This exploratory study reports on the performance of teacher practitioners when first encountering a new class group of adult learners, within Tasmanian education and training institutions. It was conducted within a context of increasing numbers of adult learners in these organisations. The thesis is that there is insufficient understanding of what such practitioners bring to the moment of first encounter, and about what they do and the reasons for their activity in that first moment. In a qualitative study, a sample of 34 practitioners was interviewed and some of their learners contributed additional viewpoints. A mixed methods approach was the basis of the research design.
The study explores how the prior knowledge, experience and personal paradigms, which adult practitioners bring to the moment of first face-to-face encounter with a new group of adult learners, are employed during the moment of first encounter. On the basis that "first impressions [may] count", this study investigates the observations, thinking and decision making activities of practitioners, during their moment of first encounter with new class groups.
The study revealed that prior to the moment of first encounter, practitioners can be understood as containers of memories, experiences, and knowledge. As they journey into the moment of first encounter and meet a new group of adult learners, they are enriched by their baggage of knowledge stores and experiences gathered in different periods preceding that moment. The moment of first encounter is a time when practitioners reflect on their experience and retrieve a body of pre-existing knowledge and beliefs, some of which may be derived from a Familiarisation Routine. Collectively, this study labels these as a Foundation.
In the moment of first encounter, practitioners proceed by executing a number of activities patterned into typical routines; a Discovery Routine, which flows instantly and automatically through a Transformation Routine then a Decision-making Routine. These seamlessly integrated Routines meet the needs of the present without compromising practitioners" ability in future moments to meet their own needs. Regardless of the level of interest in and care about the group of learners, practitioners" initially focus on their personal needs. The research found that the moment of first encounter is a scene-setting period where practitioners take stock of the learners as a group, in order to plan for a pathway that will reduce any of their own anxieties.
The outcome from this study is a new understanding of the first activities that occur in a limited time period at the beginning of a practitioner"s first meeting with a class group of adult learners, and an appreciation of a practitioner"s initial thoughts and decisions. It is expected that the findings will assist with training those who propose to teach adult learners.


Benedetto Manasseri da San Fratello (Messina, Sicily) became the first black canonical saint in 1807. The Sicilian-born son of African parents (1524), was first a hermit, and then a lay friar of the reformed minor order of St. Francis of Assisi. He died in Palermo in 1589. From the beginning of the 17 century his name and cult was connected in Brazil to the Catholic Rosary, together with the name and cult of three other black "saints": Elesbao/Elisbao (from Abyssinia), Efigenia/Ifigenia (from Nubia), Antonio de Noto/Categero (an African hermit who died in 1550 in Sicily, as Benedict did). It would be interesting to discuss the development of the four names in the Portuguese of Portugal and in the Portuguese of Brazil. The subject of my paper is the different forms of the names of the first hagionyms on three Continents, Europe, Africa and America: Benedetto da San Fratello (Italy), Benito de Palermo (Spain and Spanish speaking countries in America), Benedito/ Bento (Portugal, Brazil, Angola), and Bieito (Galicia). It is very interesting to notice the Portuguese development from Bento to Benedito in the first half of the 17 century, and the influence of this change on the names of popes in Portuguese, including our present Pope, Benedict XVI.


In contrast to most research on the effects on residents of living in an ethnic neighborhood, this paper explores how living within an ethnic neighborhood affects members of the dominant ethnic group - in this case Germans - rather than the minorities that define it. The results indicate that Germans living within ethnic neighborhoods are less well off financially than their peers in other parts of the city, and are more likely to be living in large buildings in need of repair. The analysis did not however suggest that Germans living in ethnic neighborhoods have fewer social contacts, or that they are more likely to be unemployed. Indeed, Germans living within ethnic neighborhoods reported levels of satisfaction with their housing and standard of living equal to Germans elsewhere. These results would seem to paint a rosy picture of the lives of German residents of ethnic neighborhoods, were it not for a notable absence of school-aged German children within these spaces.


Much attention has been focused on the effects of the disk substrate in optical data storage. In particular, substrate birefringence has been studied extensively because it causes significant problems in magneto-optic systems. We investigate certain subtle effects of the substrate, such as feedback into the laser diode, in compact disk and phase-change systems. Our analysis of the compact disk system led us to discover a new technique for the rapid measurement of the substrate birefringence. We also address the question of how focusing the laser beam through the substrate will affect the depth of focus.


Many solutions have been proposed to tackle the load balancing issue in DHT-based P2P systems. However, all these solutions either ignore the heterogeneity nature of the system, or reassign loads among nodes without considering proximity relationships, or both. In this paper, we present an efficient, proximity-aware load balancing scheme by using the concept of virtual servers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to use proximity information in load balancing. In particular, our main contributions are: 1) relying on a self-organized, fully distributed k-ary tree structure constructed on top of a DHT, load balance is achieved by aligning those two skews in load distribution and node capacity inherent in P2P systems - that is, have higher capacity nodes carry more loads; 2) proximity information is used to guide virtual server reassignments such that virtual servers are reassigned and transferred between physically close heavily loaded nodes and lightly loaded nodes, thereby minimizing the load movement cost and allowing load balancing to perform efficiently; and 3) our simulations show that our proximity-aware load balancing scheme reduces the load movement cost by 11-65 percent for all the combinations of two representative network topologies, two node capacity profiles, and two load distributions of virtual servers. Moreover, we achieve virtual server reassignments in O(log N) time.


Labor economists know that a year of schooling raises earnings but have little evidence on the impact of specific courses completed. I identify the impact of math coursework on earnings using the differential timing of state-level increases in high school graduation requirements as a source of exogenous variation. The increased requirements induced large increases in both the completed math coursework and earnings of blacks, particularly black males. Two-sample instrumental variable estimates suggest that each additional year of math raised blacks' earnings by 5-9%, accounting for a large fraction of the value of a year of schooling. Closer analysis suggests that much of this effect comes from black students who attend non-white schools and who will not attend college. The earnings impact of additional math coursework is robust to changes in empirical specification, is not driven by selection into the labor force, and persists when earnings are conditioned on educational attainment. The reforms close one fifth of the earnings gap between black and white males. Estimates for whites are similar to those of blacks but are much noisier due to the reforms' weaker impact on white students' coursework. These results suggest that math coursework is an important determinant of the labor market return to schooling, that simple minimum requirements largely benefit low-skilled students, and that more demanding requirements might be necessary to improve the outcomes of high-skilled students.


The open innovation paradigm emphasises the importance of alliances for improving the innovation performance of firms. However, existing empirical research on innovation performance implications of alliances is dominated by cross-sectional studies. As a result, we do not know how the time frame of alliances might influence innovation performance. In this study, we therefore examine the impact of different time frames of alliance strategies on innovation performance. In order to do so, we collected panel data on 217 Flemish startup firms. The results show a positive association between 'discontinuous alliance strategies' with suppliers, customers and competitors and 'incremental' innovation performance. In addition, we find a positive impact of 'continuous alliance strategies' with suppliers, competitors and universities and other research institutes on 'radical' innovation performance. These findings encourage startup firms to balance their alliance portfolio not only in terms of different kinds of partners but also in terms of different kinds of time frames.


The aim of this study was to investigate the concordance between swab and tissue biopsy samples in terms of microbiological isolates and their time-related changes. A total of 156 samples (78 swab and 78 biopsy) were collected from 39 cases of partial- or full-thickness burns and compared at days 7 and 14 after admission regarding the type of microorganisms and their time-related changes. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Citrobacter freundii were the two most common microorganisms found by both sampling methods. While the majority of swab and biopsy samples were concordant in day 7, the rate of concordance in day 14 was less than day 7-87.1% versus 66.6%, respectively. After comparing the ratio of P aeruginosa and C freundii in positive swab and biopsy cultures on days 7 and 14, unlike the swab samples, the biopsy samples yielded similar results both times (75% P aeruginosa and 25% C freundii, respectively). The results of this study show that the swab is a sufficient tool for burn wound monitoring during the first week and could defer the need for invasive biopsy sampling. For patients who remain in the burn unit for a longer period, biopsy samples are justified for monitoring the bacterial activity in burn wounds.


The main goal of this project was to determine the potential effects on biota from aluminum addition to Osthammarsfjarden (Osthammar county) for reduction of internal phosphorus loading. Potential risks to biota in the water and sediment were summarized from reports and scientific publications as well modeling based on data from an enclosure experiment where aluminum was added to the sedi- ment in Loparofjarden (Norrtalje county) during the summer 2011. Aluminium salts have been used to reduce phosphorus in water and limit internal phosphorus loading in lakes for over forty years. Aluminium toxicity in lakes is considered negligible under neutral pH conditions because reactivity and bioavailability are generally low when pH is between 6 and 9. The toxicology literature, however, largely supports the conclusion that there is some potential for alumi- nium toxicity from treatment using aluminium salts when pH is maintained in the neutral range in fresh waters. Continuous exposures to aluminium are more likely to have adverse effects on aquatic life than single dose applications of Al-salts. Hence, the potential for adverse effects with one-time aluminium treatments lie primarily with significant aluminium floc accumulation and subsequent dis- ruption of benthic invertebrate habitat. Other short-term effects are also possible, including reduced benthic invertebrate populations and stress to certain species of fish. Elevated concentrations of natural dissolved organic matter (DOM) capable of binding aluminium in the water of Osthammarsfjarden are likely to limit toxicity during and after application. Previous studies have shown that the effects are short (invertebrates) to medium term (fish), and aquatic communities affected by treatment with Al- salts generally rebound and improve from pre-treatment conditions due to increased water and habitat quality. A direct injection of aluminium to the sediment will likely limit much of the potential treat- ment impacts to plankton and fish in the water column. Given the lack of total and dissolved alumi- nium data in marine and brackish systems, it is difficult to compare the results from freshwater sys- tems directly. Although some authors recommend less restrictive limits for aluminium in marine wa- ters due to differing water chemistry, others propose more restrictive limits due to the potential for a greater diversity of aquatic species and potential toxicity to these species. Benthic species diversity appears to be somewhat poor in Osthammarsfjarden, potentially limiting any impact from treatment with Al. In addition, the experiment conducted in Loparofjarden (which has similar water chemistry to Osthammarsfjarden) showed no significant effects on plankton, epifauna or benthic invertebrates after addition of aluminium to the sediment. Enclosure experiments were conducted at Loparofjarden in 2011 where aluminium was added directly to the sediment and chemical data were collected. Modelling shows that elevated concentrations can be expected during the early phase after aluminium addition and that aluminium levels (mostly in the form of Al(OH)3 or soluble Al(OH)4- ) may be higher than what is expected from theoretical solubility calculations and in studied reference systems. Without additional data, it is difficult to explain why this occurred but aluminium solubility may be slightly enhanced under the pH and ionic strength (salt content) conditions found in the brackish water of Osthammarsfjarden. Organisms that are present in the water column may be exposed to elevated aluminium concentrations during a prolonged time pe- riod lasting from several days to weeks depending on the physical mixing of the water column after the addition. Based on the information in this report, use of aluminium salts is likely to be an effective method for reducing internal phosphorus loading in Osthammarsfjarden. Short term effects on aquatic biota should be expected, but long term improvements in the abundance and diversity of species should 27increase due to the improvement in water quality. Given the results from the Loparofjarden experi- ment, the risk for negative effects on plankton, epifauna and benthic fauna present in Ostham- marsfjarden should be low. Because there are very few data on full scale brackish water aluminium treatments, however, we recommend a complete chemical analysis including pH, alkalinity, total or- ganic carbon and major cations and anions during a full scale treatment for the sake of better under- standing of the on-going chemical processes during aluminium addition to brackish water. The data may also be useful for describing the process or process behind the slightly elevated aluminium con- centrations seen during the Loparofjarden experiment. We also advise examination of sediment alumi- nium and phosphorus content as well monitoring of aquatic biota following treatment to assess the potential for long term impacts of treatment on sediment chemistry and the aquatic community.


From William Morris to the Moors, from Morroco to Majolica, tiles have long been a versatile and highly popular form of decoration. This work provides advice and information and guidance on all aspects of designing and decorating with tiles. An array of tile types are included from machine-made to hand-painted, from warm terracottas to subtly coloured encaustics, with a multitude of design ideas on how to use them. Diagrams show how to lay tiles to achieve patterns and permutations, from the simplest one-colour schemes to complicated geometric and trompe l'oeil effects, all making use of borders, corners, insets and the combination of different tile types. A colour-coded tile directory gives advice on how to use each particular shade, the effect a colour will achieve in a room and suggestions for matching or contrasting tiles. These ideas are complemented by a practical section covering all technical tiling information, including measuring, cutting, laying, grouting and sealing.


The qualitative and quantitative capabilities of a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) as a measurement system for atomic emission from the ICP are demonstrated. The spectral response of the interferometer from 193 nm to 650 nm is shown to be excellent. Quantitatively, detection limits measured by FTS are poorer by at least an order of magnitude than those obtained with a commercial direct reader-based ICP instrument. Factors affecting the quantitative performance of FTS— dynamic range limitations and the multiplex disadvantage—are discussed and a method to improve the quantitative capabilities of FTS is suggested.


This article reports the approach and software tools for decision-making support in forecasting the energy infrastructure development. The author considers the problem of searching for information from various open sources, technology of information searching, knowledge detection and classification. The author describes architecture of Intelligent information system. For experts this classification and integrated warehouse simplify search for the knowledge required.


Background: In current dental consultations, collaborations and treatment plans may not always be based on the best practice of shared decision making, but rather rest on the traditional paternalistic style of decision making.
Aim: The planned organisational development project aims to improve shared decision making by introducing the 'talk' model into dental consultation.
Rationale: The paternalistic style of decision making can lead to dissatisfaction, compromised consent, and poor patient-centred care. The literature identified shared decision making as central to patient engagement, effective communication and quality of care.
Change Process Plan: The Health Service Executive Change Model was utilized as a framework for the systematic planning and future implementation of the planned project. The four stages included are: initiation, planning, implementation, and mainstreaming. This change model is coupled with a consideration of risk management, a supported financial case, a communication plan and a project management plan, so as to ensure a thorough foundation for successful change. Evaluation: Project evaluation included a mixed method approach of informal interviews, questionnaires, and observations. Kirkpatrick's model of evaluation was employed to evaluate educational aspects of the project.
Conclusion: Leading the planning for an organisational development project in healthcare is complex and challenging. The proposed implementation and evaluation of this planned project will enhance the dentist-patient relationship. For the project plan to be successful, it is important to understand the organisation's vision, culture, and its stakeholders. Finally reflecting and learning strengths and limitations, both at an organisational and individual level are crucial.


Today many carboxylic acids are recovered from biological production media and industrial wastewaters. Reactive extraction is favored over other separation methods due to its high recovery efficiency, ease of operation, low energy demand and reduced cost. However, use of toxic organic diluents in the organic phases is the main disadvantage of the method. In this study, the appropriateness of an environmentally-friendly solvent, sunflower oil (SFO) to be used as organic phase diluent during the recovery of formic acid (FA) from aqueous solutions by reactive extraction was evaluated. Alamine-336 was used as the extractant and the results obtained with SFO were compared with those obtained using octanol. The separation process reached an equilibrium in 3 hours and the recovery efficiency increased with the increase in extractant percentages. The initial FA concentration positively influenced the recovery when SFO was used as the diluent. In the ranges of the parameters studied, the highest recovery values were 98.6% and 82.6% with octanol and SFO, respectively. This study shows that low molecular weight carboxylic acids, e.g. FA can be recovered from aqueous solutions by reactive extraction using environmentally-friendly solvents such as SFO.


This thesis analyses the design strategies used to protect RF circuits that are implemented in CMOS technologies. It investigates, in detail, the physical mechanisms involved when a ggNMOS structure is exposed to an ESD event and undergoes snapback. The understanding gained is used to understand why the performance of the current RF ESD clamp is poor and suggestions are made as to how the performance of ggNMOS clamps can be improved beyond the current body of knowledge. The ultimate aim is to be able to design effective ESD protection clamps whilst minimising the effect the circuit has on RF I/O signals. A current ggNMOS based RF ESD I/O protection circuit is analysed in detail using a Transmission Line Pulse (TLP) tester. This is shown to be a very effective diagnostic tool by showing many characteristics of the ggNMOS during the triggering and conducting phase of the ESD event and demonstrate deficiencies in the clamp design. The use of a FIB enhances the analysis by allowing the isolation of individual components in the circuit and therefore their analysis using the TLP tester. SPICE simulations are used to provide further commentary on the debate surrounding the specification required of a TLP tester for there to be a good correlation between a TLP test and the industry standard Human Body Model (HBM) ESD test. Finite element simulations are used to probe deeper in to the mechanisms involved when a ggNMOS undergoes snapback especially with regard to the contribution parasitic components within the ggNMOS make to the snapback process. New ggNMOS clamps are proposed which after some modification are shown to work. Some of the finite element experiments are repeated in a 0.18μπ7. process CMOS test chip and a comparison is made between the two sets of results. In the concluding chapter understanding that has been gained from previous chapters is combined with the published body of knowledge to suggest and explain improvements in the design of a ggNMOS for RF and standard applications. These improvements will improve homogeneity of ggNMOS operation thus allowing the device size to be reduced and parasitic loading for a given ESD performance. These techniques can also be used to ensure that the ESD current does not take an unintended path through the chip.


BACKGROUND
Although the Mediterranean diet has been studied for cancer mortality and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet shares similarities with the Mediterranean diet, few studies have specifically examined these 2 diets and incident colorectal cancer.

OBJECTIVE
The objective was to prospectively assess the association between the Alternate Mediterranean Diet (aMed) and the DASH-style diet scores and risk of colorectal cancer in middle-aged men and women.

DESIGN
A total of 87,256 women and 45,490 men (age 30-55 y for women and 40-75 y for men at baseline) without a history of cancer were followed for ≤ 26 y. The aMed and DASH scores were calculated for each participant by using dietary information that was assessed ≤ 7 times during follow-up. Relative risks (RRs) for colorectal cancer were computed with adjustment for potential confounders.

RESULTS
We documented 1432 cases of incident colorectal cancer among women and 1032 cases in men. Comparing top with bottom quintiles of the DASH score, the pooled RR for total colorectal cancer was 0.80 (95% CI: 0.70, 0.91; P for trend = 0.0001). The corresponding RR for DASH score and colon cancer was 0.81 (95% CI: 0.69, 0.95; P for trend = 0.002). There was a suggestion of an inverse association with rectal cancer with a pooled RR of 0.73 (95% CI: 0.55, 0.98; P for trend = 0.31) when comparing top with bottom quintiles of DASH score. No association was observed with aMed score.

CONCLUSION
Adherence to the DASH diet (which involves higher intakes of whole grains, fruit, and vegetables; moderate amounts of low-fat dairy; and lower amounts of red or processed meats, desserts, and sweetened beverages) was associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer.


This article explores the therapeutic potential of the performing audiobook voice. It takes as its point of departure the view that the audiobook negotiates the semantics of a text and its vocal manifestation. A key idea is that the performing voice is an affordance for creating a salutogenic sense of coherence in the listener. The argument is theoretically situated within the context of the psychology and sociology of music, with affect regulation and 'health musicking' as significant elements. The British actress Juliet Stevenson's reading of Virginia Woolf's second novel Night and Day (1919) will be approached as a case of 'health musicking' and an eventbased appreciation of sonic culture. This discussion will focus on the listeners' appropriation of the sound object for their own empowering purposes.


Hepatitis C recurrence continues to present a major challenge in liver transplantation (LT). Approximately 10% of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive recipients will develop fibrosing cholestatic hepatitis (FCH) after LT. FCH is clinically characterized as marked jaundice with cholestatic hepatic dysfunction and high titers of viremia. Pathologically, FCH manifests as marked hepatocyte swelling, cholestasis, periportal peritrabecular fibrosis and only mild inflammation. This progressive form usually involves acute liver failure, and rapidly results in graft loss. A real-time and precise diagnosis based on histopathological examination and viral measurement is indispensable for the adequate treatment of FCH. Typical pathological findings of FCH are shown. Currently, carefully selected combinations of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) offer the potential for highly effective and safe regimens for hepatitis C, both in the pre- and post-transplant settings. Here, we review FCH caused by HCV in LT recipients, and current strategies for sustained virological responses after LT. Only a few cases of successfully treated FCH C after LT by DAAs have been reported. The diagnostic findings and therapeutic dilemma are discussed based on a literature review.


In cases in which there is the possibility of massive human losses, the threshold likelihood of their occurrence, and the non-excessive costs of their prevention, we ought to act now. This is all the more definitely the case because it may well be that this is the time-of-last-opportunity to head off one or more potential disasters, all of which may still be preventable by sufficiently rapid reductions in carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel. It is unfair that the present generation should incur as heavy a burden as it does of seizing the last opportunity for prevention of disasters like large sea-level rises, but the unfairness is not sufficient to make the burden unreasonable to bear, especially since it is not in fact as heavy as often believed.


The genome of a novel human papillomavirus (HPV) type, HPV74, was cloned from an iatrogenically immunosuppressed woman with persisting low-grade vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia. HPV74 was found to be phylogenetically related to the low-risk HPV types 6, 11, 44, and 55. HPV74 or a variant of this type was found in specimens from three additional immunosuppressed women but not in about 3,000 anogenital specimens from immunocompetent patients.


In the last two decades, Rwanda has liberalized its financial sector through different programs to reduce the financial repression and encourage market determined prices of financial services especially interest rates. The shared belief was that higher real interest rates lead to higher volume of domestic savings and, given this supply-side effect, private investment would increase and set in a virtuous circle of higher growth and more savings for investment. Whether financial liberalisation has impacted positively savings in Rwanda is an empirical issue. In this study, we estimate a private saving and a financial saving function in Rwanda using a sample for 1970-2008 period. We investigate the effect of financial liberalisation on both equations, especially the effect of real deposit rate on savings. Based on the literature review an inter-temporal choice saving model was developed so as to yield testable hypothesis about the relationship between savings and its determinants. Using OLS for the first and Engle-Granger » two step procedures for the second, the results seems to reject the McKinnon and Shaw hypothesis of positive effect of interest rate on both aggregates. Private saving is driven by growth rate in income and foreign saving while financial saving is a function of real income. f Therefore, policies that spur development are an indirect but effective way to raise savings. Tight fiscal and monetary policies are also required to control inflation.


The discussion on language rights is affected by some confusion on the nature and status of rights. In this paper, a rigorous characterization of language rights is proposed. It is argued that the general assimilation or equation between language rights and human rights is not only erroneous as far as it is inaccurate, but it leads to a distorted image of the relationship between law and politics. While human rights do limit (at least, ideally) state behaviour, language rights are, more often than not, an issue devolved to the political process. The point being made in this paper is that recognition of language rights (as such or as part of minority rights) is based primarily on contingent historical reasons. Some tentative explanations on the poor status or unequal recognition of language rights in international and domestic law will also be offered throughout the paper.


The emerging field of high resolution mobile and inexpensive depth cameras, promise to
revolutionize many parts of computer vision. One area in particular where 3D data has been
shown to improve performance, is face recognition. Using a combination of local and global
pattern matching and a committee of neural networks, this thesis present a robust 3D face
recognition approach, decisively outperforming current methods. The system is evaluated on
the Bosphorus database, a challenging benchmarking dataset that include face scans with
both facial expressions and partial occlusions, captured in angles of up to 90 rotation. The
proposed system achieves a recognition rate of 98:9%, which is the highest recognition rate
ever reported on the Bosphorus database, improving the state of the art by 5:2%.


The topological string presents an arena in which many features of string theory proper, such as the interplay between worldsheet and target space descriptions or open-closed duality, can be distilled into computational techniques which yield results beyond perturbation theory. In this thesis, I will summarize my research activity in this area. The presentation is organized around computations of the topological string partition function Ztop based on various perspectives on the topological string.


The estimation of the equity (or "market") risk premium has become a cottage industry, both for academics and professionals. It is recognized as a key economic or financial parameter for a variety of interests and applications, yet opinions as to its magnitude either historical or projected vary widely. But not as widely as was once the case. There has been general acceptance, a consensus if you will, that historical equity return premia overstate what was anticipated or expected and that a large component of the historical equity return premium constitutes unanticipated capital gains. This paper explores the history of this idea and examines the role this it plays (or not) in a variety of recent and current methods of estimating the equity risk premium. Using a methodology similar to Fama and French (2002) but presaged in Copeland (1982) I describe the behavior of ex post and ex ante risk premia for the period 1872 to 2013 and estimate the equity risk premium going forward for the next 10 years (2014-2023). I also discuss various issues in the estimation of the equity risk premium, such as geometric versus arithmetic mean, top down versus bottom up forecasts of the equity risk premium, and whether to use dividend yields or P/E multiples in accounting for unanticipated capital gains. I conclude that the arithmetic equity risk premium as usually calculated is significantly overstated and that the current and expected future ERP is in the range of 3-4 percent for both geometric and arithmetic means, though likely in the upper half of this range.


Abstract : The domestic terrorist threat in the United States is active and complex, with ongoing threats from violent left- and right-wing extremist groups, and radicalization and recruitment efforts by international terrorist groups. In response, domestic intelligence agencies, at all levels of government, have instituted reforms and improvements since 9/11, but there are still gaps in information-sharing and community engagement. For example, a review of the Boston Marathon bombings uncovered that important risk-based information was not shared with local law enforcement. Concerning domestic terrorism, the United States may, once again, be failing to connect the dots. This thesis synthesizes existing studies, reports, and expert testimony concerning domestic terrorism and the roles of domestic intelligence agencies, law enforcement, and the public, and proposes the development and implementation of a formal, national counterterrorism (CT) doctrine. The CT doctrine, in conjunction with a counter-radicalization strategy, should focus on bottom-up intelligence/information-sharing, training to strengthen and focus intelligence collection efforts, and culturally sensitive and engaging messaging on social media and the Internet to counter extremist propaganda.


Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgments. 1. A New, More Strategic Approach to CRM. Industry Leaders Show the Way. A Clearer Definition of CRM Is Required. Three Lessons from Leaders. Key Points. 2. A Review of CRM Failures. What Went Wrong with CRM. CRM Contributes to a Scary Halloween for Hershey. Why CRM Projects Fail. Key Points. 3. Strategy First: Aligning CRM with Company Strategy. Using an Analytical Framework for Defining Strategy. Distinguishing Competitive Advantage from Other Types of Benefits. How Competitive Advantage Manifests Itself in Operations. Identify CRM Initiatives That Fortify Competitive Advantage. Key Points. 4. Customer Intelligence: The Science of Customer Insight. How Harrah's Used Customer Insight to Turn the Tables on the Gaming Industry. Seven Dimensions of Customer Insight. Define a Scientific Process for Leveraging Customer Insight. Building Blocks Required to Implement a Customer Insight Infrastructure. Key Points. 5. Demand Visibility and Response. Demand Visibility. Best Practices for Increased Visibility. Responding to Market Demand. Best Practices for Demand Responsiveness. Science of Revenue Management. Power of Pricing. Key Points. 6. An Enterprise-Wide Approach to CRM. What Is Customer Strategy and How Does It Help? How Customer Strategy Relates to Corporate and Functional Strategy. Key Components of an Effective Customer Strategy. Enterprise Marketing Management: How Customer Strategy Integrates with Marketing Strategy. Key Points. 7. Implementing CRM Successfully. Implementation Guidelines for Success. Key Points. Epilogue: The Future of CRM. New Marketing Approaches. Understanding Financial Metrics Related to Customers. New Management Approaches Based on Predictive Analysis. Continuous Optimization of Operations. Leveraging Emerging and Specialized Technologies. Harnessing the Benefits of Outsourcing. Index.


The paper describes the use of the Gallant-Tauchen efficient method of moments (EMM) technique for diagnostic checking of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) estimated from financial market data. The EMM technique is a simulation-based method that uses the score function of an auxiliary model as the criterion to define a generalized method of moments (GMM) objective function. The technique can handle multivariate SDEs where the state vector is not completely observed. The optimized GMM objective function is distributed as chi-square and may be used to test model adequacy. Elements of the score function correspond to specific parameters and large values reflect features of data that a rejected SDE specification does not describe well. The diagnostics are illustrated by estimating a three-factor model to weekly, 1962-1995, term structure data comprised of short (3 month), medium (12 month), and long (10 year) Treasury rates. The Yield-Factor Model is sharply rejected, although an extension that permits the local variance function to be a convex function of the interest rates comes much closer to describing the data.


With a special focus on normative questions of water governance in the relations between Iraq, Syria and Turkey, Water Law and Cooperation in the Euphrates-Tigris Region: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approach examines different issues of management regarding these shared waters.


Purpose We discuss a case of a brachiocephalic vein (BCV) perforation after Tesio® central venous catheter insertion. Method and Results An 80-year-old patient underwent an ultrasound-guided hemodialysis (HD) catheter placement via his left internal jugular vein (IJV). One day postoperatively, the patient became hemodynamically unstable immediately after HD initiation. As a vascular event was feared, an emergency CT scan was performed demonstrating a BCV perforation. The patient underwent a sternotomy, the lines were removed and the venous laceration was closed. The patient recovered well. Conclusions In spite of ultrasound guidance, fluoroscopy for guidewire and sheath advancement, venous blood aspiration and a normal appearing postoperative x-ray, traumatic central venous catheter placement is still possible. Tenting of the BCV wall during catheter advancement possibly caused the venous perforation. A 'how-to' for correct catheter placement via the IJV is provided and potential pitfalls during each procedural step are discussed.


This paper presents a novel end-to-end methodology for enabling the deployment of low-error deep networks on microcontrollers. To fit the memory and computational limitations of resource-constrained edge-devices, we exploit mixed low-bitwidth compression, featuring 8, 4 or 2-bit uniform quantization, and we model the inference graph with integer-only operations. Our approach aims at determining the minimum bit precision of every activation and weight tensor given the memory constraints of a device. This is achieved through a rule-based iterative procedure, which cuts the number of bits of the most memory-demanding layers, aiming at meeting the memory constraints. After a quantization-aware retraining step, the fake-quantized graph is converted into an inference integer-only model by inserting the Integer Channel-Normalization (ICN) layers, which introduce a negligible loss as demonstrated on INT4 MobilenetV1 models. We report the latency-accuracy evaluation of mixed-precision MobilenetV1 family networks on a STM32H7 microcontroller. Our experimental results demonstrate an end-to-end deployment of an integer-only Mobilenet network with Top1 accuracy of 68% on a device with only 2MB of FLASH memory and 512kB of RAM, improving by 8% the Top1 accuracy with respect to previously published 8 bit implementations for microcontrollers.


It is very often necessary to correct faults in software systems, make them usable in changed environments, or improve their quality (e.g., performance). This activity is called software maintenance and is usually done by people other than those who developed a software system. Software maintenance requires detailed documentation and the possibility to attain an overview of the system structure, the interaction of the various components, and the effects of changes. This report describes the results of a research project in the area of documentation and maintenance whose main focus was to combine state-of-the-art methodologies in a new tool (DOgMA) to improve the support of documentation and maintenance activities. Additional goals were to identify major problems in the field, to determine possible improvements, to investigate how these improvements are supported by tools, to summarize deficiencies of existing tools, and to ameliorate these deficiencies in the design of a new tool. After a short discussion of the role of documentation and maintenance in the software life cycle, a detailed compilation and definition of terms used is given. Subsequently an outline of the state of the art is described and evaluated. Based on these perceptions, requirements on a documentation and maintenance tool were developed along with concepts for their solution. The resulting tool, DOgMA, serves as a contribution to the improvement of the documentation and maintenance process. A comparison with similar tools and an examination to what extent the goals have been achieved concludes the report.


Due to the ageing and dejuvenization of the western workforce, employers in these countries face a challenge to enhance a sustainable working life to maintain older workers (De Lange et al., 2015). As a result, there is accumulating research attention for the question how to effectively retain older workers in the labour market. Likewise, there is an increased practical as well as scientific interest in interventions that facilitate a prolonged working life of employees (Kooij, 2015). One of these research lines focuses on the positive effects of job crafting at work to enhance work ability (e.g., Kooij, Tims, & Kanfer, 2015). According to Tims, Bakker, and Derks (2012), job crafting can be defined as the self-initiated changes that employees make in the demands and resources of their job to attain or maintain a balance with their personal abilities and needs. However, few empirical studies have examined the relations between job crafting at work and indicators of sustainable work ability (measured with the work-ability index; Ilmarinen, Tuomi, Klockars, 1997). This study therefore aims to fill this research gap by examining relations between aging (measured as calendar age and future time perspective), job crafting and sustainable work ability. Based on earlier research, we tested the following hypotheses: 1) Calendar age is negatively related to indicators of sustainable work ability 2) Job crafting is positively related to indicators of sustainable work ability 3) Future time perspective is positively related to indicators of sustainable work ability Design: We will present results of a 2-wave complete panel study (the "Healthy healthcare" project) on the sustainable work ability and employability of 1632 Dutch healthcare workers (mean age= 44.91; SD= 11.62; mean job tenure= 13,2 years; 83.6% is female). Results: Results of our first hierarchical regression analyses using data from Time 1 for the outcome work ability (controlling for job tenure and gender), revealed a negative relation with calendar age (β= -.09; p<.05), a positive relation with future time perspective (β= .14; p<.01), a negative relation with the job crafting subscale "diminishing hindrance task demands" (β= -.19; p<.01), and a positive relation with the subscale "using structural work resources" (β= .09; p<.05). Using the second wave of data, we will further examine the aforementioned relations and test also multiplicative interaction effects between aging, job crafting and sustainable work ability. Conclusions: Our preliminary results indicate significant relations of aging and job crafting with the work ability of healthcare workers, indicating the importance of taking a life-span perspective in relations between job crafting and work ability. Limitations: We only focused on data of healthcare workers and therefore cannot generalize the results to other professions or sectors. Originality/Value Few studies to date have been able to examine relations between aging, job crafting and work ability at work. As a result, the results of our complete panel including 2 waves can bring important new insights to the question how to sustain ageing workers in the labour market. Key words: job crafting, successful aging, work ability, future time perspective References: De Lange, A. H., Kooij, D. T. A. M., & Van der Heijden, B. I. J. M. (2015). Human resource management and sustainability at work across the lifespan: An integrative perspective. In L. M. Finkelstein, D. Truxillo, F. Fraccaroli, & R. Kanfer (Eds.), Facing the challenges of a multi-age workforce. A use-inspired approach (pp. 50-79). London: Routledge. Ilmarinen, J., Tuomi, K., & Klockars, M. (1997). Changes in the work ability of active employees over an 11-year period. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 23, 49-57. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40966691 Kooij, D. T. A. M. (2015). Successful aging at work: The active role of employees. Work, Aging and Retirement, 1(4), 309-319. doi: 10.1093/workar/wav018 Kooij, D. T. A. M., Kanfer, R., Tims, M. (2015). Successful aging at work: The role of job crafting. In P. M. Bal, D. T. A. M. Kooij, & D. M. Rousseau (Eds.), Aging workers and the employee-employer relationship (pp. 145-161). New York: Springer. Tims, M., Bakker, A. B., & Derks, D. (2012). Development and validity of the job crafting scale. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80 , 173–186.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review three international frameworks, including the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), in relation to one country's higher professional and vocational education system.

Design/methodology/approach

The frameworks were examined in the context of English higher work-related education, and areas of mismatch identified. These were investigated to identify the extent to which they were due to weaknesses in the national system or to limiting assumptions contained in the frameworks.

Findings

Assumptions based on stages of education are problematic in the context of lifelong higher and professional education, while more open, lifelong-learning oriented assumptions can be too skeletal to aid comparisons between systems of initial vocational education and training. Particular problems are identified with assumptions contained in the ISCED that do not reflect the reality of professional education.

Practical implications

International frameworks need to take account of patterns of learning that take place outside of formal institutions and throughout life, but which lead to equivalent outcomes. Nevertheless, it is not adequate to substitute assumptions based only on the level of achievement.

Social implications

The assumptions underpinning the ISCED in particular mean that equivalent achievements in different systems can be classified differently, leading to under-reporting of individual achievements, a lack of comparability in international statistics, and potential for policy distortion.

Originality/value

The paper builds on the work of Hippach-Schneider et al. by providing additional evidence, from a different national context, for issues relating to the ISCED in the context of higher professional and vocational education, and extends this analysis to the two major European frameworks.


As genomics begins to influence clinical care, validating the result of a somatic variant calling pipeline has become increasingly important. Cycledash is a web application which facilitates the validation and analysis of somatic variants, bringing together and streamlining existing tools and workflows for examining and verifying the existence of variants in patient samples. Availability The source code is freely available at https://github.com/hammerlab/cycledash under the Apache 2 License. A public demo (username cycledash password cycledash123) is available at http://cycledash.hammerlab.org. The web application is tested to work in recent version of Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, and the server applications will run on Linux and OS X systems. Contact email@example.com


Mosquito-borne diseases are a major issue across the world, and the objective for this project was to determine the characteristics that make some communities more susceptible to these diseases than others. We hypothesized that low-income communities are more susceptible to mosquito-borne diseases. To test this hypothesis, we identified and studied characteristics that make communities susceptible to mosquito-borne diseases, including water in square miles, average temperature, population, population density, and poverty rates per county. We used regression analysis to understand the relationship between the above variables and the total number of mosquito-borne disease cases. We found that the population of a county is the best indicator of the prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases. Rate of poverty in the county was not found to be a significant indicator of mosquito-borne diseases. This may be because poverty aggregated at county level does not describe income level variation within the county. In this research, both rural and urban counties were analyzed. Although rural counties have high rates of poverty, the population of rural counties are spread out, so they are at a lower risk of disease. Therefore, we conclude that population data needs to be studied in conjunction with poverty levels to truly understand the relationship between poverty and mosquito-borne diseases.


The late Phillip Areeda's 1990 article Essential Facilities: An Epithet in Need of Limiting Principles has had a profound impact on the development on the essential facilities doctrine in antitrust law. It has become the intellectual basis for the critique and roll back of a doctrine that has been around for approximately the same amount of time as the rule of reason. Apart from Professor Areeda's distinguished stature in the antitrust field, there was little reason to think this short essay would represent the start of a sea change in antitrust. The article was a short symposium piece based on a panel discussion held at a Fall 1989 program of the ABA Antitrust Section. Moreover, Professor Areeda's comments somewhat bucked the trend of the contemporary case law, commentary, and the remarks of the other panelists. Although Professor Areeda was not altogether negative about the essential facilities doctrine, his article has proved to be one of the influential pieces in the canon of antitrust literature and represented the beginning of a counter-revolution in antitrust thought that has left the essential facilities doctrine, charitably speaking, hanging by a thread. In this article, I want to critically reexamine Areeda's analysis of the essential facilities doctrine and suggest that while many of his concerns were valid in the time of its publication, most of his concerns are no longer applicable in today's antitrust climate. Other of Professor Areeda's concerns were overblown to begin with, and more significantly, most have been taken out of context by critics of the essential facilities doctrine. Part II briefly summarizes the essential facilities doctrine in US antitrust law. Part III then summarizes Professor Areeda's critique of the doctrine. Part IV examines how the Areeda critique has been used in the subsequent case law and scholarly debate beyond the more limited critique he may have envisioned. Parts V and VI suggest there is a better way based on infrastructure theory which responds to most, if not all, of Professor Areeda's legitimate critiques and creates a sound theoretical basis for an economically based essential facilities doctrine. Infrastructure theory better ties the essential facilities doctrine to related doctrines in other areas of the law and suggests that essential facilities doctrine is one of better, not worse, ideas that antitrust has offered in its 100 plus years.


The aim of the present review is to summarize the current knowledge regarding pharmacological prevention and treatment of acute pancreatitis (AP) based on experimental animal models and clinical trials. Somatostatin (SS) and octreotide inhibit the exocrine production of pancreatic enzymes and may be useful as prophylaxis against post endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis (PEP). The protease inhibitor gabexate mesilate (GM) is used routinely as treatment to AP in some countries, but randomized clinical trials and a meta-analysis do not support this practice. Nitroglycerin (NGL) is a nitrogen oxide (NO) donor, which relaxes the sphincter of Oddi. Studies show conflicting results when applied prior to ERCP and a large multicenter randomized study is warranted. Steroids administered as prophylaxis against PEP has been validated without effect in several randomized trials. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) indomethacin and diclofenac have in randomized studies showed potential as prophylaxis against PEP. Interleukin 10 (IL-10) is a cytokine with anti-inflammatory properties but two trials testing IL-10 as prophylaxis to PEP have returned conflicting results. Antibodies against tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) have a potential as rescue therapy but no clinical trials are currently being conducted. The antibiotics beta-lactams and quinolones reduce mortality when necrosis is present in pancreas and may also reduce incidence of infected necrosis. Evidence based pharmacological treatment of AP is limited and studies on the effect of potent anti-inflammatory drugs are warranted.


We present secondary eclipse observations of the highly irradiated transiting brown dwarf KELT-1b. These observations represent the first constraints on the atmospheric dynamics of a highly irradiated brown dwarf, the atmospheres of irradiated giant planets at high surface gravity, and the atmospheres of brown dwarfs that are dominated by external, rather than internal, energy. Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, we measure secondary eclipse depths of 0.195% ± 0.010% at 3.6 μm and 0.200% ± 0.012% at 4.5 μm. We also find tentative evidence for the secondary eclipse in the z′ band with a depth of 0.049% ± 0.023%. These measured eclipse depths are most consistent with an atmosphere model in which there is a strong substellar hotspot, implying that heat redistribution in the atmosphere of KELT-1b is low. While models with a more mild hotspot or even with dayside heat redistribution are only marginally disfavored, models with complete heat redistribution are strongly ruled out. The eclipse depths also prefer an atmosphere with no TiO inversion layer, although a model with TiO inversion is permitted in the dayside heat redistribution case, and we consider the possibility of a day–night TiO cold trap in this object. For the first time, we compare the IRAC colors of brown dwarfs and hot Jupiters as a function of effective temperature. Importantly, our measurements reveal that KELT-1b has a [3.6] − [4.5] color of 0.07 ± 0.11, identical to that of isolated brown dwarfs of similarly high temperature. In contrast, hot Jupiters generally show redder [3.6] − [4.5] colors of ∼0.4, with a very large range from ∼0 to ∼1. Evidently, despite being more similar to hot Jupiters than to isolated brown dwarfs in terms of external forcing of the atmosphere by stellar insolation, KELT-1b appears to have an atmosphere most like that of other brown dwarfs. This suggests that surface gravity is very important in controlling the atmospheric systems of substellar mass bodies.


Linden Lab, the company behind the online world Second Life (SL), invites multiplic- ity with slogans like "Your World. Your Imagination."1 Yet many SL residents'2 profiles give evidence of adjustment to group narratives or norms in various social spaces inside the world. They seem to favor already established social and cultural conventions when creating an online identity; hence they also adjust to already existing hierarchies. I argue that residents in SL recreate social orders and power structures similar to ones already existing outside SL, even though they are of course under no obligation to do so. In that sense social and cultural patterns are reproduced and in some cases even amplified. My aim here is to trace social dynamics evident in three groups within this digital space and my hypothesis is that the rules of these social spaces then function as a foundation and guideline for identity formation, and in fact almost seem to prescribe a certain way of acting or behaving. Two of the groups have a clear role-playing profile, based on books and movies, whereas role-playing is not required, although possible, in the third group. All of them are thus removed from the lifeworld by constituting either purely fictive or, conversely, historical constructs, but they can nevertheless provide clues to how the residents think in an environment that is not primarily "real life" based, and in which anything, even a utopia, can be possible. By reading group charters and profile descriptions found in the SL search engine, and studying articles and blogs functioning either as group information channels or journals for individuals in each community, I examine the motivations and power structures driving avatar and online identity construction in role-playing communities, with a focus on the interac- tion between the overarching "state" power, the Linden Lab, the three communities, their respective role-models, and the rules that govern them, as well as the individuals that are a part of them.


Population aging is occurring worldwide. Reports of abuse and neglect of older men and women are also evident on a global basis. While much of the work on identification, treatment and prevention of abuse of older persons has been within the family setting, it cannot be separated from the broader experience of growing old in contemporary society. Time and time again, issues around legislation, policy and practice collide with human rights, societal attitudes and stereotypes. Raising awareness of the link among aging, ageism and abuse, is one goal of this book and a necessary first step in the battle to eliminate abuse and neglect of older persons. But awareness is not enough, action needs to be taken to develop, case finding procedures and remedial and preventive policies and programs that are elder-friendly both in intent and in the way that they are implemented. This book offers a thought-provoking examination of selected current policies and programs that have been developed within the health, social services and criminal justice systems. It highlights the special issues and vulnerabilities of older women, older men and persons from the LGTB community. It also features a unique approach to reaching young people through an educational program that shapes attitudes and behavior via graphic art. * Clear, straightforward writing style - reader does not have to contend with murky theories and obscure references * Practical approach - readers can relate to the examples that are provided of situations in which abuse and neglect has or can occur


CARMA (CAse-based Range Management Adviser) is a system that integrates case-based reasoning with model-based reasoning for rangeland pest management. CARMA's predictions of rangeland forage loss by grasshoppers were compared to predictions by 15 expert entomologists using either global or case-specific adaptation weights. Under both conditions, CARMA's predictions were more accurate than CARMA's case-based and model-based components in isolation. However, CARMA's case-specific adaptation weights were consistently more accurate than global adaptation weights. The experimental results suggest hat case-specific adaptation weights are more appropriate in domains that are poorly approximated by a linear function.


In this report, we introduce our initial vision of the Corporate Semantic Web as the next step in the broad field of Semantic Web research. We identify requirements of the corporate environment and gaps between current approaches to tackle problems facing ontology engineering, semantic collaboration, and semantic search. Each of these pillars will yield innovative methods and tools during the project runtime until 2013. Corporate ontology engineering will improve the facilitation of agile ontology engineering to lessen the costs of ontology development and, especially, maintenance. Corporate semantic collaboration focuses the human-centered aspects of knowledge management in corporate contexts. Corporate semantic search is settled on the highest application level of the three research areas and at that point it is a representative for applications working on and with the appropriately represented and delivered background knowledge. We propose an initial layout for an integrative architecture of a Corporate Semantic Web provided by these three core pillars.


The occurrence of invasive alien plants in the Namib Naukluft Park in areas disturbed by the activities of man are listed. Datura innoxia, Nicotlana glauca, Prosopis spp. and Ricinus communis were the species which occurred most frequently. Most invasive plants were associated with an artificial supply of water. Datura innoxia was found primarily downstream of river fords suggesting that it has spread as a result of road building and maintenance activities. The intention of this report is to serve as a baseline for future monitoring of alien plants and to indicate which species, and which areas, require immediate management action to eradicate or prevent further spread of these plants.


The Erdős-Rado sunflower theorem (Journal of Lond. Math. Soc. 1960) is a fundamental result in combinatorics, and the corresponding sunflower conjecture is a central open problem. Motivated by applications in complexity theory, Rossman (FOCS 2010) extended the result to quasi-sunflowers, where similar conjectures emerge about the optimal parameters for which it holds. In this work, we exhibit a surprising connection between the existence of sunflowers and quasisunflowers in large enough set systems, and the problem of constructing certain randomness extractors. This allows us to re-derive the known results in a systemic manner, and to reduce the relevant conjectures to the problem of obtaining improved constructions of the randomness extractors.


A granular system composed of frictional glass beads is simulated using the discrete element method. The intergrain forces are based on the Hertz contact law in the normal direction with frictional tangential force. The damping due to collision is also accounted for. Systems are loaded at various stresses and their quasistatic elastic moduli are characterized. Each system is subjected to an extensive dynamic testing protocol by measuring the resonant response to a broad range of ac drive amplitudes and frequencies via a set of diagnostic strains. The system, linear at small ac drive amplitudes, has resonance frequencies that shift downward (i.e., modulus softening) with increased ac drive amplitude. Detailed testing shows that the slipping contact ratio does not contribute significantly to this dynamic modulus softening, but the coordination number is strongly correlated to this reduction. This suggests that the softening arises from the extended structural change via break and remake of contacts during the rearrangement of bead positions driven by the ac amplitude.


The research outlines the statement of the problem, motivation for the study and the related legislated requirements for all research in the field of psychological assessment. It will also take a closer look at related issues supporting the background of psychometric testing and present day themes and trends that are becoming prevalent in contemporary practice. There is an in-depth discussion on Personality which is one of the main foundation components of the Discus Behaviour Profiling System which is personality. Points on, ethics, translation, validity, reliability, test construction and cross cultural matters are also discussed.


Thiamine deficiency is related to malnutrition and causes severe neurological disorders such as Wernicke encephalopathy (WE). In cases of deficient thiamine intake, thiamine storages last for a maximum of 2–4 weeks. There are well-known risk factors for WE including medication, parenteral application of carbohydrates, malabsorption, reduced intake, emesis and catabolism.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a prototype motor neuron disease (MND) with degeneration of anterior horn cells in the spinal cord, motor nuclei of cranial nerves, and pyramidal cells of the motor cortex. This causes progressive pareses of skeletal, intercostal and diaphragmal muscles, leading to respiratory insufficiency and dysphagia, which results in weight loss and malnutrition.

In this report, we highlight neuropathological signs of WE in two patients with ALS/MND which were unexpectedly found at autopsy. These findings prompted a prospective assessment of thiamine status in patients with ALS/MND in the University of Ulm Neurology Department.

The patient reported dysarthria, dysphagia, weight loss, fasciculations and breathlessness during exercise. At an external hospital, ALS/MND was diagnosed and the patient visited our hospital to obtain a second opinion.

Clinical exploration and further diagnostics confirmed the diagnosis of ALS/MND. In the re-evaluation of disease symptoms, we found generalised amyotrophy, pareses and cachexia. The patient refused percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) and non-invasive ventilation treatments and received home care until death.

Macroscopic neuropathological examination revealed a reddish colouration of the corpora mammillaria and periventricular thalamus. Multiple fresh microscopic haemorrhages were observed in the mammillary body and thalamus, showing a pattern of acute WE (figure 1A, B). No siderophages could be detected by Prussian blue staining (figure 1C) as evidence for earlier bleeding into these regions. No fresh bleeding was found in other locations of …


Location and identification of cooperating aircraft in the airport area (and beyond) may be implemented by multilateration (MLAT) systems using the secondary surveillance radar (SSR) mode S signals. Most of these signals, spontaneously emitted from on-board mode S transponders at a fixed carrier frequency, arrive randomly at the receiving station, as well as many mode A/C replies from legacy transponders still in use. Several SSR signals are, then, overlapped in multiple aircraft situations. Therefore, the aim of this work is the separation of overlapped SSR signals, i.e., signals superimposed in time at receiving stations. We improve the MLAT receiving station by replacing the single antenna by an array of m elements and using array signal processing techniques. In the literature, several algorithms address the general source separation problem, but a very few of them are specifically designed for a mixture of overlapping SSR replies. Unfortunately, all of them have either some shortcomings, or an expensive computational cost, or no simple practical implementation. In this paper, we use the time sparsity property of the sources to propose more reliable, simpler, and more effective algorithms based on projection techniques to separate multiple SSR signals. Real recorded signals in a live environment are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.


Organisms adjust their foraging strategies to optimize the energetic costs during foraging with respect to benefits gained. These strategies are usually different in males and females due to their specific requirements during reproduction. Knowing the temporal dietary composition and variation may help us understand how intrinsic factors can influence diet during the breeding season. Seba's short–tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata) plays an important role in seed dispersal throughout the Neotropics. Seasonal dietary changes related to resource availability have been documented but dietary differences between males and females have not been analyzed. We tested the hypothesis that dietary breadth increases and varies between males and females of Carollia perspicillata during the breeding season. We collected 295 fecal samples (from 236 males and 182 females) between June 2012 and April 2013 at the Macaregua cave (Santander, Colombia). Sex, diet and overlap were recorded. Time series analysis of dietary variation were estimated and related to food (fruits and flowers) availability. Males were found to include 18 seed morphospecies within their diet, while females included 16 seed morphospecies. Ficus, Vismia and Acacia were the most commonly consumed plant genera within the diet of both males and females. The time series analysis throughout the year indicated that males had greater dietary diversity than females. Dietary richness for males peaked multiple times, while dietary richness for females peaked only once during the transition period between pregnancy and lactation. We recorded significant sex differences in the value of importance of plants in the diet, evenness, and dominance of plant species consumed, as well as differential consumption over the seasons. Knowing the variations in the diet allows us to address the differences between the foraging strategies that females and males use in response to energy demands, movement patterns and habitat use. This is essential to understand all those processes that organisms must carry out for their survival and maintenance.


Nawab Siddique Hassan Khan is renowned author of Sub-Continent and placed a well-known award for his writings. This article describes the methodology and characteristics of Al Shmamat ul Anbriyah min maulid e khair ul briyah. This book is basically a seerat study and contains on many new but unfamiliar sources of Seerah. So, he had a great addition on seerat by writing this book. It was in ancient Urdu, hardly to understand its text. The author made this possible in his research work and he also examined its methodology. In this article a managed and detailed description of this book is presented. However, we found some unique errors of references and textual study of seerah. Mostly he used a random method during the writing of this book. Author found many features of this book, whom doesn't exist in other seerat books like this. still there are many points, which decrease its importance and creates negative opinion regarding his seerat writing, as some times he included third party research and paid its credit to himself and many places he added irrelevant narrations to his subject.


Abstract Pulse plating of nickel–tungsten alloys has been studied from two citrate ammonia based model electrolytes containing either an excess of nickel or an excess of tungsten. The alloy composition and current efficiency were determined for pulse periods ranging from 1 ms to 50 s at a constant duty cycle of 0˙4. Deposits were analysed by X-ray fluorescence and by gravimetry. In the nickel rich electrolyte the rate of co-deposition of tungsten was found to be controlled by mass transport as previously observed with Ni–Mo alloys. In the tungsten rich electrolyte the tungsten concentration in the deposited alloys was the highest at short pulse periods. This suggests that the deposition rate of tungsten was affected by the rate of transport of nickel which is the highest at short times. As the pulse on time exceeded the transition time for nickel the current efficiency for alloy deposition dropped owing to hydrogen formation.


We analyze the fertility and health effects resulting from the abolition of the Austrian baby bonus in January 1997. The abolition of the benefit was publicly announced about ten months in advance, creating the opportunity for prospective parents to (re-)schedule conceptions accordingly. We find robust evidence that, within the month before the abolition, about 8% more children were born as a result of (re-)scheduling conceptions. At the same time, there is no evidence that mothers deliberately manipulated the date of birth through medical intervention. We also find a substantial and significant increase in the fraction of birth complications, but no evidence for any resulting adverse effects on newborns' health.


ducation research has found that collegial work is connected to teachers' professional growth and positive student outcomes, but for various social and psychological as well as organizational reasons, teachers often face challenges to working together. As a result, efforts to bring teachers together have had uneven success. There is a good deal of research about what effective professional learning communities (PLCs) look like, but as McLaughlin and Talbert (2006) write: "We know much less about the process—how teacher learning communities get started, how they develop, and how requirements for their development and markers of maturity change" (129). This study combines survey data of 33 New Jersey public schools involved in a statesponsored PLC training program with case studies of two of those schools in order to trace the factors associated with the implementation of PLCs. Interviews and observations at the two case-study schools showed that a set of predicted variables—vision, community, resources (including time to meet and teacher expertise), and processes—seemed to be connected to the development of collegial professional practice, and that all of these factors were influenced by principal leadership and the wider distributed leadership structures at the schools. These findings were corroborated by the survey data from the two case-study schools and the larger pool of schools in the program. Other factors, such as the state and local contexts of the two case study schools, and the leaders' judicious use of their means of control while also supporting teacher autonomy, proved to be important for these schools as well. Although the staffs at both schools were already close socially and professionally, in both schools even reluctant teachers noticed greater depth to their collegial work. Challenges remained in terms of scheduling among teachers and the use of data to support high-quality teaching, but the move from congeniality to collegiality could be documented. E


CPTF1, a transcription factor with significant homology to ATF/CREB bZIP factors, was identified during an expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis of in planta-expressed genes of the phytopathogen Claviceps purpurea. Using a gene-replacement approach, deletion mutants of cptf1 were created. Expression studies in axenic culture showed that the H2O2-inducible gene cpcat1 (encoding a secreted catalase) had a reduced basal expression level and no longer responded to oxidative stress in the delta cptf1 mutant. Biochemical analyses indicated that CPTF1 is a general regulator of catalase activity. Delta cptf1 mutants showed significantly reduced virulence on rye. Electron microscopical in situ localization revealed significant amounts of H2O2 in delta cptf1-infected rye epidermal tissues, indicating that the plant tissue displayed an oxidative burst-like reaction, an event not detected in wild-type infections. These data indicate that CPTF1 is involved not only in oxidative stress response in the fungus but also in modulation of the plant's defense reactions.


Static provisioning of storage resources may lead to over-provisioning of resources, which increases costs, or under-provisioning, which runs the risk of violating application-level QoS goals. Toward this end, virtualization technologies have made automated provisioning of storage resources easier allowing more effective management of the resources. In this work, we present an approach that suggests a series of dynamic provisioning decisions to meet the I/O demands of a time-varying workload while avoiding unnecessary costs and Service Level Objective (SLO) violations. We also do a case-study to analyze the practical feasibility of dynamic provisioning and the associated performance effects in a virtualized environment, which forms the basis of our approach. Our approach is able to suggest the optimal provisioning decisions, for a given workload, that minimize cost and meet the SLO. We evaluate the approach using workload data obtained from real systems to demonstrate its cost-effectiveness, sensitivity to various system parameters, and runtime feasibility for use in real systems.


Background and Aim: Accidents can happen to children more than other age groups. Given their specific behavioral and physiological traits, children require care on the part of adults. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of two educational methods based on Orem's self-care model, i.e. storytelling and lecturing, on knowledge, attitude and selfefficacy of mothers of children 1 to 59 months in terms of domestic accidents prevention. Methods: This study was conducted on 60 mothers of 1to 59-month children in Birjand. The educational interventions through storytelling and lecturing were performed in 4 sessions with 30 participants in either of the two groups. Knowledge, attitude, and selfefficacy of the mothers were evaluated by a researcher-made questionnaire both before and after the intervention. The data were analyzed by chi-square, independent t test and paired t test at α = 0.05 level. Results: The age means of mothers in the lecture and storytelling groups were 28.36±4 and 29.63±6 years and those of children were 25.46 ± 17 and 20.26 ± 16 months respectively. The difference between the two groups was not significant in this regard. Following the lecturing intervention, the total mean scores of knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy increased respectively from 15 ± 1.6 to 20 ± 1.5 (P < 0.001), 93.8 ± 9 to 101 ± 7 (P = 0.001), and 59 ± 5.3 to 61.3 ± 5.4 (P = 0.02). Similarly, in the storytelling group, the mean scores before and after the intervention increased respectively from 12.8 ± 2.7 to 19.4 ± 1.6 (P < 0.001) for knowledge, from 92.4 ± 12 and 98 ± 9.3 (P = 0.03) for attitude, and from 54.4 ± 5.5 to 57.7 ± 6.3 (P = 0.001) for self-efficacy. Mean score changes of knowledge for mothers in the story-telling group (4.9 ± 1.6) was significantly greater than that of the lecture group (6.5±2) (P = 0.002). However, there were no significant differences between the two methods in terms of attitude and self-efficacy mean score changes. Conclusion: In teaching the principles of domestic accidents prevention to children, both lecturing and storytelling approaches proved effective. Although there was no significant difference between the two groups in attitude and self-efficacy scores, storytelling could contribute to higher levels of knowledge than lecturing.


In September 2010, grapevine (Vitis vinifera) trunk diseases were observed in several vineyards of Yantai District in Shandong Provinces and Changli County of Hebei Provinces of China. Characteristic symptoms of Botryosphaeria canker were apparent, including dark brown discoloration on the trunk (visible in cross-section), cob base shriveling, drying of fruit clusters, and berry falling (2). To identify the causal pathogen, culturing of fungi was attempted from 387 small pieces of tissue from the canker margins of 43 diseased plants. Samples were surface disinfected by placing them in 75% ethanol for 1 min and rinsing with sterilized water three times before culturing on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 28°C for 7 to 10 days. Fungi isolated were single spored to obtain pure cultures. On the basis of colony characteristics on PDA, 18 isolates from the 387 tissue pieces were eventually identified as Botryosphaeria obtusa (1), Most of the other fungi isolated were B. dothidea. B. obtusa colonies were grayish white, becoming dark brown with age, and pycnidia were formed after incubation for approximately 7 days. Conidia measured 8 to 11 × 17 to 26 μm (n= 50). Two isolates were used for rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence analysis with primers ITS1 and ITS4 (3). PCR products were separated by electrophoresis and bands were purified for legation with PMD-18T (Takara Company, Dalian, China) vector for sequencing. BLAST searches of two ITS sequences had 99 to 100% identity to B. obtusa. EF1-α and β-tubulin sequence analysis gave similar results. Koch's postulates were completed in the greenhouse on grape shoots inoculated with two isolates of B. obtusa originally isolated from diseased plants in the field. Inoculations were made on green shoots of V. vinifera cv. Dunkelfelder T. Six shoots were inoculated per isolate by wounding with a 4-mm cork borer (2 mm deep) and placing a colonized agar plug from a 5-day-old culture on the wound and wrapping it with Parafilm. Controls were mock inoculated with an agar plug from sterile PDA. Inoculated shoots were incubated in the dark under moist conditions in the laboratory for 8 to 10 days at 25°C. Inoculated shoots had necrotic cankers after 8 to 10 days and B. obtusa was recovered from each canker margin. The results indicated that some grapevines in China with symptoms of Botryosphaeria canker were infected by B. obtusa. To our knowledge, this is the first report of this pathogen causing trunk disease on grapevine in China. References: (1) A. Taylor et al. Australas. Plant Pathol. 34:187, 2005. (2) J. R. Úrbez-Torres et al. Plant Dis. 92:519, 2008. (3) T. J. White et al. Page 315 in: PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. Academic Press, San Diego, 1990.


In this study the level of serum homocysteine, vitamin B6, Vitamin B12 and folic acid and possible correlation of homocysteine with each of these vitamins was determined in the patients with first attack of acute myocardial infarction and in the patients of previous myocardial infarction. The patients were also assessed for four important risk factors of smoking, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and physical inactivity, and their homocysteine levels were compared with the control subjects.The study involved two hundred patients each of acute myocardial infarction and previous myocardial infarction, studied in two age groups of twenty five to forty five years and forty six to seventy years, and an equal number of age, sex and socio economically matched healthy control subjects. Fasting venous blood was obtained from the subjects. Serum homocysteine was analyzed by Fluorescence Polarization Immunoassay (FPIA) method on automated Immunoassay analyzer (Abbott IMX). The determination of B vitamins was done on HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography.Number of patients showing moderate hyperhomoeysteinemia (61.5%) as well as intermediate hyperhomocysteinemia (22%) were highest in the patients of acute myocardial infarction as compared to the patients of previous myocardial infarction and control subjects. Higher than normal homocysteine levels were recorded with increasing age and by male subjects as compared to females. Serum homocysteine showed an inverse correlation with all the three B vitamins.Scrum vitamin B6levels among the patients were significantly low in the younger male patients of acute myocardial infarction as compared to other subjects, serum vitamin B12 in older age patients of both diseases and serum folic acid in older patients of all groups but more significantly in the female patients of both diseases. Unexpectedly a good percentage of our apparently healthy control subjects also showed low levels of these vitamins, however this percentage was less as compared to
patients.
Among the risk factors, current smokers showed highest levels of serum
homocysteine followed by physically inactive persons. Hypertensive and hypercholesterolemic subjects also showed moderate hyperhomocysteincmia but these risk factors were less strongly related to acute and previous myocardial infarction than smoking and physical inactivity.
Our findings indicate that substantial nutritional deficiencies of vitamin B6, B12 and folic acid are highly prevalent in our population which together with other cardiovascular risk factors may play a role in the causation of acute and subsequent cardiovascular events.


Research takes place in the form of case study at PT. Bank Jatim, Malang Branch, in the title of The Analysis of Internal Control System Against Pundi Kencana Credit Delivery Procedure at PT. Bank Jatim Malang Branch. The objective of research seems about to understand the implementation of internal control system against credit delivery procedure and to analyze internal control system against credit delivery procedure and system such that the favorable internal control system suits to internal control elements such that the delivery of credit evolves as expected. Data analysis techniques include the analysis of organization structure against credit provider, the analysis of authorization system and credit delivery procedures, the analysis of healthy practice, and the analysis of capable employee. Results of research indicate that PT. Bank Jatim, Malang Branch, has conducted favorable internal control system. It becomes evident with its organization structure and credit delivery authority in which it provides functional separation in which the functions need authorization from functional manager with the authority to do the activity. A function cannot be given full responsibility to do all stages in a transaction. The credit delivery authority involves the separation of responsibility and the existence of job authority in the organization function of credit division such that the authority abuse doesn't emerge during the pundi kencana credit delivery procedure started from initial proposition to credit realization. This remains important because every implementation of task includes other division to check and to supervise every implementation of credit activity. The next analysis will be using the analysis of healthy practice and the analysis of the capable employee in which this becomes evident with the existence of serially numbered and printed form documents with the authorization from the related officials. The authorization takes form in signature. In addition, the examination has been conducted four times a year with job rotation for once of three years. The analysis of capable employee considers whether PT. Bank Jatim employs education qualification in selecting employee candidate for certain post. To improve banking knowledge, employees accept trainings and seminars about banking world. This way increases the knowledge about the prevention and treatment of credit. It can be concluded that PT. Bank Jatim, Malang Branch, has considered favorable internal control system. The pundi kencana credit delivery procedure has concerned with favorable internal control system elements.


A lot of research has been performed on Cyanobacteria and microalgae with the aim to produce numerous biotechnological products. However, native strains have a few shortcomings, like limitations in cultivation, harvesting and product extraction, which prevents reaching optimal production value at lowest costs. Such limitations require the intervention of genetic engineering to produce strains with superior properties. Promising advancements in the cultivation of Cyanobacteria and microalgae have been achieved by improving photosynthetic efficiency through increasing RuBisCO activity and truncation of light‐harvesting antennae. Genetic engineering has also contributed to final product extraction by inducing autolysis and product secretory systems, to enable direct product recovery without going through costly extraction steps. In this review, we summarize the different enzymes and pathways that have been targeted thus far for improving cultivation aspects, harvesting and product extraction in Cyanobacteria and microalgae. With synthetic biology advancements, genetically engineered strains can be generated to resolve demanding process issues and achieve economic practicality. This comprehensive overview of gene modifications will be useful to researchers in the field to employ on their strains to increase their yields and improve the economic feasibility of the production process.


The Indian Punjab has been heralded for its technical achievements but increasingly criticized for leveraging its success on the environment. Irrigation has been one of the main pillars of the Punjab's Green Revolution. The availability of water has pushed rice and wheat productivity to new heights. Cheap water policies have enabled farmers to exploit groundwater. Water tables are shrinking in some areas, while water logging poses a major problem in other parts of the Indian Punjab. This article investigates the potential for reducing irrigation water use through policies that align irrigation water prices with their true social cost. This includes charging Punjabi farmers for irrigation water and introducing alternative, more water efficient crops. Results indicate that alternative crops, cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], would enter cropping patterns provided that irrigation water prices moved to about 25% of the price charged by municipal water authorities. Shifting cropping patterns toward more water-efficient enterprises would decrease irrigation water use on a typical paddy by nearly 66%. Future policy considerations are required to offset the declines in producer welfare that would accompany the irrigation water pricing.


Background and aims: Anti-α4 integrin therapy with natalizumab is efficacious in refractory Crohn's disease and in multiple sclerosis, but carries an estimated 1/1000 risk of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) caused by reactivation of latent JC virus infection. Athough anti-α4 integrin therapies are likely to be introduced in the clinic, screening for the risk of PML has not been developed. Methods: We prospectively collected urine, serum, plasma and buffy coats from 125 patients with Crohn's disease, 100 control subjects with gastrointestinal (GI) disease, and 106 healthy volunteers. Four to eight weeks after this first sample collection, we additionally collected a set of urine, serum, plasma and buffy coat samples from the 125 patients with Crohn's disease, and a next set of samples was collected 12–16 weeks after the first collection. JC viral loads were determined with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and JC virus seroprevalence with a specific enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). Results: The overall JC virus seroprevalence was 65%. JC virus DNA copies were detected in the urine from 29–44% of subjects, both those with Crohn's disease and controls. Median viral loads were significantly higher in patients with Crohn's disease who were immunosuppressed (7.36×106 copies/ml) compared to healthy volunteers (2.77×105 copies/ml) and compared to GI controls (1.8×106 copies/ml). Clearance at any time point occurred in 4/107 (3.7%) subjects only. JC viraemia was found in two patients with Crohn's disease. Conclusions: The natural history of JC virus in patients with Crohn's disease is still unknown. Our study results show that JC virus latency and urine viral shedding is frequent in immunosuppressed patients with Crohn's disease. More prospective studies are needed in order to agree on possible recommendations concerning the exclusion of patients with JCV viraemia from anti-α4 integrin treatment.


The problem of routing several cables, which should be grouped into a compound structure, can be a time consuming process when done manually. In this thesis, this problem is modelled as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem. There are several factors to consider when designing a harness routing, and the MILP model contains two conflicting objectives which minimize two specific factors: the length of each distinct cable and the usage of space. A collection of Pareto optimal solutions is computed by assigning different weights to the objectives. Two other factors that are considered in the model formulation are minimum clearance to obstacles, modelled as hard constraints, and preferable zones for the routes as soft constraints. The problem is a large-scale optimization problem, and Lagrangian relaxation is utilized in the solution process. A deflected subgradient method is used to solve the Lagrangian dual problem, and to provide upper and lower bounds on the optimal objective value. Ergodic sequences of the Lagrangian subproblem solutions are utilized for branching decisions during the subgradient iterations, and are also utilized for constructing so-called core problems. Our approach is applied to an industrial test case and it results in a good harness design with respect to the factors mentioned above. For the test cases in this thesis, the relative duality gaps vary between 0.59% and 21.7% for varying objective weights. Our results also indicate that we can get good solutions within an acceptable time frame, that is in a few minutes. We suggest a number of possible improvements of our approach to reduce the computing times.


The title of this article is borrowed from anthropologist Katherine Verdery9s 1996 study What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next? In her book Verdery surveyed the recent changes in Eastern Europe, and specifically Romania, from her vantage point in the uncertain period following the momentous events from 1989 to 1991 in the former Soviet bloc. Similarly, this article explores how Shostakovich, widely perceived in 1975 as the musical representative of socialism, influenced what came after him. It details how Soviet composers from the younger generations, including Edison Denisov, Mieczysllaw Weinberg, Boris Tishchenko, Alfred Schnittke, and Valentin Sil9vestrov, dealt with Shostakovich9s legacy in their compositions written in his memory, including Denisov9s DSCH , Weinberg9s Symphony no.12, Tishchenko9s Symphony no. 5, Schnittke9s Prelude In Memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich and Third String Quartet, and Sil9vestrov9s Postludium DSCH . In their memorial works, as they wrestled with the legacy of Shostakovich and his overwhelming influence, these composers also grappled with the shifting nature of the Soviet state, changing musical styles both foreign and domestic, and fundamental issues of aesthetic representation and identity associated with the move from modernism to postmodernism then affecting all composers in the Western art music tradition. The 1970s came at the heels of a decade of remarkable change in Soviet music and society, but at the time of Shostakovich9s death, change in Soviet life began to seem increasingly unlikely. Despite recent interpretations by scholars such as anthropologist Alexei Yurchak that emphasize the fundamental immutability of the 1970s, however, these memorial compositions show that audible and significant developments were indeed occurring in the musical styles of the 1970s and early 1980s. Examining Shostakovich9s legacy therefore also reveals the larger changes of the Soviet 1970s and early 1980s, both musical and otherwise.


The paper details the computational modelling work to define a new type of responsive material system based on genetically engineered bacteria cells. We introduce the discipline of synthetic biology and show how it may be possible to program a cell to respond genetically to inputs from its environment. We propose a system of synthetic biocementing, where engineered cells, living within a soil matrix, respond to pore pressure changes in their environment when the soil is loaded by synthesising new material and strengthening the soil. We develop a prototype CAD system which maps genetic responses of individual bacteria cells to geotechnical models of stress and pore pressure. We show different gene promoter sensitivities may make substantial changes to patterns of consolidation. We conclude by indicating future research in this area which combines both in vivo and in silico work.


"Step-by-Step Breads" is the perfect book to have to hand when you're mastering the art of bread-making. Over 130 recipes are made easy with simple instructions and photography helping you every step of the way. Classic breads, artisan breads, batters and sweet breads; 35 essential bread recipes are featured including rolls, pizzas, muffins and buns plus exciting variations for when you're feeling more adventurous. Excellent value, "Step-by-Step Breads" will help you bake all the world's favourite bread recipes with confidence every time. All content previously published in "Step-by-Step Baking".


Your resource to passing the Java 2 Developer Certification Exam!Join the ranks of readers who have trusted Exam Cram 2 to their certification preparation needs! The Java 2 Developer Exam Cram 2 is focused on what you need to know to pass the Java 2 Developer exam. The Exam Cram 2 Method of Study provides you with a concise method to learn the exam topics. The book includes tips, exam notes, acronyms and memory joggers in order to help you pass the exam.Included in the Java 2 Developer Exam Cram 2 : A tear-out "Cram Sheet" for last minute test preparation. Covers both exams - the SCJD Programming Exam and the SCJD Essay Exam. The PrepLogic Practice Tests, test engine to simulate the testing environment and test your knowledge.Trust in the series that has helped many others achieve certification success - Exam Cram 2.