Named "Best of the Best from the University Presses" for 2007 by the American Library Association Weddings today are a $70-billion business, yet no one has explained how the industry has become such a significant component of the American economy. In Brides, Inc., Vicki Howard goes behind the scenes of the various firms involved-from jewelers to caterers-to explore the origins of the lavish American wedding, demonstrating the important role commercial interests have played in shaping traditions most of us take for granted. Howard reveals how many of our customs and wedding rituals were the product of sophisticated advertising campaigns, merchandising promotions, and entrepreneurial innovations. Tracing the rise of the wedding industry from the 1920s through the 1950s, the author explains that retailers, bridal consultants, etiquette writers, caterers, and many others invented traditions-from the diamond engagement ring and double-ring ceremony to the gift registry to the package-deal catered affair. These businesses and entrepreneurs, many of them women, transformed wedding culture and set the stage for today's multibillion-dollar industry. The wedding industry began to take shape between the 1920s and the 1950s. Bridal magazine editors and etiquette writers, jewelers, department store window display artists, bridal consultants, fashion designers, and caterers invented new consumer rites and promoted higher standards of wedding consumption. Claiming ties with "ancient customs" and various historical periods, the wedding industry promoted new goods and services as timeless and unchanging. It introduced new ring customs and wedding apparel fashions, and "modern" services, such as gift registries that rationalized gift customs, bridal salons that saved time and made wedding planning more efficient, and wedding packages that standardized ceremonies and reception celebrations. During World War II, the traditional white wedding grew even more prevalent as jewelers and bridal gown manufacturers successfully sought exemptions from wartime restrictions, linking the diamond engagement ring, the double-ring ceremony, and the formal white wedding gown with democracy and American prosperity. By the 1950s, the wedding industry had made the formal white wedding tradition a part of a new cult of marriage and the modern American Dream. Entertaining and informative, Brides, Inc. reveals the origins and development of this most exemplary American enterprise and brings the story up to the present with a discussion of such new phenomena as David's Bridal and the gay wedding industry.


Root zone drainage measurements are needed to improve fertilizer management in areas where agriculture may be impacting groundwater supplies. We present results of field tests where drainage was measured with two types of suction (resolution of 0.16 and 1.6 mm tip−1) and a nonsuction (resolution of 0.22 mm tip−1) water flux meter (WFM). The soil was a microstructured weathered volcanic ash located on a coral atoll subject to intense rainfall and located in the Kingdom of Tonga. Our objectives were to evaluate water flux measurements by comparing them with (i) simple water balance estimates of cumulative fluxes, (ii) cumulative fluxes deduced from soil moisture content changes, and (iii) simulated fluxes using HYDRUS‐1D. Soil hydraulic properties were obtained at five soil depths. During the 60‐d evaluation period rainfall totaled 340 mm. The WFMs were installed in duplicate using disturbed soil. The consistency of the shape of the drainage curves measured with the WFMs, those derived from soil moisture changes, and those obtained with modeling led us to conclude that soil disturbance during WFM installation did not severely influence measurements. This was attributed to the strong microaggregation and disturbance introduced by plowing. Water balance and HYDRUS model estimates of drainage corresponded well with the measurement by nonsuction WFMs. Suction WFMs overestimated drainage, possibly due to flow convergence created by wick and divergence barrier lengths being not properly sized for the observed flow conditions. After the evaluation period some of the WFMs failed to respond. Nevertheless, flux meters are seen as promising tools to provide remote and continuous measurement of root zone drainage.


In this work, we suggest hardware and software components that enable the creation of a self-stabilizing os/vmm on top of an off-the-shelf, nonself-stabilizing processor. A simple "watchdog" hardware that is called a periodic reset monitor (prm) provides a basic solution. The solution is extended to stabilization enabling hardware (seh) which removes any real time requirement from the os/vmm. A stabilization enabling system that extends the seh with software components provides the user (an os/vmm designer) with a self-stabilizing processor abstraction. The method uses only a modest addition of hardware, which is external to the microprocessor. We demonstrate our approach on the XScale core by Intel. Moreover, we suggest methods for the adaptation of existing system code (e.g., code for operating systems) to be self-stabilizing. One method allows capturing and enforcing the configuration used by the program, thus reducing the work of the self-stabilizing algorithm designer to considering only the dynamic (nonconfigurational) parts of the state. Another method is suggested for ensuring that, eventually, addresses of branch commands are examined using a sanity check segment. This method is then used to ensure that a sanity check is performed before critical operations. One application of the latter method is for enforcing a full separation of components in the system.


We can distinguish three ways by which references to the Declaration of Independence might enter into American legal argument. In primary-legal mode, the Declaration ranks as supreme law beside or above the Constitution, setting mandates as the Constitution does for other purported exercises of legal authority, from Acts of Congress on down. In interpretive-contextual mode, the Declaration provides informative historical context for determinations of the meanings of the Constitution and other laws. In creedal mode, the Declaration serves as a canonical marker for axiomatic principles of good or right government. Creedal uses of the Declaration are common and benign. Interpretive-contextual uses invite debates like those attending other uses of history in legal interpretation. A supreme law status for the Declaration finds little support in our legal history, nor is there good reason to press for it.


Competitive gene-set analysis, also called enrichment analysis, is a widely used tool for functional interpretation of high-throughput biological data such as gene expression data. It aims at testing a known category (e.g. a pathway) of genes for enriched differential expression (DE) signals compared to genes not in the category. Most enrichment testing methods ignore the widespread correlations among genes, which has been shown to result in excessive false positives. We show, both theoretically and empirically, that existing methods to account for correlations, such as GSEA and CAMERA, can result in severely mis-calibrated type 1 error and/or considerable power loss due to the failure to properly accommodate the DE heterogeneity across genes. We propose MEACA, a new gene-set testing framework based on a mixed effects model. Our method flexibly incorporates the unknown distribution of DE effects, effectively adjusts for completely unknown, unstructured correlations among genes, and does not rely on time-consuming permutations. Compared to existing methods, MEACA enjoys robust type 1 error control in widely ranging scenarios and substantially improves power. Applications of MEACA to a Huntington's disease study and a lymphoblastoid cell line data set demonstrate its ability to recover biologically meaningful relationships. MEACA is available as an R package.


Life is a property of the universe. We may not know how it began or where else it exists, but we have come to know a great deal about how it relates to stars, planets, and the larger cosmos. In clear and compelling terms, this book shows how the emerging field of astrobiology investigates the nature of life in space. How did life begin? How common is it? Where do we fit in? These are the important questions that astrobiology seeks to answer. A truly interdisciplinary endeavor, astrobiology looks at the evidence of astronomy, biology, physics, chemistry, and a host of other fields. A grand narrative emerges, beginning from the smallest, most common particles yet producing amazing complexity and order. "Lucas Mix" is a congenial guide through the depths of astrobiology, exploring how the presence of planets around other stars affects our knowledge of our own; how water, carbon, and electrons interact to form life as we know it; and, how the processes of evolution and entropy act upon every living thing. This book also reveals that our understanding and our context are deeply intertwined. It shows how much astrobiology can tell us about who we are - as a planet, as a species, and as individuals.


During the Anglo-Boer War a battle took place near Dwarsvlei in the vicinity of Krugersdorp on 11 July 1900. Here the British 19th Brigade was led by Maj.-Gen. H.L. Smith-Dorrien. The Krugersdorp Commando which laid an ambush for the British were under the command of Field General S.F. Oosthuizen. The action took place from 11:30 till after dark. The greater part of the action revolved around the two British field guns. As a result of heavy Boer fire pouring down upon the crew the guns had to be temporarily abandoned, while subsequent British attempts to bring in the guns. were once more prevented by accurate Boer fire. In an effort to bring in the guns Capt. D.R. Younger was mortally wounded and subsequently died soon after. As a result of their efforts to bring in the guns Capts. W.E. Gordon and Younger were both awarded the Victoria Cross. After dark Gen. Oosthuizen and twenty Boers stormed the guns in an attempt to capture them, but the Boers were stopped dead in their tracks by the heavy fire directed against them from the British. During this attempt Gen. Oosthuizen was heavily wounded, and he died a month later. Although the guns were not captured by the Boers they prevented the British from advancing any further.


This essay reads the work of two experimental feminist video and performance artists in the 1960s and '70s (Yoko Ono and VALIE EXPORT) alongside concurrent transformations taking place within their urban landscapes, in particular the widespread emergence of pornographic media arcades. The sets of practices examined here are situated within mutually implicated urban economies, systems of exchange that were undergoing unprecedented renegotiation during this period. Within the ecosystem of the 1960s metropolis, public sexuality served as a mobile force that shifted the aesthetics and traffic of city life. Mapping these shifts sheds new light on the material conditions that engendered feminist approaches to media, performance, and site specificity. Resonant between each phenomenon is a burgeoning affective economy that rewrote the architectures of commerce in the city, creating entirely new systems of service labor and amplifying the circulation of images, particularly images of women, as privileged commodities. Reexamining Ono9s and EXPORT9s performances in this context, this essay suggests that vulnerability and risk provide artistic and political strategies for negotiating shifting cultural terrain.


Abstract The effects of cobalt ions on the precipitation of goethite in highly alkaline media were monitored using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Mössbauer, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDS) spectroscopies and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) techniques. Tetramethylammonium hydroxide was used as a precipitating agent. The precipitates were collected after heating of the precipitation systems at 160°C for 2 h. The XRD results showed the formation of goethite structure as a single phase up to r = 6.98 (where r = 100·[Co]/([Co]+[Fe])). Cobalt ferrite was found as an additional phase in the precipitates obtained at r = 9.09 and 13.04. Mössbauer spectroscopy showed the formation of solid solutions of α-(Fe,Co)OOH. The incorporation of cobalt ions into the goethite crystal structure was monitored by a decrease in the average hyperfine magnetic field (‹Bhf›). The value (‹Bhf›) decreased linearly up to r = 5.66, whereas a nonlinear dependence was obtained at r = 6.98 to 13.04. Infrared (IR) bands corresponding to the bending vibrations δOH and γOH were shifted from 892 to 903 cm-1 and from 797 to 800 cm-1, respectively, up to r = 6.98. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy lacked the sensitivity to monitor the effects of cobalt ions, demonstrated by the Mössbauer analysis. Cobalt incorporation into the crystal structure of goethite induced a gradual elongation of α-(Fe,Co)OOH particles along the crystallographic c axis. The formation of α-(Fe,Co)OOH nanowires was shown at r ≥6.98. These nanowires were ~700 nm long, whereas their diameter was ~15-20 nm. The majority of the cobalt ferrite particles were in the nanosize range, as observed by FE-SEM. On the basis of the Co/Fe ratio measured by EDS, it appears that the cobalt ferrite particles were not fully stoichiometric.


Molecular mechanisms of whole-body thermotolerance (WBT) in mammals have not been investigated thoroughly. The purpose of this study was to assess the induction of the 70 kDa heat shock protein (HSP70) and antioxidant enzyme activity in animal WBT, which was induced by whole-body hyperthermia (WBH) in mice. As a preconditioning treatment, WBH was applied to mice to induce WBT. Synthesis of inducible HSP70 (HSP70i) and quantification of its increased level in liver were investigated by one- and two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting. HSP70i synthesis in mice liver was induced by non-lethal WBH (41 degrees C, 30 min). When compared to control animals, the level of liver HSP70i increased substantially (by 3.6-fold; P<0.0001). When exposed to 30 min of hyperthermia preconditioning, and after recovery for 48 h, the survival rate was 88.2 %, which was significantly higher than that of the control group (37.5 %; P<0.01). Moreover, the survival rate of animals subjected to preconditioning for 15 min was 72.2 %, which was also significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05). In contrast, the survival rate of animals subjected to preconditioning for 45 min was 63.5 %, which was not different from the control group. Nonetheless, the protection index of the group subjected to 15 min and 30 min of preconditioning was 1.93 and 2.37, respectively. Furthermore, to assess their contributions to WBT, the activities of antioxidant enzymes were also measured. After 48 h of recovery in preconditioned animals, hepatic antioxidant enzyme activities, including superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase, had not changed significantly. To study the molecular mechanism of WBT, we successfully developed a mouse model and suggest that, rather than the activities of antioxidant enzymes, it is HSP70i that has a role to help animals survive during severe heat stress.


Abstract:Here, we integrate prior work to develop and test a theory of how perceived macro-level trends in racial standing shape whites' views of welfare policy. We argue that when whites perceive threats to their relative advantage in the racial status hierarchy, their resentment of minorities increases. This increased resentment in turn leads whites to withdraw support for welfare programs when they perceive these programs to primarily benefit minorities. Analysis of American National Election Studies data and two survey-embedded experiments support this reasoning. In Study 1, we find that whites' racial resentment increased beginning in 2008, the year of Barack Obama's successful presidential candidacy and a major economic downturn, the latter a factor previously shown to amplify racial threat effects. At the same time, whites' opposition to welfare increased relative to minorities'. In Study 2, we sought to better establish the causal effect of racial status threats. We found that experimentally presenting information suggesting that the white majority is rapidly declining increased whites' opposition to welfare, and this effect was mediated by heightened racial resentment. Finally, in Study 3 we found that threatening whites' sense of their economic advantage over minorities led whites to report greater opposition to welfare programs, but only if these programs were portrayed as primarily benefiting minorities, not if they were portrayed as benefiting whites. These findings suggest that whites' perceptions that minorities' standing is rising can produce periods of "welfare backlash" in which adoption of policies restricting or curtailing welfare programs is more likely.


This paper argues that much of the past research on electronic brainstorming has been somewhat myopic. Much as Sony focused on the quality of the picture on its Beta format, we as IS researchers have focused on the number of ideas generated as the dominant measure of electronic brainstorming effectiveness. When VHS killed Beta, Sony discovered that image quality was a secondary consideration for most VCR users. Despite the compelling research on its performance benefits, electronic brainstorming has not yet displaced-or even joined-verbal brainstorming as a widely used idea generation technique. This paper presents arguments that users may not be primarily concerned with the number of ideas generated when planning a brainstorming session, but rather may equally desire group well being and member support. We present theoretical arguments and empirical evidence suggesting that electronic brainstorming is not as effective as verbal brainstorming at providing group well being and member support. We believe that these arguments may also apply to other group and individual research areas and may also call for a reevaluation of the technology acceptance model (TAM). Finally, we suggest further research that may help electronic brainstorming avoid the fate of the Beta format.


When older people move from where they live to go elsewhere, if the distances are short it is called relocation, or if the move is over state or national borders, migration. Push factors are dissatisfaction with the present residence, or incapacities; leading to short-distance moves to be near, or to cohabit with, adult children, in order to receive support. These individuals are the 'old-old' and 'oldest-old', mostly single, poorer, and less healthy. A pull factor is when people want to access a better lifestyle and an increased standard of living. These long-distance migrants tend to be 'young-old', healthier, financially secure, newly retired, and married. This thesis explores the migration and relocation of older Orthodox Jews from Gateshead, and studies the priorities and criteria that influence the decision-making process, as well as triggers and barriers to leaving. Being a member of this community, I conducted this research as an insider using constructivist grounded methodology. I conducted 33 in-depth interviews with older people who have migrated or not, including nine with adult children. The migrants ranged from 'young-old' to 'oldest-old', were married, generally in good health and well-rooted in their community, with extensive social and work attachments in Gateshead. This represents a unique migration in that they are not moving for care, or out of necessity or dissatisfaction, nor are they aiming to increase their standard of living, but to live near and help their children. The decision-making process is both complex and multi-layered. The older people ordered their priorities and considered how their decisions would affect them and their wider network, and taking into account all their resources, select the option that best met everyone's needs. Decisions were influenced by interdependency with children, neighbours, friends and work colleagues. This interdependency, in which work and volunteering played significant roles, was mediated by reciprocity, the desire not to be a burden, and to remain independent and autonomous. The children facilitated anything that aided these priorities. It was also clear that the demarcation of 65 years as the beginning of an 'old age' marked by dependency and infirmity is both arbitrary and inaccurate. Policy makers should recognise the contributions older people can and do make to families and communities. Facilitating and supporting these contributions would improve the health and well-being of older people.


Neither the literature of finance nor the literature of valuation practitioners has taken account of the relatively short life expectancy of firms. Fewer than fifty percent of new firms live longer than ten years; yet, it is common practice to estimate firm value with a very long term horizon model such as the constant growth model. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of the life expectancy of firms and show how to take account of the likelihood of firm death in valuation. Data on firm death rates and life expectancy that is available in the field of industrial organization is reviewed and summarized so that valuation practitioners can take it into account in their valuations.


In this lively and provocative book, Michael Coogan guides readers into the ancient past to examine the iconic Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue. How, among all the laws reportedly given on Mount Sinai, did the Ten Commandments become the Ten Commandments? When did that happen? There are several versions of the Decalogue in the Old Testament, so how have different groups determined which is the most authoritative? Why were different versions created? Coogan discusses the meanings the Ten Commandments had for audiences in biblical times and observes that the form of the ten proscriptions and prohibitions was not fixed--as one would expect since they were purported to have come directly from God--nor were the Commandments always strictly observed. In later times as well, Jews and especially Christians ignored and even rejected some of the prohibitions, although the New Testament clearly acknowledges the special status of the Ten Commandments. Today it is plain that some of the values enshrined in the Decalogue are no longer defensible, such as the ownership of slaves and the labeling of women as men's property. Yet in line with biblical precedents, the author concludes that while a literal observance of the Ten Commandments is misguided, some of their underlying ideals remain valid in a modern context.


A major challenge when designing general purpose graphics hardware is to allow efficient access to texture data. Although different rendering paradigms vary with respect to their data access patterns, there is no flexibility when it comes to data caching provided by the graphics architecture. In this paper we focus on volume ray-casting, and show the benefits of algorithm-aware data caching. Our Marching Caches method exploits inter-ray coherence and thus utilizes the memory layout of the highly parallel processors by allowing them to share data through a cache which marches along with the ray front. By exploiting Marching Caches we can apply higher-order reconstruction and enhancement filters to generate more accurate and enriched renderings with an improved rendering performance. We have tested our Marching Caches with seven different filters, e. g., Catmul-Rom, B-spline, ambient occlusion projection, and could show that a speed up of four times can be achieved compared to using the caching implicitly provided by the graphics hardware, and that the memory bandwidth to global memory can be reduced by orders of magnitude. Throughout the paper, we will introduce the Marching Cache concept, provide implementation details and discuss the performance and memory bandwidth impact when using different filters.


The scientific achievements of sociology have been disappointing. Sociology is properly a utilitarian science. The five methods of sociology.-In it five inductive methods of seeking truth may be considered. The common-sense method, consisting in generalizing from data which chance to come to hand, has been the most prominent. The historical method uses documents as its data. The museum or census method, having classification as its goal, has been used extensively in social surveys and government investigations. The laboratory or experimental method is restricted in sociological research by the length of time required for social experiments, by the number and complexity of the variables involved, and by the difficulty of controlling human variables. Superiority of the statistical method.-The statistical method consists in applying rigidly objective methods, aided by mathematics, to the interpretation of the social phenomena which spontaneously occur. In the form of simple comparisons the method has been widely used, but its value has been limited by the lack of comprehension of the method even in its crude form, and by the failure of crude comparisons to answer adequately the questions involved. Partial correlation and regression meet the needs of social research by furnishing predictions of stated variables in terms of other measured of classified variables, and by indicating the importance of the variables not considered. The development of reliable indices for certain social variables is prerequiste to the solution of fundamental sociological problems by statistical methods.


Enhancement of Mass Transfer and Electron Usage for Syngas Fermentation James J. Orgill Department of Chemical Engineering, BYU Doctor of Philosophy Biofuel production via fermentation is produced primarily by fermentation of simple sugars. Besides the sugar fermentation route, there exists a promising alternative process that uses syngas (CO, H2, CO2) produced from biomass as building blocks for biofuels. Although syngas fermentation has many benefits, there are several challenges that still need to be addressed in order for syngas fermentation to become a viable process for producing biofuels on a large scale. One challenge is mass transfer limitations due to low solubilities of syngas species. The hollow fiber reactor (HFR) is one type of reactor that has the potential for achieving high mass transfer rates for biofuels production. However, a better understanding of mass transfer limitations in HFRs is still needed. In addition there have been relatively few studies performing actual fermentations in an HFR to assess whether high mass transfer rates equate to better fermentation results. Besides mass transfer, one other difficulty with syngas fermentation is understanding the role that CO and H2 play as electron donors and how different CO and H2 ratios effect syngas fermentation. In addition to electrons from CO and H2, electrodes can also be used to augment the supply of electrons or provide the only source of electrons for syngas fermentation. This work performed an in depth reactor comparison that compared mass transfer rates and fermentation abilities. The HFR achieved the highest oxygen mass transfer coefficient (1062 h-1) compared to other reactors. In fermentations, the HFR showed very high production rates (5.3 mMc/hr) and ethanol to acetic acid ratios (13) compared to other common reactors. This work also analyzed the use of electrons from H2 and CO by C. ragsdalei and to study the effects of these two different electron sources on product formation and cell growth. This study showed that cell growth is not largely effected by CO composition although there must be at least some minimum amount of CO present (between 5-20%). Interestingly, H2 composition has no effect on cell growth. Also, more electron equivalents will lead to higher product formation rates. Following Acetyl-CoA formation, H2 is only used for product formation but not cell growth. In addition to these studies on electrons from H2 and CO, this work also assessed the redox states of methyl viologen (MV) for use as an artificial electron carrier in applications such as syngas fermentation. A validated thermodynamic model was presented in order to illustrate the most likely redox state of MV depending on the system setup. Variable MV extinction coefficients and standard redox potentials reported in literature were assessed to provide recommended values for modeling and analysis. Model results showed that there are narrow potential ranges in which MV can change from one redox state to another, thus affecting the potential use as an artificial electron carrier.


We have developed new techniques for the investigation of organic thin-film devices and have focussed on properties on the molecular scale as well as on macroscopic properties of organic devices. Scanning probe techniques were used to obtain spatially resolved information on morphology and electro-optical properties. Structural changes in composite-based devices were found to have an important influence on device performance. Furthermore, two modes of electroluminescence detection have been developed. Local luminescence detection in the optical near-field by a scanning near-field optical microscope allowed us to monitor the light emission around a dark spot with a resolution better than 134 nm and to observe the electrode ablation. Finally, we have established a new scanning probe technique, named SELM, "Scanning Electroluminescence Microscopy". The simultaneous detection of a PtIr-tip-induced electroluminescence and shear force allows us to distinguish between topography and conductivity. This technique has revealed a strong spatial variation in the electro-optical properties of Alq3 films on ITO substrates. The existing combinatorial preparation method has been supplemented by a variable testing setup that permits the simultaneous investigation of 64 devices under nearly identical conditions. Both OLEDs and photovoltaic cells have successfully been tested over more than 300 hours of continuous operation so that it was possible to study the influence of material combinations and layer thicknesses on the performance and on the degradation of the devices. Variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry has been used for the optical characterisation of materials and an automation has been provided for the analysis of combinatorially prepared device arrays. Furthermore, a Mathematica program has been developed for the theoretical description of the short-circuit current in photovoltaic cells. By this means it was possible to explain in detail the observed performance enhancement in heterojunction solar cells, induced by an additional TiO2 layer. The optical and electronic contribution could only be identified by the variation of both layer thickness and device type. The strength of the setup presented is its ability to produce and to test devices under nearly identical conditions and to yield reliable data, which in turn can be used to test physical models. Finally, we have addressed the degradation process of OLEDs. The experiments have shown that inert gas plays an essential role in protecting against degradation, not only by the exclusion of reactive species but also by its heat-transport capabilities. These investigations are only just beginning and further combinatorial studies paired with AFM measurements are currently being developed.%%%%Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden verschiedene Techniken zur Untersuchung von organischen Dunnfilmbauelementen entwickelt und weiterentwickelt. Der Fokus lag dabei einerseits auf lokalen Sondentechniken zur Untersuchung von Eigenschaften auf molekularer Skala, andererseits auf…


A significant portion of the intensively cultivated agricultural areas in the U.S. is located in the Texas High Plains and Rolling Plains. In recent years, decreasing ground water supplies and precipitation variability are presenting challenges for profitable cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production in these regions. A field study was conducted in 2012 and 2013 at Chillicothe, TX, to investigate the growth, yield, and water use efficiency (WUE) responses of cotton cultivars under different irrigation and tillage treatments. Results revealed that deficit irrigation of 45% of cotton evapotranspiration (ET) increased the dryland yield and WUE by 260% and 39%, respectively. The irrigation-by-variety interaction showed that the 90% ET replacement treatment involving PHY375 produced the greatest lint yield and WUE. Tillage did not significantly affect lint yield, WUE, and fiber quality. Increasing irrigation resulted in a linear increase in fiber length and strength, and a linear decrease in fiber micronaire. Two vegetation indices, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) were calculated using spectral reflectance dat. During the peak growing season, NDWI performed better compared to NDVI as no saturation problems were observed. The Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) calculated using canopy and air temperature measurements showed significant differences among irrigation treatments. It was also observed that the CWSI and NDWI were negatively correlated. A modeling study was performed using the cotton growth simulation model, Cotton2K, to investigate the lint yield, WUE, and economic return responses using 31 years weather records (1980 – 2010) from the Texas Rolling Plains. Results revealed that replacing 112% ET maximized the yield while economic return was maximized at 108% ET. When water resources are limited, deficit irrigation at 80% ET replacement can be used to improve cotton WUE without significant yield and economic reductions in the semi-arid Texas Rolling Plains. A third study was performed on winter wheat using the DSSAT-CERES-Wheat model to investigate winter wheat growth and yield responses to irrigation management in the Texas High Plains using long-term weather datasets available for the Texas High Plains region (1980-2012). Results of winter wheat response to irrigation indicated that deficit irrigation between jointing and anthesis could significantly increase winter wheat grain yield and WUE. Application of 100 mm of irrigation at jointing and 120 mm at anthesis was found to produce a grain and biomass yields and WUE similar to full irrigation with significant amount of water saving.


For those of us who shared many years of friendship and professional collaboration with Pedro Vuskovic, the news of his recent death in Mexico has been the cause of great sorrow, not only because of the circumstances of his death, following a cruel disease that gradually sapped his physical -but not intellectual- strength, but also because it signifies the loss of a great Latin American, of a teacher who helped shape so many generations of young people in our region, and of a companion during so many days of intellectual strivings and political struggle. Pedro joined the Commission in 1950, shortly after its birth as an institution. For nearly 20 years he served it brilliantly in a professional capacity, with his career in ECLAC culminating in the position of Director of the Development Division. He played a crucial role in structuring and disseminating the thinking of ECLAC during a time when the very air teemed with the ideas and concerns of a pleiad of gifted economists and social scientists. These were the post-war years, the 1950s and 1960s, when we all had to "construct" Latin America. Pedro Vuskovic laid many of the bricks in that collective theoretical and political edifice which has been of such importance to the countries of the region. Concurrently, he served as a professor in ECLAC and ILPES training programmes while at the same time teaching classes at the schools of economics and sociology at the University of Chile and the School of Economics at the University of Concepcion. When he left ECLAC, Pedro plunged wholeheartedly into the academic world, serving as the Director of the Institute of Economics of the University of Chile, and then went on to claim a position at the forefront of Chilean politics. In November 1970 he was named Minister of Economic Affairs by President Salvador Allende and in June 1972, took over the cabinet-level position of Executive Vice President of the Production Development Corporation (CORFO);, where he served until September 1973. When political events carried him into exile in Mexico, which generously welcomed him as it did so many other Latin Americans who faced similar problems, Pedro carried on his valuable academic work, first at the Economic Research and Teaching Centre (CIDE);, where he directed the Institute of Economic Studies of Latin America, and later at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities at the National University of Mexico (UNAM);, where he was named to the position of Coordinator for a programme on poverty and development options in various countries of Latin America. Although he will be remembered for his important political role, Pedro's work as a scholar and as an economist deserve special mention. He was a brilliant speaker, at the same time both methodical and incisive, who mastered his subjects with great wisdom and intellectual breadth, and he derived a special joy from being with young people, from providing them with intellectual stimulation and receiving it from them in turn. The many generations of Latin American students who were fortunate enough to have him as a teacher can attest to this. Pedro Vuskovic brought to his work as a researcher and teacher a deep sense of political and social responsibility which moved him to espouse the cause of Latin America 's poor and dispossessed, whose position he had come to understand very early on in his life through the many studies he carried out in this area while at ECLAC. He was tenacious in upholding his ideas and principles, he lived in accordance with them, and he championed them in all the forums open to him, in both the political and academic worlds, to the end of his days. His friends and colleagues also remember his geniality, his sense of humour and great personal warmth -traits which were coupled with an unshakable loyalty to his principles and values. Our farewell is deeply felt; Pedro Vuskovic has left us a legacy of memories and lessons that we will always hold close to our hearts. On behalf of his friends and colleagues, Jacobo Schatan, former Director of the Joint ECLAC/FAO, Agriculture Division


More than one billion square meters of housing should be built in Chinese cities by 2020. At the same time, demand for energy services of Chinese households is very likely to increase as a result of continually improved living standards. Space heating already accounts for almost 40% of energy consumption in the residential sector in China. Thus the energy performance of buildings in Chinese cities represents a major challenge for ensuring energy supply security and combating climate change in the next decades. Several regulations relating to the requirement of the thermal performance of housing entered into force in China successively since the 1990s, the long term consequences of failure in enforcement and implementation have been examined from both energy security and climate protection perspectives. Nevertheless, few of studies in literature have addressed the issue from the perspective of economic investment decision. None of previous studies have studied the extent to which the current decision on more or less efficient standards in the large-scale urban infrastructure like buildings will have ultimately impact on the financing capacity in transforming the society toward low-carbon energy supply and consumption model, and the role the energy efficiency in buildings will play in enabling the public authority to harness the benefits resulting from reduced operation costs in early stage to facilitating the investment in new technology research and development and deployment in the future. The thesis seeks to answer two fundamental questions: 1. is there an optimal development pathway to buildings energy performance standards in the context of extremely rapid urbanisation in China? 2. If so, what are political and economic instruments to put in place to limit growth in energy demand and CO2 emissions in this sector by taking the economic and institutional characteristics into account? Based on a modelling approach, we compare a variety of strategies to manage energy demand in buildings and their economic costs in a Chinese city by 2030. Our quantitative analysis in the first part of thesis shows that the adoption of current Chinese BEE standards not only fails to achieve an optimal level from societal point of view, but would also be the most costly amongst the technical options available today even without taking into account any cost of environmental externalities. Inclusion of carbon price will certainly favour the high-efficiency construction technology. More importantly, the city-level long-term modelling results show that even partial non-compliance of building energy efficiency today will result in tremendous difficulty in transforming the whole infrastructure under climate and economic constraints. Financing the new generation of low-carbon supply technologies such as renewable heating and carbon capture and storage (CCS) require taking into account the buildings thermal quality without any delays, otherwise the whole urban infrastructure would be saddled with high operation costs dilemma for several decades because both retrofitting and alternative energy supply in this case would be extremely costly and difficult to undertake. Therefore we strongly recommend that serious attention must be attached to efficiency issue today, and the current thermal regulations should be strengthened significantly and quickly to avoid irreversible carbon lock-in deadlock in the next two decades. Indeed, financial shortage appears not to be the insurmountable barriers to upgrading the current efficiency standards based on our modelling results, instead the institutional aspect may be the main obstacle to the no-lose strategy that allows benefits creation and redistribution. Several economic and policy instruments are analysed in the second part to accompany the actions of buildings performance amelioration with removal of institutional barriers. We develop three main models to accompany the learning of high-efficiency construction technology and processing industry: 1). establishment of a carbon financing system via the integration of the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol into the construction sector ; 2). flexibility of land use regulations on property developing and city zoning ; 3). creation of economic incentives to facilitate third-financing of energy efficiency in buildings, including the involvement of municipal heat companies. In this regard, district heating pricing reform must be carried out accordingly.


Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy/microscopy and Raman scattering/microscopy have been used to try and relate the microscopic behaviour (i.e. the molecular properties) with the macroscopic behaviour (i.e. the viscosity) of the model traction fluid Bis(cyclohexyl) Succinate. Other structurally related compounds have also been studied to assist with interpretation. Variable temperature studies produced few conclusive changes, with the balance between density and temperature effects giving rise to few spectroscopically visible changes. Some correlation between the viscosity of the molecules studied and the changes observed was seen. The appearance of two distinct carbonyl stretching bands which change in intensity with temperature indicates an intramolecular conformational change. There is considerable broadening of all the vibrational bands of the molecules studied as the pressure is increased indicating an increase in the vibrational relaxation rate. Repulsive interactions are also seen to dominate as the pressure is increased. Analysis using the Kubo model has shown that the carbonyl stretching band is more likely to be formed in the slow modulation regime. Unusual behaviour is exhibited in some spectra obtained from the dynamic pressure studies including unusual band shapes and negative going bands. The combination of high pressure, shear rate, and temperature in the centre of the elastohydrodynamic contact only allows the bis(cyclohexyl) succinate molecules to assume a single conformation. As these conditions lessen, the molecules become less constrained and different behaviour is observed. Three dimensional pressure and film thickness profiles have been used to explain the changes seen in terms of a combination of pressure and film thickness changes. Solution studies show there are strong attractive dipole-dipole interactions, probably localised at the carbonyl group, between the bis(cyclohexyl) succinate molecules. Using the Eyring fluid model and viscosity data, the molecular behaviour has been related to the viscosity of the molecules.


This paper will briefly review some of the seagrass transplantation studies conducted by the Marine and Freshwater Research Laboratory at Murdoch University in the Success Bank region off the Perth metropolitan coast over the past eight years. Initial studies examined the role of transplant size and sediment stabilization on survival, arriving at the conclusion that larger transplants survive better, and that sediment stabilization is an important factor in transplant survival. These studies gave rise to the concept of mechanical transplantation of large blocks ("sods") of seagrass. "ECOSUB1" was the prototype developed as part of the Environmental Management Plan for Cockburn Cement Ltd., which mines shellsand on Success Bank. Improvements in the technology led to ECOSUB2, which consists of two machines operating simultaneously, one harvesting seagrass and the other planting it. A sod shuttle is used to transfer sods from one machine to the other which greatly increasing the efficiency of the operations. The theoretical maximum output of ECOSUB2 is 75 sods, or 40m2, per day.

Experimental work to supplement the mechanical transplantation programme included studies on transplanting seagrass to different depths, and an examination of wave energy effects on survival. The depth studies suggested that it was possible to transplant seagrasses to greater depths than donor sites although wave energy was still instrumental in lowering survival. To examine wave energy effects, mechanically transplanted sods were deployed in an area of high wave energy, with spacing being used to modify the hydrodynamic regime. The results indicated no significant differences in survival or shoot density as a result of the spacing treatment, with poor survival once winter storms impacted the area. Monitoring of fluctuations in sediment height showed the presence of large sand waves passing through the region, and this is clearly a factor that needs to be considered when transplanting seagrass to areas of high wave energy.

The studies conducted to date suggest that larger transplants (sods) are required when transplanting to areas of high wave energy, although smaller transplants (plugs and sprigs) may be appropriate in more moderate conditions. Major factors to consider in enhancing rehabilitation success would appear to be the appropriateness of the technique in regard to species, seasonality of weather and the range of sediment level fluctuation.


The tragulids belonging to the siwaliks of Pakistan are studied in detail, and a very comprehensive systematic has been worked out, which reveal the status and position of the two genera of family tragulidae i.e, Dorcatherium and dorcabune. The genus dorcatherium includes three species, I ) Dorcatherium magus, ii) dorcatherium minus and iii) docrcatherium minimus from the Siwalik Hills of Pakistan . Dorcatherium majus is characterized by its large size very prominent hypsodonty. The upper molars bear strongly developed styles and cingulum, whereas the lower molars have well developed median basal pillars. Dorcatherium minus on the other hand is distinguished by its small size and subhypsodonty. Its upper molars have well developed styles and cingulum whereas the lower molars are characterized by moderately developed or vestigial median basal pillar. Third species Dorcatherium minimus was erected by West (1980), on the basis of only one specimen and after which no other specimen is reported so far which makes the validity of this species doubtful.

The genus dorcabune includes four species, i ) dorcabune anthracotherioides,ii ) Dorcabune hyaemoschoides, iii) Dorcabune nagrii and iv) Dorcabune latitens. Dorcabune anthracotherioides is characterized by bunodonty as well as selenodonty. The upper molars are with very much pronounced median rib, strong parastyle and mesostyle and weakly developed metastyle. Protocone is more pyramidal and displays three strong folds. The species dorcabune hyaemoschoides is found synonymous with dorcabune anthracotherioides (Colbert, 1935). The species dorcabune nagrii is well distinguished by small size and weakly developed cingulum. Dorcabune latidens is found synonymous with dorcabune nagrii (Colbert, 1935). Hence according to Colbert (1935) only two species of the genus dorcabune are valid, which are i) Dorcabybe anthracotherioides and ii) Dorcabune nagrii.

A trend towards increase in thickness of enamel as well as in size of the dentition of Dorcadtherium majus from chinjian to Dhokpathanian Formation has been studied. In Docatherium minus there is a tendency towards decrease in prominence of cingulum from chinji to Dhokpathan Formation. As far as dorcabune anthracotherioides is concerned it reveals a tendency toward decrees in size with slight deviations from lower siwaliks to the Middle sewaliks. Dorcabune nagrii is very similar to docrcabune anthracotherioides. This species is differentiated by its small size, faint cingulum and less defined posterior inner fold of protoconid. It exhibits a trend towards decrease in size from Nagri Formation to Dhokpathan Formation.


This study was conducted in Musanze and Bugesera districts of Rwanda .The objective were to estimate the level of technical efficiency in maize production. The study also attempted to determine some socio-economic characteristics which influence technical efficiency in maize production. It used primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected using questionnaire from random sample of 276 farmers, and it covered the socio-economic characteristics of farmers. Secondary data were collected from different sources, e.g., Ministry of Agriculture and livestock, records, books, reports and internet. The Stochastic Production Frontier (SPF) analysis was used to estimate the technical efficiency of producing maize, and to determine the factors behind inefficiency such as age, educational level, marital status, family size, main occupation, type of seeds, and extension services. Also, descriptive statistics were used to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of farmers. The results indicated that the mean technical efficiency for maize production in both districts is 27% which means that farmers can increase their output by 34%, through better use of available resources and existing technology if they are to be technically efficient. The study concluded that age, educational level and access to credit were significant variables leading to technical inefficiency in Rwanda. On the other hand, marital status, family size, main occupation, type of seeds, and extension services, had no significant impact on farmers' inefficiency. To improve technical efficiency for maize production in the Rwanda, the study recommended improvement in education level of the farmers and availability of funds in the optimum time. Key words : maize Productivity; Technical efficiency; stochastic frontier production


In recent years, the number of novel photovoltaic absorber materials under exploration has rapidly increased. However, to reap the most benefit from these new absorbers, alternative device structures and components must also be considered. In particular, the choice of a heterojunction partner, or contact layer, is critical to device optimization. In this work, we explore alternative n-type contact layer candidates that could be widely applicable to a variety of new absorbers. We use theory to calculate the band edge tuning provided by a variety of II–VI alloy systems, and select the (Cd,Zn)S system as one that affords a wide range of conduction band tuning. The synthesis of (Cd,Zn)S alloys is explored using atomic layer deposition, which afforded precise compositional control and produced crystalline thin films. The predicted tuning of the band gap and conduction band minimum is confirmed through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and optical absorption measurements. In addition, we investigated Ga-doping in Cd0.6Zn0.4S films to decrease their series resistance when used as contact layers in photovoltaic devices. This study provides a framework for exploring and optimizing alternative contact layer materials, which will prove critical to the success of new PV absorbers.


The axiomatic route to the foundation of contest success functions (CSF) has proved to be both useful and prolific. The standard approach in the literature is based on the decision-theoretic notion that choice probabilities should be independent of irrelevant alternatives (Skaperdas, Economic Theory 1996). The present paper develops an alternative approach that suggests itself once the contest is re-interpreted as a common-pool resource problem. Proceeding along these lines, new axiomatizations are obtained for a variety of popular classes of CSFs, including the logit, Tullock, and difference-form CSFs. The axiomatizations provided are particularly parsimonious in the important special case of two contestants.


Losses from commercial activities reflect the decline and deterioration of the downtown, the urban fabric and the social structure of the cities. The dependence on motorized vehicles has grown significantly among consumers who must move to meet their daily needs. Such a process marginalizes vulnerable populations by promoting urban lifestyles less sustainable. Proximity trade is therefore becoming increasingly important for those groups because it encourages dynamism among distinct urban areas and reduces the use of vehicles. This urban model addresses a relevant issue as universal accessibility that allows residents to enjoy an available city and move freely without encountering obstacles. The major role played by trade in the creation of wealth and urban fabric demands the integration of commercial areas provisions into urban policy guidelines. In this context, the study aims at developing a set of indicators that link proximity trade with the promotion of sustainable urban development and the model of compact city to be included in Spanish urban planning guidelines. Sixteen indicators were thus formulated around five areas of action: urban morphology, urban complexity, sustainable mobility, urban metabolism and social cohesion.


Abstract

 The main objective of this paper is to investigate the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of Manufacturing Execution Systems
(MES) adoption using the case of a Turkish defense industry firm with both a quantitative and a qualitative research design.
After the critical factors that are used in the adoption and implementation assessment in different countries and sectors are
determined in the literature, about one hundred questionnaires and five interviews are conducted at a defense industry firm.
The paper draws upon Information System (IS) success models and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) research models to
develop and test a model of MES adoption to the extent of individual use effect and the individual work performance effect
as dependent variables. The results of the analysis reveal that communication and business process reengineering are
positively related to both dependent variables, while complexity of MES has a negative relationship with individual use
effect. Top management/supervisor support and compatibility of software and hardware are positively associated with the
adoption of MES. Moreover, qualitative analysis shows similar results, and thus increases the validity of the findings. The
results indicate that more customization is needed and more attention should be paid during the MES implementation for
better adoption.

 Editor: H. Kemal Ilter, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Turkey

 Received: August 19, 2018, Accepted: October 18, 2018, Published: November 10, 2018
Copyright: © 2018 IMISC Yavuz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author
and source are credited.


Low-income adult learners often struggle to finance their college expenses, having to contend with competing responsibilities involving work, family, and school. This report presents findings from a study of performance-based scholarships at two community colleges in New York City — the Borough of Manhattan Community College and Hostos Community College, both part of the City University of New York system. Students who were eligible for the program could receive up to $2,600 total over two semesters, or up to $3,900 total over two semesters plus a summer semester. Payments were contingent upon maintaining a minimum level of enrollment and grades, and were made directly to students. The program in New York City is one of six being studied as part of the Performance-Based Scholarship (PBS) Demonstration. Each program is designed to serve a different target population and to test an alternative incentive structure, and all employ a random assignment research design. The program in New York City is a test of a scholarship-only program, with no services attached to the award. It targets adult students who are in need of developmental education, and aims to learn whether these scholarships are an effective way to help students progress academically. In addition, the program's design allows researchers to test whether offering students a summer scholarship as well can further improve their academic outcomes. Analysis suggests that the scholarship-only program: • Encouraged more full-time enrollment during the semesters in which the program operated. Full-time enrollment increased 4.1 percentage points in the first semester and 6.0 percentage points in the second semester of the scholarship program. • Did not increase the average number of semesters registered or credits earned over two years. While students who were eligible for the scholarship attempted more credits on average, this impact was small and was not accompanied by impacts on the number of semesters registered or cumulative credits earned. • Increased registration and credit accumulation in the summer semester. However, this increase did not lead to increased registration or credit accumulation over the two-year followup period. • Had impacts on students at one college but not on students at the other college. There is exploratory evidence that the program at one of the colleges had positive impacts on key academic outcomes. The analyses suggest that the impacts varied by college and that the college environments may have influenced these impacts. MDRC will continue to publish findings from each of the six programs in the PBS Demonstration in the coming years. The program in New York makes an important contribution to the overall demonstration and to the study of performance-based scholarships.


This work focuses on the socio-technical aspects of artificial intelligence, namely how (specific types of) intelligent systems function in human workplace environments. The goal is first to get a better understanding of human needs and expectations when it comes to interaction with intelligent systems, and then to make use of the understanding gained in the process of designing and implementing such systems.The work presented focusses on a specific problem in developing intelligent systems, namely how the artefacts to be developed can fit smoothly into existing socio-cultural settings. To achieve this, we make use of theories from the fields of organisational psychology, sociology, and linguistics. This is in line with approaches commonly found in AI. However, most of the existing work deals with individual aspects, like how to mimic the behaviour or emulate methods of reasoning found in humans, whereas our work centers around the social aspect. Therefore, we base our work on theories that have not yet gained much attention in intelligent systems design. To be able to make them fruitful for intelligent systems research and development, we have to adapt them to the specific settings, and we have to transform them to suit the practical problems at hand.The specific theoretical frameworks we draw on are first and foremost activity theory and to a lesser degree semiotics. Activity theory builds on the works of Leont'ev. It is a descriptive tool to help understand the unity of consciousness and activity. Its focus lies on individual and collective work practise. One of its strengths, and the primary reason for its value in AI development, is the ability to identify the role of material artefacts in the work process. Halliday's systemic functional theory of language (SFL) is a social semiotic theory that sets out from the assumption that humans are social beings that are inclined to interact and that this interaction is inherently multimodal. We interact not just with each other, but with our own constructions and with our natural world. These are all different forms of interaction, but they are all sign processes.Due to the obvious time and spatial constraints, we cannot address all of the challenges that we face when building intelligent artefacts. In reducing the scope of the thesis, we have focused on the problem of explanation, and here in particular the problem of explanation from a user perspective. By putting social theories to work in the field of artificial intelligence, we show that results from other fields can be beneficial in understanding what explanatory capabilities are needed for a given intelligent system, and to ascertain in which situations an explanation should be delivered. Besides lessons learned in knowledge based system development, the most important input comes from activity theory.The second focus is the challenge of contextualisation. Here we show that work in other scientific fields can be put to use in the development of context aware or ambient intelligent systems. Again, we draw on results from activity theory and combine this with insights from semiotics.Explanations are themselves contextual, so the third challenge is to explore the space spanned by the two dimensions ability to explain and contextualisation. Again, activity theory is beneficial in resolving this issue.The different theoretical considerations have also led to some practical approaches. Working with activity theory helps to better understand what the relevant contextual aspects of a given application are and helps to develop models of context which are both grounded in the tradition of context aware systems design and are plausible from a cognitive point of view.Insights from an analysis of research in the knowledge based system area and activity theory have further lead to the amendment of a toolbox for requirements engineering, so called problem frames. New problem frames that target explanation aware ambient intelligent systems are presented. This is supplemented with work looking at the design of an actual system after the requirements have been elicited and specified. Thus, the socio-technical perspective on explanations is coupled with work that addresses knowledge representation issues, namely how to model sufficient knowledge to be able to deliver explanations.


Purpose—This paper studies the relationship of gender and ICT usage as significant variables in the formation of perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty to educational institutions, and in the quality of the student-faculty interaction to discuss how these variables determine the bond between students and the University, in order to improve this interaction. Design/methodology/approach—The empirical research designed to test the proposed model was conducted in two Spanish universities (a random sample of 1000 graduates—500 from each university—from two academic years, all areas of knowledge and proportional for men/women). They were individually interviewed by personnel of an external market research institute, using CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview). For the measurement of the latent variables in the proposed model, we use an 11-point Likert scale (adapted to the particular context of the present study by means of several in-depth interviews with students and academics). ICT usage—classified in communication, author and administration tools, supporting the teaching, research and administrative management processes of the educational service—was measured with a scale of 7 items, which cover the main ICT used by students during their learning process and checked by an expert panel. These items were also examined more rigorously to validate their psychometric properties with the estimation of a confirmatory factor analysis via the maximum-likelihood method of structural equation modeling with LISREL 8.5. The evaluation of discriminant validity was testing by the AVE for each construct, which exhibited all of the constructs, discriminant validity in the model. Moreover, it was also verified through analysis of the confidence interval for the correlation coefficient between ICT usage and quality of interaction, and performing a model with construct correlations constrained to 1.00 was compared to an unconstrained model. Findings—Internal consistency of the scales and the results for discriminant validity allowed the estimation of the structural model, confirming the proposed hypothesis. Thus, ICT usage shows a positive influence on the quality of the student-faculty interaction, and there are significant differences in the quality of interaction by gender, since this one is higher in women than in men. Research limitations/implications—The proposed model and associated measurement instruments can reliably and consistently be applied for higher educational institutions, providing useful information for strategic decisions of universities. It would be interesting to replicate and extend this study to other contexts, including other related and moderating variables. Practical implications—These results have several academic and managerial implications for universities and nonprofit organizations. The findings show that the level of the student's ICT usage contributes to create and maintain the link or closeness between students and their University. Successful ICT integration is clearly related to the learning process in terms of the student-professor relationship, and that there are differences in the way men and women develop their academic relationships. Originality/Value—This study contributes to the development of educational literature, providing a scale of the quality of the interaction in this context, which has never been tested before in this field. The same happens with the analysis of the effects of using ICT in the student perception of that interaction, as well as differences between men and women, tested for the first time in this context. Research type: research paper.


This dissertation studies the early prehistoric cultures of Cyprus from the beginnings to the
Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age transition in the 3rd millennium BC. Its aim is not to provide a
culture-historical review, but to define, examine and explain processes of formative culture
change in light of island biogeography and new evidence which has accumulated during the last
decade.
Current excavations on the South Coast not only indicate what may be the earliest instance of
Mediterranean Island colonization, but they also hint at the existence of a proto-neolithic
occupation prior to the aceramic Khirokitia Culture. This evidence is interpreted in terms of the
causality of Quaternary biogeographic conditions and island colonizations by man and animals.
Specifically, the discussion addresses the problem of inhibitive factors, the triggers required to
overcome them, and the adaptive responses of the founder populations.
Following colonization, excavated and surveyed sites attest to a widely distributed and
culturally homogeneous aceramic occupation which lasted for over one millennium before
disappearing in a lacuna in the archaeological record. A locational analysis attempts to define
the rate of intra-island dispersal of this and the subsequent ceramic cultures, and it is argued
that the use of a statistically meaningful sample of datable sites and the demographic trends it
evidences contradict the hypothesis of an occupational gap.
The themes of cultural continuity vs. discontinuity and demic diffusion are further explored
within the framework of absolute chronology. A date-by-date discussion of 14C determinations
for the Formative Period in light of advances in calibration and settlement stratigraphy is put in
the context of artifactual and paleoenvironmental data and used as the chronometric underpinning
for an explanation of the configuration of culture growth in an early island ecosystem.
Fieldwork data are appended in a Gazetteer of Early Prehistoric Sites Supplement and a
Gazetteer of Pleistocene Fossil Sites.


Excavations at three urban sites, Harlaa, Harar, and Ganda Harla, in eastern Ethiopia have recovered substantial assemblages of faunal remains. These, the first to be analysed from Islamic contexts in the country, were studied to reconstruct animal economies, and to assess if it was possible to identify Islamic conversion or the presence of Muslims in archaeological contexts through examining butchery practices and diet via the species present. Differences in animal economies between the sites in, for example, management strategies, use of animals for traction, and presence of imported marine fish, infers the development of different traditions. However, conversion to Islam was evident, and although issues of non-observance, mixed communities, and dietary eclecticism have to be acknowledged, the appearance of a similar range of butchery techniques suggests these were linked with the appearance of Muslim traders, and subsequent spread of Islam.


Hydrological modeling has been a valuable tool to understand the processes governing water distribution, quantity, and quality of the planet Earth. Through models, one has been able to grasp processes such as runoff, soil moisture, soil erosion, subsurface drainage, plant growth, evapotranspiration, and effects of land use changes on hydrology at field and watershed scales. The number and diversity of water-related challenges are vast and expected to increase. As a result, current models need to be under continuous modifications to extend their application to more complex processes. Several models have been extensively developed in recent years. These models include the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model, MIKE-SHE, and the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model. The latter, although it is a well-validated model at field scales, the WEPP watershed model has been limited to small catchments, and almost no research has been introduced regarding water quality issues (only one study).In this research, three objectives were proposed to improve the WEPP model in three areas where either the model has not been applied, or modifications can be performed to improve algorithms of the processes within the model (e.g. erosion, runoff, drainage). The enhancements impact the WEPP model by improving the current stochastic weather generation, extending its applicability to subsurface drainage estimation, and formulating a new routing model that allows future incorporation of transport of reactive solutes.The first contribution was development of a stochastic storm generator based on 5-min time resolution and correlated non-normal Monte Carlo-based numerical simulation. The model considered the correlated and non-normal rainstorm characteristics such as time between storms, duration, and amount of precipitation, as well as the storm intensity structure. The model was tested using precipitation data from a randomly selected 5-min weather station in North Carolina. Results showed that the proposed storm generator captured the essential statistical features of rainstorms and their intensity patterns, preserving the first four moments of monthly storm events, good annual extreme event correspondence, and the correlation structure within each storm. Since the proposed model depends on statistical properties at a site, this may allow the use of synthetic storms in ungauged locations provided relevant information from a regional analysis is available.A second development included the testing, improvement, and validation of the WEPP model to simulate subsurface flow discharges. The proposed model included the modification of the current subsurface drainage algorithm (Hooghoudt-based expression) and the WEPP model percolation routine. The modified WEPP model was tested and validated on an extensive dataset collected at four experimental sites managed by USDA-ARS within the Lake Erie Watershed. Predicted subsurface discharges show Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) values ranging from 0.50 to 0.70, and percent bias ranging from -30% to +15% at daily and monthly resolutions. Evidence suggests the WEPP model can be used to produce reliable estimates of subsurface flow with minimum calibration.The last objective presented the theoretical framework for a new hillslope and channel-routing model for the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model. The routing model (WEPP-CMT) is based on catchment geomorphology and mass transport theory for flow and transport of reactive solutes. The WEPP-CMT uses the unique functionality of WEPP to simulate hillslope responses under diverse land use and management conditions and a Lagrangian description of the carrier hydrologic runoff at hillslope and channel domains. An example of the model functionality was tested in a sub-catchment of the Upper Cedar River Watershed in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Results showed that the proposed model provides an acceptable representation of flow at the outlet of the study catchment. Model efficiencies and percent bias for the calibration period and the validation period were NSE = 0.55 and 0.65, and PBIAS = -2.8% and 2.1%, respectively. The WEPP-CMT provides a suitable foundation for the transport of reactive solutes (e.g. nitrates) at basin scales.


A recent public opinion poll underscores the point that Canadians are assertive internationalists who want Canada to 'make waves internationally.'(f.1) They are proud of Canada's diplomatic record, especially its peacekeeping legacy, and show considerable enthusiasm for the foreign policy of Jean Chretien's government. Several initiatives championed by the foreign minister, Lloyd Axworthy -- the campaigns to ban anti-personnel landmines, control the international trade in light weapons, and prohibit the use of child soldiers in combat -- particularly reflect core Canadian values. 'Our biggest finding' noted Conrad Winn, president of COMPAS, in reference to the poll of 15-18 April 1998, 'was the powerful streak of democratic moralism that pervades almost all of Canadians' thinking about international affairs.' A stunning 82 per cent of the poll's 500 respondents believe Canada has more influence now than in the 1960s while 64 per cent are prouder now than they were a decade ago. Indeed, at the dawn of a new millennium, Canada is once again a significant player on the world stage whose voice is heard on a wide range of pressing international issues. Not since the so-called 'golden age' of Canadian diplomacy in the 1950s have Canadians appeared so self conscious of their global role or so assertively and overtly 'internationalist.'Much of the credit for this welcome state of affairs must go to Axworthy whose vigorous personal commitment to human rights, disarmament, and other causes has energized both his department and, frequently, his government. In continuing to make headlines, whether for banning landmines or visiting Cuba, he has brought foreign policy to the attention of Canadians, and the world, during his period as minister. 'Low-key Canada these days is enjoying a strut in the world spotlight,' noted the Boston Globes Colin Nickerson approvingly in December 1997 during the Ottawa signing conference on landmines. The Toronto Star echoed this sentiment more recently: 'Not since the days of Lester Pearson has Canada played such a visible and effective role on the world stage.'(f.2) While Canadians have traditionally eschewed the American practice of naming foreign policy 'doctrines' after presidents or foreign secretaries, historians might well refer to the 'Axworthy doctrine' in their writings on the Canadian foreign policy of the late 1990s.Drawing from the minister's statements, speeches, and recent actions, his foreign policy appears to rest on a number of core principles or propositions which might be summarized as follows: - the end of the cold war has fundamentally changed the nature of international politics; - security goals should be focused around human security and not state security; - soft power is the new currency of international politics; - military force is of declining utility in international politics; - public diplomacy is increasingly effective in a wired world; non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are in the vanguard of the 'new diplomacy'; - Canada can lead 'coalitions of the willing'; and - international change will come through the promulgation of new norms of which the key priorities for Canada are small arms, children's rights, international human rights, and peacebuilding.(f.3)Axworthy has not, of course, single-handedly invented, or even reinvented, Canada's commitment to human rights, peacekeeping, or international institutions, all of which have informed Canadian foreign policy for decades. Not without reason, after all, was Canada once referred to by a United States secretary of state, Dean Acheson, as the 'stern daughter of the voice of God.'(f.4) Nevertheless, Axworthy's careful articulation of foreign policy principles into a more or less cogent statement of goals is a striking departure from the often muddled and cautious musings of his predecessors. In journals like this one, on newspaper editorial pages, and in various speeches and policy statements, he has developed a complex, interlocking set of assumptions and foreign policy objectives to guide Canada into the next century. …


1. Bythotrephes cederstroemi (Crustacea: Onychopoda: Cercopagidae) invaded Harp Lake, Ontario in 1993, since when the zooplankton community has shifted from dominance of small-bodied to large-bodied species. During 1995 diets of adult lake herring (Coregonus artedii), Harp Lake's primary planktivorous fish, were examined to determine the extent to which this conspicuous zooplankter has become integrated into the lake's foodweb and whether fish condition has been affected in consequence.

2. Bythotrephes and Daphnia galeata mendotae were strongly preferred prey, whilst Holopedium gibberum and calanoid and cyclopoid copepods were negatively selected by lake herring. Predation on Bythotrephes and Holopedium was not size-selective, although D. galeata mendotae and calanoid copepods (Leptodiaptomus minutus and L. sicilis) consumed by herring were significantly larger than co-occurring conspecifics in the lake.

3. Caudal spines of Bythotrephes may form boluses in lake herring stomachs. However, the number of caudal spines in fish digestive tracts did not differ significantly from the number of Bythotrephes' mandible pairs, indicating that the former were not differentially retained.

4. Lake herring weight-at-length relationships in lakes in Muskoka, Ontario, invaded by Bythotrephes did not differ from those in adjacent non-invaded lakes, indicating that Bythotrephes invasion of lakes apparently has not affected condition of lake herring.


Growing evidence supports the conclusion that consumption of protein in close temporal proximity to the performance of resistance exercise promotes greater muscular hypertrophy. We can also state with good certainty that merely consuming energy, as carbohydrate for example, is also not sufficient to maximise muscle protein synthesis leading to anabolism and net new muscle protein accretion. Recent work also indicates that certain types of proteins, particular those that are rapidly digested and high in leucine content (i.e. whey protein), appear to be more efficient at stimulating muscle protein synthesis. Continued practice of consumption of these types or proteins after exercise should lead to greater hypertrophy. Reviews of numerous training studies indicate that studies in which milk proteins and principally whey protein show an advantage of these proteins over and above isoenergetic carbohydrate and soya protein in promoting hypertrophy. Thus, the combined evidence suggests a strategic advantage of practising early post-exercise consumption of whey protein or dairy-based protein to promote muscle protein synthesis, net muscle protein accretion and ultimately hypertrophy.


Abstract On September 25, 2005, just thirty-nine days after the Supreme Court's decision in National Cable & Telecommunication Ass'n v. Brand X Internet Services, the Federal Communications Commission issued the Wireline Broadband Internet Access Order dropping regulations requiring Bell Operating Companies to offer broadband access on a common carrier basis. Although the FCC believes that the Wireline Broadband Order, designed to help level the playing field between cable modem service providers and DSL providers, will promote marketplace competition, many holes exist which could ultimately harm the availability and accessibility of advanced communication to all Americans. This comment explores both the positive and negative implications of the Wireline Broadband Order including the effect on marketplace competition, the lack of clearly defined enforcement measures, and the viability of the Universal Service Fund. I. INTRODUCTION In today's society the need for high-speed Internet is found everywhere from commerce to the medical profession. (1) Simple narrowband, otherwise known as "dial-up" connections, at speeds of 56kbs, are not enough to support individuals' needs which span anywhere from downloading music to shopping to communicating via the Internet. (2) Rather, many individuals and companies opt for broadband connections providing higher speeds. The two most common types of broadband are cable modem service and digital subscriber line ("DSL"), (3) with the use of technologies such as wireless, satellite, fiber-optic, and powerline emerging rapidly. (4) Cable modem service transmits data between the Internet and users' computer via the network of television cable lines owned by the cable company. (5) DSL, on the other hand, uses high-speed wires owned by local telephone companies. (6) Cable is known for its ability to support download speeds of "almost always at least 1-1.5 Mbps and sometimes faster depending on how many users are logged on. (7) But like DSL, there are many factors, including general Web traffic that can add to slower speeds, not just the amount of users online." (8) With cable modem service, the number of users in each neighborhood simultaneously accessing the service limits the speed of the signal. (9) DSL connection speeds, made through copper telephone lines, are "comparable with cable speeds (1-2 Mbps usually), however because they are distance sensitive, the farther you live from your service provider's central office, the slower your connection will be." (10) II. HISTORY OF BROADBAND REGULATION The Communications Act of 1934 ("1934 Act") created the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") (11) and ultimately gave the FCC jurisdiction over telegraph and telephone companies. (12) As discussed below, amendments were made to the 1934 act in 1996 to address Internet policy, as the Internet did not exist in 1934. Following the 1934 Act, in Computer I and Computer II, the FCC distinguished telecommunications and information services based on how the consumer perceived the service being offered. (13) The purpose of this distinction was to restrain the local telephone companies, or incumbent local exchange carriers ("ILECs"), from exerting monopoly power with regard to "enhanced" or "information" services, as opposed to "basic" telecommunications services. (14) The Computer II rules separated services into basic and enhanced categories, where a "basic service" was defined as "a pure transmission capability over a communications path that is virtually transparent in terms of its interaction with customer supplied information," (15) and an "enhanced service" was defined as a service in which "computer processing applications [were] used to act on the content, code, protocol, and other aspects of the subscriber's information." (16) Basic services, where no processing or storage is needed to convert message, were subject to Title II common-carrier regulations, (17) and were similar to what the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ("Telecommunications Act" or "1996 Act") would later deem "telecommunications services. …


The justice system diverts young offenders away from further contact through restorative justice processes. Juvenile justice conferencing allows for the goals of restorative justice to be met, including meeting the needs of victims and offenders. Apologies, when offered by offenders to victims within a conferencing setting, can assist with meeting these restorative goals. Apologies, however, need to be effective to have the desired outcome. Several variables influence the effectiveness of apologies, including the perceived voluntariness of apologies, with prompted apologies reducing apology effectiveness. The reduced effectiveness of prompted apologies might be an issue during conferencing as some offenders are prompted to apologise during these procedures. Prior wrongful behaviour of offenders is also thought to impact apology effectiveness, but there is no published research that investigates whether the impact of prior wrongful behaviour is different for voluntary and prompted apologies. Participants (N = 124), recruited through convenience sampling, were positioned as victims of a crime where they were asked to rate a voluntary or prompted apology from either an offender with prior police contact or no prior police contact. The findings of this study indicated that voluntary apologies were significantly more effective than prompted apologies, but prior wrongful behaviour did not have a significant effect. Author: Isolde Larkins Supervisors: Professor Alfred Allan and Dr Maria Allan


The loss of international competitiveness of domestic industries remains a key obstacle to the implementation of effective carbon prices in a world without harmonized climate policies. We analyze countries' noncooperative choices of emissions taxes under imperfect competition and mobile polluting firms. In our general equilibrium setup with trade, wage effects prevent all firms from locating in the same country. While under local or no pollution countries achieve the first-best, under transboundary pollution taxes are inefficiently low and lower than under autarky where only the "standard" free-riding incentive distorts emissions taxes. This effect is more pronounced when polluting firms are mobile.


In this paper, we analyse the effect of the Berlinguer reform that was implemented in Italy in 1999 and increased the compulsory school from eight to nine years. As a result of the reform, students had to attend school until age 15 instead of age 14 and thus had to attend at least one year of upper secondary school (for students with a regular career). Using data from Italian Labour Force Surveys (LFS) (1993-2010) and following a counterfactual approach, applying counterfactual time series and segmented regressions, we evaluate the effect of the Berlinguer reform on attendance and graduation rates. The results show that the expansion of compulsory schooling leads to staying in school for a larger share of 16-year-olds, especially those who are judged to be more at risk of dropping out: students with less-educated parents and those with parents having a low occupational level. By age 17, however, part of the effect has already vanished, and no effects are found on graduation rates, even among at-risk youths. The compulsory schooling policy may have been more effective in adjusting the legislation to extant student behaviours than in producing relevant changes in educational decisions.


Diplodus sargus lineatus (white seabream) is an endemic coastal species in Cape Verde (CV). it is one of the most abundant seabream but has a low marketable value. in this work the feeding ecology of D. sargus lineatus and morphometric relationships were studied for the first time. Feeding indices and coefficients were determined and used along with multivariate analysis to characterise ontogenetic and sexual diet shifts. Diet was diversified and a total 53 food items were identified. Algae composed the majority of the items (36), namely Rhodophyta algae (26), followed by benthic macroinvertebrates (17). Feeding diversity is not related to sex or size classes. When compared with other species from the same genus, D. sargus lineatus showed a rich benthic fauna diet and the largest diet diversity in red algae consumption. This result reflects the rich benthic marine faunal environment and red algae flora availability of CV islands, even though red algae would be rather unusual considering the short coastal area associated with the Macaronesian archipelagos. Diel diet analysis showed higher feeding activity during the day. two alien algae species found in D. sargus lineatus diet were first described for CV. These results highlighted the importance of diet studies as ecosystem bioindicators tools. The esti - mated morphometric relationships showed negative allometries between body height (BH = 0.4163FL + 0.3711), head length (HL = 0.2649FL - 3.6456), ocular diameter (OD = 0.07FL + 0.61) and fork length (FL). Positive allometry and high correlation were found between weight and fork length (W = 0.0001787FL - 3.14 ).


DNA Replication initiates by formation of a pre-replication complex on sequences termed origins. In eukaryotes, the pre-replication complex is composed of the Origin Recognition Complex (ORC), Cdc6 and the MCM replicative helicase in conjunction with Cdt1. Eukaryotic ORC is considered to be composed of six subunits, named Orc1–6, and monomeric Cdc6 is closely related in sequence to Orc1. However, ORC has been little explored in protists, and only a single ORC protein, related to both Orc1 and Cdc6, has been shown to act in DNA replication in Trypanosoma brucei. Here we identify three highly diverged putative T. brucei ORC components that interact with ORC1/CDC6 and contribute to cell division. Two of these factors are so diverged that we cannot determine if they are eukaryotic ORC subunit orthologues, or are parasite-specific replication factors. The other we show to be a highly diverged Orc4 orthologue, demonstrating that this is one of the most widely conserved ORC subunits in protists and revealing it to be a key element of eukaryotic ORC architecture. Additionally, we have examined interactions amongst the T. brucei MCM subunits and show that this has the conventional eukaryotic heterohexameric structure, suggesting that divergence in the T. brucei replication machinery is limited to the earliest steps in origin licensing.


Objectives
Gut dysbiosis or imbalance of the gut microbial community promotes inflammation and contributes to pathogenesis of several conditions such as aging, obesity, and colorectal cancer (CRC). Previously, we demonstrated that feeding Parabacteroides distasonis (Pd) to mice suppressed obesity-driven colorectal tumorigenesis. Here, we investigated if Pd could suppress the development and progression of colon tumors in mice independent of obesity.

Methods
Six-week old male A/J mice (n = 23/group) were randomly assigned to one of the 3 diet regimens: 1) standard chow diet for 24 weeks (CTR), 2) chow supplemented with 0.04% w/w freeze-dried Pd for 24 weeks (Pd-Early), or 3) chow diet for 19 weeks followed by chow diet supplemented with 0.04% w/w freeze-dried Pd for a further 5 weeks (Pd-Late). All mice were given 6 weekly injections of the colon carcinogen azoxymethane (AOM; 10 mg/kg I.P.) starting after 1 week on diet and were euthanized after 24 weeks on diet.

Results
Histologically confirmed neoplastic colonic polyps were observed in 77%, 55%, and 40% in CTR, Pd-Early, and Pd-Late mice, respectively (X2 = 0.047). The expression of IL-4 and TNFα was 58% (P = 0.05) and 55% (P < 0.001) lower, respectively, in Pd-Early compared to CTR mice. Interestingly, Pd-Late mice displayed a 217% (P = 0.05) and 185% (P < 0.001) increase in IL-10 and TGF-β expression, respectively, compared to CTR mice. Both Pd-Early and Pd-Late mice demonstrated an increased expression of tight junction proteins, ZO-1 (P < 0.001) and occludin (P < 0.001), by 2-3 fold, compared to controls.

Conclusions
Our results support a protective role for Pd in colonic tumorigenesis and maintenance of intestinal epithelial barrier in AOM-treated mice. Moreover, our data suggest a differential regulation of immune responses by Pd when administered at different stages of tumorigenesis. Future investigation is warranted to delineate the effect of Pd on the immune system and how this may affect tumorigenesis and tumor progression.

Funding Sources
This study is supported by 2017 HNRCA Pilot Grant and the USDA CRIS fund.


The Korean medical community has recently faced political conflicts with the government in the implementation of the Korean diagnosis-related groups (DRG) payment system. This study found that scientific evidence is insufficient so far to support the claim that the DRG results in lower medical expenses without sacrificingthe quality of health care. There is no 'free lunch' and 'free DRG' as well. Unreasonable and compulsory implementation of the Korean DRG may give rise to an unwanted burden to both the Korean people and medical community. The economic burden of the patient is unlikely to decrease after Korean DRG application, given the lack of scientific and political evidence for this possibility. We can expect that the systems will be effective in holding down medical expenses in the long term. However, it will not be practical without the reduction of medical expenses by means such as reducing hospitalization service and other medical service amount. The enforcement of the Korean DRG payment system appears to be one of the typical cases of excessive state intervention in health policy in the history of Korea.


Thin films of LiCoO2 were prepared by pulsed laser deposition technique. Two important deposition parameters such as substrate temperature and oxygen partial pressure during the thin filmdepositionwere controlled. The composition of the experimental films was analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The binding energy peaks of Co(2p3/2) and Co(2p1/2) are observed at 779.3eVand 794.4eVwhich can be attributed to the Co3+ bonding state of LiCoO2. The core level binding energy peak positions observed from XPS data and the estimated Li/Co ratio of the LiCoO2 films deposited in an oxygen partial pressure of 100 mTorr and in the substrate temperature range 300-700i'°Cindicated that the films are nearly stiochiometric. The FTIR displayed the characteristic IR dominant bands at 250 and 554cm-1 forLiCoO2.


Background: Recent trials have shown promising results for the efficacy of gum chewing for the amelioration of postoperative ileus. This finding could have a major clinical impact since gum chewing is relatively harmless and cheap while postoperative ileus has a significant impact on healthcare. Methods: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing the efficacy of gum chewing after colorectal surgery to a standard control for the amelioration of postoperative ileus, expressed as time to flatus, time to defecation and overall hospital stay. Results: Five randomized controlled trials with a total number of 158 patients were found. The studies were homogeneous and a meta-analysis was performed. The pooled weighted mean difference (WMD) of time to flatus was significantly shorter for the gum-chewing group (20 h with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 13–27). The pooled WMD of time to defecation was significantly shorter (29 h, 95% CI of 19–39). There was a non-significant trend towards a shorter postoperative hospital stay (1.3 days shorter, 95% CI of 3.2 days shorter to 0.6 days longer). Conclusion: This meta-analysis shows a favorable effect of gum chewing on time to flatus and defecation but no significant effect on the hospital stay.


Dynamic average correlations of stock returns are predicted by the volatility of the market excess return and moving average returns of value, size and momentum portfolios. While the influence of market volatility on average correlation is well-known, the role of value, size and momentum appears to be underappreciated. Correlations of stock returns and stock returns share sources of risk like the market volatility, but there are other sources that are distinct. In particular, correlations are increased when value or momentum returns are roughly zero, while strongly negative returns of value or momentum are associated with lower correlations. Using the market volatility and a moving average return of the value portfolio as predictors of average correlation, we obtain a global minimum variance portfolio with a Sharpe ratio that is 1.5% higher relative to the one based on a Dynamic Equicorrelation Garch model, and the difference in portfolio volatility is statistically significant.