Computers and the World Wide Web have influenced many aspects of every-day-life. Especially in the field of doing business new ways of communication have emerged. Distance learning, eLearning, computer-based training, and web-based training are terms for new forms of learning based on modern technologies. In this paper we will introduce facets of electronic learning and present our approach of project-based training. This approach is based on a web-based project management platform that we had used earlier for projects with a digital photography agency and a middle-class marketing agency. We have extended this platform to a learning environment and are now able to comfortably administer lectures and lecture projects.


Idiopathic chondrolysis of the hip is a very rare disease occurring during adolescence. Pain and limp are the most common symptoms and are a consequence of an accelerated loss of the articular cartilage with a lower range of move-ment producing rigidity in the last instance. The natural history is unpredictable and varies between complete and spon-taneous recovery and the ankylosis. The current recommended treatment is conservative, restricting the surgical option for residual stiffness. A clinical case of an eleven year old patient is presented. He consulted for a 2 year, torpid course of left groin pain with limp and rigidity. He received treatment with rest, discharge, analgesics and rehabilitation without any improvement initially. He was treated conservatively with NSAIDS, extremity discharge periods, soft traction in the hospital and at home and rehabilitation, recovering mobility and normal gait 6 years after the beginning of the symptoms. Twelve years after the onset of the symptoms the patient leads a normal life without symptoms and has a symmetric range of motion of both hips.


Various authors have suggested behavioural similarities between tool use in early hominins and chimpanzee nut cracking, where nut cracking might be interpreted as a precursor of more complex stone flaking. In this paper, we bring together and review two separate strands of research on chimpanzee and human tool use and cognitive abilities. Firstly, and in the greatest detail, we review our recent experimental work on behavioural organization and skill acquisition in nut-cracking and stone-knapping tasks, highlighting similarities and differences between the two tasks that may be informative for the interpretation of stone tools in the early archaeological record. Secondly, and more briefly, we outline a model of the comparative neuropsychology of primate tool use and discuss recent descriptive anatomical and statistical analyses of anthropoid primate brain evolution, focusing on cortico-cerebellar systems. By juxtaposing these two strands of research, we are able to identify unsolved problems that can usefully be addressed by future research in each of these two research areas.


A retrospective review of hospital maternal deaths at Jimma Hospital, Southwestern Ethiopia, covering the period from September 1990 to May 1999 was conducted with the objectives of determining the overall maternal mortality rate, observing trend of maternal mortality during the period, and identifying major causes of maternal mortality. The overall maternal mortality rate for the period was 1965 maternal deaths per 100000 live births ranging from 1636 to 2332 deaths per 100000 live births with an overall trend showing no decrease. Ruptured uterus (33.2%) was the major cause of death with unsafe abortion responsible for 26.8% of all cases. Overall, hemorrhagic complications of pregnancy, sepsis and hypertensive disorders were responsible for 94.9% of all maternal deaths. Analysis of trends of major causes showed deaths due to ruptured uterus to be increasing over the years. Obstructed labor is found to be directly or indirectly responsible for 45.53% of all maternal deaths mainly affecting the primigravida and the grand multipara (44.9%). Concentrating on the provision of peripartum care to this subgroup of mothers is suggested as one possible strategy to effect rapid reduction in overall maternal mortality within the foreseeable future.
(Ethiopian Journal of Health Development, 2000, 14(2): 215-223)


Dendrochemical and biochemical markers link stress in apparently healthy red spruce trees (Picea rubeits) to acidic deposition. Acidic deposition to spruce forests of the northeastern USA increased sharply during the 1960s. Previous reports related visible damage of trees at high elevations to root and soil processes. In this report, dendrochenlical and foliar biocllemical markers indicate perturbations in biological processes in healthy red spruce trees across the northeastern USA. Previous research on the dendrochemistry of red spruce ste~nwood indicated that under uniform environmental conditions, stemwood concentrations of Ca and Mg decreased with increasing radial distance from the pith. For nine forest locations, frequency analysis shows that 28 and 52% of samples of red spruce stemwood formed in the 1960s are enriched in Ca and Mg, respectively, relative to wood formed prior to and after the 1960s. This enrich~nent in trees tllroughont the northeastern USA may be interpretable as a signal of increased availability of essential cations in forest soils. Such a temporary increase in the availability of Ca and Mg could be caused by cation mobilization, a consequence of increased acidic deposition. During cation mobilization, essential Ca and Mg as well as potentially harnlful Al become more available for interaction with binding sites in the soil and absorbing roots. As conditions which favor cation nlobilization continue, Ca and Mg can be leached or displaced from the soil. A nleasure of the interaction between Ca and Al is the AUCa binding ratio (molar charge ratio of exchangeable Al to exchangeable Ca). As the AUCa binding ratio in the root zone increased from 0.3 to 1.9, the foliar concentration of the biochen~ical stress marker putrescine also increased from 45 to 145 nm g-.'. The correlation of the pntrescine concentration to the AUCa binding ratio (adj. r" 0.68, P < 0.027) suggests that foliar stress may be linked to soil chenlistry. the mobilization of harmful A1 in high elevation watersheds of the northeastern USA was associated with the atmospheric deposition of nitric and sulfuric acid (Cronan and Schofield, 1979). This mobilization of A1 was described as a possible cause for the deterioration of forest canopies, and death of red spruce trees in these same watersheds (Hertel, 1988).


AIMS
To study the possible pharmacodynamic differences in children under anesthesia based on remifentanil.

METHODS
This multicenter observational study enrolled 275 patients scheduled for minor pediatric surgery (herniorrhaphy, prepuceplasty, and plastic surgery). The children were grouped by age: 1-3 years, 4-7 years, 8-12 years. Premedication was with midazolam, induction with sevoflurane or propofol, and maintenance with sevoflurane 0.5%-0.8%, N2O/O2 30%/70%, and remifentanil 0.25 microg/kg/min. Postoperative analgesia (metamizol, morphine or regional block) was administered at least 30 minutes before the end of surgery.

RESULTS
No differences were found between age groups with regard to remifentanil requirements, end tidal concentrations of sevoflurane, or mean times until spontaneous ventilation or extubation. Nor were there differences in the percentages of complications (5.4%), of which 4 were cases of intense postoperative muscular rigidity, or in the incidence of nausea-vomiting (3.4%). The quality of recovery from anesthesia (Aldrete test) was better in the 8-12-year-old group (P < 0.05), however, while agitation (Postoperative Agitation Score) and pain (visual analog scale or observational scales) were greater in the group of 1-3-year-olds (P < 0.05). The evaluation of the technique by participating caregivers was excellent for 20%, very good for 41%, good for 29%, adequate for 8% and poor for 2% of the cases.


A political leader's decisions can determine the fate of a nation, but what determines how and why that leader makes certain choices? William H. Chafe, a distinguished historian of 20th Century America, examines eight of the most significant political leaders of the modern era in order to explore the relationship between their personal patterns of behaviour and their political decision-making process. The result is a fascinating look at how personal lives and political fortunes have intersected to shape America over the past fifty years. One might expect our leaders to be healthy, wealthy, genteel and happy. In fact, most of these individuals - from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Martin Luther King, Jr., from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton - came from dysfunctional families, including three children of alcoholics; half grew up in poor or only marginally secure homes; most experienced discord in their marriages; and at least two displayed signs of mental instability. What links this extraordinarily diverse group is an intense ambition to succeed, and the drive to overcome adversity. Indeed, adversity offered a vehicle to develop the personal attributes that would define their careers and shape the way they exercised power. Chafe probes the influences that forged these men's lives and profiles the distinctive personalities that moulded their exercise of power in times of danger and strife. The history of the United States from the Depression into the new century cannot be understood without exploring the dynamic and critical relationship between personal history and political leadership that these eight life stories so poignantly reveal.


Two retrograde, amphibolite facies shear zones were studied to explore the relationship between retrograde mineral reactions, volume strain, fluid flow, mylonitization, and coaxial versus noncoaxial deformation. The two shear zones are the contractional Mafwewu Hills shear zone and the transcurrently displacing Mkamasa River shear zone of northern Malawi. In general, shear-zone formation is characterized by the breakdown of feldspar and biotite and the formation of sillimanite, quartz, and water. Silica, alkali, and alkali earth elements were mobile. Mass-balance calculations, based on major- and trace-element geochemistry, indicate as much as 50%–60% volume loss in mylonite. Fluid to rock ratios estimated from the calculated depletions of silica are as much as 200–400, indicating that the initiation and activity of the shear zones were accompanied by large amounts of fluids that infiltrated the shear zones. These fluids caused an almost complete loss of alkalies within the shear zone, leading to the development of almost "dry" and sheet-silicate–free mylonite. It is proposed that the associated destabilization of micas destroyed the pathways for fluid circulation and ultimately caused the cessation of shearing. In the Mafwewu Hills shear zone, shear-zone–related stretching lineations are oriented parallel to tectonic transport. In the Mkamasa River shear zone, the stretching lineations curve from a subhorizontal attitude in the wall rock into a subvertical attitude in mylonite characterized by large volume loss. Shear bands in the Mkamasa River shear zone indicate a sinistral sense of shear. A synoptic analysis of mesoscale S and Z asymmetric folds indicates that the orientation of the stretching lineations in mylonite characterized by large volume loss is subperpendicular to the regional tectonic transport direction. Aspect ratios of feldspar and quartz in XZ sections (X ≥ Y ≥ Z, principal axes of finite-strain ellipsoid) show oblate grain shapes and show a positive correlation with volume strain. Mean kinematic vorticity numbers are 0.26–0.44 in the wall rock and 0.57–0.79 in mylonite. In mylonite, small kinematic vorticity numbers correlate with large volume loss. The transport-perpendicular orientation of the stretching lineations in strongly volume-deficient mylonite is thought to be the result of a pronounced component of shortening normal to the shear zone; the resulting higher degree of coaxial deformation controlled the final orientation of the stretching lineations.


A case study design was chosen in order to explore answers to the question of, what factors prevent parents from giving learning support for their children in the remedial class?. The purpose of using a case study was to gain an understanding of the research question from the participants' perspective. The case study was made up of sub-cases that were parents of children who all went to a particular school at the time of their referral for assessment of learning difficulties. The data collected through unstructured interviews were analysed using the constant comparative method. The finding that emerged as a major factor that prevented parents from seeking learning support when children started failing in the foundation phase was ignorance of the phenomenon of learning difficulties. The other factors that were identified related to parents' understanding of their children's learning difficulties; their being illiterate; and the belief in cultural issues. Recommendations were suggested for both the Educational Psychologist and educators relating to the need for parent education on the learning and development of their children with specific emphasis on learning difficulties. The role parents can play in partnership with educators was also highlighted.


The Authors Reply We thank Dr. Chen et al. for their interest in our article, in which we assessed the clinical efficacy and safety of modified FOLFIRINOX (mFOLFIRINOX) combined with secondary prophylaxis using Pegylated granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (Peg G) in advanced pancreatic cancer patients (1). They raised several concerns regarding our study. First, Dr. Chen et al. pointed out that the incidence of grade 3 or 4 anorexia and nausea was lower in our study than in a previous study in which pancreatic cancer patients were treated with FOLFIRINOX combined with primary prophylaxis using Peg G (2). Thus, the incidence of these non-hematological toxicities accompanied by mFOLFIRINOX and Peg G was comparable to that of mFOLFIRINOX combined with primary prophylaxis using Peg G studies (3-5) and mFOLFIRINOX-only studies (6, 7). These previous findings along with our own suggest that FOLFIRINOX combined with using Peg G might increase the incidence of anorexia and nausea compared with mFOLFIRINOX with or without Peg G. However, we must be cautious regarding the interpretation of the data obtained by our group and Terazawa et al. (2), since the numbers of patients enrolled in both studies are limited. Thus, the incidence of nausea and anorexia accompanied by mFOLFIRINOX combined with Peg G needs to be re-evaluated in future studies including a larger number of patients. Dr. Chen et al. raised another issue regarding the incidence of bone pain accompanied by multiple Peg G injections. As they pointed out, multiple G-CSF injections often induce bone pain. Unexpectedly, we did not experience the discontinuation of mFOLFIRINOX regimen due to musculoskeletal pain in this study despite multiple injections of Peg G. The lack of patients complaining of musculoskeletal pain might be attributed to the fact that the primary disease in our study was advanced pancreatic cancer, and many patients were being administered non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for cancer-related pain relief. Given that NSAIDs are effective in relieving both bone pain and cancer-related pain, it is likely that the administration of NSAIDs might have ameliorated bone pain. Finally, Dr. Chen et al. argue that it is too early to determine the cost-effectiveness of mFOLFIRINOX combined with Peg G. We agree with this opinion and feel that largescale, multi-center prospective trials will be required in order to determine the cost-effectiveness. Such future studies will be useful for assessing not only the cost-effectiveness but also the non-hematological toxicities of mFOLFIRINOX combined with Peg G.


This article reviews the range of delivery platforms that have been developed for the PySAL open source Python library for spatial analysis. This includes traditional desktop software (with a graphical user interface, command line or embedded in a computational notebook), open spatial analytics middleware, and web, cloud and distributed open geospatial analytics for decision support. A common thread throughout the discussion is the emphasis on openness, interoperability, and provenance management in a scientific workflow. The code base of the PySAL library provides the common computing framework underlying all delivery mechanisms.


Abstract. The chemical processes in daytime sprite streamers in the altitude range of 30–54 km are investigated by means of a detailed ion–neutral chemistry model (without consideration of transport). The focus lies on nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen species, and in particular on ozone perturbations. Initial effects of the breakdown electric fields at the tip of sprite streamers include a short-term loss of ozone due to ion–chemical reactions, a production of nitrogen radicals, and a liberation of atomic oxygen. The latter leads to a formation of ozone. In terms of relative ozone change, this effect decreases with altitude. The model results indicate that the subsequent ozone perturbations due to daytime sprites streamers differ considerably from the ones of night-time events. For night-time conditions, reactive nitrogen produced at the streamer heads is rapidly converted into significantly less reactive NO2, and there is basically no ozone depletion. The situation is different for daytime conditions where NOx causes catalytic ozone destruction. As a consequence, there is significant ozone loss in sprite streamers in the daytime atmosphere, in particular at higher altitudes. At an altitude of 54 km, ozone in the streamer column has decreased by about 15% fifteen minutes after the sprite event.


It is well known that max-weight policies based on a queue backlog index can be used to stabilize stochastic networks, and that similar stability results hold if a delay index is used. Using Lyapunov optimization, we extend this analysis to design a utility maximizing algorithm that uses explicit delay information from the head-of-line packet at each user. The resulting policy is shown to ensure deterministic worst-case delay guarantees and to yield a throughput utility that differs from the optimally fair value by an amount that is inversely proportional to the delay guarantee. Our results hold for a general class of 1-hop networks, including packet switches and multiuser wireless systems with time-varying reliability .


Knowledge based artificial networks networks have been applied quite successfully to propositional knowledge representation and reasoning tasks. However, as soon as these tasks are extended to structured objects and structure-sensitive processes it is not obvious at all how neural symbolic systems should look like such that they are truly connectionist and allow for a declarative reading at the same time. The core method aims at such an integration. It is a method for connectionist model generation using recurrent networks with feed-forward core. After an introduction to the core method, this paper will focus on possible connectionist representations of structured objects and their use in structure-sensitive reasoning tasks.


Background & Objective: The future of each society is based on its youth. In addition, the physical-mental health as well as the presence of healthy and capable people is a considerable requirement for all the societies. Thus, the aim of this research was to study the prevalence rate of children's postural abnormalities and its relationship with sport activity. Materials & Method: 148 children (74 boys and 74 girls) were randomly selected. The research tools were plummet (guideline), matrix sheet, mirror box and the personal characteristics questionnaire. All the results were analyzed by using chi-square, freedman statistical method and the spearman correlation coefficient . Result: The results indicated that there is a significant difference between the two normal and abnormal height structure states (p ≤ 0.01). Similarly, there was a significant negative difference between the number of skeletal abnormalities and the exercise activities in girls (r= 0.355) and boys (r= 0.369). In the case of abnormalities comparison between the sexes, the freedman test results indicated that there is a significant difference between the ranking of the boys' skeletal abnormalities as compared to the girls, in a way that the dorsal lord sis and flat back were the highest and the lowest in the girls, respectively. Moreover, the results of the person correlation coefficient test indicated that there is only a positive significant relationship between the age of the girls and the number of skeletal abnormalities (p ≤ 0.01, r=0.586). Conclusions: According to the results of this research, it can be stated that majority of the children at least have single skeletal abnormality, resulted from some factors such as heredity, daily wrong habits, and non standard equipments and facilities. In addition, not attending the related sports activities may increase the chance of these skeletal abnormalities.


OF DISSERTATION THE MESOCORTICOLIMBIC DOPAMINE PATHWAY RECONSTITUTED IN VITRO: GLUTAMATE RECEPTORS AND CORTICOSTEROIDMETHAMPHETAMINE NEUROTOXICITY Stress promotes the use of methamphetamine and other recreational substances and is often implicated in relapse to stimulant use. Thus, it is of critical importance to examine the consequences of the co-occurance of stress and methamphetamine use. Activity of the glutamatergic N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor system appears to be involved in the neurotoxic effects of both chronic stress and methamphetamine exposure. The current studies investigated the hypothesis that chronic pre-exposure to the stress hormone corticosterone (CORT) results in an increase of NMDA receptor activity and that this will potentiate the neurotoxic effects of methamphetamine (METH). Cocultures of the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, and medial prefrontal cortex were pre-exposed to CORT (1 μM) for 5 days prior to co-exposure to METH (100 μM) for 24 hours to investigate the combined effects on neurotoxicity and protein density of NMDA receptor subunits. The combination of CORT and METH resulted in significant neurotoxicity within the medial prefrontal cortex compared to either CORT or METH alone. The CORT+METH-induced toxicity was attenuated by co-exposure to the NMDA receptor antagonist (2R)-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (APV; 50 μM) during the 24 hour CORT and METH co-exposure. Although CORT alone did not significantly alter the density of the NR1 and NR2B subunits of the NMDA receptor, METH exposure for 24 hours resulted in a significant loss of the polyamine sensitive NR2B subunit. Coexposure to CORT and METH also resulted in decreased extracellular glutamate while not significantly altering extracellular dopamine. These results suggest an enhancement of NMDA receptor systems or downstream effectors in areas of the mesolimbic reward pathway following chronic pre-exposure to CORT, which leads to enhanced neuronal vulnerability to future excitotoxic insults. This may be of critical importance as use of psychostimulants such as METH and other drugs of abuse may produce excitotoxic events in these areas, thus further compromising neuronal viability.


We examine three key issues related to flexibility in planning: the first is to understand how flexibility in planning emerges and to define its content; the second relates to how flexibility is formed in planning practices; and the third is to examine the outcomes of flexibility in planning practices. While focusing on the production of large-scale housing projects in Turkey, we examine the emergence of flexibility in planning in Turkey, the extent of this flexibility, how flexibility in Turkey is defined in its planning practices and the outcomes of such planning practices. We base our examination on two projects in Istanbul, one in a newly developing area and the other in an urban renewal area. Some lessons from our research will be relevant to other developing countries that have similar dynamics.


Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) belongs to a conservative family of serine/threonine kinase and plays an important role in the process of cell cycle. Survivin is a member of inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family. We investigated the expression of PLK1 and survivin with immunohistochemical techniques in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and assessed their significance as a potent new tumor marker. The expression rate of PLK1 and survivin were 66.7% (26/39) and 82.1% (32/39), respectively. PLK1 expression correlated with systemic symptom, LDH level, IPI scores and therapeutic effect in DLBCL, while survivin did not. PLK1 expression correlated with shortened event-free survival (EFS) using the Log-rank test in DLBCL, but survivin did not. Cox regression analysis identified the independent prognostic significance for PLK1. The results suggest that there is a significant relationship between over expression of PLK1, the clinical features and survival time. Compared with survivin, PLK1 seems to be a better independent prognostic factor for DLBCL.


Baudelaire's essays on caricature offered the first sustained defense of the value of caricature as a serious art, worthy of study in its own right. This book argues for the crucial importance of the essays for his conception of modernity, so fundamental to the subsequent history of modernism. From the theory of the comic formulated in De l'essence du rire to his discussions of Daumier, Goya, Hogarth, Cruikshank, Bruegel, Grandville, Gavarni, Charlet, and many others, Baudelaire develops not only an aesthetic of caricature but also a caricatural aesthetic--dual and contradictory, grotesque, ironic, violent, farcical, fantastic, and fleeting--that defines an art of modern life. In particular, Baudelaire's insistence on the dualism and ambiguity of laughter has radical implications for such emblems of modernity as the city and the flaneur who roams its streets. The modern city is the space of the comic, a kind of caricature, presenting the flaneur with an image of dualism, one's position as subject and object, implicated in the same urban experiences one seems to control. The theory of the comic invests the idea of modernity with reciprocity, one's status as laugher and object of laughter, thus preventing the subjective construction and appropriation of the world that has so often been linked with the project of modernism. Comic art reflects what Walter Benjamin later defined as Baudelairean allegory, at once representing and revealing the alienation of modern experience. But Baudelaire also transforms the dualism of the comic into a peculiarly modern unity--the doubling of the comic artist enacted for the benefit of the audience, the self-generating and self-reflexive experience of theflaneur in a "communion" with the crowd. This study examines his views in the context of the history of comic theory and contemporary accounts of the individual artists. Complete with illustrations of the many works discussed, it illuminates the history and theory of caricature, t


The deposition of Middle and Late Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) strata in southeastern Colorado occurred in an epeiric sea that occupied the western interior of the American continent. During that time, large portions of all continents were flooded by shallow marine seas. Parts of the upper Carlile Shale and the lower part of the Niobrara Formation were deposited in the final stage of the Greenhorn marine cycle and during the beginning of the Niobrara marine cycle. The members of the Carlile Shale include (in ascending order): 1) Fairport Shale, 2) Blue Hill Shale, 3) Codell Sandstone, 4) Upper Carlile Shale, 5) Juana Lopez Shale, and 6) Sage Breaks equivalent shale and its southern equivalents in the Carlile Shale. The first three members were deposited during the Greenhorn regressive cycle, and the other three during the Niobrara transgression. These two cycles are separated by a disconformity on the top of the Codell Sandstone. Petrologic study of a Codell well-core (Forest Oil, T19S, R69W, Section 4, Colorado), employing petrographic, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and well-log data were used to characterize the unit in the subsurface. Subsequently, these criteria permitted correlation of subsurface data to the published outcrop descriptions, and provided evidence necessary for the paleoenviromental interpretation and reservoir characterization of the Codell Sandstone. The Codell Sandstone in the southern Denver and northern Raton basins can be divided into three units: very silty, thin, fine-grained sandstone beds separated by shale partings; medium-grained, bioturbated, caleareous sandstone; and very fine-grained, non-calcareous sandstone that contains significant amounts of clay and silt. The vertical succession of facies of the Codell displays progressively shallowing environments of deposition. In ascending order these are: 1) a transitional zone from the shore to the shoreface (Lower Codell), 2) a barrier-island complex (Middle Codell) and 3) lagoons (Upper Codell). As regression proceeded, lagoons prograded seaward on top of the shoreface sands. In the north and northeastern parts of the study area, sub-aerial exposure led to erosion of the barrier islands. Eroded sediments were carried by longshore currents and redeposited to the south (e.g., Pueblo area). The beginning of the Niobrara transgression is recorded in the deposition of the Juana Lopez Member of the Carlile Shale, a transgressive condensed section. At the initial phase of sea level rise, water depths were very shallow, probably even shallower than those of Codell time. The energy of waves and currents was very high; this resulted in the development of the scour surface on the top of the Codell. With increasing water depths during Niobrara time, energy was decreasing. The deposition of the Sage Breaks equivalent shale member and the Fort Hays Limestone Member records this event. Analysis of reservoir geometry combined with petrophysical data reveal that the barrier-island complex of the Middle Codell is a possible target for oil exploration. Source intervals are located within the Carlile Shale and they are rich enough to generate hydrocarbons for the possible reservoirs. However, diagenetic changes, such as compaction and carbonate cementation, significantly reduced porosity, and authigenic clay precipitation affected permeability. This information suggests that significant commercial discoveries within the Codell Sandstone interval in southeastern Colorado are unlikely to occur.


New parameters can be added to expand families of distribution for greater flexibility or to construct covariate models in several ways. In this paper, a trigonometric-type distribution was developed to generate a flexible distribution without adding additional parameters taking the Burr XII distribution as the base distribution. The new distribution is called the Sine-Burr XII distribution. Some of the mathematical properties of this distribution such as the moment, moment generating function, entropy and order statistics were derived. The parameters of the new distribution were estimated using the Maximum Likelihood method. The applicability of the Sine-Burr XII distribution was illustrated using two real datasets.


Background In contrast with an early implicit "facilitative hypothesis" of humor, a revised specificity hypothesis predicts that the benefits of humor depend on the specific style of humor used. Information on predictors of these humor styles in turn enhances the ability to predict the effect on well-being. Methods We examined the relationships between interpersonal competence, self-esteem, and different styles of humor, while also examining the contributions of age and gender. Participants (n = 201) aged 18–63 years completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory, the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire, and the Humor Styles Questionnaire, and gave demographic information. Results High self-esteem was associated with higher use of affiliative, aggressive, and self-enhancing humor styles, but lower use of self-defeating humor. High interpersonal competence predicted greater use of affiliative humor, whereas low interpersonal competence predicted greater use of aggressive humor. Further analyses showed that initiation competence predicted affiliative humor (positively) but both initiation competence (positively) and conflict management competence (negatively) predicted aggressive humor. Conclusion The findings that both self-esteem and initiation competence contribute to use of aggressive humor add to knowledge of who is likely to use this potentially harmful humor style. We conclude that a readiness to initiate humorous interactions is not on its own a general and positive attribute contributing to "good" humor.


Politicians' clear separation between their professional and private lives has been challenged by a growing need to be seen as personable, especially on social media where this is the norm. Little, however, is known about the effect on a political party when its politicians reveal aspects of their private lives on social media. The present study addresses this question. Through the lens of self-presentation theory, we are the first to test the effect of a balanced presentation strategy on Twitter (i.e., tweets that involve both professional and private aspects of their lives) as opposed to a strictly professional one. A longitudinal design was adopted with 265 Twitter users as participants. The results showed that a balanced strategy increased both interest in the politician's party and intention to vote for that party, irrespective of a user's political interest, social media usage intensity, or age, or the gender of either the user or the communicating politician. Furthermore, liking the tweets emerged as a crucial mediator. This study contributes valuable knowledge on self-presentation strategies of politicians specifically, and more broadly regarding self-presentation in the face of context collapse. However we call for future research to validate our experimental findings in a real-life setting. Implications are provided for political parties and others.


This paper presents a global view of measurement-driven traffic engineering, explores the interplay between traffic matrix estimation and routing optimization and demonstrates how demand uncertainties can be accounted for in the optimization step to guarantee a robust and reliable result. Based on a unique data set of complete measured traffic matrices, we quantify the demand uncertainties in an operational IP network and demonstrate how a number of robust optimization schemes allow to find fixed MPLS configurations that are close to the performance limits given by time-varying routing under full demand knowledge. We present a novel scheme for computing a sparse MPLS mesh to complement a baseline routing, and explore how the performance depends on the size of the partial mesh. Corresponding methods for robust OSPF optimization are discussed and a number of challenges are detailed.


It is a rare event when senior scholars and actors in a field come together;
more so when that takes place in the company of new and emerging
scholars. Even rarer are such occasions in the Oceania region, where
distance can mediate against key players coming together in time and space.
When the stars align, the opportunity must be seized. This article portrays
aspects of an event when, due to otherwise unfortunate circumstances, three
senior Pacific educators, scholars, and leaders offered glimpses of their
experiential learning and leadership by presenting a storied discussion of
leadership. The account given here discusses ideas derived from that
storying. It is an examination of the form used to enact the educators'
pedagogical purpose; keynote-as-storied-discussion. This innovative way of
delivering a keynote leverages the intersectional value of the tone-setting
intent of a keynote, the emotional and experiential layering of storying, the
pedagogical potential of woven narrative strands, and the discursive
exchange of ideas.


This paper presents a structured activity based on a game design to introduce k-12 students in the topic of super-vised machine learning from a practical perspective. The activity has been developed in the scope of an Erasmus+ project called AI+, which aims to develop an AI curriculum for high school students. As established in the AI+ principles, all the teaching activities are based on the use of the student's smartphone as the core element to intro-duce an applied approach to AI in classes. In this case, a smartphone-based game app is developed by students that includes a neural network model obtained with the "Personal Image Classifier" tool of the MIT App Inventor software. From a didactic perspective, the students dealt with supervised learning to solve a problem of image classification. The main learning outcome is the under-standing of how relevant is to develop a reliable machine learning model when dealing with real world applications. This activity was tested during 2021 with more than 50 students belonging to six schools across Europe, all of them enrolled in the AI+ project.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), usually batterypowered, thus very energy-constrained, present energy efficiency as the main challenge. To reduce the overall energy consumption of the network, research community has been tackling power management (PM) techniques on different levels — sensing, communication, computation and energy harvesting. Usually in WSNs the communication consumes most of the energy. But recently wireless sensor nodes are introduced that comprise also energy-consuming sensors, apart from the 'traditional' ones like temperature, air pressure and humidity sensors. Therefore, besides the well explored PM techniques on the transceiver activity and wireless transmission, there is a necessity to introduce also the PM on the sensing unit, that reduces the power consumption of the power-hungry sensors. This paper presents state-of-theart of the most important PM techniques both for transceiver and sensor activity, focusing on the contextand energy-aware multimodal heterogeneous WSNs with energy consuming sensors, designed for smart video surveillance and smart gas detection.


Focusing on a period of history rocked by four armed movements, Lillian Guerra traces the origins of Cubans' struggles to determine the meaning of their identity and the character of the state, from Cuba's last war of independence in 1895 to the consolidation of U.S. neocolonial hegemony in 1921. Guerra argues that political violence and competing interpretations of the "social unity" proposed by Cuba's revolutionary patriot, Jose Marti, reveal conflicting visions of the nation - visions that differ in their ideological radicalism and in how they cast Cuba's relationship with the United States. As Guerra explains, some nationalists supported incorporating foreign investment and values, while others sought social change through the application of an authoritarian model of electoral politics; still others sought a democratic government with social and economic justice. But for all factions, the image of Marti became the principal means by which Cubans attacked, policed, and discredited one another to preserve their own vision over others'. Guerra's examination demonstrates how competing historical memories and battles for control of a weak state explain why polarity, rather than consensus on the idea of the "nation" and the character of the Cuban state, came to define Cuban politics throughout the twentieth century.


Beach replenishment in Florida consumes about one-third of what the federal government spends nationally on battling coastal erosion. Recent proposals from Washington are to cut the federal share of hurricane and storm surge protection, inlet maintenance, sand bypassing, beach restoration, and periodic renourishment projects in Florida. Although Florida has more beach erosion control projects than all the other states combined, erosion is still a problem for some 700 km of shore and has reached "critical" levels along 370 km of Florida beach front where development or recreation are threatened. Of 215 km of erosion that have been studied, 140 km have been restored; the remainder has been abandoned because erosion rates are too high. If the average federal 50% cost-share for coastal protection is eliminated, local governments will have to support future projects at a minimal rate of $20-40 million per year. The annual cost of shore protection is modest compared to income generated by beach-related activities in Florida which overall bring in about $1.5 billion in annual sales. Alternative proposals to forego beach renourishment altogether, because it is "too expensive," suggest that new lines will be drawn in the sand for construction control and erosion setbacks. Due to relative sea-level rise (which includes land subsidence), natural background shoreline recession rates for the Florida Atlantic coast now average between 0.3-0.4 m a -1 . Accelerated rates of coastal erosion are associated with beaches backed by seawalls and coastal segments lying downdrift from stabilized inlets. Because jetties are littoral drift blockers, they are responsible for about 85% of Florida's beach erosion problem. Erosion fronts, which migrate downbeach from jetties at a rate of about 1 km a -1 , can quickly impact long coastal segments in a few years. Just south of the Port Everglades inlet, for example from DEP monuments R86-R91, beach fill placed in 1989 eroded 60 m in 6 years for an annual shoreline recession rate of 10 m a -1 , or a volume loss of 10 m 3 m -1 a -1 . Additional erosion hot spots occur downcoast from other trained (jettied) inlets and elsewhere along the coast. With the present total annual net loss at 3-5% by volume of beach sand in Broward County, about two-thirds to one-half of the Atlantic dry beach width will remain within s decade, by around 2007. This new line in the sand will reflect loss of both artificially replenished beaches and natural beaches alike. Without replenishment, the volume of eroded beach sand in Broward County alone will probably amount to something on the order of 5.2 x 10 6 to 8.6 x 10 6 m 3 . This magnitude of unrecovered decadel sand volume 1088 translates into future problems of greater magnitude than exist today. Salient among them is the prospect that fewer tourists will visit narrower, eroded beaches and the Florida economy will realize significantly leas income from a major but declining economic resource. A management policy of 'no new beach replenishment activities' will in the first decade: (1) cause accelerated loss of beaches, (2) place a larger proportion of the coastal population at risk from flooding, (3) increase vulnerability of coastal infrastructure to floods and inundation, (4) decrease revenue from tourism, and (5) result in higher costs for future shore protection. The proposed federal policy would be environmentally shortsighted, fiscally irresponsible, and negligent of proper methods of beach management. It is perhaps ironic to note that America has no national shore protection policy, that sand has become a restorrative resource of choice (opposed to hard, structural stabilization methods), and at a time when sand resources on the outer continental shelf may become available for beach renourishment, the Clinton Administration is proposing to put the brakes on soft shoreline stabilization .


OBJECTIVES
To (1) determine whether different types of thin film used to occlude congenital portosystemic shunts are cellophane, and (2) evaluate the influence of saline immersion and sterilization on the tensile properties of cellophane.

STUDY DESIGN
Ex vivo spectroscopic evaluation and mechanical testing.

SAMPLE POPULATION
Rectangular strips of thin film from 4 sources.

METHODS
Samples were evaluated with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and microscopy with a polarizing lens. Samples consistent with cellophane were divided into 5 sterilization groups: non-sterile, autoclave, gamma irradiation, hydrogen peroxide and ethylene oxide. Samples were tested while dry or after saline solution immersion. Tensile properties were compared using ANOVA, unpaired t-tests, Mann-Whitney U-tests and Fisher's exact tests. P < 0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS
One thin film was consistent with cellophane and it could be differentiated from the other thin films by visible striations. Cellophane was strongest when strips were oriented parallel with its fiber direction and saline immersion reduced its strength by 48% (P < .001). All sterilization methods except autoclave significantly weakened wet cellophane (ethylene oxide [P < .001], gamma irradiation [P < .001], and hydrogen peroxide [P < .001]).

CONCLUSIONS
Thin film from most sources was not consistent with cellophane. Autoclave sterilization is the best way to preserve the strength of wet cellophane.


We consider a scenario involving computations over a massive dataset stored distributedly across multiple workers, which is at the core of distributed learning algorithms. We propose Lagrange Coded Computing (LCC), a new framework to simultaneously provide (1) resiliency against stragglers that may prolong computations; (2) security against Byzantine (or malicious) workers that deliberately modify the computation for their benefit; and (3) (information-theoretic) privacy of the dataset amidst possible collusion of workers. LCC, which leverages the well-known Lagrange polynomial to create computation redundancy in a novel coded form across workers, can be applied to any computation scenario in which the function of interest is an arbitrary multivariate polynomial of the input dataset, hence covering many computations of interest in machine learning. LCC significantly generalizes prior works to go beyond linear computations. It also enables secure and private computing in distributed settings, improving the computation and communication efficiency of the state-of-the-art. Furthermore, we prove the optimality of LCC by showing that it achieves the optimal tradeoff between resiliency, security, and privacy, i.e., in terms of tolerating the maximum number of stragglers and adversaries, and providing data privacy against the maximum number of colluding workers. Finally, we show via experiments on Amazon EC2 that LCC speeds up the conventional uncoded implementation of distributed least-squares linear regression by up to $13.43\times$, and also achieves a $2.36\times$-$12.65\times$ speedup over the state-of-the-art straggler mitigation strategies.


A partial differential equation (PDE) model for the dynamics of a thin piezoelectric plate in an electric field is presented. This PDE model is discretized via the finite volume method (FVM), resulting in a system of coupled ordinary differential equations. A static analysis and an eigenfrequency analysis are done with results compared with those provided by a commercial finite element (FEM) package. We find that fewer degrees of freedom are needed with the FVM model to reach a specified degree of accuracy. This suggests that the FVM model, which also has the advantage of an intuitive interpretation in terms of electrical circuits, may be a better choice in control situations.


The goal of this study is to increase the perceived relevance of university content knowledge courses by physics pre-service teachers. To achieve this goal problem sets discussed in tutorial groups, which are part of first-year physics courses for university physics majors and physics pre-service teachers, were modified in such a way that some of the problems were geared towards the content knowledge category "school-related content knowledge" (SRCK). This category describes conceptual knowledge that is teacher-specific. Conceptual problems based on this category were developed and introduced in weekly tutorials in two different courses (N = 75; N = 43 respectively) together with conceptual problems with no explicit school relevance and with regular, quantitative problems. Every week we asked students of a firstand a second-semester physics course to rate these problems with respect to perceived relevance and difficulty in a questionnaire. One finding is that when the content is more distant to physics taught at school, both conceptual problem types are perceived as more relevant by physics pre-service teachers than the regular, quantitative problems.


The desire for novelty and variety in experiences, which may manifest in an inclination to engage with individuals from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds, collectively constitutes the personality dimension known as "Openness to Experience." Empirical research has identified a positive correlation between trait openness and various expressions of creativity, such as divergent ideation, innovative problem-solving strategies, and cumulative creative accomplishments. This nexus between openness to interpersonal diversity, as an aspect of the larger personality trait of openness, and creativity has precipitated considerable scholarly interest across the disciplines of personality, social and organizational psychology, and neuroscientific investigation. In this paper, we review the neurobehavioral properties, including the cognitive processes and neural mechanisms, that connect these two constructs. Further, we explore how culture influences levels of openness and creativity in individuals and consider how creativity predisposes individuals toward openness to a plethora of experiences, including those occurring in culturally diverse contexts. This reciprocal entanglement of creativity and openness has been shown to foster a reduction in biases, augment conflict resolution capabilities, and generally yield superior outcomes in multicultural environments.


SUMMARY The European ADDRESS project aims at a market based integration of Active Demand (AD) into the power system in order to the provide services to the different power system participants, especially the distribution and transmission system operators. The ADDRESS project focuses mainly on the technical aspects of such AD integration, but additional research was carried out to analyse the existing market mechanisms and the required adaptations and evolutions. The results of this market mechanisms analysis is presented in this paper. The paper browses the existing markets that are relevant for the AD solutions proposed by ADDRESS and addresses the barriers to the integration of AD, mainly the minimum size of a bid or offer and the costs for participating. The actor who gathers AD in order to form products to offer them to the other actors, referred to as the aggregator, would need to collect a large number of consumers' flexibility in order to overcome those obstacles. Two possibilities are presented to facilitate the participation of AD. One is a regulatory change allowing smaller resources to participate. The other one is the creation of a flexibility market pooling the capacities from various flexible resources. The "pay-back" effect, which occurs at the moment that the flexible resources return to their normal state, is an additional risk for the resource operator. The paper proposes a new bid type including both the flexibility and its "pay-back" effect. The paper presents existing mechanisms to deal with grid constraints at the transmission level, such as capacity auctions and the re-dispatching in case of other network problems. Possibilities for the distribution system operator (DSO) to adapt them to the distribution level are proposed. The DSO could set up bilateral contracts, calls for tenders or an open market to deal with local constraints. Bilateral contracts would be the first option; other potential solutions could become available as the amount of local resources increases. In cases where these market based mechanisms are not sufficient, the DSO may need to curtail the use of some resources, particularly the flexible ones. The paper proposes a simple curtailment, without any form of compensation for the owners of resources and a redispatching option inspired from the transmission system level.


Abstract This article explores the opportunities and conundrums of understanding violence at critical junctures following ruptures in political orders through the prism of political settlements. While there is an emerging body of scholarship on political settlements, we specifically examine its relationship to violence, which we argue has been under-theorised. Through comparative country case studies (Bangladesh, Egypt, Kenya, Sierra Leone), we examine in a historicised manner how these types of settlements interact with various forms of violence at various scales. The article reconceptualises political settlements in relation to three forms of violence, intrinsic, instrumental and resultant, and shows how multi-scale dynamics and formal/informal interactions shape the violent nature of political settlements in different contexts.


Copyright © 2018 Rohe and Noppeney This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed. This Accepted Manuscript has not been copyedited and formatted. The final version may differ from this version. A link to any extended data will be provided when the final version is posted online.


The pavement image has three features: the background has similar statistical properties; cracks have less brightness than the background; cracks are connected to linear structure with much bigger area than impurities in the same image. Using these features, we present an algorithm comprising of image segment, breaking region connecting, and acreage comparison to extract pavement crack. Firstly, image segmentation using k-means clustering is implemented, and then the region with the minimum mean gray value is set as the initial extracted crack. The eight-connectivity cracks with small area are excluded to suppress interference and improve detection accuracy rate. Secondly, the minimum distance of every two non-connected crack regions is computed. When the distance is smaller than a given threshold, connect the two regions in the shortest possible path. Finally, morphology method is adopted to extract skeleton. Experimental results testify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in extracting pavement image cracks.


Background: Even 50 years after the introduction of the extrapelvic ilioinguinal approach for open reduction and internal fixation of acetabular fractures involving predominantly the anterior column, this approach is still acknowledged as being the so-called gold standard1. The pattern of acetabular fractures has changed within the last 10 to 20 years2,3, with a greater prevalence of quadrilateral plate fractures that is due in part to the increase in elderly trauma. The intrapelvic approach, also called the modified Stoppa approach4-6, was introduced as a less invasive alternative to the extrapelvic ilioinguinal approach, mostly combined with the first window of the ilioinguinal approach. The Pararectus approach also offers intrapelvic surgical access and has demonstrated safe surgical dissection with enhanced exposure and favorable outcome compared with the Stoppa approach7-10. Description: The skin incision runs along the lateral border of the rectus abdominis muscle to develop the anterior rectus sheath. The retroperitoneal space lateral to the rectus abdominis muscle is entered and the inferior epigastric vessels and the round ligament in females or the spermatic cord in males are identified. The superior pubic ramus and the iliopectineal eminence are exposed. If the corona mortis vessels (a vascular anastomosis between the obturator vessels and the external iliac artery) are present, they are ligated. The obturator nerve and vessels are exposed. The dissection is then directed posteriorly under retraction of the external iliac vessels with further subperiosteal exposure of the pubic ramus, the quadrilateral plate, and the posterior column. Any nonessential iliolumbar vessels are ligated. Residual displacement is assessed with fluoroscopic views. For reduction of a medially displaced femoral head, longitudinal extremity soft tissue or lateral skeletal traction (optional), with a Schanz pin in the greater trochanter, is used. For disimpaction of acetabular dome fragments and grafting of a supra-acetabular void (optional), a fluoroscopy unit is used to assess reduction and identify the void; in addition, arthroscopy can be used. The scope is introduced through the fracture gap to check for reduction without any water or specific setup. For reduction and fixation of extra-articular components (iliac wing posteriorly and superior pubic ramus anteriorly), the posterior column, and the quadrilateral plate, the fluoroscopy unit is used. The anterior lamina of the rectus sheath is sutured, and a layered closure performed. Alternatives: The ilioinguinal or modified Stoppa approach might be used instead. Rationale: The Pararectus approach combines the advantages of the ilioinguinal approach and the Stoppa approach. The Pararectus approach facilitates surgical access directly above the hip joint, which is comparable with the access obtained through the second window of the ilioinguinal approach, but without dissection of the inguinal canal. Moreover, the Pararectus approach provides intrapelvic visualization that is at least equivalent to that offered by the Stoppa approach but without losing any direct access to the hip joint.


The most important translations of the Bible into Polish, i.e. the Catholic Jakub Wujek Bible (1599) and the Protestant Gdańsk Bible (1632) were written at the end of the reformation period and were renewed and used in catholic churches and protestant communities until the first half of the 20th century. The reprints were systematically updated. In the 20th century the need to translate again the Holy Scripture into Polish was recognized. There were a few attempts at that in the second half of the previous century. They were always accompanied by heated debates which referred to the need of new translations as well the ways translators adopted to render in Polish selected books, sentences or even words. A religious text functions in a specific system of a higher level, i.e. religion. Religion is understood here as a culture text according to the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School. Owing to this interpretation, religion has its own language built onto natural language. Text in natural language constitutes only a fragment of a bigger sign entity. To put it most simply, since a natural text is a subcomponent of a semiotic religious text, any change introduced in the former disrupts the coherence of cultural meaning on a higher level. Because of "a secondary modeling system" (a term coined by Yuri M. Lotman) the language of religious texts is always a bit archaic. This very modeling system prevents the propellers of modernization from a more thorough linguistic update of old biblical translations in Poland and, more often than not, does not let translators depart too far from the translation tradition.    Translated by Agnieszka Bryła-Cruz


This is a good and central hotel, close to all main attractions in the Bugibba region. Very friendly staff make sure that each guest has an unforgettable stay. The hotel enjoys views of St. Paul`s Bay as well as the historic St. Paul`s Island and has..


1. The ability of many introduced fish species to thrive in degraded aquatic habitats and their potential to impact on aquatic ecosystem structure and function suggest that introduced fish may represent both a symptom and a cause of decline in river health and the integrity of native aquatic communities.

2. The varying sensitivities of many commonly introduced fish species to degraded stream conditions, the mechanism and reason for their introduction and the differential susceptibility of local stream habitats to invasion because of the environmental and biological characteristics of the receiving water body, are all confounding factors that may obscure the interpretation of patterns of introduced fish species distribution and abundance and therefore their reliability as indicators of river health.

3. In the present study, we address the question of whether alien fish (i.e. those species introduced from other countries) are a reliable indicator of the health of streams and rivers in south-eastern Queensland, Australia. We examine the relationships of alien fish species distributions and indices of abundance and biomass with the natural environmental features, the biotic characteristics of the local native fish assemblages and indicators of anthropogenic disturbance at a large number of sites subject to varying sources and intensities of human impact.

4. Alien fish species were found to be widespread and often abundant in south-eastern Queensland rivers and streams, and the five species collected were considered to be relatively tolerant to river degradation, making them good candidate indicators of river health. Variation in alien species indices was unrelated to the size of the study sites, the sampling effort expended or natural environmental gradients. The biological resistance of the native fish fauna was not concluded to be an important factor mediating invasion success by alien species. Variation in alien fish indices was, however, strongly related to indicators of disturbance intensity describing local in-stream habitat and riparian degradation, water quality and surrounding land use, particularly the amount of urban development in the catchment.

5. Potential confounding factors that may influence the likelihood of introduction and successful establishment of an alien species and the implications of these factors for river bioassessment are discussed. We conclude that the potentially strong impact that many alien fish species can have on the biological integrity of natural aquatic ecosystems, together with their potential to be used as an initial basis to find out other forms of human disturbance impacts, suggest that some alien species (particularly species from the family Poeciliidae) can represent a reliable 'first cut' indicator of river health.


Surveys and analyses among cardamom and tea planters were carried out in and around cardamom hill reserves during 2009-2012 to quantify the annual pesticide consumption of cardamom and tea. The survey revealed that cardamom had consumed 26.59 kg a.i ha-1 in comparison with tea (8.70kg a.i ha-1). Pesticide intensity of cardamom (0.0322 kg kg-1) was higher than tea (0.0046 kg kg-1). Risk weighed active ingredients values were 3.326 and 0.029 kg ha-1 for cardamom and tea respectively. The pesticide use intensity in major cardamom growing areas of the CHR has experienced significant increase from 2002 and 2003. It was 7.10 kg a.i ha-1 in the year 2002 and decreased slightly to 5.42 kg a.i ha-1 for the year 2003. The number of pesticide sprays has been increased during the last two years (2011-2012). Pesticide residues in soils of all three cardamom growing hot spots were high. Hospital data of these cardamom hot spot regions showed higher levels of pesticide poisonings particularly for organophosphorous compounds. Therefore, the analysis and results reported here on pesticide consumption by cardamom and tea must be taken seriously to safeguard the degraded rainforest cardamom agroforestry system.


CONTEXT
Teachers play an important role in guiding the adolescents. Adolescents are ill equipped to deal with the impending changes in their body which makes them vulnerable to STDs, HIV/AIDS and premarital sex. This study attempts to study the impact of reproductive health education on the knowledge, attitude and practices of teachers, about which only a few studies are available.

AIMS
To study the impact of health education on the knowledge, attitude and practices of teachers regarding reproductive health of adolescents.

SETTINGS
Senior Secondary schools of Amritsar and Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Amritsar, Punjab, India.

STUDY PARTICIPANTS
Male teachers of senior secondary schools of Amritsar teaching class 9th-12th.

STUDY DESIGN
Educational intervention study.

SAMPLING METHOD
Purposive sampling.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was started with 155 teachers (teaching class 9th -12th) who willingly participated from 50 senior secondary schools of Amritsar district. It was carried out in three phases. In first phase, after taking informed consent, the teachers filled a pretested questionnaire which was followed by an interactive session on reproductive health in second phase. In third phase, to study the impact of the interactive session and the sustainability of knowledge gained, they were again administered the same questionnaire after a period of 3 months.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Microsoft Excel, SPSS, Chi-square test.

RESULTS
Maximum 74 (47.7%) teachers were aware of the psychosocial problems of adolescents. Majority 110 (71%) of the teachers had only partial knowledge about pubertal changes. 117 (75.5%) teachers were unaware about genital hygiene. Only 33 (21.3%) teachers had adequate knowledge about different STDs. 91 (58.7%) and 54 (34.8%) of teachers had adequate knowledge about routes of transmission and prevention of AIDS respectively. Only 37 (23.9%) teachers were imparting sex education to students. After intervention significant favorable changes were seen in their knowledge, attitude and practices regarding most of above mentioned topics.

CONCLUSION
Although the baseline knowledge of teachers in most aspects of reproductive health of adolescents was found to be low, significant favourable changes were observed after health education.


Larger agglutinated foraminifera resembling the Cretaceous genus Navarella Ciry and Rat 1951 were recently recovered in Thanetian hemipelagites from the Belluno Basin, northeastern Italy. These lituoids first appear in the basal Thanetian (uppermost calcareous nannofossils Zone CNP 8) and become common in the >500 micron washed residue from the uppermost Thanetian. They abruptly disappear at the Paleocene/Eocene boundary, in coincidence with the extinction of Paleocene small benthic foraminifera (the benthic foraminiferal extinction event - BEE). In order to document the internal chamber arrangement and the agglutinated wall microstructure of the Thanetian lituolids and to compare them with similar individuals recovered from the Upper Cretaceous and Danian strata of the same section, the collected specimens were sectioned and analyzed using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX). Our results show a typical bi-layered wall microstructure in the Thanetian specimens, whereas the older Maastrichtian and Danian specimens, occurring in the same section, display a single, thicker agglutinated wall. The taxonomy of the Italian lituolids is discussed and compared with similar taxa known from the literature. We describe the Thanetian lituolids as the new genus Neonavarella, which shows an apparently identical external morphology to mono-layered Maastrichtian-Danian specimens but differs in the microstructure of the agglutinated test wall that is bi-layered. The finding of new and well-preserved material from the Paleocene Scaglia Rossa beds of Italy helps shed light on the taxonomy of the still poorly known deep-water larger lituolids.


The current study evaluates functional survival of human islets maintained in tissue culture for up to 4 wk in suspension media (CMRL-1066 with supplements) and contrasts these results with immobilizing three-dimensional matrices (agarose or alginate). The absolute number and volume of islets retrieved from agarose is significantly higher after two and four wk of culture compared to conventional free-floating media. In vitro function of islets, assessed by insulin/DNA content, insulin secretion into the culture media over 24 h and glucose-theophylline stimulated insulin release in a dynamic perifusion system, was not significantly different between free-floating and matrix preserved islets. In vivo islet function was evaluated by the effectiveness for reversal of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus by transplantation of the islets under the kidney capsule of nude mice. Although adequate insulin responses to glucose were seen after culture in conventional or matrix media, only agarose embedded islets were consistently able to induce normoglycemia in diabetic recipients after 14 days of culture. Additional transplantation experiments defined the threshold level required to reverse diabetes to be between 1,000 and 1,500 agarose preserved islets. Our data suggest improved engraftment of human islets after agarose culture. This culture method may be of benefit for the accumulation of functionally competent human islets, thus facilitating the implementation of clinical protocols that utilize freshly isolated islets from multiple donors without the need for cryopreservation.


Although Darwinian models are rampant in the social sciences, social scientists do not face the problem that motivated Darwin's theory of natural selection: the problem of explaining how lineages evolve despite that any traits they acquire are regularly discarded at the end of the lifetime of the individuals that acquired them. While the rationale for framing culture as an evolutionary process is correct, it does not follow that culture is a Darwinian or selectionist process, or that population genetics provides viable starting points for modeling cultural change. This paper lays out step-by-step arguments as to why a selectionist approach to cultural evolution is inappropriate, focusing on the lack of randomness, and lack of a self-assembly code. It summarizes an alternative evolutionary approach to culture: self-other reorganization via context-driven actualization of potential.


In this study, we investigated whether the combination of cyanidin-3-O-glucoside chloride and luteolin could inhibit the growth of HCT-8 colon and MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells, and whether the effect of the combination was greater than the effect of either drug on its own. Growth inhibition was assessed using the CCK-8 assay, level of apoptosis and cell cycle distribution were determined using flow cytometry, and the mechanism of apoptosis induction was explored using a colorimetric assay of caspases-3 and -9. Experiments indicated that combination treatment inhibited proliferation and increased apoptosis in both cell lines to a greater extent than either drug on its own. These results suggest that luteolin and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside chloride synergistically inhibitthe growth of colon cancer and breast cancer cells. This work justifies further effort to develop this potential combination therapy.


With the rapid development of our economy, the urban traffic becomes increasingly busy. To ease traffic congestion, underground rail transportation is becoming one of the main modes of transportation in city. At present in order to relieve the traffic congestion most major cities in China are accelerating the construction of subway tunnels. The relative position change of metro double tunnels and construction of the sequence will affect the surface subsidence deformation and the interaction of the tunnel lining. It is more concerned about these issues in tunnel design. It is the main purposes, in this paper, to analyze the metro double tunnels surface deformation, which affect by the position changes of new construction double and the sequence of construction. From the numerical simulating results, in order to reduce surface subsidence and ensure the structural safety over the subway tunnel, it should try to make double-tunnels at the same horizontal plane in design. If the double tunnels could not be located at the same horizontal plane, the double-hole tunnel construction sequence of the deformation of the surface subsidence effects are obvious it is obvious that the double tunnels construction sequence differently make the deformation of the surface subsidence. To reduce the deformation of the surface subsidence, it should be first excavated the shallow tunnels and then excavated the tunnel buried deeply. The ideal distance of the double tunnels center is greater than 4 times the tunnel diameter. It can make the surface subsidence reduce to the minimum during the metro tunnel construction.


Summary Plakoglobin (&ggr;-catenin), a constituent of the adherens junction and desmosomes, has signaling capabilities typically associated with tumor/metastasis suppression through mechanisms that remain undefined. To determine the role of plakoglobin during tumorigenesis and metastasis, we expressed plakoglobin in human tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC9) cells and compared the mRNA profiles of parental SCC9 cells and their plakoglobin-expressing transfectants (SCC9-PG). We detected several p53-target genes whose levels were altered upon plakoglobin expression. In this study, we identified the p53 regulated tumor suppressor 14-3-3&sgr; as a direct plakoglobin-p53 target gene. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments revealed that plakoglobin and p53 interact, and chromatin immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed that plakoglobin and p53 associate with the 14-3-3&sgr; promoter. Furthermore, luciferase reporter assays showed that p53 transcriptional activity is increased in the presence of plakoglobin. Finally, knockdown of plakoglobin in MCF-7 cells followed by luciferase assays confirmed that p53 transcriptional activity is enhanced in the presence of plakoglobin. Our data suggest that plakoglobin regulates gene expression in conjunction with p53 and that plakoglobin may regulate p53 transcriptional activity, which may account, in part, for the tumor/metastasis suppressor activity of plakoglobin.


Retention of an introductory general chemistry course material is vital for student success in future chemistry and chemistry-related courses. This study investigated the effects of clickers versus online homework on students' long-term content retention, examined the effectiveness of online homework versus no graded homework on students' achievement in a first-semester general chemistry course, and assessed students' attitudes toward the use of online homework. Students' data from the yearlong American Chemical Society General Chemistry (ACS GC97) exam, teacher-prepared final exams, and online surveys were analyzed to measure the effects of clickers and online homework on students' long-term content retention and performance, and to capture students' attitudes. A variety of methods including Welch ANOVA, independent samples /-test (Welch), Pearson's correlation, test of proportions, and Pearson's Chi-square test were used to analyze the data. The analyses indicated that the use of clickers or online homework did not significantly improve students' long-term content retention of general chemistry course material, that the use of online homework was more beneficial than, or at least as effective as no graded homework in improving students' performance, and students valued the fact that online homework provided immediate feedback. Additionally, results of this study revealed that greater numbers of students were retained in clicker and online homework classes than non-clicker, non-online homework classes and that various types of online homework systems used in general chemistry could impact student performance differently. Implications of the findings and future research directions were presented.


Thin film bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators and filters operating in the GHz range are used in mobile phones for the most demanding filtering applications and complement the surface acoustic wave (SAW) based filters. Their main advantages are small size and high performance at frequencies above 2 GHz. This work concentrates on the characterization, performance optimization, and modelling techniques of thin film BAW devices. Laser interferometric vibration measurements together with plate wave dispersion modeling are used to extract the full set of elastic material parameters for sputter deposited ZnO, demonstrating a method for obtaining material data needed for accurate simulation of the devices. The effectiveness of the acoustic interference reflector used to isolate the vibration from the substrate is studied by 1-D modeling, 2-D finite element method and by electrical and laser interferometric measurements. It is found that the Q-value of reflector-based BAW resonators operating at 2 GHz is limited to approximately 2000 by mechanisms other than leakage through the reflector. Suppression of spurious resonances in ZnO resonators is studied in depth by modeling and measurements. It is verified that the approximate mode orthogonality is behind the suppression in boundary frame type ZnO devices operating in the piston mode, but also another narrow band mode suppression mechanism is found. A plate wave dispersion based 2-D simulation scheme for laterally acoustically coupled BAW resonator filters is developed and employed in designing of experimental devices, which show both good agreement with the model predictions and a remarkable 4.9 % relative bandwidth.


Society is rapidly aging. Assistance with a daily life of elderly people is one of the most important social issues. In this article, we introduce an alternative control algorithm of a power-assisted cycle for assisting daily locomotion of elderly people. The proposed algorithm compensates dragging force completely so that a biker could ride the cycle on any road as if he/she rides on a horizontal road. The proposed control algorithm is experimentally applied to an electrical tricycle and the experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed algorithm.


Author(s): Bauman, Fred; Webster, Tom; Dickerhoff, Darryl | Abstract: The energy and comfort performance of buildings using underfloor air distribution (UFAD) has been of interest, with some contention, in the building industry for many years. It is not often that an opportunity to address that question directly appears. This project represented such an opportunity to compare and contrast two similarly designed buildings in the same climate and co-located near one another, both occupied by California state employees, one with a UFAD system (B225) and the other with an overhead (OH) variable air volume (VAV) system (B172). At the outset there was hope that we could settle the question definitively due to the highly instrumented systems in these buildings that afforded an opportunity to use measured data for the comparison. This report contains a detailed description of the measured data and simulated analyses used to compare the energy performance of UFAD vs. OH systems, and a summary of the post occupancy evaluations (POE) used to study and compare the occupant satisfaction and indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of both buildings. In addition, we report on field measurements conducted in B225 to investigate two key performance issues with UFAD systems: (1) room air stratification and (2) temperature gain in underfloor plenums. The key findings from the study are listed here: • The measured energy performance data indicates improved efficiency for the UFAD system (B225) vs. the OH system (B172), as annual cooling energy is 31% higher and total annual fan energy is 50% higher for B172 compared to B225. • To account for all major design and operating differences between the buildings, we developed an alternative analysis method based on estimating the impact on B172 energy performance as if it was configured and equipped with central system equipment similar to B225; aka "apples to apples" comparison. When this "apples to apples" comparison method was applied, the total annual HVAC energy use (including cooling, heating, and fans) for OH (B172) is 20% higher than UFAD (B225) and total annual whole building energy use for B172 is 8% higher than B225. • Based on the calculated Energy Star ratings, both B225 and B172 demonstrate excellent energy performance overall. B225 showed a very high site Energy Star rating of 98 and the Energy Star rating for the B171-174 complex (B172 could not be calculated separately) was 91, both well above the 75 required to receive the Energy Star label. • The final POE surveys conducted during October 2007 in the two buildings found that the satisfaction ratings were generally positive and very nearly the same for most of the categories. An important lesson learned from the repeated surveys in B225 between 2003 and 2007 was the value of continuous commissioning of a building's HVAC system. Efforts by building operations staff and the research team led to an improved understanding of the unique features of the UFAD system, and as a result, greater occupant satisfaction with the quality of the indoor environment in B225.


The demand for bananas on the Sydney market is studied at both wholesale and retail using time series data at wholesale and cross-section data at retail. The cross-section data come from a pricing experiment in Sydney supermarkets. Estimates of price elasticity of demand are presented for wholesale and retail; comparisons are made and several variables affecting demand are identified.


Date Presented 4/20/2018 This study investigated parental feeding practices and perceived feeding issues of their low-birthweight, premature infants during the first 2 yr of life. Results show that preterm infants not only started supplemental food much later but also experienced limited food variation. Primary Author and Speaker: Tsu-Hsin Howe Contributing Authors: Ching-Fan Sheu, Tien-Ni Wang


Even though the mechanical extraction process offers a simple and environmentally friendly process, the recovery of oil is relatively low. Thermal pretreating the oilseed increases the oil yield but produces unwanted oil color. A new method that combines grinding and extraction using green solvents was developed to extract palm kernel oil. The performance of six different green solvents such as water, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, dimethyl carbonate, ethyl acetate, and d-limonene in the extraction of palm kernel oil was determined using a controllable blender extractor (CBE), new extraction equipment modified from a household blender appliance. Furthermore, ethyl acetate, which produced the maximum oil yield, was used to study the effect of the operating parameters of the CBE. The oil yield of 34.2% was obtained in the extraction condition of the ratio of palm kernel to ethyl acetate of 1:7, the rotational speed of 5000 rpm, and 10 minutes extraction time. Compared with other green extraction methods, the CBEintensified palm kernel oil extraction could save >70% energy consumption. In terms of extraction time, the CBEintensified could extract palm kernel oil faster than existing extraction methods.


Although food safety is a significant and increasing global health concern, international economic law does not adequately address today's global food safety needs. While most countries rely on a collection of formalized legal rules to protect food safety, these rules too often fall short. As fiscal constraints impede raising the number of border inspections, international commitments (treaties) frequently limit governmental efforts to raise food safety standards. Private companies, meanwhile, can readily adopt higher standards to meet consumer demands and supply chain needs, thus demonstrating more nimbleness and flexibility in adopting the highest food safety standards available. Can countries learn from private motivations in overseeing supply chains while staying true to their formal commitments? This Article documents a novel legal concept – the growing use of private standards to ensure food safety – reinforced by recent legislation in the United States and elsewhere. While this 'New Governance' strategy allows countries to institutionalize the types of steps already taken by private actors, this model is not perfect and additional regulatory oversight and guidance will be necessary to ensure that a reformed New Governance works in this context. This Article confronts the motivations, tensions, and controversies that arise with implementing a New Governance model for food safety and provides a roadmap for achieving higher food safety goals.


Aircraft structural and engine components are subjected to elevated temperature and steam environments during operation. Turbine blades experience particularly harsh conditions that are approaching the operating temperature limits of current Nickel-based superalloys even with active cooling. Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), which demonstrate high specific strength and specific stiffness and maintain these properties at elevated temperatures such that active cooling is not required, are prime candidates to replace superalloys as the materials for turbine blades. Ceramic matrix composites are composite materials that consist of a ceramic matrix with fiber reinforcement. This research investigated a silicon carbide (SiC) fiber, Hi-NicalonTM S, which is a candidate for reinforcement of CMCs with SiC-based matrices. Hi-NicalonTM S fiber tows, consisting of approximately 500 filaments, were creep tested at 700°C in air and in silicic acid-saturated steam. The steam was saturated with silicic acid in order to simulate the interaction that would occur in a SiC-SiC CMC as the steam environment enters through matrix cracks and leaches Si from the matrix while moving towards the fibers. Creep stresses ranged from 2.96 to 1256 MPa in air and from 2.96 to 798 MPa in silicic acid-saturated steam. Creep run-out was defined as 100 h at creep stress. Creep strains were measured and steady-state creep rates were determined in all tests. In air creep runout was achieved at stresses as high as 1023 MPa, while in saturated steam creep runout was achieved only at 750 MPa. Creep rates were approximately an order of magnitude greater in saturated steam than in air. Post-test fiber microstructure was examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Microscopy revealed the presence of a passive


: Organisations nowadays devote many resources in maintaining a robust security posture against emerging cyber-threats. This typically requires rapid response against newly identified or shared threat information so that appropriate countermeasures are immediately deployed to eliminate these threats or reduce the associated risks. For many shared indicators, like malicious IPs or URLs, such a response might only require minor modifications to the configuration of security appliances. Self-Healing systems are the mechanism that allows a system to discover any misconfigurations and apply the necessary corrections in an automated or semi-automated manner. This paper proposes such a mechanism that can be deployed within large organisations that either do not have the resources to devote in security and therefore automation is one of their main priorities, or they outsource their infrastructure's protection. The use of such a mechanism can relax the increased need for human resources and can also reduce response times in confronting emerging threats. The architecture and the details of a reference implementation for local public administrations is also provided.


This book is about how every age invented the idea of Europe in the mirror of its own identity: Europe is as much an idea as it is a reality, but it is also a contested idea and it was in adversity that European identity was constructed as a dichotomy of Self and Other. The book analyses the origins and development of the idea of Europe as a social construction from the earliest times to the present. Its challenging thesis is that the European idea has lent itself to a politics of division and exclusion, which has been disguised by superficial notions of unity. The author traces the origins of, what he calls, the discourse of Europeanism to forces lying deep in European history such as the unifying and integrating myths of medieval Christendom, the Enlightenment and nineteenth-century nationalism whose world-views have exerted an enduring hold over the European idea. The idea of Europe, Dr Delanty argues, must be judged by how it treats its minorities and not by reference to ambivalent notions of unity. Above all there is a need for is to be linked to a new politics of collective responsibility based on post-national citizenship.


Normal and dyslexic right-handed children were assessed with three dichotic listening tests, the Dichotic Digits test, the Competing Words subtest of the SCAN, and the Dichotic Consonant-Vowel test. Performance was measured as both number and percentage of correct responses in the right and left ears. Laterality was defined as a simple difference in percentage between the two ears. Differences across the tests were revealed for all children, with the greatest differences occurring for left-ear responses. Only one dichotic listening test, Competing Words from the SCAN, produced a consistent right-ear advantage across all of the children tested. Between groups of children, differences in performance and in laterality were demonstrated. Using a criterion of poorer than 76 percent correct for the left ear, the Competing Words subtest of the SCAN identified 7 of the 10 dyslexic children as abnormal, with no false alarms in the control group.


This experiment evaluated the productivity of 500 Angus cows that differed in genetic merit for either subcutaneous rib fat depth (Fat) or residual feed intake (RFI) based on estimated breeding values (EBVs) and managed under two levels of nutrition. Reproductive rate over four calving opportunities in mature cows and growth performance of progeny to weaning was assessed. Level of nutrition significantly affected all body composition traits for both Fat and RFI line cows. Cows on High-Nutrition were 14–16% heavier (P < 0.001) than those on Low-Nutrition. Differences in EBVs for fatness were reflected in phenotypic fatness at maturity. High-RFI line cows were fatter for both scanned rump (P8) and rib (RIB) fat depth relative to their Low-RFI contemporaries. Of those cows that were lactating, there was no significant effect of line or nutrition on pregnancy rate or days to calving (DC). There was, however, a trend (P < 0.1) in the Low-Fat line cows towards longer DC compared with the High-Fat line cows. There was no significant effect of either line or nutrition on calf birthweight. Calves with mothers on High-Nutrition were 8% heavier at weaning (P < 0.001) than those on Low-Nutrition. Lower EBVs for RFI was associated with higher 200-day growth EBV and heavier calves at weaning. Current carcass BREEDPLAN EBVs can be used to select for changes in cow body composition if desired. In this experiment, Angus cows selected for lower RFI or with below-average fatness EBV and had raised a calf at every previous opportunity were not compromised in pregnancy rate or DC at maturity under varying nutrition such as can be experienced during normal seasonal conditions in southern Australia. However, selection for lower RFI was associated with lower weaning rate (P < 0.05), which warrants further investigation to confidently predict the implications for commercial cattle production.


Fluorescence imaging is used widely in microscopy and macroscopic imaging applications for fields ranging from biomedicine to materials science. A critical component for any fluorescence imaging system is the excitation source. Traditionally, wide-field systems use filtered thermal or arc-generated white light sources, while point scanning confocal microscope systems require spatially coherent (point-like) laser sources. Unfortunately, the limited range of visible wavelengths available from conventional laser sources constrains the design and usefulness of fluorescent probes in confocal microscopy. A 'hands-off' laser-like source, electronically tunable across the visible spectrum, would be invaluable for fluorescence imaging and provide new opportunities, e.g. automated excitation fingerprinting and in situ measurement of excitation cross-sections. Yet more information can be obtained using fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM), which requires that the light source be pulsed or rapidly modulated. We show how a white light continuum, generated by injecting femtosecond optical radiation into a micro-structured optical fibre, coupled with a simple prism-based tunable filter arrangement, can fulfil all these roles as a continuously electronically tunable (435–1150 nm) visible ultrafast light source in confocal, wide-field and FLIM systems.


Epigenetics, which is defined as changes independent of DNA sequence, cause permanent or transient changes in the expression of the genes and play critical roles in embryogenesis, genetic imprinting, development and cancer. The role of epigenetics in biology is so important that some researchers refer to these modified bases as the fifth and sixth bases of the genetic code. However, there are few studies on RNA modifications summarized in this review under the title of epitranscriptome. N6-methyladenosine  is one of the most common mRNA modifications in eukaryotes. Enzymes in-volved in this modification, its biological functions and mechanisms are still being discovered. Understanding the role of N6-methyladenosine on the regulation of gene expression and developmental process will enable the elucidation of epigen- etic regulation at the RNA level and its effects on protein synthesis. In this re- view; recent developments, functions of  N6-methyladenosine  mRNA methylation and its rela- tion with cancer are discussed.
Keywords: RNA methylation, N6-methyladenosine, epitranscriptome, gene expression.


Human reproduction is an exceedingly complex process susceptible to insult at many stages. The targets of reproductive injury include the male and female worker as well as the conceptus. Because research into the reproductive and developmental effects of occupational exposures is relatively new, there are significant gaps in our knowledge of specific agents, their mechanisms of action, and their adverse effects. At the same time, workers increasingly are turning to their primary health care providers with concerns about potential reproductive hazards. Evaluation of patients includes identifying occupational agents with suspected reproductive or developmental effects, defining exposure parameters, and making estimates of risk based on the best available data. Management includes patient counseling and intervention to decrease hazardous exposures through workplace controls or temporary job transfers and leaves. By taking an occupational history, identifying possible work-related problems, and making appropriate referrals, primary care physicians can have an important role in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of adverse reproductive outcomes.


In this study, immobilized nanotubular TiO2 is used to reduce toxic Cr(VI) to non toxic Cr(III) in aqueous solution under UV irradiation. To overcome the limitation of powder TiO2, a novel technique of immobilization based on anodization was applied and investigated under various experimental conditions. Among the samples tested under same anodizing condition, the nanotubular TiO2 annealed at 450 oC and 550 oC showed higher reduction efficiencies of Cr(VI). In addition, the surface characterizations (zeta potential, XRD and SEM) of these samples proved that the Cr(VI) reduction efficiency was higher under acidic conditions and at a lower annealing temperature. Through this study, it was concluded that anodized TiO2 has the potential to be useful technology for environmental remediation as well as hydrogen production in water.


This thesis is organized as a set of essays which tackle various theoretical issues pertaining to an understanding of the ideology of kingship among the Aruwund (Lunda of the Mwant Yaav) of southern Zaire. Following an introductory text which supplies the historical background, the thesis begins with the description and analysis of the Ruwund myth of foundation of the state. The myth is here seen as a "constellation of myths", a set of minor narratives relating to high office which constitute, define and permanently re-create the "main myth". It is this fluidity of oral tradition that is examined by demonstrating how episodes and minor title histories are evoked or omitted by narrators who display different emphases of the myth and attempt to manipulate a repertoire to their better advantage (ch. I). Through reconstructing this process, and the "contradictory versions" which it originates, we are drawn into the academic debate that has long opposed structuralists to ethnohistorians in the analysis of oral traditions (ch. I/II). Chapter II reviews the concept of the "culture hero" as used in the literature on the recurrent central African image of the alien hunter, founder of a new civilization. It suggests that the Ruwund myth of the origin of kingship should be understood as a tale of social renewal rather than that of the introduction of a foreign civilization in the midst of a more rudimentary order. This being so, the foundation of the state is a process generating from within in which the role of the autochthonous order as bearer of "culture" should be considered attentively. In the three chapters that follow I discuss the system of "perpetual kinship" (as defined by I. Gunnison in 1956), issues on hierarchy, and the symbolic use of space. All three chapters can be seen to reveal mechanisms of establishing, creating and encoding symbolic relationships relating to the Ruwund ideology of kingship. In the first of these chapters (ch. III) it is argued that perpetual kinship ties among Ruwund dignitaries, notwithstanding the use of a kinship idiom, are above all metaphors for symbolic relationships. The following chapter analyses the salutation system and the use of insignia of power among court officials and questions L. Dumont's assertion that hierarchy constitutes the "ideology" in traditional societies. Finally, chapter V looks at royal and minor courts as "constructed spaces" within which relations between dignitaries are both shaped and acted out through relative positionings. The last two chapters are concerned with royal ritual. It is intended to contribute to Africanist literature a detailed ethnographic account of the Ruwund royal installation ritual (ch. VI). The following chapter claims that its understanding can only be attained by examining a wider structure of rituals and with reference, in particular, to non-royal symbolism and ceremonies.