This article explores the stakes of the very intense controversy that has developed in France around the medical treatment of Covid-19 (which finds some parallels in the United States of America). It centres on the therapeutic proposal of a Marseilles doctor, who has become a very divisive 'star' in public debates over the efficacy of treatment. The author shows that competition between this doctor's proposal and the commercial hopes of a major pharmaceutical company plays an important role. This company has managed to create links of interest with many other major doctors, some of whom are at the heart of the decision-making process concerning the management of the health crisis. Finally, the author places this episode within the broader question of the hold the drug industry has on scientific production within the medical field. The interdependence between health authorities and the pharmaceutical industry is anything but healthy. The Covid-19 debate conforms to a well-worn pattern of behaviour: public backlash over the transgressions of wealthy corporate actors, government regulatory responses insisting on greater levels of transparency, corporate circumvention of said regulations, resulting in the continuation of fraud and corruption.


The isotope pairing technique (IPT) is a well‐established 15N method for estimation of denitrification. Presence of anammox, the anaerobic oxidation of NH4+ to N2 with NO2− results in violation of central assumptions on which the IPT is built. It is shown that anammox activity causes overestimation of the N2 production calculated by the IPT. However, experiments with different additions of 15NO3− will reveal the problems posed by anammox. Two alternative calculation procedures are presented, which enable a more accurate quantification of anammox and denitrification activity in sediments where the processes coexist. One procedure is based on measurements of 15N‐N2 production in 15NOx−‐amended intact sediment cores and data addressing the contribution of anammox to total N2 production estimated from slurry incubations. The other procedure is based on measurements of 15N2 production in at least two parallel series of sediment cores incubated with different 15NOx− additions. The calculation procedure presented is used on field data from four studies where the IPT was used and the potential anammox rate measured. The IPT overestimated total 14N‐N2 production rates by 0%, 2.5%, 31%, and 82% relative to the revised estimates from the 4 different sites, where anammox accounted for 0%, 6%, 18%, and 69.8%, respectively, of N2 production. The overestimation of true denitrification was, however, up to several hundred percent. Our analysis suggests however that the IPT does not seriously overestimate N2 production in estuarine sediments because anammox accounts for <6% of N2 production in such sediments, according to present knowledge.


Estimated nutritive quality of forages in the San Carlos County, Costa Rica. II. Cell wall components. A total of one hundred and ninety two compound samples of Cynodon nlemfuensis, Setaria anceps, Brachiaria ruziziensis, Pennisetum clandestinum and Pennisetum purpureum was taken in commercial dairy farms in the Quesada district, San Carlos county. This area is located in the Humid Tropics of Costa Rica at 200 to 1 600 masl and samples were taken during a year period, to analyze fiber or cell wall components in order to generate information for improving dairy cattle feeding practices, as well as to obtain data required by summative equations to stimate energy content of forages. Setaria anceps, Brachiaria ruziziensis and Pennisetum clandestinum were sampled during the semidry and rainy seasons at26 to 30 days of regrowth. Meanwhile, Cynodon nlemfuensis was sampled at 20 to 25, and 26 to 30 days and Pennisetum purpureum at 50 to 60 days of regrowth. Cell wall composition was analyzed in terms of NDF, ADF, hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin, silica and neutral and acid detergents insoluble nitrogen. Average values found for these variables in grazing species were 69.5, 38.6,30.9,37.3, 5.04,2.87,0.82 and 0.27 per cent of DM, respectively. For Pennisetum purpureum values were 7 2.5, 51..5, 27.7, 38.6, 6.89, 5.38, 0.63, and 0.26 per cent of DM. Significant differences (P<0,05) were found among species and seasons for all variables analyzed. In general, all variables evaluated are within the typical range of well managed tropical Pastures. Results suggest that if forage availability and intake are adequate, all forages in the zone satisfy NDF and ADF requirements of dairy cattle. However, high NDF contents, such those observed in Cynodon nlemfuensis and Pennisetum purpureum, may limit voluntary intake.


Fiji's mining industry is experiencing significant increase in activity with a number of foreign investors interested in exploring and extracting Fiji's mineral wealth. While most mining is concentrated in Viti Levu (Fiji's largest island), Vanua Levu (Fiji's second largest island) is also attracting interest with bauxite mining in Bua, exploration of copper and zinc in Udu point and the proposed reopening of the gold mine in Mount Kasi. The mine in Bua is Fiji's first ever bauxite mine and is suggested to provide significant economic benefits to Vanua Levu in terms of export earnings, employment and infrastructure development. However, given the Pacific's torrid experiences with mining, some feel that this may be another case of developed countries exploiting the resources of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and where the economic benefits of mining will not outweigh the associated environmental, health and social costs. As bauxite mining in Vanua Levu is still in its early stages, this paper will not conduct a cost benefit analysis of bauxite mining. Rather the paper will provide an overview of bauxite mining in Vanua Levu, the purported economic benefits of the mine, risks, costs and concerns raised by various stakeholders and the mechanisms and strategies in place to mitigate the risks of bauxite mining.


It is not often noted, but The Political Unconscious by Fredric Jameson is explicitly presented as Deleuzian in spirit. It is, in eVect, an experiment in immanent criticism, or what I would prefer to call 'immanent historicism', which like Deleuze and Guattari's Ž rst great collaboration, The Anti-Oedipus, is concerned, in Jameson's own words, 'to reassert the speciŽ city of the political content of everyday life and of individual fantasy-experience and to reclaim it from that reduction to the merely subjective and to the status of psychological projection'. That their respective projects could be the same or even similar scarcely seems possible given that they stand on opposite sides of that yawning chasm – namely, the Hegel and anti-Hegel divide – which in the decades since World War II has split philosophy in two. And yet, here is Jameson claiming a supposed enemy as a kindred spirit. This is surely the most provocative reading of Deleuze ever oVered. Certainly, to my mind, it is the most interesting, and in what follows I will try to show how Jameson's insight can be used to enrich our understanding of Deleuze's work.


When the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954 that segregated schools were inherently unequal, many hailed the decision as the beginning of the end of "American apartheid." However, by 1960, it had become obvious that it would take more than one court decision to desegregate the public schools nationwide, especially in the North, where discriminatory housing patterns, and not state laws, led to segregated classrooms. In 1961 parents and community activists in New Rochelle, New York, proved that grassroots efforts could bring about change when they sued the local school board for gerrymandering the town to create underfunded predominantly African American districts. Like the community of New Rochelle, the citizens of Boston, faced with an intransigent school committee, were forced to take action. (1) The struggle to end de facto segregation in the Boston public schools has been the subject of several books. (2) Starting with a 1961 study conducted by the NAACP documenting the inadequacies of predominantly black public schools through the court-ordered busing of 1974 and beyond, the Boston School Committee staunchly denied culpability in promoting racial isolation. The School Committee members, led by Louise Day Hicks, blamed poor achievement on the character and background of the students rather than discrepancies in the expenditures for black versus white students, the temporary teachers often assigned to schools in black neighborhoods, and the lack of adequate resources. In such a climate, even the smallest victories were hard won, and the activism of Boston's African American community, especially that of the residents of Roxbury, has been rightfully acknowledged and commended. Moreover, the Brown decision involved many more people than the Supreme Court originally intended, and the less visible yet important involvement of other segments of the Boston population has often been overlooked. Boston is one of the premiere college towns in the United States. This, combined with the vastly disproportionate numbers of student activists compared to the rest of the population, created a vibrant and vocal civil rights community throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s. Admittedly, most university activity city-wide focused either on conditions in the South or on more insular issues pertaining to individual campuses. Yet the highly publicized and worsening conditions in the Boston public school system could not be ignored for long. Tufts University, as an institution of higher learning and a member of the greater Boston community, played a unique part in the controversy. Like students at other universities, some tutored African American children and participated in the civil rights protests, but what set Tufts apart was its institutional response. Divisions such as the Experimental College and the Lincoln-Filene Center for Citizenship and Public Affairs helped to raise community awareness and spearhead the organized activities to insure that black children attained educational parity with their white counterparts. As such, the direct and indirect aid lent to the struggle to end de facto segregation of the Boston public schools by Tufts University, both as an institution and as a collection of individual students and faculty members, constituted an important block in the foundation of the community-wide efforts to realize the goals of the Brown decision. AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Beginning with Boston Latin School, which opened in 1635, Boston has the oldest public school system in the United States. Separate "colored" schools were established in 1820. In 1787 and again in 1849, African American parents tried to convince the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to allow their children to attend the same schools as white students. They finally achieved victory in 1854, when the legislature outlawed de jure segregation. By 1965, Boston operated two hundred public schools servicing 93,000 children and staffed by 4,000 teachers. …


Intercalibration has a strict metrological definition, but in brief, it's an open sharing of methods and results between laboratories to achieve the most accurate data with the fewest random and systematic errors. In the field of chemical oceanography where concentrations of many constituents can be in the nano‐ to picomolar range, the salt water matrix can be difficult to analyze, and knowing the exact concentrations, or even chemical forms, of biologically required elements is essential, intercalibration is a very relevant and needed tool. Implementing it is not simple because errors can occur at any step in the process of taking a water or particle sample, handling and processing it, and finally analyzing it and treating the resulting data. The international GEOTRACES program provides a good example of implementing intercalibration for studies of dissolved and particulate trace elements and isotopes, and is described here.


Having higher bone mineral density (BMD) during growth is complexly influenced by many factors. For example, nutrition and physical exercise are key factors. However, few studies have investigated the combined effects of these factors. In this study, we investigated the effect of physical exercise and different levels of protein intake on BMD and bone strength of growing male rats. Forty-seven male Wistar rats (5 wk old) were randomized into 10% (Low), 20% (Moderate) and 40% (High) protein diet groups, and each group was further divided into exercise groups (LEx, MEx, HEx) or non-exercise groups (L, M, H). Exercise group rats were trained 6 d per week on a treadmill (25-30 m/min, 60 min) for 60 d. After being sacrificed, their BMD and bone strength were evaluated. The BMD of tibia, femoral breaking force and energy were significantly lower in the low protein diet groups than the other diet groups. In particular, the femoral breaking energy was significantly lower in the HEx group than in the H group, while there were no differences between LEx and L or MEx and M. Taken together, our data suggests that a low protein intake could suppress acquisition of bone mass and increasing bone strength during growth. Moreover, a high protein intake could also suppress bone strength during growth in which physical activity was vigorously performed. Therefore, sustaining an adequate protein intake level, around 20% protein intake, may be of significance for increasing not only bone mass but bone strength during growth.


A polarization state generator (PSG) was built to generate light having a degree of linear polarization (DoLP) varying from 0.0005 to 0.4 with 0.0005 uncertainty. The PSG operates by tilting a plane parallel SF11 glass plate in a nearly unpolarized beam. The DoLP of collimated, unpolarized light passing through a plane parallel plate over a defined range of field angles can be calculated from theory, and the PSG was intended to act as a calibration standard based on this calculation. Several effects make the DoLP distribution as a function of field and tilt plate difficult to model to the desired 0.0005 uncertainty: source DoLP and intensity nonuniformity, lens surface diattenuation, and errors in optical alignment. Because of these effects, modeled DoLP was not used as a standard. Instead, DoLP was characterized with repeatability of 0.0005.


Summary Since 1990, after privatization of farmland, fragmentation – division of land in small farmable parcels dispersed on noncontiguous areas – continues to be one of the major factors that hamper sustainable development of agriculture in Albania. The 'Consolidation of Agricultural Land as an Instrument for Sustainable Development of Agriculture' Project was developed in the Municipality of Fier during June 2017 – June 2018. This project is a success story for the development of land consolidation policies in Albania. It was the result of an inclusive process with the local community and other key stakeholders, as well as of an extensive national discourse on the subject matter. The project resulted in the design of a program for land consolidation, prepared by the municipality of Fier in collaboration with regional agencies and interest groups and with the technical assistance of the authors of this article. The program was extensively discussed at the local level with key stakeholders, as well as in a national conference. Then, it was approved by the Local Council and presented in the respective parliamentary commission, aiming at influencing national policy making on land consolidation. The project is already under implementation. This article provides a summary of the process, analysis, and proposals of the project and of the land consolidation programme prepared for Fier. In this process, problems that require national-scale solution were identified, and the Project lobbied decision-making and policymaking institutions for application and replication in other municipalities across the country.


Abstract Reinterventions for surgery complications in adult patients with complex congenital heart disease are often difficult and have a high operative risk. If anatomically possible, a percutaneous approach is an alternative to surgery. We report the case of a 36 year-old patient who underwent surgery for a double outlet right ventricle with transposition of the great arteries and pulmonary stenosis. On the days following the surgery, the patient was hemodynamically unstable due to a stenosis of the intraventricular Dacron conduit between the left ventricle and the aorta. Because of the fragility of the patient, additional surgery was not possible and a percutaneous approach was preferred. A Cheatham Platinum stent mounted on a balloon-in-balloon catheter was implanted with success in the stenotic intraventricular Dacron conduit.


Over the last decade, supply chain management has advanced from the warehouse and logistics to strategic management. Integrating theory and practices of supply chain management, this book incorporates hands-on literature on selected topics of Value Creation, Supply Chain Management Optimization and Mass-Customization. These topics represent key building blocks in management decisions and highlight the increasing importance of the supply chains supporting the global economy. The coverage focuses on how to build a competitive supply chain using viable management strategies, operational models, and information technology. It includes a core presentation on supply chain management, collaborative planning, advanced planning and budgeting system, risk management and new initiatives such as incorporating anthropometry into design of products.


In contrast to its strategic role as essential resource to help achieve community development and poverty alleviation in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), groundwater has remained a poorly understood and managed resource. This was the finding of a scoping study regarding the status of groundwater resources management in SADC. The key premise for the assessment was that groundwater resource management must take place within an IWRM framework and the IWRM Toolbox developed by the Global Water Partnership was used as the scope and content for the assessment. The SADC region has well- developed policies for regional development and IWRM, as well as a relatively strong focus on groundwater resources. This article questions whether problems relating to Africa's sustainable utilisation and management of groundwater is a unique groundwater problem or must also be related to the challenges experienced in general with the implementation of an IWRM approach in Africa. A key finding was that groundwater management links to groundwater-dependent sectors like agriculture, rural development, health and environment are not well- established in policy or in practice. Internationally, there is a recognition, that such a, quite common, situation can only be addressed through a long-term process through which viable national, regional and local systems can evolve, within a strategic framework in which these intended relationships between diverse sets of interventions or management approaches and the development goals are brought out. However, such a strategic, multi-stakeholder-driven approach also still remains the major challenge in Africa for IWRM implementation as a whole. Recent continent-wide initiatives, like the development of IWRM and water efficiency plans for each country and multi-stakeholder water dialogue processes, have been taken to address this challenge. It is therefore crucial that groundwater becomes an integral part of these and related initiatives. New AMCOW and SADC initiatives for groundwater provide a major opportunity to achieve this. Keywords: groundwater, community development, sustainable utilisation and management, IWRM


The Australian Government Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) has a well-established Fellowship program that advances learning and teaching in higher education by supporting leading educators to undertake strategic, high-profile activities in areas of importance to the sector. This workshop is designed to provide an insight into this Fellowship program for those interested in discovering more about what it means to be an OLT Fellow and to explore the process involved and offer guidance for those interested in applying for a fellowship. The workshop will be led by a selection of current and past Fellows who will be on hand to provide advice; share experiences and showcase the work they undertook as OLT Fellows.


The near exponential rise in percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI) in the treatment of patients with coronary artery disease and the consequent decline in referral of patients for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has lead to a crisis in cardiac surgery. Is CABG, one of the most successful and widely applied surgical procedures, about to follow surgery for peptic ulcer disease into obsolescence? The question has serious implications for service provision and training as well as for informed patient consent. Keith Dawkins puts the case for PCI and gives a very clear and concise account of its inexorable rise to pre-eminence. David Taggart has taken on the Goliath of interventional cardiology and its associated industry by persuasively marshalling the data from the evidence base which strongly favours surgery in triple vessel and left main coronary disease. He points to the lack of long-term results and also to the weaknesses of many of the comparative studies so far published. His arguments have been positively received on both sides of the Atlantic but it is by no means certain that they will bring about the multidisciplinary approach to providing patients with treatment options which he and others advocate. It also remains to be seen whether the evidence base when it is eventually acquired will vindicate the present increasing dominance of PCI over CABG.


Today, information is largely stored and transmitted electronically, raising novel concerns about data privacy and security. This data frequently includes sensitive personally identifiable information that is vulnerable to theftand exposure through illegal hacking.A breach of this data leaves victims at a heightened risk of future identity theft. Victims seeking to recover damages related to emotional distress or money spent protecting their identities and finances are often denied Article III standing to pursue a claim against the entity charged with protecting that data. While the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Pisciotta v. Old National Bancorp and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Krottner v. Starbucks Corp. recognized standing even when harm was limited to the increased risk of identity theft, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Reilly v. Ceridian Corp. split with its sister courts and denied standing for data breach victims, citing a lack of injury-in-fact.The Reilly court's application of the standing doctrine creates an unreasonable barrier for injured plaintiffs to reach the merits of their cases. The circuit split should be resolved in favor of conferring standing for those who suffer a threat of future harm. Data breach plaintiffs' standing should be recognized, just as the plaintiffs' standing in "latent harm" tort law cases is recognized, because the increased risk of future harm in defective medical device, toxic substance exposure, and environmental injury cases is logically analogous and applicable to the increased risk of harm in data breach cases. In addition, the Supreme Court's original purpose of the standing doctrine supports acknowledging that the risk created by a data breach and the resulting expenses to protect against identity theftconstitute a real, present, particularized injury worthy of justiciability.INTRODUCTION"We have built our future upon a capability that we have not learned how to protect."1 These words, spoken by former CIA Director George Tenet, acknowledge the critical vulnerabilities of information-age technology on which we rely in modern society. Information in the modern world is increasingly stored and transmitted electronically, rapidly replacing the methods of the past.2 While electronically storing data comes with extraordinary environmental and economic advantages,3 its use raises novel concerns about the privacy and security of digital data.4Much of the electronic information stored in databases by corporations and organizations includes sensitive personal information, such as social security numbers, phone numbers, birthdates, addresses, financial records, and medical records.5 Electronic data is uniquely vulnerable to theftand exposure on a catastrophic scale.6 Private electronic data can be exposed through illegal hacking,7 employee theft,8 the loss of laptops and hard drives,9 and even through inadvertent exposure on the Internet.10 It is clear that few entities that use online or electronic databases are impervious to data loss, given that between eighty to ninety percent of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies have experienced data breaches of some type.11 Electronic data breaches have become a leading cybersecurity challenge for the private and public sectors alike.12With the increased use of digital data storage, the frequency and severity of breaches of data security are on the rise,13 and correspondingly, litigation relating to the exposure of personal data has increased.14 Some estimates put the number of records breached since 2005 at over 600 million.15 A breach of personally identifying digital information leaves victims at a heightened risk of future identity theftand misuse of their private information.16Victims whose private information has been exposed or compromised often bring legal claims despite a lack of actual fraudulent use of their information. …


Nanocellulose is remarkable cellulose-based nanomaterials that have a potential for innovation and sustainable appeal. Their advances can be assessed using patent indicators and text mining techniques. The aim of this study was at analyzing the advances in nanocellulose based on indicators compiled from patents filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) from 2000 to 2012. Assignees, technological subjects, highly cited patents, applications and types of nanocellulose were obtained by mining structured and unstructured data. The results highlighted the different interests in the USA market, mainly after 2007. Mined terms from titles and abstracts could add further information to the analysis. However, although the method applied was useful, it was not sufficient to identify all applications and types of nanocellulose involved in the sample analyzed, therefore it is recommended that other document parts be included in future analyses.


John C. Daly is a sixty-one year citizen of Santa Cruz, and as a doctor, a family man and a former mayor he has had a central vantage point on the process of evolution and change Santa Cruz has gone through. This oral history hinges on his perspective on and involvement in the development of Santa Cruz from the small, tight-knit city he moved to in '53 to the college town it is today, where there is a city population of ca. sixty thousand and a student population that exceeds seventeen thousand. However, the scope of the sessions go beyond his public involvement in Santa Cruz to give a broader context of his life, including his childhood, his family, and his service in World War II. Early in his career he took an opportunity to buy an existing practice in Santa Cruz, a quiet town centered on summer beach tourism. It essentially shut down for the rest of the year, leaving rents low and the businesses small. Variety came with its popularity as a convention locale, and the Miss California Pageant at the start of the summer. Daly relates the slow progress his business had in this context, which gave him time to get involved with public service organizations like the Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Salvation Army. A few years later, at the urging of local businessmen, he ran for the city council. A newspaper advertisement for his campaign advertised his priorities as establishing a "wider tax base," supporting "residents with fixed incomes," working on "governmental agency cooperation," an "improved storm drain system," and "municipal wharf modernization." He was elected and served one term as a councilman from '59 to '63, including a stint as mayor from '61-'62. During those four years Daly helped support and initiate a series of key growth projects. In the late fifties and early sixties, Santa Cruz acquired the Sky Park Airport, constructed the yacht harbor, built the Loch Lomond Reservoir, oversaw downtown redevelopment, worked with a developer on a major international complex, and competed with San Jose for a University of California campus. The goal of all of this, Daly relates, was to make Santa Cruz into a "very desirable upper-middle class community with a great university," characterized by a thriving business and convention culture. The international complex, for instance, was designed by the lead disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright and featured a glass pyramid hotel, a series of 'courts' showcasing the goods and products of foreign countries, and a concert hall that would show primarily non-domestic acts, speakers and films. The plans were put on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The developer estimated it would grow to have two million visitors a year. Just up the hill, the proposed UC campus was to grow to twenty seven thousand, five hundred students by 1990. Daly thought it was perfect. The town was busy in the summer, when many students were away, and then during the off-seasons there would be a robust student presence to fill the town and fuel business. While the Court never came into being due to funding issues, during John's tenure as mayor the UC Regents unexpectedly settled on Santa Cruz as the site for their new campus. It was the culmination of protracted outreach efforts by the city, spearheaded by public officials like Daly. He was thrilled, expecting a wave of well-funded young people in sun tan pants and plaid skirts and bobby socks, like he and his fellow students dressed during his time at Berkeley. However, in the long run the university proved to not conform to these expectations. In these interviews he relates how the students increasingly became politically radicalized in the late sixties and seventies, and began to dress more casually and messily. To compound this trend, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the voting age to eighteen in '71, and Governor Jerry Brown signed a law that made it easier for students to register to vote in their adopted college communities. The political landscape of the town gradually shifted under these factors. The professional, business culture dominant in the city in the fifties and early sixties was challenged by what Daly terms "no-growthers:" people who were (and are) consistently opposed to development on personal, environmental and political grounds. During Daly's time on the council issues like building the Loch Lomond Reservoir were matter of course, and did not face significant opposition. During the seventies, however an attempt to build another dam, the Zayante Dam, was killed. A second effort to build a convention center at Lighthouse Point, where the Court of the Seven Seas was to have stood, was defeated by popular vote and a major public campaign. Since the sixties and seventies there have been almost no new hotels, and convention business has become marginal. In the eighties the Miss California Pageant relocated after years of protest, and the city council has become the site of increased political conflict. Today Daly feels that the town has been held back in significant and damaging ways by this shift towards a "no-growth" attitude. On personal and professional notes, Daly reflects at length about other challenges he and the city have faced, including the Flood of '55 and the Quake of '89. He discusses the damage, and how the town recovered from those two disasters. More intimately, he reflects on how Santa Cruz has been as a place to raise a family, and for his practice. He discusses the pros and cons of having the UC, including the prestige it has brought the town, and closes with a retrospective and prospective on his own life. He talks about what has been meaningful to him, and returns to dwell on the transformative power education has had for him and his family.


Two related issues in public policy with respect to alcohol are how increased availability influences consumption and what effect excess consumption has on individual health outcomes. This paper examines one particular source of variation in availability, bar opening hours, and how this influences alcohol consumption, physical and mental health. We focus on the extension of opening hours in England and Wales that occurred in 2005. We demonstrate a marked increase in consumption, which appears to be concentrated in heavy drinking. This increase in consumption is subsequently demonstrated to lead to deterioration in both individual physical and mental health outcomes. This has important policy implications for the regulation of alcohol availability.


Compensatory growth (CG) refers to the ability of individuals to accelerate
growth rate following periods of nutritional deprivation. This study examined the use of
cyclical feeding regimes to elicit CG in two marine fishes with different life histories:
black sea bass (Centropristis striata) and southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma).
During Phase I, 60 juveniles of each species were divided equally into 3 cyclical feeding
treatments and one control group (unlimited ration). There also was a group control for
each species to test for any differences between the group held and the individually held
controls. Treatment groups were starved for either 2, 5 or 8 days, refed until
consumption rates returned to control levels, and then starved again. During Phase I,
treatments were examined for their ability to elicit CG after at least 3 feed/no feed cycles.
During Phase II, deprived treatments were returned to unlimited ration and monitored for
additional compensation relative to controls. The duration of the experiments was 73
days for black sea bass and 61 days for southern flounder. Analyses indicate that
capacity for CG is minimal in both species. Following Phase I, controls were larger than
deprived treatments for both species, suggesting that cyclical feeding regimes did not
elicit a strong compensatory response. Although cyclical feeding produced a
hyperphagic response in both species, the duration of hyperphagia was short (~1-2 days)
and insufficient to support CG. Furthermore, treatment groups did not increase growth
efficiencies relative to controls during Phase I. During Phase II, D5 and D8 treatments
displayed partial compensation as evidenced by increased weight-specific feeding rate
(WSFR), growth rate (G) and gross growth efficiency (K1); however, control fish
maintained a distinct size advantage. Proximate composition analysis (non-polar lipids, protein, AFDW) reveal different patterns of energy allocation in these species, with the
black sea bass showing higher lipid content and lower water content compared to the
southern flounder. Results are discussed in light of competing hypotheses regarding the
fitness consequences of compensatory growth. Limited hyperphagic responses and lack
of full compensation may be due to constraints on digestion rate, or decreased fitness
associated with maximal growth rates.


We investigated the crystal structural changes in titanite solid-solution Ca(Ti,Al)(O,F)SiO 4 along the binary join TiO-AlF, on the basis of X-ray powder data and Rietveld refinement of seven synthetic titanites of intermediate compositions. Investigations with the transmission electron microscope allow us to narrow down the space group transition from P2 1 /a to A2/a to compositions between X Al = 0.09 and X Al = 0.18 [X Al = Al/(Al+Ti)]. The changes in most of the unit-cell dimensions along the binary join are non-linear, resulting in a small excess volume of mixing with a maximum at X Al = 0.54. The commonly observed trend of positive deviation of the excess volume of mixing near the large end-member, and negative deviation towards the small end-member seems to be reversed in this case. At AlF-contents larger than X Al = 0.6 the Ca-site and the O1-site in the titanite structure become increasingly over-bonded with Al-F substitution. At about X Al = 0.4 the octahedral cation-oxygen distances change significantly, indicating that the titanite structure undergoes a major atomic rearrangement at high AlF-contents in order to accommodate the increasingly different ionic size and charge. Generally, with increasing AlF content the polyhedra are being deformed rather than rotated. The changes in unit-cell dimensions, bond lengths and bond valence sums along the binary join suggest the presence of structural strain in AlF-rich titanite, especially at Al-F contents exceeding X Al = 0.4. The structural problems are obviously not significant enough to prevent the formation of Al-rich titanite in simple chemical systems as in our experiments. However, the structural strain may be significant enough to decrease the thermodynamic stability of Al-rich titanite in natural rocks compared to other Al- and F-bearing phases. This could partly explain the rare natural occurrence of titanite with X Al >0.54.


We aimed in this study to present the clinical findings in children with iliopsoas abscess (IPA) and to discuss the diagnosis and treatment. The files of five patients, hospitalized between August 2011 and June 2013 and monitored with a diagnosis of IPA, were reviewed retrospectively. Demographic characteristics, symptoms and signs, laboratory examinations, and diagnostic and treatment methods of the cases were evaluated. Two of the cases were females and three were males, and their ages ranged from 10 to 15 years. Before the diagnosis, the duration of symptoms in patients ranged from five days to one year. The primary symptoms included fever and difficulty in walking. One patient presented with septic shock and had a history of trauma as a predisposing factor. All patients except one had a higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) value. Psoas abscess was demonstrated by ultrasonography (USG), except in one patient. Four patients underwent percutaneous drainage of the abscess. The isolated microorganisms included Staphylococcus aureus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Enterococcus faecalis. All the cases recovered without sequelae. Diagnosis of IPA in children is difficult, and many physicians are usually consulted before any diagnosis is made. IPA should be considered in the differential diagnosis in patients presenting with complaints of lower back, hip, groin and leg pain and difficulty in walking.


Geological field mapping involves not only the basic recording of field observations, but also the interpretation of a wide range of both direct and indirect evidence of the stratigraphy, structure, properties and genesis of the rocks and superficial deposits in the area being surveyed. Confidence in interpretation is highest when the mapping geologist has access to a wide range of existing 'prior' information about the geology, topography, environment, land use and archaeology. With traditional, paper-based records, geologists have been able to carry only a small subset of this prior information into the field, forcing much of the interpretation to be completed either at the field base or in the office following completion of a fieldwork campaign. New mobile computing technologies are now enabling geologists to access, visualise and interrogate large, spatially-referenced datasets in the field, enabling new interpretations to be made in direct context of prior knowledge, and avoiding inefficient repetition of earlier observations.

New, workflow-based digital mapping systems are now being deployed by the British Geological Survey (BGS) in both UK and international geological mapping projects. The BGS Virtual Field Reconnaissance (VFR) system enables the survey area to be recreated and visualised in an immersive 3D virtual environment. This enables project teams to work collaboratively to test and annotate the existing geological interpretations, ensuring that subsequent fieldwork focuses efficiently on addressing gaps in knowledge and understanding. Use of tablet PC-based field data recording allows the geologist to take this annotated prior knowledge into the field, together with a wide range of other baseline data such as digital terrain models, orthophotos, boreholes, geophysical data and remote sensing imagery. New field observations and interpretations are recorded using Geographic Information System (GIS) software on the tablet PC, returned to the office for further refinement in the VFR system, and then incorporated into new digital geological maps and 3D models.

Deployment of the digital mapping systems in BGS has required design and development of new IT systems and substantial investment in digital capture and spatial referencing of existing prior information in the form of paper records. The growing availability of high speed wireless internet access and web-based 3D GIS systems and search engines will continue to revolutionise geological field work by providing geologists with access to the huge resource of contextual knowledge on the World Wide Web. This will not only enable more refined and reliable interpretations, but also broaden geologists' awareness of the wider environmental context and record new, scientifically cross-cutting interpretations that broaden the relevance and application of geological survey data.


The last few years have witnessed the emergence and evolution of a vibrant research stream on a large variety of online social media network (SMN) platforms. Recognizing anonymous, yet identical users among multiple SMNs is still an intractable problem. Clearly, cross-platform exploration may help solve many problems in social computing in both theory and applications. Since public profiles can be duplicated and easily impersonated by users with different purposes, most current user identification resolutions, which mainly focus on text mining of users' public profiles, are fragile. Some studies have attempted to match users based on the location and timing of user content as well as writing style. However, the locations are sparse in the majority of SMNs, and writing style is difficult to discern from the short sentences of leading SMNs such as Sina Microblog and Twitter. Moreover, since online SMNs are quite symmetric, existing user identification schemes based on network structure are not effective. The real-world friend cycle is highly individual and virtually no two users share a congruent friend cycle. Therefore, it is more accurate to use a friendship structure to analyze cross-platform SMNs. Since identical users tend to set up partial similar friendship structures in different SMNs, we proposed the Friend Relationship-Based User Identification (FRUI) algorithm. FRUI calculates a match degree for all candidate User Matched Pairs (UMPs), and only UMPs with top ranks are considered as identical users. We also developed two propositions to improve the efficiency of the algorithm. Results of extensive experiments demonstrate that FRUI performs much better than current network structure-based algorithms.


We propose the Robust Overlay Architecture for Mobility (ROAM) to provide seamless mobility for Internet hosts. ROAM is built on top of the Internet Indirection Infrastructure (i3). With i3, instead of explicitly sending a packet to a destination, each packet is associated with an identifier. This identifier defines an indirection point in i3, and is used by the receiver to obtain the packet.ROAM takes advantage of end-host ability to control the placement of indirection points in i3 to provide efficient routing, fast handoff, and preserve location privacy for mobile hosts. In addition, ROAM allows end hosts to move simultaneously, and is as robust as the underlying IP network to node failure. We have developed a user-level prototype system on Linux that provides transparent mobility without modifying applications or the TCP/IP protocol stack. Simulation results show that ROAM's latency can be as low as 0.25–40% of Mobile IP. Experimental results show that with soft handoff the TCP throughput decreases only by 6% when there are as many as 0.25 handoffs per second.


A phenomenological analysis of pion nucleon scattering at high energies is presented in terms of soveral absorptive models for the πN amplitudes. In the past there have been two popular versions - the weak-cut model and the strong-cut model. In general it was difficult to choose between these- two very different approaches. However the whole absorptive approach was thrown into doubt when better information about the polarization in π p→ π(^o) n at larger ׀t׀ became available, last year. The new data in fact accords with the predictions of the p + p(^1) polo lit of Barger and Phillips, More recently measurements of the R parameter in π(^+)ρ→ π(^+)ρ have enabled the phases of the πN amplitudes to be determined, and again these agree with the Barber-Phillips (B.P) productions but contradict both types of absorption model. We assume that the B.P It = 0 amplitudes are a reliable T-representation of these amplitudes, and we fit those with a somewhat simpler parameterization. For our I(_t). = 1 amplitudes, we find that a t-channel parameterization plus crossing was much preferred to the usual direct s-channel parameterization. We find, cy correctly taking into account the real parts of the I(_t) = 0 non-flip amplitude i.e essentially, by including a p o p cut contribution in the I(_t) = 1 amplitudes, that our fits improved considerably, especially the charge-exchange polarization. We find that the fixed-pole coupling model is by far the best. In general the data is reasonably well fitted apart from the high ׀t| region of our elastic polarisation. This is traced back to our rather poor representation of the real parts of the I(_t) = 1 amplitudes. It is unlikely that a better representation of the- I(_t) = 0 amplitudes will remedy this defect. The imaginar parts of these amplitudes- are in good agreement with amplitude analysis. We conclude that the absorption prescription, with any hypothesis about the choosing mechanism of the p pole is not completely successful in explaining the I(_t)= 1 amplitudes. It works well for the imaginary parts and less so for the real parts, and we indicate, possible, reasons for this.


In this study we rethought efficient market hypothesis from a viewpoint of complexity of market participants' prediction methods and market price's dynamics, and examined the hypothesis using simulation results of our artificial market model. As a result, we found the two difference from the hypothesis. (a) Complexity of markets was not fixed, but changed with complexity of agents. (b) When agents increased the complexity of their prediction methods, structure of dynamic patterns of market price didn't disappear, but it can't be described by equation of any dimensions.


The RMB is included in the SDR basket on Oct. 2016, China's capital account liberalization will face new challenges, and the impact of international short-term capital flows on China's financial security will exceed our understanding. Therefore, it is necessary to measure the intensity of China's capital control objectively. This paper summarizes the existing literature on capital control intensity, and develops the method of measurement. Using the new method to measure the intensity of China's capital controls. The results show that the intensity of China's capital control measured in different methods is basically consistent. The intensity of China's capital controls tends to be weakened in general, and the relaxation of capital inflow control precedes capital outflow control. The intensity changes of China's capital control would be reflected on the volatility in international capital flows inevitably. Especially the short-term international capital flows have a higher correlation with the adjustment of the intensity of capital control.


An experiment to measure organic contaminant depuration by the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) was carried out by transplanting mussels in stainless steel cages from a known contaminated site in Dorchester Bay, Massachusetts to a documented clean site in Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts approximately 30 nmi south of the original collection site. A parallel contaminant uptake experiment was performed in which mussels from Duxbury Bay were collected and deployed in similar cages in Dorchester Bay. The bivalves were collected from each transplant site at set intervals over a period of 95 days to monitor the rates and selectivity of depuration and uptake, respectively, of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), and chlorinated pesticides. In a related study, semipermeable membrane devices (SPMD: polyethylene bags) containing the lipid material triolein were deployed in Dorchester Bay and collected at the same frequency as the caged mussels to evaluate their effectiveness as models for estimating bioconcentration of target organic contaminants. At the Duxbury site, results suggest that the caged mussels depurated contaminants within 68 days to levels found in native animals at the site. At the Dorchester site, bivalves concentrated the contaminants to a level similar to the native M. edulis. PCB and DDT uptake rates were found to be similar between caged mussels and SPMDs; PAH uptake by the SPMDs was initially lower than by transplanted bivalves. PCB and PAH assemblages were noticeably different between bivalves and SPMDs deployed at the same site.


A chemically coated piezoelectric sensor has been developed for the determination of PAHs in the liquid phase. An organic monolayer attached to the surface of a gold electrode of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) via a covalent thiol-gold link complete with an ionically bound recognition element has been produced. This study has employed the PAH derivative 9-anthracene carboxylic acid which, once bound to the alkane thiol, functions as the recognition element. Binding of anthracene via pi-pi interaction has been observed as a frequency shift in the QCM with a detectability of the target analyte of 2 ppb and a response range of 0-50 ppb. The relative response of the sensor altered for different PAHs despite pi-pi interaction being the sole communication between recognition element and analyte. It is envisaged that such a sensor could be employed in the identification of key marker compounds and, as such, give an indication of total PAH flux in the environment.


A study of magnetic properties in the insuluing spinel system Co x Zn 1-x (Fe y Cr 1-x 2 O 4 has been made based on the temperature relationships of the low-frequency, weak field ac susceptibilities and low field magnetizations measurements. According to the above experimental results, we propose a probable magnetic phase diagram of the spinel. This magnetic phase diagram shows the reentrant spin glass phenomena in quite wide concentration ranges in the spinel. Increasing the concentration of the magnetic ions, the freezing temperatures of the reentrant spin glass increase. These properties are common in the systems with a few kinds of the magnetic ions or the magnetic ions which concentration are quite high. The mechanism of reentrance of spin glasses has been discussed in the paper. The reentrant spin glass in the spinel is a mixed state of spin glass and ferrimagnetic microdomains or spin clusters, which come from the collapse of the ferrimagnetic state.


Purpose To analyze the effect of preoperative serum sodium and hemoglobin on oncologic outcomes in upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) based on a multi-center cohort from China and the United States (U.S.). Methods We retrospectively reviewed the records of 775 patients with UTUC treated surgically at tertiary care medical facilities in China or the US from 1998 to 2015. We analyzed associations of preoperative serum sodium and hemoglobin with clinicopathological characteristics, overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS) and intravesical recurrence free survival (IVRFS). Results The US patients had comparatively lower serum sodium and similar hemoglobin at baseline. Preoperative low serum sodium value was associated with tumor multifocality, lymph node metastasis (LNM) and lymphovascular invasion (LVI); preoperative anemia was associated with advanced age, tumor multifocality, high tumor grade and LVI. Preoperative low serum sodium was an independent predictor of worse OS in the entire cohort; preoperative anemia was an independent predictor of worse OS and CSS in the US cohort alone, Chinese cohort alone and the combined cohort. We developed a predictive nomogram for OS which exhibited better prognostic value when it included the values of sodium and anemia, and successfully validated it in different cohorts. Conclusion Preoperative low serum sodium and anemia could be informative in predicting worse pathologic and survival outcomes in different UTUC patient ethnic groups.


Nailed timber-plywood connections are critical components in plywood shear walls to provide shear wall strength, stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation. In this study, a total of eight connection types consisting of nails with three sizes (ø2.8×60, ø3.15×75, and ø3.55×90) and plywood sheets with three thicknesses (12mm, 17mm, and 25mm) were experimentally tested under monotonic and cyclic loading. The connection properties in terms of strength, stiffness and ductility were derived based on the load-slip curves of the connections to study the influence of nail size, plywood thickness, load-grain angle and loading type on the connection performance. Experimental results showed all the connection types had very ductile behaviour under monotonic and cyclic loading. The overstrength factor of 1.6 provided in NZS 3603 was also applicable for these nailed connections with relatively thick plywood panels. It was also found that the connection strength was mainly affected by the nail size and the increase of plywood thickness from 12mm to 17mm or 25mm did not change the connection strength significantly.


Future air traffic regulations are going to further limit the noise and pollutant emissions of aero engines in a way that can only be met by the comprehensive migration towards lean premixed combustion based aero engine designs. Compared to conventional rich-quench-lean setups, these next generation combustion systems are more prone to thermoacoustic instabilities caused by combustion noise. For this reason, improved methods for the prediction and investigation of combustion noise and thermoacoustic instabilities are required. Consequently, a hybrid Computational Aeroacoustics (CAA) method is devised, implemented and applied to two enclosed, reactive configurations in this work. The method comprises a low Mach number flow solver, a dedicated acoustics tool and a coupling layer, which bridges the different numerical schemes and physical phenomena. In addition to traditional aeroacoustic problems, the method is applicable to enclosed configurations with complex geometries, while maintaining the favorable computational efficiency of common hybrid methods. Its key components are the newly developed acoustics solver and the corresponding coupling layer. For the description of the reacting flow field, an established, finite volume based flow solver is equipped with the coupling interface.
By employing the high order spectral/hp element method in a discontinuous Galerkin formulation, the CAA solver efficiently accounts for acoustic wave propagation in complex, three-dimensional geometries. Its implementation is focused on stability and flexibility to allow for an easy adaption to industrial applications, such as combustion noise. This is achieved by solving the unconditionally stable Acoustic Perturbation Equations (APE) and using a set of Riemann solvers that can operate on variable density base flows. The developed coupling layer enables bi-directional communication of both solvers at run-time, without limiting their spatial and temporal resolutions, even when applied to coinciding domains. Their different length scales and discretization methods are overcome by a linear interpolation in time and a spatial, implicit low pass filter, that operates on an intermediate representation of the flow fields.
The applicability of the hybrid CAA method is investigated by means of two laboratory scale combustors of increasing complexity. The first setup features a half-dump combustor, that facilitates a basic validation of the CAA solver and the coupling. It is shown that the short length scale base flow fields are sufficiently represented in terms of the CAA expansion by the coupling layer. In the obtained acoustic fields, the behavior of the system's first eigenmode is well reproduced. The instigation of a second eigenmode was not observed in the experimental noise spectrum but is in agreement with a similar hybrid CAA simulation. The second configuration is a pressurized burner, operated by a swirl stabilized, premixed flame. It is already beyond the capabilities of most available CAA tools and features most phenomena present in industry scale combustion systems. In the considered frequency range, the prevalent eigenmode is very well predicted. Independent of the acoustic governing equations, the developed method is estimated to require less than a fifth of the computational effort of a direct noise simulation for the considered configuration.


Tuberculous pericarditis (TBP) continues to wreak havoc across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Despite more than 5 decades of treatment and research into TBP, we are not much closer to alleviating the suffering and mortality associated with this extrapulmonary manifestation of tuberculosis (TB). In the era of modern cardiology, diseases of the pericardium do not receive the same amount of research attention and investment as what diseases of lifestyle do. Interventional techniques for their diagnosis and management do not extend much further than pericardiocentesis with appropriate laboratory investigations. They also do not provide the potential for the development and use of consumable equipment, or that of expensive drugs and, consequently, fi nancial investment into their research and development is not forthcoming. Diseases of the pericardium do, however, remain important within the discipline that we practice and TBP in particular deserves our continuous efforts and attention. It is unfortunate to acknowledge that we have not made much of an impact on this ancient foe over the last 50 odd years. Despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring TB a global emergency in 1993, more than 20 years later we are not much better off. In 2013 an estimated 9 million people developed the disease and 1.5 million died from it.(1) TBP is predominantly a disease of SSA and it requires a solution from the very region which it torments.


Abstract Background Parents tend to visually assess children to determine their weight status and typically underestimate child body size. A visual tool may aid parents to more accurately assess child weight status and so support strategies to reduce childhood overweight. Body image scales (BIS) are visual images of people ranging from underweight to overweight but none exist for children based on UK criteria. Our aim was to develop sex- and age-specific BIS for children, based on British growth reference (UK90) criteria. Methods BIS were developed using 3D surface body scans of children, their associated weight status using UK90 criteria from height and weight measurements, and qualitative work with parents and health professionals. Results Height, weight and 3D body scans were collected (211: 4–5 years; 177: 10–11 years). Overall, 12 qualitative sessions were held with 37 participants. Four BIS (4–5-year-old girls and boys, 10–11-year-old girls and boys) were developed. Conclusions This study has created the first sex- and age-specific BIS, based on UK90 criteria. The BIS have potential for use in child overweight prevention and management strategies, and in future research. This study also provides a protocol for the development of further BIS appropriate to other age groups and ethnicities.


Division C-6 was established in 2000, but members associated with forages and grazinglands have been active in the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) since its inception; 21 have served as President and many authored textbooks and comprehensive reference works. Complex forage and pasture mixtures were common in 1955, but shifted to monocultures in the 1960s and 1970s. Mixtures returned in the 1980s as N prices increased, broader values of legumes became known, nutritive value was better understood, and environmental issues increased. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) for dairy production had strong leadership from the private sector in seed production and breeding. Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) was well-adapted, conserved soil, and extended grazing in the transition zone to increase beef cow-calf production. Bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] benefited from vegetative propagation, conserved soil, and was improved for adaptation, yield, and nutritive value. Yield advancements, except for a few species, have been discouraging. Management benefited from advances in disease resistance, methods for assessing nutritive value, and understanding the role of endophytic fungi. Modest increases in nutritive value, coupled with improved pasture management, have increased animal performance. Emerging interests include biomass, carbon sequestration, and roles of biodiversity. Molecular techniques offer potential to better understand the plants and make genetic progress.


We present algorithms for testing the satisfiability and finding the tightened transitive closure of conjunctions of addition constraints of the form ± x ± y ≤ d and bound constraints of the form ± x ≤ d where x and y are integer variables and d is an integer constrant. The running time of these algorithms is a cubic polynomial in the number of input constraints. We also describe an efficient matrix representation of addition and bound constraints. The matrix representation provides a easy, algebraic implementation of the satisfiability and tightened transitive closure algorithms. We also outline the use of these algorithms for the improved implementation of abstract interpretation methods based on the octagonal abstract domain.


In order to evaluate the prevalence and multiple risk factors of arsenic-induced skin cancer among residents in Taiwanese villages in which chronic arseniasis is hyperendemic, a total of 1571 subjects aged 30 or more years were recruited between September 1988 and March 1989. All of them were interviewed personally by a public health nurse using a structured questionnaire, and 1081 interviewed study subjects, including 468 men and 613 women, participated in physical examination giving a participation rate of 68.8%. The overall prevalence of skin cancer was as high as 6.1 % showing an increase with age in both men and women. There was a significant dose-response relation between skin cancer prevalence and chronic arsenic exposure as indexed by duration of residence in the endemic area, duration of consumption of high-arsenic artesian well water, average arsenic exposure in parts per million (p.p.m.) and cumulative arsenic exposure in p.p.m.-years. 465 Chronic carriers of hepatitis B surface antigen with liver dysfunction had an increased prevalence of skin cancer. Undernourishment, indexed by a high consumption of dried sweet potato as a staple food, was also significantly associated with an increased prevalence of arsenic-induced skin cancer. All these risk factors remained statistically significant in the multiple logistic regression analysis. Consistent with animal experiments, the findings imply that liver function and nutritional status may affect the metabolism of inorganic arsenic and the development of subsequent skin


In the face of global change and impending limits on various resources, the need for people to move across borders is likely to increase. Facilitating mobility could enable people to access resources more effectively, and thereby reduce suffering for both humans and other species. This paper proposes the need for computational support to facilitate immigration decisions across a range of scales, from the individual to the community to the national government. Drawing inspiration from global systems modeling, social networking, and collaborative filtering, these computational tools would help match up individuals and communities seeking to emigrate with potential host countries, based on the preferences of both.


We've all heard of "IQ"...but what's "EQ?" It's "Emotional Quotient" (aka Emotional Intelligence), and experts say that EQ is a greater predictor of success at work than IQ. Companies are increasingly looking for ways to motivate and develop their employees' emotional intelligence. This book presents trainers and coaches with 50 innovative exercises to be used for either individuals or groups. The activities found in the book are grouped according to the various core competencies associated with Emotional Intelligence: Self-Awareness and Control: an awareness of one's values, emotions, skills, and drives, and the ability to control one's emotional responses Empathy: an understanding of how others perceive situations Social Expertness: the ability to build relationships based on an assumption of human equality Mastery of Vision: the development and communication of a personal philosophy The book also includes suggested training combinations and coaching tips.


Between the late Renaissance and the early nineteenth century, the ancient arts of architecture were being profoundly transformed by the scientific revolution. This important book, which won the 1984 Alice Davis Hitchcock Award, traces the process by which the mystical and numerological grounds for the use of number and geometry in building gave way to the more functional and technical ones that prevail in architectural theory and practice today. Throughout, it relates the major architectural treatises of successive generations to the larger culture and the writings of philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, and engineers. The book leads the reader through the controversy that was generated by Claude Perrault in the seventeenth century. His writings began to cast doubt on the absolute aesthetic value of the classical orders and the "perfect" proportions that were architecture's legacy from Pythagorean times. Thus the once immutable "invisible" system lost its special status forever. The book focuses in particular on eighteenth-century developments in the science of mechanics and emerging techniques in structural analysis which slowly entered the architectural treatises and found their way into practice, often by way of civil and military engineers. And by the nineteenth century, the book notes, even architectural rendering and drawing were radically changed through the introduction of new descriptive and projective geometries. Tracing these fundamental changes in architectural intentions, Perez-Gomez challenges many popular misconceptions about the theory and history of modern architecture. At the same time, he suggests an intangible loss, that of a culture's power to express through a building its total mathematical, mystical, and magical world-view.


Female labor supply in the paddies in selected communities in the island of Leyte is significant though irregular, unstable, and often viewed as buffer labor. With the few farm work available to women, not all these work is paid work, no matter how vital work may be in the whole rice production system. Moreover, work hours available to women are fewer than men's due to reproductive-productive role conflicts. Hence, women bring home lesser cash incomes. Farm wage is generally low. Alternative off-farm and non-farm work cushions family cash shortages. It is not only the man who brings home the food. The woman does, too, and has to prepare, cook, and serve it as well to her family.


We will explore dynamic perception following the visually guided grasping of several objects by a human-like autonomous robot. This competency serves for object categorization. Physical interaction with the hand-held object gives the neural network of the robot the rich, coherent and multi-modal sensory input. Multi-layered self-organizing maps are designed and examined in static and dynamic conditions. The results of the tests in the former condition show its capability of robust categorization against noise. The network also shows better performance than a single-layered map does. In the latter condition we focus on shaking behavior by moving only the forearm of the robot. In some combinations of grasping style and shaking radius the network is capable of categorizing two objects robustly. The results show that the network capability to achieve the task largely depends on how to grasp and how to move the objects. These results together with a preliminary simulation are promising toward the self-organization of a high degree of autonomous dynamic object categorization.


Due to the exponential growth of immigration to the developed countries, various speech communities have been created in those countries. This surge of macro-communities has instigated abundant research on the nature of the linguistic identity of these communities and its potential influence on the micro-communities. There is a seamless interaction between language and social identity, and this interaction is multi-faceted and renders myriads of ramifications. Correspondingly, many researchers or theoreticians have proposed various models for the mechanism of this interaction. Even though there is a consensus on the strong intercourse between language and identity, there are still debates on the causal direction of this interaction. Building upon sociocultural and sociolinguistic theories, the related literature mostly views the causal direction from social to linguistic. However, this paper argues against any unilateral interpretations and discuss how the notions of language and identity have bilateral connections. Finally, the elemental stages of the development of linguistic identity from a semiotic outlook are discussed.


India is poised to become one of the world's three largest economies in the next generation and to overtake China as the world's most populous country by 2032. Well before then India's incipient nuclear deterrent will have acquired intercontinental range and air, sea and land capabilities. India's volatile relationship with its nuclear-armed neighbour, Pakistan, may prove to be the source of the world's next major conflict. And if you call anyone -- from your bank to rail enquiries - - your query may well be dealt with by a graduate in Gujarat. Any way one looks at it, India's fate matters. In "In spite of the Gods", Edward Luce, one of the most incisive and talented journalists of his generation, will assess the forces that are forging the new nation. Cutting through the miasma that still clouds thinking about India, this extraordinarily accomplished book takes the measure of a society that is struggling to come to grips with modernity. Drawing on historical research, existing literature and his own unparalleled access as the New Delhi-based, South Asia correspondent of the FT, this is a book that will enthral as well as educate and will remain the definitive book on the country for many years.


A numerical model for a planar type SOFC is developed in this work, which predicts the fuel cell performance by solving the three-dimensional fields of velocity, gas species' mass fractions, and temperature. The numerical study focuses the investigation on a single fuel cell in a cell stack. The planar SOFC is composed of an anode-supported tri-layer of anode, electrolyte, and cathode, as well as multiple fuel and air gas channels, which also serve as interconnections. Pre-reformed fuel gas with components of H2, H2O, CO, CO2 and CH4 is arranged in the cross-flow direction against the cathode side airflow. Further reforming and shift reactions in the fuel channel are analyzed by considering the chemical reaction equilibrium. The model and obtained simulation results are of significance to improve the design and operation of planar type SOFCs.


BACKGROUND
Leishmaniasis, especially cutaneous leishmaniasis, is considered an important health problem in many parts of Iran including Kharve, Khorasan Razavi province. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is caused by various species of Leishmania, each having a different secondary host. Thus, identifying the parasites' specie is of paramount importance for containment strategy planning. The morphological differentiation of Leishmania species is not possible, rendering the molecular methods as the sole means to this purpose. Therefore, to identify the causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Kharve, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA-PCR (RAPD-PCR) was used.

METHODS
The disease was first confirmed by direct smears. Samples were gathered from 22 patients with established cutaneous leishmaniasis. The samples were immediately cultured in NNN medium, followed by sub-culture in RPMI-1640. Afterwards, DNA was extracted and amplified using RAPD-PCR. Electrophoresis patterns from each isolate were compared with reference strains of Leishmania major (L. major) and Leishmania tropica (L. tropica).

RESULTS
The results of this study indicated that the parasite causing cutaneous leishmaniasis in Kharve is L. tropica.

CONCLUSION
It seems that L. tropica is the only causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Kharve, and RAPD-PCR is a suitable tool for Leishmania characterization in epidemiological studies.


Abstract: New Re–Os molybdenite geochronology is presented from the Ballachulish Igneous Complex (433.5 ± 1.8 Ma) and the Kilmelford Igneous Complex (425.8 ± 1.7 Ma) of the SW Scottish Highlands. The sulphide mineralization in the Ballachulish Igneous Complex is related to the latest phase of granite magmatism, and therefore the new Re–Os age provides a minimum crystallization age, c. 3.7 Ma earlier than previous crystallization age estimates. This Re–Os age overlaps U–Pb ages obtained from subduction-related granitic and appinitic magmatism north of the Great Glen Fault, and an origin related to active subduction rather than slab breakoff is proposed for the Ballachulish Igneous Complex. Molybdenite mineralization in the Kilmelford Igneous Complex is spatially and genetically associated with porphyry Cu mineralization, which is consistent with the rapid ascent of volatile-rich magma during early rebound following the breakoff of subducted oceanic lithosphere. The Kilmelford Igneous Complex and the coeval Lorn Lava Pile may represent the earliest of the igneous bodies predicted by slab breakoff, indicating that slab breakoff occurred at c. 426 Ma.


Australia has proven to be a popular destination for Indian students seeking higher education qualifications. In recent years, the influx of Indian students into Australia has shown considerable volatility and so has their enrollment mix between the further, vocational and higher education sectors. An understanding of the motivations and characteristics of potential and current Indian international students along with the changing dynamics of the global higher education sector is important to be able to analyse this volatility and to ensure effective and sustainable marketing of higher education to Indian students. This paper provides a profile of Indian students studying in Australia and provides insight into their course preferences and motivations for choosing Australia. A key finding of this paper is that apart from traditional motivators such as higher rates of returns and employability associated with a foreign qualification, Indian students are very responsive to changes in Australia's labour market, immigration and student visa policies relative to other international alternatives.


The epithelialization, contraction and deposition of connective tissue are the mechanisms by which wounds heal Studies have shown that L-Arginine favors wound hearing by increasing the synthesis of collagen. This paper aimed at studying the effects of L-Arginine supplementation on in vivo concentrations of glucose, pyruvate, lactate and ketone bodies in the blood and in myocutaneous flaps undergoing hearing.Forty-four white male Wistar rats were distributed in two groups: (G-l/Control) and (G-2/Expeiiment). The G-1 animals received iso-proteic casein supplementation and the G-2 group received L-Arginine by gavage daily. Beth groups were submitted to pediculated and dorsal myocutaneous flaps. In the post-operative period, each group was subdivided into three subgroups and, after 7, 14 and 30 days, blood and scar tissue samples were collected for analyses of enzymes. The drop in blood concentrations of pyruvate, lactate and ketone bodies on the 14th day suggests higher utilization of these metabolites in peripheral tissues by a possible anabolic action of L-Arginine. The increase of tissue concentrations of ketone bodies in the myocutaneous flap on the 30th post-operative day in animals treated with L-Arginine food supplementation indicates a probable increase in the utilization of these metabolites by tissues under scarring. The results suggest that L-Arginine supplementation has an effect on serum concentrations of substrates and on skin and muscle scarring.


Introduction Workforce is one of the pillars of development in any country. Therefore, the workforce's health is very important, and analyzing its threatening factors is one of the fundamental steps for health planning. This study was the first part of a comprehensive study aimed at comparing the fitting methods to analyze and model the factors threatening health in occupational injuries. Methods In this study, 980 human occupational injuries in 10 Iranian large-scale workplaces within 10 years (2005–2014) were analyzed and modeled based on the four fitting methods: linear regression, regression analysis, generalized linear model, and artificial neural networks (ANN) using IBM SPSS Modeler 14.2. Results Accident Severity Rate (ASR) of occupational injuries was 557.47 ± 397.87. The results showed that the mean of age and work experience of injured workers were 27.82 ± 5.23 and 4.39 ± 3.65 years, respectively. Analysis of health-threatening factors showed that some factors, including age, quality of provided H&S training, number of workers, hazard identification (HAZID), and periodic risk assessment, and periodic H&S training were important factors that affected ASR. In addition, the results of comparison of the four fitting methods showed that the correlation coefficient of ANN (R = 0.968) and the relative error (R.E) of ANN (R.E = 0.063) were the highest and lowest, respectively, among other fitting methods. Conclusion The findings of the present study indicated that, despite the suitability and effectiveness of all fitting methods in analyzing severity of occupational injuries, ANN is the best fitting method for modeling of the threatening factors of a workforce's health. Furthermore, all fitting methods, especially ANN, should be considered more in analyzing and modeling of occupational injuries and health-threatening factors as well as planning to provide and improve the workforce's health.


Pulsed tandem gas metal arc welding (PT-GMAW) has the potential to increase productivity and minimize distortion in the fabrication of naval surface ship panels. In this study, the PT-GMAW process was used in pulse-pulse mode to butt joint weld 5-mm DH36,8-mm HSLA65, 9.5-mm 350WT, and 11-mm HSLA65 steel plate with ER70S-6 wire in order to assess its suitability as a replacement for submerged arc welding (SAW) and gas metal arc welding (GMAW) in panel lines of Australian naval shipyards. In the pulse-pulse mode, the wire feed rates for the leading and trailing welding wires are set independently and they alternately transfer metal into a single molten weld pool at deposition rates almost comparable with single-wire SAW. Radiographic inspection and subsequent analyses of the 8-, 9.5-, and 11-mm single-bead butt joint welds unexpectedly showed varying degrees of weld-end solidification cracking, which occurred within ∼30 mm from the run-off tab and was different than weld crater cracking. The percentage of plates with solidification cracking was greater at larger plate thicknesses due mainly to increases in both the weld bead depth:width ratio and joint restraint as plate thickness is increased. Also, relatively low levels of nickel in the weld metal resulted in less severe solidification cracks compared with weld metal with higher levels of nickel. There was no evidence of solidification cracks in the 5-mm welded plates. Potential strategies to overcome weld metal solidification cracking near the run-off tab in the PT-GMAW of steel are presented.


Abstract The expansion of legalized commercial gaming in Macau has motivated stakeholders to explore opportunities in other Asian countries. However, there is a lack of research focusing on casino customers in these markets. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore gambling superstitious beliefs and motivations of those visiting a casino in South Korea, and how these factors are different across four ethnic groups. The researchers surveyed 323 casino customers in the lounge area on the casino floor, including Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans living abroad. This study found American gamblers could be characterized as more superstitious than Japanese gamblers, while the Chinese and American gamblers exhibited many similarities regarding the pattern of superstitious beliefs that they were most likely to endorse. The findings also suggest the culture and the area around the casino might be more important to Chinese, while novelty to Japanese and winning money to Korean gamblers are seen as most important. This study contributes to gambling literature by examining gamblers' beliefs and motives in a different setting with more diverse populations than those in previous studies. The findings of this study will help casino operators properly develop and adjust strategies to thrive in the Asian marketplace.


This research analyses the transformation of the historic Ishak Pasa Palace, chronologically starting from its almost-a-hundred-year construction period of 1685-1784, through the damages it suffered from wars, invasions and improper restorations of the 19th and the 20th century, and the recent restoration work finished by 2009. Carrying architectural characteristics of Ottoman and Seljuk civilizations, the palace's uniqueness also comes from its central heating systems documented as one the first examples of its kind in the world and its location on the Silk Road in Dogu Beyazit province of Turkey. Starting from the Russian siege in 1828 and the following wars, invasions the palace suffered from several damages. Not until 1966, after the announcement of its preservation by the Directorate of Monuments and Museums in 1963, the projects for restoration, the first of which included a general clean up, excavation of the site and maintenance of the East and South facades, started to be developed. Restoration works continued until 2007 and it was reported that improper restorations which were damaging the palace had been taking place during the last 48 years. In 2007 once again the palace has undergone another restoration which covered the whole palace with a roof of huge wooden beams and laminated glass visually blocking the perception of the palace both from inside and outside. In the year 2011 a new contract was issued for the restoration of the palace. The article aims to discuss mainly the restoration projects that have transformed Ishak Pasha Palace and have given it its current appearance, within the last 48 years, on the bases of its historical background, an embodiment of a variety of architectural styles together with the wars and invasions it had gone through.


Image ranking has long been studied, yet it remains a very challenging problem. Increasingly, online images come with additional metadata such as user annotations and geographic coordinates. They provide rich complementary information. We propose to combine such multimodal information through a unified hypergraph to improve image retrieval performance. Hypergraphs allow for the simultaneously capture of higher order relationships among images using different modalities, e.g. visual content, user tags, and geolocations. Each image is represented as a vertex in the hypergraph. Each hyperedge is formed by a vertex and it's k-nearest neighbors. Three types of hyperedges exist in our unified hypergraph, which are in correspondence to the three different modalities. Image ranking is then formulated as a ranking problem on a unified hypergraph. The proposed method can easily be extended to incorporate additional modalities as long as a similarity function exists to compare the features. Experimental results on large datasets are promising.


PRAME is a cancer-testis antigen (CTA) and potential immuno-therapeutic target, but has not been well-studied in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) or its high grade serous (HGSC) subtype. Compared to normal ovary, PRAME expression was significantly increased most EOC, regardless of stage and grade. Interestingly, PRAME mRNA expression was associated with improved survival in the HGSC subtype. The PRAME locus was a frequent target for copy number alterations (CNA) in HGSC but most changes were heterozygous losses, indicating that elevated PRAME expression is not typically due to CNA. In contrast, PRAME promoter DNA hypomethylation was very common in EOC and HGSC and correlated with increased PRAME expression. PRAME expression and promoter hypomethylation both correlated with LINE-1 hypomethylation, a biomarker of global DNA hypomethylation. Pharmacologic or genetic disruption of DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) enzymes activated PRAME expression in EOC cells. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) of PRAME in EOC revealed frequent, but low level, protein expression, and expression was confined to epithelial cells and localized to the cytoplasm. Cytoplasmic PRAME expression was positively associated with PRAME mRNA expression and negatively associated with promoter methylation, but the latter correlation was not statistically significant. PRAME protein expression did not correlate with EOC clinicopathology or survival. In summary, PRAME is frequently expressed in EOC at the mRNA and protein levels, and DNA methylation is a key mechanism regulating its expression. These data support PRAME as an immunotherapy target in EOC, and suggest treatment with DNMT inhibitors as a means to augment PRAME immunotherapy.


Arch dams are of great importance in the world. In Turkey, there are 1200 existing dams with different types. Arch dams are important due to their economic resource in irrigation and water supply which are significant to the homeland security and the agricultural economy. Researchers have been carrying out various studies on dams and their seismic resistance especially after the earthquakes that occurred in the recent years. Turkey is also located at one of the earthquake-active zones. In 1999, devastating earthquakes hit Turkey causing severe property losses and thousands of lives. Excessive ground deformation caused severe crack to the existing buildings. Therefore, it is important to investigate the seismic safety of the existing dams in Turkey. In this study, probabilistic seismic risk assessment has been carried out for arch dams: Gokcekaya, Oymapinar, Karakaya, Gezende, Sir, Berke, Deriner, Ermenek Dams. For these arch dams, structural resistances have been discussed. In addition, their resistances have been determined through time history analysis with 60 different ground motion data. After time history analyses, fragility analyses for arch dams have been carried out. The fragility analysis has been used to determine probability of exceedance. Via fragility analyses, level of risk and probability of exceedance have been determined. The exceedance probabilities of the yield and collapse limit states for arch dams in Turkey have been obtained for a realistic probabilistic determination. According to the results, the role of probabilistic seismic risk assessment in dam safety decisions is addressed in detail.

 Key words: Arch dams, probabilistic seismic assessment, structural assessment, time history analysis, fragility analysis.


The direct catalytic conversion of bioethanol to butadiene, also known as the Lebedev process, is one of the most promising solution to replace the petro-based production of this important bulk chemical. Considering the intricate reaction mechanism—where a combination of acid-catalyzed dehydration reactions and metal-catalyzed dehydrogenation have to take place simultaneously—tailor-made bifunctional catalysts are required. We propose to use non-hydrolytic sol-gel (NHSG) chemistry to prepare mesoporous Ta-SiO2 materials which are further promoted by Ag via impregnation. An acetamide elimination route is presented, starting from silicon tetraacetate and pentakis(dimethylamido)tantalum(V), in the presence of a Pluronic surfactant. The catalysts display advantageous texture, with specific surface area in the 600–1000 m² g−1 range, large pore volume (0.6–1.0 mL g−1), an average pore diameter of 4 nm and only a small contribution from micropores. Using an array of characterization techniques, we show that NHSG allows achieving a high degree of dispersion of tantalum, mainly incorporated as single sites in the silica matrix. The presence of these monomeric TaOx active sites is responsible for the much higher dehydration ability, as compared to the corresponding catalyst prepared by impregnation of Ta onto a pristine silica support. We attempt to optimize the butadiene yield by changing the relative proportion of Ta and Ag and by tuning the space velocity. We also demonstrate that Ag or Cu can be introduced directly in one step, during the NHSG process. Copper doping is shown to be much more efficient than silver doping to guide the reaction towards the production of butadiene.


Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) has been proposed to manage the mobility of Mobile Terminals (MTs) hierarchically to reduce packet losses during local handover. HMIPv6 uses a mobility manageable router in a domain visited by the MTs to manage the micromobility of the MTs. The router is called Mobility Anchor Point (MAP). As a hierarchical mobility management scheme based on HMIPv6, we have already proposed a multilevel hierarchical distributed IP mobility management scheme to manage the mobility of MTs in a decentralized manner using multiple MAPs. Our scheme manages the mobility of an MT using a MAP having a suitable management domain. This usage of MAPs aims to efficiently decentralize the load of mobility management. Our scheme estimates the movement speed of the MT and then estimates the mobility of the MT based on the estimated movement speed of the MT to achieve the objective. However, recent simulation results obtained with more realistic mobility model indicate that our scheme has two problems in estimating the mobility of MTs: One is that our current scheme misestimates the movement speed of an MT in some cases, and the other is that our current scheme does not notice the changes in the mobility of an MT when the MT decelerates and stays in the same access area for a long time. Thus, an enhanced mobility estimation method is proposed in this paper. The enhanced method has an ability to estimate the movement speed of MTs more correctly and an ability to urge decelerated MTs to degrade their MAP quickly. Finally, the performance of the proposed mobility estimation method is evaluated using simulation experiments. The simulation results show that the enhanced method allows our scheme to estimate the mobility of MTs more correctly and so achieve more efficient load sharing.


Background Human genetic factors influence the outcome of pegylated interferon and ribavirin hepatitis C therapy. We explored the role of IL28B, APOH and ITPA SNPs on the outcomes of triple therapy including telaprevir or boceprevir in patients with compensated cirrhosis chronically infected with HCV-1. Patients and Methods A total of 256 HCV-1 Caucasian treatment-experienced patients with compensated cirrhosis from the ANRS CO20-CUPIC cohort were genotyped for a total of 10 candidate SNPs in IL28B (rs12979860 and rs368234815), APOH (rs8178822, rs12944940, rs10048158, rs52797880, rs1801689 and rs1801690) and ITPA (rs1127354 and rs7270101). We tested the association of IL28B and APOH SNPs with sustained virological response and of ITPA SNPs with anemia related phenotypes by means of logistic regression assuming an additive genetic model. Results None of the six APOH SNPs were associated with sustained virological response. The favorable alleles of the IL28B SNPs rs12979860 and rs368234815 were associated with sustained virological response (rs12979860: OR = 2.35[1.50–3.70], P = 2x10-4). Refined analysis showed that the effect of IL28B SNPs on sustained virological response was restricted to prior PegIFN/RBV relapse (OR = 3.80[1.82–8.92], P = 8x10-4). We also confirmed the association between ITPA low activity alleles and protection against early hemoglobin decline in triple therapy (P = 2x10-5). Conclusion Our results suggest that the screening of rs12979860 may remain interesting for decision making in prior relapse HCV-1 Caucasian patients with compensated cirrhosis eligible for a telaprevir- or boceprevir-based therapy.


Introduction: The Morpho-Imaging website is based on an interactive multi-dimensional presentation of the anatomy and its relevant imaging. Its objective is to teach a practical approach of veterinary anatomy that must be adapted to the clinician work.

Methods: From domestic animals : imaging (Radiography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Computed Tomography and Echography) was performed and correspondant dissections (Osteology, Arthrology and Myology) were photographed. Morpho-Imaging and its content was produced using Adobe programs. It was hosted on the RVC1 multimedia platform and linked to the educational Philips iSiteTM Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) of the VUB5.

Results: Morpho-Imaging consists of three major components named anatomy, imaging and pathological imaging. The pages are transversally and vertically connected with others, and always surmounted by a navigation bar with drop-down menus (DDM). The first DDM corresponds to the anatomy menu by species, the second and third DDMs correspond to the normal and pathological Imaging respectively. The Morpho-Imaging website is linked towards to WikiVet1 and the PACS5 by means of URL's.

Conclusion: The three dimensional viewing of anatomy and pathology is better presented using modern visualization tools and techniques, such as Volume Rendering Technique and Multi Planar Reconstruction. In addition, a real anatomic related atlas of multiple imaging sources is available for the users. Morpho-Imaging is a valuable tool used to challenge the cognitive process during training sessions of veterinary anatomy and imaging.


This study examines the production of topical talk in peer collaborative negotiation in an interactive assessment innovation context. The ability to stay on topic, to move from topic to topic and to introduce new topics appropriately is at the core of communicative competence. Applying conversation analysis (CA), we describe and analyze how one group of secondary ESL students orient to and construct what they take to be relevant to the assessment task as interaction proceeds. We found that in the context of group oral discussion described in our study, in the course of turn-by-turn interaction which was characterized by intensive engagement and active participation between peer participants, this group of students were able to pursue, develop, and shift topics to, on the one hand, ensure the successful completion of the assigned task, and on the other, to display individual contributions. Topical transitions appeared to be the result of participants constantly monitoring the content of talk for relevance to the assessment task agenda. Such negotiation of topical talk among the participants indicates that peer group discussion as an oral assessment format has the potential to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate 'real-life' interactional abilities to relate to each other in spoken interaction.


The recent concern about climate change has stimulated research into transport energy efficiency in order to reduce the emission of gases. One of the main solutions is to reduce the structural weight through the application of new materials, such as aluminum and magnesium lightweight alloys. However, new applications are often limited by the difficulty of joining these materials. Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid state joining technique that emerges as a viable alternative to replace or complement the established joining technologies. As a continuous weld is not always requested, two spot welding technologies derived from FSW are under development: Friction Stir Spot Welding (FSSW) and Friction Spot Welding (FSpW). Besides providing almost defect-free and high strength joints, these techniques exhibit high energy efficiency, short welding cycle, ease of automation and environmental compatibility, competing against the conventional spot joining techniques, such as Resistance Spot Welding (RSW) and riveting.


This paper begins with the premise that the purpose of physical education is to help young people grow personal and durable playgrounds. That is, its goal is to allow students in schools to develop the skills and understandings about various movement topics to the extent that they can engage with these in deep and meaningful ways long after their lessons in the gymnasium have concluded. The paper presents a schematic that links how a physical education curriculum should be framed with the necessary ingredients of high-quality teaching to allow for successful forays into various movement cultures. The next section includes a justification of the schema using the very best of research in sport pedagogy that has been translated into school physical education settings. Two specific grand adventures that are the vehicles for creating enduring playgrounds are presented, these being sport education and student-designed games.