This study explores the operation of technologies of governance in policy work, within and across borders. The good governance agenda in international development offers a germane case in which to investigate what happens in contemporary policy action. Mixing aspirations for larger freedom with detailed technical packages of control, what is the policy work actually delivering? The idea of good governance appeared to offer new solutions to many theoretical, practical and ethical issues, at a point after the Cold War, when the international arena was in need of a new story. As such, the notion has drawn interest and resources from across political, academic and civil society divides since 1989, generating an, apparently broad-based, international consensus that good governance and sustainable development are interrelated. However, many policy models still in use in the development arena, and particularly those underlying the good governance discourse, assume a linear model of action and history, and a technology-led theory of authority and change. This framing still permeates many public scripts that circulate in and across international gatherings, outlining failures of the past, visions for the future and current action plans for reform. It screens out contrary empirical evidence, treating policy instruments as value neutral, deterministic or both. In effect, these public transcripts gloss over controversies about how to implement better governance in diverse local contexts. What then are these technological packages doing? I used a multi-level, multi-site research strategy based on situational analysis to probe policy action in the international development 'arena'. Mozambique, Australia and Sweden feature as sites of inquiry into how the theory/methods packages ascribed to good governance have been, and are being, translated into policy work. I applied an interactive approach to my analysis, viewing policy as a process of social tinkering and technologies of governance as fluid co-actors in the assemblage of talk and action categorised as 'policy work'. I argue that regulatory tools, such as policy framings, cannot be assumed to work as expected. Individual or group interaction with such artefacts may give rise to moments of creativity that breed unexpected consequences, such as reverse effects or new ideas. Such changes disrupt social relations, often interrupting the exercise of authority and unleashing conflict. My findings highlight the negotiated and political quality of boundaries among defined actors, actions and representations. At the international level, the good governance agenda has been both strongly prescriptive, especially about how to do policy within borders, and descriptive, claiming superior normative performance in states and organisations categorised as donors. This has had repercussions for OECD donors as well as international development agencies. Firstly and unsurprisingly, 'good', is open to flexible interpretation. Then 'governance', developing as a fuzzy concept, questions where decision-making is located and who is involved. Thirdly, by positioning 'good governance' as a pre-condition for development, standards have emerged for benchmarking, not only development partners but also OECD donors. Questions arise in many arenas as to the competence of the latter states, with, I argue, mutual accountability emerging as a new agenda. At locality level in Mozambique, such technologies of governance as membership categorisation, strategic pre-positioning and intertextuality, are also visible in the process of establishing or re-instating traditional leaders for local development plans. I found that the perspective developed in this study on policy work underlines the position that power is by no means a free 'good' to be exercised in a linear fashion by strategically sited authorities. Many people, positioned differentially within areas of policy activity, interact with the array of technologies used to solve and create development problems. The idea of creative moments recognizes that people energize tools, which relay particular logics and past meanings, but also stresses that tool use is not context-free and can occasionally inspire users to new ideas and, perhaps, more ethically reflective ways of learning and doing. Good governance is better understood as a changing state of art rather than a fixed art of state.


Spatial data mining organizes by location what
is interesting as such, specific features of spatial data
mining (including observations that are not independent
and spatial autocorrelation among the features) that
preclude the use of general purpose data mining
algorithms poses a serious challenge in the task of
mining meaningful patterns from spatial systems. This
creates the complexity that characterises complex spatial
systems. Thus, the major challenge for a spatial data
miner in trying to build a general complex spatial model
would be; to be able to integrate the elements of these
complex systems in a way that is optimally effective in
any particular case. We have examined ways of creating
explicit spatial model that represents an application of
mining techniques capable of analysing data from a
complex spatial system and then producing information
that would be useful in various disciplines where spatial
data form the basis of general interest.


Reducing power consumption is quickly becoming a first-class optimization metric for many high-performance parallel computing platforms. One of the techniques employed by many prior proposals along this direction is voltage scaling and past research used it on different components such as networks, CPUs, and memories. In contrast to most of the existent efforts on voltage scaling that target a single component (CPU, network or memory components), this paper proposes and experimentally evaluates a voltage/frequency scaling algorithm that considers CPU and communication links in a mesh network at the same time. More specifically, it scales voltages/frequencies of both CPUs in the network and the communication links among them in a coordinated fashion (instead of one after another) such that energy savings are maximized without impacting execution time. Our experiments with several tree-based sparse matrix computations reveal that the proposed integrated voltage scaling approach is very effective in practice and brings 13% and 17% energy savings over the pure CPU and pure communication link voltage scaling schemes, respectively. The results also show that our savings are consistent with the different network sizes and different sets of voltage/frequency levels


This article considers the notion of free will in the context of aggression and psychopathy research. The philosophical literature is very briefly considered to determine under what assumptions free will can be considered to exist. However, as the issue of free will is very difficult to address directly, the prime focus of this article is on issues raised in the philosophical debate, that may be empirically tractable and that are relevant to the understanding of psychopathy. Specifically, the following issues are considered: (1) The distinction between automatic and controlled processing; (2) Impairment related to automatic processing in individuals with psychopathy; and (3) Impairment related to controlled behavior in individuals with psychopathy. It is concluded that, while there is not a direct mapping of the automatic versus controlled processing dichotomy on to the reactive versus instrumental aggression dichotomy, some overlap can be considered. As such, it is possible to consider that certain episodes of reactive aggression might be considered to occur in the absence of free will. However, instrumental aggression, at least from a compatibilist perspective, must involve free will.


Aims. In a previous study we analysed the C IV 1548.189 Å and 1550.775 Å lines observed with the Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation (SUMER), showing cases where the 1548.189 Å spectral profile was noticeably different from the 1550.775 Å one, profiles that we dubbed differentially shaped profiles. We explained this differential behaviour by an important radiative contribution, affecting multiple plasma motions happening at the instrument sub-resolution scale. In the present study we examine more general cases where radiative effects may contribute to the emission from the transition region of an active region. Here we analyse the lines Si IV 1393.757 Å and 1402.772 Å observed with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS).
Methods. We study active region NOAA 12529, observed with IRIS on 18 April 2016. Using sorting techniques we selected individual profiles for which the intensity line ratio 1393.757 Å/1402.772 Å is significantly higher or lower than 2 and we also tracked differentially shaped profiles. We analyse the physical conditions that create these profiles and in some cases we estimate electron densities.
Results. We found more than 4000 individual profiles with line ratios higher than 2, about 500 profiles for which the line ratio is in the range 1.3–1.6, and 15 differentially shaped profiles. Line ratios higher than 2, are found along loops, and mostly at the y = 250 to 300″ part of the plage. There, we estimated the incident radiation and derived electron densities that can vary from 109 to a few times 1011 cm−3, depending on the plasma temperature. For the low line ratios, the sources are concentrated at the periphery of the active region plage, mostly along fibrils and present optical depths, τ, between 1.5 and 3. in most cases. The electron densities calculated from these Si IV profiles are comparable with electron densities derived using the O IV 1399.766 Å-1401.163 Å ratios.
Conclusions. We found that about 2.4% of the individual profiles for which we can perform a Gaussian fit present a line ratio higher than 2. In profiles with a high line ratio, the resonant scattering appears to be due to the combination of an average incident radiation field with a relatively low local electron density and not due to the vicinity of an ephemeral strong light source. As far as low intensity ratios are concerned, non-negligible optical depths are found at the edge of the plage, near the footpoints of fibrils that are oriented towards quiet Sun areas, where the electron density can be as high as (7 − 9) × 1011 cm−3 if we assume a plasma in ionization equilibrium.


This study addresses two important global trends: protection of public goods, specifically the environment, and the emergence of multiethnic societies with influential minority groups. The study tests the effect of a government proenvironmental demarketing campaign on the deconsumption behavior of minority groups and the majority population. It suggests that minority consumers use consumption or deconsumption to manifest their social identity, beliefs, and goals as minorities in relation to the majority and that their motivation to respond positively to a government's demarketing campaign is shaped by their national attachment levels. The study was conducted in Jerusalem, Israel, and involved a large data set (N = 66,272) containing household-level data on actual behavior of consumers. The studied groups invovled the majority of non-ultra-Orthodox Jews and three minority groups: Israeli Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Jewish Russian immigrants. The findings show that in a proenvironmental context, government demarketing is more effective on the majority group than on any of the three minority groups. In addition, minority groups with lower national attachment levels respond more negatively to the demarketing effort. However, higher education levels lead to a more positive response across the majority and minority groups. A central implication of the findings is related to the benefits derived from demarketing for different consumer groups (majorities versus minorities based on religion, ethnicity, and immigration status). The findings also provide a benchmark for demarketing efforts in an environmental context. Finally, they suggest that policy makers and marketers should consider using demarketing more to complement regulatory and economic tools.


Abstract : Fire barriers prevent smoke and fire spread along and between cables, through walls and floors, and protect critical conductors and equipment from heat. New flexible intumescent materials expand up to 10 times when heated, are versatile and easy to install in sealing fire-rated floor and wall penetrations. Telephone cables have large insulator/metal ratios and may have slack or oval jacketing, making older limited expansion materials ineffective. Strict design for specific cables and cable densities is obsoleted; reactive foaming chemicals are not needed for an effective seal. Fire-expanding hydrated silicate particles are incorporated in a neoprene matrix yielding environmental protection for tough, flexible board, sheet, tape, caulk, putty, and foam rubber products. Penetration kits from these materials have been underwriter tested. Their UL ratings are compared with rubber blocks, foaming resins, and compressed washer devices. Traditional telecraft skills and tools install and adapt the new material to many cable types. Ease, simplicity, speed, and sureness of installation entry, and reentry/reseal are related to the fire hazard window of cable, fiber, or coax additions. (Author)


 Abstract — The influence of organic supplements on growth and multiplication efficiency of Phaius tankervilleae var. alba seedlings was investigated. 12 week-old seedlings were cultured on half-strength semi-solid Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 30 g/L sucrose, 8 g/L agar and various concentrations of coconut water (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 mL/L) combined with potato extract (0, 25 and 50 g/L) and the pH was adjusted to 5.8 prior to autoclaving. The cultures were then kept under constant photoperiod (16 h light: 8 h dark) at 25 ± 2 °C for 12 weeks. The highest number of shoots (3.0 shoots/explant) was obtained when cultured on the medium added with 50 ml/L coconut water and 50 g/L potato extract whereas the highest number of leaves (5.9 leaves/explant) and roots (6.1 roots/explant) could receive on the medium supplemented with 150 ml/L coconut water and 50 g/L potato extract. with 150 ml/L coconut water and 50 g/L potato extract. Additionally, plantlets of P . tankervilleae var. alba were transferred to grow into seven different substrates i.e. soil, sand, coconut husk chip, soil-sand mix (1: 1), soil-coconut husk chip mix (1: 1), sand-coconut husk chip mix (1: 1) and soil-sand-coconut husk chip mix (1: 1: 1) for four weeks. The results found that acclimatized plants showed 100% of survivals when sand, coconut husk chip and sand-coconut husk chip mix are used as substrates. The number of leaves induced by sand-coconut husk chip mix was significantly higher than that planted in other substrates ( P > 0.05). Meanwhile, no significant difference in new shoot formation among these substrates was observed ( P < 0.05). This precursory developing protocol was likely to be applied for more large scale of plant production as well as conservation of germplasm of this orchid Phaius tankervilleae var. alba ., potato


Although different parts of the rail industry may have different primary concerns, all are under increasing pressure to minimise their operational energy consumption. Advances in single-train trajectory optimisation have allowed punctuality and traction energy efficiency to be maximised for isolated trains. However, on a railway network safe separation of trains is ensured by signalling and interlocking systems, so the movement of one train will impact the movement of others. This thesis considers methodologies for multi-train trajectory planning. First, a genetic algorithm is implemented and two bespoke genetic operators proposed to improve specific aspects of the optimisation. Compared with published results, the new optimisation is shown to increase the quality of solutions found by an average of 27.6% and increase consistency by a factor of 28. This allows detailed investigation into the effect of the relative priority given to achieving time targets or increasing energy efficiency. Secondly, the performance of optimised control strategies is investigated in a system containing uncertainty. Solutions optimised for a system without uncertainty perform well in those conditions but their performance quickly degrades as the level of uncertainty increases. To address this, a new genetic algorithm-based optimisation procedure is introduced and shown to find robust solutions in a system with multiple different types of uncertainty. Trade-offs are explored between highly optimised trajectories that are unlikely to be achieved, and slightly less optimal trajectories that are robust to real world disturbances. Finally, a massively parallel multi-train simulator is developed to accelerate population-based heuristic optimisations using a graphical processing unit (GPU). Execution time is minimised by implementing all parts of the simulation and optimisation on the GPU, and by designing data structure and algorithms to work efficiently together. This yields a three orders of magnitude increase in rate at which candidate control strategies can be evaluated.


Introduction: The genus Galea Meyen 1833 (Rodentia, Caviidae) includes at least five living and two extinct species of terrestrial and herbivoral cavies that occupies grasslands and rocky scrub areas at both high and low elevations in South America. Fossil samples from the late Pleistocene- The genus Galea (Rodentia, Caviidae) includes five living and two extinct species of terrestrial and herbivorous cavies that inhabit grasslands and rocky scrub areas at both high and low elevations in South America. Fossil samples from the late Pleistocene-Holocene from central-eastern Argentina have been referred to as Galea sp., G musteloides or G. cf. musteloides and finally described as a new species under the name of G. tixiensis. However, recent studies based on large series of individuals fail to find qualitative morphological differences between G. leucoblephara and G. tixiensis. Based on these findings, in this contribution we reviewed the taxonomic status of the fossil species G. tixiensis. A total of 110 individuals of the three currently recognized subspecies of G. leucoblephara (i. e., G. l. demissa, G. l. leucoblephara and G. l. littoralis) from Argentina Bolivia and Paraguay were examined. Nine craniodental measurements were recorded. Quantitative data were subjected to a principal component analysis (PCA) in order to identify the contribution of each measurement to the total variance. Qualitative characters were evaluated through the comparisons of the diagnostic traits of G. tixiensis with the variability derived from the recent samples. PCA showed a high overlap of the multivariate spaces of the three subspecies studied, suggesting that they do not differ significantly in terms of cranial shape. The holotype of G. tixiensis was allocated within the morphospace of the recent G. l. littoralis samples. Qualitative traits diagnostic of G. tixiensis were also recorded in recent samples of G. leucoblephara, in particular of G. l. littoralis. Based on both qualitative and quantitative cranial traits, we suggest that G. tixiensis is a synonym of G. leucoblephara. The morphological traits supposedly unique to G. tixiensis were also recorded in specimens of living populations of G. l. littoralis. The large values of some quantitative cranial traits in fossil samples -- compared to living ones -- are reinterpreted here as an ecophenotypical response to the more severe climatic conditions of the Holocene.


Internal carotid artery occlusion is the cause of carotid territory transient ischemic attacks or infarction approximately in 15% of patients. Extracranial-lntracranial (EC-IC) Bypass Study and Carotid Occlusion Surgery Study (COSS) failed to show a benefit of EC-IC bypass over medical therapy in patients with symptomatic carotid artery occlusion. Weak sides of COSS were investigators reliance on post hoc analysis, use of specific thresholds in the definition of impaired cerebral hemodynamics and high perioperative morbidity. In selected subset of patients with medically refractory ischemic symptoms, EC-IC bypass, can provide benefit from surgery performed with sufficiently low perioperative morbidity. The potential of functional and cognitive improvement after cerebral revascularization needs further investigation.


what makes a property intrinsic? What exactly does the intrinsic/extrinsic distinction rest upon, and how can we reasonably justify this distinction? These questions bear great importance on central debates in such diverse philosophical fields as ethics (What is the nature of intrinsic value?), philosophy of mind (Does mental content supervene on internal bodily features?), epistemology (Can intrinsic duplicates differ in the justification of their beliefs?) and philosophy of science (Do the causal powers of an object depend on its extrinsic features?) - to only name a few. Given the central relevance of the intrinsic/extrinsic distinction to philosophical research, a collection of pertinent essays on the topic is an essential addition to the literature. It helps to identify more clearly the problems and arguments that are at stake. The anthology provides a comprehensive overview of central facets of the debates, including both crucial earlier and important new contributions by leading philosophers. As such it constitutes an indispensable component of any serious study of the topic.


Biodiesel oil is one of the liquid fuels that generally employed with small agricultural diesel engines. The most widely raw material for biodiesel production is waste cooking oil. In this research work presented the biodiesel production from waste cooking oil with a prototype solar reactor and testing the obtained oil both in terms of physicochemical properties following the EN14214 and ASTM D6751standard method and performance testing of engines. The results found that the final biodiesel product can be accepted within the requirements standard of bio-auto fuels such as methyl ester content, kinematic viscosity, pour point and cloud point. Additionally, a single-cylinder diesel engine was employed to test the performance of biodiesel oil and comparison with diesel oil. The data found that exhaust gases emission namely CO2, CO, HC, and NO2 a trend lower than petroleum diesel oil. While the performance testing of engines displayed that both of the biodiesel oil and diesel oil was not different. Thus, waste cooking oil derived biodiesel oil has an efficiency, suitability, and possibility to apply for the real application with the small agricultural diesel engines to substitute the use of petroleum diesel oil.


The Djerdap National Park in Serbia is vulnerable to fires. The variability of a fire in the Djerdap National Park is studied depending on the impact of climatic conditions. The influence was investigated on a yearly, monthly, and daily basis using data recorded at the meteorological station Veliko Gradiste. Data were analyzed for two periods: 1961-1990 and 1991-2017, and for the year of 2011. Special attention is devoted to the conditions for the emergence of the largest forest fire in the Djerdap National Park in September 2011. In this study, the Angstrom index, the Nesterov index, and method of deficit and surplus of precipitation are used to predict the risk of fire. There was an increased danger of fire in the forests in the period of 1991-2017 compared to the period of 1961-1990. Indices showing fire risk are increased for the months of June, July, and August. The September 2011 is characterized by an increase of average monthly air temperature by 3.7?C and a reduction of the total monthly rainfall of 32.3 mm compared to a long-term average value which favorable influenced to the occurrence of large forest fires.


Functional Products, where the customer pays for the function and availability of a product instead of the product itself, are increasingly popular in capital intensive industries such as aerospace. Such products are integrated systems involving the combination of hardware and service support systems. The reliability prediction and optimisation of the service system that supports the hardware availability is essential to the feasibility of the product. These systems consist of maintenance procedures and resource provisions. Simulation based techniques are presented in this paper to analyse the reliability of support systems and their application is demonstrated through a simple example.


Mobile advisory services are characterized by location-dependent and spatial distributed information, unknown environments and limited tool support. These aspects complicate mobile advisory services to the point that the delivered service appears rather fuzzy than transparent. To tackle that problem, we examine the practical field of home security advice and present an initial design solution. The system called "SmartProtector" adapts existing knowhow from the stationary advisory context and complements it with findings from a field analysis. Evaluation shows that we have been successful in reaching our objective of increasing transparency in home security advisory situations leading to more comprehension on the clients' side. In addition to the practical innovation, we contribute generic requirements to the discussion of transparency in service science by expanding the advisory service scope to the mobile dimension.


This paper extends the authors' previous results on fault tolerant locomotion of the hexapod robot on even terrain by relaxing nonoverlap of redefined reachable cells of legs and considering crab walking. It is shown that in fault tolerant locomotion two adjacent legs of the hexapod robot can have overlapping redefined reachable cells with each other and consequently the stride length of the gaits is increased. Also, the optimal fault tolerant periodic gaits for hexapod robots to have the maximum stride length in one cycle in crab walking on even terrain are derived with distinct reachable cells. The derived sequence for crab walking has different orders of leg swing according to the relative values of the crab angle and some design parameters of the robot.


A new neural network architecture is proposed and evaluated for the set covering problem. The network is designed by using the connections between nonlinear and integer programming problems. This connection is based on the concavity and penalty function methods. The general objective function obtained, which combines the objective function and constraints, is fixed as the energy of the system. The network obtained was then applied to a practical problem in VLSI systems. The simulation results for the network show that the system can converge rapidly within a few neural time constants even for large scale problems.<<ETX>>


Sonography or palpation alone are inadequate procedures in evaluating cervical function. Only by combining both methods cervical incompetence can be detected at an early stage, adequate therapy instituted and unnecessary cerclage operations prevented. The value of sonography lies in the possibility of studying the functional changes of the cervix in premature labour.


Graduate students play a critical role in undergraduate education at doctoral-granting institutions and yet their training is often brief and overgeneralized. Little is known about how they develop knowledge for teaching chemistry in this context. To further understand how graduate students develop knowledge for teaching, we used a questionnaire to measure pedagogical content knowledge of solution chemistry concepts. These concepts are revisited frequently in the undergraduate curriculum, particularly in laboratory courses where graduate students commonly teach. Questions were included to measure both the pedagogical content knowledge and content knowledge of graduate students with a range of teaching experience. Analysis revealed that graduate students' content knowledge is stronger than their pedagogical content knowledge, which increases modestly with teaching experience. Interviews were performed with a subset of respondents to determine whether they interpreted the questions as intended and the source of knowledge they used in responding. The interviews revealed that graduate students relied heavily on their own experience as students rather than direct experience teaching solution chemistry concepts.


Author(s): Tang, Chi | Advisor(s): Shi, Jing | Abstract: The subfield of magnetic insulator (MI) based spintronics is playing a substantial role in modern solid state physics research. Spin current in the MI is propagated in spin wave with a much longer decay length than spin-polarized carriers in conducting ferromagnet. In the MI-based hetereostructures, the adjacent non-magnetic materials can be magnetized in proximity of MI. Therefore, it is a promising system to study exotic transport phenomena such as quantum Anomalous Hall effect in topological insulator and graphene. Rare-earth Iron garnet (ReIG), a class of magnetic insulators with large electronic bandgap and high Curie temperature, stands out among various magnetic insulator materials and have attracted a great deal of attention in recent magnetic insulator based spintronics research. The first chapter of this dissertation gives a brief introduction to the spintronics research by introducing some essential concepts in the spintronics field and the most recent spin transport phenomena. The second chapter of this dissertation summarizes my work in the materials development of ReIG ferrimagnetic insulators, including exquisite control of high quality ultra-flat yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin films with extremely low magnetic damping and engineering of strain induced robust perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in thulium iron garnet (TIG) and Bi-doped YIG films. The last chapter of this dissertation shows a systematic study in various ReIG based heterostructures, mainly divided into groups: ReIG (YIG a TIG)/heavy metal bilayers (Pd a Pt) and ReIG (YIG a TIG)/Dirac systems (graphene a topological insulator). The magneto-transport study disentangles the contribution from a spin current origin and proximity induced magnetism. Furthermore, the demonstration in the proximity coupling induced high-temperature ferromagnetic phase in low-dimensional Dirac systems, i.e. graphene and topological insulator surface states, provides new possibilities in the future spintronics applications. The modulation on the spin dynamics of magnetic insulator layer by topological insulator surface states is investigated at last, further confirming the superb properties of such magnetic insulator based spintronics systems.


Electroless Ni-P coating containing ZrO2 particles was successfully co-deposited on low carbon steel substrate. The surface and cross-sectional micrographs of the composite coatings were observed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). And the chemical composition of the coating was analyzed with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The oxidation resistance was evaluated by weight gains during high temperature oxidation test. The results showed that the embedded ZrO2 particles with irregular shape uniformly distributed in the entire Ni-P matrix, and the coating showed a good adhesion to the substrate. The weight gain curves of Ni-P-ZrO2 composite coatings and Ni-P coating at 923K oxidation experiments were in accordance with . The ZrO2 particles in Ni-P matrix could significantly enhance the high temperature oxidation resistance of the carbon steel substrate as compared to pure Ni-P coating.


Randomized sets of binary tests have appeared to be quite effective in solving a variety of image processing and vision problems. The exponential growth of their memory usage with the size of the sets however hampers their implementation on the memory-constrained hardware generally available on low-power embedded systems. Our paper addresses this limitation by formulating the conventional semi-naive Bayesian ensemble decision rule in terms of posterior class probabilities, instead of class conditional distributions of binary tests realizations. Subsequent clustering of the posterior class distributions computed at training allows for sharp reduction of large binary tests sets memory footprint, while preserving their high accuracy. Our validation considers a smart metering applicative scenario, and demonstrates that up to 80% of the memory usage can be saved, at constant accuracy.


Although there is a significant literature on the relationship between economic growth and unemployment, effect of economic growth over unemployment varies among the periods and countries. The study investigates the economic growth, productivity and unemployment data for seven industrialized countries (G7) between the years of 2000 to 2011. In addition to the mentioned period two sub-periods of 2000-2007 and 2008-2011 in which the effect of global financial crisis was felt most have been analyzed. Pre and post crisis periods have been compared to each other. The results of the study reveal that while the productivity and economic growth variables have significant and strong effects on the reduction of unemployment in the pre-crisis period, this effect of productivity becomes insignificant and small after the crisis whereas the effect of economic growth as a decreasing effect over unemployment continues and its impact level rises.


PURPOSE Evidence shows acanthosis nigricans is often associated with hyperinsulinemia and may indicate increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of acanthosis nigricans with type 2 diabetes risk factors and disease in young persons. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study in the Research in Outpatient Settings Network, a practice-based research network in southwestern US communities. Participating clinicians (N = 96) collected data on children and young adults aged 7 to 39 years seen during a 2-week sampling period. The main outcomes were the prevalence of acanthosis nigricans, type 2 diabetes risk factors (ethnicity, family history of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, overweight/obesity), type 2 diabetes, and the relationships among these. RESULTS Among 1,133 patients sampled, risk factors for type 2 diabetes were common: 69% had a family history of the disease; 3% of children (aged 7 to 19 years) and 12% of adults had hypertension; 43% of children and 73% of adults were overweight or obese; and 80% were members of ethnic minorities. Acanthosis nigricans was found in 17% of children and 21% of adults. Among children and adults alike, the more type 2 diabetes risk factors that were present, the higher the prevalence of acanthosis nigricans (P <.001). The prevalence ratio for type 2 diabetes in patients with acanthosis nigricans was 1.97 (95% confidence interval, 1.18–3.27; P = .01) after controlling for age, body mass index, and the number of type 2 diabetes risk factors. Clinicians reported that the identification of acanthosis nigricans frequently led to discussions about lifestyle modification for decreasing the risk of type 2 diabetes. CONCLUSIONS Patients with acanthosis nigricans are likely to have multiple risk factors for type 2 diabetes. Acanthosis nigricans may be an independent risk factor for this disease. Detection of acanthosis nigricans may help clinicians more rapidly identify high-risk individuals for diabetes counseling.


Recombination is a main factor determining nucleotide variability in different regions of the genome. Chromosomal inversions, which are ubiquitous in the genus Drosophila, are known to reduce and redistribute recombination, and thus their specific effect on nucleotide variation may be of major importance as an explanatory factor for levels of DNA variation. Here, we use the coalescent approach to study this effect. First, we develop analytical expressions to predict nucleotide variability in old inversion polymorphisms that have reached mutation-drift-flux equilibrium. The effects on nucleotide variability of a new arrangement appearing in the population and reaching a stable polymorphism are then studied by computer simulation. We show that inversions modulate nucleotide variability in a complex way. The establishment of an inversion polymorphism involves a partial selective sweep that eliminates part of the variability in the population. This is followed by a slow convergence to the equilibrium values. During this convergence, regions close to the breakpoints exhibit much lower variability than central regions. However, at equilibrium, regions close to the breakpoints have higher levels of variability and differentiation between arrangements than regions in the middle of the inverted segment. The implications of these findings for overall variability levels during the evolution of Drosophila species are discussed.


In order to utilize the real world via computers by means of camera images in augmented reality systems, the concise coordinate information of the systems must be identified. Image-based approaches are promising for this purpose since they provide direct mapping from the camera images to the coordinate system for virtual objects, and therefore, no camera calibration is necessary. However, the conventional image-based markers are typically stickers, and the information they deliver is limited and susceptible to change dynamically. In this paper, we propose a location marking method, called VCC (visual computer communication), which uses more intelligent markers. In our method, a marker, consisting of 16 LEDs (light-emitting diodes), keeps blinking to provide both coordinate information and attached information such as an address or a URL.


In this paper we propose an approach for personalising the space in which a game is played (i.e., levels) - to the end of tailoring the experienced challenge to the individual user during actual play of the game. Our approach specifically considers two design challenges, namely implicit user feedback and high risk of user abandonment. We contribute an approach that acknowledges that for effective online game personalisation, one needs to (1) offline learn a policy that is appropriate in expectation across users - to be used for initialising the online game, (2) offline learn a mapping from gameplay observations to the player experience - to be used for guiding the online game personalisation, and (3) rapidly converge to an appropriate policy for the individual user in online gameplay - employing the learned feedback model and a straightforward model of user abandonment. User studies that validate the approach to online game personalisation in the actual video game INFINITE MARIO BROS, indicate that it provides an effective basis for automatically balancing the game's challenge level to the individual human player.


The main aim of this study was to diagnose the functioning of the Summer Wake Park Chelm Company in Żoltance, which specializes in providing wakeboard services; the authors focused on using that kind of services by visitors. Research material was collected by using two techniques – categorized interview carried out with the owners of the company and questionnaires filled out by receivers of the product (N = 64) during the tourist season (2017). Respondents using the wakeboard lift also used other services  available in the Żoltance reservoir complex (SUP – Stand Up Paddling, beach volleyball, swimming). The frequency of using wakeboard lift by the visitors indicates that it is an attractive and emotionally involving sport discipline. Functioning of ventures providing high-risk sports services is  directed to the young people who are looking for thrills, have limited funds to spend on entertainment and are susceptible to multimedia marketing advertisements. Tourist and sports-and-recreation companies should follow the changing market trends, bearing in mind the fact that their generic structure will multiply in accordance with market needs.


The presence of environmental degradation results in significant costs to residents that are likely to affect location choices at the micro-level. This paper utilizes unique Census tract level pollution data to examine the extent that homeowners sort across measurable environmental quality, and to endogenizes the grant process for high-pollution communities. Initial results indicate that drinking water and PM 2.5 pollution burden levels significantly impact sorting behaviors.


After removal of one mouse kidney, compensatory hypertrophy in the remaining kidney is marked in 2 days by a 20% average increase in ribosomal RNA (rRNA) per cell. Both 28S and 18S RNA are conserved during the initial stages of compensatory renal hypertrophy to an extent sufficient to account for the rest of the observed accumulation of rRNA. Like some cultured cells, the kidney conserves rRNA during physiological growth.


Background: There is a paucity of data comparing the incidence of anastomotic leak (AL) between resections for diverticular disease (DD) and neoplasia (NN). We compared the incidence of anastomotic leak in open or laparoscopic high anterior resections (HAR) between DD and NN.

Methodology: A retrospective review of prospectively collected data was performed on patients presenting to Fremantle Hospital, Fiona Stanley Hospital and St. John of God Hospital, Murdoch between 2007 and 2016 for an elective HAR. Data in relation to patient demographics, method of operation, morbidity, mortality, length of stay and anastomotic leak was collected and analysed.

Results: A total of 534 patients were identified with 340 patients undergoing a high anterior resection for NN and 194 patients for DD. The incidence of anastomotic leak for the NN and DD groups were 4.7% (n=16) and 7.2% (n=14) respectively (p 0.244) with an overall incidence of 5.6% (n =30). Two patients in each group were treated with antibiotics; all others were returned to theatre for operative intervention. The median length of stay for patients in the NN group was 5 days compared to 6 days for the DD group (p=0.304). In-hospital mortality for patients in the NN and DD groups were 0.03% (n=1) and 1.0% (n=2), respectively (p=0.300).

Conclusion: An elective high anterior resection for diverticular disease can be performed safely with acceptable rates of morbidity and mortality.


OBJECTIVE
This retrospective case series aimed to assess the stability of the papilla around four single crowns supported by narrow-diameter implants replacing all maxillary incisors. Secondary objectives included assessment of marginal bone level stability, incidence of technical and biological complications, and patient satisfaction.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Individuals with four adjacent implants in maxillary incisor sites, placed with a 3 mm inter-implant distance and rehabilitated with single crowns were included. Retrospective data were obtained from photographs and radiographs taken at the delivery of the prosthesis (baseline-T0). Patients were then recalled (≥2 years after T0) for clinical and radiographic examination (follow-up-T1). Photographs were obtained and patient satisfaction was assessed using a visual analogue scale. Papilla height and marginal bone level were compared over time.

RESULTS
Data from 10 patients with medium-low smile lines and rehabilitated with 40 implants, in function for 5.4 ± 1.9 years, were analyzed. The papilla height between implants (T0: 2.3 ± 0.9 mm; T1: 2.6 ± 0.7 mm; p = .011) and between tooth and implant (T0: 3.4 ± 0.9 mm; T1: 3.8 ± 0.8 mm; p = .025) increased significantly over the years. The marginal bone level remained stable over time (T0: 0.88 ± 0.57 mm; T1: 0.71 ± 0.67 mm; p = .007). Patients were highly satisfied (97.7 ± 0.3%) with the treatment outcome.

CONCLUSION
Within its limitations, this study demonstrated that four single implant-supported crowns placed at maxillary incisor sites may exhibit soft tissue and marginal bone stability over a long period of time. This treatment approach, however, should be restricted to few patients as it requires a proper case selection and skillful execution of all surgical and prosthetic steps.


Two forms of the so-called mixed-potential electric field integral equation (MPIE) are developed for two-dimensional, perfectly conducting (PC) surfaces of arbitrary shape in the presence of an infinite, PC wedge, subject to transverse electric excitation. One of the MPIEs is based on the Coulomb gauge while the other employs the Lorentz gauge. In either case the effect of the wedge is incorporated in the integral equation by means of the appropriate Green's functions, leaving the current distribution on the arbitrary surface as the only unknown. The Green's functions are derived by the eigenfunction expansion technique. A well-established moment method procedure is adapted to numerically solve both forms of the MPIE. Computed results are presented for several cases of interest, and the relative merits of the Coulomb and Lorentz gauge MPIEs are discussed.


Experimental intramammary infections were induced in five post-parturient Holstein cows by inoculation of low numbers (5000 colony forming units) of virulent Salmonella dublin via the teat canal of mammary gland quarters. Rectal temperature, pulse and respiratory rates, milk yield, and milk quality as assessed by the California Mastitis Test (CMT) and somatic cell counts (SCC) were recorded every 12 hours at milking. Bacteriologic cultures of foremilk quarter samples and feces were obtained daily, as were complete blood counts. ELISA titers for IgG and IgM recognizing S. dublin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were obtained weekly on serum and quarter milk samples. All cows excreted S. dublin intermittently from infected quarters, but no changes were detected in rectal temperature, appearance of the mammary gland or secretions, CBC, milk yield, and pulse and respiratory rates. Somatic cell counts were modestly increased in infected quarters as compared with uninfected quarters (P = .015, paired t test); however, CMT scores after infection remained low, and were not significantly different from pre-infection scores (P greater than .10, sign test). After infection, administration of dexamethasone resulted in signs of clinical mastitis and increased excretion of S. dublin from mammary quarters (P = .0004, paired t test). One cow had necrotizing mastitis and S. dublin septicemia and was euthanatized. In the four surviving cows, clinical improvement was observed after systemic gentamicin therapy and intramammary infusion with polymyxin B, but all cows continued to excrete S. dublin intermittently from one or more quarters and occasionally from feces for the remaining period of observation. All infected cows demonstrated a rise in IgG and IgM ELISA titers recognizing S. dublin LPS in serum and milk. At necropsy (13-25 weeks postinfection), S. dublin was recovered only from the mammary tissue or supramammary lymph nodes in three of four cows. In one cow, mammary gland and lymph-node samples were negative for S. dublin despite positive milk cultures. In all cows, histopathologic examination revealed multifocal areas of chronic active mastitis. These lesions were similar to histopathologic findings from mammary gland carriers with naturally acquired S. dublin infection.


Abstract.
 The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation initiated a Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) control program in the eastern basin of Lake Ontario to mitigate cormorant impacts in 1999. Key objectives included improving the quality of Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) and other fisheries, restoring the structure and function of the warmwater fish community and reducing cormorant impacts to nesting habitats of other colonial waterbird species. In eight years of intensive control, cormorant numbers declined, with a corresponding reduction in estimated fish consumption. Diversity and numbers of co-occurring waterbirds either increased or have not been shown to be negatively impacted by management. Woody vegetation favorable to Black-crowned Night-Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) has been maintained. A ca. 2.5-fold increase in the abundance of Smallmouth Bass abundance in assessment nets over the last seven years is a sign of improved recruitment to the fishery. Since the target population level of 4,500 to 6,000 cormorants has essentially been achieved, the eastern Lake Ontario cormorant program is expected to shift in 2007 from a population reduction focus towards a less intensive program intended to prevent population resurgence.


Abstract:This article chronicles the formation of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA) and its creative grassroots activism from 1972 to 1975. Studying ALFA offers a critical window into how lesbian feminists were envisioning political organizing, coalition building, and sports in the New South. ALFA utilized radical strategies learned in prior movements, from antiwar to civil rights activism, to create a lesbian feminist politic in Little Five Points, Atlanta. Drawing on oral histories, this essay studies ALFA activism to challenge media coverage of lesbian and gay life, pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), utilize the "softball strategy," and build regional networks through the Great Southeast Lesbian Conference. ALFA involvement in campaigns to pass the ERA highlight the complexities of coalition building in the women's movement. ALFA's creation of an out-lesbian softball team in 1974, which widened membership and raised visibility, demonstrates the use of recreation as an organizing tool.


Carbon nanotube spun threads are becoming growingly important for various technological and medical applications. Threads can be spun directly from carbon nanotube arrays using age old method of spinning. The process involves two rotations about two mutually perpendicular axes viz. spinning nanotubes into thread from array and winding the spun thread on spool. It is found that an array with properties of high uniform density, low amorphous carbon content and highly aligned nano-tubes are better spinnable. Piezoresistive property of spun thread is investigated through experiments. The change in resistivity of spun carbon nanotube thread with change in load will enable its use as force sensors. In a structural neural network system a network of sensors can pinpoint the location of damage in structure. If such network can be made of very small dimension it can detect crack initiation and crack propagation. Linearity of resistivity increase with increase in strain is observed for fine spun carbon nanotube threads. Upon unloading also this linearity is preserved with same slope.


Phishing is a significant security threat to the Internet, which causes tremendous economic loss every year. In this paper, we proposed a novel hybrid phish detection method based on information extraction (IE) and information retrieval (IR) techniques. The identity-based component of our method detects phishing webpages by directly discovering the inconsistency between their identity and the identity they are imitating. The keywords-retrieval component utilizes IR algorithms exploiting the power of search engines to identify phish. Our method requires no training data, no prior knowledge of phishing signatures and specific implementations, and thus is able to adapt quickly to constantly appearing new phishing patterns. Comprehensive experiments over a diverse spectrum of data sources with 11449 pages show that both components have a low false positive rate and the stacked approach achieves a true positive rate of 90.06% with a false positive rate of 1.95%.


Gas turbine combustion chambers contain numerous small-scale features that help to dampen acoustic waves and alter the acoustic mode shapes. This damping helps to alleviate problems such as thermoacoustic instabilities. During computational fluid dynamics simulations (CFD) of combustion chambers, these small-scale features are often neglected as the corresponding increase in the mesh cell count augments significantly the cost of simulation while the small physical size of these cells can present problems for the stability of the solver. In problems where acoustics are prevalent and critical to the validity of the simulation, the neglected small-scale features and the associated reduction in overall acoustic damping can cause problems with spurious, non-physical noise and prevents accurate simulation of transients and limit cycle oscillations. Low-order dynamical systems (LODS) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) are proposed and tested in their ability to represent a simple two-dimensional acoustically forced simulation of an orifice at multiple frequencies. These models were built using compressible CFD, using OpenFOAM, of an orifice placed between two ducts. The acoustic impedance of the orifice has been computed using the multi-microphone method and compared to a commonly used analytical model. Following this, the flow field downstream of the orifice has been modelled using both a LODS and ANN model. Both methods have shown the ability to closely represent the simulated dynamical flows at much lower computational cost than the original CFD simulation. This work opens the possibility of models that can dynamically predict the flow through, for instance, acoustic liners, dilution ports and fuel injectors in real engines during thermoacoustic instabilities without having to mesh and simulate these small-scale features directly. Such models may also assist in the accurate simulation of flame quenching due to cooling flows or the design of effusion cooled aerodynamic surfaces such as nozzle guide vanes (NGVs) and turbine blades.


The 'fishbone' fast wave travelling wave antenna was developed for LHD to provide a capability for rotational transform profile control by current drive. The fishbone antenna is equivalent to two combline antennae stacked vertically. The antenna operates around 75 MHz and excites a wavenumber of 14 m−1 when the phase difference between adjacent current straps is 90°. A test of a combline antenna with plasma load on the TST-2 spherical tokamak suggested the possibility that this type of antenna does not need to be installed in the immediate vicinity of the last closed flux surface. Optimization of the design was performed based on measurements on mock-up antennas and model calculations. In the fishbone antenna, controlled excitation of the even mode (with currents in the top and bottom halves of a current strap in the same direction) is necessary. A predominant excitation of the even mode was realized in the LHD fishbone antenna with simulated loading by selecting an appropriate operating frequency.


A method for the micropropagation of pepino (Solanum muricatum Aiton) from nodal segments was developed. Detailed surface disinfection methods of leaves and nodes were tested. Via establishment of initial culture using nodal segments, effect of Murashige and Skoog Basal Medium (MS) with N 6 -benzylaminopurine (BAP) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 mg/l) or MS with α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) (2, 4, 6 and 8 mg/l) on some morphologic and vital parameters were noted. To obtain the best shoot multiplication medium from shoot tips of in vitro growth plants; MS with BAP (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 mg/l) and control medium without any plant growth regulators were tested. In both of the two stages, proliferation rate (%), number of shoots (shoot number/explant), length of shoots (cm), callusing rate (%) and callus size (cm) were determined. In addition, at initial culture, rooting rate (%), number of roots (root number/explant) and length of roots (cm) were also evaluated. Fully expanded shoots were transferred rooting medium MS with or without indole-butyric acid (IBA) (0, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 mg/l) and rooting rate (%), classification of root quality, callusing rate (%), callus size (cm), and length of shoots (cm) were determined. Initiation time of rooting according to treatments were also observed in every day and fully in vitro rooted plants transferred two different acclimatization media under two different climatic conditions step by step and for each step survival rate (%) were evaluated.


Learning and knowledge creation are acknowledged as crucial drivers associated with entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and innovation capability (IC). Absorptive capacity (AC) harmonizes internal innovation-building activities with external opportunities, while organizational learning capabilities (OLC) foster entrepreneurial cognitive skills and innovation capabilities. This study aims to (1) predict the impact of absorptive capacity and organizational learning on IC and (2) to estimate the mediation effect of OLC and AC on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and innovation capabilities. Drawing upon the dynamic capability theory, the study had applied a cross-sectional survey targeting Algerian firms to test the hypotheses. The study findings indicate that EO is positively associated with innovation capability. Besides, even though both OLC and AC partially increase EO's interaction impact on innovation capability as a mediation role, suggesting that the more a firm is entrepreneurially oriented, the more learning and knowledge creation processes are involved in the interaction relationship. This study's core focus is to overcome the substantial role of learning and knowledge creation processes as an intangible proactive resource that fosters the EO mindset to get involved in innovation activities. It has been discovered that AC and OLC as a connectedness mechanism links external knowledge and internal learning processes to accompany EO readiness during innovation development.


Abstract: Fluctuations in extracellular pH occur in the nervous system in response to a number of physiological and pathological processes, such as ischemia, hypercapnea, and high-frequency activity. Using the Drosophila larval neuromuscular junction, the author has examined acute effects of low and high pH on excitability and synaptic transmission. Acidification rapidly and reversibly reduces the size of electrically evoked excitatory junctional currents (EJCs) in a concentration-dependent manner, with transmission nearly abolished at pH 5.0. Conversely, raising pH to 7.8 increases EJC amplitude significantly. Further elevation to pH 8.5 causes an initial increase in amplitude, followed by profound, long-lasting depression of the synapse. Amplitudes of spontaneous miniature EJCs (mEJCs) are modestly, but significantly reduced at pH 5.0. It is therefore the number of quanta released per action potential, rather than the size of individual quanta, that is most strongly affected. Decay times of both EJCs and mEJCs are dramatically lengthened at low pH, suggesting that glutamate remains in the synaptic cleft for much longer than normal. Presynaptic excitability is also reduced, as indicated by increased latency between nerve shock and EJC onset. The response to low pH was not altered by mutations in genes encoding Transient Receptor Potential, Mucolipin subfamily (TRPML) and Slowpoke ion channels, which had previously been implicated as possible targets of extracellular protons. The author concludes that extracellular protons have strong effects on the release of glutamate and the time course of synaptic currents. These phenotypes can be exploited to study the mechanisms of acid-mediated changes in neuronal function, and to pursue the way in which pH modulates synaptic function in normal and pathophysiological conditions.


Clinical nursing research can benefit from an approach that blends discovery oriented qualitative methods with the objective, numerically based quantitative methods. This paper describes current approaches to clinical research in either the quantitative or qualitative paradigm. The strengths and weaknesses of each of these approaches are discussed. A rationale for methodological pluralism--the blending of the two methods--to understand clinical phenomena is presented.


A precision tantalum nitride thin film integrated resistor network has been constructed to convert 9-bit parallel binary words to equivalent analog voltages at a rate of 12 megacycles per second. There are 35 precision resistors and 9 matched diode bridges that make up the decoder network. This paper concerns fabrication and performance of the resistor portion of the network. The network was fabricated on a 2x5.3 inch glazed ceramic substrate. Eighteen resistors dissipate 1/8 watt each at a power density of 9.5 watts per square inch of film. Aging tests at normal and accelerated rates show negligible resistance change and changes that occur with time or with temperature change are uniform for all resistors. The decoder network has been tested in its system application while transmitting a simulated full load of 600 telephone voice channels. The whole system converted signals with a signal to noise ratio only 1.6 db less than theoretical 9-bit performance.


The increasing diffusion of renewable energies which underlie significant daily and seasonal fluctuations increases grid operations' complexity. For the effective use of renewable energies, innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) and concepts are necessary to efficiently balance power generation and consumption. An ICT-based innovation in this context is the smart metering technology allowing bidirectional transfer of information between energy systems' components. Using a context-specific extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of Davis (1989), our study investigates smart meters' acceptance based on the attitude toward use and the salient beliefs perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and subjective control. Results support the theorized relationships indicating that the attitude toward use fully mediates the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and subjective control on intention to use. In the conclusion a detailed discussion of the study's findings is provided and the implications for research, practice, and policy are highlighted.


Horse Sense provides an in-depth guide to horse care under conditions unique to Australia and New Zealand. It is written in an easy-to-read style to appeal to novices as well as experienced owners and covers all aspects of horse care and management.

This edition provides the latest information on new feeds and supplements, techniques for handling horses, safe riding, and treating injuries, diseases, worms and other pests. The book also incorporates the latest standards and guidelines for the welfare of horses.


Introduction. Chapter 1 From Organizational Learning to Knowing in Practice. 1.1 Conventional Wisdom. 1.2 The Institutionalization of the Field: The Birth of the Learning Organization. 1.3 Organizational Learning and Learning Organization as a Disciplinary Discourse. 1.4 The Reification of Knowledge in Knowledge Management Literature. 1.5 Knowing in Practice: Neither in the Head Nor as a Commodity. 1.6 The Philosophical Roots of the Concept of Practice. 1.7 The Sociological Roots of the Concept of Practice. 1.8 What is a Practice?. 1.9 To Sum Up: Two Narratives of Learning and Knowing. Chapter 2 The Texture of Knowing in Practice. 2.1 Texture as Connectedness in Action. 2.2 A Methodological Framework: The Spiral Case-Study. 2.3 The Power of Associations. 2.4 To Sum Up: Weaving the Texture of Situated Practices. Chapter 3.On Becoming a Practitioner. 3.1 Being 'On Site'. 3.2 Safety and Silence of the Organization: The Culture of Practice. 3.3 The Knowledge Pointers. 3.4 Knowing as Aesthetic Understanding. 3.5 Conversation in Practice and Conversation on Practice. 3.6 Knowledge Mediated By Social Relations, Artifacts, and Norms. 3.7 How 'You Learn Nothing at School!' 3.8 To Sum Up: Becoming a Practitioner. Chapter 4.Knowing in a Community of Practitioners. 4.1 Community of Practice or the Practices of a Community? 4.2 The Notion of Situated Curriculum. 4.3 Gaining Access to a Situated Curriculum. 4.4 How Power Relations Shape Opportunities to Learn. 4.5 Practicing, Teaching and Talking of It. 4.6 To Sum Up: The Incorporated 'Known' and the Enacted 'Knowing'. Chapter 5 Knowing across Communities. 5.1 Practices of Accountability. 5.2. Mirror Games. 5.3 Positioning: The Discursive Production of Subjectivity. 5.4 Doing Things with Words. 5.5 To Sum Up: Practices Which Perform Communities. Chapter 6 Knowing Within an Organization While Mending the Texture of Practices. 6.1. Breakdowns in a Texture. 6.2 Darning: The Art of Invisible Mending. 6.3 Patching: The Art of Remedial Mending. 6.4 Quilting: The Art of Signalling. 6.5 Mending the Texture and Translating Knowledge. 6.6 To Sum Up: Between the Visible and the Invisible. Chapter 7 Knowing Within a Field of Practices. 7.1 Networks as Distributed and Fragmented Knowledge. 7.2 La Sicurezza Come Sorveglianza E Punizione. 7.3 La Sicurezza Come Tecnologie E Artefatti Sicuri. 7.4 La Sicurezza Come Formazione E Consulenza. 7.5 To Sum Up: The Woofs and Warps of a Seamless Web. Chapter 8 The Mutual Constitution of Practice and Practicing, Knowledge and Knowing. 8.1 Material-Discursive Practices. 8.2 Knowing in Practice. 8.3 A Theoretical and Methodological Framework. References. Index.


Onomastics is "the science or study of the origin and forms of proper names of persons or places." ["Onomastics". Merriam-Webster.com, 2013. this http URL (11 February 2013)]. Especially personal names play an important role in daily life, as all over the world future parents are facing the task of finding a suitable given name for their child. This choice is influenced by different factors, such as the social context, language, cultural background and, in particular, personal taste.
With the rise of the Social Web and its applications, users more and more interact digitally and participate in the creation of heterogeneous, distributed, collaborative data collections. These sources of data also reflect current and new naming trends as well as new emerging interrelations among names.
The present work shows, how basic approaches from the field of social network analysis and information retrieval can be applied for discovering relations among names, thus extending Onomastics by data mining techniques. The considered approach starts with building co-occurrence graphs relative to data from the Social Web, respectively for given names and city names. As a main result, correlations between semantically grounded similarities among names (e.g., geographical distance for city names) and structural graph based similarities are observed.
The discovered relations among given names are the foundation of "nameling" [this http URL], a search engine and academic research platform for given names which attracted more than 30,000 users within four months, underpinningthe relevance of the proposed methodology.


Organic ionic plastic crystals (OIPCs) are an emerging family of materials with demonstrated applications in electrochemical devices such as lithium/sodium ion batteries, dye-sensitized solar cells, and hydrogen fuel cells. Herein, we present direct evidence of anion diffusion through a relatively static background of a cation lattice in an ionic plastic crystal compound, [P122i4][PF6], in an elevated temperature solid phase. We found all anions are diffusive, whereas only a small population of cations is diffusive. Two anion populations were identified with diffusion coefficients differing by 2 orders of magnitude. The slow-diffusing anion is attributed to the plastic crystal region where the cation forms a relative static background, allowing anions to diffuse possibly through a defect-assisted hopping mechanism.


Habitat degradation and species range contraction due to land use/land cover changes (LULCC) is a major threat to global biodiversity. The ever-growing human population has trespassed deep into the natural habitat of many species via the expansion of agricultural lands and infrastructural development. Carnivore species are particularly at risk, as they demand conserved and well-connected habitat with minimum to no anthropogenic disturbance. In Pakistan, the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is found in three mountain ranges—the Himalayas, Hindukush, and Karakoram. Despite this being one of the harshest environments on the planet, a large population of humans reside here and exploit surrounding natural resources to meet their needs. Keeping in view this exponentially growing population and its potential impacts on at-risk species like the snow leopard, we used geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing with the aim of identifying and quantifying LULCC across snow leopard range in Pakistan for the years 2000, 2010, and 2020. A massive expansion of 1804.13 km2 (163%) was observed in the built-up area during the study period. Similarly, an increase of 3177.74 km2 (153%) was observed in agricultural land. Barren mountain land increased by 12,368.39 km2 (28%) while forest land decreased by 2478.43 km2 (28%) and area with snow cover decreased by 14,799.83 km2 (52%). Drivers of these large-scale changes are likely the expanding human population and climate change. The overall quality and quantity of snow leopard habitat in Pakistan has drastically changed in the last 20 years and could be compromised. Swift and direct conservation actions to monitor LULCC are recommended to reduce any associated negative impacts on species preservation efforts. In the future, a series of extensive field surveys and studies should be carried out to monitor key drivers of LULCC across the observed area.


Tail latency is of great importance in user-facing web services. However, maintaining low tail latency is challenging, because a single request to a web application server results in multiple queries to complex, diverse backend services (databases, recommender systems, ad systems, etc.). A request is not complete until all of its queries have completed. We analyze a Microsoft production system and find that backend query latencies vary by more than two orders of magnitude across backends and over time, resulting in high request tail latencies.

We propose a novel solution for maintaining low request tail latency: repurpose existing caches to mitigate the effects of backend latency variability, rather than just caching popular data. Our solution, RobinHood, dynamically reallocates cache resources from the cache-rich (backends which don't affect request tail latency) to the cache-poor (backends which affect request tail latency). We evaluate RobinHood with production traces on a 50- server cluster with 20 different backend systems. Surprisingly, we find that RobinHood can directly address tail latency even if working sets are much larger than the cache size. In the presence of load spikes, RobinHood meets a 150ms P99 goal 99.7% of the time, whereas the next best policy meets this goal only 70% of the time.


Studies with tracking of single nanoparticles are providing new insights into the interactions and processes involved in the transport of drug carriers in living mice. Here, we report the tracking of a single particle quantum dot (Qdot) conjugated with tumor-targeting antibody in tumors of living mice using a dorsal skinfold chamber and a high-speed confocal microscope with a high-sensitivity camera. Qdot labeled with the monoclonal anti-HER2 antibody was injected into mice with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer to analyze the molecular processes of its mechanistic delivery to the tumor. Movement of single complexes of the Qdot-antibody could be clearly observed at 30 frames/s inside the tumor through a dorsal skinfold chamber. We successfully identified six processes of delivery: initially in the circulation within a blood vessel, during extravasation, in the extracelullar region, binding to HER2 on the cell membrane, moving from the cell membrane to the perinuclear region, and in the perinuclear region. The six processes were quantitatively analyzed to understand the rate-limiting constraints on Qdot-antibody delivery. The movement of the complexes at each stage was "stop-and-go." The image analysis of the delivery processes of single particles in vivo provides valuable information on antibody-conjugated therapeutic nanoparticles, which will be useful in increasing therapeutic efficacy.


Editors' Preface Benjamin Penny & Remco Breuker The Persian Language in Yuan-Dynasty China: A Reappraisal Stephen G. Haw The Telescope and the Tinderbox: Rediscovering La Pérouse in the North Pacific Tessa Morris-Suzuki Politicking Art: Ishikawa Kōmei and the Development of Meiji Sculpture Martha Chaiklin The Development of Mass Intellectuality: Reading Circles and Socialist Culture in 1920s Korea Jung-Hwan Cheon, translated by Bora Chung and Sunyoung Park Concepts and Institutions for a New Buddhist Education: Reforming the Saṃgha Between and Within State Agencies Stefania Travagnin To Regain Self-Affirmation: Qian Mu and His Exile Gad C. Isay Anti-Malaria Campaigns and the Socialist Reconstruction of China, 1950–80 Bu Liping


This thesis is an examination of directors duties and liabilities in the event of "0, insolvency in England including Wales and the US. The main aim of the study is to compare the two legal systems' stance towards directors when their company is in financial depression or technically insolvent. The thesis consists of ten chapters. The first chapter is a general introduction which draws a picture of the structure and scope of the study. Chapter two and six consider directors duties in general and in the event of corporate financial depression in England and the US respectively. Chapter three and seven examine the liabilities of directors of an insolvent company for breach of their duties in those two legal systems. In chapter four, disqualification of corporate directors in English law is studied. Chapters five and eight are an attempt to answer the question how directors of an English or American ailing company, accordingly, are provided with appropriate protection against the many liability provisions imposed by common law or statutes. In chapter nine, the unique device of the business judgment rule and its function in the US is reviewed. Finally, in chapter ten a detailed comparative study of the two laws concerned is carried out to analyse the solutions of each law for the questions and uncertainties in this area of the law.


I identify three significant components of Heaven's spatiality that determine the boundaries of and conditions for "legitimate" spiritual experience, all of which are embodied in what Dickinson calls "the apparatus" of prayer (Fr 632). First, the locations of Heaven and Earth are determinable, absolute, and inflexible, thus marking the distance that separates human from God as static and constant; second, in order to engage God, the supplicant must turn towards Heaven (and away from Earth); and third, specific spatial and emotional protocol are established by assigning God socially constructed roles such as King or Father. Dickinson dismantles the spatiality of Heaven in her poems and letters by undoing these three components; yet even in the act of disassembling, she embraces and recycles their respective ideologies as a way of claiming sole ownership of her religiosity. INDEX WORDS: Emily Dickinson, Spatiality, Heaven, Prayer poems, George Herbert, Isaac Watts. DISMANTLING THE SPATIALITY OF HEAVEN IN THE PRAYER POEMS


Whether we are talking from a pulpit or over a garden fence, Tony Watkins helps us to give relevant answers to the big issues raised by contemporary popular culture... Globalisation


SUMMARY Eighty-eight (1.96%) out of 4,500 patients had teeth stained by tetracycline. The majority had yellounsh-broum stains (59.1%), whilst 37.5% had greyish-brown and 3.4% had black stains. A large number of teeth (79.6%) were stained up to two thirds of their crowns. The deciduous teeth, permanent incisors and first molars were most commonlyaffected (73.9%). Teeth are only stained by tetracycline if this drug is administered during their calcification periods. For aesthetic reason, the drug should not be prescribed from the fourth month of pregnancy till the seventh year of life. The social embarrasment due to such discolouration may be overcome by tooth bleaching and construction oftoothfacingsand crowns.


Three hospitals' boards of directors voted to create a multihospital split management corporation to allow each hospital to function effectively in a cooperative effort while retaining as much autonomy as possible. Each hospital preserves its mission and philosophy, selects its personnel, retains ownership of its assets, and receives specialized management expertise from the corporation, especially in budgeting and long-range planning.


This paper studies the properties of the Bayesian approach to estimation and comparison of dynamic equilibrium economies. Both tasks can be performed even if the models are nonnested, misspecified, and nonlinear. First, the authors show that Bayesian methods have a classical interpretation: asymptotically the parameter point estimates converge to their pseudotrue values, and the best model under the Kullback-Leibler will have the highest posterior probability. Second, they illustrate the strong small sample behavior of the approach using a well-known application: the U.S. cattle cycle. Bayesian estimates outperform maximum likelihood results, and the proposed model is easily compared with a set of BVARs.


Mobile applications for augmented/mixed/virtual reality (AR/MR/VR) have become ubiquitous in the past decade thanks to the rapid evolution of mobile device technology. Image sensors and IMU for mobile (i.e., Inertial Measurement Unit, consisting of gyroscope and accelerometer) have enough precision to track users' head motion and provide compelling experiences in immersive virtual reality. Consumer products like Oculus Rift, Gear VR, Vive, Cardboard and Hololens are paving the future of the Internet as new communication tools. While applications are numerous (e.g., games, education, tourism, etc.), the creation of realistic immersive environments in 3D still requires professional resource. Nevertheless, simpler alternatives based on AR and/or 360 degree images (e.g., Google Street View, or using 360 degree camera) are also commonly employed.


Currently, microwave energy is utilized for many diverse industrial applications because of its various advantages including its eco-friendliness. Low-cost, high-efficiency, and high-power industrial microwave sources are in urgent demand. In this paper, we propose a low-cost quasi-coherent power-combining system based on a combination of two magnetrons. We have analyzed and built a low-loss waveguide-based applicator combined with specific phase. This system utilizes the coupling of the combiner to quasi-lock the slave magnetron. A waveguide phase shifter lies in the slave magnetron branch to adjust the phase difference between the master and slave magnetrons' signals to achieve high resultant efficiency. Based on theory, the phase difference between the master and the injected slave magnetrons has been numerically calculated and analyzed. The phase difference changes periodically when the slave magnetron is quasi-locked to the master magnetron and the periodicity increases with the injection ratio. Experimental results show the resultant efficiency of the proposed system can reach as high as 92% when using several suitable waveguide components. The investigation also provides guidelines for further microwave power combination systems with multiple sources.


Transformers have emerged as the architecture of choice for many state-of-the-art AI models, showcasing exceptional performance across a wide range of AI applications. However, the memory demands imposed by Transformers limit their ability to handle long sequences, thereby creating challenges for tasks involving extended sequences or long-term dependencies. We present a distinct approach, Ring Attention, which leverages blockwise computation of self-attention to distribute long sequences across multiple devices while overlapping the communication of key-value blocks with the computation of blockwise attention. Ring Attention enables training and inference of sequences that are up to device count times longer than those of prior memory-efficient Transformers, effectively eliminating the memory constraints imposed by individual devices. Extensive experiments on language modeling tasks demonstrate the effectiveness of Ring Attention in allowing large sequence input size and improving performance.


The far-field spatial distributions of higher order electro-magnetic mode supercontinua were resolved spectrally and recorded. The supercontinua were created by precise control and direction of input pump energy offset axially from the photonic crystal fiber core. By processing the measured spectra, the spatial mode shape at each wavelength was determined. Discrete spectral features are associated with symmetrical spatial patterns arising from the host fiber geometry and suggest the electromagnetic mode pairing between the longer wavelength solitons and associated visible dispersive waves. Clear differences between supercontinua generated in fundamental and higher order electromagnetic modes exist. These data should inform theoretical studies as the solitons and the dispersive wave generated by fission may be matched by spatial orientation of the electromagnetic mode that both occupy.


Water enrichment has been described to have major impact on the freshwater food-webs structure. We investigated the structure of the epilithic algal assemblage and the gut contents of a rheophilic orthoclad in situ in a nutrient enriched stream. 4-th instar larvae of Eukiefferiella claripennis, a widespread orthoclad in the Palearctic ecozone and abundant in nutrient-enriched streams, were chosen to be studied due to their great densities in such environment. The taxonomic composition of the epilithic algal assemblage, the gut contents and the ingested algal-cell biovolumes were used to establish the foraging behavior of this chironomid, and to explain its success under such environmental conditions. A Colnertia analysis, and a Two Way INdicator SPecies ANalysis were uses to compare the co-structure of algae assemblages in the epilithon and the guts. Then Strauss's linear food selection index was used to assess the electivity of each algae taxon. Cell biovolumes and distribution were also compared and tested for significant differences between the epilithic algal assemblage and the gut contents. Biovolumes of cells in the epilithon were tested for significant differences from the mean biovolume value of the ingested cells. Eukiefferiella claripennis larvae seem to feed preferentially on Chlorophyceae and Cyanophyceae; Diatomophyceae were randomly grazed without preference while Rhodophyceae were avoided. Cell biovolumes were significantly different between the epilithon and the gut contents, and the larvae preferentially consumed a narrow range of cell biovolumes compared to the wide range of cell biovolumes encountered in the environment. Stigeoclonium and Oscillatoria were the key taxa of the algal assemblage foraged by the larvae. Two complementary approaches seem to drive the foraging behavior of this orthoclad, 1) taxa-type preference and 2) cell-bivolume preference. In nutrient enriched streams, an algal assemblage consisting of cells of Chlorophyceae and Cyanophyceae averaging 1702 μm 3 offers the best diet to this chironomid.


China's rising share of South American trade since 2001 has made that country's growth a matter of huge importance for the continent's economies. This study sets out to analyse the spillover effect of China's growth on that of the leading South American economies (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia) between 1981 and 2014. It analyses whether the increase in China's share of these countries' trade since 2001 has altered that effect. The findings suggest that, while positive, it has remained substantially unchanged. The main conclusion from these results is that expanding exports from traditional sectors of the South American economies (commodities) is not enough for earnings to increase with China's growth. The article emphasizes the importance of public policies designed to diversify South America's portfolio of exports to China, such as incentives for exporting by non-traditional sectors.


We successfully transferred and applied -omics concepts to the study of material degradation, in particular historic paper. The main volatile degradation products of paper, constituting the particular "smell of old books", were determined using headspace analysis after a 24 h predegradation procedure. Using supervised and unsupervised methods of multivariate data analysis, we were able to quantitatively correlate volatile degradation products with properties important for the preservation of historic paper: rosin, lignin and carbonyl group content, degree of polymerization of cellulose, and paper acidity. On the basis of volatile degradic footprinting, we identified degradation markers for rosin and lignin in paper and investigated their effect on degradation. Apart from the known volatile paper degradation products acetic acid and furfural, we also put forward a number of other compounds of potential interest, most notably lipid peroxidation products. The nondestructive approach can be used for rapid identification of degraded historic objects on the basis of the volatile degradation products emitted by degrading paper.


EDUCATIONA move to implement national educational standards in math and science may be sweeping the nation and occupying the attention of President Clinton. But although scores on some tests have improved nationally, significant gains in student achievement remain elusive. Why is progress so difficult? The answer lies in the diverse nature of public education in the United States, and includes such factors as teacher training, textbooks, and student assessment.


This paper aims to spark a debate by presenting the need for developing data ecosystems in Europe that meet the social and public good while committing to democratic and ethical standards; suggesting a taxonomy of data infrastructures and institutions to support this need; using the case study of Barcelona as the flagship city trailblazing a critical policy agenda of smart cities to show the limitations and contradictions of the current state of affairs; and ultimately, proposing a preliminary roadmap for institutional and governance empowerment that could enable effective data ecosystems in Europe.,This paper draws on lessons learned in previous publications available in the sustainability (Calzada, 2018), regions (Calzada and Cowie, 2017; Calzada, 2019), Zenodo (Calzada and Almirall, 2019), RSA Journal (Calzada, 2019) and IJIS (Calzada, 2020) journals and ongoing and updated fieldwork about the Barcelona case study stemming from an intensive fieldwork action research that started in 2017. The methodology used in these publications was based on the mixed-method technique of triangulation via action research encompassing in-depth interviews, direct participation in policy events and desk research. The case study was identified as the most effective methodology.,This paper, drawing from lessons learned from the Barcelona case study, elucidates on the need to establish pan-European data infrastructures and institutions – collectively data ecosystems – to protect citizens' digital rights in European cities and regions. The paper reveals three main priorities proposing a preliminary roadmap for local and regional governments, namely, advocacy, suggesting the need for city and regional networks; governance, requiring guidance and applied, neutral and non-partisan research in policy; and pan-European agencies, leading and mobilising data infrastructures and institutions at the European level.,From the very beginning, this paper acknowledges its ambition, and thus its limitations and clarifies its attempt to provide just an overview rather than a deep research analysis. This paper presents several research limitations and implications regarding the scope. The paper starts by presenting the need for data ecosystems, then structures this need through two taxonomies, all illustrated through the Barcelona case study and finally, concludes with a roadmap consisting of three priorities. The paper uses previous published and ongoing fieldwork findings in Barcelona as a way to lead, and thus encourage the proliferation of more cases through Cities Coalition for Digital Rights (CCDR).,This paper presents practical implications for local and regional authorities of the CCDR network. As such, the main three priorities of the preliminary roadmap could help those European cities and regions already part of the CCDR network to establish and build operational data ecosystems by establishing a comprehensive pan-European policy from the bottom-up that aligns with the timely policy developments advocated by the European Commission. This paper can inspire policymakers by providing guidelines to better coordinate among a diverse set of cities and regions in Europe.,The leading data governance models worldwide from China and the USA and the advent of Big Data are dramatically reshaping citizens' relationship with data. Against this backdrop and directly influenced by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Europe has, perhaps, for the first time, spoken with its own voice by blending data and smart city research and policy formulations. Inquiries and emerging insights into the potential urban experiments on data ecosystems, consisting of data infrastructures and institutions operating in European cities and regions, become increasingly crucial. Thus, the main social implications are for those multi-stakeholder policy schemes already operating in European cities and regions.,In previous research, data ecosystems were not directly related to digital rights amidst the global digital geopolitical context and, more specifically, were not connected to the two taxonomies (on data infrastructures and institutions) that could be directly applied to a case study, like the one presented about Barcelona. Thus, this paper shows novelty and originality by also opening up (based on previous fieldwork action research) a way to take strategic action to establish a pan-European strategy among cities and regions through three specific priorities. This paper can ultimately support practice and lead to new research and policy avenues.


The degradation of phenol and the mono-chlorophenol isomers by a bioaugmentation product was investigated. The product comprised a mixed microbial culture which included several bacterial species, including Pseudomonads, and a brown rot fungus. Concentrations of phenol, up to lSOOmgl"1, were metabolised by the mixed microbial culture. Complete removal of 4-chlorophenol, when present as the sole carbon source, was achieved at concentrations up to 200mgl'1. Removal of both 3- and 2- chlorophenol was relatively poor, as a result of an unproductive meta-cleavage pathway.

Additional carbon, detected in the product formulation, was found to inhibit removal. Phenolic removal was inhibited in the presence of increasing concentrations of glucose, but not fructose. Acclimation was found to influence the rate of removal of the additional carbon and therefore the response of the cells to this carbon. The cells had been previously exposed to glucose in the product formulation and its removal was rapid. In contrast, no acclimation to fructose had taken place and preferential removal of the phenolic from the phenolic/fructose mixtures was observed. Following acclimation of the cells to fructose, which altered the rate of utilisation of the sugar, fructose exerted inhibitory effects on phenolic removal. Inhibition due to the presence of additional carbon was found to be alleviated by incubation at lower temperatures, due to changes in substrate removal patterns. A continuous presence of the sugar, under controlled pH conditions, also facilitated complete phenolic removal. Environmental conditions, particularly temperature and acclimation, were therefore considered fundamental to the successful performance of this mixed microbial culture.

Bacterial species capable of growth on 4-chlorophenol were isolated from the product. Bacteria capable of growth on 3- or 2-chlorophenol could not be isolated in pure culture. The fungus, when grown in pure culture, could not grow on 3-chlorophenol. It was capable of growth on 2-chlorophenol, but did not perform successfully as a member of the mixed culture.


ATM is a protein kinase that initiates a well-characterized signaling cascade in cells exposed to ionizing radiation (IR). However, the role for ATM in coordinating critical protein interactions and subsequent exchanges within DNA damage response (DDR) complexes is unknown. We combined SILAC-based tandem mass spectrometry and a subcellular fractionation protocol to interrogate the proteome of irradiated cells treated with or without the ATM kinase inhibitor KU55933. We developed an integrative network analysis to identify and prioritize proteins that were responsive to KU55933, specifically in chromatin, and that were also enriched for physical interactions with known DNA repair proteins. This analysis identified 53BP1 and annexin A1 (ANXA1) as strong candidates. Using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, we found that the exchange of GFP-53BP1 in DDR complexes decreased with KU55933. Further, we found that ANXA1 knockdown sensitized cells to IR via a mechanism that was not potentiated by KU55933. Our study reveals a role for ATM kinase activity in the dynamic exchange of proteins in DDR complexes and identifies a role for ANXA1 in cellular radioprotection.


Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a necrotrophic fungus that causes a devastating disease called white mould, infecting more than 450 plant species worldwide. Control of this disease with fungicides is limited, so host plant resistance is the preferred alternative for disease management. However, due to the nature of the disease, breeding programmes have had limited success. A potential alternative to developing necrotrophic fungal resistance is the use of host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) methods, which involves host expression of dsRNA-generating constructs directed against genes in the pathogen. In this study, the target gene chosen was chitin synthase (chs), which commands the synthesis of chitin, the polysaccharide that is a crucial structural component of the cell walls of many fungi. Tobacco plants were transformed with an interfering intron-containing hairpin RNA construct for silencing the fungal chs gene. Seventy-two hours after inoculation, five transgenic lines showed a reduction in disease severity ranging from 55 5 to 86 7% compared with the non-transgenic lines. The lesion area did not show extensive progress over this time (up to 120 h). Disease resistance and silencing of the fungal chs gene was positively correlated with the presence of detectable siRNA in the transgenic lines. It was demonstrated that expression of endogenous genes from the very aggressive necrotrophic fungus S. sclerotiorum could be prevented by host induced silencing. HIGS of the fungal chitin synthase gene can generate white mould-tolerant plants. From a biotechnological perspective, these results open new prospects for the development of transgenic plants resistant to necrotrophic fungal pathogens.


This paper is an account of China's brief experiment with constitutional democracy and representative government during the early 20th century, spanning the late Qing Empire and the early Republic. The setting-up in 1909 of elected Provincial Consultative Boards was followed by the establishment in 1910 of the half-elected, half-appointed Advisory Council in Peking. This provided a battleground between the imperial court and the parliamentarians. Events such as the impeachment of the Grand Councillor were unprecedented and provided Chinese society and its elected representatives desperately needed training in modern parliamentary struggle. Councillors disillusioned with Manchu promises of reform became major promoters of the Republican revolution. Yet the early Republican parliament, dominated by radical revolutionaries whose idealism and all-or-nothing moral code rejected all compromise as betrayal, refused to acknowledge President Yuan Shikai's actual strength and denied themselves a chance of arriving at a constitutional settlement with him. Exasperated by radical obstinance and unable to count on support from a strong centrist parliamentary force, Yuan in turn overreacted by dismantling the democratic institutions and installing a Latin American-styled "Super Presidency". Establishmentarian and revolutionary elite loss of faith in moderation or accommodation ultimately pushed China away from democracy and onto a course towards totalitarianism.


Abstract The commercial bushmeat trade threatens numerous species in the forests of West and Central Africa. Hunters shoot and trap animals, which are transported to rural and urban markets for sale. Village-based surveys of hunter offtake and surveys of bushmeat markets have shown that mammals and reptiles are affected most, followed by birds. However, hunters also consume some animals in forest camps and these may have been overlooked in surveys that have focused on bushmeat extracted from the forest. A number of studies have used indirect methods, such as hunter diaries, to quantify this additional offtake but results can be difficult to verify. We examined discarded animal remains at 13 semi-permanent hunting camps in the Ebo Forest, Cameroon, over 272 days. Twenty-one species were identified from 49 carcasses, of which birds constituted 55%, mammals 43% and other taxa 2%. The mammals identified were typical of those recorded in previous bushmeat studies but we recorded several species of birds rarely recorded elsewhere. Offtake of bird species increased with mean body mass. We extrapolated our results to the 34 known hunting camps in the Ebo Forest and estimated that a minimum of 97 birds are hunted annually in a catchment area of c. 479 km2. We conclude that some bird species may be hunted more frequently than previous research suggests and this has important conservation implications for larger-bodied species such as raptors and hornbills.