This publication is based on materials covered and outputs generated during the Workshop on Risk Assessment Methodologies and Tools for Aquaculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, which was jointly held by WorldFish and FAO in Siavonga, Zambia on 28 June - 2 July 2010. The workshop was delivered as a training exercise to 17 participants from seven sub-Saharan countries and was designed to highlight current methodologies and tools available for environmental risk analysis in aquaculture development. A key focus of the workshop was to encourage participants to consider hypothetical but realistic scenarios and to discuss issues relevant to evaluating the environmental risks of a given activity or scenario. This publication presents selected scenarios from the workshop and the outcomes of the deliberative process as developed by the participants. This publication is factual but not comprehensive, therefore any statements or estimations of risk do not represent the actual risks arising from the described scenario. It is intended to serve as an easily readable introduction to risk analysis, highlighting worked examples that will provide guidance on how a risk analysis may be approached in a similar situation.


Investigating the causation and course of the herpesvirus hepatitis in groups of children and the results of treatment of different types. 173 children with herpesvirus hepatitis were examined. The causation of the disease was verified in all patients with the detection of CMV, EBV, HHV-6 DNA in blood, urine, saliva, and hepatocytes, and of CMV LA, EBNA-2 and EBV LMP1 in hepatocytes of the patients after needle biopsy of the liver. Clinical implications and laboratory findings in acute and chronic herpesvirus hepatitis in children showed no differences in virus hepatitis as a whole. 113 children receiving Viferon® for the treatment of the chronic herpes virus hepatitis were monitored. The Interferon dose of all children was 5 mln/m 2 three times a week. In the course of the treatment, the primary biochemical remission was achieved in 15 (13.3%) children, the primary virological: in 8 (7.1%) children, the stable biochemical: in 7 (6.2%) children, the stable virological: in 5 (4.4%), the stable complete: in 3 (2.6%) children, the long-lasting biochemical: in 10 (8,8%) children, the long-lasting virological: in 4 (3.5%) children, the long-lasting complete remission: in 26 (23.1%) children with chronic herpes virus hepatitis. The disease recurrence was found in 7 (6.2%) patients; there were no remission in 28 (24.8%) children. 1/3 of the patients the decrease was recovered with complete recovery of the functional status of the liver within 1-3 months. The result of the symptomatic herpes virus hepatitis the disease of 64.9% of the patients had chronic progression


Some of the biggest challenges with analog signal processing at radio frequencies (RF) are: RF loss at the frequency of interest, large enough fractional bandwidth, and sufficient delay. It is difficult to achieve enough delay in radio front ends using a purely electromagnetic approach since it is limited to a fraction of the speed of light. A solution has been the use of acoustic RF devices, such as surface acoustic wave (SAW) delaylines and MEMS filters. For some acoustic RF devices, like high performance Transmit and Receive SAW correlators, the long delays introduce significant propagation losses. These propagation losses can be compensated within the device by integrating a low noise amplifier into the acoustic correlator architecture. This can be accomplished by designing the SAW correlator on a high performance acoustoelectric (AE) platform. The AE effect is a phenomenon where nearby free carriers can interact with a travelling acoustic wave. Free carriers in close proximity to a piezoelectric material can interact with a travelling acoustic wave through its periodic potential. When a drift field is applied, depending on the relative velocity difference between the free carriers and acoustic wave, energy can either be transferred into (amplification) or out of (attenuation) the acoustic wave. This thesis investigates the design and feasibility of AE MEMS devices on several Lithium Niobate (LN) platforms. First, the key acoustic and free carrier parameters are discussed and optimized for an ideal high performance AE material stack. In order to debug and analyze the performance of intermediate steps in the process of making high performance AE MEMS devices, three LN-based platforms are used throughout this work. These platforms help further examine some of the key challenges associated with making a high performance AE platform, like wafer bonding, fabrication, device design, and device operating conditions. These material stacks consist of: thin film LN bonded to a silicon wafer (LNOSi), thin film LN bonded to a silicon on insulator wafer (LNOSOI), and epitaxial indium gallium arsenide bonded to a LN wafer (InGaAs-LN).The acoustic and piezoelectric performance of SAW devices on the LNOSi and LNOSOI platforms are modeled using COMSOL Multiphysics. A full study is performed to determine the piezoelectric coupling coefficient variation vs. device wavelength, propagation angle, transducer metal, and acoustic mode. A lumped element cross-field Mason model is modified to include substrate conductivity and simulated in Advanced Design System (ADS) software. SAW delaylines are then fabricated with both aluminum (Al) and gold (Au) Interdigital Transducers (IDT) and measured to compare to the simulated results. The analytical AE theory is then presented and calculations are performed to determine the desired (optimum) carrier concentration for AE devices. In addition to the 1D analytical AE model, initial work is done on developing a generalized 2D Finite Element Analysis (FEA) AE modeling scheme in COMSOL. The results for a piezoelectric semiconductor bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator and SAW delayline amplifier are presented. On the LNOSi platform, gate controlled passive AE delaylines are fabricated and measured to examine the effects of LN bonding on Silicon free carrier concentrations and interface charges. Then, the fabrication and initial measurement results for doped Silicon AE delayline amplifiers are outlined. Based on the device design, the non-reciprocal nature of the AE effect can be used for more than just amplification and loss compensation. Using the InGaAs-LN platform, several classes of AE devices are designed and tested in pulsed mode operation. First, a series of segmented AE delayline amplifiers are measured to look at how the relative AE gain performance and input DC power scale with acoustic frequency, segment unit length, and number of segments. By taking advantage of the non-reciprocal shift in acoustic velocity, a dual-voltage AE delayline phase shifter is designed and tested. Routing of the acoustic waves between parallel delaylines can be accomplished through multistrip couplers (MSC) and can increase the library of possible AE device designs. The simplest example is a 3-port AE switch, which is designed and tested. The demonstration of these AE MEMS devices opens the door to a larger library of non-reciprocal acoustic devices utilizing the AE effect in high performance integrated material platforms.


High and increasing voltage Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and 5th harmonic voltage levels have been measured in recent years on Orion NZ Ltd's rural 11 kV distribution network in Canterbury, New Zealand. On occasion, at Points of Common Coupling (PCC), the THD has exceeded the 5% limit and the 5th harmonic has exceeded the 4% limit. It has been suspected that these summer season high harmonic levels are due to the large existing and increasing density of farm irrigation deep well pump loads. It is likely that adverse effects on the network and neighbouring loads would become apparent if the increasing harmonic levels are left unchecked. A practical and theoretical investigation was conducted by the Electric Power Engineering Centre (EPECentre), University of Canterbury, on behalf of Orion to determine what are the primary causes of the high harmonic levels and provide mitigation options. Several farms with installed irrigation pumps were visited and the harmonic current and voltage levels were measured when the pumps were operating. Substation measurements were also simultaneously taken. A computer harmonic model of the local 11 kV network and loads was created that provided an accurate description of actual network conditions. An examination of Orion's system from the view of harmonic management was performed. The investigation revealed that the most significant cause of high harmonics levels is the comparatively large harmonic current injections by local irrigation pumps using Variable Speed Drives. A secondary cause is resonances in the network, often dynamically created by Power Factor (PF) capacitors switching online at various farms. To keep the rural network infrastructure in an effective and sustainable operating condition, mitigation measures are needed. Options researched included simulations of harmonic filters placed at various network points, and the use of alternate vector group transformers. Suggestions are made regarding objectives for harmonic limits at different network voltage levels, so as to determine harmonic limits for load installations.


This work introduces a new class of image model which we call dynamic trees or DTs. A dynamic tree model specifies a prior over structures of trees, each of which is a forest of one or more tree-structured belief networks (TSBN). In the literature standard tree-structured belief network models were found to produce "blocky" segmentations when naturally occurring boundaries within an image did not coincide with those of the subtrees in the rigid fixed structure of the network. Dynamic trees have a flexible architecture which allows the structure to vary to accommodate configurations where the subtree and image boundaries align, and experimentation with the model showed significant improvements. They are also hierarchical in nature allowing a multi-scale representation and are constructed within a well founded Bayesian framework. For large models the number of tree configurations quickly becomes intractable to enumerate over, presenting a problem for exact inference. Techniques such as Gibbs sampling over trees are considered and search using simulated annealing finds high posterior probability trees on synthetic 2-d images generated from the model. However simulated annealing and sampling techniques are rather slow. Variational methods are applied to the model in an attempt to approximate the posterior by a simpler tractable distribution, and the simplest of these techniques, mean field, found comparable solutions to simulated annealing in the order of 100 times faster. This increase in speed goes a long way towards making real-time inference in the dynamic tree viable. Variational methods have the further advantage that by attempting to model the full posterior distribution it is possible to gain an indication as to the quality of the solutions found. An EM-style update based upon mean field inference is derived and the learned conditional probability tables (describing state transitions between a node and its parent) are compared with exact EM on small tractable fixed architecture models. The mean field approximation by virtue of its form is biased towards fully factorised solutions which tends to create degenerate CPTs, but despite this mean field learning still produces solutions whose log likelihood rivals exact EM. Development of algorithms for learning the probabilities of the prior over tree structures completes the dynamic tree picture. After discussion of the relative merits of certain representations for the disconnection probabilities and initial investigation on small model structures the full dynamic tree model is applied to a database of images of outdoor scenes where all of its parameters are learned. DTs are seen to offer significant improvement in performance over the fixed architecture TSBN and in a coding comparison the DT achieves 0 294 bits per pixel (bpp) compression compared to 0 378 bpp for lossless JPEG on images of 7 colours.


Central to the process of epithelial organogenesis is branching morphogenesis into tubules and ducts. In the kidney, this can be modeled by a very simple system consisting of isolated ureteric bud (UB) cells, which undergo branching morphogenesis in response to soluble factors present in the conditioned medium of a metanephric mesenchyme cell line. By employing a targeted screen to identify transcription factors involved early in the morphogenetic program leading to UB branching, we identified the mammalian ortholog of Timeless (mTim) as a potential immediate early gene (IEG) important in this process. In the embryo, mTim was found to be expressed in patterns very suggestive of a role in epithelial organogenesis with high levels of expression in the developing lung, liver, and kidney, as well as neuroepithelium. In the embryonic kidney, the expression of mTim was maximal in regions of active UB branching, and a shift from the large isoform of mTim to a smaller isoform occurred as the kidney developed. Selective down-regulation of mTim resulted in profound inhibition of embryonic kidney growth and UB morphogenesis in organ culture. A direct effect on the branching UB was supported by the observation that down-regulation of mTim in the isolated UB (cultured in the absence of mesenchyme) resulted in marked inhibition of morphogenesis, suggesting a key role for Tim in the epithelial cell morphogenetic pathway leading to the formation of branching tubules.


In many industrial fields, there is an ever growing market demand for highly profitable engines. This fact encouraged to produce very developed engine parts, namely sophisticated injection systems. Consequently, the electronically enhanced injection systems are becoming very widespread for their high efficiency and cause the mechanical automatic systems to be neglected without enough studies. However, the electronically commanded injection is difficult to maintain because of the risks of short-circuits, and it is also difficult and expensive to repair since its captors are in high pressure and temperature areas. This paper aims to introduce a mathematical study of the basic direct injection operation by proving formulas representing forces, velocities and the energy involved in the injection mechanical mechanism without any electronic or computational complications. This theoretical mathematical modeling is useful for the efficiency experimental studies in order to improve the manufacturing and maintenance of all direct injection systems.


The theory of reciprocity is predicated on the assumption that people are willing to reward kind acts and to punish unkind ones. This assumption raises the question as to how to define "kindness." In this paper we offer a novel definition of kindness based on a notion of blame. This notion states that in judging whether player i is kind or unkind to playerj, playerj has to put himself in the position of playeriand ask if he wouldactinamannerthatisworsethanidoes. Ifplayerj wouldactinaworsemanner than player i acted, then we say that player j does not blame player i. If, however, player j would be nicer than player i was, then we say that player j blames player i. We consider this notion a natural, intuitive and empirically functional way to explain the motives of people engaged in reciprocal behavior. After developing the conceptual framework, we test this concept by using data from two laboratory experiments and find significant support for the theory.


Supervised topic models leverage label information to learn discriminative latent topic representations. As collecting a fully labeled dataset is often time-consuming, semi-supervised learning is of high interest. In this paper, we present an effective semi-supervised max-margin topic model by naturally introducing manifold posterior regularization to a regularized Bayesian topic model, named LapMedLDA. The model jointly learns latent topics and a related classifier with only a small fraction of labeled documents. To perform the approximate inference, we derive an efficient stochastic gradient MCMC method. Unlike the previous semi-supervised topic models, our model adopts a tight coupling between the generative topic model and the discriminative classifier. Extensive experiments demonstrate that such tight coupling brings significant benefits in quantitative and qualitative performance.


"Moving on: An exploration of one nurse's experience of transition from one practice environment to another" is a qualitative research project exploring the transition of a registered nurse from a familiar work environment into a new and different clinical setting. The project using personal recollections as primary sources and informed by Heideggerian phenomenological methodology, has explored the lived experience of the researcher. The stories include such topics as emotions, success and failure, preceptors, L plates, progress and sticks and stones. These stories have been blended with and supported by a variety of other previously published material discussing transition and related themes such as education, preceptors, horizontal violence and belonging. The blended sources have been used to extrapolate from the individual reality, broader understanding of the main concerns and issues for nurses in transition. From this wider view foundational commonalities and meanings have been developed and a number of recommendations offered to progress this issue in the healthcare setting including acknowledgement and recognition, practical changes such as time to learn, collegial care and concern, and further investigation.


Abstract There is no doubt that major regional disparities exist within China. The gap between its eastern coastal regions compared with the central and western regions has only grown wider over time. China's special economic zones (SEZs) are defined as small geographical areas that allow the integration of free-market principles to attract additional foreign investment. However, the creation and success of SEZs has led to prosperity in the coastal regions of China, creating additional economic disparity between regions. This paper posits that one solution to reduce regional disparities is to extend the influence of the SEZs, or even set up new ones in different areas of the country, to spur investment and close the economic gaps.


Activation of proliferation of Schwann cells is crucial for axonal guidance and successful nerve regeneration following peripheral nerve injury (PNI). Considering melatonin plays an important role in proliferative regulation of central glial cells, the present study determined whether melatonin can effectively promote Schwann cell proliferation and improve nerve regeneration after PNI. The spontaneous immortalized rat Schwann cell line (RSC 96 cells) was first analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) to detect the potential existence of melatonin receptors. The melatonin receptor‐mediated signaling responsible for proliferation was examined by measuring the phosphorylation of extracellular signal‐regulated kinases (ERK1/2) pathway. The in vivo model of PNI was performed by the end‐to‐side neurorrhaphy. The quantity of Schwann cells as well as the number of re‐innervated motor end plates (MEP) on target muscles was examined to represent the functional recovery of injured nerves. QPCR results indicated that MT1 is the dominant receptor in Schwann cells. Immunoblotting and proliferation assay revealed an enhanced phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and increased number of RSC 96 cells following melatonin administration. Nonselective melatonin receptor antagonist (luzindole) treatment significantly suppressed all the above findings, suggesting that the proliferative effects of melatonin were mediated by a receptor‐dependent pathway. In vivo results corresponded well with in vitro findings in which melatonin effectively increased the amount of proliferated Schwann cells and re‐innervated MEP on target muscles following PNI. As melatonin successfully improves nerve regeneration by promoting Schwann cell proliferation, therapeutic use of melatonin may thus serve as a promising strategy to counteract the PNI‐induced neuronal disability.


A cryostat and Raman tube suitable for observing Raman spectra at low temperatures is described. The cryostat is designed so that the sample may be maintained at any desired temperature between 20°K and room temperature, using only liquid air or liquid hydrogen as refrigerant. Samples which are liquids, solids, or gases at room temperature can be studied. The refrigerant is confined to an all-metal system, an extremely desirable feature when liquid hydrogen is used for cooling, but, nevertheless, good thermal contact with the sample is achieved. The cryostat is used in conjunction with a Lane-Wells Raman spectrograph and power supply. The intensity of illumination is about half that obtained with the standard Lane-Wells lamp housing at ordinary temperatures.


Abstract A variety of harmoniums populate Honore de Balzac9s novels, including the physharmonica, the orgue expressif , the panharmonicon, and the accordion. The sounds of these instruments typically illustrate unusual mental states. Balzac9s musical fantasies drew on contemporaneous medical practice, which between 1820 and 1850 used the harmonium regularly to help treat nervous disorders. The linking of the harmonium with nervous effects resembles earlier associations of the glass harmonica with pathology. However, the medical implementation of the harmonium differs from this tradition both in the instrument9s generally positive connotations and in the later trajectory of its use. Studying the discourse of ethereal mediums helps explain why certain types of sounds were thought to have privileged access to the nerves. The unusual timbres and swelling dynamics of newly popular musical instruments, including the glass harmonica, the Aeolian harp, and the Jew9s harp, were conflated with ideas about a vibratory nervous system and an ethereal world spirit. Both ideas were essential to the formation of the culturally determined ideal of ethereality in the eighteenth century. Closely linked to contemporaneous ideas about physiology and nervous transmission, the sounds and their presumed access to the nervous system continued to influence the design and reception of instruments, most notably the harmonium, during much of the nineteenth century.


The state-owned company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is India's largest company devoted to exploration and production (E&P). This paper attempts to unpack the dynamic of the government-ONGC relationship. Focusing specifically on how government ownership and control has influenced ONGC's performance and strategy, this paper makes four main arguments. First, ONGC exists, just as with national oil companies in many other countries, because of a legacy of suspicion about outsiders. It performed well when it was tasked with things that were not that difficult and when it had help for the more difficult ventures, such as frontier E&P and development. Second, ONGC has run into trouble as it matured, and the roots of its troubles are mainly in its interactions with the GoI and secondarily in its management. Third, a slew of reforms instituted since the mid 1990s have fundamentally changed the landscape of the E&P sector in India and the dynamic of government-ONGC relationship. Targeted at improving corporate governance, enhancing competition in E&P, and eliminating price controls, those reforms have had a mixed impact on ONGC's performance and strategy. They also highlight the difficulties the government has had in encouraging higher efficiencies in ONGC and the oil and gas sector. Fourth, given the deep interconnects of the oil and gas sector with India's political economy, fixing the oil and gas sector essentially entails fixing the larger political economy within which the sector is embedded.


For more than a decade prior to the uprisings of 2011, the official unemployment rate in the Arab region was among the highest globally and around half the Arab population subsisted on less than two dollars a day. When unemployment is measured by imputing a minimum historically-determined level of subsistence into it, the effective unemployment rate would rise to nearly fifty percent. Armed with neoliberal ideology, the Western-backed comprador class squandered resources either by expropriating the working population or by surrendering them to capital at prices that were set by a global power structure from which working people in the Arab world were excluded. In this essay, I argue that the retention of resources and their redeployment within the national economy are indispensable conditions for development and job creation. Employment policies are best set subject to social efficiency criteria distinct from the salient neoclassical productivity ones. It is highly unlikely, in view of the sheer smallness to which industry and the productive economy have shrunk under neoliberalism, that it would be possible to reemploy the massive redundant labour force on the basis of expanding privatesector expansion and productivity gains. A criterion valuing and remunerating social work may be costly in the short term, but the social returns will reimburse initial expenses over the long term. Notwithstanding the reductionist nature of the neoclassical criterion of efficiency, equity, in an Arab context of war and oil, must precede any received criteria for efficiency. More egalitarian rent, land and resource distributions redressing the dispossession of the working population during the neoliberal age represent the necessary conditions for effective demand enhancement and a successful development strategy. In practical terms, the state has to act as the employer of last resort (Minsky's ELR) creating socially relevant and public sector employment. Increasing-returns industry and a granting of preferential status to regional capital and labour are also required. In view of the instability besetting capital accumulation, a regional security arrangement bolstered by working class security and substantiating autonomy over policy can underwrite long-term employment generating investment.


5-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)penta-2,4-dienoic acid named piperic acid was obtained by hydrolysis of piperine and characterized by by NMR and IR spectroscopies.Corrosion inhibition effect of piperic acid on C38 steel corrosion in 1 M HCl solutionwas investigated by weight loss method at various temperatures (298 - 353 K).Weight loss measurements indicated that piperic acid decreased the corrosion rate indicating that the natural compound forms a barrier against metal attack in acidic solution; then the efficiency increased with the inhibitor concentrationto attacin 90.4% at 10-3 M. Temperature effect shows that inhibitory actiondecreases to attain 58.3% at 70°C. Activation parameters were evaluated. Piperic acid adsorption accords the Langmuir isotherm. Adsorption free enthalpy was determined and discussed. Attempts to explain 5-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)penta-2,4-dienoic acid (piperic acid: III) were investigated as corrosion inhibitors for mild steel using density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP/6- 31G(d) level in comparison of piperine(I) and piperanine (II). Quantum chemical parameters most relevant to their potential action as corrosion inhibitors such as EHOMO (highest occupied molecular orbital energy), ELUMO(lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy), the energy gap(ΔE), dipole moment(μ), electron affinity(A), ionization potential(I), the absolute electronegativity (χ), the hardness (η), the softness(S) and the number of electrons transferred (ΔN) have been calculated and discussed


This paper proposes a unified operational value index of energy storage in the smart grid electricity market environment. Given the heterogeneity of many storage service providers enabled by smart grid technologies, this unified value index will allow for comparison across different technology choices. It is also argued that implicit forms of energy storage, such as demand response, should be valued and utilized. A cross-market cooptimization is proposed to maximize the operational value of energy storage under the deregulated electricity market environment. For numerical illustration a case study is conducted in a modified 24-bus IEEE Reliability Test System (RTS), which includes flywheels, battery storage in the form of plug-in electric vehicles, and price responsive thermal load.


The stable-isotope composition ({delta}{sup 13}C) of total organic carbon (TOC) was measured as a function of depth throughout a 217-cm-thick sequence of Holocene carbonate sediment within the Bight of Abaco lagoon, Little Bahama Bank. Biofacies and lithofacies analyses indicate progressive banktop submergence and paleoenvironmental response during Holocene sea-level rise. Stable-isotope values shift markedly from {minus}27.7{per thousand} within the 7900 B.P. paleosol at the base of the core to {minus}11.1{per thousand} at the present-day sediment-water interface. An abrupt excursion toward heavy-isotope values records the first establishment of Thalassia seagrass upon open-marine flooding. A multitracer approach, combining biofacies, lithofacies, and stable-isotope analysis of TOC confirms that the dramatic +17{per thousand} shift observed in {delta}{sup 13}C was a direct result of sea-level rise and associated environmental changes over the banktop; there is little evidence of spurious diagenetic overprint. Stable-isotope analyses of organic carbon may enhance the reconstruction of carbonate sequences by revealing a distinctive geochemical signature of banktop flooding, including the onset of growth of otherwise unpreservable Thalassia seagrass.


Water availability is an important driver of the geographic distribution of many plant species, although its importance relative to other climatic variables varies across climate regimes and species. A common indirect measure of water-use efficiency (WUE) is the ratio of carbon isotopes (δ13C) fixed during photosynthesis, especially when analyzed in conjunction with a measure of leaf-level resource utilization (δ15N). Here, we test two hypotheses about the genetic architecture of WUE for foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana Grev. & Balf.) using a novel mixture of double digest restriction site associated DNA sequencing, species distribution modeling, and quantitative genetics. First, we test the hypothesis that water availability is an important determinant of the geographical range of foxtail pine. Second, we test the hypothesis that variation in δ13C and δ15N is genetically based, differentiated between regional populations, and has genetic architectures that include loci of large effect. We show that precipitation-related variables structured the geographical range of foxtail pine, climate-based niches differed between regional populations, and δ13C and δ15N were heritable with moderate signals of differentiation between regional populations. A set of large-effect QTLs (n = 11 for δ13C; n = 10 for δ15N) underlying δ13C and δ15N variation, with little to no evidence of pleiotropy, was discovered using multiple-marker, half-sibling regression models. Our results represent a first approximation to the genetic architecture of these phenotypic traits, including documentation of several patterns consistent with δ13C being a fitness-related trait affected by natural selection.


Four monomeric building blocks equipped with one crown ether and one secondary ammonium ion are synthesized and studied with respect to their ability to form daisy chain dimers. Two crown ethers with different cavity sizes – i.e. [21]crown-7 and [24]crown-8 – and two ammonium ions substituted with either a thin alkyl group or a more bulky benzyl group are used as the binding motifs. Self-sorting behaviour can be expected as the [21]crown-7/alkyl ammonium and [24]crown-8/benzyl ammonium binding motifs are orthogonal. Three homodimers are characterized by NMR, X-ray crystallography and ESI mass spectrometry. They are recognizable by the presence of signals for diastereotopic protons in the 1H NMR spectra. The formation of hetero-[c2]daisy chain dimers can be monitored by NMR spectroscopy and ESI mass spectrometry and show the expected self-sorting behaviour.


New results are presented on the time-dependent neutron intensities and energy spectra from compressed inertial fusion energy (IFE) targets and in structural Fe walls behind typical IFE chamber protection schemes. Protection schemes of LiPb and Flibe have been considered with two different thicknesses, and neutron fluxes in the outer Fe layer as a function of the time from target emission are given. Differences between the two solutions are noted and explained, and the effect of thickness is quantitatively shown. Time-dependent defect characterization of the Fe layer under pulse irradiation is presented. A new well-established multiscale modeling procedure injects, at the appropriate dose rate, damage cascades in a kinetic Monte Carlo lattice (microscopic) to study defect diffusion, clustering, and disintegration. The differences with a continuous irradiation for a still low fluence of irradiation are presented. Experimental validation of a multiscale modeling approach has been recognized and proposed in the Spanish VENUS-II project by using Fe ions on pure and ultrapure Fe. To study similar problems in SiC, new tools are needed to quantify the kinetic defects; results leading to the validation of a new tight binding molecular dynamics code for SiC are presented.


7 A critical study of the "poets without divan" and proposing a supplement to it Mousa Parnian Soheil Yari Goldarreh The book Sha'eran-e bi divan (poets without divan) that contains a collection of scattered verses by a number of Persian speaking poets from the 3 rd -5 th / 9 th -11 th centuries, if not the first of its kind, represents one of the finest and most comprehensive scholarly researches. Yet, since the publication of the book several decades have passed during which new sources, such as safinas and anthologies have come to light, and some of the sources consulted in the Sha'eran-e bi divan, have been through critical editions. Therefore, the necessity for a fresh review of the book is well recognized, as it would help its author to remove his editing errors, shortcomings, and lapses. He would also be able to add new verses and more accurate variants, and remove typos. Being aware of some of such weaknesses, the authors of this article have revealed a number of the shortcomings of the book and, by drawing on a few manuscripts as well as printed sources, have introduced several of the newly discovered verses of the old poets who have left behind no divans.


type="main"> International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have been adopted by most of the G20 countries. Given the broad worldwide acceptance of IFRS and significance of attaining comparability to facilitate free flow of capital, the US standard setter, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) made a commitment to jointly work with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to explore the possibilities of convergence of US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) with IFRS. In 2007, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) eliminated the requirement that foreign companies listed on the US stock exchanges reconcile their IFRS-based financial statements with the US GAAP. In the same year the US SEC issued a concept release to the public requesting comments on a proposal to allow US issuers to prepare financial statements in accordance with IFRS. Following these initiatives by the FASB and SEC, the aim of the present study is to investigate the implications of a potential full adoption of IFRS by the US. The present study details the challenges and benefits of adoption and outlines the steps required for a successful outcome of this process.


'21st Century Jewellery Designers: An Inspired Style' is a stunning survey of the contemporary jewellery that's being designed and created across the world today. From the great JAR, to James de Givenchy and Nicholas Varney in the West, and Michelle Ong, Wallace Chan and Bhagat in the East, Inspired Style is an exploration into the designers' worlds, helping the reader to discover the jewels that great jewellery artists are creating now. Interviews with each designer featured reveal their inspirations and passions, their favourite materials, designing processes, and how their personalities influence their designs. Designers include: JAR (France); Kaoru Kay Akihara (Japan); Walid Akkad (Lebanon/France); Lorenz Baumer (France); Bhagat (India); Sevan Bicakci (Turkey); Luz Camino (Spain); Wallace Chan (China); Edmond Chin for Etcetera (China); Lydia Courteille (France); Michele della Valle (Italy/Switzerland); Patrice Fabre (France); James de Givenchy for Taffin (USA); Vincente Gracia (Spain); Hemmerle (Germany); Anna Hu (USA/Taiwan); Michelle Ong for Carnet (China); Suzanne Syz (Switzerland); Nicholas Varney (USA); Stephen Webster (UK); Dickson Yewn for Yewn Heritage (China); Rami Abboud (Lebanon); Tomasz Donocik (UK); LaMouche (China/France); 10 Royale (France).


Allergic reactions with macrolide group antibiotic is rare. Most of these reactions are limited to skin and seen as urticaria, maculopapular exanthem or fi xed drug eruption. Clarithromycin associated angioedema without urticaria has not been reported previously. In this report, we presented a nine years old boy who describes angioedema with diff erent groups of drugs but the only agent that could be proven with oral provacation tests was clarithromycin. Here in, under scope of this patient, we discuss macrolid allergies.


This paper studies a program that extends the maximum duration of unemployment benefits from 30 weeks to 209 weeks. Interestingly, this program is targeted to individuals aged 50 years or older, living in certain eligible regions in Austria. In the evaluation, I use sharp discontinuities in treatment assignment at age 50 and at the border between eligible regions and control regions to identify the effect of extended benefits on unemployment duration. Results indicate that the duration of job search is prolonged by at least .08 weeks per additional week of benefits among men, whereas unemployment duration increases by at least .28 weeks per additional week of benefits among women. The salient differences between men and women are consistent with the lower minimum age for early retirement applying to women. JEL-Classification: C41, J64, J65


This paper examines the returns to investment strategies based on the interactions between value-to-market indicators and corporate financing transactions that increase or decrease the firm's outstanding equity, i.e., equity issues and repurchases. Portfolio-level analyses and firm-level cross-sectional regressions indicate that the well-documented contrarian profits soar when value stocks which repurchase shares (value repurchasers) and growth stocks which issue shares (growth issuers) are considered. The results also show that value-to-market ratios cannot capture the cross-sectional variation in expected stock returns when value issuers and growth repurchasers are considered. Based on various risk measures, we find that value repurchasers are not riskier than growth issuers. Furthermore, value repurchasers (growth issuers) experience the highest increase (decrease) in future growth rates. Our findings are consistent with the misvaluation explanation for the superior returns of value stocks.


A surveillance and control system was designed and implemented for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Crossing connecting Hampton and Norfolk, VA. The facility is a part of the Interstate 64 subsystem and consists of two bridges at each end connected by two two-lane tunnels. This system has been operating successfully since November 15, 1977. The system provides the means for improving vehicular throughput and reducing congestion, improving the management of vehicle incidents and facility operations, improving motorist information, improving environmental conditions, and improving traffic data collection. A control room situated in one of the four tunnel ventilation buildings is the nucleus of the traffic management activities. The system enables vehicle flow control of tunnel access; incident detection, incident verification, and incident operations management; automatic response to environmental and overheight problems; hardware monitoring of the signs, signals, and vehicle detectors; execution of major traffic operations on the faculty upon operator request; and daily reporting and logging of system events. Vehicle data are collected and accumulated by the system and are used for reporting and for performing incident detection and access control.


With the rapid development of the economy and society, we have entered the era of great wealth, but we also face a huge challenge of the storage and management of materials. Storage is one of the most important working process of logistics. With the development of commodity economy, it gradually presents the development trend of specialization and scale. Meanwhile, it also puts forward a new problem to be solved. Warehousing on a large scale and the variety of goods, not only to establish an efficient operating process, but also to be equipped with a specific storage environment monitoring system to ensure the safety of storage personnel and goods. Different types of storage the environmental monitoring parameters are different. Analysis of the storage environment not only need to use the environmental monitoring professional knowledge, but also related to the theory of goods, such as understanding the characteristics of the goods.[1]How to create a better storage environment is an eternal topic which is worthy to study. Storage environment monitoring is one of the main problems in the warehouse management and the whole logistics system. How to create more safe and appropriate storage environment, prevent supplies moldy, damp, ignition and detonation and deterioration, which is the main storage safety management. However, the implementation of information technology in warehouse environment monitoring is an important guarantee of the safety management of storage environment. As a big agricultural country, Chinese agricultural products warehousing cost is much higher than the developed countries. In our country, fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products in the harvesting, transport, storage and other logistics loss rate as high as 25% - 30%, and the developed countries control in less than 5%. Backward storage management is the main reason for the loss. The traditional management mode in manual or semi mechanized operation, which is low efficiency, appear frequent errors, causing goods mildew, theft and other series of losses. To be obviously, in the face of increasingly complex storage needs, the traditional way of management has been difficult to do. With the recent emergence of a series of storage problems, storage environmental monitoring in a information way is imperative, and the rapid development of Internet of Things, to provide the new technology, new methods and new ideas for the storage environment detection. Based on the Internet of Things to study the storage environment monitoring, can effectively improve the environmental monitoring of real-time, effective, to achieve information sharing and decision making, to provide the basis for environmental monitoring management. Storage environment monitoring is the fundamental of the logistics management system. This paper presents a storage environment monitoring system based on Internet of Things and wireless sensor.


Abstract Delayed planting is recommended to reduce damage from sunflower insect pests in the United States, including the sunflower moth, Homoeosoma electellum (Hulst) and banded sunflower moth, Cochylis hospes Walsingham. However, in some locations, planting earlier or growing later-maturing hybrids could improve yield or oil content of sunflowers which would partially offset any added costs from insect pests or their management. Because the abundance and distribution of some sunflower insects have changed since recommendations for delayed planting were developed, experimental plots were grown in 2012 and 2013 at sites in North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois. Sunflowers were planted two to four weeks earlier than normal, including hybrids that flower two to three weeks later than elite commercial hybrids. The sum of seed damaged by sunflower moth, banded sunflower moth, and red sunflower seed weevil, Smicronyx fulvus LeConte, (i. e., total percentage) was influenced by location, but not the relative maturity of tested entries. However, when damage attributed solely to the red sunflower seed weevil was analyzed, more damaged seed were found for late-maturing entries in North Dakota and Nebraska. In addition to the trial data, current pest populations are lower than when delayed planting was first recommended and insecticide use during sunflower bloom is both common and effective. Together, these observations suggest factoring insect pests into planting time decisions may be unnecessary, except for areas with a history of problems with severe pests that cannot be managed using insecticides (e. g., sunflower midge, Contarinia schulzi Gagné).


This is an excerpt from the fourth chapter of Shady Cosgrove's The Varens Obsession. Set in the 1830s, the novel responds to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre in a Rhysian tradition by exploring the life of Edward Rochester's mistress, Celine Varens. Celine was an opera dancer/courtesan and mother to Adele Varens (the child who inspired Jane's arrival at Thornfield)...


Main idea to prevent the ground contamination by heavy metals is to extract them maximally with minimum consumption of chemical reagents. So, a perfect studying of pulp ionic structure, an adjustment of the sulphuric ores flotation parameters and modelling of minerals selectivity variables, by using thermodynamic method of analysis, the behaviour of lead xanthenes surface state in solution and experimental investigations results, allow obtaining quantitative physico-chemical models of minimum necessary xanthenes concentration of lead sulphide complete flotation. The optimal pH values ensuring a complete flotation of galena are agree with the potential of zero or minimum charge of its surface, and the optimal composition of the collector sorption layer consisting both of chemisorbed xanthenes and physically adsorbed dixanthenes. In additional, it was obtained quantitative models for the necessary xanthenes concentration of lead sulphide complete flotation in the case of different oxidation products of galena surface in pH values from 7,0 up to 12,0. The models derived can be used as the criteria for functional units of automation systems to control and regulate the flotation process in mineral processing plants. All these should conduct to increasing of metals extraction degree with minimum chemical reagents consumption and providing good environmental protection.


This paper presents results from a survey on access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for persons with disabilities in rural communities of Mali, West Africa. The objective of this survey was to assess numbers and types of [persons with] disabilities in relation to access and use of WASH facilities. Related public attitudes and preferences of persons with disabilities were also assessed within target communities served by World Vision Mali. The survey found that persons with disabilities face considerable constraints in regards to the access and use of most water and sanitation facilities. Specific difficulties related to fetching and transporting water, drawing and pumping water, washing the body and latrine use are explained. The results of the study should serve to fill a major void in reliable, quantitative information on the number and types of disabilities in rural communities of West Africa, especially as they relate to issues of WASH. They also serve to provide much needed baseline information upon which policy, guidelines and infrastructure/technology design can be developed or enhanced so as to assure more equitable access and use of WASH facilities by persons with physical disabilities.


Supercapacitors with solid/gel polymer electrolytes have attracted much attention due to their high reliability, flexibility, facile designing, being separator-free and free from electrolyte leakage and volatilization such that they can meet the increasing demands of practical applications. The present work reports on a functionalized activated carbon (AC) supercapacitor based on novel redox-mediated gel polymer electrolyte, PVA/H3PO4/ionic liquid (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, [EMIM]BF4). The electrochemical properties of this supercapacitor were studied using cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques with various concentrations of [EMIM]BF4 in PVA/H3PO4 gel polymer electrolyte. The incorporation of [EMIM]BF4 in PVA/H3PO4 electrolyte effectively increased the specific capacitance value due to the improved ionic conductivity and additional pseudo-reaction occurring in the electrode/electrolyte interfaces. The specific capacitance of the supercapacitor using PVA/H3PO4/[EMIM]BF4 (50%) electrolyte showed a maximum value of 271 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 discharge current, which is much higher than the bare PVA/H3PO4 (103 F g−1) based supercapacitor. The supercapacitor with PVA/H3PO4/[EMIM]BF4 (50%) electrolyte showed enhanced energy and power density of 54.3 W h kg−1 and 23.88 kW kg−1 respectively. Moreover the device showed comparable specific capacitance retention after 3000 cycles of charge/discharge.


New accelerator-driven technologies that utilize spallation neutrons, such as the production of tritium and the transmutation of radioactive waste, require accurate nuclear data to model the performance of the target/blanket assembly and to predict neutron production, activation, heating, shielding requirements, and material damage. To meet these needs, nuclear-data evaluations and libraries up to 150 MeV have been developed for use in transport calculations to guide engineering design. By using advanced nuclear models that account for details of nuclear structure and the quantum nature of the nuclear scattering, significant gains in accuracy can be achieved below 150 MeV, where intranuclear cascade calculations become less accurate. Evaluations are in ENDF-6 format for important target/blanket and shielding materials (isotopes of H, C, N, O, Al, Si, P, Ca, Cr, Fe, Ni, Cu, Nb, W, Hg, and Pb) for both incident neutrons and incident protons. The evaluations are based on measured data as well as predictions from the GNASH nuclear model code, which calculates cross sections using Hauser-Feshbach, exciton, and Feshbach-Kerman-Koonin preequilibrium models. Elastic scattering distributions and direct reactions are calculated from the optical model. All evaluations specify production cross sections and energy-angle correlated spectra of secondary light particles as well as production crossmore » sections and energy distributions of heavy recoils and gamma rays. A formalism developed to calculate recoil energy distributions is presented. The use of these nuclear data in the MCNPX radiation transport code is also briefly described. This code merges essential elements of the LAHET and MCNP codes and uses these new data below 150 MeV and intranuclear cascade collision physics at higher energies. Extensive comparisons are shown between the evaluated results and experimental cross-section data to benchmark and validate the evaluated library. In addition, integral benchmarks of calculated and measured kerma coefficients for neutron energy deposition and neutron transmission through an iron slab compared with MCNPX calculations are provided. These evaluations have been accepted into the ENDF/B-VI library as Release 6.« less


What is the signal that lets the cell know that it is time for the first type of cell-surface contact structure, the focal complex, to become a focal adhesion with stress fibers? Signaling through the guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) Rho is important for focal focal adhesion formation. Rho stimulates the Rho-associated kinase, ROCK, which promotes myosin II-controlled contractility. Rho also activates the mammalian homolog of Drosophila Diaphanous protein, mDia1, which participates in cytoskeletal rearrangement in focal adhesion formation. Riveline et al. have addressed the hypothesis that mechanical force initiates this transformation. They used a micropipette micromanipulation technique to apply mechanical force to localized areas of cultured cells (NIH 3T3 or SV-80 cells). Locally applied mechanical force induced the formation of focal adhesions (detected by paxillin or vinculin labeled with green fluorescent protein). These mechanically induced focal adhesions were dependent on the actin cytoskeleton and engagement of integrin receptors with the substrate, but were independent of actin-myosin-mediated cell contraction. Inhibition of Rho activity blocked the formation of focal adhesions by local force, and this block could be overcome by expression of constitutively active forms of mDia1; however, the activity of the downstream target ROCK was dispensable. Thus, the authors propose that conversion to a focal adhesion involves two steps following integrin engagement and activation of Rho: (i) the production of force through the activation of myosin II by ROCK, and (ii) the activation of mDia1, which leads to the formation of stress fibers. Externally applied mechanical force bypasses the first step. D. Riveline, E. Zamir, N. Q. Balaban, U. S. Schwarz, T. Ishizaki, S. Narumiya, Z. Kam, B. Geiger, A. D. Bershadsky, Focal contacts act as mechanosensors: Externally applied local mechanical force induces growth of focal contacts by an mDia-dependent and ROCK-independent mechanism. J. Cell Biol. 153, 1175-1185 (2001). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Engendering Motherhood: Identity and SelfTransformation in Women's Lives. Martha McMahon. New York: Guilford Press. 1995. 324 pp. Hardcover ISBN 1-57230-002-7. $32.50 cloth. In Engendering Motherhood, Martha McMahon presents a sociological analysis of the meaning of motherhood and the identity transformation that occurred for 31 middle-class and 28 workingclass, Canadian-educated, White women who worked full-time outside the home and had primary responsibility for parenting at least one preschool child. Based on in-depth, semistructured interviews and informed by a symbolic interactionist theoretical perspective, McMahon's book makes a unique contribution to the literature on motherhood. McMahon attempts to examine not how these mothers shaped the lives of their children, but rather how caring for young children and the experience of mothering within a patriarchal culture profoundly shaped the gendered identities of these women-how motherhood was both a gendered and an engendering experience. The book is organized to reflect what McMahon identifies as the two phases of the process by which these middle-class and working-class women became pregnant and sustained their pregnancies through to motherhood (Phase One in chapters 3 and 4) and subsequently developed conceptions of themselves as mothers (Phase Two in chapters 5 through 8). In these chapters she addresses the similarities and differences in the meanings and experiences of these two groups of mothers. McMahon's cogent analysis is liberally supplemented throughout with rich and descriptive quotes from the women. Particularly noteworthy is the way in which McMahon portrays the complexity of the decision-making process engaged in by the women in their "recuitment to motherhood." For example, she identifies the significance of the middle-class women's lack of investment in the socially stigmatized identity of childless women as salient in their decisions to become mothers. For many of the working-class women, motherhood, even if it was unplanned, was embraced as a way of establishing adult status and maturity. Less useful, however, are McMahon's attempt to explain the women's passionate expressions of maternal love for their children as partially constituted by the intense personal and social changes they experienced during their transitions to motherhood and McMahon's discussion of the women's projections regarding how they "might" feel if they had never had children. …


Elongation of Very Long chain fatty acids-4 (ELOVL4) protein is a member of the ELOVL family of fatty acid elongases that is collectively responsible for catalyzing formation of long chain fatty acids. ELOVL4 is the only family member that catalyzes production of Very Long Chain Saturated Fatty Acids (VLC-SFA) and Very Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (VLC-PUFA) with chain lengths ≥28 carbons. ELOVL4 and its VLC-SFA and VLC-PUFA products are emerging as important regulators of synaptic signaling and neuronal survival in the central nervous system (CNS). Distinct sets of mutations in ELOVL4 cause three different neurological diseases in humans. Heterozygous inheritance of one set of autosomal dominant ELOVL4 mutations that leads to truncation of the ELOVL4 protein causes Stargardt-like macular dystrophy (STGD3), an aggressive juvenile-onset retinal degeneration. Heterozygous inheritance of a different set of autosomal dominant ELOVL4 mutations that leads to a full-length protein with single amino acid substitutions causes spinocerebellar ataxia 34 (SCA34), a late-onset neurodegenerative disease characterized by gait ataxia and cerebellar atrophy. Homozygous inheritance of a different set of ELOVL4 mutations causes a more severe disease with infantile onset characterized by seizures, spasticity, intellectual disability, ichthyosis, and premature death. ELOVL4 is expressed widely in the CNS and is found primarily in neurons. ELOVL4 is expressed in cell-specific patterns within different regions of the CNS that are likely to be related to disease symptoms. In the retina, ELOVL4 is expressed exclusively in photoreceptors and produces VLC-PUFA that are incorporated into phosphatidylcholine and enriched in the light sensitive membrane disks of the photoreceptor outer segments. VLC-PUFA are enzymatically converted into "elovanoid" compounds that appear to provide paracrine signals that promote photoreceptor and neuronal survival. In the brain, the main ELOVL4 products are VLC-SFA that are incorporated into sphingolipids and enriched in synaptic vesicles, where they regulate kinetics of presynaptic neurotransmitter release. Understanding the function of ELOVL4 and its VLC-SFA and VLC-PUFA products will advance our understanding of basic mechanisms in neural signaling and has potential for developing novel therapies for seizure and neurodegenerative diseases.


Field and laboratory experiments were carried out with the main objective of
studying the contribution of crop residues in sustaining yields of maize (Zea mays L.)
and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) in a crop rotation system under Malaysian
tropical conditions. Five cropping seasons of a rotation of sweet com - groundnut -
sweet com - ground nut - sweet com was conducted with three treatments (i)
recommended inorganic fertilizer with crop residues (T1), (ii) recommended
inorganic fertilizer without crop residues (T2) and (iii) combination of inorganic
fertilizer and chicken manure (10 tha -I) with crop residues (T3). The 15N tracing
technique was used to study the fate of applied inorganic fertilizer, (15NH4)2SO4 , in
Tl and T2 treatments. All the plots were limed at 2 tha-I before sowing each crop.
Two secondary experiments were carried out in the main field experiment to (i)
investigate nutrient release from decomposing 15N-labelled maize stover and N
uptake by the subsequent groundnut crop using mineralization tubes and (ii) to
compare the decomposition rates and nutrient release patterns of maize and
groundnut residues using litterbags. Also, two incubation studies were conducted in the laboratory, first, to determine potential N mineralization rates from above and
below ground crop residues and second to determine potential N - mineralization
rates of maize stover and groundnut haulm in selected five Malaysian soil series.


According to the Carter-Leslie Doomsday Argument, we should assign a high probability to the hypothesis that the human species will go extinct very soon. The argument is based on the application of Bayes's theo-rem and a certain indifference principle with respect to the temporal location of our observed birth rank within the totality of birth ranks of all humans who will ever have lived. According to Bostrom's Simulation Argument, which appeals to a weaker indifference principle than the Doomsday Argument, at least one of the following three propositions must be true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a posthuman stage, (2) it is very unlikely that some posthuman civili-zation will run a significant number of ancestor simula-tions, (3) it is almost sure that we are living in a com-puter simulation. According to my Doomsday Simulation Argument, both of the following propositions must be true: (1) it is almost sure that the human species will not go extinct before reaching a posthuman stage, (2) it is almost sure that we are not living in a computer simulation.


Young adult caregivers experience reduced wellbeing when the combination of family care and an educational program becomes too demanding. We aim to clarify the role views, competences, and needs of lecturers regarding the identification and support of these students to prevent negative mental health consequences. A mixed-methods explanatory sequential design was used. We collected quantitative data using a survey of lecturers teaching in bachelor education programs in the Netherlands (n = 208) and then conducted in-depth interviews (n = 13). Descriptive statistics and deductive thematic analyses were performed. Most participants (70.2%) thought that supporting young adult caregivers was the responsibility of the educational institution, and 49% agreed that it was a responsibility of the lecturer, but only 66.8% indicated that they feel competent to do so. However, 45.2% indicated that they needed more training and expertise to identify and support these students. All interviewees felt responsible for their students' wellbeing but highlighted a lack of clarity regarding their role fulfillment. In practice, their ability to identify and support these students depended on their available time and level of expertise. The lecturers required agreements on responsibility and procedures for further referral, as well as information on support and referral opportunities, communication skills courses, and peer-to-peer coaching.


It is often argued that a well-ordered in-service training program would augment the teachers' capability to effectively achieve classroom activities and practices, and back the educational organization to realize its objectives and ultimately develop teaching (Mahmood, 2016). Moreover, contemporary research studies maintained that Iraqi EFL teachers have need of sustenance and aide in terms of ordering active lesson plans (Al-Tufaili, 2016; Hindi, 2012). Building an effective lesson plan is one of the essential requirements for teachers in their careers in schools. Therefore, it becomes so necessary that a training program must include items related to the content of lesson planning. This paper intends to gather Iraqi EFL teachers' opinions and views concerning items classified under lesson planning, i.e. which ones are more appealed by them, which ones they disprefer. A sample of eighty Iraqi EFL teachers teaching in secondary schools from Kirkuk Governorate have been selected to answer a questionnaire containing 15 items of lesson planning. Utilizing Likert's scale, the participants reveal that operational planning for EFL classes can motivate teachers to pay attention to specific learning and teaching goals and purposes, as a lesson plan often yields a framework for teaching EFL that enables teachers to allocate exact time for teaching activities in the class. The questionnaire also shows that planning the accurate lesson and organizing it into professional steps is an interesting matter for teachers.


Background: Exposure to smoke, including environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a well-known risk factor for diabetes. Low socioeconomic status, especially lack of education, is also a risk factor for diabetes. Therefore, we assessed the association of demographic, socioeconomic, clinical, and behavior risk factor-related variables and smoking status, including ETS exposure, with the prevalence of diabetes. Methods: Data were from the 2007–2013 Korea National Health and Nutritional Evaluation Survey (KNHANES). Multivariable logistic regression examined associations between various lifestyle and health factors and the prevalence of diabetes while controlling for potential confounding variables. Subgroup analysis was performed according to smoking status to determine factors associated with diabetes. Results: Of 19,303 individuals analyzed, 1325 (11.4%) had diabetes. Greater average age, male sex, lower educational level, unemployment, and coexisting health problems were significantly associated with diabetes. Individuals with only elementary, middle, or high school level education had significantly greater odds ratios (p < 0.05) compared to college graduates; smokers and nonsmokers exposed to ETS had significantly greater OR (p < 0.05) than nonsmokers unexposed to ETS. Subgroup analysis of diabetics according to smoking status revealed significant associations (p < 0.05) for diabetic nonsmokers exposed to ETS with female sex, single status, elementary level education, urban residence, National Health Insurance (NHI), hypertension, a lack of alcohol intake, and a lack of moderate physical activity. For diabetic smokers, there were significant associations (p < 0.05) with elementary education, urban residence, a lack of moderate physical activity, a lack of alcohol intake, and NHI. Conclusions: The results suggested that smoking status, as well as ETS exposure, was associated with a higher prevalence of diabetes, especially in populations with less education. Thus, we should direct efforts for controlling diabetes toward individuals with lower levels of education and those who are smokers and nonsmokers exposed to ETS.


This thesis reports on the economic analysis of trade secrets via data collected from prosecutions under the U.S. Economic Espionage Act (EEA.) Ratified in 1996, the EEA increases protection for trade secrets by criminalizing the theft of trade secrets. The empirical basis of the thesis is a unique database constructed using EEA prosecutions from 1996 to 2008. A critical and empirical analysis of these cases provides insight into the use of trade secrets.
 The increase in the criminal culpability of trade secret theft has important impacts on the use of trade secrets and the incentives for would-be thieves. A statistical analysis of the EEA data suggest that trade secrets are used primarily in manufacturing and construction. A cluster analysis suggests three broad categories of EEA cases based on the type of trade secret and the sector of the owner. A series of illustrative case studies demonstrates these clusters.
 A critical analysis of the damages valuations methods in trade secrets cases demonstrates the highly variable estimates of trade secrets. Given the criminal context of EEA cases, these valuation methods play an important role in sentencing and affect the incentives of the owners of trade secrets. The analysis of the lognormal distribution of the observed values is furthered by a statistical analysis of the EEA valuations, which suggests that the methods can result in very different estimates for the same trade secret. A regression analysis examines the determinants of trade secret intensity at the firm level. This econometric analysis suggests that trade secret intensity is negatively related to firm size. Collectively, this thesis presents an empirical analysis of trade secrets.


Receptive anal intercourse is common among men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender women, and practiced by women around the world. The risk of becoming infected with HIV through receptive anal intercourse is 20 times greater than vaginal intercourse. Hence, there is an urgent need for the development of rectal specific topical pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) products. In the current study, our lab developed enemas containing tenofovir (TFV) for rectal application, which may provide some advantages with respect to user acceptability and compliance. In addition to evaluation of TFV in enemas, prodrugs of TFV: tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF) and hexadecyloxypropyl (HDP)-tenofovir (CMX157) were evaluated due to their increased potency and better safety profile. In this project, a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for TAF was developed and qualified. Preformulation studies for TAF including solubility, hydrolytic, thermal, photolytic, and oxidative stability and preservative compatibility were conducted. TAF was found to be susceptible to hydrolytic degradation in acidic pH (pH≤4) and degraded when exposed in an aqueous solution to temperatures greater than 25°C. TAF hypotonic and isotonic enema formulations (1.76 mg/mL) were developed and characterized with respect to pH, osmolality, and drug content. One-week stability of these enemas was assessed in 40°C/75% RH, 30°C/65% RH and 25°C/60% RH environmental chambers. TAF enemas were stable for one week. In addition to the TAF enema, formulation efforts were initiated with CMX157. A preliminary HPLC method for CMX157 was developed. Prototype CMX157 enemas were prepared and pH and osmolality testing conducted. Additional formulation optimization is required to enhance TAF stability in an enema format. Further investigation of the prototype CMX157 enema developed with respect to its physiochemical characteristics and stability is needed.


I propose analysing the dynamics of income positions using dynamic panel ordered probit models. I disentangle, simultaneously, the roles of state dependence and heterogeneity (observed and non-observed) in explaining income position persistence, such as poverty persistence and affluence persistence. I apply my approach to Chile exploiting longitudinal data from the P-CASEN 2006–2009. First, I find that income position mobility at the bottom and the top of the income distribution is much higher than the expected, showing signs of high economic insecurity. Second, the observable individual characteristics have a much stronger impact than true state dependence to explain individuals' current income position in the income distribution extremes.


This change project centres on the implementation of a structured communication tool in a medical handover meeting within a Paediatric hospital. The primary aim was to improve the structure and content of the weekend handover and optimize learning for those attending. The main objective was to introduce an adapted SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) tool for use in case presentations and in doing so to provide an encouraging and supportive learning environment for those partaking in the handover . The HSE Change model was used to structure the change in this project and the comprehensive approach suited the project.. The evaluation to date has been positive, however the author predicts that the handover will be improved continuously, with ongoing user feedback. While the results are promising based on the initial evaluation of the project following implementation, it is clear, however, that a longer study on whether the effect on SBAR on handover is sustained is required and this will require ongoing evaluation and input from all those attending. A well-led handover session provides a useful setting for clinical education as shown in this study and going forward the continued implementation and development of the changes made should make for a sustained and lasting change for the better within the organisation.


Key Odin operational and instrumental features and highlights from our sub-millimetre and millimetre wave observations of H2O, H218O, NH3, 15NH3 and O2 are presented, with some insights into accompanying Odin Letters in this AA H2O observations of Galactic Centre sources, of shock enhanced H2O towards the SNR IC443, and of the candidate infall source IRAS 16293-2422; H218O detections in Orion KL and in comet Ikeya-Zhang; sub-mm detections of NH3 in Orion KL (outflow, ambient cloud and bar) and ρ Oph, and very recently, of 15NH3 in~Orion KL. Simultaneous sensitive searches for the 119 GHz line of O2 have resulted in very low abundance limits, which are difficult to accomodate in chemical models. We also demonstrate, by means of a quantitative comparison of Orion KL H2O results, that the Odin and SWAS observational data sets are very consistently calibrated. Odin is a Swedish-led satellite project funded jointly by the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the National Technology Agency of Finland (Tekes), and the Centre National d'etudes Spatiales (CNES, France). The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) has been the prime industrial contractor, and is also responsible for the satellite operation from its Odin Mission Control Centre at SSC in Solna and its Odin Control Centre at ESRANGE near Kiruna in northern Sweden. See also the SNSB Odin web page: http://www.snsb.se/eng_odin_intro.shtml


BACKGROUND
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant risk factor for premature cardiovascular disease and death. Increased oxidative stress in people with CKD has been implicated as a potential causative factor for some cardiovascular diseases. Antioxidant therapy may reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in people with CKD.

OBJECTIVES
To examine the benefits and harms of antioxidant therapy on mortality and cardiovascular events in people with CKD stages 3 to 5; dialysis, and kidney transplantation patients.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Renal Group's specialised register (July 2011), CENTRAL (Issue 6, 2011), MEDLINE (from 1966) and EMBASE (from 1980).

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included all randomised controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the use of antioxidants for people with CKD, or subsets of RCTs reporting outcomes for participants with CKD.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Titles and abstracts were screened independently by two authors who also performed data extraction using standardised forms. Results were pooled using the random effects model and expressed as either risk ratios (RR) or mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

MAIN RESULTS
We identified 10 studies (1979 participants) that assessed antioxidant therapy in haemodialysis patients (two studies); kidney transplant recipients (four studies); dialysis and non-dialysis CKD patients (one study); and patients requiring surgery (one study). Two additional studies reported the effect of an oral antioxidant inflammation modulator in patients with CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 20 to 45 mL/min/1.73 m²), and post-hoc findings from a subgroup of people with mild-to-moderate renal insufficiency (serum creatinine ≥125 μmol/L) respectively. Interventions included different doses of vitamin E (two studies); multiple antioxidant therapy (three studies); co-enzyme Q (one study); acetylcysteine (one study); bardoxolone methyl (one study); and human recombinant superoxide dismutase (two studies).Compared with placebo, antioxidant therapy showed no clear overall effect on cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.95, 95% CI 0.70 to 1.27; P = 0.71); all-cause mortality (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.76 to 1.14; P = 0.48); cardiovascular disease (RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.52 to 1.18; P = 0.24); coronary heart disease (RR 0.71, 95% CI 0.42 to 1.23; P = 0.22); cerebrovascular disease (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.63 to 1.32; P = 0.63); or peripheral vascular disease (RR 0.54, 95% CI 0.26 to 1.12; P = 0.10). Subgroup analyses found no evidence of significant heterogeneity based on proportions of males (P = 0.99) or diabetes (P = 0.87) for cardiovascular disease. There was significant heterogeneity for cardiovascular disease when studies were analysed by CKD stage (P = 0.003). Significant benefit was conferred by antioxidant therapy for cardiovascular disease prevention in dialysis patients (RR 0.57, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.80; P = 0.001), although no effect was observed in CKD patients (RR 1.06, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.32; P = 0.63).Antioxidant therapy was found to significantly reduce development of end-stage of kidney disease (ESKD) (RR 0.50, 95% CI 0.25 to 1.00; P = 0.05); lowered serum creatinine levels (MD 1.10 mg/dL, 95% CI 0.39 to 1.81; P = 0.003); and improved creatinine clearance (MD 14.53 mL/min, 95% CI 1.20 to 27.86; P = 0.03). Serious adverse events were not significantly increased by antioxidants (RR 2.26, 95% CI 0.74 to 6.95; P = 0.15).Risk of bias was assessed for all studies. Studies that were classified as unclear for random sequence generation or allocation concealment reported significant benefits from antioxidant therapy (RR 0.57, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.80; P = 0.001) compared with studies at low risk of bias (RR 1.06, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.32; P = 0.63).

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Although antioxidant therapy does not reduce the risk of cardiovascular and all-cause death or major cardiovascular events in people with CKD, it is possible that some benefit may be present, particularly in those on dialysis. However, the small size and generally suboptimal quality of the included studies highlighted the need for sufficiently powered studies to confirm this possibility. Current evidence suggests that antioxidant therapy in predialysis CKD patients may prevent progression to ESKD; this finding was however based on a very small number of events. Further studies with longer follow-up are needed for confirmation. Appropriately powered studies are needed to reliably assess the effects of antioxidant therapy in people with CKD.


The rapid development of the field of organic electronics has sparked great interest in the use of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) as low-cost electronic sensors. The direct coupling of the electronic and the sensor media to provide real time electrical output has already demonstrated high sensitivity to a variety of chemical species. The synthetic versatility of organic materials also provides endless routes to impart functionality for specifically targeted chemical interactions. Owing to their compatibility with flexible materials and simple fabrication methods, OTFTs are poised to have a tremendous impact on future portable detection technology. This article reviews recent progress made toward improved sensitivity, selectivity and stability of OTFT sensors through material and device engineering. Specific consideration is paid to the interaction of the electronic materials with the analytes as a means of providing insight into mechanistic principles as well as the future direction of OTFTs.


Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is a suite of laboratory techniques designed to rescue infertile phenotypes. While ART has led to the birth of 5 million ART babies worldwide, success rates rarely exceed 40%. One potential factor for this could be iatrogenic ('clinician-induced') damage to critical sperm proteins, such as phospholipase C zeta (PLCζ) and protamine, which are fundamental for oocyte activation and sperm DNA integrity, respectively. This report describes how we have begun to investigate the adverse effects of ART techniques upon these key sperm proteins. We also describe the pathway taken by Miss Suseela Yelumalai to acquire a scholarship from the Malaysian Government and her postgraduate experience at the University of Oxford. We introduce the facilities and learning opportunities available at the Institute of Reproductive Sciences (IRS) which houses Dr Kevin Coward's research laboratory, and finally, highlight the potential for collaborative development between the Universities of Oxford and Malaya.


Although your fund may not be investing in real estate, you compete for funds against all classes of assets. The authors state the case for real estate and compare its performance with other asset classes. Real estate investments may appear attractive due to the following facts: Real estate comprises a large share of the universe of institutionally appropriate investments; real estate has a traditionally low return correlation with other major investment sectors, thereby providing diversification; and the historical yields from real estate investments have been high relative to stocks and bonds, especially when analyzing risk-adjusted returns. The authors detail a series of private equity investment strategies for real estate.


This research evaluated some fruit quality attributes at harvest and after two storage conditions [i.e., room temperature and cold storage] of four cactus pear cultivars previously exposed to non-irrigated (NI) treatment as the control, supplemental irrigation (SI) and commercial irrigation (CI). The cultivars responded differently to irrigation treatments and among evaluations. SI and CI plants had the highest fruit and pulp mass at harvest and maintained at both storage conditions, although these results were not always significant. Flesh firmness tended to be the highest in SI and CI fruit at harvest in all cultivars. The latter response was maintained occasionally at both storage conditions in all cultivars. Both dry mass concentration and total soluble solids concentration tended to be the highest in NI fruit of all cultivars. Fruit mass loss was minimized by SI and CI treatments in both storage conditions, and in relation to room temperature storage, cold storage increased the fruit storage life of all cultivars. At the start of the experiment, NI fruit at room temperature storage had the highest decay incidence; after that, this fruit deterioration problem was observed occasionally in both storage conditions. It was concluded that the amount and occurrence of rain was an important factor in the statistical inconsistence of the response variables. However, the SI and CI treatments minimized fruit mass loss in both storage conditions and extended the fruit storage life of all cultivars in cold storage, which is important for transportation, marketing, and consumers. Additionally, SI, on a three-year-average, saved irrigation water by 51% compared to CI, therefore, SI may be recommended to similar agro-ecological regions.


Prolonged exposure to multiple traumatic events of an interpersonal nature, particularly during development, has shown psychological consequences and symptoms not included among the current diagnostic criteria of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These negative and chronic situations during childhood and adolescence provide further evidence of the existence of a psychopathological syndrome associated with complex (dis)adaptations to a number of traumatic effects. The absence of a cohesive and reliable diagnosis for these patients negatively affects symptom identification and treatment planning. The aim of the present study was to review the definition of trauma, presenting the concept of complex trauma and investigating its clinical implications and the diagnostic categories deriving from this construct. Important questions are raised about differences between complex trauma and PTSD, followed by an investigation of PTSD symptoms and comorbid disorders, as well as the limitations of PTSD diagnosis. Taking into consideration the psychopathological impact associated with complex trauma, the article discusses the possibility of including a new diagnostic category in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is discussed, as part of the spectrum of post-traumatic psychopathologies.


Unconformity-related hydrothermal ore deposits typically form by mixing of hot, deep, rock-buffered basement brines and cooler fluids derived from the surface or overlying sediments. Current models invoking simultaneous downward and upward flow of the mixing fluids are inconsistent with fluid overpressure indicated by fracturing and brecciation, fast fluid flow suggested by thermal disequilibrium, and small-scale fluid composition variations indicated by fluid inclusion analyses. We propose a new model where fluids first descend, then evolve while residing in pores and later ascend. We use the hydrothermal ore deposits of the Schwarzwald district in southwest Germany as an example. Oldest fluids reach the greatest depths, where long residence times and elevated temperatures allow them to equilibrate with their host rock, to reach high salinity, and to scavenge metals. Youngest fluids can only penetrate to shallower depths and can (partially) retain their original signatures. When fluids are released from different levels of the crustal column, these fluids mix during rapid ascent in hydrofractures to form hydrothermal ore deposits. Mixing from below during ascent provides a viable hydromechanical mechanism to explain the common phenomenon of mixed shallow and deep fluids in the formation of hydrothermal ore deposits.


This is a preprint of a chapter whose final and definitive form was co-published in Exploring Digital Libraries: Foundations, Practice, Prospects by Facet Publishing (2014) and ALA Neal-Schuman (2014).


The blood brain barrier (BBB) is a barrier that protects the brain against various harmful substances. However, it is an important limitation for the development of new drugs. For this reason, there is a constant search in find new alternatives to deliver drugs to the brain. In this way, polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) from (D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) poly(ethylene glycol) (PLGA-PEG) could be an important strategy to facilitate the transport of therapeutic molecules across the BBB; they are a drug delivery systems that is biodegradable, biocompatible and approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The main objective of this work was the encapsulation of an anti-diabetic drug in polymeric NPs of PLGA-PEG to analyze its toxicity and internalization using a human brain microvascular endothelial cell line (hCMEC/D3). The NPs were prepared by the solvent displacement technique. An initial study used a factorial design to modify the independent variables determining NP synthesis. Subsequently, physicochemical, biopharmaceutical and stability characterization studies were done. To evaluate the toxicity and uptake, NPs, at concentrations up to 10 µg/mL, were applied to the hCMEC/D3 cell line. Uptake was measured by flow cytometry (FACSCalibur) with rhodamine-labelled NPs. The experiment was standardized to 10,000 events on the gate and at voltage of 410 mV with respect to the control sample (untreated cells). The results demonstrated that the NPs (mean size around 160 nm and negative charge of −14.4 mV), were internalized by the cells, and showed the character of a monodisperse systems. The release profile showed a slow release with a Fick's passive diffusion. In the toxicity assay, cells were 80% viable up to a concentration of 5 µg/mL. Fluorescence and electron microscopy indicated that NPs were primarily present in the cells' cytosol. Taken together, the results demonstrate that these nanoparticles could be effective in delivering therapeutics to the central nervous system.


This article studies the law and economics of cooling-off periods and secondary markets for online media. The discussion is fueled by a current debate: In July 2009, the online retail juggernaut, Amazon.com, remotely deleted literary classics from consumers' portable "Kindle" reading devices. The public outcry and class-action lawsuit that followed have reinvigorated an ongoing debate about how much control digital media distributors should wield. Pundits and plaintiffs argue that too often, digital distributors like Amazon impair consumer freedom by misusing Digital Rights Management (DRM) software systems. However, these same systems could also provide significant benefits that have largely gone ignored. This article argues that, with the help of DRM, lawmakers could provide for cooling-off periods and nurture secondary markets for downloaded media that would benefit consumers, copyright holders, and digital distributors.


In this study, we examined characteristics of the mother-child context that may support young children's emotion expressions and emotion regulation. We observed children (N = 154) in four emotion-eliciting episodes to measure their emotion expressions and mother-focused regulation strategies. Mothers reported on the toddlers' attachment security. Lower levels of maternal controlling behaviors and higher levels of attachment security were associated with more adaptive emotion expressions by toddlers, and more maternal positive behavior was associated with more mother-focused regulation. Toddlers' use of mother-focused regulation was also associated with decreased levels of negative affect in positive and fear emotioneliciting tasks but not in frustration tasks. The associations differed for boys and girls and differed depending on the context of the specific emotion elicited.


In Berry's (1981) classic work on exchange structure, it was argued that knowledge exchanges consist of some conversational participant who already knows the information and some conversational participant to whom the information is imparted. The former participant is commonly termed the primary knower, whereas the latter is termed the secondary knower. What is missing in Berry's model (and work that has extended Berry's model), however, is (1) an explanation of how rights and access to knowledge can be claimed or resisted on a turn-by-turn and move-by-move basis, and (2) a more elaborated conception of knowledge that goes beyond a sender/receiver model of information. Drawing from a corpus of spoken conversation from diverse sources, I extend Berry's model by showing how a participant's 'knower status' is often negotiated within an exchange. As an interpersonal resource, knowledge can be asserted, challenged, resisted, accepted, expanded, upgraded, downgraded, etc. Furthermore, I argue that 'knowledge' should be given a social/practical epistemological interpretation; from this perspective, knowledge is associated with a speaker's degree of access to information and with a speaker's rights and obligations to know.


Biometric recognition methods, using human features such as voice, face or fingeorprints, are increasingly popular for user authentication. Voice is unique in that it is a non-intrusive biometric which can be transmitted over the existing telecommunication networks, thereby allowing remote authentication. Current spealcer recognition systems can provide high recognition rates on clean speech signals. However, their performance has been shown to degrade in real-life applications such as telephone banking, where speech compression and background noise can affect the speech signal. In this work, three important advancements have been introduced to improve the speaker recognition performance, where it is affected by the coder mismatch, the aliasing distortion caused by the Line Spectral Frequency (LSF) parameter extraction, and the background noise. The first advancement focuses on investigating the speaker recognition system performance in a multi-coder environment using a Speech Coder Detection (SCD) System, which minimises training and testing data mismatch and improves the speaker recognition performance. Having reduced the speaker recognition error rates for multi-coder environment, further investigation on GSM-EFR speech coder is performed to deal with a particular - problem related to LSF parameter extraction method. It has been previously shown that the classic technique for extraction of LSF parameters in speech coders is prone to aliasing distortion. Low-pass filtering on up-sampled LSF vectors has been shown to alleviate this problem, therefore improving speech quality. In this thesis, as a second advancement, the Non-Aliased LSF (NA-LSF) extraction method is introduced in order to reduce the unwanted effects of GSM-EFR coder on speaker recognition performance. Another important factor that effects the performance of speaker recognition systems is the presence of the background noise. Background noise might severely reduce the performance of the targeted application such as quality of the coded speech, or the performance of the speaker recognition systems. The third advancement was achieved by using a noise-canceller to improve the speaker recognition performance in mismatched environments with varying background noise conditions. Speaker recognition system with a Minimum Mean Square Error - Log Spectral Amplitudes (MMSE-LSA) noise- canceller used as a pre-processor is proposed and investigated to determine the efficiency of noise cancellation on the speaker recognition performance using speech corrupted by different background noise conditions. Also the effects of noise cancellation on speaker recognition performance using coded noisy speech have been investigated. Key words; Identification, Verification, Recognition, Gaussian Mixture Models, Speech Coding, Noise Cancellation.


Throughout his entire career, Nishida Kitarō was, arguably, interested in challenging Immanuel Kant's formulation of the moral will. In his first work, An Inquiry into the Good, he criticizes Kant's pure practical reason as idealistic, arguing that the good should be understood not in terms of an abstract, formal relation of reason with itself, but in terms of personality as a single, unique, unifying power that is the true reality of the self. He echoes this language in his last work, "The Logic of the Place of Nothingness and the Religious Worldview," proposing that the personal self exists as a self-determining individual through creative expression. This article will investigate how Nishida's development of this concept of the personal self grounds his proposal that the goal of the moral will is realization of the good as a personal, rather than abstract, ideal, through the intentional action of active intuition.


The new generation of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models seems particularly suited for conducting scenario analysis. These models formalise the behaviour of economic agents on the basis of explicit micro-foundations. As a result, they appear less prone to the Lucas critique than more traditional macroeconometric models. DSGE models provide researchers with powerful tools, which allow for the designing of a broad range of scenarios and tackling a large range of issues, offering at the same time an appealing structural interpretation of the scenario specification and simulation results. The paper provides illustrations on some of the modelling issues that often arise when implementing scenarios using DSGE models in the context of projection exercises or policy analysis. These issues reflect the sensitivity of DSGE model-based analysis to scenario assumptions, which in more traditional models are apparently less critical, such as, for example, scenario event anticipation and duration, treatment of monetary and fiscal policy rules.


Cloud computing paradigm provides an alternative and economical service for resource-constrained clients to perform large-scale data computation. Since large matrix determinant computation (DC) is ubiquitous in the fields of science and engineering, a first step is taken in this paper to design a protocol that enables clients to securely, verifiably, and efficiently outsource DC to a malicious cloud. The main idea to protect the privacy is employing some transformations on the original matrix to get an encrypted matrix which is sent to the cloud; and then transforming the result returned from the cloud to get the correct determinant of the original matrix. Afterwards, a randomized Monte Carlo verification algorithm with one-sided error is introduced, whose superiority in designing inexpensive result verification algorithm for secure outsourcing is well demonstrated. In addition, it is analytically shown that the proposed protocol simultaneously fulfills the goals of correctness, security, robust cheating resistance, and high-efficiency. Extensive theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation also show its high-efficiency and immediate practicability. It is hoped that the proposed protocol can shed light in designing other novel secure outsourcing protocols, and inspire powerful companies and working groups to finish the programming of the demanded all-inclusive scientific computations outsourcing software system. It is believed that such software system can be profitable by means of providing large-scale scientific computation services for so many potential clients.


Two-photon absorption (TPA) cross sections of an organic dye, trans-4-[p-(N-hydroxyethyl-N-methylamino)styryl]-N-methylpyridinium iodide (abbreviated as ASPI), from 810 to 1100 nm have been measured in two solvents (benzyl alcohol, dimethyl formamide (DMF)) with different polarities. The peak values and positions of ASPI TPA spectra were found to be strongly influenced by the solvents. The maximum molecular TPA cross sections are 26.42*10^(-48) cm4 s/photon at 930 nm (in DMF solution) and 46.81*10^(-48) cm4 s/photon at 960 nm (in benzyl alcohol solution).


In Australia curriculum is developed and implemented at the level of states and territories. Attempts in the past two decades to develop a national curriculum for schools have been unsuccessful, and as a result, each state and territory government is solely responsible for the development and implementation of its' own regulatory frameworks for the curriculum. Each state and territory has agreed on a set of Key Learning Areas. Although the names for these may vary, the discipline areas remain common and refer to English, mathematics, science, the arts, technology, society and environment, health and physical education, and languages other than English. In this section I will refer specifically to the school curriculum for early childhood (kindergarten to year 3) since child care in Australia is regulated by a national accreditation scheme. The child-care sector does not usually adopt curriculum designed by education authorities although in some states child-care directors are required to be trained teachers. Most Kindergarten and preschool programs are offered free to children who are 3–5 years of age, although these programs are not compulsory and school (i.e., year 1) starting ages also vary, as they too are determined by individual states and territories.