We study the influence of a dynamo magnetic field on the buoyant rise and emergence of twisted magnetic flux ropes and their influence on the global external magnetic field. We ran three-dimensional MHD numerical simulations using the ASH code (anelastic spherical harmonics) and analyzed the dynamical evolution of such buoyant flux ropes from the bottom of the convection zone until the post-emergence phases. The global nature of this model can only very crudely and inaccurately represent the local dynamics of the buoyant rise of the implanted magnetic structure, but nonetheless allows us to study the influence of global effects, such as self-consistently generated differential rotation and meridional circulation, and of Coriolis forces. Although motivated by the solar context, this model cannot be thought of as a realistic model of the rise of magnetic structures and their emergence in the Sun, where the local dynamics are completely different. The properties of initial phases of the buoyant rise are determined essentially by the flux-rope's properties and the convective flows and consequently are in good agreement with previous studies. However, the effects of the interaction of the background dynamo field become increasingly strong as the flux ropes evolve. During the buoyant rise across the convection zone, the flux-rope's magnetic field strength scales as B∝ρα, with α ≲ 1. An increase of radial velocity, density, and current density is observed to precede flux emergence at all longitudes. The geometry, latitude, and relative orientation of the flux ropes with respect to the background magnetic field influences the resulting rise speeds, zonal flow amplitudes (which develop within the flux ropes), and the corresponding surface signatures. This influences the morphology, duration and amplitude of the surface shearing, and the Poynting flux associated with magnetic flux-rope emergence. The emerged magnetic flux influences the system's global polarity, leading in some cases to a polarity reversal while inhibiting the background dynamo from doing so in others. The emerged magnetic flux is slowly advected poleward while being diffused and assimilated by the background dynamo field.


Online social networks and social media are displacing traditional centrally organized media. More significantly, social media now represent the largest area of new information technology (IT) investment in many industries [1] and Gov 2.0 is well underway [2]. Companies and government see these new social media tools as ways to deliver better customer services, create better designs more cheaply, and provide better oversight and regulation.


How is historical knowledge produced? And how do silence and forgetting figure in the knowledge we call history? Taking us through time and across the globe, David William Cohen's exploration of these questions exposes the circumstantial nature of history. His investigation uncovers the conventions and paradigms that govern historical knowledge and historical texts and reveals the economic, social and political forces at play in the production of history. Drawing from a wide range of examples, including African legal proceedings, German and American museum exhibits, Native American commemorations, public and academic debates, and scholarly research, David William Cohen explores the "walls and passageways" between academic and non-academic productions of history.


In the highly competitive environment, the sustainability of SMEs is one of the most important factors to the development of country economy .Therefore, SMEs are now finding the ways to survive and achieve sustainable competitive advantage by exploiting resources and network according to the resource-based view theory (RBV). In the resource acquiring process, networking is the main channel for the firms which require resources from external environment and networking behaviors of top management influence the organization networking effectiveness. In this research, the relationship between owner-managers' networking behaviors and network resources, and network resources and sustainable competitive advantage of SMEs in Myanmar (Yangon) are examined. Differences among the types of SMEs (manufacturing, trade and service) to acquire network resources and achieve sustainable competitive advantage are also observed. Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to identify the importance of networking behaviors of owner-managers and network resources in attaining sustainable competitive advantage of SMEs in Myanmar. Design and Methodology: This study applied multiple regression, simple linear regression and One-way ANOVA to analyze the data of 310 SMEs in Yangon. By using judgmental sampling, quota sampling and convenient sampling from manufacturing, trading and service sectors are surveyed. Findings: According to the direct relationship between networking behaviors (proactiveness, commitment, strategy and openness) and network resources, it is found that three of four hypotheses are significant at 0.95 confident intervals with R square of 0.65. For the direct relation of network resources to sustainable competitive advantage, it is significantly related with the p value less than 0.5 and R square of 0.1. Research Limitation / Implications: Not all SMEs are registered and only 55% of SMEs are registered in the data base of the study. Thus the outcome might not be generalizable enough for all SME s in Yangon. Practical Implications: SME owner-managers can realize effective networking behaviors, networking channel to acquire resources and sustain their competitive advantage by exploiting these network resources. Moreover, SMEs can overcome resource-deficit nature by networking and maintain employment rate and create jobs by achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Originality / Value: The paper provides the importance of networking, network channels and resources in attaining sustainable competitive advantage of SMEs.


ABSTRACT
In recent years, information systems (IS) encompass one of the main fields of study in an organization, caused by the need to identify their organizational value. Therefore, in this research and based on a theoretical review, a questionnaire is developed for the evaluation of the success of the Landfolio Information System for The Ministry of Natural Resources, Land Registry Department, to determine the effectiveness of the IS in order to achieve organizational results. To reach this goal, the Convenience Sampling technique was used through a survey made to Seven (7) units within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Belize. The results obtained allow deducing that the department pays more attention to precisely imputing data in the Landfolio System, trying to improve the quality of the system to best suit the business process, and using information gathered to make daily decisions for the successful operation of the department. This work contributes to the literature on the measurement of the success of the IS in the context of a country with an emerging economy, particularly by allowing to identify in a broader manner the measurement of its effectiveness and its incidence in the business performance
Key words: Organization, Information system, Landfolio, Effectiveness


The nation of Zambia is located in southern Africa, covering an area slightly larger than the state of Texas. The Road Development Agency (RDA) manages over 5,000 bridges and culverts on the national road network. These structures are vital to the country's economy and movement of its citizens. The RDA embarked on a plan to inventory and inspect all of the bridges and culverts in the nation. Multiple teams spent several months travelling Zambia's roads and collecting the information utilising ruggedised tablet computers with interactive inspection forms. Inspectors were able to quickly enter in all condition and inventory information on each structure. The software includes detailed drop-downs for each field and allowed for the quick upload and attachment of photographs and other files. Users are able to generate individual inspection reports or summary reports for a roadway network from any tablet or networked computer. Additionally, the software also utilises a number of unique formulas that take into account Zambia's own performance goals and those established by the World Bank development loans and grants. The software's management component allows for the prioritisation of needs based on the unique formulas developed for Zambia's specific condition ratings. The system is available on field computers as well as within each district office and the central administration. A number of challenges were overcome related to network infrastructure and lack of available information.


Electroencephalography (EEG) signals' interpretation is based on waveform analysis, where meaningful information should emerge from a plethora of data. Nonetheless, the continuous increase in computational power and the development of new data processing algorithms in the recent years have put into reach the possibility of analysing raw EEG signals. Bearing that motivation, the authors propose a new approach using raw data EEG signals and deep learning neural networks, for the classification of motor activities (executed and imagery). The hypothesis to be presented here is: each instantaneous measurement of the raw signal of all EEG channels (superchord) is unique per motor activity regardless the moment of measurement. This study has confirmed the hypothesis (results with accuracy over 80%, mean for 109 subjects), reinforcing the need of further research for the understanding of mental processes.


This paper presents an algorithm to be implemented in a distribution management system (DMS) that is capable of managing an active distribution network (ADN). This goal is achieved by minimizing the cost of system operation, which is expressed in terms of cost of energy losses, cost of curtailed energy, cost of reactive support, and cost of shed energy. Furthermore, the exploitation of network reconfiguration in ADNs is investigated. This paper shows that the coordination of flexible network topology with the continuous active management of energy resources allows improving the efficiency of power delivery. The proposed DMS algorithm allows reducing the risk of energy loss rise, caused by the bigger generation capacity and the deferment of network upgrade that may be a follow-up of ADNs. The proposed method has been applied on a test network to verify the validity of the approach.


Synovial sarcomas of the prostate are exceedingly rare malignant tumors. Only a few cases have been reported so far. We discuss a case of a 52-year-old male who presented with signs and symptoms of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma of the prostate. Since this sarcoma is rare, it can easily be misdiagnosed with BPH or adenocarcinoma of the prostate.


We present an interior-point method for the $P_*(\kappa)$-linear complementarity problem (LCP) that is based on barrier functions which are defined by a large class of univariate functions called eligible kernel functions. This class is fairly general and includes the classical logarithmic function and the self-regular functions, as well as many non-self-regular functions as special cases. We provide a unified analysis of the method and give a general scheme on how to calculate the iteration bounds for the entire class. We also calculate the iteration bounds of both long-step and short-step versions of the method for several specific eligible kernel functions. For some of them we match the best known iteration bounds for the long-step method, while for the short-step method the iteration bounds are of the same order of magnitude. As far as we know, this is the first paper that provides a unified approach and comprehensive treatment of interior-point methods for $P_*(\kappa)$-LCPs based on the entire class of eligible kernel functions. (The title of this article has been corrected.)


Building designers, contractors, owners, and managers have long been challenged with providing quality indoor environments at a reasonable energy cost. Current efforts to improve building energy efficiency, including goals of sustainability and net-zero energy use, are bringing more focus on how to simultaneously achieve energy efficiency and good indoor air quality (IAQ). While energy efficiency and IAQ are sometimes viewed as incompatible, there are many strategies than support both ends. This article discusses the relationship between IAQ and energy efficiency, with outdoor air ventilation being the primary connection. A number of strategies that are currently being used or proposed to provide both improved IAQ and energy efficiency are highlighted, including increased envelope airtightness, heat recovery ventilation, demand controlled ventilation, and improved system maintenance. In addition, the manner in which various green and sustainable building programs, standards, and guidance documents address IAQ is reviewed. These programs and documents are driving the trend towards sustainable buildings, and the manner in which they consider IAQ is critical to achieving energy efficient buildings with good indoor environments.


This study examines neighborhood influences on alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use among a predominantly Latino middle school sample. Drawing on theories of immigrant adaptation and segmented assimilation, the authors test whether neighborhood immigrant, ethnic, and socioeconomic composition, violent crime, residential instability, and family structure have differential effects on substance use among youth from different ethnic and acculturation backgrounds. Data are drawn from self-reports from 3,721 seventh-grade students attending thirty-five Phoenix, Arizona, middle schools. Analysis was restricted to the two largest ethnic groups, Latino students of Mexican heritage and non-Hispanic Whites. After adjusting for individual-level characteristics and school-level random effects, only one neighborhood effect was found for the sample overall, an undesirable impact of neighborhood residential instability on recent cigarette use. Subgroup analyses by individual ethnicity and acculturation showed more patterned neighborhood effects. Living in neighborhoods with high proportions of recent immigrants was protective against alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use for Latino students at different acculturation levels, whereas living in predominantly Mexican heritage neighborhoods (mostly nonimmigrants) was a risk factor for alcohol and marijuana use for less acculturated Latinos. There were scattered effects of neighborhood poverty and crime, which predicted more cigarette and alcohol use, respectively, but only among more acculturated Latinos. Inconsistent effects confined to bilingual and more acculturated Latinos were found for the neighborhood's proportion of single-mother families and its residential instability. No neighborhood effects emerged for non-Hispanic White students. Results suggested that disadvantaged neighborhoods increase substance use among some ethnic minority youth, but immigrant enclaves appear to provide countervailing protections.


The topic of this research is "Kombur Jenaka Angkola Mandailing: An Analysis on Form, Theme and Value". The objective of this study is to clarify the form, theme and
value contained in the expression of comedy (kombur jenaka) in the Angkola Mandailing language amongst its citizens. The methodology used in this study is qualitative, with observatory and interview techniques. Data is gathered by recording the speed of the expressed dictation with a tape recorder. The researcher listens to the taped recording so as to understand spontaneous conversational utterances in the Angkola Mandailing language. The main data sources are selected several elderly informants residing in the Angkola Mandailing district. Research findings reflected from the comedy (kombur jenaka) expressed by the informants are lingual texts which implicate maxim representation (representative), maxim order (directives), maxim argument and maxim imperative combined with paralingual elements. Maxims which are absorbed in the kombur jenaka conversations consist of direct illocutionary acts, locutionary acts, and perlocutionary acts, which are analysed pragmatically and semantically. Data is analysed by using the pragmatic and structural functional thematic approaches. Legend, humour, anecdotes and puzzles are a form of kombur jenaka. Traditional prose, humour and anecdotes expressed by the informants in the kombur jenaka are in the form of dominant contemporary prose which carries the theme of dumb but smart human characters. Such comedy stories, which are characterized by people with the above mentioned character, carries a symbolic meaning in the Angkola Mandailing society. Meanwhile, transgression on both the speech maxims gives rise to implications on the following two matters: (1) the Angkola Mandailing people are intelligent in expressing their jokes ironically to
entice friends; (2) the Angkola Mandailing people need to ethically adhere to communicative strategies on polite and positive speeches in conversations with respect to their social status. This polite and positive maxim serves as a guide to a harmonious life for the Angkola Mandailing people. Based on the findings of this research, the kombur jenaka is therefore,a comedy discourse, which is effectively used in the daily conversational activities of the Angkola Mandailing people.


The existing research on lone wolf terrorism and the use of case study research within this field and criminology is discussed and reviewed. In an attempt to find how an investigated and IS inspired extremist commits an act of lone wolf terrorism without any suspicion of authorities was the key focus. Through the use of a case study utilizing a chronological time-series analysis, Man Haron Monis responsible for the Martin Place Siege in Sydney, Australia in 2014 was examined. The analysis produced eleven significant events contributing to his radicalization. His radicalization process and the causal factors were examined against two radicalization pyramids developed by McCauley and Moskalenko (2014) that placed him at the most dangerous level of a lone wolf about to act. This thesis also indicates the limitations of lone wolf terrorism research and the further steps required in order for authorities to effectively identify and disrupt lone wolf terrorists prior to terrorist acts.


Neurological disorders contain Parkinson's disease (PD), eNeurological disorders contain Parkinson's disease (PD), epilepsy and Alzheimer's; influence the lives of patients and their families. PD creates cognitive and state of mind disturbances. Generally, the diagnosis is based on medical history and neurological inspection conducted by interviewing and observing the patient in person using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS).

In this study, we aimed to discriminate between healthy people and people with PD. For that reason, Parkinson dataset that contains biomedical voice of human is used. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are widely used in biomedical field for modeling, data analysis, and diagnostic classification. Two types of the ANNs were used for classification: Multilayer Perceptrons (MLP) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) Networks. The other method is Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier (ANFC) with linguistic hedges. This method is also used for feature selection from the dataset. Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier with linguistic hedges gave the best recognition results with %95.38 training and %94.72 testing classifying performance indeed.


Phosphatidylinositide 3‐kinases (PI3K) are a family of lipid kinases that are involved in signaling events which control a diverse number of cellular processes. The activation of the PI3K pathway by cell surface receptors is directly mediated by the class I isoforms (α, β, δ, and γ). Aberrant regulation of the PI3K signaling pathway is frequently observed in a wide range of human malignancies including gain‐of‐function mutations in PI3K p110α isoform and/or loss‐of‐function mutations in PTEN phosphatase, which is responsible for down regulation of PI3K signaling. In purified enzyme assays, CAL‐120, a dual p110β/p110δ PI3K inhibitor, was inactive against class II and III PI3K family members,the PI3K‐related protein kinases mTOR and DNA‐PK as well as an additional ∼350 protein kinases in a genome wide screen. The ability of CAL‐120 to block oncogenic transformation mediated by individual PI3K class Ia isoforms was evaluated in primary cells using viral transduction. Foci formation mediated by p110α and p110δ was inhibited at 15–200 nM whereas little or no inhibition was observed against oncogenic forms of p110α at 20‐fold higher concentrations. To further demonstrate p110 isoform selectivity, AKT phosphorylation was induced in embryonic fibroblasts with PDGF or LPA that is mediated by p110α and p110β respectively. CAL‐120 inhibited the p110β response with an IC50 of 1.2 µM whereas the p110α IC50 was greater than 20 µM. The antitumor activity of CAL‐120 was evaluated in a panel of 23 human tumor cell lines representing different tissues and PI3K pathway mutations. Constitutive PI3K pathway activation as measured by AKT phosphorylation was observed in 50% of the cell lines and was highly correlated with PTEN mutations. In all cases, CAL‐120 blocked AKT phosphorylation at concentrations of 0.1–1.0 µM. In most cases inhibition of the phosphorylation of downstream effectors Akt, GSK‐3 , and S6 ribosomal protein was also observed over this concentration range. These effects of CAL‐120 on PI3K pathway inhibition correlated with G1 cell cycle arrest leading to inhibition of tumor cell proliferation and in a number of cases induced apoptosis. Of note was a lack of PI3K pathway activation in cell lines with K‐RAS mutations and their insensitivity to CAL‐120 treatment. In mice bearing xenografts of MCF‐7 breast adenocarcinoma (p110α mutation), PC‐3 prostate adenocarcinoma (PTEN deficient), or OVCAR‐3 ovarian adenocarcinoma (no pathway mutation), oral administration of CAL‐120 significantly inhibited tumor growth or caused tumor regression in each of these models. These data are the first to demonstrate that p110β/δ inhibition in the absence of effects on p110α is an effective strategy for the treatment of solid tumors. The antitumor activity was not restricted to cells with PTEN loss and was surprisingly observed even when p110α mutations were present. Collectively, these preclinical data support clinical evaluation of CAL‐120, an oral dual p110α/p110δ inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with solid tumors. (L. U. and P.K.V. are supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute. This is manuscript number 20362 of The Scripps Research Institute). Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):B136.


The decentralized electronic currency system Bitcoin gives the possibility to execute transactions via direct communication between users, without the need to resort to third parties entrusted with legitimizing the concerned monetary value. In its current state of development - a recent, fast-changing, volatile and highly mediatized technology - the discourses that unfold within spaces of information and discussion related to Bitcoin can be analysed in light of their ability to produce at once the representations of value, the practices according to which it is transformed and evolves, and the devices allowing for its implementation. The literature on the system is a testament to how the Bitcoin debates do not merely spread, communicate and diffuse representation of this currency, but are closely intertwined with the practice of the money itself. By focusing its attention on a specific corpus, that of expert discourse, the article shows how, introducing and discussing a specific device, dynamic or operation as being in some way related to trust, this expert knowledge contributes to the very definition and shaping of this trust within the Bitcoin system - ultimately contributing to perform the shared definition of its value as a currency.


This paper presents a method for evaluating the performance of camcorders in terms of texture preservation, taking into account the contrast sensitivity function of human visual system. A quality metric called texture preservation ratio (TPR) is the outcome of the method. It quantifies to what extent texture structures are preserved in a video recorded by a camcorder. In our experiments, we used the dead leaves chart to simulate a scene with textures of different scales. The dead leaves chart is known as a good target for testing purposes because it is invariant to scaling, translation, rotation, and contrast (exposure) adjustment. Experimental results have shown the following observations on five tested camcorders from three different vendors: 1) the TPR value decreases monotonically with respect to the motion speed; 2) the TPR value increases monotonically with respect to the lossy compression bitrates. Thereby, our study has confirmed TPR as a useful indicator for measuring a camcorder's performance in terms of preserving textures.


The new forms of feminist realism and materialism could have significant political ramifications that should be owned by feminist scholars and activists as a way to create new possibilities for an internationalist political language and action that would be geographically, economically and in terms of nation-state politics as varied and as multi-centered as possible. Such a new universalism must emerge at the economic and academic margins, move concentrically toward the center seeking to provide the grounds for uncompromising comradeship worldwide. The universe it will establish is one in which power will be measured in materialist or realist terms and its chief categories will also be the most robust ones: economy and the power of the nation-state as the main means of women's subjugation.


Appropriate fertilizer application is an important management practice to improve soil fertility and increase rice yield. An experiment was conducted for four consecutive seasons: Boro (dry season) 2011-12 to T. Aman (wet season) 2013 at the farmer's field in Gongachara, Rangpur (25.86° N and 89.24° E) to find out optimum fertilizer dose for rice-based cropping systems in cold and submergence ecosystem in Bangladesh. In the present study, we examined the effects of eight fertilizer treatments and laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatment combinations were: T1=100% NPKSZn (Soil test basis), T2=T1+25% N, T3=T1+25% NP, T4=T1+25% NK, T5=T1+25% PK, T6=T1+25% NPK, T7=75% of T1 and T8=Absolute control. Results showed that application of different fertilizers significantly affected the rice yield at both of the seasons. In dry season 2011-12, the highest grain yield was found in treatment T3 while T6 gave the highest grain yield in dry season 2012-13. On the other hand, in wet season 2012 and 2013, the highest grain yield was found in T6 treatments. However, on the basis of yield performance, economic analysis and nutrient absorption, it is observed that 25% additional NP (T3) is more profitable than that of other fertilizers combinations.


Proper management of plant nutrients has a fundamental effect on the amount and quality of crop yields and on maintaining soil fertility. Under organic production conditions, with limited fertilization, deficiency of some elements in soil may occur, which translates into a change in the chemism of cultivated plants. The aim of this paper was to assess the quality of a sward from selected organic farms in the context of using it for feed purposes. 55 organic farms were selected for the research; 25 of those farms additionally had conventional animal production. Sward samples of mixed grasses and small-seed legumes were collected from each farm. Content of elements that are the most determinant on the suitability for feed (N, P, K, Na, Ca, Na) was determined in the plant material. The results of the conducted research indicate that sward from grasses and small-seed legumes from the studied organic farms had too low content of macroelements and of most microelements, and the biggest problem was too low content of phosphorus, potassium and calcium. The animal production farms were found to have a higher content of phosphorus, calcium and potassium in sward as compared to farms without animals. Feeding cattle only with roughage obtained from the studied lands could pose a risk to the health of the animals and their productive abilities owing to the unfavorable chemical composition.


Unlimited buy-one-get-one-free signed booklet that is free at point of purchase when you buy a piece of rubbish destined for landfill.

The smelly hillock book comes in a grocers bag with the letters BOGOF (by-one get-one-free) stencilled on its front. The bag includes the booklet and a piece of rubbish. The text inside the book takes the form of a mysterious dialogue between items of rubbish buried in a landfill site.


Anaerobic digestion process is one of the alternative methods to convert organic waste into methane gas which is a fuel and energy source. Activities of various kinds of microorganisms are the main factor for anaerobic digestion which produces methane gas. Therefore, in this study a modified Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) with working volume of 50 liters was designed to identify the microorganisms through biogas production. The mixture of 75% kitchen waste and 25% sewage sludge was used as substrate. Observations on microorganisms in the ABR showed that there exists a small amount of protozoa (5%) and fungi (2%) in the system, but almost 93% of the microorganism population consists of bacteria. It is definitely clear that bacteria are responsible for anaerobic biodegradation of kitchen waste. Results show that in the acidification zone of the ABR (front compartments of reactor) fast growing bacteria capable of growth at high substrate levels and reduced pH was dominant. A shift to slower growing scavenging bacteria that grow better at higher pH was occurring towards the end of the reactor. Due to the ability of activity in acetate environment the percentages of Methanococcus, Methanosarcina and Methanotrix were higher than other kinds of methane former in the system.


Summary form only given. We investigate the problem of propagating of data to nodes and scheduling of available nodes in a dynamic data communication network. The goal of scheduling algorithm is to find a request-service scheduling such that the total communication cost is minimized. In the special case in which all requests are of equal priorities and all services have equal performance, the scheduling problem becomes the mapping of the maximum number of requests to the free service-nodes. Scheduling in a communication network entails the efficient search of a mapping from request-nodes to free service-nodes such that circuit blockage in the network are minimized and service-nodes are maximally utilized.


1. "Insulin" content of microdissected islets was determined using the epididymal fat pad assay method. Measurements were made on fetal islets obtained from both normal and diabetic mothers and from normal postnatal rats up to five weeks of age. 2. The insulin content of the normal fetal islets, expressed as units "insulin" per gram dry weight of tissue, increases progressively with increasing fetal age; at birth the value approximates that of the adult. 3. The insulin content of the fetal islets obtained from diabetic mothers is between 7 and 19 per cent of the corresponding normal value. 4. In the acid-alcohol extracts of the pancreas of seventeen-day-old fetuses, small though measurable amounts of "insulin" were detected viz.: 0.23 units per gram wet weight of normal pancreas. There was a progressive increase in the extractable "insulin" content of the fetal pancreas with age; the "insulin" content of the twenty-one-day normal fetal pancreas was 5.3 units per gram of tissue. In the pancreas of the fetuses from diabetic mothers, the values were about one third of those in the normal. 5. Thus measurable amounts of insulin-like activity were found in the pancreatic tissue of seventeen-day-old fetuses; this is prior to the time that beta cell granules could be detected cytologically using the aldehyde fuchsin staining method. 6. The insulin content of the islet tissue remained relatively constant during the first five weeks of postnatal development.


Indigenous rights are crucial to contemporary land use planning and policy in settler states. This article comparatively analyzes the manifest and latent content of the 2014 Provincial Policy Statement of Ontario, Canada (PPS) and the 1999 Auckland Council Regional Policy Statement of Aotearoa New Zealand (ACRPS) in order to evaluate their relative capacity to recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples. While the results show that jurisdiction is an impediment to fostering common ground between Indigenous peoples and settler states, the authors conclude that the PPS and the ACRPS serve vital roles in building dialogue and equitable planning outcomes.


The separator is one of the most important parts in PEM fuel cells. Stainless steels are widely used as separator for its good mechanical properties and mass production. However, for a good chemical compatibility, stainless steels need to have high chromium content or surface treatment, which makes separator high cost. Low cost of separator is important for commercial use. In this study, conventional low carbon steel is used as base metal of separator. Low carbon steel is low at cost, but has poor chemical properties for separator. For a good corrosion resistance, low carbon steel needs to be surface treated. To make a uniform surface treated layer on low carbon steel, chromium is conventionally electroplated on the steel and thermally nitrided. Surface treated low carbon steel is investigated using microstructure and element analysis tools. Interfacial contact resistance and polarization test is applied for the properties of fuel cell separator. The results show that chromium nitrided layer uniformly formed on low carbon steel. And the surface treated steel showed a good corrosion resistance as a separator.


Cognitive emotion regulation strategies are considered the king's highway to control affective reactions. Two broad categories of cognitive regulation are attentional deployment and semantic meaning. The basic distinctive feature between these categories is the type of conflict between regulatory and emotional processes for dominance, with an early attentional selection conflict in attentional deployment and a late appraisal selection conflict in semantic meaning. However, prior studies that tested the relative efficacy of these two regulatory categories varied the type and the degree of conflict. Our major goal was to test the relative efficacy of a novel attentional deployment strategy (visual search distraction) and a classic semantic meaning strategy (reappraisal) that have a different type of conflict but a matched degree of conflict. Specifically, visual search distraction involves a strong degree of attentional selection conflict manifested in attending subtle non-emotional features that are camouflaged within potent negative emotional stimuli. Reappraisal involves a strong degree of appraisal selection conflict manifested in construing neutral reappraisals that rely on potent negative emotional appraisals. Based on our theoretical model we hypothesized and found that visual search distraction was as effective as cognitive reappraisal in down-regulating the experience of low intensity of negative emotion (Study 1), but more effective, less effortful, and more strongly blocking emotional information processing than cognitive reappraisal when regulating high intensity (Study 2). A final study ruled out a demand characteristics explanation by showing that participants' expectations about how they should feel diverged from how they actually reported feeling following regulation (Study 3). Our findings suggest that the basic difference in the type rather than degree of conflict between attentional deployment and semantic meaning determines strategies' outcome.


In this work we address the challenging problem of multiview 3D surface reconstruction. We introduce a neural network architecture that simultaneously learns the unknown geometry, camera parameters, and a neural renderer that approximates the light reflected from the surface towards the camera. The geometry is represented as a zero level-set of a neural network, while the neural renderer, derived from the rendering equation, is capable of (implicitly) modeling a wide set of lighting conditions and materials. We trained our network on real world 2D images of objects with different material properties, lighting conditions, and noisy camera initializations from the DTU MVS dataset. We found our model to produce state of the art 3D surface reconstructions with high fidelity, resolution and detail.


This paper studies the applicability of the linearized DC model in optimizing power restoration after significant network disruptions. In such circumstances, no AC base-point solution exists and the objective is to maximize the served load. The paper demonstrates that the accuracy of the linearized DC model degrades with the size of the disaster and that it can significantly underestimate active and apparent power. To remedy these limitations, the paper proposes an Angle-Constrained DC Power Flow (ACDCPF) model that enforces constraints on the line phase angles and has the ability to shed load and generation across the network. Experimental results on N-3 contingencies in the IEEE30 network and power restoration instances from disaster recovery show that the ACDCPF model provides significantly more accurate approximations of active and apparent power. In the restoration context, the ACDCPF model is shown to be much more reliable and produces significant reduction in the size of the blackouts.


Midwives have become more popular in recent years, and a rising percentage of women have been choosing midwives over doctors. Originally midwives were mostly used by minority women, but now more caucasian women are finding midwives to be a natural and preferable way to give birth. Due to this change in trend, midwives are becoming more accepted in society. This paper examines and defines the reasons behind the changing trends of midwifery in the United States. Specifically, if this changing trend has to deal with interventions, such as pitocin or cesarean sections, by doctors to speed up the delivery process. In 1900, ninety-five percent of births took place at home, in 1930 only half of births took place at home, and by 1955 less than one percent of births took place at home (Lake & Epstein, 2008). Now the trend seems to be changing, in 2009 eight percent of midwives attended births (MacDorman et al., 2012). In 1990, there was a high number of minority women that were attended by certified nurse midwives. In 2009, the numbers changed and evened out suggesting that more white women were using midwives (Declercq, 2012). From reviewing the literature and documentaries on midwifery and hospital births, there is a pattern shown throughout history that portrays social class, status, and ethnicity determining what is popular in birth. ! ! ! ! ! !


A computer simulation study of quantum effects in methane, butane, and octane is presented. Each molecular system is examined at three state points in the liquid region using novel extended system, multiple time step, constant pressure, path integral molecular dynamics methodology. In addition, the results of classical calculations are reported to provide a useful reference. Liquid butane is used as a test case on which to compare the predictions of two empirical force fields, CHARMM22 and AMBER95. Comparisons are made to experiment. Briefly, the models predict that quantum effects lead to an increase in molar volume of approximately 2 cm3/mole (i.e., relative to a classical calculation). However, a slight unphysical hydrogen–deuterium isotope effect is, also, observed. This may be caused by an incorrect parametrization of the anisotropy of the potential or by a reduction in the magnitude of the intermolecular induced dipole-induced dipole dispersion coefficient with increasing isotope mass that has not been parametrized in the force fields. In addition, the results show an interesting zero-point energy effect. The intramolecular regions of the radial distribution function exhibit less structure at lower temperatures than at higher temperatures. This is the inverse of the prediction of the model in the classical limit. The quantum effect occurs because the bulk density decreases faster than the intramolecular degrees of freedom lose zero-point energy as temperature increases in the highly harmonic intramolecular potential model employed in the calculations. Nonetheless, the phenomena is not likely to be an artifact and careful experiments could observe it. Finally, the efficiency of the path molecular dynamics methods employed in the studies are demonstrated on both serial and parallel computers.


Statistics indicate that more than 1000 phishing attacks are launched every month. With 57 million people hit by the fraud so far in America alone, how do we combat phishing?This publication aims to discuss strategies in the war against Phishing. This study is an examination of the analysis and critique found in the ways adopted at various levels to counter the crescendo of phishing attacks and new techniques being adopted for the same. An analysis of the measures taken up by the varied popular Mail servers and popular browsers is done under this study. This work intends to increase the understanding and awareness of the internet user across the globe and even discusses plausible countermeasures at the users as well as the developers end. This conceptual paper will contribute to future research on similar topics. Keywords—Anti-phishing, countermeasures, effectiveness, fake pages, security analysis.


Every day there are a vast number of people within educational systems around the world. The school can be regarded as a meeting place for both adults and children with different backgrounds and expectations. A meeting between humans means for example that we are talking and acting together. Consciously or unconsciously one of the factors that govern our actions are our values - the morals or ethics one has. The aim of this paper is to elucidate, interpret and understand ethical situations in a Swedish secondary school. To develop an understanding of this, teachers were invited to formulate in writing their reflections on ethical situations in their profession. The phenomenology of the life-world is the theoretical basis in this study. During the analysis of the empirical data different themes gradually crystallised, and the picture of ethical situations in a school that emerged consists of three themes: Relations to the Other, Conflict of Values and Ethical Maturity. The findings are discussed according to the philosophies of Emanuel Levinas and Nel Noddings. The comprehensive understanding of the results is that the teachers are trying to achieve ethics of care. Finally we raise the question if ethics of care can be considered as a dilemma or a challenge in education.


This paper presents an assessment of the effects of fiscal policy on economic growth. Starting from a theoretical model in which only those fiscal policy instruments presumed to strictly influence the production process (i. e., public capital and transfers) are incorporated into the production function, we provide an empirical application for the case of the Spanish regions during the period 1967-1991. The results confirm the positive effect of public investment on growth, together with a positive effect of transfers but only for poorer regions.


A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) film for dopamine (DP) sensing is fabricated from cathodically electrodeposited p-aminostyrene (PAS) on electrode surfaces in a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy setup. The monomer is more commonly used in monolithic MIP free-radical bulk polymerizations. The film growth and rebinding of DP are monitored by electrochemical-SPR (EC-SPR) spectroscopy. UV–Vis, IR spectroscopy, XPS, AFM, and electrochemistry methods are used to characterize the film. High selectivity against analogous analytes and up to picomolar detection of DP is demonstrated. The reusability of the sensor is also established. Theoretical modeling studies with AM1 calculations predict H-bonding in a stable prepolymerization complex in solution prior to MIP film formation.


Stem-cell-based therapy is a promising approach for the treatment of a myriad of diseases and injuries. However, the low rate of cell survival and the uncontrolled differentiation of the injected stem cells currently remain key challenges in advancing stem cell therapeutics. Hydrogels are biomaterials that are potentially highly effective candidates for scaffold systems for stem cells and other molecular encapsulation approaches to target in vivo delivery. Hydrogel-based strategies can potentially address several current challenges in stem cell therapy. We present a concise overview of the recent advances in applications of hydrogels in stem cell therapies, with a focus particularly on the recent advances in the design and approaches for application of hydrogels in tissue engineering. The capability of hydrogels to either enhance the function of the transplanted stem cells by promoting their controlled differentiation or enhance the recruitment of endogenous adult stem cells to the injury site for repair is also reviewed. Finally, the importance of impacts and the desired relationship between the scaffold system and the encapsulated stem cells are discussed.


A novel two-layer wavelength conversion (TLWC) scheme, for reducing the implementation cost of an optical switching (OS) node, is presented in this paper. The study stems from practical observation that wavelength converters are expensive. The paper thus presents a new OS node architecture that uses significantly less wavelength converters without compromising on drop performance. In this TLWC system, partial wavelength converters (PWCs), which can only convert wavelengths within a limited range, form the first layer; thereafter, complete wavelength converters (CWCs), which can convert wavelengths within all input ranges, form the second layer. When new optical data needs a wavelength converter, PWC resources are first provided; if PWC resources are not available, CWC resources are used. For the case of the CWC layer, a sharing-mode scheme called the share per fiber (SPF) mode for improving the utilization of the limited number of wavelength converters is proposed. Subsequently, a two-dimensional Markov-chain model of TLWC-SPF is presented to evaluate its performance. Numerical-simulation results are presented to verify the accuracy of the analytical model. The analysis shows that the cost of the OS fabric of TLWC-SPF is similar to an OS node employing a limited number of CWCs (i.e., CWC-SPF). However, in terms of wavelength-converter savings, the TLWC-SPF architecture provides 50% (in heavy load) savings compared to full wavelength conversion (FWC) optical nodes, while 40% savings is achieved compared against CWC-SPF nodes.


Background. Maintenance immunosuppression required after organ transplantation creates a permissive environment in which cancer cells can proliferate because of lack of natural immunologic surveillance. With more than a decade of clinical experience, this report is the first to address the risk of de novo cancer after intestinal transplantation. Methods. A total of 168 consecutive intestinal transplant recipients (86 children and 82 adults) were studied, of whom 52% were male and 91% were white. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data was used to count expected rates of de novo cancers in the general population matched for age, sex, and length of follow-up. Results. With a mean follow-up of 47±41 months, 7 (4.2%) patients developed nonlymphoid de novo cancer, with a cumulative risk of 3% at 5 years and 28% at 10 years. Of these malignancies, one was donor-driven adenocarcinoma. With 0.58 being the expected rate of malignancy for the general population, the risk among intestinal recipients was 8.7 times higher (P =0.01). Such morbidity was significantly higher (50 times) among younger patients (<25 years), with a slight male preponderance. Induction immunosuppression was associated with early onset of de novo cancer. Patient survival after diagnosis of de novo cancer was 72% at 1 year, 57% at 2 years, and 29% at 5 years. Conclusion. With conventional immunosuppression, intestinal recipients are at a significantly higher risk of developing de novo cancer when compared with the general population. Thus, a novel tolerogenic immunosuppressive strategy has been recently implemented to reduce the lifelong need for immunosuppression.


Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer diagnosis in males and the second leading
cause of cancer related male deaths. Local microenvironments containing stromal fibroblasts are
vitally important in the normal development and homeostatic regulation of the prostate, and have
key roles in supporting prostate cancer progression. Local chronic inflammation has been
associated with the development of prostate cancer. The potential impact of local immune cell
derived inflammatory mediators on prostate stromal and epithelial/tumour cells have been studied,
however the reciprocal impact on infiltrating immune cells has not been fully explored.
Advancements in immunotherapy through clinical applications in checkpoint molecule inhibition
have led to significant progress in the treatment of melanoma and lung cancer in recent years.
However, for unknown reasons, immunotherapies thus far have widely failed to have therapeutic
efficacy in prostate cancer patients.
By utilising primary human prostate tissue samples from patients with benign prostatic
hyperplasia (BPH) or PCa using both in vitro culture systems combined with gene expression
profile analysis, imaging and flow cytometry, it has been shown that prostate stromal cells exhibit a
conserved capacity to interact with local immune cells. Prostate stromal cells potently express an
array of molecules known to negatively regulate immune cells, either endogenously, or in response
to local immune activity through TGF-β, IDO and PD-L1. The expression of these molecules
drives inhibition of local anti-tumour T cells and ultimately, tumour immune evasion. Furthermore,
an experimental protocol to analyse the prostate infiltrating immune cells by flow cytometry was
developed and used to demonstrate preliminary evidence for an enrichment of cytotoxic T
lymphocytes in the tissue compared to peripheral blood. Importantly, these T cells have an
increased surface expression of PD-1, the receptor that binds PD-L1 to induce T cell inhibition.
Prostate tissue contains large numbers of stromal fibroblasts, even in cases of high-grade
cancer. This study indicates prostate stromal cells tip the balance toward immunosuppression,
which in the context of prostate cancer may lead to tumour immune escape. This is an important
consideration for future studies in the field of immunotherapy in prostate cancer, since prostate
infiltrating immune cells reside in the stromal compartment. Therefore, the success of PCa
immunotherapy likely relies on targeting tumour fibroblasts.


Currently two thirds of the population lives in coastalregions. In Santos region, the population is about 1.6 million permanentresidents , more of the population resort . The advance over these areaspromotes increased amount of refuse where the main problem is the improperdisposal of these products anthropogenic , which become a threat and achallenge mainly due to the persistence time of the components in theenvironment, in particular plastics , which were perceived in studies since the80s due to the high strength and durability . The green turtle ( C. mydas ) is a species classified asendangered by IUCN since 1982 as suffering from human impacts , including theanthropogenic inputs due to its coastal habits. The ingestion of these residuesmay obstruct the handling of the animal, directly causing the death of , orcause sub-lethal effects such as damage to the walls of the gastrointestinaltract , reduced nutritional gain , increased time of food in the compartmenttract and altered buoyancy by the accumulation of gases in the intestine . Thisstudy aims to analyze the types and quantities of waste anthropogenic found inthe gastrointestinal system of 47 carcasses of juvenile green turtles rescuedand necropsied in the beaches of Santos between January 2010 and July 2011. Theanthropogenic contributions found in gastrointestinal contents of theseindividuals were referred to the scientific laboratory of Santa CeciliaUniversity , where he was triaged metal , paper, cloth (cotton) , syntheticpolymers and copolymers (plastic / nylon / rubber / foam / styrofoam ). Anthropogenicwaste were weighed on an analytical balance and measure the volumetricmeasuring cylinders with the principle of Archimedes  The average volume of waste found was 6.85 ±7.0 cm³ (1 – 120) and mean weight was 2.7 ± 3.5g ( 0.02 to 12.9 ). The predominantanthropogenic material was the plastic found in 97.87 % ( 46/47 ) of thesamples analyzed . Fragments found 42.87 % ( 1772/4133 ) were rigid plasticsand 52.31 % ( 2162/4133 ) of pliable plastic weighing 213g, 37g e 76.8grespectively. Monofilament nylon represent 41.35%  (894/2162 ) of total waste plastics pliable ,found in 78.72% ( 37/47 ) of animals sampled. .The other synthetic materials such as rubbers , foams and styrofoam had lowincidence of 3.8 % ( 157/4133 ) as well as the cotton fabric with 1.6 % (66/4133 ) , which agrees with previous studies and suggests a negativeinteraction of C. mydas withanthropogenic debris plastic in the region of Santos


In this powerful graphic novel, Colleen was a child of privilege until the alien overlords arrived and took over the planet. Now as a young woman she travels into the factory from her ruined manor house, sneaking bits of explosive material out and knowing that if she's discovered, she'll be in the mines or dead within minutes. Colleen's determined to skim on the surface of life, loving no one because of the risk of loss, but when her niece reappears and a fiercely loyal man comes into her life, suddenly Colleen is swimming, perhaps drowning, in love. The risks she took before now feel different, both more unbearable and more important, as she becomes part of a rebel group that is trying to defeat the alien Derichets and make them leave. An intriguing relationship exists between Colleen and a Derichet who seems kinder and more considerate than the rest, coaxing Colleen into a hesitant sympathy until he proves that he is, at his core, still part of a violent alien race. There is an ideal balance of wordless panels and speech bubbles, allowing for the story to progress through both the illustrations and the text. The dialogue feels natural, and the grim shadows and dark, muted hues capture the constant emergency of living in a world where death could come after the tiniest mistake. This title has crossover appeal for dystopian buffs, sci-fi fans, for those who simply like the format, and for romance readers as well, since the love between Colleen and the man who finally thawed her frozen heart is gripping stuff. AS


I INTRODUCTION The use of scientific genetic-based evidence (DNA profiling) (1) in legal case investigation processes brings into collaboration the disciplines of science and law, which have their own institutional needs, standards and imperatives. The combination of these two disciplines is broadly geared toward ensuring justice for various cases, without completing retaining and relinquishing their autonomy. (2) Recent scientific advances through DNA technology play an important role in providing legal protections (3) and the preservation of law and order. The widespread use of DNA data to detect offenders and protect the rights of the innocent (that is, exonerating the wrongly-accused) (4) is one of the most notable examples of such advancements and revolutionary impact of DNA technology, which makes the justice delivery system more efficient and accurate. (5) However, the use of this new technology is not completely risk free. DNA profiling may reveal very sensitive information about an individual and their family which may affect them adversely if not properly guarded against potential misuse--accidental or deliberate. The most common form of such misuse resulting in serious violation of privacy and human rights could be unauthorised disclosure of sensitive information with regard to a person's predisposition to disease and their ancestry, for instance, which can be obtained from their DNA samples. Therefore, it is important to adopt a balanced approach in the use of DNA information, so the risk of the violation of privacy and human rights remain at an acceptable level. The identification of offenders and the protection of innocent suspects are two of the main goals for ensuring justice. (6) DNA samples and profiles are very useful for identification purposes, for example, in identifying victims of disasters, as well as suspects (including rapists and murderers). It is also useful for conducting parentage testing and for resolving immigration cases, where a familial relationship (or identity) is in question. (7) In many instances, suspects who are actually innocent are relatively quickly acquitted or excluded from legal proceedings. This technology is, in effect, upholding the principles of 'presumption of innocence', which requires that 'guilt must be proved beyond reasonable doubt', upon which each and every criminal justice system is based. Therefore, every accused person irrespective of his or her status has a right to a fair trial. This legal right even applies to those who have been convicted of similar offences committed in the past. (8) The right of a 'fair trial' is derived from the principles of natural justice. This right has also become the norm of international and regional human rights law (9) and it is also adopted by many countries in their procedural law, though the form and practice of the principles of natural justice may vary from system to system on the basis of prevailing conditions of the society concerned. (10) This is one of the fundamental canons of modern democracy and is reflected in legal jurisprudence throughout the world. With the support of DNA technology, the right for a fair trial has been enhanced and it has also contributed to the speedier administration of justice. (11) During the mid-1980 s, the potential application of DNA typing or profiling was initiated by laboratories in the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (US), and Canada. (12) The modern forensic DNA typing invented by Professor Alec Jeffrey was first used in the Colin Pitchfork case in 1985 in the UK. (13) This was the first criminal case in which DNA was used in the UK and the resolution of this case provided an effective demonstration of this method's potential. It also demonstrated for the first time how a small DNA sample could be used to identify a perpetrator from amongst a large population. (14) By the late 1980s the technology was being used in the US by commercial laboratories and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). …


Cells from one-third of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients are resistant to alpha-interferon (alpha-IFN) as measured by induction of blast transformation. We have previously shown that all CLL clones express alpha/beta-IFN receptors, but that the resistant cells are defective in the induction of the enzyme 2',5'-oligoadenylate synthetase (2',5-A synthetase). Thus, the deficiency in IFN sensitivity is localized somewhere between the interaction of the IFN molecule with its receptor and induction of 2',5'-A synthetase. We have now further characterized the resistance of CLL clones to IFN by investigating whether it is associated with a defect in the activation of IFN-stimulated gene factor 3 (ISGF3), which is involved in the activation of alpha-IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs). A defect induction of ISGF3 after alpha-IFN treatment was found in 4 of 12 CLL patients. There was a close correlation between defective induction of ISGF3 and a lack of enhancement of 2',5'-A synthetase as well as induction of blast transformation. Pretreatment with gamma-IFN and mixing experiments with extracts from IFN-sensitive cells indicate that a lack of the gamma-component of ISGF3 was the reason for defect in activation in 2 of the patients. We conclude that a defect in activation of ISGF3 is a possible cause for resistance in CLL cells to IFN-induced blast transformation in vitro.


This study investigated the relationship between readability of 73 text-only multiple-choice questions from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 and performance of two groups of South African learners: those with limited English-language proficiency (learners attending African schools) and those with better English-language proficiency (learners attending non-African schools). Both groups were exposed to the same intended curriculum, but differed with respect to the quality of teaching they received, the availability of resources, and the level of functionality of their schools. Learners from non-African schools performed significantly better than learners from African schools. Three readability factors (sentence complexity, unfamiliar words, and long words) were analyzed. High sentence complexity resulted in random guessing in non-African schools, and favoring an incorrect answer in African schools. Some TIMSS items have complex wording, with numerous prepositional phrases and clauses, and unclear questions. Recommendations for maximum readability and comprehensibility were not met, and these items are therefore invalid for learners with limited English-language proficiency. Learners employ a range of strategies in attempting to answer questions that they do not understand. Overall, though, poor readability of TIMSS items does not fully account for South African learners' poor performance in TIMSS. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci. Ed91:906–925. 2007


We present an integrated proof language for guiding the actions of multiple reasoning systems as they work together to prove complex correctness properties of imperative programs. The language operates in the context of a program verification system that uses multiple reasoning systems to discharge generated proof obligations. It is designed to 1) enable developers to resolve key choice points in complex program correctness proofs, thereby enabling automated reasoning systems to successfully prove the desired correctness properties; 2) allow developers to identify key lemmas for the reasoning systems to prove, thereby guiding the reasoning systems to find an effective proof decomposition; 3) enable multiple reasoning systems to work together productively to prove a single correctness property by providing a mechanism that developers can use to divide the property into lemmas, each of which is suitable for a different reasoning system; and 4) enable developers to identify specific lemmas that the reasoning systems should use when attempting to prove other lemmas or correctness properties, thereby appropriately confining the search space so that the reasoning systems can find a proof in an acceptable amount of time.
 The language includes a rich set of declarative proof constructs that enables developers to direct the reasoning systems as little or as much as they desire. Because the declarative proof statements are embedded into the program as specialized comments, they also serve as verified documentation and are a natural extension of the assertion mechanism found in most program verification systems.
 We have implemented our integrated proof language in the context of a program verification system for Java and used the resulting system to verify a collection of linked data structure implementations. Our experience indicates that our proof language makes it possible to successfully prove complex program correctness properties that are otherwise beyond the reach of automated reasoning systems.


In spite of the normative appeal of flexibility, the concept has rarely been considered from strategic marketing perspective. Without being market focused, flexibility will not result in superior value creation and sustainable competitive advantage. In the light of the above shortcomings, this study examined a firm's flexibility with reference to a specified export venture market. Based upon the strategic marketing perspective, this study identified three sets of antecedents of market-focused flexibility: marketing capabilities, financing resources and spatial configurations. The empirical evidences showed reasonable support for the proposed model. In addition, this study brought clear evidences demonstrating the powerful effect of market-focused flexibility on competitive advantages and performance in the corresponding markets. As a whole, this study helps scholars and managers to better conceptualise and measure market-focused flexibility, understand how it develops in the firm and how it works together with other important resources and capabilities to affect outcomes.


Comparing vulnerability markers for psychosis in different high-risk populations will ultimately lead to more insight into the causes of the syndrome and a more accurate identification of at-risk individuals. This dissertation concentrated on the comparison of two groups of adolescents that are at high risk of developing a first psychotic episode: 1) 80 help-seeking adolescents presenting with prodromal-like symptoms that met the research criteria for At Risk Mental State (ARMS), and 2) 32 adolescents diagnosed with the Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) subtype Multiple Complex Developmental Disorder (MCDD). The main aims are to compare potential neurocognitive and behavioral vulnerability markers for psychosis in these two high-risk groups, and to explore social-cognitive impairments as potential vulnerability markers for psychosis. As expected, the two high-risk groups could be distinguished by early-childhood behavior and autism traits. The ARMS group showed higher levels of positive and negative high-risk symptoms than the MCDD group, which we suggest to be possibly explained by the fact that the former was older. However, the groups did not differ regarding schizotypal personality traits and basic symptoms, as well as disorganized and general high-risk symptoms. Interestingly, 78% of the MCDD adolescents met the ARMS criteria. While both high-risk groups experienced significant social difficulties, they showed normal functioning on most of the assessed neurocognitive domains. Both high-risk groups only showed poorer performances on tasks assessing attention/working memory and verbal output generation, with small effect sizes. Psychomotor speed was also reduced in both high-risk groups, with a small effect size in the ARMS group, and a medium effect size in the MCDD group. Neither of the two high-risk groups had overall impairments in the accuracy of recognizing facial expressions. However, the MCDD group showed specific deficits in the accuracy of recognizing fear, and an overall reduced speed of processing complex visual information, with small to medium effect sizes. Reported studies in individuals with PDD suggest that these impairments may be associated with the PDD-spectrum, rather than only with the MCDD subtype of PDD-NOS. Our meta-analysis on the association between schizophrenia and another measure of social cognition, i.e. mentalizing or Theory of Mind, revealed a significant and stable mentalizing impairment in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, with a large overall effect size. The finding that remitted schizophrenia patients also show mentalizing impairment suggests that it represents a possible trait marker for schizophrenia. This is further corroborated by evidence that mentalizing is also impaired in individuals at genetic risk for schizophrenia, and that mentalizing impairment is positively associated with schizotypal traits. In conclusion, both high-risk groups report a broad range of high-risk traits and symptoms, as well as social impairment. However, they show a relatively intact functioning on most of the assessed neurocognitive domains, although their psychomotor speed, attention/working memory, and verbal output generation are somewhat poorer compared to non-psychiatric controls. Dysfunctions of these neurocognitive domains thus represent potential vulnerability markers for psychosis. Our findings further indicate that of the social cognitive domains, impairment of mentalizing may represent a vulnerability marker for psychosis.


This thesis applies functional data analysis techniques to address a number of specific research questions in financial markets. Data snooping bias controls are adopted in parallel to provide statistical robustness to our inferences. Firstly, we conduct an investigation into
U.S. exchange-traded fund outperformance during the 2008-2012 period. The funds are tested for net asset value premium, underlying index and market benchmark outperformance. The study serves as a platform to showcase the data snooping bias problem and application of generalised multiple hypothesis testing techniques, in advance of their use for functional data analysis evaluation. Secondly, as the first application of functional data analysis, we examine implied volatility, jump risk, and pricing dynamics within crude oil
markets. Strong evidence is found of converse jump dynamics during periods of demand and supply side weakness. Next, we demonstrate the performance advantage over traditional benchmarks of adopting a functional linear model to forecast EUR-USD implied volatility.
Our findings are shown to be robust across various moneyness segments, contract maturities and out-of-sample window lengths. The final chapter also uses a functional data framework to produce forecasts, demonstrating how information can be extracted from forward contracts to predict future spot foreign exchange rates. The evaluation of an out-of-sample framework leads to near systematic outperformance in terms of a direct comparison of performance measures, versus both the restricted vector error correction model and random walk. Overall, this thesis highlights the usefulness of adopting insightful and novel functional data analysis techniques across various asset classes where multiple hypothesis testing controls provide robustness around our conclusions. Each of the studies contributes to the literature individually, with the collection emphasising the benefits of adopting functional approaches to tackle a wide range of empirical finance problems.


A protein stabilization system is a type of post-transcriptional processing that ubiquitously exists in various types of cells, and it plays a major role in stabilizing the three-dimensional conformation of a translated protein. It comprises a series of activation-deactivation reactions coupled with nucleocytoplasmic shuttling, and it is described by a four-dimensional nonlinear ordinary differential equation based on chemical kinetics. This study shows that this system can variously function as two types of integral controllers, low-pass filter, and integrator depending on the combination of the statuses of cytoplasmic and nucleus enzymes that mediate its reaction rates. This indicates that the system is multifunctional, where these statuses are controlled by the peripheral system around the stabilization system. In particular, because realizing an integral controller for regulating the concentration of a particular molecule to a desired level in biochemical reactions is theoretically and technically important in molecular robotics, the author demonstrates some numerical simulation results regarding integral control.


The LNCS journal "Transactions on Computational Science" reflects recent developments in the field of Computational Science, conceiving the field not as a mere ancillary science but rather as an innovative approach supporting many other scientific disciplines. The journal focuses on original high-quality research in the realm of computational science in parallel and distributed environments, encompassing the facilitating theoretical foundations and the applications of large-scale computations and massive data processing. It addresses researchers and practitioners in areas ranging from aerospace to biochemistry, from electronics to geosciences, from mathematics to software architecture, presenting verifiable computational methods, findings and solutions and enabling industrial users to apply techniques of leading-edge, large-scale, high performance computational methods. The fifth volume of the "Transactions on Computational Science" journal, edited by Yingxu Wang and Keith C.C. Chan, is devoted to the subject of cognitive knowledge representation. This field of study focuses on the internal knowledge representation mechanisms of the brain and how these can be applied to computer science and engineering. The issue includes the latest research results in internal knowledge representation at the logical, functional, physiological, and biological levels and describes their impacts on computing, artificial intelligence, and computational intelligence.


In this work, properties and spot welding performance of copper matrix composite electrode reinforced with 15 vol% tungsten carbide particulate from inexpensive raw material were investigated. Mixture of copper and recycled tungsten carbide was milled, compacted, sintered and powder forged at different pressures. Higher forging pressure resulted in higher density and electrical conductivity as it accelerates the flow of copper matrix leading to porosity elimination and improves metal-metal contact within the copper matrix by reducing porosity and oxide film. Welding operation showed that composite electrodes with higher density, electrical conductivity and hardness forms larger and stronger spot weld.


Plant hormone signaling plays an important role in many physiological and developmental processes including stress response. With the advent of new post-genomic molecular techniques the potential for increasing our understanding of the impact of hormone signaling on gene expression and adaptive processes has never been higher. Unlocking the molecular underpinnings of these promises show great promise for the development of new plant biotechnologies and improved crop varieties. Plant Hormone Signaling Under Stress brings together the latest advances as well as the work being done to apply these findings more practically to plant and crop science. Plant Hormone Signaling Under Stress explores the role that signal pathways and transduction have in gene expression, plant adaptation, and stress response. Chapters look both broadly at stress environments and others explore the response to specific abiotic stressors. The book also contains several chapters that look to translate basic findings into sustainable and biotechnological advances.


Abstract. Greenhouse detection using remote sensing technologies is an important research area for yield estimation, sustainable development, urban and rural planning and management. An approach was developed in this study for the detection and delineation of greenhouse areas from high resolution satellite imagery. Initially, the candidate greenhouse patches were detected using supervised classification techniques. For this purpose, Maximum Likelihood (ML), Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Machines (SVM) classification techniques were applied and compared. Then, sieve filter and morphological operations were performed for improving the classification results. Finally, the obtained candidate plastic and glass greenhouse areas were delineated using boundary tracing and Douglas Peucker line simplification algorithms. The proposed approach was implemented in the Kumluca district of Antalya, Turkey utilizing pan-sharpened WorldView-2 satellite imageries. Kumluca is the prominent district of Antalya with greenhouse cultivation and includes both plastic and glass greenhouses intensively. When the greenhouse classification results were analysed, it can be stated that the SVM classification provides most accurate results and RF classification follows this. The SVM classification overall accuracy was obtained as 90.28%. When the greenhouse boundary delineation results were considered, the plastic greenhouses were delineated with 92.11% accuracy, while glass greenhouses were delineated with 80.67% accuracy. The obtained results indicate that, generally plastic and glass greenhouses can be detected and delineated successfully from WorldView-2 satellite imagery.


Community health workers, also known as fieldworkers (FWs), are frontline health-care providers in Bangladesh, where unmet need in family planning outcomes related to maternal and child health are high. A digital health intervention provided netbook computers to Bangladeshi FWs with eLearning courses and an eToolkit, which included material on family planning, maternal, newborn, and child health topics to enhance FWs' knowledge and skills. To understand how the intervention affected FW's knowledge and counseling behavior, this pre-poststudy measured FWs' knowledge related to family planning, maternal, newborn, child health, and counseling on family topics before and after the pilot. Bivariate analyses were used to determine changes in FW knowledge, and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine changes in behavior, comparing knowledge and behaviors prepilot to postpilot. Comparing mean knowledge scores after and before the pilot, the difference in mean scores was significant (p < .05) related to knowledge of benefits of birth spacing (1.26) and benefits of a small family (1.3) and related to maternal health, anemia prevention (0.95), and recommended number of antenatal care visits (0.13). Regarding newborn and child health, the difference in mean scores was significantly (p < .05) related to knowledge of proper attachment for breastfeeding (3.56) and signs of adequate breast milk supply (1.08). Postintervention, FWs were significantly more likely to counsel couples on all available contraceptive options (adjusted odds ratio: 4.64; 95% CI [3.16, 6.83]) and birth spacing benefits (adjusted odds ratio: 4.54; 95% CI [3.17, 6.50]). Digital health training approaches can improve FWs' knowledge and counseling skills within an international context, specifically in low-resource settings.


This chapter puts pressure on the 'mass and elite model' of Athenian litigation introduced by Ober. According to this framework, litigation is a game played by elite litigants and mass audiences; the 'masses' constitute a monolithic body with identical preferences; the 'elites' are thoroughly aware of, and willingly play by, the rules set by the masses. Moving from a different interpretation of Athenian political sociology, this chapter builds a new model of Athenian litigation that modifies Ober's in three important respects: first, the jurors' preferences are not the product of a monolithic and static 'mass' ideology; second, litigants (not only elites) can reasonably predict the location of the median juror; and third, litigants' arguments are the product of a cost‐benefit analysis that depends a) on the relative expected position of their opponent; b) on the expected position of the median juror; and c) on the policy/legal agenda they are pursuing. The model proposed here suggests that repeated interactions in the law‐courts allowed diverse interests to be advanced and negotiated, which helped the Athenians collectively define the boundaries of their social relations while responding to the new challenges that a post‐imperial, highly fragmented Greek ecology posed to Athens' stability and prosperity.


This paper focuses on studying the physical and mechanical performance of propylene oxide sludge aggregates having no shell (POSA-0), single storey shell (POSA-1) and gradient shell (POSA-2) prepared by hydrothermal synthesis and autoclave curing process. The effect of the aggregate structure on strength of their concrete has been examined and discussed in case of a fixed water cement ratio. The results show that all the autoclaved propylene oxide sludge aggregate (POSA) were light-weight and high-strength regardless of the aggregate structure and all three structured POSA have no wall effect with the cement mortar. Aggregate structure has little influence on the physical and mechanical performance of POSA and splitting tension strength of POSA concrete, however, it plays important role in dictating the compressive strength of concrete because of their different extent of influence on the improvement of interface and relieving the stress concentration. 28d compressive strength of the concrete with the POSA-2 as coarse aggregate can reach 82 MPa, which is 13.9%, 2.5% and 10.8% higher than that of the concrete with POSA-0 as coarse aggregate, the concrete with POSA-1 as coarse aggregate and common concrete, respectively. 28d splitting tension strength of common concrete can reach 7.76 MPa, which is higher 22.6%, 16.3%, 15.8% than that of concrete with POSA-0 as coarse aggregate, concrete with POSA-1 as coarse aggregate and concrete with POSA-2 as coarse aggregate, respectively.


We present a dynamical mean-field study of dynamical susceptibilities in the two-band Hubbard model. Varying the model parameters we analyze the two-particle excitations in the normal as well as in the ordered phase, an excitonic condensate. The two-particle dynamical mean-field theory spectra in the ordered phase reveal the gapless Goldstone modes arising from spontaneous breaking of continuous symmetries. We also observe the gapped Higgs mode, characterized by vanishing of the gap at the phase boundary. Qualitative changes observed in the spin susceptibility can be used as an experimental probe to identify the excitonic condensation.


ABSTRACT

 The use of an activated carbon (AC) with high ash content (15.92%) for SO2 removal was investigated during adsorption-desorption cycles. Significant deterioration in both dynamic and equilibria adsorption processes during the cycles was observed. To investigate the causes of deactivation, SO2 temperature-programmed desorption (SO2-TPD) experiments were conducted. The results indicated that most of the stored sulfur-containing species were released in the form of SO2 when the temperature was below 400°C. In addition to SO2, traces of CO were detected, but higher temperatures were required for the abundant release of CO. A Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) experiment was used to investigate changes in the oxygen-containing groups, and the results confirmed the formation of stable C-O complexes. These formations were tentatively attributed to the CO precursor's occupation of active sites. Based on the formation of C-O complexes, two deactivation pathways in the cycles were proposed. The adsorption-desorption cycles also affected the AC ash. The formation of sulfur-containing species in the ash was confirmed through thermodynamic calculation and powder X-ray diffraction.


This work presents a multi-criteria-based approach to automatically select specific non-dominated solutions from a Pareto front previously obtained using multi-objective optimization to find optimal solutions for pump control in a water supply system. Optimal operation of pumps in these utilities is paramount to enable water companies to achieve energy efficiency in their systems. The Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS) is used to rank the Pareto solutions found by the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) employed to solve the multi-objective problem. Various scenarios are evaluated under leakage uncertainty conditions, resulting in fuzzy solutions for the Pareto front. This paper shows the suitability of the approach for quasi real-world problems. In our case-study, the obtained solutions for scenarios including leakage represent the best trade-off among the optimal solutions, under some considered criteria, namely, operational cost, operational lack of service, pressure uniformity and network resilience. Potential future developments could include the use of clustering alternatives to evaluate the goodness of each solution under the considered evaluation criteria.


ABSTRACT This study tests the hypothesis that higher perceptions of satisfaction with life (SWL) are related to lower engagement in crime and deviance. The results can inform prevention, intervention, and policy efforts based on deterrence, general strain, and restorative justice within the criminal and juvenile justice systems. Using a sample of students at two Pennsylvania universities, data were collected using a paper-based, self-reported survey that included measures for their perceptions of SWL, feelings of strain, and engagement in past acts of deviance and crime. Data analysis included independent samples T-tests and logistic regression estimates. Results of the t-tests supported the hypothesis for nine of 16 acts of deviance/crime. Logistic regression models supported the hypothesis, with SWL having significant associations alone, and with SWL eliminating the relationship to strain alone when SWL covaried with strain. Based on these results, the study offers recommendations to further test the satisfaction with life-crime link, to incorporate SWL interventions into the criminal justice system, and to study SWL interventions for evidence of success.


Polycystic ovary syndrome is the main cause of infertility in women. The etiology of this pathology is not fully elucidated, the main cause being the hormonal imbalance. To establish the correct diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome, the Rotterdam criteria are used and the patient must meet at least 2 of the 3 criteria. This pathology has an important impact on the quality of life due to the symptoms and signs it causes: infertility, virilization, obesity and menstrual cycle disorders. The complications that may occur in the absence of proper treatment also have a negative impact, the main complications being ovarian cysts, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The treatment is determined according to the patient's desire to procreate.


Stability analysis is one of the key issues in car-following theory. The stability analysis with Lyapunov function for the two velocity difference car-following model (for short, TVDM) is conducted and the control method to suppress traffic congestion is introduced. Numerical simulations are given and results are consistent with the theoretical analysis.


The flow over a finite-span hydrofoil creating a tip vortex was numerically studied by computing the full Navier-Stokes equations. A good agreement in pressure distribution and oil flow pattern was achieved between the numerical solution and available experimental data. The steady-state roll-up process of the tip vortex was described in detail from the numerical results. The effect of the angle of attack, the Reynolds number, and the hydrofoil planform on the tip vortex was investigated. The axial and tangential velocities within the tip-vortex core in the near-field wake region were greatly influenced by the angle of attack. A jet-like profile in the axial velocity was found within the tip-vortex core at high angle of attack, while a wake-like profile in the axial velocity was found at low angle of attack. Increasing the Reynolds number was found to increase the maximum axial velocity, but only had a slight impact on the tangential velocity. Finally, a swept hydrofoil planform was found to attenuate the strength of the tip vortex due to the low-momentum boundary layer traveling into the tip vortex on the suction side


Objective The positive effect of an audience on performance is anecdotally well known, but the impact of such social facilitation to both performance and the motivation to exercise have not been thoroughly explored. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate verbal encouragement as a means to promote positive behavioural adherence to exercise and augmented performance. Methods Twelve untrained but active individuals (seven female), age 24±3 years participated in this study. Exercise conditions with external verbal encouragement (EVE) and without external verbal encouragement (WEVE) were compared in both endurance (20 min) and sprint (2 × 30 s Wingate) cycling tasks in a randomised crossover design. Results were analysed by separate 2 (EVE/WEVE) × 2 (sprint/endurance) within-subjects analyses of variance for each dependent variable. Statistical significance was set at p≤0.05. Results EVE resulted in a significant increase, F (1,11)=15.37, p=0.002, η p 2=0.58 in the average power generated by participants in each exercise bout on the cycle ergometer. EVE also had a significant effect on reported motivation to exercise the next day, F (1,11)=5.5, p=0.04, η p 2 =0.33, which did not differ between type of exercise. Conclusion External encouragement in both sprint and endurance activities resulted in large improvements in performance and motivation to continue an exercise regimen the next day, which has important implications for health, adherence and maximising physical performance using a practical intervention.


This thesis considers Britten's creative relationship with Russia, in the sense of aspects of Russian culture and politics, across his creative life. It makes particular use of the composer's collection of scores, the full text of his diaries from 1928 to 1938 and his correspondence in the Britten-Pears Library, Aldeburgh. The author has also conducted over twenty interviews with those with a perspective on this aspect of Britten's creative sensibility, some of which are included as appendices, and carried out two research visits to Russia and Armenia. Particular attention is given to Britten's lifelong admiration for Tchaikovsky and to his creative relationship with Shostakovich. The latter is considered both in the 1930s and the 1960s by means of Britten's diaries, the correspondence between the two composers, Shostakovich's collection of Britten scores, and a series of articles about Britten published in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. An attempt is made to consider the relationship between Britten's and Shostakovich's vocal and instrumental works during this latter period, with particular reference firstly, to the influence of Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya and secondly, to the topic of death. Finally, the thesis considers Britten's creative relationship with Russia as an integrated phenomenon and explores some of the ambiguities inherent in Britten's response and the wider question of Russian influence on his music.


The paper models the acquisition of quantity insensitive metrical stress through constraint induction. A single constraint format is specified that regulates the alignment of prosodic categories. A binary and ternary foot-based prosodic hierarchy are compared in their conduciveness to learning a range of stress patterns, with clear advantages for the latter. The paper also points out the interaction between grammatical modeling and acquisition modeling with regards to the typological predictions of the grammar formalization.


L-threo-phenylserine and esters of threo-phenylserine were the most active of a series of compounds tested against influenza A virus in tissue culture. Substitution of the beta-OH or alpha-NH(2) group abolished activity. The activity of phenylserine was reversed competitively by phenylalanine. Phenylserine did not act on free virus or on the adsorption of virus to host cells. It prevented virus growth if added during the first half of the latent period.Phenylalanine appears to be necessary for virus synthesis and can be supplied by phenylalanylglycine or glycylphenylalanine.Phenylserine had no significant activity against ectromelia infections in mice, even when the amino acid content of the livers had been depleted by starvation.


This study investigated the efficacy of 131iodine-labeled lipiodol (131I-lipiodol) as a palliative therapy, evaluated overall survival (OS) across Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stages, and determined the main prognostic factors influencing OS in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Patients, methods: We retrospectively analyzed 57 (44 men; mean age, 65.7 years; mean activity per session, 1.6 GBq; mean cumulative activity in patients with >1 sessions, 3.9 GBq) HCC patients who underwent 131I-lipiodol therapy. A majority of patients exhibited Child-Pugh class B (53.6%) disease and a good Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (0–1; 72%). Multinodular disease was observed in 87.7% patients, bilobar disease in 73%, and portal vein occlusion (PVO) in 54%. Furthermore, 21.1% patients were staged as BCLC B and 59.6 % as BCLC C. All patients were followed until death. Results: The median OS was 6.4 months, which varied significantly with disease stage (median OS for BCLC A, B, C, and D was 29.4, 12.0, 4.6, and 2.7 months, respectively; p = 0.009); Child-Pugh score and class; presence of ascites, PVO, or extrahepatic disease; largest lesion size; favourable treatment response; international normalized ratio, baseline albumin and alpha-fetoprotein levels. Patients with a Child-Pugh A liver disease had a longer OS. Conclusion: Currently, different treatment modalities for HCC include radioembolization, transarterial chemoembolization, and systemic therapy with sorafenib; however, 131I-lipiodol therapy remains a feasible alternative for patients without a favourable response to other therapies, particularly for patients with Child-Pugh A liver cirrhosis.


A short account of the methodology used within FullProf to extract average micro-structural properties from the analysis of broadened lines of constant wavelength diffraction patterns is presented. The approach is based on the Voigt approximation and can be combined with the Rietveld method as well as with the profile matching (Le Bail fit) procedure. Both the instrumental and sample profiles are supposed to be well described by Voigt functions. To get reliable sample parameters a good knowledge of the Instrumental Resolution Function (IRF) is needed. Only a phenomenological treatment, in terms of coherent size domains and strains due to structural defects, is performed.


Umatilla dace (Rhinichthys umatilla Gilbert and Evermann 1894) are determined to be a distinct species that has sympatrically speciated and evolved through ancient hybridizations between leopard and speckled dace. Principal components, univariate, and allometric analyses reveal three distinct morphotypes, with Umatilla dace intermediate and convergent. A field identification key is developed. Their body morphologies remain largely consistent across broad mutual ranges, and Umatilla dace are found in abundance and predominance in allopatry, parapatry, and strict sympatry with either or both leopard and speckled dace. All show reduction in their overall morphometric variability when in strict sympatric combinations. Mitochondrial and two nuclear DNA (ITS and D3B) sequences provide consistent evidence of the overall distinct identity, increased variability and past hybridization, and multiple hybrid origins of Umatilla dace. Umatilla dace are composed of three main types each more closely related to the leopard or speckled dace through their comparative nearby numerical dominance. Laboratory crosses demonstrate morphologies remain distinctive when reared under identical conditions. The two combinations of artificial hybrids of leopard and speckled dace strongly resemble Umatilla dace, with Umatilla dace still remaining more derived. Second generation artificial crosses demonstrate that Umatilla dace and both laboratory hybrids are viable with no differential mortality. Each species is specialized to particular water flow regimes as determined in the field and at spawning times in a laboratory flow tube using mature artificial crosses. Umatilla dace are specialized to intermediate water flows, as are both laboratory hybrids. The laboratory hybrids show a maternal relationship in their water flow tolerances that matches the molecular genetic data. Umatilla dace are only found in the interior Columbia River drainage in range overlap between leopard and speckled dace, and have an intermediate postglacial northern recolonization pattern and distance. Their main distribution strongly coincides with large Wisconsinan glacial lakes that existed in this area. The associated breakdown of water flow regimes is hypothesized to have caused the past interbreeding of leopard and speckled dace, with the difficult glacial / postglacial environment favouring their hybrids' increased genetic and ecological variability. The dace genus has disproportionately higher hybridization, as does its minnow Family Cyprinidae, particularly in western North America.