We present a new approach for combining the beliefs of many individuals using graphical models. Existing Bayesian belief aggregation methods break several theoretical assumptions for Bayesian reasoning. More practically, existing opinion pool functions that compute a single value to represent the belief of all contributors do not represent reality well, especially in cases where there are many diverse opinions. Divergence is a natural result of combining opinions from individuals with different beliefs, backgrounds and experiences. Instead of forming a single consensus value that will average out this diversity, we find clusters of agreement for each probability distribution and propagate the cluster means throughout the network during inference. We utilize a social network that tracks the agreement between individuals and the normalized graph cut algorithm to find emerging groups of consensus in the agreement network. We leverage the agreement that occurs across multiple belief estimates to help reduce the complexity that may arise as the means are propagated throughout a belief network. By monitoring agreement over time we may also expose the variety of backgrounds that will help explain divergence in belief. This paper discusses the approach, background and our motives for ongoing research.


Traditional ad-hoc routing protocols typically choose minimum hop
paths for transmissions. In a multi-rate environment, where nodes may elect
between several transmission rates in order to accommodate different channel
conditions, these protocols usually choose paths that contain long range links,
with low effective throughput and low reliability. In this paper, we propose
a mechanism for reactive routing protocols that
leads to the election of high throughput routes while not increasing
significantly the signaling overhead. By allowing a node to have a complete
knowledge of its one-hop neighborhood topology, we are able to increase
significantly the performance of the network through the improvement of the
route election process on multi-rate environments.


In the last few years, the number and impact of security attacks over the Internet have been continuously increasing. To face this issue, the use of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) has emerged as a key element in network security. In this paper we address the problem considering a novel statistical technique for detecting network anomalies. Our approach is based on the use of different families of Markovian models (namely high order and non homogeneous Markov chains) for modeling network traffic running over TCP. The performance results shown in the paper, justify the proposed method and highlight the improvements over commonly used statistical techniques.


This chapter questions the premises of the theory of grammaticalization which claims that "abstract" grammatical morphemes derive from "concrete" lexical items through a process of phonetic and semantic attrition. This theory generally assumes that language is grounded in iconicity. Thus, questioning the latter also puts the former to a test. The first section presents arguments against the notion of lexical "concreteness". The second raises the issue of whether the "abstractness" of grammar is an artifact of pedagogical discourse or truly reflects the nature of grammatical relations. The third part proposes to frame the problems that gave rise to the notion of grammaticalization in an utterance-based perspective inspired by the cognitivist approach to language. The conclusion attempts to explain why contemporary linguistics has taken the form of a mosaic of theories that are often difficult to reconcile.


In late 1910, three American adventurers set off on a remarkable around-the-world journey by automobile. Sponsored by the Hupp Motor Car Corporation, the trip was intended to publicize the durability of the Hupmobile and help stimulate export sales. The car was first driven from Detroit to San Francisco-a very difficult journey in its own right in 1910. From San Francisco, the car and its drivers took a steamship to Hawaii, and from there to Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, unloading and touring at each port of call. The men and their machine spent the next five weeks attempting to drive through the Philippines, and then pushed on to Japan and China, where they managed to stay one step ahead of the Chinese revolution. They then drove across India, and from there, sailed to Egypt, brining the first automobile ever to be seen in that country. Next, the Hupmobilists sailed to Italy. In Rome, the adventurers met Pope Pius X, and then drove north to Germany and France. They crossed the English Channel to Folkstone, toured England, and then ferried from Liverpool to Ireland. They returned to New York in time for the 1912 auto show. In the end, the Hupmobile was driven 41,000 miles and transported by steamship another 28,000. A new world was dawning, both for transportation and for American business enterprise.


Abstract The mutual influences of the medieval discourse of courtly love and the literary visions of divine love have long been recognized by readers of medieval lyrical poetry and devotional writings. They are especially visible in the affinities between the language used to construct the picture of the ideal courtly lady and the images of the Virgin Mary. Praises of Mary's physical beauty, strewn with erotic implications, are an example of a strictly male eroticization of the medieval Marian discourse, rooted in Bernard of Clairvaux's allegorical reading of the Song of Songs, where Mary is imagined as the Bride of the poem, whose "breasts are like two young roes that are twins" (Cant. of Cant. 4:5). Glimpses of medieval female erotic imagination, also employed to express religious meanings, can be found in the writings of the mystical tradition: in England in the books of visions of Margery Kempe, in the anonymous seers of the fourteenth century, and, to some extent, in Julian of Norwich. Though subdued by patriarchal politics and edited by male amanuenses, the female voice can still be heard in the extant texts as it speaks of mystical experience by reference to bodily, somatic and, sometimes, erotic sensations in a manner different from the sensual implications found in the poetry of Marian adoration. The bliss of mystic elation, the ultimate union with God, is, in at least one mystical text, confidently metaphorized as an ecstatic, physical union with the human figure of Christ hanging on the cross.


Ever since 9/11, Muslims and Islam have dominated the headlines in the UK. In this important book, several leading media commentators examine the phenomenon of 'Islamophobia' and ask how we can tackle it. Charting recent media controversies, from the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments on Sharia law to the veil 'debate', the book argues that media hostility to Islam alienates Muslims and undermines efforts to combat extremism.
 With interviews from Muslim journalists and examples of press-fuelled myths about Islam in Britain, this is a captivating insight into how Muslims are depicted in the West.


Abstract In mastering English, speaking skill is considered as the indicator of successful language learning therefore the students are expected to comprehend speaking skill as fluent as possible. In fact, most students face their high affective filter that drives them have low motivation, inhibition, and anxiety. For that reason, teacher plays an important role in delivering and applying the appropriate technique in teaching speaking. One of the recommended techniques that can be used by teachers is examples non examples technique. Examples non examples technique is an activity that encourages students to analyze and construct the meaning through the picture as an example. The objective of this study is to find out whether there is a positive response from students in the implementation of examples non examples technique. The research methodology used in this study is qualitative research in which there were thirty students of Agriculture of Teuku Umar University in the second grade were considered as the respondents of this research. The data collected by distributing a set of questionnaire to the respondents and analyzed by using percentage formula based on Likert scale indicators: strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree. The result of the research showed that there are 77 % of the respondents have positive response toward the technique application. It means that the implementation of examples non examples technique became favorite technique to the students in mastering speaking since it can develop students' critical thinking, can construct the concept through the pictures, increase students' communicative competence, and has sense of togetherness while students work in group cooperatively. Keywords: Speaking Competence , Response, Communication, And Examples Non Examples Technique


Network congestion in competitive electricity markets may be managed by geographically differentiated nodal prices. The stochastics of an unconstrained equilibrium price reflect the underlying fundamentals of demand and supply. The stochastics of nodal prices in addition reflect the consequences of grid congestion. This paper demonstrates how a static three-node model may be combined with dynamic modelling of fundamental parameters, giving stochastic nodal price processes consistent with the underlying grid. These price processes may be employed in analysing production, hedging, and investment decisions under uncertainty.


Discourse is a process resulting in a communicative act which takes the form of a text (Chimombo & Roseberry, 1998, p. ix). Ingested by this view, every discourse type demonstrates the role relations among social groups on the one end, and how these relations manifest in language on the other end. A teaching skill contest is a multi-party social process of putting forward alternative pedagogies, evaluating these pedagogies and propagandizing excellent pedagogies. From a discourse perspective, this process manifests in texts constructed throughout the contest. However, the discourse features of a teaching skill contest are rarely observed. This paper therefore starts a discussion to fill in this vacancy. Within the theoretical framework of systemic functional linguistics, this paper raises the question of mapping the SFLEP national college English teaching contest (finals) (http://nfltc.sflep.com/) held in China as a genre system (Martin & Rose, 2008, p. 17). Focusing on the role of the SFLEP contest in screening excellent Chinese tertiary EFL pedagogies, this paper also puts forward an analytic framework for the system which integrates four SFL complementary perspectives of discourse semantics, viz. realization, instantiation, individuation, and genesis (Martin, 2010a). Specifically, it mainly addresses the following questions: (a) What is the nature of the SFLEP contest genre system? (b) How can we employ SFL theories of discourse semantics to observe the role of this genre system in refining excellent pedagogies? Besides proving the feasibility and application significance of SFL genre theories and discourse semantics, this paper also proposes a paradigm of the contest genre system which is worth further developing.


This study concerned the development of measures for youth civic development in Malaysia with four major goals in mind, namely conceptual, measurement, baseline/pragmatic, and predictive goals. It was a preliminary study of its kind in Malaysia as Malaysia did not participate in any international or regional study such as the IEA Civic Study. The central intention of the study was to establish a conceptually valid assessment framework and psychometrically sound instruments for the measurement of youth civic development in Malaysia. This would, in turn, provide some baseline information upon which future research on youth civic development in Malaysia could build.

Civics as a subject was removed from the Malaysian school curriculum in the early 1980s and Civic and Citizenship Education as a specific subject, with an explicit structure and curriculum framework, was reintroduced only in 2005. It was not feasible at the time when this study was conducted to conduct a specific assessment on the outcomes for school-aged students as explicated and expected in the curriculum framework. Therefore, the post-school-aged group of young undergraduates in public universities within the age range of 17-28 was selected as the target population.

Firstly, a conceptualisation of youth civic development was synthesized by identifying current views on citizenship, as set out in the international literature and, specifically, in Malaysia in two major documents – the Rukenagara and Vision2020. Civic development consists of three variables of Civic Knowledge (CK) (knowledge about the legal status and associated rights and responsibilities of citizens); Civic Disposition (CD) (views on identity and attitudes as a citizen); and Civic Engagement (CE) (participation as a citizen). The relationship between civic development variables was explicated through a Neo-Vygotskian cultural-historical theory of human development. In addition, Bronfenbrenner's Socio-Ecological Theory of human development was adopted for the selection of contextual and individual factors (the independent variables) for the conceptual model. To help ensure cross-cultural validity for use within the Malaysian socio-cultural context, the three dependent variables of CK, CD and CE, and the independent variables were appraised for their suitability for use within the Malaysian socio-cultural context before they were operationalized into observable indicators.

Secondly, the Rasch measurement paradigm, framework and model were adopted as the foundation for instrument development and validation. The procedures for instrument development followed Wilson's model of four building blocks of instrument development (Wilson, 2005). Three instruments were developed for this study, namely The Malaysian Civic Knowledge Inventory (MCKI), The Malaysian Civic Disposition Inventory (MCDI), and the Malaysian Civic Engagement Inventory (MCEI). Items from existing instruments in international literature were adopted or adapted for the three instruments, especially the MCEI, if there was construct equivalence in Rukunegara and Vision 2020. This was to ensure a cumulative tradition in research on youth civic development. Most of the items in the MCKI and the MCDI however were developed specifically for this study to capture the specificity of the civic culture of Malaysia.

The target population for the study was undergraduate students enrolled in Malaysian public universities. Students at one public university were chosen as the accessible population. Data were collected in February 2006 (pilot study) and from July to August 2006 (main study). The sample for this study (N=1391) was drawn through multistage cluster sampling by study concentration, level of study, and clusters based on lecture/tutorial group. The sample also, by default, included major inherent characteristics of the target population, particularly gender (Male and Female) and ethnicity (Malay, Chinese, Indian and other ethnic groups).

Rasch analyses confirmed the three-dimensional structure of youth civic development. Three measurement scales with acceptable psychometric properties were established to provide measures for the three dependent variables of CK, CD and CE. The hypotheses about civic development (in terms of CK, CD and CE) as a 'tool and result' activity were tested through path analyses of mediational relationships based on Baron and Kenny's criteria (1986) using the Rasch-derived linearized scores from the main study. Analyses provided statistical support for a bidirectional association between each pair of CK, CD and CE, despite the low inter-correlations between them.

This study revealed that, on average, youth in this study demonstrated a moderately high level of CK (Mean =1.11, SD = 0.77), a positive CD (Mean = 1.25; SD = 0.63) but a moderately low CE (Mean = -0.44; SD = 0.92). The Malay sub-sample scored, on average, higher on all three dimensions of civic development. The results of hierarchical multiple regressions however showed the effect of ethnicity (Malay or Non-Malay) was statistically non-significant when other contextual (home, curricular and co-curricular) variables were entered into the regression equation. This indicates it is not ethnicity that predicts levels of civic development, but rather it is the differences in other socio-political entitlements and status associated with ethnic status. Three selected collective social-contextual factors of home, curriculum and co-curriculum explained only a fairly modest but statistically significant amount of variance (10 to 20%) in the dependent variables.

Finally, the findings were discussed in relation to the theoretical perspectives undergirding this study. Pragmatic implications for policy planning as well as other relevant stakeholders involved in youth civic development are also discussed.


What's in a prefix? How to read a prefix as short as 're-'? Does 're-' really signify? Can it point into a specific direction? Can it reverse? Can it become the shibboleth of a 'postcritical' reboot? At first glance transparent and directional, 're-' complicates the linear and teleological models commonly accepted as structuring the relations between past, present, and future, opening onto errant temporalities.


Semiconductor nanowires (or other wire-like nanostructures, including nanoribbons and nanobelts) synthesized by bottom-up chemical growth show single-crystalline structures, excellent geometric uniformities, subwavelength transverse dimensions, and relatively high refractive indices, making these one-dimensional structures ideal optical nanowaveguides with tight optical confinement and low scattering loss. When properly pumped by optical or electrical means, lasing oscillation can be readily established inside these high-gain active nanowires with feedback from endface reflection or near-field coupling effects, making it possible to realize nanowire lasers with miniature sizes and high flexibilities. Also, the wide-range material availability bestows the semiconductor nanowire with lasing wavelength selectable within a wide spectral range from ultraviolet (UV) to near infrared (IR). As nanoscale coherent light sources, in recent years, nanowire lasers have been attracting intensive attention for both fundamental research and technological applications ranging from optical sensing, signal processing, and on-chip communications to quantum optics. Here, we present a review of the status and perspectives of semiconductor nanowire lasers, with a particular emphasis on their optical characteristics categorized in two groups: (1) waveguiding related properties in Section 3, which includes waveguide modes, near-field coupling, endface reflection, substrate-induced effects, and nanowire microcavities, and (2) optically pumped semiconductor nanowire lasers in Section 4, starting from principles and basic types of UV, visible, and near-IR nanowire lasers relying on Fabry–Perot cavities, to advanced configurations including wavelength-tunable, single-mode operated, fiber-coupled, and metal-incorporated nanowire lasing structures for more possibilities. In addition, the material aspects of semiconductor nanowires, including nanowire synthesis and electrically driven nanowire lasers, are briefly reviewed in Sections 2 and 5, respectively. Finally, in Section 6 we present a brief summary of semiconductor nanowire lasers regarding their current challenges and future opportunities.


In May 1989, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) issued relicensing regulations in Order No. 513 to (1) help licensees whose hydropower licenses were about to expire to prepare acceptable license applications and (2) make changes in the relicensing provisions of the Federal Power Act (Act) required by the Electric Consumers Protection Act (ECPA). About 170 hydropower projects--many of them built more than 50 years ago--are scheduled to be relicensed by 1993. Since the regulations became effective on July 3, 1989, the Office of Hydropower Licensing (OHL) has processed seven requests for resolution of disputes. These seven disputes involved 17 hydropower projects--about 10 percent of the projects with licenses expiring in 1993--in Alabama, Maine, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. All the disputes dealt with fishery issues. The disputes covered a wide range of issues--disagreement over whether studies should be conducted for the introduction of anadromous fish above a project, the need for entrainment and mortality studies, the need for habitat based studies, whether a dam should be removed, whether cumulative impact studies should be conducted, whether final functional designs for fish passage facilities and screens should be provided by the licensees. The outcome of the seven disputes was mixed: the Director of OHL sided with the licensees on some issues and with the resource agencies on others. This paper discusses the resolution of the seven disputes and the effects these decisions had on parties involved in relicensing.


This paper provides an overview of tracking policies in secondary education in France. Drawing on two large datasets on educational trajectories and labour-market outcomes, it identifies patterns of social inequalities associated with track allocation in secondary education. It assesses the long-term consequences of track assignment and its mediating role in the association between social origin and occupational outcomes. Results confirm the large association between social origin and track allocation on the one hand, and between track attainment and higher education and labour-market outcomes at occupational maturity on the other hand. We also find that track attainment accounts for a large share of the association between social origin, measured either by parental education or by social class, and outcomes at occupational maturity. These results highlight the importance of tracking policies for social stratification in the French context.


The signs and statistics are undeniable: boys are falling behind in school. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the biggest culprits are not video games, pop culture, or female-dominated schools biased toward girls. The real problem is that boys have been thrust into a bewildering new school environment that demands high-level reading and writing skills long before they are capable of handling them. Lacking the ability to compete, boys fall farther and farther behind. Eventually, the problem gets pushed into college, where close to 60% of the graduates are women. In a time when even cops, construction foremen, and machine operators need post-high school degrees, that's a problem. Why Boys Fail takes a hard look at how this ominous reality came to be, how it has worsened in recent years, and why attempts to resolve it often devolve into finger-pointing and polarizing politics. But the book also shares some good news. Amidst the alarming proof of failure among boys—around the world—there are also inspiring case studies of schools where something is going right. Each has come up with realistic ways to make sure that every student—male and female—has the tools to succeed in school and later in life. Educators and parents alike will take heart in these promising developments, and heed the book's call to action—not only to demand solutions but also to help create them for their own students and children.


This study employed a translog stochastic frontier cost function to measure the level of economic efficiency and it's determinants in small-holder cocoyam production in Anambra state, Nigeria. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 120 cocoyam farmers in the state in 2005 from whom input-output data and their prices were obtained using the cost-route approach. The parameters of the stochastic frontier cost function were estimated using the maximum likelihood method. The results of the analysis show that individual farm level technical efficiency was about 59%. The study found age, education and farm size, to be negatively and highly significantly related to economic efficiency at 1.0% while fertilizer use and farmer experience were significant and directly related to economic efficiency at 1.0% and 5.0% levels of probability respectively. No significant relationship was found between economic efficiency and extension visit, family size, credit access and membership of cooperative societies.


The genesis of this thesis came out of the di culties encountered when trying to apply adaptive optics correction to optical fields that contain scintillation (specklelike amplitude fluctuations). These scintillated fields have non-uniform amplitude distributions and also contain discontinuities in their wavefronts where the amplitude of the field goes to zero. A traditional adaptive optics system that relies on continuous wavefronts and uniform illumination is limited in its ability to correct highly distorted fields. It became clear that adaptive correction using a modular system that does not rely on the continuity of the wavefront or indeed uniformity of the amplitude was better suited to the task. The use of a fibre optics array of sub-apertures to combine regions in close proximity into a mixed signal and to monitor the interference was examined as a more robust means of correcting an aberrated wavefront. Multi-aperture receivers have previously been shown to give an increase in the signal to noise or carrier to noise ratio and perhaps more importantly can also reduce amplitude fluctuations caused by atmospheric aberrations such as speckle. The investigation of a multi-aperture system lead to the development of a fibre based quad-cell wavefront sensor to measure the launching angle to improve the coupling of light to the fibre array. This thesis outlines the development and testing of the fibre quad-cell for use as a cell in a larger array applied to wavefront sensing. The quad-cell is made up of three directional couplers in a cascade arrangement. A directional coupler allows for evanescent coupling of light between two adjacent fibre waveguides. The response of the quad-cell arrangement of fibres was simulated numerically using the beam propagation method and a method for combining the interferometric information from the four output signals was developed. A novel aspect of this sensor compared with other fibre based wavefront sensors is the ability to di↵erentiate between positive and negative gradients. The system was tested for a single bulk fibre optic quad-cell for measuring wavefront gradients. As part of the sensor development an FPGA interface was developed for parallel processing of a quad-cell wavefront sensor and for mirror control. Initial results from the breadboard system are presented and compared with the results of the numerical simulation. The initial results are su cient to display the proof of concept. However, the use of bulk fibre optics made the sensor very susceptible to thermal noise. The system also proved to be very sensitive to the alignment of the fibres in the quad-cell. It is envisaged that the use of an integrated optics implementation of the sensor would remove much of the thermal noise and also enable the precise orientation and alignment of the fibres in the quad-cell array.


This remarkable anthology of sixteen narratives from ancient and medieval Hebrew texts opens a new window onto the Jewish imagination. Presenting the captivating world of rabbinic storytelling, it reveals facets of the Jewish experience and tradition that would otherwise have remained unknown and examines the surprisingly deep connection between the values of classical Judaism and the art of imaginative narrative writing. Virtually all the narratives appear here in English for the first time. Sometimes pious, sometimes playful, and sometimes almost scandalous, they are each accompanied by an introduction and notes. The selections are framed by essays by David Stern and Mark Jay Mirsky that examine the various moods and forms in which the rabbinic imagination found expression and explore the impact that this unique form of narrative has had on modern fiction. The translations are by Norman Bronznick, Yaakov Elman, Michal Govrin, Arthur Green, Martha Himmelfarb, Ivan Marcus, Mark Jay Mirsky, Joel Rosenberg, David Ruderman, Raymond Scheindlin, David Stern, and Avi Weinstein.


The relative foreign exchange valuation of the yuan, or renminbi, against the dollar is one of the longest-running and highest profile battles between the United States and China. What does the dispute, and America's reactions to it, say about America's trade empire? Specifically, what do the reactions say about the character and values America historically holds dear, and proclaims to the world through its trade empire? America's reactions emanate from the government, particularly Congress, and are largely unilateral and invariably loud. One reaction is to demand a quick, dramatic revaluation (if not free flotation) of the yuan. A second reaction is to threaten punitive tariffs on the order of 27.5 per cent against merchandise originating in China. A third reaction is to change rules about designating a country a currency manipulator. A fourth reaction is to expand America's ability to impose antidumping duties, by requiring an adjustment in the dumping margin calculation to Export Price (or Constructed Export Price) for currency undervaluation. A fifth reaction is to ease rules on imposing countervailing duties against goods from non-market economies like China by deeming a misaligned currency a countervailable subsidy. Oddly, perhaps, a sixth potential reaction - America waivers on testing existing trade rules, such as in GATT Article XV:4 on exchange rate action, that would frustrate the purpose of multilateral trade rules. Do these responses - none of which has yet been implemented formally in American trade law or policy - to yuan-dollar misalignment befit a great trade empire? Or, if greatness and virtue are at all connected, then do they evince a lack of virtue? Do American's responses reveal its lack of practice of the Four Cardinal Virtues of prudence, moderation, courage, and justice? The thesis here is that the China currency dispute arguably reveals the lack of virtue in the manner in which America presides over its trade empire. Far from displaying the Four Cardinal Virtues in its proposed legislative and policy responses to the challenge of yuan undervaluation, does the United States display their opposites or near-opposites: imprudence, gluttony, irresolution, and ineptitude? On balance, the responses of the American trade empire to the challenge of the Chinese yuan seem to merit barely passing marks in respect of prudence and courage, and failing grades on moderation and justice. This evaluation is advanced as a proposition, not intended as a judgmental imposition. The key point about the assignment of marks is to provoke questions for thought and debate, not impose dark or definitive conclusions.


The paper investigates features of, and limits to, the right to information a shareholder of a Limited Liability Company under Italian law (S.r.l.) has vis-a-vis the management. The broad extension of this right, coupled with the absence of objective standards in well-established case law, raises concerns that its exercise may be used as a means to exert illicit pressure on management and, in some cases, substantially paralyze a company's activities. There is widespread consensus among authors about the need to balance the right to information of a single shareholder with the interests of the company (e.g. confidentiality, protection of industrial secrets, and competition), as, in certain cases, this would allow directors to legitimately deny requests that could be detrimental to the company. The paper aims to identify the circumstances in which management opposition to shareholder requests may be considered legitimate. Furthermore, it investigates whether and how the right to information may be derogated or regulated through the inclusion of specific provisions in the corporate by-laws.


This book shows how a group of Protestant theologians forged a theology of international engagement for America in the 1930s and 40s. In doing so they informed the public rationale for the United States' participation in World War II and stimulated American leadership in establishing both secular and international organizations for the promotion of world order. This remarkable group included Henry P. Van Dusen, Reinhold Niebuhr, John Bennett, Francis P. Miller, Georgia Harkness, and Samuel McCrea Cavert. In creating a coherent, theologically-derived position and bringing it to bear on contemporary international issues, shows Heather Warren, this group combined ideas with public action in a way that set the standard for American theologians' social activism in the years to come.


Community-based programs have produced mixed results. Community capacity is thought to be a major determinant of program effectiveness. Thus, enhancing community capacity may increase the beneficial effects of existing programs and enhance future program effectiveness. This highlights the need to focus on understanding the components of capacity and the methods of enhancing capacity. Although we are just beginning to examine and understand key concepts, community capacity is probably influenced by both relatively nonmodifiable characteristics (such as demographic factors, institutional resources, and social structures) and relatively modifiable characteristics (such as knowledge, skills, and the ability and willingness of members and agencies to work collaboratively). In their relationships with community members and agencies, academicians and public health practitioners may help acquire categorical funding to enhance opportunities to build community capacity and their own capacity as well. The relationship between academicians/practitioners and community members/agencies probably is influenced by a host of characteristics which determine the degree to which capacity can be built. This paper discusses: the key components of capacity; the factors that influence building capacity through collaborations; a community health advisor (CHA) model which both builds on sociocultural aspects of African American culture and is consistent with methods for building community capacity; and how modifications to this model allow it to be compatible with categorically funded projects.


This study explores how pet owners grieve their pets and view their pets' transience. Drawing on Butler's notion of the differential allocation of grievability, I have analysed interviews with eighteen pet owners. Butler argues that grievability is made possible by a normative framework which allows for some human or humanlike lives to be grieved, while other lives are rendered 'lose-able'. All the interviewed pet owners say that they are capable of grieving a non-human animal, but analysis suggests that they make their pets grievable and ungrievable by turns. I argue that by maintaining this ambivalence, the interviewees negotiate pets' inclusion in a human moral community while simultaneously defending human exceptionalism. The article concludes with a discussion of pet grief as a potentially destabilizing emotion. I suggest that grieving beings on the border between grievable human and lose-able animal – 'werewolves' according to Giorgio Agamben – may be a powerful way of challenging normative frameworks which arbitrarily render some human and non-human lives lose-able.


This paper presents a conceptual framework for Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects (ELSA) of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA) ADvanced Acclimation and Protection Tool for Environmental Readiness (ADAPTER) Program. ADAPTER aims to develop a travel adapter for the human body, an implantable or ingestible bioelectronic carrier. This paper is written in my capacity as an unpaid ELSI panelist providing insights to the project and technical teams engaged with ADAPTER. The methodology employed in the work uses normativity to address the question of desirability and permissibility of an implantable for warfighters to achieve the goal of better sleep cycles and the diminishment of traveler's diarrhea. The paper's contribution is in defining ELSI, understanding ELSI aspects embedded in socio-technical systems design, the role of transdisciplinarity when applying ELSI, and presenting a conceptual framework that will be used to interrogate ADAPTER throughout the lifetime of the Program.


The Supreme Court's holding in Padilla v. Kentucky, that defense attorneys must provide their clients with adequate immigration advice concerning the potential impact of a guilty plea, was hailed by many commentators and advocates as a decision that would transform the landscape of criminal justice and the rights of the accused. Now, two years later, this Article explores whether Padilla in practice matches the lofty rhetoric it inspired. First, the Article examines the underlying causes of the ineffective assistance of counsel addressed by the Court in Padilla, and distinguishes between individual attorney and structural culpability. The Article questions whether Padilla will change the behavior of individual attorneys who had been violating what the Court found to be longstanding and clear prescriptions requiring defense counsel to provide adequate immigration impact advice, and also suggests that Padilla will have little actual impact unless well-documented resource and systemic deficiencies in Public Defender offices are addressed. The Article concludes by examining ways to measure Padilla's impact and argues that Padilla should result in fewer guilty pleas, especially at the accused's initial court appearance. Viewed through this lens, Padilla could end the practice known widely as 'meet, greet and plead,' as an attorney could not possibly fulfill Padilla's mandate after just having met her client and not yet fully knowing her client's immigration status or the legal impact of a guilty plea on that person's particular situation. The Article concludes that the potential for Padilla to have a truly transformative impact is in its impact on client counseling – what defense attorneys say to their clients, and how and when they say it.


Mobility Load Balancing (MLB) and Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO) are two major SON (Self-Organizing Network) use cases specified for LTE (Long Term Evolution) by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). MRO targets at optimizing the handover (HO) performance of the network by adjusting the HO point. Whereas, MLB reduces the congestion in traffic hotspots by advancing HOs from overloaded hotspot cells to less loaded neighbor cells. However, MLB degrades HO performance of the network because advanced HOs lead to worse SINR (Signal-to-Interference plus Noise Ratio) conditions with the target cells as compared to the original HO point. Hence, MLB can trigger MRO to optimize the HO performance and MRO can in turn trigger MLB to adjust the HO point for advanced HOs. Resultantly, MLB and MRO working in parallel can lead to oscillations. In this paper we present a policy based mechanism, termed as MLB-Static, which exploits users' mobility state to minimize the impact of MLB on HO performance and hence prevents oscillations. The simulation results, for a hexagonal LTE macro cellular deployment, show that MLB-Static has negligible impact on HO performance of the network as compared to conventional MLB while the gain of conventional MLB is preserved by MLB-Static.


Social entrepreneurship -- a catch-all term meaning harnessing business practices for social good -- has attracted people who want to "do well while doing good" for decades. Advocates of the idea have succeeded in blurring the boundaries among legal ownership types and inspired nonprofit/for-profit joint ventures, public-private partnerships, and the widespread privatization of traditional government functions and activities. The most recent manifestation of this trend is the creation of hybrid non-profit/for-profit firms. In the United States, the Low-Profit Limited Liability Company (L3C) is growing, and there are similar firms in the United Kingdom and Canada. In this paper we address the narrow, legal justifications for L3Cs in the U.S., as well as the broader justifications for hybrid organizations. We then identify four types of problems raised by the L3C and, perhaps to a lesser extent, other models: 1) their internal, legal incoherence; 2) the risk to charitable assets and potential for inappropriate use of tax subsidies; 3) the problematic assumption that for-profits are more efficient than nonprofit or government alternatives; and 4) the potentially inappropriate use of government imprimatur. However, recognizing the increasing and unyielding limits on the ability of nonprofits to raise capital, we concede that L3Cs may well offer a valuable route to capital while avoiding conversions to for-profit ownership.


From the customer's perspective the only reason for a firm to exist is the value it creates. However, a problem within manufacturing companies is that of the total lead time, only a small part can be considered as value adding. It has further been discovered that when working with improvements businesses often sub-optimizes single processes instead of considering what benefits the entire company. Thus, when improving processes and activities it is important to have knowledge about and understand which factors that affect how the flow can be designed.
Several studies have been performed with a wide perspective on process flows in order to obtain a more resource-efficient and value added flow. However, a less explored area is improvement of supporting functions, for example material flows. These functions are of great importance and should be taken into consideration due to their vital function and close connection to the production.
The aim of this report is to investigate which factors need to be considered when designing a lean material flow. To identify these factors a literature and case study was conducted. Further, the case study was carried out on a material flow at a manufacturing site. Due to the case study a cost reduction of 26 percent was achieved. This was first and foremost accomplished by eliminating activities.
The case study confirmed all factors drawn from the literature and further a new factor was identified, the supplier's ability. A list of all factors identified or confirmed by the case study follows.
 Number of product variants
 Size of demand
 Variation in demand
 Layout premises
 Product characteristics
 Conditions at point of use
 The supplier's ability
Factors that have been identified can be seen as comprehensive and also be of importance in the design of material flow in other businesses and sectors. Furthermore, the factors can be regarded as reliable since they are confirmed by already existing literature.
The study has finally confirmed ideas about the importance of also improving material flow and its great potential to contribute to a greater customer value.


In this paper, we study the generative models of sequential discrete data. To tackle the exposure bias problem inherent in maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), generative adversarial networks (GANs) are introduced to penalize the unrealistic generated samples. To exploit the supervision signal from the discriminator, most previous models leverage REINFORCE to address the non-differentiable problem of sequential discrete data. However, because of the unstable property of the training signal during the dynamic process of adversarial training, the effectiveness of REINFORCE, in this case, is hardly guaranteed. To deal with such a problem, we propose a novel approach called Cooperative Training (CoT) to improve the training of sequence generative models. CoT transforms the min-max game of GANs into a joint maximization framework and manages to explicitly estimate and optimize Jensen-Shannon divergence. Moreover, CoT works without the necessity of pre-training via MLE, which is crucial to the success of previous methods. In the experiments, compared to existing state-of-the-art methods, CoT shows superior or at least competitive performance on sample quality, diversity, as well as training stability.


The microstructures and tensile properties of a fully lamellar Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb, and two tungsten-modified versions, Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb-0.5W and Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb-1.0W (atomic percent) are investigated. Gas atomized powders are consolidated by hot isostatic pressing followed by solution treatment and aging. The microstructures are characterized by optical, scanning electron, and transmission electron microscopy and mechanical properties are characterized by room temperature tensile testing. The solution heat treatment, combined with controlled cooling, generates relatively fine, fully lamellar grains. Tungsten reduces the propensity for martensitic gamma formation during cooling, and slows down lamellar coarsening as well as the formation of equiaxed gamma phase during aging. The aging treatment stabilizes the microstructure and, in the tungsten-modified alloys, causes beta phase precipitation at lamellar interfaces and grain boundaries. Both aging and tungsten additions increase the alloy strength and reduce ductility. The fracture morphologies of the alloys are similar and exhibit mixed-mode fracture consisting of inter- and intra-granular cracking, as well as inter-lamellar cracking.


Recent high-resolution and high-cadence observations have surprisingly suggested that prominence barbs exhibit apparent rotating motions suggestive of a tornado-like structure. Additional evidence has been provided by Doppler measurements. The observations reveal opposite velocities for both hot and cool plasma on the two sides of a prominence barb. This motion is persistent for several hours and has been interpreted in terms of rotational motion of prominence feet. Several authors suggest that such barb motions are rotating helical structures around a vertical axis similar to tornadoes on Earth. One of the difficulties of such a proposal is how to support cool prominence plasma in almost-vertical structures against gravity. In this work we model analytically a tornado-like structure and try to determine possible mechanisms to support the prominence plasma. We have found that the Lorentz force can indeed support the barb plasma provided the magnetic structure is sufficiently twisted and/or significant poloidal flows are present.


Abstract The structural correspondence between postconventional sociomoral reasoning and postformal operational skills was examined to determine whether Stage 5 moral reasoning can be considered a hard stage in the Piagetian sense, as Kohlberg, Levine, and Hewer (1983) maintained. Also examined was the notion that adults' fields of educational specialization differentially affect their level of moral reasoning. Secondary school teachers (N = 100) completed the Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure (SROM; Gibbs et al., 1984) and a battery of cognitive tasks (Commons, Richards, & Kuhn, 1982; Richards & Commons, 1984). Subjects who were classified as Stage 5 with the SROM were also given the Sociomoral Reflection Measure (Gibbs, Widaman, & Colby, 1982a, 1982b). Higher modes of sociomoral reasoning were positively associated with certain aspects of postformal operational thinking, supporting Kohlberg's claim. Although more subjects with science backgrounds than with humanities backgrounds were classified as...


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To provide an in-depth description of the experience of chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) for women with breast cancer and identify related information that women would find useful prior to chemotherapy and at the onset of cognitive changes.

RESEARCH APPROACH
Qualitative, descriptive design.

SETTING
Academic breast cancer survivorship center in Kansas City, KS.

PARTICIPANTS
18 breast cancer survivors within 6-12 months of having completed chemotherapy who self-reported changes in cognitive function.

METHODOLOGIC APPROACH
Data were collected with a demographic questionnaire, semistructured interviews, and a focus group. Qualitative content analysis was performed.

FINDINGS
Study themes were Life With Chemobrain, How I Changed, How I Cope, and How to Teach Me. Participants described difficulty with short-term memory, focusing, word finding, reading, and driving. Issues with fatigue, trouble sleeping, neuropathy, balance, and coordination also were of concern. Coping strategies included writing things down, depending on others, focusing on one task at a time, and giving oneself permission to make mistakes. Participants described exercise and getting enough rest to be helpful and recommended activities to stimulate the mind. Participants wanted information about the potential for CRCI prior to initiating chemotherapy and desired an individualized approach to education. Specific recommendations for education were provided.

CONCLUSIONS
The study results provide a framework for understanding the experience of CRCI that can be used to guide development of patient and family education and generate questions for additional research.

INTERPRETATION
Application of the study results will enhance informed consent, validate the experience of CRCI, and contribute to patient satisfaction.


Significant pool of carbon
is present in the biosphere as soil organic carbon (SOC). More carbon is stored
in the soils which include peatlands, wetlands and permafrost than is present
in the atmosphere. There are still controversies regarding the effects of
climate change on global soil carbon stocks. This study seeks to: assess the
effect of altitude, temperature and precipitation on the greenhouse gas
emission from soil; and to examine the correlation between soil organic carbon
and soil texture. With a total of 81 samples collected at 3 different depths (0 - 10 cm, 10 - 20 cm, 20 - 30 cm)
from 27 locations in different regions of Lagos, the relation of soil organic
carbon concentration to climate was investigated. Samples taken were analyzed
for soil organic matter, soil organic carbon (SOC), and percentage of
silt/clay/sand. The amount of carbon dioxide released was calculated.
Temperature, precipitation and altitude were also taken into consideration.
From the 27 locations topsoil had 8 locations of highest SOC contents; middle
soil had 2 locations of highest SOC contents while bottom soil had 17 locations
of highest SOC contents. SOC contents of top soil were linked with soil
texture, vegetation type, temperature, precipitation, and altitude. The study
showed that SOC increased with decrease in temperature, decrease in
precipitation, and increase in altitude. Forest, shrubs and grassland types of
vegetation, as well as soil depths also favour SOC contents. The study also
showed that increase in temperature and altitude favours greenhouse gas emission from the soil. From our
findings, SOC and climate change are greatly linked.


The commercial seed industry has undergone tremendous consolidation in the last 40 years as transnational corporations entered this agricultural sector, and acquired or merged with competing firms. This trend is associated with impacts that constrain the opportunities for renewable agriculture, such as reductions in seed lines and a declining prevalence of seed saving. To better characterize the current structure of the industry, ownership changes from 1996 to 2008 are represented visually with information graphics. Since the commercialization of transgenic crops in the mid-1990s, the sale of seeds has become dominated globally by Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta. In addition, the largest firms are increasingly networked through agreements to cross-license transgenic seed traits.


With the development of molecular marker technology in the 1980s, the fate of plant breeding has changed. Different types of molecular markers have been developed and advancement in sequencing technologies has geared crop improvement. To explore the knowledge about molecular markers, several reviews have been published in the last three decades; however, all these reviews were meant for researchers with advanced knowledge of molecular genetics. This review is intended to be a synopsis of recent developments in molecular markers and their applications in plant breeding and is devoted to early researchers with a little or no knowledge of molecular markers. The progress made in molecular plant breeding, genetics, genomic selection and genome editing has contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of molecular markers and provided deeper insights into the diversity available for crops and greatly complemented breeding stratagems. Genotyping-by-sequencing and association mapping based on next-generation sequencing technologies have facilitated the identification of novel genetic markers for complex and unstructured populations. Altogether, the history, the types of markers, their application in plant sciences and breeding, and some recent advancement in genomic selection and genome editing are discussed.


This summary report presents key findings of the report "Environmental burden of disease associated with inadequate housing". It provides evidence that the health consequences of inadequate housing are substantial. Improving housing in a way that removes or minimizes the negative impact on health and safety and promotes a healthier living environment is good for the residents and beneficial for society. Reducing the burden of responding to the demands on the health system attributable to inadequate housing is an obvious public health priority, but also something that makes economic sense.

The findings set out in the full report provide ample justification for the principle that health should be at the centre of housing policy. Making housing healthy, affordable and sustainable should be a prime objective of all professionals and policy-makers involved in any aspect of housing and of health. This summary and its sister publication provide the evidence they need to make it so.


Redundant or excessive information can sometimes lead people to lean on it unnecessarily. Certain experimental designs can sometimes bias results in the researcher's favor. And, sometimes, interesting effects are too small to be studied, practically, or are simply zero. We believe a confluence of these factors led to a recent paper (Isaac & Brough, 2014, JCR). This initial paper proposed a new means by which probability judgments can be led astray: the category size bias, by which an individual event coming from a large category is judged more likely to occur than an event coming from a small one. Our work shows that this effect may be due to instructional and mechanical confounds, rather than interesting psychology. We present eleven studies with over ten times the sample size of the original in support of our conclusion: We replicate three of the five original studies and reduce or eliminate the effect by resolving these methodological issues, even significantly reversing the bias in one case (Study 6). Studies 7–8c suggest the remaining two studies are false positives. We conclude with a discussion of the subtleties of instruction wording, the difficulties of correcting the record, and the importance of replication and open science.


Caught up with SAS/STAT® 9.2? Want to add even more statistical tools to your arsenal? Then get ready for the 9.22 release of SAS/STAT software. New functionality for postprocessing equips many linear modeling procedures with comparable capabilities, including the latest techniques for testing complex research hypotheses. The new SURVEYPHREG procedure fits Cox regression models to survey data. The EFFECTPLOT statement uses ODS Graphics to create plots of effects from models produced by the GENMOD, LOGISTIC, and ORTHOREG procedures. Exact Poisson regression is one of several new exact methods for categorical data analysis. Other new features include updated spatial analysis capabilities, classification variable support in the ROBUSTREG procedure, and model averaging in the GLMSELECT procedure. This talk provides an overview of these exciting new enhancements to SAS/STAT.


This dissertation targets at studying the cause and implication of empirical grounded industry facts using multiple methodologies, including analytical model, statistical model, and agent-based simulation. Basically, this dissertation investigates two main research objects, the U.S. beef industry and restructured electricity market.Beef is the single largest sector within United States agricultural production, accounting for a fifth of farm market revenues.Unlike other animal products, only a small share of output is produced under vertically integrated arrangements. Beef production also differs from other sectors because of the long production lags and the opportunity to utilize forage from lower quality land. The sector divides between grass-based cow-calf operations during the first yearof a beef animal's life and grain-based feeder operations during the months preceding slaughter. The two sub-sectors also differ in regards to financial performance. Empirical data shows that cow-calf sector has strong positive autocorrelation in returns over time while the feeding sector return is close to white noise. Using the notion of Ricardian rent this study extends existing dynamic models of beef market equilibrium to rationalize this dierence. Time series data are tested where preliminary tests provide evidence in favor of the theory proposed by this study. The results are important in explaining why the cattle feeding sector is relatively immune from demand and supply-side shocks whereas cow-calf operations are more exposed.The second part of the dissertation turns focus on the restructured electricity market. In April 2003, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) proposed a new market design for U.S. wholesale power markets. Core features of this design include oversight of operations by some form of Independent System Operator (ISO), a two-settlement system consisting of a day-ahead market supported by a parallel real-time market to ensure continual balancingof supply and demand for power, and management of grid congestion by means of locational marginal pricing. The restructuring of electricity market stays in the layer of wholesale market while the retail market still remains highly regulated by the state government. To alleviate the disconnection between wholesale and retail market, ISO propels demand response program to encourage retail customers join the wholesale market which is supposed to pass wholesale market price signal to the final customers. To investigate the impact of this connecting attempt on current power system performance in terms of both market and physical operation, this dissertation conducts agent-based simulation experiments on three topics that are closely related with demand response and price-sensitive bidding behavior. Specific studied issues include: a close-loop simulation study of two-settlement market with price-sensitive customers and intelligent load serving entity, a multi-agent simulation study of demand response provider baseline inflation behavior and generator company investment decisions under high penetration level of DR resource with a market framework requested by new FERC Order 745, an agent-based simulation study of LSE strategic price sensitive bidding behavior under three different market clearing mechanisms. To carry out this research, a flexible simulation framework is developed independently with a major extension of the AMES wholesale power market test bed to include two-settlement system, Unit Commitment system, smart device, intelligent LSE, multi-task ISO and capacity market.


Theories associated with job satisfaction are based on the principle that all environmental elements could shape entire career satisfaction. In literature, major studies illustrate that positive and negative emotions are largely associated with job satisfaction. Job satisfaction source is not only job position but also other factors such as the physical and social work environment, relationships with supervisors and colleagues, group culture and management style of the managers. In this study, it is aimed to evaluate and prioritize the five dimensions of job satisfaction in Zanjan Refah Bank employees: (i) the nature of the job (ii) supervisor, (iii) peer, (iv) promotion and (v) payment. In this study a field research was applied with a survey study. To testify the hypothesis, the Pearson parametric and Friedman test was conducted. The major findings of this study are (i) there is a negative correlation exists between level of education and nature of the job (ii) job promotion and payment, (iii) there is not any significant differences in job satisfaction between men and women.


Summary
 Protein S deficiency is a dominantly inherited disorder that results from mutations in the PROS1 gene. Previous sequencing of the gene failed to detect mutations in eight out of 18 investigated Swedish families, whereas segregation analyses detected large deletions in three out of the eight families. The present study investigates more thoroughly for the presence of deletions but also for other types of rearrangements. FISH analysis confirmed the existence of the three previously identified large deletions, but failed to identify any other type of rearrangement among the eight analysed families. MLPA analysis of the PROS1 gene revealed two smaller deletions covering two and four exons, respectively. Thus, deletions could be found in five out of eight families where no point mutations could be found despite sequencing of the gene. Twelve additional, not previously analysed, families were subsequently analysed using MLPA. The analysis identified two smaller deletions (3 and 4 exons). Including all PS-deficient families, i.e. also the 10 families where sequencing found a causative point mutation, deletions were identified in seven out of 30 PS-deficient families. A strategy of sequencing followed by MLPA analysis in mutation-negative families identified the causative mutation in 15 out of 18 of Swedish PS-deficient families. Most deletions were different as determined by their sizes, locations and flanking haplotypes. FISH (8 families) and MLPA analysis (20 families) failed to identify other types of rearrangements.


Owing to improvements in its mechanical properties and to the availability of shade and translucence resources, resin composite has become one of the most widely used restorative materials in present day Dentistry. The aim of this study was to assess the relation between the surface hardness of seven different commercial brands of resin composites (Charisma, Fill Magic, Master Fill, Natural Look, Opallis, Tetric Ceram, and Z250) and the different degrees of translucence (translucid, enamel and dentin). Vickers microhardness testing revealed significant differences among the groups. Z250 was the commercial brand that showed the best performance in the hardness test. When comparing the three groups assessed within the same brand, only Master Fill and Fill Magic presented statistically significant differences among all of the different translucencies. Natural Look was the only one that showed no significant difference among any of the three groups. Charisma, Opallis, Tetric Ceram and Z250 showed significant differences among some of the tested groups. Based on the results found in this study, it was not possible to establish a relation between translucence and the microhardness of the resin composites assessed. Depending on the material assessed, however, translucence variation did affect the microhardness values of the resin composites.


The authors evaluated empirical research addressing the relationship between induced abortion and women's mental health. Two issues were addressed: (a) the relative risks associated with abortion compared with the risks associated with its alternatives and (b) sources of variability in women's responses following abortion. This article reflects and updates the report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion (2008). Major methodological problems pervaded most of the research reviewed. The most rigorous studies indicated that within the United States, the relative risk of mental health problems among adult women who have a single, legal, first-trimester abortion of an unwanted pregnancy is no greater than the risk among women who deliver an unwanted pregnancy. Evidence did not support the claim that observed associations between abortion and mental health problems are caused by abortion per se as opposed to other preexisting and co-occurring risk factors. Most adult women who terminate a pregnancy do not experience mental health problems. Some women do, however. It is important that women's varied experiences of abortion be recognized, validated, and understood.


The documentary Witch City, a scathing critique of tourism in Salem, Massachusetts, stirred tremendous discussion upon its premiere on Boston public television in 1997. Penned by Salem native Joe Cultrera, the film charts the city's transformation from a blue-collar town into "a sort of witchcraft Disneyland" overrun by callous tourists, unscrupulous businesses, and a "confusing mix of fact and fiction" (Witch City) in preparation for the tercentenary of the Witch Trials in 1992. The filmmakers draw upon interviews with, among others, Elie Weisel and Arthur Miller to distinguish historical knowledge from kitsch and to shame businesses thought exploiting the Trials. Vilified by many residents and hailed as an earnest cry against commercialization by others, Witch City is a significant "performance text" (Denzin) that asks how local citizens understand their relation to judgments of the past and for the future. The film is also a record of the public debate in Salem that arose during a period of intense national and international gaze. Despite the filmmakers' pleas, tourism in Salem continues unabated-especially during Halloween-and its consequences remain sharply contested.1 Countless performances now emphasize supernatural elements or the occult, loosely tied to the Trials or witchcraft. Recent attractions, for example, include the Haunted Footsteps Ghost Tour, the Museum of Myths and Monsters, the Spellbound Museum, Dracula's Castle, Strega restaurant, numerous boutiques dedicated to psychic phenomena, and a statue of Samantha from the television show Bewitched. In response, the local government has actively promoted other aspects of Salem's history, especially Nathaniel Hawthorne and its maritime legacy; a renovation of the Peabody Essex Museum formed the cornerstone for this movement. All that alarms Witch City, however, bears a much more complex history than the film suggests. Salem has drawn tourists since the 1850s; concerns over the commercial usage of its notorious history promptly followed. Two loosely-defined groups have sparred over Salem's representation in popular media and public consciousness since the inception of tourism. The first are local business owners who recognize opportunity in the cornmodification of the Witch Trials. The second are local (often amateur) historians and preservationists who decry pervasive witchcraft imagery as indecorous. Adding to this complicated exchange, tourist guidebooks to Salem have been in circulation for well over a century, written to support both perspectives. Studies of Salem tourism (Hill, "Salem;" McAllister; Rosenthal; White; Wright) do not explore guidebooks at length.2 This article does so and argues that they reveal an important site for deliberation within a local public sphere. Reading guidebooks as marks of competing political attitudes, this article analyzes several representatives and follows their permutations, responding to and influencing tourist expectations. The aim is to map traces of ideological shifts wrought through changes in guidebook content and form. First, this article proposes an appreciation of guidebooks as a vibrant form of public discourse. It then describes the contest over commodification of the Witch Trials as it evolves throughout the guidebooks, complemented by other influential forms of popular media and ephemera, to provide a genealogy of the debate. It concludes with a brief summary of the relationship between tourism and the rhetorical uses of history. Tourist Guidebooks as Rhetorical Practice The development of New England tourism is well-documented and implicates the invention of American identity and the ascent of a middle-class (Brown; Conforti; Purchase; Schaffer; Sears), yet studies of guidebooks as a rhetorical force in this process are few in number (Gassan "Birth" and "First"). Guidebooks are, however, a means to understand the reception of socio-political orientations towards the past, present, and future. …


OBJECTIVE
To compare two active educational strategies on critical reading (two and three stages) for research learning in medical students.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Four groups were conformed in a quasi-experimental design. The medical student group, related to three stages (critical reading guide resolution, creative discussion, group discussion) g1, n = 9 with school marks > 90 and g2, n = 19 with a < 90, respectively. The two-stage groups (guide resolution and group discussion) were conformed by pre-graduate interns, g3, n = 17 and g4, n = 12, who attended social security general hospitals. A validated and consistent survey with 144 items was applied to the four groups before and after educational strategies. Critical reading with its subcomponents: interpretation, judgment and proposal were evaluated with 47, 49 and 48 items, respectively. The case control studies, cohort studies, diagnostic test and clinical trial designs were evaluated. Nonparametric significance tests were performed to compare the groups and their results. A bias calculation was performed for each group.

RESULTS
The highest median was obtained by the three-stage groups (g1 and g2) and so were the medians in interpretation, judgment and proposal. The several research design results were higher in the same groups.

CONCLUSIONS
An active educational strategy with three stages is superior to another with two stages in medical students. It is advisable to perform these activities in goal of better learning in our students.


The discovery of the superconductivity of MgB2 was of great importance, because this material is one of the few known binary compounds and has one of the highest critical temperatures (39° K). As MgB2 is a granular compound, it is fundamentally important to understand the mechanisms of the interaction of the defects and the crystalline lattice, in addition to the eventual processes involving the grain boundaries that compose the material. In this sense, the mechanical spectroscopy measurements constitute a powerful tool for this study, because through them we can obtain important information about phase transitions, the behavior of interstitial or substitutional elements, dislocations, grain boundaries, diffusion, instabilities, and other imperfections of the lattice. For this paper, the samples were prepared using the PIT method and were characterized by density, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, electric resistivity, magnetization, and mechanical spectroscopy. The samples were measured in their as-cast condition and after an ultra-high-vacuum heat treatment. The results showed complex spectra, in which were identified relaxation processes due to dislocation movement, interaction among interstitial elements and dislocations, auto-diffusion, and movement of grain boundaries. Some of these processes disappeared with the heat treatment.


The brief's key findings are: The Great Recession threw many older individuals out of work, so it is important to understand their job search activity. The results show little tolerance for a lengthy search; the vast majority either find a job or exit the labor force within a year. Those with financial resources, such as Social Security, leave even sooner. Interestingly, the strength of the local labor market does not seem to have much impact on the duration of job search.


Political tensions created by Catalonian secessionism within Spain are unsettled one year after the failed proclamation of independence at 27th October 2017. A big segment of citizens (38% - 48% of the region population) supports secession, but there is another portion of citizenry, of similar size, that has resisted secessionist aspirations. Secessionism acquired forceful impetus along the last decade, wining consecutive regional elections and two (illegal) consultations about self-determination. A rise of activism, however, showed by unionists both at street demonstrations and at the last Regional election, consolidated a draw within a deeply polarized and divided society. We present an analysis of survey data that distinguish prevalent mood and emotion profiles among unionist vs. secessionist segments. Despite their protracted and unsuccessful venture, secessionists felt much less tired and confused than unionists, and they referred to be much less fearful and more hopeful about political and economic future. We link those distinctive feelings and disparate beliefs about current difficulties with a cognitive distortion noticeable only among secessionists, about the real magnitude of their force. We discuss these findings connecting such cognitive and affective profiles with features of a compounded ethno-cultural frontier based mainly on habitual language (Catalan vs. Spanish) and family-descent origins that have probably worked as the principal alignment vector. This social cleavage might function as a fracture line for extremist aggravations of a serious political conflict within the European Union.


OBJECTIVE
The DIVA study is aimed at setting up a standardized genotypic tropism-testing on proviral-DNA for the routine clinical diagnostic-laboratory.

METHODS
Twelve local centres and 5 reference centres (previously cross-validated) were identified. For inter-center validation-procedure, 60 peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) aliquots from 45 HAART-treated patients were randomly chosen for population V3 sequencing on proviral-DNA at local HIV centre and at reference-laboratory. Viral tropism was predicted by Geno2Pheno algorithm (False Positive Rate [FPR] = 20%) as proposed by the European-Guidelines. Quantification of total HIV-1 DNA was based on a method described by Viard (2004).

RESULTS
Quantification of HIV-1 DNA was available for 35/45 (77.8%) samples, and gave a median value of 598 (IQR:252- 1,203) copies/10 PBMCs. A total of 56/60 (93.3%) samples were successfully amplified by both the reference and the local virological centers. The overall concordance of tropism prediction between local and reference centers was 54/56 (96.4%). Results of tropism prediction by local centers were: 33/54 (61.1%) R5 and 21/54 (38.9%) X4/DM.

CONCLUSION
There was high concordance in the genotypic tropism prediction based on proviral DNA among different virological centers throughout Italy. Our results are in line with other European studies, and support the use of genotypic tropism testing on proviral DNA in patients with suppressed plasma HIV-1 RNA candidate to CCR5-antagonist treatment.


ABSTRACT The study aimed to investigate professional quality of life as reported by audiologists and speech language pathologists (SLPs) working in India. Questionnaire-based cross-sectional e-mail survey design using the Professional Quality of Life scale (ProQOL) was carried out. The sample consisted of professionals registered under the Indian Speech and Hearing Association. The questionnaire was sent through the personal registered e-mail-id to 500 professionals of which 155 complete responses were obtained. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the demographic variables. Internal consistency was checked using Cronbach's alpha. Independent sample t test was used to check the relation of occupation, gender and work setting with the ProQOL subscales. ANOVA and post hoc Tukey HSD was performed to determine the effect of years of experience. A statistically significant difference was found between occupation and secondary traumatic stress (STS) levels and years of work experience and burnout. Post hoc analysis revealed a significant difference between 11 and 20 and more than 21 years of experience. Strong negative correlation between compassion satisfaction and burnout whereas a moderate positive correlation between burnout and STS was observed. The study identifies factors such as occupation type and years of experience have an influence on the professional quality of life.


Abstract Supermarkets and discount food stores are more than places of supply. They are places to meet and greet those in the community. Kids use spacious parking lots after store hours for skateboarding and playing soccer. The latest news from community councils are posted here. A "For Sale" board in the market is today's neighborhood flea market. Local food markets are anchors for centrality in many small urban centers. In the past decade however, as location and sale strategies are revised, many of these centrally located small and mid-sized food markets close and more spacious and automobile-oriented locations are opened. Results are not only new emerging commercial centers but also declining traditional urban centers. Often they lose their most important anchor business and main local supplier of everyday goods and services. By the German spatial planning law local authorities have to secure the traditional neighborhood centers as places of local supply, identification and heritage. But the structural integration and re-direction of food retail developments into mostly densely built-up central locations creates a dilemma for planners. Planners can see possibilities. Local food markets in general can stabilize traditional neighborhood centers. But there is a large uncertainty in handling the aggressive retail developments and the spatial demands of food market operators, above all the very fast expanding discount food stores of German chains like ALDI or LIDL. Given this general development in food retailing, what can city planners do to keep or to integrate local food markets into central locations? The presented study was designed to discuss: the situation of discount food stores and supermarkets developments in urban centers; the coexistence of old and emerging commercial centers, both very much defined by the location of food retailers; spatial demands and possibilities to integrate the land-consumptive layout of the modern food store developments into the urban texture of traditional urban centers; and fields of action to influence the location and design of food retail developments.


Enormous advances are being made in the field of genetics that enable caregivers to predict diseases more accurately, prevent disease more effectively, and even treat disease by altering defective genes. However, many experts, including those on the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, are concerned our society may be unprepared for the power that these new technologies bring (Gutmann, 2012). Three new fields in genetics offering both the most promise as well as the most peril are whole genome sequencing (WGS), epigenetic therapy, and gene therapy. WGS allows for both better diagnostics and better preventative care through genome-wide mutation detection. On the other hand, there are concerns WGS could cause individuals to unwillingly learn about untreatable diseases (such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's) they are predisposed toward and that individuals could be discriminated against by employers or insurance companies based on their genetic information. Epigenetic advances provide a better understanding of how one's life decisions affect the genes they pass onto their offspring, but with this knowledge may come the obligation to alter one's lifestyle to increase their offspring's quality of life. Gene therapy offers potential cures for previously untreatable or unsatisfactorily managed conditions through the addition, disruption, or editing of genes. Unfortunately, gene therapy is currently a high-risk and expensive treatment option, that is available only on a clinical trial basis. My honor's thesis project will consist of three main components. First, I analyze the benefits and dangers of each new technology through a literature review. Second, I determined how an education in genetics alters individuals' attitudes on ethical dilemmas presented by each of these technologies. I accomplished this goal through comparing survey responses of a January-term knitting class with no biology majors, students enrolled in a 100-level biology class, and students enrolled in the BIO-374 Genetics class at Gustavus Adolphus College. The survey includes questions to gauge the reader's acceptance of the technique as a whole, as well as on a variety of ethical dilemmas that arise due to each technique. Third, because education increases acceptance of the three genetic techniques studied in this paper, I recommend public education as a means to increase societal acceptance for these techniques.


This study explores froth flotation and selective flocculation methods to recycle waste phosphors containing several rare earth elements, namely, yttrium (Y), europium (Eu), cerium (Ce) and terbium (Tb). The effects of the presence or absence of collector and of flocculant and their dosages, as well as the pH, were investigated. Reverse flotation resulted in concentrates with grade of 27.03 percent and recovery rate of 71.36 percent, while flocculation resulted in concentrates with grade of 31.43 percent and recovery rate of 91.28 percent. The flotation and flocculation behaviors were further analyzed by X-ray diffraction analysis, zeta potential measurements, particle size distribution and other methods. The successful separation of rare earth minerals by flotation was attributed to the selective adsorption of the collector onto quartz, making it particularly recoverable by reverse flotation so as to be separated from the valuable materials. The analysis of the particle aggregation process indicated that its better flocculation performance was due to the selective adsorption of flocculants onto the unwanted materials, enlarging the flocculant sizes by forming aggregations and facilitating the separation of rare earth minerals from waste materials based on different settling rates.


Local search metaheuristics (LSMs) are efficient methods for solving complex problems in science and industry. They allow significantly to reduce the size of the search space to be explored and the search time. Nevertheless, the resolution time remains prohibitive when dealing with large problem instances. Therefore, the use of GPU-based massively parallel computing is a major complementary way to speed up the search. However, GPU computing for LSMs is rarely investigated in the literature. In this paper, we introduce a new guideline for the design and implementation of effective LSMs on GPU. Very efficient approaches are proposed for CPU-GPU data transfer optimization, thread control, mapping of neighboring solutions to GPU threads, and memory management. These approaches have been experimented using four well-known combinatorial and continuous optimization problems and four GPU configurations. Compared to a CPU-based execution, accelerations up to \times 80 are reported for the large combinatorial problems and up to \times 240 for a continuous problem. Finally, extensive experiments demonstrate the strong potential of GPU-based LSMs compared to cluster or grid-based parallel architectures.


The drama between the secularist legacy of Ataturk and the popular surge of Islamist-rooted politics continues in Turkey, centered on the debate over the headscarf. Is it a sign of religious reaction, or a sign of non-Western modernization that will ensure higher education for Muslim women? We represent here all sides of the debate.

Elsewhere in the Muslim world are the reformers and critics listening to each other, or impeding progress with a blame game? Europe's most controversial figures in this debate—Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Tariq Ramadan—engage here.


To meet the requirements and specifications coming from the surrounding society, the socio-economic progress involves the development of new products, new technologies, new organizational forms etc. Companies are constantly looking for methods or procedures to improve production and income; but, the enterprise growth is strictly linked to the reliability of its internal processes. Internal failures can often cause loss of image. The goal of the present work is the development of an algorithm able to optimize the production line of a pharmaceutical firm. In particular, the proposed weighing procedure allows both checking missing components in packaging and minimizing false rejects of packages by dynamic scales. The main problem is the presence at the same time, in the same package, of different components with different variable weights. The consequence is uncertainty in recognizing the absence of one or more components.


MicroRNAs are an emerging class of synaptic regulators. These small noncoding RNAs post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression, thereby altering neuronal pathways and shaping cell-to-cell communication. Their ability to rapidly alter gene expression and target multiple pathways makes them interesting candidates in the study of synaptic plasticity. Here, we demonstrate that the proconvulsive microRNA miR-324-5p regulates excitatory synapse structure and function in the hippocampus of mice. Both Mir324 knockout (KO) and miR-324-5p antagomir treatment significantly reduce dendritic spine density in the hippocampal CA1 subregion, and Mir324 KO, but not miR-324-5p antagomir treatment, shift dendritic spine morphology, reducing the proportion of thin, "unstable" spines. Western blot and quantitative Real-Time PCR revealed changes in protein and mRNA levels for potassium channels, cytoskeletal components, and synaptic markers, including MAP2 and Kv4.2, which are essential for long-term potentiation (LTP). In line with these findings, slice electrophysiology revealed that LTP is severely impaired in Mir324 KO mice, while baseline excitatory activity remains unchanged. Overall, this study demonstrates that miR-324-5p regulates dendritic spine density, morphology, and plasticity in the hippocampus, potentially via multiple cytoskeletal and synaptic modulators.


Povsic et al. investigated the role of β-arrestins in the activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) by insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and discovered that, unexpectedly, this involved a mechanism independent of the tyrosine kinase activity of the IGF-1 receptor. β-Arrestins are recruited to heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G protein)-coupled receptors (GPCRs) upon agonist binding and are involved in GPCR desensitization, as well as in activating various signaling pathways, and they are best known for their association with GPCRs. However, β-arrestin1 is also recruited to two related receptor tyrosine kinases--the insulin receptor and the IGF-1 receptor. IGF-1 signaling, which has been implicated in cell differentiation and proliferation, involves the activation of PI3K. Using two mouse embryo fibroblast lines that differed only in β-arrestin1 expression, Povsic et al. showed that IGF-1-mediated activation of PI3Kα; the subsequent recruitment to the plasma membrane, phosphorylation, and activation of Akt; and the inhibition of apoptosis by IGF-1 after serum withdrawal all depended on β-arrestin1. Pharmacologic analysis indicated that activation of PI3K and Akt was independent of IGF-1 receptor tyrosine kinase activity or the phosphorylation of the adaptor protein insulin receptor substrate. PI3K activation was also independent of Src and of IGF-1 activation of Gi (the family of G protein α subunits that can inhibit adenylyl cyclases). Thus, β-arrestins appear to mediate PI3K activation in response to IGF-1 through a novel pathway that is independent of the tyrosine kinase activity of the IGF-1 receptor. T. J. Povsic, T. A. Kohout, R. J. Lefkowitz, β-Arrestin1 mediates insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and anti-apoptosis. J. Biol. Chem. 278, 51334-51339 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The objective of this study was to compare the risk factors of Type 2 Diabetes mellitus between
vegetarian and non-vegetarians aged 30 years and above in Kulim, Kedah. Socio-economic status,
family history, anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, blood glucose, blood cholesterol,
dietary intakes and physical activities were measured. Data was analysed by using Statistical
Package for the Social Science for Window (SPSS) version 15.0 and the test used was Student t-test.
Two days of 24-hour dietary recall data were assessed using a computer dietary analysis software
program (Nutritionist-pro). Subjects consisted of 50 vegetarians (mean age: 46.8 ± 12.2 years) and
50 non-vegetarians (mean age: 55.8 ± 10.5 years). The mean monthly household income was
RM2569.0 ± RM166.2 and RM 2111.2 ± RM 1257.3 for vegetarians and non-vegetarians, respectively.
The mean total years of education was 9.2 ± 4.2 for vegetarians and 7.6 ± 2.6 for non-vegetarians.
Most of the vegetarians were still working while most of the non-vegetarians were already
retired or were housewives. There were less family members with history of diabetes in vegetarians
than among non-vegetarians. Mean BMI for vegetarians was 22.98 ± 4.1 kg/m2 whereas mean BMI
for non-vegetarians was 22.99 ± 4.3 kg/m2 and the difference was not significant. Mean body fat
percentage was 28.0 ± 8.9% for the vegetarians and 28.5 ± 7.4% for non-vegetarians; the difference
was not statistically significant. Body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage did not differ by
dietary pattern. The mean blood glucose level was 4.76 ± 1.02 mmol/L and 5.50 ± 1.24 mmol/L for
vegetarians and non-vegetarians respectively, and it was significantly different (p<0.01). The
mean of blood cholesterol for vegetarians was 4.46 ± 0.82 mmol/L whereas for non-vegetarians,
it was 6.22 ± 1.02mmol/L; this difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). Mean systolic
blood pressure of non-vegetarians was 129.6 ± 23.3 mmHg compared to 140.5 ± 21.6 mmHg for
vegetarians and these were also significantly different (P<0.05). The mean diastolic blood pressure
was 85.1 ± 12.0 mmHg and 89.3 ± 11.8 mmHg for vegetarians and non-vegetarians, respectively.
There was no significant difference in diastolic blood pressure between the two groups. There was
no significant difference observed for total energy and iron intake. However, vegetarians had a
significantly lower intake of protein (p<0.0saturated fat (p<0.01) than non-vegetarians. A significantly higher intake (p<0.05) for carbohydrate,
fibre, vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E was found in vegetarians compared to their counterparts.
Examples of protein sources for vegetarians were tau-kua, tau-hoo, soya milk, lentils, peanut,
broccoli and vegetarian meat-substitute. The total METs of physical activities was not significantly
different between two groups. The mean total METs was 688.3 ± 1913.1 METs and 414.8 ± 664.6
METs for vegetarians and non-vegetarians, respectively. Therefore, the risk factors that were
present in non-vegetarians but not in vegetarians were high blood glucose level, high blood
cholesterol, high blood pressure, high fat intake, high saturated fat, high cholesterol intake and
low fibre intake. Further studies with larger sample size should be carried out to further study the
potential of a healthy vegetarian diet towards reducing risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus.01), dietary fat (p<0.05), cholesterol (p<0.001) and


The capture of carbon dioxide at the point of emission from coal- or gas-burning power plants is an attractive route to reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. To commercialize carbon capture, as well as transport of liquified carbon dioxide and its storage in exploited oil fields or saline formations, many technological, commercial, and political hurdles remain to be overcome. Urgent action is required if carbon capture and storage is to play a large role in limiting climate change.


We investigate the generation and decay of interspecific disequilibrium (ID) between organelle and symbiont genomes as a function of the rate of horizontal transmission. We show that rare horizontal transmission greatly diminishes the covariance between organelle and symbiont genomes. This result has two important implications. First, a low level of ID does not indicate low levels of vertical transmission. Second, even with low levels of horizontal transmission, the additive effects of host and symbiont loci will determine the response to selection, while epistatic effects will not be selectable.


A Pd single-atom alloy (SAA) structure was constructed by alloying Pd with Au supported on silica. The XRD and HRTEM results demonstrated that the addition of a small amount of Pd efficiently prevented the sintering of Au nanoparticles. The DRIFTS and EXAFS results confirmed that the Pd SAA structure was formed when the atomic ratios of Pd/Au were lower than 0.025. The Pd SAA structure exhibits a much better catalytic performance for the selective hydrogenation of acetylene in excess ethylene than the corresponding monometallic Au or Pd systems.


Representation of ice clouds in radiative transfer simulations is subject to uncertainties associated with the shapes and sizes of ice crystals within cirrus clouds. In this study, we examined several ice cloud models consisting of smooth, rough-ened, homogeneous and inhomogeneous hexagonal ice crystals with various aspect ratios. The sensitivity of the bulk scattering properties and solar reflectances of cirrus clouds to specific ice cloud models is investigated using the improved geometric optics method (IGOM) and the discrete ordinates radiative transfer (DISORT) model. The ice crystal habit fractions in the ice cloud model may significantly affect the simulations of cloud reflectances. A new algorithm was developed to help determine an appropriate ice cloud model for application to the satellite-based retrieval of ice cloud properties. The ice cloud particle size retrieved from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, collocated with Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) observations, is used to infer the optical thicknesses of ice clouds for nine MISR viewing angles. The relative differences between view-dependent cloud optical thickness and the averaged value over the nine MISR viewing angles can vary from − 0.5 to 0.5 and are used to evaluate the ice cloud models. In the case for 2 July 2009, the ice cloud model with mixed ice crystal habits is the best fit to the observations (the root mean square (RMS) error of cloud optical thickness reaches 0.365). This ice cloud model also produces consistent cloud property retrievals for the nine MISR viewing configurations within the measurement uncertainties.


The CONCERT Biobank was established as an open-access, multiple collection site biorepository designed to collect, process, store, retrieve and disseminate biological samples and health information for research projects following informed consent from participants diagnosed with cancer. Informed consent is obtained prior to surgery by either the nursing, medical or biobank staff. Tissues for biobanking are examined within the diagnostic anatomical pathology department of the participating hospital by qualified pathologists and tissues deemed in excess of diagnostic requirements are stored securely and anonymously by the biobank in anticipation of current and future research needs for broad and as yet unspecified cancer research nationally.


Background— Intravenous alteplase for acute ischemic stroke is least efficacious for patients with proximal large-artery occlusions and clinically severe strokes. Intra-arterial therapy has the theoretical advantage of establishing a neurovascular diagnosis and high symptomatic artery patency rate but the disadvantage of requiring extra time and technical expertise. A combination of these two approaches may provide the best chance of improving outcome in severe acute ischemic stroke. We sought to assess the safety and feasibility of this approach. Methods— This was a prospective, open-label study. Sequential patients arriving to our center within 3 hours of stroke onset who were treated with intravenous alteplase were screened for possible additional intra-arterial therapy using noninvasive neuroimaging. Clinical measures and outcomes were recorded prospectively. Results— A total of 861 patients with ischemic stroke were admitted to Calgary hospitals during the study period. Eight patients over 21 months underwent a combined intravenous–intra-arterial approach. Six received intra-arterial alteplase and 1 underwent intracranial angioplasty; in a final patient, technical aspects prevented intra-arterial therapy. Early neurovascular and/or neurometabolic imaging identified the location of occlusion and tissue-at-risk (DWI-PWI mismatch) in all 8 patients. Two patients had a poor outcome, 1 patient suffered a significant groin hematoma, and there were no instances of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage. Conclusions— Intravenous followed by intra-arterial therapy is a promising approach to the treatment of severe acute ischemic stroke. Early noninvasive neurovascular and neurometabolic imaging is very helpful in choosing candidates for this type of therapy. On-going monitoring of alteplase-treated patients may allow the opportunity to perform rescue intra-arterial therapy.