, iron and zinc content, indicating the important role of additive gene action for the expression of these characters. Therefore, selection based on these characters could bring about desired improvement in yield as well as nutritional quality of pearl millet cultivars. Key words: Genetic-advance, Heritability, Variability, Micronutrients, Malnutrition


This is the second of a series of papers on the subject of projection methods for viscous incompressible flow calculations. The purpose of the present paper is to explain why the accuracy of the velocity approximation is not affected by (1) the numerical boundary layers in the approximation of pressure and the intermediate velocity field and (2) the noncommutativity of the projection operator and the laplacian. This is done by using a Godunov--Ryabenki type of analysis in a rigorous fashion. By doing so, we hope to be able to convey the message that normal mode analysis is basically sufficient for understanding the stability and accuracy of a finite-difference method for the Navier--Stokes equation even in the presence of boundaries. As an example, we analyze the second-order projection method based on pressure increment formulations used by van Kan and Bell, Colella, and Glaz. The leading order error term in this case is of $O(\dt)$ and behaves as high frequency oscillations over the whole domain, compared with the $O(\dt^{1/2})$ numerical boundary layers found in the second-order Kim--Moin method.


We propose an approximate model for a nonsaturated IEEE 802.11 DCF network. This model captures the significant influence of an arbitrary node transmit buffer size on the network performance. We find that increasing the buffer size can improve the throughput slightly but can lead to a dramatic increase in the packet delay without necessarily a corresponding reduction in the packet loss rate. This result suggests that there may be little benefit in provisioning very large buffers, even for loss-sensitive applications. Our model outperforms prior models in terms of simplicity, computation speed, and accuracy. The simplicity stems from using a renewal theory approach for the collision probability instead of the usual multidimensional Markov chain, and it makes our model easier to understand, manipulate and extend; for instance, we are able to use our model to investigate the important problem of convergence of the collision probability calculation. The remarkable improvement in the computation speed is due to the use of an efficient numerical transform inversion algorithm to invert generating functions of key parameters of the model. The accuracy is due to a carefully constructed model for the service time distribution. We verify our model using ns-2 simulation and show that our analytical results based on an M/G/1/K queuing model are able to accurately predict a wide range of performance metrics, including the packet loss rate and the waiting time distribution. In contradiction to claims by other authors, we show that 1) a nonsaturated DCF model like ours that makes use of decoupling assumptions for the collision probability and queuing dynamics can produce accurate predictions of metrics other than just the throughput, and 2) the actual service time and waiting time distributions for DCF networks have truncated heavy-tailed shapes (i.e., appear initially straight on a log-log plot) rather than exponential shapes. Our work will help developers select appropriate buffer sizes for 802.11 devices, and will help system administrators predict the performance of applications.


Many applications of Szemerédi's Regularity Lemma for graphs are based on the following counting result. If ${\mathcal G}$ is an $s$-partite graph with partition $V({\mathcal G}) =\bigcup_{i=1}^{s} V_i$, $\vert V_i\vert =m$ for all $i\in [s]$, and all pairs $(V_i, V_j)$, $1\leq i < j\leq s$, are $\epsilon$-regular of density $d$, then $\mathcal{G}$ contains $(1\pm f(\epsilon))d^{({s\atop 2})}m^s$ cliques $K_{s}$, provided $\epsilon<\epsilon(d)$, where $f(\epsilon)$ tends to 0 as $\epsilon$ tends to 0. Guided by the regularity lemma for 3-uniform hypergraphs established earlier by Frankl and Rödl, Nagle and Rödl proved a corresponding counting lemma. Their proof is rather technical, mostly due to the fact that the 'quasi-random' hypergraph arising after application of Frankl and Rödl's regularity lemma is 'sparse', and consequently difficult to handle. When the 'quasi-random' hypergraph is 'dense' Kohayakawa, Rödl and Skokan (J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 97 307–352) found a simpler proof of the counting lemma. Their result applies even to $k$-uniform hypergraphs for arbitrary $k$. While the Frankl–Rödl regularity lemma will not render the dense case, in this paper, for $k=3$, we are nevertheless able to reduce the harder, sparse case to the dense case. Namely, we prove that a 'dense substructure' randomly chosen from the 'sparse $\delta$-regular structure' is $\delta$-regular as well. This allows us to count the number of cliques (and other subhypergraphs) using the Kohayakawa–Rödl–Skokan result, and provides an alternative proof of the counting lemma in the sparse case. Since the counting lemma in the dense case applies to $k$-uniform hypergraphs for arbitrary $k$, there is a possibility that the approach of this paper can be adopted to the general case as well.


Heuristic search using heuristics extracted from the delete relaxation is one of the most effective methods in planning. Since finding the optimal solution of the delete relaxation is intractable, various heuristics introduce independence assumptions, the implications of which are not yet fully understood. Here we use concepts from graph theory to show that in problems with unary action preconditions, the delete relaxation is closely related to the Steiner Tree problem, and that the independence assumption for the set of goals results in a tree-of-shortest-paths approximation. We analyze the limitations of this approximation and develop an alternative method for computing relaxed plans that addresses them. The method is used to guide a greedy best-first search, where it is shown to improve plan quality and coverage over several benchmark domains.


Social sustainability and its evaluation. Some notes starting from the European Program Surprise - This article focuses on the problem of measuring the four fundamental dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic, social, institutional), with reference to urban regeneration programs. A specific case, linked to the European project Surprise (Sustainable Urban Regeneration Programs In Southern Europe) is analysed; such project concerns the evaluation of a checklist of actions carried out in three neighbourhoods of Turin where urban regeneration projects are going on over the last ten years. A multidisciplinary benchmark has been defined to measure different aspects of sustainability and the empirical feedback of some operators and practitioners involved in those programs has been reported. They evaluated the importance to each feature. Starting from the results of these interviews, the article develops some more general considerations on the use of quantitative and qualitative indicators to evaluate the social dimension of a sustainable regeneration at a neighbourhood level


Context. With the aid of stellar abundance analysis, it is possible to study the galactic formation and evolution. Magnesium is an important element to trace the α-element evolution in our Galaxy. For chemical abundance analysis, such as magnesium abundance, accurate and complete atomic data are essential. Inaccurate atomic data lead to uncertain abundances and prevent discrimination between different evolution models. Aims: We study the spectrum of neutral magnesium from laboratory measurements and theoretical calculations. Our aim is to improve the oscillator strengths (f-values) of Mg i lines and to create a complete set of accurate atomic data, particularly for the near-IR region. Methods: We derived oscillator strengths by combining the experimental branching fractions with radiative lifetimes reported in the literature and computed in this work. A hollow cathode discharge lamp was used to produce free atoms in the plasma and a Fourier transform spectrometer recorded the intensity-calibrated high-resolution spectra. In addition, we performed theoretical calculations using the multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock program ATSP2K. Results: This project provides a set of experimental and theoretical oscillator strengths. We derived 34 experimental oscillator strengths. Except from the Mg i optical triplet lines (3p 3P°0,1,2-4s 3S1), these oscillator strengths are measured for the first time. The theoretical oscillator strengths are in very good agreement with the experimental data and complement the missing transitions of the experimental data up to n = 7 from even and odd parity terms. We present an evaluated set of oscillator strengths, gf, with uncertainties as small as 5%. The new values of the Mg i optical triplet line (3p 3P°0,1,2-4s 3S1) oscillator strength values are 0.08 dex larger than the previous measurements.


Makeup and costume in Nigeria have been practiced from the traditional festival theatres, for as long as African villages have existed because theatre. The European-originated world view of theatre having its origin in 6th century B. C. Greece, appears to be a form of misinformation that leaves much room for contention, in view of more recent facts that suggest Egypt as the origin of theatre and Ikhanetfet as the first actor, rather than Thespis. Arguing along this line, this study also opines that makeup was not first introduced by the theatre of ancient Rome. The methodology is primarily literature review. The findings strongly suggest that Ancient Egyptian theatre outdates Ancient Greek theatre by twenty thousand years and was more advanced in design and technical practices than the later theatre. The study suggests a need to research into the extent of distortions of ancient theatre history of Nigeria. It also argues for an urgent reversal of teaching the false European origins of theatre and finally advocates further scholarly efforts to help the reposition Africa in world theatre history.


Book synopsis: From the start of the AIDS epidemic there have been calls for greater solidarity between affected groups and communities, and public health services. This can be seen both in the move towards healthy alliances in health service work, and in the demands of AIDS activists worldwide. This text brings together specially selected papers addressing these and related themes given at the Eighth Conference on Social Aspects of AIDS held in London in late 1995. Among the issues examined are profession and policy; the heightened vulnerability of groups such as women and younger gay men; and issues of drug use, disability and HIV prevention.


To improve breastfeeding support in local businesses in Brookings, SD, researchers from South Dakota State University partnered with Brookings Health System, the Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce, local breastfeeding advocates, and an expert public deliberation moderator to conduct community-based participatory research leading to a public deliberation event. The collaborative team took a mixed-methods approach, using qualitative, quantitative, and rhetorical methods to collect and analyze data across two phases of the project: formative research (Phase I) and implementation (Phase II). During Phase I, the team conducted focus groups and marketed the project. Results from Phase I shaped the conversations at the public deliberation event in Phase II. At the event, community members deliberated about the issue of breastfeeding support in Brookings businesses, and they identified action steps. Following that event, the community members delegated actions and the collaborative team disseminated results from the project. This case study emphasizes the collaborative nature of community-based participatory research and the importance of clear communication throughout the process. In each stage of the project, every team member was meaningfully involved with the research process and had ownership of the products we produced. This level of collaboration was made possible through clear communication between team members that came from very different backgrounds, e.g., education, health, or business. Team members respectfully listened to each other's diverse perspectives and provided unique expertise; the team then modelled those same communication skills with the community as it sought community input and led a public deliberation event.


Widespread wildlife ranching on privately owned land in South Africa has been fuelled mainly by land use changes in the agricultural sector over recent decades. This has changed the landscape of nature conservation with varying effects. This article attempts to explain the contradictions and continuities in the governance of private wildlife ranching in South Africa, with a focus on the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The article draws on data from interviews with key informants, observations by the author and documentary evidence linked to the private wildlife ranching sector in KwaZulu-Natal Province. The theory of post-productivism is used here to attempt to understand the transformation in the agricultural and wildlife conservation sectors that has shaped rural development in South Africa. In analysing the complex relationships between different state and private actors in this space, the author argues that this changing geography is symptomatic of processes witnessed by the enclosure of land into private ownership, a process that, by no means is confined to South Africa. These transformations in the agricultural and nature conservation spheres are an integral part of rural transformation and restructuring in the South African countryside steeped in a long history of contestations over access to, and control of, natural resources inherently associated with land and wildlife.


In Norway, buy-back programs have been in force since 1979. Grants have been given to scrap fishing vessels or to sell them out of the country. These programs have been most successful for the purse seine fleet. Since the early 1970s the purse seine fishery has been controlled by boat licenses denominated as volume of cargo capacity. The government used the decommissioning grants in part to withdraw licenses and in part to stimulate accumulation of licenses on fewer boats, thus achieving both restructuring of the fleet and a reduction in total capacity. For many years the total cargo capacity of the fleet has remained roughly constant while the profits per vessel have increased. After a short break in the mid-1990s buy-backs were resumed. Since then the program has been mainly directed at smaller boats (shorter than 28 meters). The number of boats has declined substantially since the program was put into effect and the profitability of the fleet has trended upwards. The success of the buy-backs depends critically on measures being in place for preventing new boats from entering the fishery instead of the ones that have been removed. In the purse seine fishery this was accomplished through limiting the total cargo capacity of the fleet. For the so-called traditional vessels this has been accomplished through assigning fish quotas to certain groups of vessels and closing the entry to these groups. This scheme has now developed into individual vessel quotas (so called unit quotas) which can be bought and sold with the vessel. This system has greatly facilitated the restructuring of the vessel groups affected by this arrangement.


Objective
To evaluate the aerosol and concentration (PM2.5, PM10 and aerosol particle number) formation in non-contact "air-puff" tonometry and provide suggestions for medical workers to take appropriate daily protection during the prevalence of 2019-nCoV.

Methods
A cross-sectional study was carried out in this study.Thirty healthy subjects were enrolled on February 22, 2020 in Eye Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University.The intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured by non-contact "air-puff" tonometer in the ophthalmic consulting room and the hall with or without masks.Particulate matter (PM)2.5, PM10 and aerosol particles were recorded by air quality detector.The cumulative effects of IOP measurement, PM2.5, PM10 and aerosol particle number were analyzed, and the aerosol density of subjects with and without masks was compared.

Results
The PM2.5, PM10 and aerosol particles produced by the non-contact "air-puff" tonometry and increased with the increase of spray times.The IOP curves of 60 eyes of 30 subjects were measured respectively in two environments of medical consulting room and medical institution hall.It was found that PM2.5, PM10 and particle number fluctuated and increased with the increase of IOP measurement person times, showing cumulative effect, and the accumulation speed of aerosol density in hall was faster than that in consulting room.The density of PM2.5 and PM10 produced without gauze mask were (53.417±2.306) and (85.350± 3.488) μg/m3, which were higher than those of (50.567±0.862) and (80.617±1.463) μg/m3 with gauze mask.The differences were statistically significant (P=0.028, 0.019), and significant difference was found in aerosol density between with and without gauze mask, although more aerosol was produced without gauze mask in comparison to gauze mask (P=0.123).

Conclusions
Aerosol can be produced by non-contact "air-puff" tonometer spraying, and it fluctuates with the increase of spraying times, showing a cumulative effect.The aerosol and particulate matter accumulation is higher in the hall with insufficient air circulation, and more aerosol and PM can be produced without gauze mask.

Key words:
Tonometer, non-contact "air-puff"; Aerosol; Particulate matter; Infection; Transmission; Corona virus disease-19


Following DiGRA 2014, our Fishbowl was used by some members of the GamerGate movement as proof of the "nefarious" dealings within our academic community. Some have asked the question of whether our Fishbowl "The Playful is Political" should have been accepted, given the negative attention on DiGRA it engendered and ongoing ramifications of that attention on the feminist game studies community. In what follows, we argue why our Fishbowl was an important first step in broaching a larger conversation about identity, diversity, and gaming.


Humans are physical beings that are also conscious, but physicalism struggles to locate consciousness in the natural world described by science. The world appears to conscious creatures in terms of experienced sensory qualities – qualia – but science doesn't find qualities in that world, only physical objects and properties. I argue that the failure to locate consciousness in spacetime is a function of our necessarily representational relation to reality as knowers: we won't discover the terms in which reality is represented by us in the world as it appears in those terms. Other instances of this failure are uncontroversial: we don't expect to find concepts, numbers or propositions as locatable entities or properties in the world they participate in describing. Rather, we understand that they are mind-dependent representational terms or tools – basic elements of cognitive content – that we deploy in characterizing reality. Philosophers sometimes suggest that mathematical entities have objective ontological status: they exist in a mind-independent abstract Platonic realm. Likewise, physicalists who are realists about consciousness generally assume its objectivity: experience must be something identical with physical processes or properties, perhaps the intrinsic nature of the physical, or perhaps some micro-physical, neural, or emergent property. I argue that this assumption wrongly reifies consciousness; it expects to find qualitative representational content in the physical world as characterized using such content. Instead, we should grant that conscious experience constitutes a mind-dependent, subjective, representational reality for cognitive systems such as ourselves, and that the physical world given in experience and in science is a represented objective reality. The former, since it exists only for conscious subjects, won't be found as an entity in the latter. I suggest that naturalistic approaches to explaining consciousness should acknowledge the representational relation and the non-objectivity of experience, and be constrained by evidence that consciousness accompanies certain sorts of behavior-controlling representational functions carried out by complex, physically-instantiated mind-systems. I evaluate a variety of current hypotheses about consciousness on that basis, and suggest that a science of representation could help explain why, perhaps as matter of representational necessity, experience arises as a natural but not objectively discoverable phenomenon.


Pano3D is a new benchmark for depth estimation from spherical panoramas. It aims to assess performance across all depth estimation traits, the primary direct depth estimation performance targeting precision and accuracy, and also the secondary traits, boundary preservation and smoothness. Moreover, Pano3D moves beyond typical intra-dataset evaluation to inter-dataset performance assessment. By disentangling the capacity to generalize in unseen data into different test splits, Pano3D represents a holistic benchmark for 360o depth estimation. We use it as a basis for an extended analysis seeking to offer insights into classical choices for depth estimation. This results into a solid baseline for panoramic depth that followup works can built upon to steer future progress.


About the book:

There is currently a rapidly growing interest in inquiry learning and an emerging consensus among researchers that, particularly when supported by technology, it can be a significant vehicle for developing higher order thinking skills. Inquiry learning methods also offer learners meaningful and productive approaches to the development of their knowledge of the world, yet such methods can present significant challenges for teachers and students.

Orchestrating Inquiry Learning addresses the key challenge of how to resource and support processes of inquiry learning within and beyond the classroom. It argues that technological support, when coupled with appropriate design of activities and management of the learning environment, can enable inquiry learning experiences that are engaging, authentic and personally relevant.

This edited collection of carefully integrated chapters brings together, for the first time; work on inquiry learning and orchestration of learning. Drawing upon a broad range of theoretical perspectives, this book examines:

• Orchestration of inquiry learning and instruction

• Trajectories of inquiry learning

• Designing for inquiry learning

• Scripting personal inquiry

• Collaborative and collective inquiry learning

• Assessment of inquiry learning

• Inquiry learning in formal and semi-formal educational contexts

Orchestrating Inquiry Learning is essential reading for all those concerned with understanding and promoting effective inquiry learning. The book is aimed at an international audience of researchers, post-graduate students, and advanced undergraduates in education, educational technology and psychology. It will also be of interest to educational practitioners and policy makers, including teachers, educational advisors, teacher-students and their trainers.


Even though suicide is one of the top three causes of young people's deaths, no reliable methods of identifying suicidal behavior have been developed. One of the promising directions of research is quantitative analysis of speech. It is nowadays common to process texts by suicidal individuals (mostly suicidal notes or literary texts by famous people, e.g., poets, writes, etc.) and texts by individuals from a control group using software (mostly LIWC) and to design models for classifying texts as those by suicidal individuals or not. This kind of analysis has been mainly performed for English texts that generally have a number of restrictions due to their linguistic nature. The authors are the first to attempt to design a mathematical model to classify texts as those by suicidal or nonsuicidal individuals using numerical values of linguistic parameters as features. Texts (blogs by young people who committed suicides, similar in both genre and topic, to those by individuals of an age-corresponding control group) were processed using the Russian version of LIWC with users' dictionaries. Unlike current studies, in designing the model we mostly made use of features that are not significantly dependent on the content. This is because not all individuals who committed suicides are known to deal with the topic in their texts. The resulting model was shown to be 71.5% accurate, which is comparable with the state-of-the-art for English texts.


This research studies about commissive utterances in English translation of Al Quran. The objectives of the study are to describe (1) the syntactic forms and (2) the speaker's intention of commissive utterances, especially in surah An Nahl (The Bee).
The type of this research is descriptive qualitative research. In collecting the data, the writer uses observation and documentation method by selecting the commissive utterances which can be found in surah An Nahl (The Bee) and the steps are: determining the chapter, reading the chapter, sorting out sentences contain commissive utterance and coding the data. In analyzing the commissive utterances, the steps are: describing the syntactic form by applying the theory deals with sentence by types and determining the variety of the speaker's intention by applying speech act theory, especially locutionary and illocutionary.
The study shows that (1) there are three syntactic forms of commissive utterances, namely declarative with normal word order of subject and predicate, imperative and interrogative and (2) the speaker's intentions of this study cover warning (46%), threatening (30%), promising (18%), and swearing (6%). By uttering the commissive utterances, Allah guides His servants to reach His heaven by doing the obligation as a Moslem and keep away from evil deeds.


Organonitrofos fertilizer is organic fertilizer derived from cow manure enriched with rock phosphate and microbial activity involves fastening N and phosphate newly developed solvent.  This study aimed to determine dose combination Organonitrofos fertilizers and inorganic fertilizers are most effective against the growth, nutrient uptake, and yield of sweet corn .  This research was conducted in November 2012 until March 2013 in the Integrated Field Laboratory, University of Lampung using Random Design (RBD) consisting of 6 treatments with 3 groups.  Treatment A (control), B (300 kg Urea ha -1 , 200 kg of SP-36 ha -1 , 100 kg of KCl ha -1 ), C (225 kg Urea ha -1 , 150 kg SP-36 ha -1 , 75 kg KCl ha -1 , 1000 kg Organonitrofos ha -1 ), D (150 kg Urea ha -1 , 100 kg of SP-36 ha -1 , 50 kg of KCl ha -1 , 1,500 kg Organonitrofos ha -1 ), E (Urea 75 kg ha -1 , SP-36 50 kg ha -1 , 25 kg ha -1 KCl, Organonitrofos 2000 kg ha -1 ), F (3,000 Organonitrofos kg ha -1 ). The results showed that treatment at a dose of 150 kg of urea ha-1, SP-36 100 kg ha-1, 50 kg ha-1 KCl, Organonitrofos 1500 kg ha-1 is able to increase the growth, production and sweet corn crop nutrient uptake.  This treatment was also the most effective treatment of the total biomass of sweet corn plants based on calculations Relative Agronomic Effectivenes (RAE) that is equal to 108.573%. Economical test results showed that treatment at a dose of 300 kg of urea ha-1, SP-36 200 kg ha-1, 100 kg ha-1 KCl most economical compared to other treatments. Keywords: sweet corn, the combination of fertilizer, organonitrofos, nutrient uptake


The main objective of this PhD work is to explore potential changes in the feeding behaviour of the pest slug Deroceras reticulatum, as well as in the behaviours of some of their most important natural enemies, under climatic conditions predicted for Galicia by the last third of the century. The studied natural enemies were the carabid beetles Harpalus rufipes and Poecilus cupreus, and the slug parasitic nematode Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita. In order to achieve this general objective, different experiments were performed under laboratory controlled conditions and under semi-natural conditions. Overall, from the obtained results it should be expected that both the pest slug D. reticulatum and its natural enemies H. rufipes and P. hermaphrodita will be affected by predicted conditions of climate. Specifically, it should be expected a higher potential of D. reticulatum populations for crop damaging, and an enhanced performance of H. rufipes and P. hermaphrodita as biological control agents of D. reticulatum. In turn, these findings emphasize the importance of taking into account natural enemies and ecological interactions when modelling the response of species to climate change.


The annual recruitment dynamics and body size fluctuations in adult female loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta nesting on Senri Beach in Minabe, Japan from 1990 to 2001 were investigated along with the number of nests, so that the causes for the recent population decline could be assessed. The number of nests decreased from 335 in 1990 to 29 in 1998, and slightly increased thereafter. The recruit percentage (i. e. the percentage of recruits out of total identified females in each year) varied from 39 to 75%. The lack of a significant correlation between the rates of change in the recruit per- centage and in the number of nests suggested that the popu- lation decline had been caused by factors affecting both recruits and remigrants. The mean straight carapace length (SCL) varied from 825 to 855 mm. The significant negative correlation between the rates of change in the mean SCL and in the number of nests suggested that the decline had been caused by the decrease in the number of small females. The lack of a significant difference in SCL between recruits and remigrants supported the above scenarios. Since small females tend to inhabit the pelagic Pacific irrespective of their recruit or remigrant status, we proposed that the population decline at Senri Beach was attributable to factors operating in the pelagic waters, such as incidental mortality by longline fisheries.


This review of late-Holocene palaeoclimatology represents the results from a PAGES/CLIVAR Intersection Panel meeting that took place in June 2006. The review is in three parts: the principal high-resolution proxy disciplines (trees, corals, ice cores and documentary evidence), emphasizing current issues in their use for climate reconstruction; the various approaches that have been adopted to combine multiple climate proxy records to provide estimates of past annual-to-decadal timescale Northern Hemisphere surface temperatures and other climate variables, such as large-scale circulation indices; and the forcing histories used in climate model simulations of the past millennium. We discuss the need to develop a framework through which current and new approaches to interpreting these proxy data may be rigorously assessed using pseudo-proxies derived from climate model runs, where the `answer' is known. The article concludes with a list of recommendations. First, more raw proxy data are required from the diverse disciplines and from more locations, as well as replication, for all proxy sources, of the basic raw measurements to improve absolute dating, and to better distinguish the proxy climate signal from noise. Second, more effort is required to improve the understanding of what individual proxies respond to, supported by more site measurements and process studies. These activities should also be mindful of the correlation structure of instrumental data, indicating which adjacent proxy records ought to be in agreement and which not. Third, large-scale climate reconstructions should be attempted using a wide variety of techniques, emphasizing those for which quantified errors can be estimated at specified timescales. Fourth, a greater use of climate model simulations is needed to guide the choice of reconstruction techniques (the pseudo-proxy concept) and possibly help determine where, given limited resources, future sampling should be concentrated.


Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) predominantly induces UV-signature mutations, C → T and CC → TT base substitutions at dipyrimidine sites, in the cellular and skin genome. I observed in our in vivo mutation studies of mouse skin that these UVR-specific mutations show a wavelength-dependent variation in their sequence-context preference. The C → T mutation occurs most frequently in the 5′-TCG-3′ sequence regardless of the UVR wavelength, but is recovered more preferentially there as the wavelength increases, resulting in prominent occurrences exclusively in theTCG sequence in the UVA wavelength range, which I will designate as a "UVA signature" in this review. The preference of the UVB-induced C → T mutation for the sequence contexts shows a mixed pattern of UVC- and UVA-induced mutations, and a similar pattern is also observed for natural sunlight, in which UVB is the most genotoxic component. In addition, the CC → TT mutation hardly occurs at UVA1 wavelengths, although it is detected rarely but constantly in the UVC and UVB ranges. This wavelength-dependent variation in the sequence-context preference of the UVR-specific mutations could be explained by two different photochemical mechanisms of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer (CPD) formation. The UV-signature mutations observed in the UVC and UVB ranges are known to be caused mainly by CPDs produced through the conventional singlet/triplet excitation of pyrimidine bases after the direct absorption of the UVC/UVB photon energy in those bases. On the other hand, a novel photochemical mechanism through the direct absorption of the UVR energy to double-stranded DNA, which is called "collective excitation", has been proposed for the UVA-induced CPD formation. The UVA photons directly absorbed by DNA produce CPDs with a sequence context preference different from that observed for CPDs caused by the UVC/UVB-mediated singlet/triplet excitation, causing CPD formation preferentially at thymine-containing dipyrimidine sites and probably also preferably at methyl CpG-associated dipyrimidine sites, which include the TCG sequence. In this review, I present a mechanistic consideration on the wavelength-dependent variation of the sequence context preference of the UVR-specific mutations and rationalize the proposition of the UVA-signature mutation, in addition to the UV-signature mutation.


At this critical junction in Turkey-EU relations, it is indeed curious that no one has taken a moment to ask Turkish youth what they think of a modernization project which essentially spans over two centuries. Instead, public debate has been short-sighted and focused chiefly on when and if accession talks will begin without a long term perspective of Turkish membership. Indeed, there has been no consideration or debate about the opinions of the very people that will lead the country when Turkey eventually does gain full membership. Within this context, this project is the first attempt to undertake such a task. Thus this essay is an exploration of the perspectives of Turkish youth on the European Union and attempts to highlight both the confusion and contradictions underlying their answers.


As the technology scales, there is a need to develop design and optimization algorithms under various scenarios of uncertainties. These uncertainties are introduced by process variation and impact both delay and leakage. For future technologies at the end of CMOS scaling, not only process variation but the device defect density is projected to be very high. Thus realizing error tolerant implementation of Boolean functions with minimal redundancy overhead remains a challenging task. The dissertation is concerned with the challenges of low-power and area digital circuit design under high parametric variability and high defect density.
The technology mapping provides an ideal starting point for leakage reduction because of higher structural freedom in the choices of implementations. We first describe an algorithm for technology mapping for yield enhancement that explicitly takes parameter variability into account. We then show how leakage can be reduced by accounting for its dependence on the signal state, and develop a fast gain-based technology mapping algorithm. In some scenarios the state probabilities can not be precise point values but are modeled as an interval. We extended the notion of mean leakage to the worst case mean leakage which is defined as the sum of maximal mean leakage of circuit gates over the feasible probability realizations. The gain-based algorithm has been generalized to optimize this proxy leakage metric by casting the problem within the framework of robust dynamic programming. The testing is performed by selecting various instance probabilities for the primary inputs that are deviations from the point probabilities with respect to which a point probability based gain based mapper has been run. We obtain leakage improvement for certain test probabilities with the interval probability based over the point probability based mapper.
Next, we present techniques based on coding theory for implementing Boolean functions in highly defective fabrics that allow us to tolerate errors to a certain degree. The novelty of this work is that the structure of Boolean functions is exploited to minimize the redundancy overhead.
Finally we have proposed an efficient analysis approach for statistical timing, which can correctly propagate the slope in the path-based statistical timing analysis. The proposed algorithm can be scaled up to one million paths.


Autonomous robots are hybrid systems whose role in our daily life is becoming increasingly critical. They are tasked with various activities requiring reliability, safety, and correctness of their software-controlled behavior. Formal methods have been proved effective in addressing development issues associated with these software qualities. However, even though autonomous robot navigation is a primordial function, there is no research dealing with enhancing reliability of the navigation algorithms. Thus, our focus is to investigate this type of algorithms, and specifically path planning, a fundamental and critical functionality supporting autonomy. We formally address the issue of enhancing reliability of the widely-used A* path planning algorithm. In our stepwise refinement process, we capture successively more concrete specifications by transforming a high-level specification into an equivalent executable program. To elaborate an initial representation of the A* algorithm, we express it in an abstract and intuitive, yet formal, description. We use traditional mathematical concepts, such as sets, functions and predicate logic to capture this description. In the next step, we use the Z specification language to effect the transformation from the mathematical description into Z schemas. The resulting specification is completely formal. Subsequently, we use the formal theory of refinement in Z to generate the implementation specification. This stage involves both data and operation refinement and is carried out in several basic sub-steps. A Java-based simulation prototype that mirrors the implementation specification is developed in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of our software development approach.


Abstract A field study was conducted in auto-parts after-market distribution centers where selectors used handheld computers to receive instructions and feedback about their product selection process. A wireless voice-interaction technology was then implemented in a multiple baseline fashion across three departments of a warehouse (N = 14) and was associated with a 17% increase in productivity over the previously implemented handheld scanning technology of the baseline condition and comparison departments that continued to use handheld scanner technology. Selection accuracy was nearly identical for voice (99.55%) and handheld (99.80%) technology. But, both were associated with substantially higher selection accuracy than a paper-based method (96.50%). Accuracy with voice instruction delivery, however, was most vulnerable whenever upstream events (i.e., processes that occur before the selection process such as receiving, replenishment, and inventory control) resulted in the wrong product being in the selection location. The implications and limitations that arise with these technologies are discussed as well as the expanded role of the Organizational Behavior Management professional.


Both Leea indica and Leea macrophylla are belonging to Leeaceae family. The aim of the present study was to detect different chemical groups of the methanol leaf extract of the plants (L. indica & L. macrophylla) and to compare the anti-diarrheal and antimicrobial activity of these extracts with four established market preparations. Phytochemical screening of extracts of L. indica, L. macrophylla confirmed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, steroids, tannins, flavonoids, reducing sugars, and gums. In antidiarrheal activity test, the methanol extracts of the L. indica and L. macrophylla at the doses of 500 mg/kg and 250 mg/kg reduced the total number of stool in the mice to a considerable extent as well as increased the latency period in comparison to the control groups and the result was statistically significant but less in extent than market preparations. In the antibacterial activity test, it was observed that both the plant extracts did not produced significant zone of inhibition against all the pathogenic bacteria. On the other hand, in the anti-fungal activity test, it was observed that the extracts and market preparation showed significant antifungal activity against fungal species compared to fluconazole as a standard. In conclusion, methanol extracts of L. indica and L. macrophylla indicate that the plants contain effective bioactive compounds that can be used for the treatment of diarrheal and microbial diseases.


Organisms are remarkably adapted to diverse environments by specialized metabolisms, morphology, or behaviors. To address the molecular mechanisms underlying environmental adaptation, we have utilized a Drosophila melanogaster line, termed "Dark-fly", which has been maintained in constant dark conditions for 57 years (1400 generations). We found that Dark-fly exhibited higher fecundity in dark than in light conditions, indicating that Dark-fly possesses some traits advantageous in darkness. Using next-generation sequencing technology, we determined the whole genome sequence of Dark-fly and identified approximately 220,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 4,700 insertions or deletions (InDels) in the Dark-fly genome compared to the genome of the Oregon-R-S strain, a control strain. 1.8% of SNPs were classified as non-synonymous SNPs (nsSNPs: i.e., they alter the amino acid sequence of gene products). Among them, we detected 28 nonsense mutations (i.e., they produce a stop codon in the protein sequence) in the Dark-fly genome. These included genes encoding an olfactory receptor and a light receptor. We also searched runs of homozygosity (ROH) regions as putative regions selected during the population history, and found 21 ROH regions in the Dark-fly genome. We identified 241 genes carrying nsSNPs or InDels in the ROH regions. These include a cluster of alpha-esterase genes that are involved in detoxification processes. Furthermore, analysis of structural variants in the Dark-fly genome showed the deletion of a gene related to fatty acid metabolism. Our results revealed unique features of the Dark-fly genome and provided a list of potential candidate genes involved in environmental adaptation.


In this study, eight different manure treatment plants were monitored. The plants were four on-farm and four centralized treatment plants, all of them at full-scale level. Assessment includes a total of seven pre-treatment and process units as follows: mechanical separation, with and without coagulant and flocculant addition, pasteurization, nitrification-denitrification, anaerobic digestion, and composting. The plants are located in nutrient surplus areas of three European Member States (Spain, Italy and Denmark), the majority of these areas being Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ). Results presented herein are data collected over a six-month period and comprise performance data of the treatment plants, pathogen indicators (E.coli and Salmonella) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data under two scenarios: 1) the baseline scenario and 2) the treatment plant scenario. The assessment includes GHG emissions of the storage facilities, transportation, and subsequent intermediate storage, electric consumption, electric production, composting, and land application. All treatment plants studied generated a significant reduction in GHG emissions (between 53 and 90 %) in comparison to the baseline scenario. Organic matter and total solids (TS) content in manure were also greatly reduced, with values ranging between 35-53 % of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and, 24-61 % of TS for anaerobic digestion (AD) treatment plants, 77-93 % COD and 70 % TS in the case of AD combined with nitrogen (N)-removal unit plants. Nitrogen concentrations were also greatly reduced (between 65-85 %) total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) and 68-83 % ammonium (NH4+-N)) in plants with N-removal units.


Mixtures of Experts combine the outputs of several "expert" networks, each of which specializes in a different part of the input space. This is achieved by training a "gating" network that maps each input to a distribution over the experts. Such models show promise for building larger networks that are still cheap to compute at test time, and more parallelizable at training time. In this this work, we extend the Mixture of Experts to a stacked model, the Deep Mixture of Experts, with multiple sets of gating and experts. This exponentially increases the number of effective experts by associating each input with a combination of experts at each layer, yet maintains a modest model size. On a randomly translated version of the MNIST dataset, we find that the Deep Mixture of Experts automatically learns to develop location-dependent ("where") experts at the first layer, and class-specific ("what") experts at the second layer. In addition, we see that the different combinations are in use when the model is applied to a dataset of speech monophones. These demonstrate effective use of all expert combinations.


Special effects cinematography is as old as cinema itself. The cinematographer had a major role in making the special effects scene either by making the whole effect in camera or combined with the optical effects in laboratory after shooting. A question pops up after the digital revolution: Does the cinematographer have the same role as before? Is there a need to adopt new techniques to master the cinematographer work in the digital era? This paper attempts to explore the differences between the conventional and the digital visual effects from the cinematographer's technical point of view, based on a comparative study. Before the digital era most of the effects were done by the camera or in the laboratory. Nowadays, however, there are new tools and techniques such as digital visual effects that overruled the cinema industry, sometimes the only live-action elements are the actors. The term CGI (Computer Generated Images) is currently well known to many people and filming is only the first step to be followed by many other procedures. The mentioned procedures are called post production, which is the region where most of the visual effects creation takes place.


In recent years, religion has gained an increasing prominence in both the legal profession and the academy. Through the emergence of the "religious lawyering movement," lawyers and legal scholars have demonstrated the potential relevance of religion to many aspects of lawyering. Likewise, legal scholars have incorporated religious thought into their work through books, law journals and classroom teaching relating to various areas of law and religion. In this Essay, Levine discusses one particular aspect of these efforts, namely, the place of Jewish law in the American law school curriculum. Specifically, he outlines briefly three possible models for a course in Jewish law in an American law school and considers some of the advantages and disadvantages of each model. The three models are: a Jewish law course that serves as a course in comparative law; Jewish law as a course in international law; and a course that examines Jewish law almost exclusively, with little, if any, reference to other legal systems. Levine then describes the structure he has chosen, in an attempt to synthesize these models, for the seminar in Jewish law that he teaches at St. John's University School of Law. At the end of this essay is an appendix which includes a bibliography of articles, relating primarily to Jewish law, which have appeared in American law journals since 1995.


The paper seeks to understand the impact of the patent system on innovation by examining shifts in the strength of patent protection across sixty countries and a 150-year period. An examination of 177 policy changes reveals that strengthening patent protection appears to have few positive effects on patent applications by entities in the country undertaking the policy change, whether filings in Great Britain or the nation making the policy change are considered. Cross-sectional analyses suggest that the impact of patent protection-enhancing shifts were greater in nations with weaker initial protection and greater economic development, consistent with economic theory. I address concerns about the endogeneity of these changes by employing an instrumental variable approach.


Current treatments of high-grade lymphoma often have curative potential, but unfortunately many patients relapse and develop therapeutic resistance. Thus, there remains a need for novel therapeutics that can target the residual cancer cells whose phenotypes are distinct from the bulk tumor and that are capable of reforming tumors from very few cells. Oncolytic viruses offer an approach to destroy tumors by multiple mechanisms, but they cannot effectively reach residual disease or micrometastases, especially within the lymphatic system. To address these limitations, we have generated immune cells infected with oncolytic viruses as a therapeutic strategy that can combine effective cellular delivery with synergistic tumor killing. In this study, we tested this approach against minimal disease states of lymphomas characterized by the persistence of cancer cells that display stem cell-like properties and resistance to conventional therapies. We found that the immune cells were capable of trafficking to and targeting residual cancer cells. The combination biotherapy used prevented relapse by creating a long-term, disease-free state, with acquired immunity to the tumor functioning as an essential mediator of this effect. Immune components necessary for this acquired immunity were identified. We further demonstrated that the dual biotherapy could be applied before or after conventional therapy. Our approach offers a potentially powerful new way to clear residual cancer cells, showing how restoring immune surveillance is critical for maintenance of a disease-free state.


Here, as requested, I tell of my most regretted statement, which was, "Canada is the Sweden of the Americas." For years, during my time as Canada's Minister of National Health & Welfare and afterwards, I had thought and declared that Canada was highly advanced among developed countries in its general provision of social benefits. I later learned that I had been overstating the generosity of the Canadian system. There is today an urgent need for Canada to re-balance its budget away from spending on its health care system and toward welfare and social policies.


Articulated models are commonly used for recognition tasks in robotics and in gait analysis, but can also be extremely useful to develop analytical methods targeting spinal deformities studies. The threedimensional analysis of these deformities is critical since they are complex and not restricted to a given plane. Thus, they cannot be assessed as a two-dimensional phenomenon. However, analyzing large databases of 3D spine models is a difficult and time-consuming task. In this context, a method that automatically extracts the most important deformation modes from sets of articulated spine models is proposed. The spine was modeled with two levels of details. In the first level, the global shape of the spine was expressed using a set of rigid transformations that superpose local coordinates systems of neighboring vertebrae. In the second level, anatomical landmarks measured with respect to a vertebra's local coordinate system were used to quantify vertebra shape. These articulated spine models do not naturally belong to a vector space because of the vertebral rotations. The Frechet mean, which is a generalization of the conventional mean to Riemannian manifolds, was thus used to compute the mean spine shape. Moreover, a generalized covariance computed in the tangent space of the Frechet mean was used to construct a statistical shape model of the scoliotic spine. The principal deformation modes were then extracted by performing a principal component analysis (PCA) on the generalized covariance matrix. The principal deformations modes were computed for a large database of untreated scoliotic patients. The obtained results indicate that combining rotation, translation and local vertebra shape into a unified framework leads to an effective and meaningful analysis method for articulated anatomical structures. The computed deformation modes also revealed clinically relevant information. For instance, the first mode of deformation is associated with patients' growth, the second is a double thoraco-lumbar curve and the third is a thoracic curve. Other experiments were performed on patients classified by orthopedists with respect to a widely used two-dimensional surgical planning system (the Lenke classification) and patterns relevant to the definition of a new three-dimensional classification were identified. Finally, relationships between local vertebrae shapes and global spine shape (such as vertebra wedging) were demonstrated using a sample of 3D spine reconstructions with 14 anatomical landmarks per vertebra. KeyWords: Shape Analysis, Articulated Models, Spinal Deformities, Scoliosis, 3D Reconstruction, Surgical Classifications.


Background: Current clinical studies have shown that preoperative non-opioid medications are an effective method to reduce moderate to severe pain in the postoperative settings, but are not commonly utilized in laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients. Purpose of this study: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of anesthesia providers about the preoperative use of three different non-opioid medications: clonidine, acetaminophen and gabapentin for the treatment of postoperative pain in laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients. Design: A descriptive survey research design was used to determine anesthesia providers' knowledge and attitudes regarding preoperative non-opioid medications. A modified evidence based knowledge and attitudes survey was administered to anesthesia providers at the NorthShore University HealthSystem, which included physicians and nurse anesthetists. Results: This study found that physicians and more experienced anesthesia providers had a more positive attitude towards the use of preoperative non-opioid medications. The findings from this study also suggested that the many anesthesia providers had a lack of knowledge regarding gabapentin and clonidine. Based on the survey results, an educational module was developed focusing on the gap in knowledge and attitude of anesthesia providers towards gabapentin and clonidine as a choice of preoperative medication for postoperative pain control in laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients. Conclusion:!!The findings helped identify gaps in knowledge and pervasive attitudes towards preoperative non-opioid medications among anesthesia providers to guide the development of an educational module to address these deficiencies. Relevance to Nursing Practice: The educational module created in this study will be useful to increase knowledge of the use of preoperative non-opioid medications among anesthesia providers for the management of postoperative pain in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy. MANAGEMENT OF POSTOPERATIVE PAIN: CREATION OF MODULE 5 Chapter


ABSTRACT : Korea's JeungSanDo is a syncretistic religion in which elements of religious Taoism, Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, Roman Catholicism, and Korean shamanism are combined with a unifying millenarian vision that was initially formulated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the late Joseon Dynasty. JeungSanDo is based on the teachings of Gang Il-sun (1871––1909), who was/is regarded by his followers as the incarnation of SangJe (Shangti), the Ruler of the Universe in religious Taoism, as well as Maitreya, the Future Buddha of Buddhist eschatology. The religion of Gang Il-sun arose as a compensatory response to the defeat of the Donghak Revolution in 1894. The central belief of JeungSanDo is Hu-Cheon GaeByeok , the Great Opening of the Later Heaven, the new age of JeungSan Gang Il-Sun's millenarian vision. A glossary of Korean and Chinese terms follows the endnotes.

No religion is completely ""new,"" no religious message completely abolishes the past. Rather, there is a recasting, a renewal, a revalorization, an integration of the elements——the most essential elements——of an immemorial religious tradition.

——Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy 1


A quantitative framework for relative rock physics includes a definition of relative elastic property that is rooted in inverse theory and that can be used practically to compute the properties. The framework also includes a set of rules that quantify how operations on absolute properties affect their relative counterparts. From these rules, a comprehensive table of relative elastic properties can be generated, all of which are expressed in terms of relative P-velocity, S-velocity, and density. Finally, the framework includes empirical and model-based rock-physics rules that can be applied directly to the relative properties without reverting to their absolute counterparts. That provides a practical route to such interpretation techniques as direct-to-seismic fluid substitution. The framework offers a quantitative alternative to workflows centered on absolute seismic inversion. In some cases, relative rock-physics workflows are preferable to absolute flows because they avoid statistical complications associated with the nonstationarity of the mean of absolute elastic properties.


STAMP is a newly developed web server that is designed to support the study of DNA-binding motifs. STAMP may be used to query motifs against databases of known motifs; the software aligns input motifs against the chosen database (or alternatively against a user-provided dataset), and lists of the highest-scoring matches are returned. Such similarity-search functionality is expected to facilitate the identification of transcription factors that potentially interact with newly discovered motifs. STAMP also automatically builds multiple alignments, familial binding profiles and similarity trees when more than one motif is inputted. These functions are expected to enable evolutionary studies on sets of related motifs and fixed-order regulatory modules, as well as illustrating similarities and redundancies within the input motif collection. STAMP is a highly flexible alignment platform, allowing users to 'mix-and-match' between various implemented comparison metrics, alignment methods (local or global, gapped or ungapped), multiple alignment strategies and tree-building methods. Motifs may be inputted as frequency matrices (in many of the commonly used formats), consensus sequences, or alignments of known binding sites. STAMP also directly accepts the output files from 12 supported motif-finders, enabling quick interpretation of motif-discovery analyses. STAMP is available at http://www.benoslab.pitt.edu/stamp


Groundwater is a critical component of the water supply for agriculture, urban areas, industry, and ecosystems, but managing it is a challenge because groundwater is difficult to map, quantify, and evaluate. Until recently, study and assessment of governance of this water resource has been largely neglected. A survey was developed to query state agency officials about the extent and scope of groundwater use, groundwater laws and regulations, and groundwater tools and strategies. Survey responses revealed key findings: states' legal frameworks for groundwater differ widely in recognizing the hydrologic connection between surface water and groundwater, the needs of groundwater‐dependent ecosystems, and the protection of groundwater quality; states reported a range in capacity to enforce groundwater responsibilities; and states have also experienced substantial changes in groundwater governance in the past few decades. Overall, groundwater governance across the United States is fragmented. States nevertheless identified three common priorities for groundwater governance: water quality and contamination, conflicts between users, and declining groundwater levels. This survey represents an initial step in a broader, continuing effort to characterize groundwater governance practices in the United States.


The explosion in clinical testing has been especially rapid in virology, where emerging viruses and growing numbers of viral infections are driving advances. The Guide to Clinical and Diagnostic Virology offers a digestible view of the breadth and depth of information related to clinical virology, providing a practical, working knowledge of the wide array of viruses that cause human disease.
Introductory chapters cover the basics of clinical virology and laboratory diagnosis of infections, including virus structure, life cycle, transmission, taxonomy, specimen types and handling, and a comparison of assays used for detection. Detailed sections on important topics include
Viral pathogens and their clinical presentations
Diagnostic assays and techniques, including culture-based, immunological, and molecular
Prevention and management of viral infections, with guidance on biosafety, vaccines, and antiviral therapies
The regulatory environment for laboratory testing, including regulatory requirements and assay performance and interpretation
Critical concepts are carefully curated and concisely summarized and presented with detailed illustrations that aid comprehension, along with important highlights and helpful hints. These features, plus question sections that reinforce significant ideas and key concepts, make this an invaluable text for anyone looking for an accessible route through clinical and diagnostic virology. Laboratory technologists, medical students, infectious disease and microbiology fellows, pathology residents, researchers, and everyone involved with viruses in the clinical setting will find the Guide to Clinical and Diagnostic Virology an excellent text as well as companion to clinical virology references.
Paperback, 311 pages, full-color illustrations, index.
Electronic versions of this title are sold on RedShelf and VitalSource.


Several extant hybrid atomistic-continuum computational schemes designed to handle coupled processes on vastly separated spatial scales are based on a "dynamic" coarse graining of the continuum by means of finite elements. Such an exact coarse-graining treatment of the one-dimensional harmonic chain of identical atoms was carried out as a test. It is shown that the error in thermomechanical properties (e.g., the tension) engendered by "dynamic" finite-element coarse graining can be substantial, depending on the thermodynamic state. An alternative "static" finite-element coarse-graining description, which is an extension to nonzero temperature of the "quasicontinuum" procedure of Tadmor, Ortiz, and Phillips, is proposed in an attempt to correct this error. The extended quasicontinuum technique applied to the pure one-dimensional harmonic chain yields the exact solution, thus indicating its promise for more general applications. Problems anticipated in the extension of the technique to realistic three-dimensional models of solids are discussed.


The design approximation problem is a well known problem in stock cutting, where, in order to facilitate the optimization techniques used in the cutting process, it is required to approximate complex designs by simpler ones. Although there are algorithms available to solve this problem, they all suffer from an undesirable feature that they only produce one optimal solution to the problem, and do not identify the complete set of all optimal solutions. The focus of this paper is to study this hitherto unexplored aspect of the problem: specifically, the case is considered in which both the design and the parent material are convex shapes, and some essential properties of all optimal solutions to the design approximation problem are ascertained. These properties are then used to devise two efficient schemes to identify the set of all optimal solutions to the problem. Finally, the recovery of a desired optimal approximation from the identified sets of optimal solutions, is discussed.


We present three operators for the expression of event-based large-scale distributed programming. In short, these operators support a publish/subscribe-based interaction scheme, leading to a distributed object programming model merging the benefits of objects and events. For the integration of our operators into a strongly typed object-oriented language we identify a set of four concepts, roughly (1) serialization, (2) multiple subtyping, (3) multi-methods, and (4) closures, which provided by a language, enable its smooth integration with our model of publish/subscribe interaction. These concepts are illustrated through Java, which we augment by anonymous methods, a simple form of closures, and in which we use double dispatch to make up for the lack of multi-methods. A precompiler transforms code related to our publish/subscribe operators into calls to specifically generated typed adapters, which are similar to typed stubs/skeletons for remote method invocations.


Many investors we speak to are interested in making a strategic allocation to low volatility equities to help them better meet their investment objectives. The appeal of this strategy is clear. Low volatility stocks have historically delivered higher returns with lower risk than the capitalization-weighted market. Moreover, the behavioral and market-structural forces that have been suggested as possible explanations are inherently hard to change, which means the anomaly might not readily disappear. However, we often hear two tactical concerns about the timing of an allocation. The first is that relative valuation of low volatility stocks may be expensive compared to the rest of the market so they should wait for more attractive levels. The second is that low volatility stocks, which tend to pay higher dividends, may underperform against the back-drop of potential rate increases. In this research note we examine the validity of these concerns and also incorporate macro-economic and market considerations by researching which factors have been good drivers and predictors of global low volatility equities' performance relative to the capitalization-weighted index since 1980. We consider valuation levels, the market environment, and the macro-economic backdrop. We find that relative valuation levels have not been a good predictor of low volatility equities' relative return. In addition, while low volatility equities' performance was indeed more sensitive to interest rate changes than the capitalization-weighted index, both delivered similar risk-adjusted returns (Sharpe ratios) in rising-rates environments.


Migrant and Seasonal Farm Workers (MSFWs) in the United States live and work within ever changing contexts, which require researchers to take into account multiple environmental and psychosocial stressors influencing mental health. The current study examined factors of social support and social isolation for MSFWs in South Georgia. Social isolation and support characteristics were identified and examined in association with depression among 120 Latino, male, MSFWs in South Georgia. Several protective and risk factors for depression were identified. Depression symptoms varied based on MSFWs household composition, perceived social isolation stressors, the frequency in which they called home and having socially supportive relationships in the local area. Results highlight the importance of examining social support in the context of cultural and community fit. INDEX WORDS: Migrant farm worker, Latino/Hispanic, Depression, Social support EXPLORING SOCIAL SUPPORT IN MIGRANT AND SEASONAL FARMWORKERS IN SOUTH GEORGIA