Abstract. This essay applies feminist theory to a conflict in Lancaster County that led to the founding of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church in 1968. Since women's dress and gender roles were key elements in that division, the Ainlay/Kniss model of conflict needs greater nuancing to account for gender-related themes. To be sure, male and female founding members of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church shared a common cause, but a focus on gender as a category of analysis strongly suggests that men and women were attracted to the church for different reasons. ********** This paper applies a gendered analysis to the conflict that led to the founding of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church in 1968. I rely on archival analysis and oral history interviews with women inside and outside the denomination to argue that women's dress and gender roles were key elements in the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite division from the Lancaster Conference of the (Old) Mennonite Church. Feminist inquiry questions how gender role expectations affect institutions, including the church, and asks how women in particular are affected by divisive issues such as church splits. Examining women's dress as an object of material culture reveals insights about the qualities that the wearer and her culture associate with being female, (1) qualities that may be especially contested during conflict situations. Thus, exploring gender roles, women's dress and the ways these factors influenced the formation of a new Mennonite denomination in the late 1960s constitutes the heart of my investigation. As a case study for the model of conflict outlined by Stephan Ainlay and Fred Kniss in their theoretical paper, my investigation into the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church illustrates both the overall validity of the Ainlay/Kniss model and the need for greater nuancing in our understanding of Mennonites and conflict. While I directly discuss their visual model toward the end of this paper, I suggest that a perspective more sensitive to intragroup differences along gender lines, even within a group that finds itself in general agreement, would more accurately characterize particular conflicts such as this one. Specifically, as I illustrate below, using gender as a category of analysis enables us to examine the ways in which male and female founding members of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church shared common cause, as well as the ways in which men and women were motivated by distinct points of emphasis and discrete goals. IMPORTANCE OF THE CONFLICT The formation of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church out of Lancaster Conference merits our attention for two reasons. First, in 1968 Lancaster Conference was the largest Mennonite body in the world, claiming a membership of 16,005 before the split; this division marked the first major schism in the conference since the formation of the Old Order Mennonite groups some 70 years earlier. (2) The initial exodus from Lancaster Conference in 1968--which included 5 bishops as well as 27 ministers and 469 members from 12 congregations--was comparatively small. But the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church grew rapidly, formally organizing the following year with 1181 members in 27 congregations. (3) In the years following, additional converts from Lancaster Conference as well as from more conservative Mennonite and Amish groups were drawn to the group's evangelical fervor. (4) Today the denomination has tripled its original membership, numbering 3665 adult members in some 60 congregations (5)--and these numbers would be even higher but for the fact that the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church itself has spawned two church splits in its brief history. (6) The rapid growth of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church is in contrast to Lancaster Conference, which has grown more modestly during the same time period--to 19,979, an aggregate growth of 25%. …


Wild ungulates play vital roles in maintaining a balanced ecosystem through herbivory and are also an important determinant of carnivores' density. The flare-horned markhor (Capra falconeri) is a threatened wild goat distributed across the mountain ranges of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. The remote terrain and fragmented population limit our understanding of the population ecology of markhor, though knowledge of the target species population is vital for making informed management decisions. Therefore, the current study was designed to determine the markhor population across their range in Northern Pakistan and to evaluate the efforts made by the government and non-government organizations for the conservation of markhor. Double-observer surveys were conducted during 2019–2021 in nine major watersheds of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan covering an area of 4664 km2. Secondary data were collected for unassessed areas to gain a holistic overview of the markhor population and density in the region. Results revealed a markhor population of 7579, with a density of 0.30 animals per km2 in Northern Pakistan. Our analysis of the double-observer data through the Bayesian behavioral capture–recapture model estimated a population of 5993 individuals (95% CI) of markhor across nine study sites, with a density of 1.28 animals per km2. A review of secondary data revealed that a population of about 1586 was present in the un-surveyed area (20,033.33 km2), with a density of 0.08 per km2. A total of 146 groups of markhor were counted, with a mean group size of 23 (3–58) individuals. There were 109 males and 108 young per 100 females in the population. Among 1936 recorded males, Class I males accounted for 27.74%, followed by Class II (26.45%), Class IV (trophy-size) (23.40%), and Class III (22.42%). The overall detection probability was recorded as 0.87 and 0.68 for the first observer and second observer, respectively. Compared with the past reports, the population of markhor in Northern Pakistan appears to be increasing, particularly in protected areas (PAs) such as national parks and community-controlled hunting areas (CCHAs). Conservation programs, notably trophy hunting and PA networks, appear to be vital in sustaining markhor populations in parts of the species range. We recommend expansion in such programs in the markhor range in order to maintain a viable population of this majestic wild goat in the region.


SUMMARY: The rates of utilization of energy-yielding substrates (glucose and oxygen) by Penicillium chrysogenum in glucose-limited chemostat cultures were resolved into requirements or 'rations' for growth and maintenance. The maintenance ration of glucose was almost all oxidized to carbon dioxide. Over the growth rate range 0.023--0.075 hr-1 only vegetative growth occurred; although the filamentous growth form predominated, the occurrence of pellets and swollen organisms increased with growth rate. At growth rates of 0.014 hr-1 and below, conidiation occurred and was maximal at a specific growth rate of 0.009 hr-1 (average doubling time 78 hr). After growth in chemostat culture the organism could be maintained in a non-growing state by supplying only the maintenance ration of glucose (0.022 g. glucose g. mycelial dry wt/hr). When growth in the chemostat was suddenly stopped by stopping the glucose feed, the mould autolyzed; autolysis was prevented by supplying the maintenance ration of glucose. When the glucose feed rate in chemostat cultures was decreased to the maintenance ration, mycelial differentiation occurred. Differentiation involved increased hyphal vacuolation, a decreased degree of oxidation of glucose, breakdown and resynthesis of nucleic acids and conidiation. The rates at which these changes occurred were inversely related to the growth rate prior to stopping growth. For maximum conidia formation there was an optimal glucose feed rate about 0.038 g. glucose/g. mycelial dry wt/hr, that is 1.7 x maintenance ration. The maintenance ration of glucose was shown to play a role in preventing autolysis and facilitating conidiation. Electron microscope studies showed that there was no change in the observed ultrastructure of cells (except degree of vacuolation) with change in specific growth rate from near the maximum to zero. The septa of the hyphae were found to be plugged.


From 1993 until 1998 a group of Londoners, loosely affiliated to the artworld, would open their post to discover some surprising documents – a crumpled piece of paper; a transcription of the graffiti in the men's toilets at the British Library; an exam paper for failed artists. The anonymous sender was curator Matthew Higgs. His curatorial platform was the A5 envelope; his production studio, the photocopier.

Higgs, now director of White Columns in New York, is an artist, writer and pioneering curator. Having witnessed the phenomenal rise of young British artists in the early 1990s, he contacted those he knew and admired and invited them to make a work for his mail art project, Imprint 93.

Dean Hughes contribution to this project was a work entitled 'The temperature of an envelope'


ZnO nanoparticles were prepared by a chemical solution method using the reaction between Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O and LiOH·H2O in an ethanol solvent. A dialyzing treatment of the resultant chemically impure nanoparticles was introduced in the present work, aiming at increasing their chemical purity in terms of adsorbed species. The progress of dialysis was monitored with electrical conductivity of dialysate. X-ray diffraction analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were employed to check the chemical purity of the ZnO nanoparticles after the dialyzing treatment. Furthermore, the dialyzed ZnO nanoparticles were utilized to fabricate ZnO/SiO2 nanocomposite thin films by a sol−gel method with a dip-coating technique. Stable coating solutions were obtained only with the dialyzed ZnO nanoparticles, which also indicated their chemical purity. The nanocomposite thin films exhibited a unique optical property with antireflection against visible light and photoluminescence under irradiation with ultraviolet light.


Author(s): Wang, Chengcheng | Advisor(s): Markovic, Dejan | Abstract: In the semiconductor industry today, ASICs are able to offer 10x-1000x higher energy and area efficiencies than non-dedicated chips, such as programmable DSP processers, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and microprocessors. Not surprisingly, SoCs today have become an integration of many ASIC blocks, each performing a few dedicated tasks. The growing size of modern SoC chips, accelerated by the increasing demands for functionalities, has exposed the major drawback of ASIC: design cost. These large SoCs are re-designed a few times a year to rectify hardware-bugs and to support new features. Because ASICs are not reconfigurable, even the smallest hardware change would require a re-design. Additionally, design cost is rising exponentially with every technology generation.The rising design cost of ASICs has exposed a huge need today: efficiency and flexibility must co-exist. But among flexible hardware candidates, microprocessors and programmable DSP processors are far too slow to meet the throughput requirements of ASICs. FPGAs do come close in terms of performance, but are extremely inefficient due to its high energy and large area overhead. We must bridge the huge gap in efficiency for FPGA to become a viable contender to ASICs.The primary culprit for FPGA inefficiency is interconnect, which accounts for over 75% of area and delay. For over 20 years, 2D-mesh network has been the back-bone of FPGA interconnects, but full connectivity in a 2D-mesh require O(N2) switches, requiring interconnects to grow much faster than Moore's Law. As a result, various heuristics are used to simplify switch-box arrays at the cost of resource utilization, but interconnect area of modern FPGA is still around 80%. This work builds FPGA using hierarchical interconnects based on Bene networks, requiring O(N∙log∙N) switches. Although Bene is commonly used in telecommunication, this work is its first silicon realization of a FPGA. To realize a highly efficient interconnect architecture, significant pruning of the network is required. Novel techniques such as fast-path U-turns and unbalanced branching are also implemented. A custom place-and-route software is developed to map benchmark designs on a variety of interconnect candidates. From mapping results, the architecture is updated based on network utilization until an optimized design is converged. The large area of FPGA chip requires aggressive power gating (PG), but interconnect signals often lack spatial locality, make it block-level PG difficult. A novel PG circuit technique is developed to power-gate individual interconnect switches with very small overhead in area and performance. Such technique requires fundamental circuit changes, even modifying the CMOS inverter.With innovations in chip architecture, circuit design, and extensive software development, this work has demonstrated 5 user-mappable FPGAs (from 1K-16K LUTs) all with around 50% interconnect area: a 3-4x reduction from commercial FPGAs while preserving connectivity. An energy efficiency of 1.1 GOPS/mW is the highest among reported FPGAs, and is 22x more efficient than the most efficient commercial FPGA today, significantly bridging the efficiency gap between FPGA and ASIC.


An efficient and accessible procedure for the synthesis of 1,4-benzothiazepines was developed. An acid catalyzed reaction of chalcones and 2-aminothiophenol produced 1,4-benzothiazepines in good yields. The synthesized new compounds were characterized by spectral studies and elemental analysis; and were screened in vitro for their antimicrobial potencies against different bacteria and fungi species.


The question asked in this article is why people continue to use foreign currencies even after their economies have stabilized. Survey data for Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia are employed to provide an answer. The results confirm the role of network effects and of remittances. Furthermore, the extent of currency substitution is found to be positively associated with the level of income and education. An important aspect of euroization seems to be age (older people are more likely to hold foreign currencies). In contrast, neither expectations about inflation rates, nor about exchange rates, do seem to affect the degree of euroization in a systematic and predictable way. Trust in the banking system is found to affect the choice between foreign currency cash and foreign currency deposits. Overall, the results support the view that the persistence in the use of foreign currencies is driven to a large extent by factors that are related to the past.


One of the serious problems facing South Africa is that of the provision of adequate low-cost housing for its people. According to Statistics South Africa (2009), 56% of South Africans lived in fully-owned formal dwellings in 2009. Not only does it seem impossible to work away the backlogs, but problems with the standard of construction, location and continuing urbanisation adds to the challenge. International commitments such as the UN's Millennium Goals put further pressure on government to permanently resolve the issue. Adequate housing is recognised globally as a basic human right. This includes access to running water and sanitation and a safe environment. This study does not aim to investigate, in any way, construction techniques, specific choices of location or other planning-related issues. However, it does try to find a more successful approach to the challenge of the provision of housing given the already stated challenges, combined with, amongst others, the provision of the necessary financing and relevant political processes. The provision of low-cost housing is a wicked problem. This means that it has certain characteristics, including being unique in character and can never be fully resolved. However, within futures studies, systems theory is recognised as one of the more successful ways to address wicked problems. By investigating low-cost housing programmes in Brazil, Argentina and Peru and identifying the elements of systems theory used, it was possible to find pointers to help formulate a set of steps (or actions) to use to address South Africa's low-cost housing challenge. This research report proposes that, while the challenge of housing provision in a country like South Africa will most probably always be present, it can be alleviated by applying systems thinking to the problem.


The Solent European Marine Sites contain many tiers of habitat and species conservation, but also high levels of bait collection. Effective management strategies must be founded on up-to-date and locally based information from relevant studies of the impacts; these have been lacking for the collection of Nereis virens, a key bait species. The impacts on macrofauna were assessed through two approaches; (a) undug and dug sites in the Solent were compared over two years of repeat sampling; and (b) monitoring the long-term effects of simulated bait collection at an undug site through five years of yearly sampling. Dug sites had significantly higher densities of N. virens, but the mean weight was found to be significantly lower than those collected from the undug sites, but percentage maturity was not different. Organic content and sediment particle sizes differed between sites, and only the presence of gravel had a significant positive correlation with density. No clear patterns of other macrofauna species present were evident, although there was a significantly lower density of the terebellid polychaete Neoamphitrite figulus at the dug sites. Simulated bait collection did not alter overall macrofauna diversity, but certain species were affected. Abundance of N. figulus and the commensal Harmothoë glabra remained consistently lower in the dug area, whilst Cerastoderma edule numbers were reduced initially, but recovered. Numbers of Nephtys hombergii declined in both areas, but at a significantly greater rate in the dug area. A general decline in the abundance of many species, irrespective of digging, occurred over the period. The importance of these changes in Nereis virens populations and in the macrofauna community needs to be investigated prior to any management decisions on collection.


In insulin deficiency, release of FFA from adipose tissue and increased mobilization of lipids to the liver are followed by excessive ketone body production and a reduction in the incorporation of C-14 from labeled acetate into fatty acids. These changes in liver metabolism may not be related to insulin lack per se, but rather due to a direct effect of an accumulation of lipids or acyl-CoA esters in the tissue. The effect of lipid mobilization was investigated using dichloroisoproterenol (DCI), an adrenergic blocking agent, which has been shown to raise the plasma FFA level in anesthetized dogs with no significant effect on the blood sugar and no apparent effect on plasma insulin levels. In vitro studies have shown that DCI does stimulate FFA release from adipose tissue of the rat or the dog, at a concentration of 10-5 molar, but will block the release normally produced by catecholamines if the concentration of DCI is 10-3 molar. The rapid and sustained elevation of plasma FFA level obtained in the rat following I.P. injection of DCI (50 mg./kg.) over six hours led to an increase in total liver lipids by about 15 mg./gm. liver weight, a 50 per cent increase in ketone production by liver slices and a rise in blood ketone level. Fatty acid synthesis from 2-C-14 sodium acetate was reduced to 25 per cent of the control. An injection of insulin given to the DCI-treated rats one hour before sacrifice, and sufficient to produce hypo-glycemia, reduced the plasma FFA level to normal, but did not influence incorporation of labeled acetate into fatty acids by the liver slices, or the blood ketone level. The results suggest that mobilization of lipids is sufficient to produce changes in liver metabolism similar to those occurring in acute insulin deficiency.


The work presents a system which uses a commercial spreadsheet program and commercial hardware on an IBM PC to develop and test a track finding system for the D Zero Level 1 scintillating fiber trigger. The trigger system resides in a VME crate. This system allows the user to generate test input, write the pattern to the hardware, simulate the results in software, read the hardware result, compare the results and inform the user of any differences.


Objective To determine whether the quality of press releases issued by medical journals can influence the quality of associated newspaper stories. Design Retrospective cohort study of medical journal press releases and associated news stories. Setting We reviewed consecutive issues (going backwards from January 2009) of five major medical journals (Annals of Internal Medicine, BMJ, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, JAMA, and New England Journal of Medicine) to identify the first 100 original research articles with quantifiable outcomes and that had generated any newspaper coverage (unique stories ≥100 words long). We identified 759 associated newspaper stories using Lexis Nexis and Factiva searches, and 68 journal press releases using Eurekalert and journal website searches. Two independent research assistants assessed the quality of journal articles, press releases, and a stratified random sample of associated newspaper stories (n=343) by using a structured coding scheme for the presence of specific quality measures: basic study facts, quantification of the main result, harms, and limitations. Main outcome Proportion of newspaper stories with specific quality measures (adjusted for whether the quality measure was present in the journal article's abstract or editor note). Results We recorded a median of three newspaper stories per journal article (range 1-72). Of 343 stories analysed, 71% reported on articles for which medical journals had issued press releases. 9% of stories quantified the main result with absolute risks when this information was not in the press release, 53% did so when it was in the press release (relative risk 6.0, 95% confidence interval 2.3 to 15.4), and 20% when no press release was issued (2.2, 0.83 to 6.1). 133 (39%) stories reported on research describing beneficial interventions. 24% mentioned harms (or specifically declared no harms) when harms were not mentioned in the press release, 68% when mentioned in the press release (2.8, 1.1 to 7.4), and 36% when no press release was issued (1.5, 0.49 to 4.4). 256 (75%) stories reported on research with important limitations. 16% reported any limitations when limitations were not mentioned in the press release, 48% when mentioned in the press release (3.0, 1.5 to 6.2), and 21% if no press release was issued (1.3, 0.50 to 3.6). Conclusion High quality press releases issued by medical journals seem to make the quality of associated newspaper stories better, whereas low quality press releases might make them worse.


Intuition suggests that a salesperson should not refer consumers to a competitor for products that they both sell. However, myriad examples reveal salespeople doing just that. The authors study specialist competitor referrals, a sales strategy by which one increases consumers' purchase likelihood of a focal product (e.g., a painting at an art gallery) by (1) referring consumers to a competitor (e.g., a frame warehouse store) that offers a nonfocal product (e.g., a frame) at a lower price, while (2) stating that the stores differ in their specializations (i.e., the stores concentrate their efforts on different goods). Using a study and survey with salespeople, experimental studies, an incentivized negotiation experiment, and a field study, the authors show that specialist competitor referrals can indeed benefit sellers. Specifically, they build on equity theory to show that specialist competitor referrals increase focal product sales by reducing consumers' perceived overpayment risk for the focal product via increasing perceived equity in the exchange. The authors also show that competitor referrals for nonfocal products that do not justify the price difference on the nonfocal product are ineffective.


Future active distribution networks appear as a solution to the energy distribution challenges. In this context, dc systems show potential for reducing losses and electronic equipment costs. Power electronics is the main enabler to this initiative and strong research efforts are ongoing in order to find solutions and evaluate the benefits and requirements for the power converters to be applied in dc systems. There is evidence that bipolar dc networks are advantageous due to higher reliability and increased power transmission capability. In such a network, currents are typically unbalanced and, thus, increase feeder losses. Another challenge in dc active distribution networks is the overall voltage stability due to the presence of distributed energy resources and loads with their power electronics interfaces. This study proposes a power converter and its control principles, which is able to balance the currents in a bipolar dc network and improve its stability. Its operation principles, control-oriented modeling, and laboratory implementation are presented and verified through experiments.


Cardiac fibroblasts reportedly play a role in normal heart function and are responsible for adverse remodeling after heart injury. Although fibroblast activities can be detrimental during disease, a basal level of cardiac fibroblast activity is required to maintain structural integrity and prevent rupture. We use transgenic mouse models to demonstrate that reduced fibroblasts numbers have serious consequences during pathological stress. At baseline, we observe a dramatic loss of the cardiac fibroblast lineage, which results in vasculature alterations, such as capillary dilation and decreased capillary density. Baseline changes in basement membrane (laminin) and cardiomyocyte structure have also been identified in fibroblast deficient hearts. These phenotypic changes become exacerbated after surgery indicating that fibroblasts are necessary for crosstalk between other cell types in the heart. In addition, we predict that the loss of fibroblasts will cause enhanced deterioration in cardiac function after injury due to reduced structural integrity of the heart. We will use transverse aortic constriction (TAC) as a pressure-overload model. After 5 weeks of TAC, we observe a ~50% (Baseline 71.99±6.06, TAC5wks 22.09±1.89) decrease in ejection fraction in fibroblast deficient hearts compared to a ~16% (Baseline 76.21±7.08, TAC5wks 59.59) decrease in control hearts. Our data suggest that a specific level of cardiac fibroblast activity is required to maintain normal heart function. Our goal is to identify both deleterious and beneficial roles of fibroblasts in the response of the heart to the types of pathological stress commonly encountered in patients.


Blood serum was examined in 41 patients (operated for various forms of acute appendicitis) on the 5th--6th day after the operation when 10 of the patients developed purulent complications of staphylococcal etiology. A determination was made of the titres of beta-lysins and the bacteriostatic activity against 2 strains of S. aureus by the modified Ehrenkranz et al method. The mentioned indices were low in the great majority of cases; consequently, the appearance of purulent complications in the operated patients was independent of the antistaphylococcal bacteriostatic activity and the beta-lysin titres in their sera. Prophylactic express-immunization of a number of patients by crude staphylococcus toxoid did not influence the nonspecific humoral immunity factors.


PURPOSE
Musician's dystonia (MD) is a task-specific movement disorder related to extensive expert music performance training. Similar to other forms of focal dystonia, MD involves sensory deficits and abnormal patterns of sensorimotor integration. The present study investigated the impaired cortical sensorimotor network of pianists who suffer from MD by employing altered auditory and tactile feedback during scale playing with multichannel EEG.

METHODS
9 healthy professional pianists and 9 professional pianists suffering from right hand MD participated in an experiment that required repeated scale playing on a MIDI piano under altered sensory feedback while EEG was measured.

RESULTS
The comparison of EEG data in healthy pianists and pianists suffering from MD revealed a higher degree of inter-regional phase synchronisation between the frontal and parietal regions and between the temporal and central regions in the patient group and in conditions that are relevant to the long-trained auditory-motor coupling (normal auditory feedback and complete deprivation of auditory feedback), but such abnormalities decreased in conditions with delayed auditory feedback and altered tactile feedback.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings support the hypothesis that the impaired sensorimotor integration of MD patients is specific to the type of overtrained task that the patients were trained for and can be modified with altered sensory feedback.


Book synopsis: Contemporary Action Theory, Volume I (Individual Action) is concerned with topics in philosophical action theory such as reasons and causes of action, intentions, freedom of will and of action, omissions and norms in legal and ethical contexts, as well as activity, passivity and competence from medical points of view. Cognitive trying, freedom of the will and agent causation are challenges in the discussion on computers in action. The Volume consists of contributions by leading experts in the field written specifically for this volume. No comparable volume currently exists.


Matthew FraserToronto: Key Porter, 2003. 288pp, $32.95 cloth (ISBN 1-55263-250-4)"If the United States abolished its diplomatic and consular services, kept its ships in harbour and its tourists at home, and retired from the world's markets, its citizens, its problems, its towns and countryside, its roads, motor cars, country houses and saloons would still be familiar in the uttermost corners of the world...The film is to America what the flag was once to Britain. By its means, Uncle Sam may hope some day, if he be not checked in time, to Americanize the world" (p. 44). That striking prediction was made by London's Morning Post as long ago as 1923, and Matthew Fraser, editor in chief of the National Post, believes it has something to tell us about our world today.Fraser's central thesis is that while US military and economic power is indispensable to America's superpower status, "soft power historically has been a key strategic resource in U.S. foreign policy" (p. 9). Quoting this reviewer, he defines soft power as "the ability to achieve desired outcomes in international affairs through attraction rather than coercion" (p. 18). He argues that "no empire--Greek, Roman, French, Ottoman, British--has been indifferent to the effects of its soft power resources" and that remains true for contemporary America (p. 13).The book is divided into four main parts that deal with movies, television, pop music, and fast food that he characterizes as America's soft power arsenal of "awesome weapons of mass distraction." I found these chapters extremely informative, full of interesting history and observations. As someone who has written on American soft power, I was impressed by the extent of his research and the amount of new material that he has uncovered. I was particularly impressed by his history of film, both in Hollywood and its competitors like Hong Kong and India's Bollywood. He describes the interaction between Washington and Hollywood well, and illustrates the way the two have used each other over the years.Fraser refutes the simplistic view that the spread of American popular culture is leading to homogenization on a centre-periphery model. He recounts how early prophecies that television would lead to a central global network were misleading, and have been replaced by local controls despite the popularity of some American shows. In fact, the United States has proven to be less dominant in television than in cinema. In the popular music industry, four of the five major companies are controlled outside the United States, and MTV in the 1990s had to decentralize into regional and country units to keep up with its competition. The formula remained the same, but the content varies. He might have added that in the popular new genre of "reality" television shows, the formula originated in Europe and was imported to the United States. And in the matter of fast food, from the French ban on Coca Cola after World War II to Jose Bove's sophisticated political manipulation of MacDonald's in the 1990s, Fraser shows that much of the political agenda related to French domestic politics rather than global issues. He also illustrates how MacDonald's replied by adopting local menus and adapting to local politics.I am less convinced by Fraser's discussion of empire. …


Populations of resource generalists are often made up of individuals specializing on a narrower range of resources; such individual specialization can have important ecological and evolutionary significance. We quantified individual diet variation in Octopus vulgaris, the common octopus, at 3 locations around San Salvador, Bahamas, using repeated collections of midden contents. We quantified the degree of individual specialization using the proportional similarity index and individual diet breadth using the Berger-Parker index of dominance and the number of prey types per den. As in other populations, the San Salvador O. vulgaris population has a broad diet, consuming at least 49 prey types; however, most individuals (59%) had significantly specialized diets. The amount of specialization varied significantly among locations. At one location, all octopuses were generalists and consumed relatively uniform proportions of prey types (lower dominance) compared to the other 2 locations, where about 70% of individuals were specialists with diets dominated by 1 or a few prey types. Individual specialization has been documented in numerous species but mostly vertebrates; this is only the second quantified example from the cephalopods.


Soymida febrifuga (Roxb.) A. Juss., (Meliaceae) an indigenous lofty deciduous tree, endemic to India, has extensive pharmacological activity. Continuous destruction of plants due to environmental and geopolitical instability has posed a major threat to endemic tree species. In vitro propagation techniques are also problematic due to high incidence of shoot tip necrosis (STN). The effect of various culture conditions on regeneration and STN of Soymida febrifuga were investigated. Nodal segments from field grown plants were used as explants and cultured on MS supplemented with different concentrations of BA, KN, NAA and IAA. The synergistic effect of BA (2 mg/l) and NAA (0.2 mg/l) induced a mean of 6.3 ± 0.09 shoots from the nodal explants with a frequency of 80.4%. Frequent subculturing of nodal explants from in vitro derived shoots increases the number of multiple shoots, but the regenerated shoots exhibited the symptoms of STN. Various factors such as strength of the media, different carbon sources activated charcoal and different calcium sources have been investigated for reducing the incidence of shoot necrosis. STN can easily be recovered by increasing the levels of calcium. Transfer of shoots showing early signs of necrosis to half strength MS supplemented with CN (556 mg/l), CP (1.0 mg/l), AC (20 mg/l) and fructose (100 mg/l) facilitated recovery of more than 98% of the shoots. Rooted plantlets produced, using the optimized protocol, were acclimatized successfully. Key words: Soymida febrifuga , Shoot regeneration, Shoot tip necrosis D.O.I. 10.3329/ptcb.v21i1.9559 Plant Tissue Cult. & Biotech. 21 (1): 11-25, 2011 (June)


This paper reports a novel technology of microfabricating out-of-plane parylene microtube arrays with integrated in-plane microchannels. The integrated microchannels enable the individual addressing of the microtubes. These devices permit the delivery of chemicals with controlled temporal and spatial patterns and facilitate the study of neurotransmitter-based retinal prosthesis. To fabricate these devices, through-silicon vias and horizontal trenches are first created by deep reactive-ion etching and isotropic XeF2 etching. Then, the parylene microtubes and microchannels are simultaneously formed by depositing parylene inside the vias and trenches conformally. Two types of devices have been fabricated and characterized. One type of device is rigid with microtube arrays and microchannels fabricated on the same chip. The other type is flexible, integrated with flexible parylene cables, which can be used for in vivo animal study of retinal prosthesis.


We measured the zero-field cooled magnetization, MZPC of a frozen magnetic liquid with amorphous Fe1-xCx particles. MZFC has a maximum at Tp approximately=20 K, which is interpreted as due to blocking of superparamagnetic relaxation in single particles. The maximum shifts towards higher temperatures with increasing measuring field. The shift is explained by the nonlinear field dependence of the magnetization of particles with a size distribution. At temperatures below Tp the magnetic particles have a coercivity and remanence in good agreement with those expected for an ensemble of non-interacting uniaxial particles with a random distribution of easy axes.


fcType Tsutomu A case of systemic capillary leak syndrome in a 67-year-old womanis reported. The patient suddenly presented with severe edema and hypotension associated with an increased hematocrit and a decreased level of serum albumin, suggesting capillary hyperpermeability. The patient had IgG k monoclonal gammopathy in association with not only a slight increase in plasma cells in the bone marrowbut also several punched out lesions in the skull, indicating multiple myeloma. Although most of the cases of systemic capillary leak syndrome reported previously were accompanied by monoclonal gammopathy, this appears to be the first case in which capillary leak syndrome developed in a patient with multiple myeloma. (Internal Medicine 34: 1220-1224, 1995)


This dissertation explores the extent to which Persian policies in the western satrapies originated from the provincial capitals in the Anatolian periphery rather than from the royal centers in the Persian heartland in the fifth century BC. I begin by establishing that the Persian administrative apparatus was a product of a grand reform initiated by Darius I, which was aimed at producing a more uniform and centralized administrative infrastructure. In the following chapter I show that the provincial administration was embedded with chancellors, scribes, secretaries and military personnel of royal status and that the satrapies were periodically inspected by the Persian King or his loyal agents, which allowed to central authorities to monitory the provinces. In chapter three I delineate the extent of satrapal authority, responsibility and resources, and conclude that the satraps were supplied with considerable resources which enabled to fulfill the duties of their office. After the power dynamic between the Great Persian King and his provincial governors and the nature of the office of satrap has been analyzed, I begin a diachronic scrutiny of Greco-Persian interactions in the fifth century BC. Chapter four centers on a particular challenge the Persians faced in western Anatolia. On the one hand, the Persian conquest of Ionia in the middle of the sixth century BC triggered a gradual increase in the willingness of mainland Greeks to intervene in the affairs of Asia Minor, while on the other, Xerxes' failure to subjugate European Greece resulted in a dramatic shift from a policy of westward expansion to a policy of entrenchment. The focus of chapter five is the limited interest of Artaxerxes I (r. 465-423 BC) in respect to the western satrapies. The last chapter deals with the machinations of the satraps Tissaphernes, Pharnabazus and Cyrus the Younger. I show that the alliance between Persia and Sparta was the outcome of satrapal action rather than royal initiative or intent. Accordingly, the satraps sought to exploit the power struggle between Athens and Sparta for their own favor while King Darius played a relatively secondary role in this conflict. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Classical Studies First Advisor Jeremy J. McInerney


Background: Operating rooms are the core of hospitals. They are a primary source of revenue and are often seen as one of the bottlenecks in the medical system. Many efforts are made to increase throughput, reduce costs, and maximize incomes, as well as optimize clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction. We trained a predictive model on the length of surgeries to improve the productivity and utility of operative rooms in general hospitals. Methods: We collected clinical and administrative data for the last 10 years from two large general public hospitals in Israel. We trained a machine learning model to give the expected length of surgery using pre-operative data. These data included diagnoses, laboratory tests, risk factors, demographics, procedures, anesthesia type, and the main surgeon's level of experience. We compared our model to a naïve model that represented current practice. Findings: Our prediction model achieved better performance than the naïve model and explained almost 70% of the variance in surgery durations. Interpretation: A machine learning-based model can be a useful approach for increasing operating room utilization. Among the most important factors were the type of procedures and the main surgeon's level of experience. The model enables the harmonizing of hospital productivity through wise scheduling and matching suitable teams for a variety of clinical procedures for the benefit of the individual patient and the system as a whole.


The article by Lorenz et al. on the effects of adding milk on the protective effects of tea is interesting, but results may not translate into clinical benefits. This was a small sample that lacked statistical power and failed to take into account the dietary habits of the participants. Even when milk was not added to tea, participants may have consumed diary …


BACKGROUND: Clamping and cutting of the umbilical cord is the most prevalent of all operations, but the optimal timing of cord clamping is controversial, with different timings offering advantages and disadvantages. This study, for the first time, compares the influence of early and late cord clamping in correlation with oxidative stress and inflammation signaling, Because cord clamping timing may have a significant influence on placenta-to-infant blood transfer, thereby modifying oxygenation of maternal and fetal tissues, and on the transfer of inflammatory mediators throughout the placenta. METHODS: Sixty-four pregnant subjects were selected at the Gynecology and Obstetrics Services Department of the Clinico San Cecilio Hospital, Granada, Spain, based on disease-free women who experienced a normal course of pregnancy and a spontaneous, vaginal, single delivery. Half of the subjects had deliveries with early-clamped newborn infants (at 10 s), and the other half had late-clamped deliveries (at 2 min). RESULTS: Erythrocyte catalase activity was significantly greater in the late-clamped group than in the early-clamped group (P < .01 for the umbilical vein and P < .001 for the artery). The values for superoxide dismutase, total antioxidant status, and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor II were all significantly higher in the late-clamped group compared with the early-clamped group (P < .01, P < .001, and P < .001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest a beneficial effect of late cord clamping, produced by an increase in antioxidant capacity and moderation of the inflammatory-mediated effects induced during delivery of term neonates.


Abstract Migration is an important reality for many sub-national autonomous territories where traditional-historical groups (so-called 'old minorities') live such as Flanders, Catalonia, South Tyrol, Scotland, Basque Country, and Quebec. Some of these territories have attracted migrants for decades, while others have only recently experienced significant migration inflow. The presence of old minorities brings complexities to the management of migration issues. Indeed, it is acknowledged that the relationship between 'old' communities and the 'new' minority groups originating from migration (so-called 'new minorities') can be rather complicated. On the one hand, interests and needs of historical groups can be in contrast with those of the migrant population. On the other hand, the presence of new minorities can interfere with the relationship between the old minorities and the majority groups at the state level and also with the relationship between old minorities and the central state as well as with the policies enacted to protect the diversity of traditional groups and the way old minorities understand and define themselves. The present lecture analyses whether it is possible to reconcile the claims of historical minorities and of new groups originating from migration and whether policies that accommodate traditional minorities and migrants are allies in the pursuit of a pluralist and tolerant society.


Objective
To explore family physicians' attitudes, previous experience and self-assessed preparedness to respond or to assist in mass casualty incidents in Croatia.

Methods
The cross-sectional survey was carried out during January 2017. Study participants were recruited through a Facebook group that brings together family physicians from Croatia. They were asked to complete the questionnaire, which was distributed via google.docs. Knowledge and attitudes toward disaster preparedness were evaluated by 18 questions. Analysis of variance, Student t test and Kruskal-Wallis test t were used for statistical analysis.

Results
Risk awareness of disasters was high among respondents (M = 4.89, SD=0.450). Only 16.4 of respondents have participated in the management of disaster at the scene. The majority (73.8%) of physicians have not been participating in any educational activity dealing with disaster over the past two years. Family physicians believed they are not well prepared to participate in national (M = 3.02, SD=0.856) and local community emergency response system for disaster (M = 3.16, SD=1.119). Male physicians scored higher preparedness to participate in national emergency response system for disaster (p=0.012), to carry out accepted triage principles used in the disaster situation (p=0.003) and recognize differences in health assessments indicating potential exposure to specific agents (p=0,001) compared to their female colleagues.

Conclusion
Croatian primary healthcare system attracts many young physicians, who can be an important part of disaster and emergency management. However, the lack of experience despite a high motivation indicates a need for inclusion of disaster medicine training during undergraduate studies and annual educational activities.


While motivation for physical activity (PA) and PA participation have been linked, research on the relationship between motivation for PA and mental health outcomes is scant, with studies involving children largely underrepresented. Grounded in self-determination theory, this cross-sectional study aimed to determine whether autonomous motivation versus external motivation (a form of controlled motivation) for PA is associated with fewer emotional and behavioural difficulties and higher levels of PA in children. A sample of 87 children (aged 8–12 years) were recruited from five primary schools in Victoria, Australia. An adapted version of the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ) was used to measure motivation for PA and structured parent-report questions were used to assess moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) levels. Parents also completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to measure children's emotional and behavioural difficulties. Children's autonomous motivation was associated with fewer emotional and behavioural difficulties (β = −0.25, p = 0.038) and higher levels of MVPA (β = 0.24, p = 0.014). These results indicate autonomous motivation is associated with improved mental health outcomes and higher levels of PA in children. Thus, PA interventions that promote autonomous motivation may enhance children's mental health compared to interventions that promote mainly controlled forms of motivation.


Now a days, in industrial, commercial and domestic world, automation assumes an essential part. It is really a planning of various components so as to control, sense, regulate and instruct itself to accomplish a wanted result. This study purposely designed to develop a smart multiple sensor based fire fighting robot in our everyday life. So, a smart autonomous fire detector which deflects obstacle on pathway will be created with an extinguisher and some other important elements which controlled by a microcontroller. The system is cost effective has an extensive use. It can present effectively and good outcome during execution. It can be utilized purposely in commercial, domestic sectors and industrial uses which the condition of automatic job needed. If any fire detected, it will extinguish the fire using a water pump that gives to it. This system also able to avoid obstacles on its pathway by changing its direction of movement. This method is possible with the use of ultrasonic sensors. After extinguishing the fire it will move back to find another any presence of fire. It voluntarily senses and extinguishes fire without human guidance. This is mean to simulate the actual world process of robot executing a fire extinguishing task.


Abstract. We examine upcoming geostationary satellite observations of formaldehyde (HCHO) vertical column densities (VCDs) in East Asia and the retrieval sensitivity to the temporal variation of air mass factors (AMFs) considering the presence of aerosols. Observation system simulation experiments (OSSE) were conducted using a combination of a global 3-D chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem), a radiative transfer model (VLIDORT), and a HCHO retrieval algorithm developed for the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS), which will be launched in 2019. Application of the retrieval algorithm to simulated hourly radiances yields the retrieved HCHO VCDs, which are then compared with the GEOS-Chem HCHO VCDs as true values for the evaluation of the retrieval algorithm. In order to examine the retrieval sensitivity to the temporal variation of AMF, we examine three AMF specifications, AMFm, AMFh, and AMFmh, using monthly, hourly, and monthly mean hourly input data for their calculation, respectively. We compare the retrieved HCHO VCDs using those three AMFs and find that the HCHO VCDs with AMFh are in better agreement with the true values than the results using AMFmh and AMFm. AMFmh reflects diurnal variation of planetary boundary layer and other meteorological parameters, so that the results with AMFmh show a better performance than those with AMFm. The differences between AMFh and AMFm range from −0.76 to 0.74 in absolute value and are mainly caused by temporal changes in aerosol chemical compositions and aerosol vertical distributions, which result in −27 to 58 and −34 to 43 % changes in HCHO VCDs over China, respectively, compared to HCHO VCDs using AMFm. We apply our calculated AMF table together with OMI aerosol optical properties to OMI HCHO products in March 2006, when Asian dust storms occurred, and find −32 to 47 % changes in the retrieved HCHO columns due to temporal changes in aerosol optical properties in East Asia. The impact of aerosol temporal variability cannot be neglected for future geostationary observations.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Purpose: To demonstrate any transient short-term effect of a particular type of breathing exercise (alternate nostril breathing of Nadi Shuddhi type of pranayama exercise) on the intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucomatous as well as healthy eyes. Methods: A prospective, nonrandomized, observational, cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary eyecare hospital setup recruiting 3 groups of subjects—glaucoma group and a normal group that underwent the breathing exercise as well as a normal group that did not. IOP was recorded at baseline, then at 4 minutes after 10 cycles of the breathing exercise and also after 10 minutes of rest—corresponding to IOPb, IOPc, and IOPr of all the study groups. Only those subjects were recruited who were above 18 and under 80 years and were naive to breathing exercise. Results: A total of 56 normal eyes (28 subjects, Normalb) and 33 glaucomatous eyes (19 subjects) were recruited for the breathing exercise and were compared with the IOP as obtained for 26 eyes of 26 subjects that did not undergo the breathing exercise (Normalnb). IOPb did not differ between both normal groups (13.7±1.4 mm Hg in Normalb vs. 13.9±1.6 mm Hg in Normalnb, P=0.183) but was significantly different between groups (16.7±3.1 mm Hg in the glaucoma group and 13.7±1.4 in Normalb, P<0.001 and Normalnb 13.9±1.6 mm Hg, P<0.001) but analysis of variance was not significant within groups comparing IOPb, IOPc, and IOPr of all the study groups. Conclusion: There is no short-term transient effect of alternate nostril breathing exercise on IOP; a longitudinal study is recommended.


The United States continues to be the largest corn producer in the world. How to maximize corn yield and at the same time reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is becoming a challenging effort for growers and researchers. As a result, our understanding of the responses of soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes to agricultural practices in cornfields is still limited. We conducted a 3-yr cornfield experiment to study the responses of soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes to various agricultural practices in middle Tennessee. The agricultural practices included no-tillage + regular applications of urea ammonium nitrate (NT-URAN); no-tillage + regular applications of URAN + denitrification inhibitor (NT-inhi- bitor); no-tillage + regular applications of URAN + biochar (NT-biochar); no-tillage + 20% applications of URAN + chicken litter (NT-litter); no-tillage + split applications of URAN (NT-split); and conventional tillage + regular applications of URAN as a control (CT-URAN). A randomized complete block design was used with six replications. The same amount of fertilizer equivalent to 217 kg·N·ha-1 was applied to all of the experimental plots. The results showed that improved fertilizer and soil management, except the NT-biochar treatment significantly increased soil CO2 flux as compared to the conventional tillage (CT-URAN, 487.05 mg CO2 m-2·h-1). Soil CO2 flux increased exponentially with soil temperature (T 2 flux tended to be positively related to corn yield and/or soil moisture. Soil CH4 flux increased linearly with soil moisture in all treatments. Improved fertilizer and soil management did not alter soil CH4 flux, but significantly affected its moisture sensitivity. Our results indicated that agricultural practices enhancing corn yield may also result in a net increase in carbon emissions from soil, hence reducing the potential of carbon sequestration in croplands.


Abstract. The biogeochemical evaluation toolkit, BGC-val, is a model- and
grid-independent Python toolkit that has been built to evaluate marine
biogeochemical models using a simple interface. Here, we present the ideas
that motivated the development of the BGC-val software framework, introduce
the code structure, and show some applications of the toolkit using model
results from the Fifth Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). A brief
outline of how to access and install the repository is presented in
Appendix A, but the specific details on how to use the
toolkit are kept in the code repository. The key ideas that directed the toolkit design were model and grid
independence, front-loading analysis functions and regional masking,
interruptibility, and ease of use. We present each of these goals, why they
were important, and what we did to address them. We also present an outline of
the code structure of the toolkit illustrated with example plots produced by
the toolkit. After describing BGC-val, we use the toolkit to investigate the performance
of the marine physical and biogeochemical quantities of the CMIP5 models and
highlight some predictions about the future state of the marine ecosystem
under a business-as-usual CO2 concentration scenario (RCP8.5).


The new lithostratigraphic map of the entire Slovenia (in the scale of 1:250000) created by using the GIS method enabled the production of its derivative – engineering geological map (EG map). The goal of creating this map was to define the general engineering geological characteristics of rocks and soils that will be used for the general review of engineering geological conditions in Slovenia. The map also enables the planing of general interventions in Slovenia. The EG map was created by using the GIS method for merging the lithology units of Slovenia according to EG characteristics on three levels. The first one is the basic separation into soils, soft rocks and rocks. The second level is a more detailed separation on the basis of their origin and the third one on the basis of the composition, rock strength and particle size ranges. The first basic GIS layer determined the EG units merged with the database, giving the spatial and description data for each unit. The basic data for each unit was stored in the GIS-database (serial number, the connection to the lithology unit, the name, short description, comprehensive description, the occurrence in Slovenia). The EG units were also stored in the database (the description of EG units, geotechnical characteristics, the foundation conditions, seismic characteristics). The map was further detailed by the creation of informational layers derived from the map. In this manner the map of rock strength, the map of possible land sliding, the map of weathering cover thickness estimation and the erosion map were produced. The GIS modelling method was used for the creation of these maps. For example, the map of possible land sliding was created regarding these informational layers: lithology structure, the thickness of weathering cover, the slope inclination and the hydrogeological conditions.


Before I started to read this book, I searched for the authors' definition of user experience (UX). To my surprise, I did not find one. Of course, I may have missed it; however, if it is really missing then this is definitely a weak aspect of the book. The reason I started with this search is because many people have issues with UX, usability, and related concepts. These terms are often used without scoping or defining them, which diminishes the value of work conducted in this field.

For the purposes of this review, I will adopt the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9241-210 definition of UX: "A person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system, or service" (http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=52075). This comes quite close to the book's definition of user research: "the systematic study of the goals, needs, and capabilities of users so as to specify design, construction, or improvement of tools to benefit how users work and live" (p. 9). However, although related, these definitions do differ. The definition of user research includes the definition of UX. This makes for an odd start to the book. Fortunately, some resources available online provide more information on the ins and outs of UX [1,2,3]. These sources can help readers get a solid footing for reading this book.

Many books have already been published on UX, some even by the same publisher [4,5,6]. Where Buxton's book [4] emphasizes the qualitative aspects of UX, Tullis and Albert [5] and Goodman et al. [6] focus on quantitative aspects of UX, as this book does. However, they focus on data acquisition and not on data analysis, which is the prime focus here. This is what makes this book valuable for both students and practitioners. Both these categories of readers can also benefit from a complementary book by the same authors [7]. This book provides more hands-on computing practice, examples, and exercises to give readers a jump-start on quantifying UX.

The book takes a pragmatic and realistic--hence, the best possible--approach. In chapter 1, the authors provide four decision trees that help the practitioner or student choose the right chapter to start with (and skip the others). As such, it provides even pointers up to section level for the methods denoted in the decision trees. So, there are no more excuses for making a mistake when choosing your design of quantitative analysis. Having said this, it should be noted that the book provides an overview of rather basic statistical analysis and does not touch advanced statistical analysis (for example, mixed models and structural equation models). As such, the book provides room for follow-up books to continue where it leaves off.

Without going into too much depth, I can say that the authors provide the basic mathematics underlying their analysis. For those that lack the fundamentals of statistics, the authors provide an appendix with a nutshell overview. Reading this book requires high-school-level mathematics, nothing more, which makes the book accessible to a very wide audience. On the other hand, those already in the field can use it as a refresher. Moreover, each chapter takes a historical stance, providing sufficient explanations and a decent list of references.

I will admit that I had a false start with this book. I noticed its weak spot--perhaps its only one--from the beginning. However, taken as a whole, it provides a pragmatic approach to quantifying UX, without oversimplifying or claiming too much. It delivers what it promises. As such, this book is valuable for both practitioners and students, in virtually any discipline. It can help psychologists transfer their statistical knowledge to UX practice, it can help practitioners quickly assess their envisioned design and analysis, it can help engineers demystify UX, and it can help students appreciate UX's merits.

1) Hassenzahl, M.; Tractinsky, N. User experience -- a research agenda. Behaviour and Information Technology 25, 2(2006), 91–97.
2) Law, E. L.-C.; Roto, V.; Hassenzahl, M.; Vermeeren, A. P. O. S.; Kort, J. Understanding, scoping and defining user experience: a survey approach. In Proc. of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Boston, MA, ), ACM, 2009, 719–728.
3) Hassenzahl, M. User experience and experience design. In The encyclopedia of human-computer interaction (2nd ed.). Interaction Design Foundation, 2013.
4) Buxton, B. Sketching user experiences: getting the design right and the right design. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA, 2007.
5) Tullis, T.; Albert, B. Measuring the user experience: collecting, analyzing, and presenting usability metrics. Morgan Kaufmann, Burlington, MA, 2008.
6) Goodman, E.; Kuniavsky, M.; Moed, M. Observing the user experience: a practitioner's guide to user research (2nd ed.). Morgan Kaufmann, Waltham, MA, 2012.
7) Lewis, J. R.; Sauro, J. Excel and R companion to: Quantifying the user experience: practical statistics for user research: rapid answers to over 100 examples and exercises. Create Space, Denver, CO, 2012.


Tuberculosis in children most frequently involves the pulmonary system. Spinal tuberculosis is very rare and insidious in children. We present a 1-year-old girl who was brought to our clinic with complaints of a bulge on her back and weakness in the feet. She was investigated with magnetic resonance imaging and at the thoracic level which revealed vertebral destruction and para- and perispinal abscess. Computed tomography of the lungs showed tuberculous lesions. The child's mother gave a post history of recovered lung tuberculosis. Due to appearance paraparesis secondary to vertebral destruction, we removed the abscess and infected bone and reconstruction was carried out with fibular allograft anteriorly. Tuberculosis bacilli were isolated from the postoperative biopsy culture. In this study, we evaluated the methods of diagnosis and treatment of spiral tuberculosis according to the studies and publications which have been done previously.


Purpose: To assess the corneal biomechanical properties of patients with pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PEX syndrome). Methods: Fifty-two eyes of 52 patients (27 unilateral and 25 bilateral) and 42 eyes of 42 age-matched control subjects were enrolled in the study. Metrics of corneal biomechanical properties, including corneal hysteresis (CH) and corneal resistance factor (CRF), were measured with the ocular response analyzer (ORA). The ORA also determined the values of Goldmann-correlated intraocular pressure and corneal-compensated intraocular pressure. Central corneal thickness (CCT) was measured by the ORA integrated handheld ultrasonic pachymeter. The values recorded by the ORA were compared between eyes with PEX syndrome and those without PEX syndrome. Eyes with unilateral PEX syndrome and fellow eyes without PEX syndrome were also compared. Results: The mean CH and CRF of all eyes with PEX syndrome were significantly lower than those of control eyes (P < 0.05). Neither corneal-compensated intraocular pressure nor Goldmann-correlated intraocular pressure showed a statistically significant difference in both the groups. Mean CCT values also did not show significant difference. Comparison of the unilateral eyes with PEX syndrome with the apparently normal fellow eyes revealed no significant difference between the mean CCT, mean CH, and mean CRF values (P > 0.05). However, the mean corneal-compensated intraocular pressure and Goldmann-correlated intraocular pressure were relatively higher in the PEX syndrome eye (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the mean CCT values of these groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions: The CH and CRF decrease in both unilateral and bilateral PEX syndrome suggested that PEX syndrome has a weakening effect on corneal biomechanical properties. Moreover, in subjects with clinically unilateral PEX syndrome, these properties were closer to eyes with PEX syndrome than to normal control eyes.


Copper (Cu) is essential to the growth and the morphological development of Streptomyces lividans. Understanding how Cu regulates the key development switches in this Gram-positive bacterium has been an area of extensive research. In particular, how Cu homeostasis and regulation are controlled and how metalation of enzymes important for morphological development is achieved have been previously investigated. To this end, this thesis reports the discovery of a cytosolic copper storage protein in S. lividans and offers new insight into intracellular Cu regulation, which is not under direct control of the Cu regulator protein CsoR (copper sensitive operon repressor). This copper storage protein belongs to a family of recently discovered cytosolic proteins known as Csp3. These members are exclusively found in the bacterial cytosol and comprise of a four-helix bundle that assemble into homotetramers and can bind between 70-80 Cu(I) ions through mainly Cys thiolate coordination. In Chapter 2 bioinformatic analyses reveals the phylogenetic distribution of Csp3 across Bacteria and Archaea and confirms the presence of Csp3 in S. lividans. Furthermore, the Csp3 in S. lividans is located in a gene environment that is sensitive to elevated Cu levels. Taxonomic distribution of these genes reveals a possible link to a novel transmembrane Cu export system that could facilitate removal of Cu from Csp3. X-ray structures of the apo and Cu(I) bound forms of the Csp3 from S. lividans have been determined and confirm a homotetramer assembly that can bind up to 80 Cu(I) ions (Chapter 3). The binding of Cu(I) ions in Csp3 is found to be cooperative with a Hill coefficient of 1.9 and Cu(I) can be transferred to Csp3 from a CopZ-like Cu(I) chaperone (Chapter 3). A Δcsp3 null-mutant in S. lividans reveals that Csp3 is operable at high Cu levels and this suggests it acts to provide an additional level of protection against Cu toxicity once the CsoR system becomes saturated (Chapter 3). The mechanism of Cu(I)-loading to Csp3 has also been investigated through X-ray crystallography, site-directed mutagenesis and stopped-flow reaction kinetics using aqueous Cu(I) and Cu(I) chelated by a donor. A clear role for a His residue (His107) leading to the formation of a tetranuclear [Cu4(μ2-S-Cys)4(Nδ1-His)] cluster is observed, followed by the loading of Cu(I) in a fluxional and dynamic manner (Chapters 4 and 5). Finally, over-expression studies of a putative transmembrane protein (SLI_RS17250) that is encoded by a neighbouring gene to the S. lividans Csp3 gene and could be part of a novel Cu export system, identified in Chapter 2, is described (Chapter 6).


Sulfur amino acid metabolism has been receiving increased attention because of the link to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and diabetes. In addition, the role of cysteine and optimal intakes for physiological substrates such as glutathione are currently of considerable interest in human health. Although the dietary indispensability of methionine is not in question, the ability of cysteine to substitute for a portion of its requirement has been the topic of much debate. Methionine is often the most limiting amino acid in the diets of the developing world's population because of its low concentration in cereal grains. Therefore, the ability of cysteine to substitute for methionine requirement is not just biologically interesting; it is also of considerable economic and social importance. The primary goal of this review is to discuss the available evidence on the effect of cysteine substitution for methionine to meet the total sulfur amino acid requirement in adult humans, including an assessment of the methodological features of experiments with conflicting results. Assessment of the requirement experiments for amino acids with complex metabolism such as methionine and cysteine must begin with a careful definition of requirements and what substitution means. As a result of these definitions, a set of criteria for the intakes of methionine that will allow demonstration of the substitution effect have been developed. Some recent publications are assessed using these definitions and criteria, and a possible reason for the conflicting results in the literature is proposed. An approach to estimating tolerable upper intakes is also proposed. Research on in vivo sulfur amino acid metabolism in humans is tremendously difficult, and therefore, we do not wish to be overly critical of the high-quality work of the ambitious and highly intelligent men and women who have conducted various studies. Our goal is to objectively review the data for the reader in a logical and comprehensive manner and propose methods that may avoid difficulties in future studies. J. Nutr. 136: 1682S–1693S, 2006.


Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) enhances spontaneous Raman spectroscopy by the virtue of plasmon resonance of nanoparticles. Clinical application of SERS is challenging as nanoparticles remain in the body for long periods of time and a full toxicity analysis has yet to be extensively studied.

In this study, Nanosphere lithography (NSL) was used to create optical fibers with nanoparticle enhanced tips for remote sensing using SERS. A custom designed RS collection setup was created for optimal collection of spectra from the optical fibers. It was found that an optical fiber with 0.5 numerical aperture (NA) allowed for better detection of Raman peaks while mitigating the fluorescence background of the optical fiber without any optical filters. Such a sensing platform can potentially be used to temporarily introduce nanoparticles into a sensing environment as it allows retracting the nanoparticles along with the tip.

Nanoporous SERS platform has been fabricated using nanoporous silica glass with 7 nm and 17 nm pore diameters. An inexpensive fabrication approach of sputter deposition of Au layers was employed on prefabricated nanoporous silica glasses. 7 nm pore glasses provided larger enhancement than the glasses with 17 nm pores. A gold layer thickness of 25 nm was observed to produce largest enhancements. Nanoporous SERS substrates allow a larger effective SERS area compared to NSL based fabrication substrates and such nanoporous structures can be potentially fabricated on optical fiber tips for remote sensing.

Finite Element Modeling (FEM) method was implemented for simulating single nanoparticles, an infinite periodic array of nanoparticles and nanoporous films using COMSOL Multiphysics software package. The extinction spectra obtained theoretically were found to match the experimental results for single nanoparticles. The maximum enhancement for the periodic array was two orders of magnitude larger than single particles while the integrated (average) enhancement was only two and a half times larger. Nanoporous films were also modelled using the FEM technique.

Preliminary clinical data were collected from excised breast tissues for evaluating RS as a tool for cancer diagnostics. Spectral peaks from healthy tissues were found to be prominent than cancerous tissues and further experiments are needed to create a multivariate classification model for diagnostics.


Although a good deal has been written about Kant's conception of free will in recent years, there has been no serious attempt to examine in detail the development of his views on the topic. This book endeavours to remedy the situation by tracing Kant's thoughts on free will from his earliest discussions of it in the 1750s through to his last accounts in the 1790s. This developmental approach is of interest for at least two reasons. First, it shows that the path that led Kant to view freedom as a transcendental power that is both radically distinct from and compatible with the causality of nature was a winding one. Second, it indicates that, despite the variety of views of free will that Kant held at various times, the concept occupied a central place in his thought, because it was the point of union between his theoretical and practical philosophy.


We develop methods to evaluate whether a political districting accurately represents the will of the people. To explore and showcase our ideas, we concentrate on the congressional districts for the U.S. House of representatives and use the state of North Carolina and its redistrictings since the 2010 census. Using a Monte Carlo algorithm, we randomly generate over 24,000 redistrictings that are non-partisan and adhere to criteria from proposed legislation. Applying historical voting data to these random redistrictings, we find that the number of democratic and republican representatives elected varies drastically depending on how districts are drawn. Some results are more common, and we gain a clear range of expected election outcomes. Using the statistics of our generated redistrictings, we critique the particular congressional districtings used in the 2012 and 2016 NC elections as well as a districting proposed by a bipartisan redistricting commission. We find that the 2012 and 2016 districtings are highly atypical and not representative of the will of the people. On the other hand, our results indicate that a plan produced by a bipartisan panel of retired judges is highly typical and representative. Since our analyses are based on an ensemble of reasonable redistrictings of North Carolina, they provide a baseline for a given election which incorporates the geometry of the state's population distribution.


Pathways in SurgicalManagement. M Hobsley pp 351 £13.75 London: Edward Arnold 1979 ~os.t sur~ical. textbo.oks deal in encyclopaedia ashIon with a list of diseases and consider, in turn, pathology, diagnosis, complications, treatment and prognosis. Yet, in clinical practice (and in l1luch good clinical teaching) patients present with a problem a lump, or a pain, or a discharge and not with a neat diagnostic label. Professor Bobsley, one of our best known surgical teachers s I ' e ec.ts some 28 common elective and emergency sur~lcal situations for example, a lump in the grolD, or in the neck, in the thyroid or in the ~~rotum; a head injury, a burn or an ischaemic Il1lb and describes the pathways he recommends ~ arrive at a diagnosis and at treatment policy. low charts (some simple, some very complex) are ~s~d extensively to illustrate how one step leads al~ly logically to the next. Naturally, people are ~OIDg to argue about the order and choice of Ind' . ividua] steps. For example, I personally use ~ltrasound at a fairly early stage in the laboratory ~~Vestigation of.a patient with obstructive jaunIce, but these differences are what makes clinical SUrgery interesting! This is a thoughtful and useful text which will surely encourage students to do ~hat. clinical teachers hope and pray that they will; hat IS, to use their common sense and knowledge ~f ~unda"!ental principles in order themselves to eVlse logical patterns of thought in their manage1llent of patients.


State-of-the-art methods to image the earth's subsurface using active-source seismic reflection data involve reverse time migration. This and other standard seismic processing methods such as velocity analysis provide best results only when all waves in the data set are primaries (waves reflected only once). A variety of methods are therefore deployed as processing to predict and remove multiples (waves reflected several times); however, accurate removal of those predicted multiples from the recorded data using adaptive subtraction techniques proves challenging, even in cases in which they can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. We present a new, alternative strategy to construct a parallel data set consisting only of primaries, which is calculated directly from recorded data. This obviates the need for multiple prediction and removal methods. Primaries are constructed by using convolutional interferometry to combine the first-arriving events of upgoing and direct-wave downgoing Green's functions to virtual receivers in the subsurface. The required upgoing wavefields to virtual receivers are constructed by Marchenko redatuming. Crucially, this is possible without detailed models of the earth's subsurface reflectivity structure: Similar to the most migration techniques, the method only requires surface reflection data and estimates of direct (nonreflected) arrivals between the virtual subsurface sources and the acquisition surface. We evaluate the method on a stratified synclinal model. It is shown to be particularly robust against errors in the reference velocity model used and to improve the migrated images substantially.


Abstract In this study, we investigated the role of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in the emotional and cognitive alterations associated with osteoarthritis pain. The monosodium iodoacetate model was used to evaluate the affective and cognitive manifestations of osteoarthritis pain in type 1 (CB1R) and type 2 (CB2R) cannabinoid receptor knockout and wild-type mice and the ability of CB1R (ACEA) and CB2R (JWH133) selective agonists to improve these manifestations during a 3-week time period. The levels of the endocannabinoids anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) were measured in plasma and brain areas involved in the control of these manifestations. Patients with knee osteoarthritis and healthy controls were recruited to evaluate pain, affective, and cognitive symptoms, as well as plasma endocannabinoid levels and cannabinoid receptor gene expression in peripheral blood lymphocytes. The affective manifestations of osteoarthritis were enhanced in CB1R knockout mice and absent in CB2R knockouts. Interestingly, both ACEA and JWH133 ameliorated the nociceptive and affective alterations, whereas ACEA also improved the associated memory impairment. An increase of 2-AG levels in prefrontal cortex and plasma was observed in this mouse model of osteoarthritis. In agreement, an increase of 2-AG plasmatic levels and an upregulation of CB1R and CB2R gene expression in peripheral blood lymphocytes were observed in patients with osteoarthritis compared with healthy subjects. Changes found in these biomarkers of the ECS correlated with pain, affective, and cognitive symptoms in these patients. The ECS plays a crucial role in osteoarthritis and represents an interesting pharmacological target and biomarker of this disease.


This paper explores issues surrounding the inclusion of impaired bodies within the Paralympic Games. To achieve this aim we use empirical data gathered from semistructured interviews held with a range of Paralympic stakeholders. The background upon which this data are analyzed is a critical analysis of the International Paralympic Committee's (IPC's) current vision and mission. Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and capital (Bourdieu, 1997, 1984) provide the theoretical foundation upon which the analysis takes place. Discussion centers on Paralympic stakeholders' articulations of issues surrounding individuals with cerebral palsy and/or severe physical impairments, emanating, in part, from a desire for aesthetically pleasing sporting performances. This paper gives Paralympic stakeholders a voice, upon which the IPC and broader sporting community may choose to reflect.


The free-radical dispersion polymn. of Me methacrylate was studied using the reaction calorimetry technique. An esp. developed calorimeter for use with supercrit. fluids was employed and a set of expts. was explicitly designed to isolate the effect of the pressure. It was found that, under marginal dispersion stability conditions, small pressure changes can have significant effects on the reaction evolution. The pressure was also found to affect the partitioning of the monomer between the two reaction phases. The heat released during the nucleation stage of the reaction was measured for the first time and permitted the discussion on the polymn. locus during this stage.


Changes in bladder behaviour and neurological symptoms were evaluated in 47 patients underwent untethered spinal cord because of tethered cord syndrome secondary to myeloneningocele closure. Patients were located in 3 categories (A < or = 5 years, B = 6-10 years and C > 10 years) in relation to age of treatment. After untethering 77% improved neurologically and the best results were evident in children whose condition was repaired promptly (90%). Urodynamic studies were performed in 33 patients before and after surgery. Fifteen had hyperreflexic bladders, six low complicance and 12 hyperreflexia plus low compliance. After treatment in 6 patients bladder dysfunction improved (18%), hyperreflexia disappeared in 4 and sphinteric resistance increased in 2. In patients with tethered cord syndrome, untethering is recommended treatment in preventing further, sometimes rapid neurologic dysfunction and better results are got in childs whose condition is repaired at an early ages.


The important task of evaluating the impact of random parameters on the output of stochastic ordinary differential equations (SODE) can be computationally very demanding, in particular for problems with a high-dimensional parameter space. In this work we consider this problem in some detail and demonstrate that by combining several techniques one can dramatically reduce the overall cost without impacting the predictive accuracy of the output of interests. We discuss how the combination of ANOVA expansions, different sparse grid techniques, and the total sensitivity index (TSI) as a pre-selective mechanism enables the modeling of problems with hundred of parameters. We demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of this approach on a number of challenging test cases drawn from engineering and science.


We examine how the ex-post assessment of standard essential patents (SEPs) affects the patent holder's strategic incentive to declare SEPs. While declaration guarantees inclusion in the standard, it requires commitment to license under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. We consider two forms of essentiality assessment: (i) by an independent organization and (ii) by the courts during a patent dispute or a challenge initiated by a standard implementer. Assessment by an independent organization can eliminate declared patents with low essentiality. Assessment through a dispute can decrease the number of both declared and non-declared (i.e., non-FRAND-encumbered) patents and these different trade-offs affect the rights holder's strategic declaration incentive. We obtain the following results. First, there is less declaration when there is ex-post assessment of either type compared with no assessment. Second, there is less declaration with assessment by an independent organization than with assessment through disputes. We also show that a rights holder with high essentiality patents sets a higher declaration rate than one with low essentiality patents.


While the terahertz regime has proved to be a promising solution for wireless big-data transmission, the lack of available functional devices working in this band seriously constrain the wide engineering applications. In this paper, the silver nanorods in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film are developed for enhancing and accelerating THz all-optical modulation. The modulation depth can reach 80% under 0.6W/cm2, and the speed can reach 3kHz which is much faster than our previous research. It has been attributed to the plasmonic hot carriers' effect of the silver nanorods, which makes the photoexcited electrons more easily jump out of the barrier and assemble in the heterostructure between PVA and silicon. Moreover, the photoelectronic response is proved to be related to the plasmonic absorption of the pumping light, which means the modulation speed is decided by the color of the pump light. This experiment phenomenon provides a way to build color-selective terahertz all-optical modulators. Considering its capability for broadband, efficient, and fast modulation of THz waves, this low-cost and conveniently fabricated device could be broadly applied in polymer related THz devices.


Bentonite fining is commonly used by the wine industry as a clarifying technique to remove proteins that are a potential source of haze in wines. Large amounts of added bentonite can decrease the sensory properties of wines. The aim of this research was to study the influence of the standard wine clarification process by two different types of bentonite fining agents on the basic chemical composition and aromatic profile of Sauvignon Blanc by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The general characteristic of Sauvignon Blanc wines showed no differences among treated wines independently of the type (sodium bentonite Bentogran® and sodium-activated bentonite Majorbenton C®) and the dose of bentonite. The results showed that type of bentonite regardless of the dose applied, affected the monoterpenes concentration.


Objective. When total laryngectomy is not required, organ preservation surgery or radiotherapy is considered the standard of care for primary glottic cancer. These accepted treatment options are available for early and advanced glottic cancers due to equivalent locoregional control and survival rates. However, in today's climate of accountable care, the financial burden of treatment choices continues to increase in significance. We therefore compared hospital charges and treatment-related morbidity between organ-preserving surgery and radiation with or without chemotherapy—herein, (chemo)radiation— [AQ: 2] in the primary treatment of glottic cancer. Study Design. Nationwide Inpatient Sample Database was analyzed to assess clinical and financial information. Setting. Population-based analysis. Subjects. Patients (N = 5499) with primary glottic cancer undergoing treatment with laryngeal preservation strategies. Methods. Patients were subdivided by ICD-9 codes into 3 treatment groups: endoscopic resection, open partial laryngectomy, and (chemo)radiation. Treatment-related outcomes, charges, and length of hospitalization were analyzed among treatment groups. Results. When adjusting for sex, age, race, comorbidity, and primary payer, (chemo)radiotherapy was associated with increased direct charges (P \.001; coefficient, $23,658.99; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: $10,227.15-$37,090.84) and length of hospitalization (P \ .001; hazard ratio, 0.593; 95% CI: 0.502-0.702) when compared with endoscopic surgery. As compared with open surgery, endoscopic surgery was associated with reduced hospital charges (P = .012; coefficient, $11,967.01; 95% CI: $2,784.17-$21,249.85) and duration of hospitalization (P \ .001; hazard ratio, 0.749; 95% CI: 0.641-0.876). Conclusions. This analysis suggests that increased utilization of endoscopic surgery in patients with primary glottic cancer not requiring total laryngectomy may lead to reduced financial burden and duration of hospitalization when compared with open surgery or (chemo)radiation therapy.


A foul smelting soft rot of the upper stalk and leaves of sorghum was observed in Isabela, Puerto Rico, during the summer of 1985. The bacterium from infected rotting sorghum whorls was isolated in pure culture and inoculated to sorghum, maize ( Zea mays L.), and sugarcane ( Saccharum officinarum L.) in the field and to potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) and pineapple [ Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.] in vitro. Results of pathogenicity and 23 phenotypic tests suggested Erwinia chrysanthemi p.v. zeae Burk., McFadden & Dimock as the causal agent of the bacterial whorl blight and stalk rot of sorghum. Twenty-two antibiotics were tested for in vitro control of our strain of the whorl blight pathogen. Zones of inhibition around antibiotic impregnated discs on bacteria, seeded on Muller Hinton Agar, showed high pathogen sensitivity to senociclin, chloramphenicol, kanamycin, gentamicin, carbenicillin, cefotaximine, tetracycline, amikacin, and tobramycin. Members of the penicillin family appeared ineffective for controlling this bacterium. TAM 428 and SC 120, dwarf sorghums with moist sweet stems, were severely damaged when fungicide treated. Mean incidence of visible bacterial whorl blight reached 25%. Yield losses ranged from 34 to 56%. Dry stemmed sorghums, SC 307 and SC 212, showed less than 5% whorl blight and no yield loss.


In many parts of the world, uncontrolled fires in sparsely populated areas are a major concern as they can quickly grow into large and destructive conflagrations in short time spans. Detecting these fires has traditionally been a job for trained humans on the ground, or in the air. In many cases, these manned solutions are simply not able to survey the amount of area necessary to maintain sufficient vigilance and coverage. This paper investigates the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for automated wildfire detection. The proposed system uses low-cost, consumer-grade electronics and sensors combined with various airframes to create a system suitable for automatic detection of wildfires. The system employs automatic image processing techniques to analyze captured images and autonomously detect fire-related features such as fire lines, burnt regions, and flammable material. This image recognition algorithm is designed to cope with environmental occlusions such as shadows, smoke and obstructions. Once the fire is identified and classified, it is used to initialize a spatial/temporal fire simulation. This simulation is based on occupancy maps whose fidelity can be varied to include stochastic elements, various types of vegetation, weather conditions, and unique terrain. The simulations can be used to predict the effects of optimized firefighting methods to prevent the future propagation of the fires and greatly reduce time to detection of wildfires, thereby greatly minimizing the ensuing damage. This paper also documents experimental flight tests using a SenseFly Swinglet UAS conducted in Brisbane, Australia as well as modifications for custom UAS.


Today, companies are continuously changing and improving their business strategies. As a consequence, stakeholders are demanding more flexible and complex software to be built. To handle this complexity, conceptual models have to describe aspects beyond entities and activities. Recent research has pointed out that dealing with goals in order to capture intentions associated with complex situations is a major aspect to handle this new reality [14]. Non-Functional Requirements are a particular class of these goals that has to be dealt with since the early stages of software development. Therefore, expressing these NFRs in use cases and scenarios models is a must. In this work we show a strategy to drive elicited NFR towards use cases and scenarios that reflect the functional requirements of the software. We tested our proposal through two case studies and the results suggest that our strategy can help developers to deal with complex conceptual models and might result in a more complete software specification and thus, to a shorter time-to-the-market.


Dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) production in western Canada is steadily increasing. In 1999 production reached 200 000 acres in Manitoba and 12 000 acres in Saskatchewan. These figures are projected to increase to 270 000 acres and 22 000 acres in Manitoba and Saskatchewan respectively by the year 2000. Thus, the crop is now an important component of the pulse industry in western Canada. With this expansion, producers are raising concerns and questions about nutrient management in dry bean production. Most of the concerns are centered on use of Rhizobium inoculants and N fertilizers. Considerable effort has gone into investigating the effectiveness of Rhizobium inoculants for bean production. Some of the experiments have looked at the effect of different inoculum formulations on the nodulation and nitrogen fixation. Other studies have investigated different inoculant placement methods while others have compared Rhizobium inoculants with N fertilizer. This paper reviews findings from these experiments and suggests future research topics.


By applying diverse approaches to study the Aztec gods, light can be shed on different aspects of their personalities. In this article the cognitive theory of conceptual blending, developed by Fauconnier and Turner, is applied. In this perspective the functioning of the human mind is viewed as being grounded on the constant blending of mental spaces, a process that, in turn, makes new mental spaces emerge. After briefly reviewing the attempts to apply this theory to the ritual domain in general, I consider two types of Aztec rituals, one dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc, and the other to Xochiquetzal, the goddess of seduction. I show the importance of the compression of time in the blending process that condenses three moments: mythical time, ritual time and the immediate future. The capability of the gods to subvert the lineal passage of time and to compress past, present and future stands out as a one of the chief characteristics highlighting the advantages found by applying Blending-Theory.


There is a need for new approaches for enhancing education for sustainable development in universities. Memetics, which is about effective pathways of communication, could be such a new, promising approach. Quality assurance is required in universities to secure and improve education, which could be another approach. The aim of this study is to look into whether and how frameworks for processes and procedures for quality assurance, such as management systems, could be utilized to promote higher education for sustainable development. The study approaches this from both a theoretical and a practical standpoint. An evolutionary perspective was chosen, considering higher education for sustainable development and management systems as memes, or basic units of cultural replication. The practical context was studied by looking into how 11 universities in the Nordic countries have enhanced ESD with management systems. We found that both higher education for sustainable development and management systems could be considered successful memes and that management systems could be applied to enhance higher education for sustainable development.


Spatial Transformations are the mental operations that users perform on graphs and visualizations in an effort to extract information that is not explicit. Unfortunately, previous research in the area of Spatial Transformations employed a statistically insignificant number of subject participants (e.g. astronomers, physicists, meteorologists, or undergraduate students). Although graph comprehension theories suggest that a set of two-dimensional line graphs is a better representation for a task involving interpolation of values, the accuracy of the participants viewing a single three dimensional perspective display exceeded that of those participants who viewed a set of two-dimensional line graphs in their interpolation of new values of return on equity. A contributing factor to better accuracy is the mental operations in the form of Spatial Transformations. This study contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating that statistically significant sample size of forty-one undergraduate students, with particular domain knowledge of return on equity, performs Spatial Transformations to complete a task involving interpolation of values from a single three dimensional perspective display.


This study was aimed at elucidating the role of Ph3P in the formation of Ni(II) complexes which are active in ethylene oligomerization. Two ionic Ni(II) complexes bearing bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazol-1-yl)methane ligand [NiL2(CH3CN)2]2+[NiBr3(PPh3)]2− and [NiL2Br]+[NiBr3(PPh3)]− have been synthesized. The structures of these compounds have been confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Individual and in situ complexes with PPh3 are in equilibria between different forms in solution. These forms include the free complex and free PPh3, and molecular and ionic complexes with coordinated triphenylphosphine. All individual compounds were active in ethylene dimerization upon activation with Et2AlCl, producing a mixture of butenes with activities up to 960 kg mol[Ni]−1 h−1 atm−1 and high selectivity (up to 100% of butenes and up to 90.5% of butene-1). The catalytic influence of triphenylphosphine has been evaluated – it increases the activity of the system up to 1800 kg mol[Ni]−1 h−1 atm−1 when 2 mol. equiv. of additive has been applied and completely changes the selectivity of the process towards internal olefins.