Lithogenic material deposited as dust is one of the major sources of trace metals to the ocean, particularly in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic. On the other hand, it is also a source of scavenging surface for iron. Here we studied this double role of lithogenic material in the marine iron cycle by adding a new scheme for describing particle dynamics into a global biogeochemistry and ecosystem model, including particle aggregation and disaggregation of two particle size classes, as well as scavenging on both organic and lithogenic particles. Considering the additional scavenging of iron on lithogenic particles, the modelled dissolved iron concentration is reduced significantly in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic, bringing the model much closer to observations. This suggests to consider the double role of dust particles as iron source and sink in studies on the marine iron cycle in high dust regions and with changing dust fluxes, e.g. under ongoing climate change.


In his Letter to the Editor entitled Bioethics: On the road to absurd land (Plant Signal Behav 2008; 3:612), Simcha Lev-Yadun expressed his fear that the discussion going on in Switzerland about the dignity of plants could lead us down to an absurd and dangerous path. Progress in medicine and agriculture could be slowed as a result. What is this all about?

The Swiss constitution maintains that the dignity of creatures should be respected. Plants are living beings, so they also have dignity. The Executive Federal Council directed the Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH), of which I am a member, to work out the basis for these constitutional norms. In April this year, we presented the report: The dignity of living beings with regard to plants. Moral consideration of plants for their own sake.1

The background for our consideration in the Committee was provided by many discoveries in recent years that suggest a new 'sensitive' picture of plants. It has, for instance, been revealed that plants are active in sensing numerous parameters from their environment, communicate extensively and actively; they interact with their surroundings. They can choose between different possibilities and change their behaviour accordingly. On the cellular level, similarities between animals and plants are far greater than previously assumed (communication with electrical action potentials, similar vesicle trafficking and signaling molecules, etc.). They have an innate immune system. At a rudimentary level, their roots can distinguish between self and non-self.

Plants and animals are very young in terms of the earth's history, being some 400 to 500 million years old. In the preceding three billion years, only single cell life forms existed. During this for us unimaginably long period, the cells continued to develop, very slowly and with great flexibility. Cells developed that did not necessarily have an optimal form or size, but had an optimal flexibility. During these three billions of years, the basis for cellular communication as well as the most important metabolic procedures was laid. Cells were connected into dynamic networks of relationships: they communicated, constantly acting and reacting in response to numerous environmental stimuli and communicated with each other. From these unicellular life forms, plants and animals developed parallel to each other, but each in a different direction.2

Thus plants, animals and humans have common roots. The similarities on the cellular level can be explained by our evolutionary relationships. Optimal adaptation requires an efficient and quick information system: animals developed a brain and nervous systems, plants could have developed analogous structures.

On the next higher levels of individual living beings, the tissue and organismal levels, animals and plants are radically different. Nevertheless, in the course of evolution both developed, in very different ways, great flexibility in order to adjust to a constantly changing environment.

We do not know if plants are capable of subjective sensation. There is no scientific proof that plants feel pain. But it is also quite clear that we cannot simply rule this out. There is circumstantial evidence for this, although not a complete chain of evidence. However, claims that plants have no subjective sensations are as speculative as the opposite. We simply do not know. We cannot deny with certainty that plants lack an ability to actively perceive. Thus far, plant abilities to perceive their environment has been widely underestimated.

But what could be the consequences of these new findings?

How should we approach this situation of 'not knowing'?

These questions were posed by the Ethics Committee over the past four years, as it was discussed in the Executive Federal Council's assignment on the dignity of plants. Dignity in terms of plants is a difficult concept; it is religiously charged and comes from history of mankind. However, the notion could be understood as a sign, a metaphor, that plants are entitled to a value, a worth independent of human interests. Dignity could be a sign that plants are to be respected and that there are also certain obligations towards them.

If we look at plants as simple things, passive machines that follow the same set of programs, if plants are only seen as organisms satisfying our interests and demands, then an attribute like dignity seems absurd; it does not make sense. But if we see plants as active, adaptable, perhaps even as living beings capable of subjective perceptions, possessing their lives on their own, independent of us; then there is good reason to accept that plants have dignity that is valid.

For a long time, animals were considered to be soulless machines. But in recent decades, they have—at least partly—escaped this mechanistic trap. We start to acknowledge their right to dignity and respect. Animals are not just things anymore. As a result of this, in Switzerland (and elsewhere), regulations for species-appropriate care of farm animals have been developed. Here again, I do not go along with Simcha Lev-Yadun. It is not just a nice idea that organic hens are raised differently than their sad relatives in battery cages. It is a question of respect for perceptive fellow beings, even if it means having to pay a bit more for eggs.

The discussion of the dignity of plants is still miles away from this point. Anything and everything can be done with plants today; there is no ethical consideration, no awareness of any problem. But it is slowly getting harder to justify this attitude toward plants.

Philosophers and experts on ethics, but also molecular biologists and scientists, sit in the ECNH. We have tried to work out the ethical basis for attributing dignity to plants. Many questions were controversial, but in one there was agreement: plants should not be treated in a completely arbitrary way. Plants are living beings and must be respected for their own sake. Arbitary injury or destruction of plants is not permissible. The Committee could not agree on the meaning of 'arbitrary.' For some, this was the senseless picking of roadside flowers, for others—I among them—the massive and total instrumentalisation and industrialisation of plants. In my view, the 'terminator' technology (GURT technologies) and other methods to produce sterility with the exclusive goal of making plants available for the maximizing of economic profit of humans, as well as the patenting of plants, violate their dignity.

That plants are entitled to dignity should not reduce or limit their use. Nor should research be forbidden. Just as recognizing the dignity of animals does not mean taking them out of the food chain or forbidding animal research. Dignity means much more that, when it comes to plants—as with animals, principles of proportionality must be considered. So dignity of plants is not an absolute value, but is achieved by the balancing of morally relevant interests: the good, or interests of a plant should be weighed up against the interests of humans.

In this line, it is also clear that interests of plants must be weighed differently than those of animals.

What the ECNH delivered with the report, The dignity of living beings with regard to plants, are grounds for more discussions, a guide for future arguments. It contains no specific consequences or requests. There are still lot of discussions ahead. We are just at the beginning.

Back to Simcha Lev-Yadun. It is not the discussion about the dignity of plants that seems absurd and dangerous to me; but on the contrary, the refusal to understand plants as something other than living automatons and to draw conclusions from that acknowledgement.

Because the way we deal with plants influences our relationships to the living world, to plants, to animals, and to ourselves too.


A calibration of the mixing-length parameter in the local mixing-length theory (MLT) is presented for the lower part of the convection zone in pure-hydrogen-atmosphere white dwarfs. The parameterization is performed from a comparison of three-dimensional (3D) CO5BOLD simulations with a grid of one-dimensional (1D) envelopes with a varying mixing-length parameter. In many instances, the 3D simulations are restricted to the upper part of the convection zone. The hydrodynamical calculations suggest, in those cases, that the entropy of the upflows does not change significantly from the bottom of the convection zone to regions immediately below the photosphere. We rely on this asymptotic entropy value, characteristic of the deep and adiabatically stratified layers, to calibrate 1D envelopes. The calibration encompasses the convective hydrogen-line (DA) white dwarfs in the effective temperature range 6000 ⩽ Teff (K) ⩽15, 000 and the surface gravity range 7.0 ⩽ log g ⩽ 9.0. It is established that the local MLT is unable to reproduce simultaneously the thermodynamical, flux, and dynamical properties of the 3D simulations. We therefore propose three different parameterizations for these quantities. The resulting calibration can be applied to structure and envelope calculations, in particular for pulsation, chemical diffusion, and convective mixing studies. On the other hand, convection has no effect on the white dwarf cooling rates until there is a convective coupling with the degenerate core below Teff ∼ 5000 K. In this regime, the 1D structures are insensitive to the MLT parameterization and converge to the mean 3D results, hence they remain fully appropriate for age determinations.


The coefficients of a quantile regression model are one-to-one functions of the order of the quantile. In standard quantile regression (QR), different quantiles are estimated one at a time. Another possibility is to model the coefficient functions parametrically, an approach that is referred to as quantile regression coefficients modeling (QRCM). Compared with standard QR, the QRCM approach facilitates estimation, inference and interpretation of the results, and generates more efficient estimators. We designed a penalized method that can address the selection of covariates in this particular modelling framework. Unlike standard penalized quantile regression estimators, in which model selection is quantile-specific, our approach permits using information on all quantiles simultaneously. We describe the estimator, provide simulation results and analyse the data that motivated the present article. The proposed approach is implemented in the qrcmNP package in R.


In order to investigate the role of retroviruses in the recently described porcine postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) serum and leukocytes were screened for reverse transcriptase (RT) activity, and tissues were examined for the presence of conserved lentiviral sequences using degenerate primers in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Serum and stimulated leukocytes from the blood and lymph nodes from pigs with PMWS, as well as from control pigs had RT activity that was detected by the sensitive Amp-RT assay. A 257-bp fragment was amplified from DNA from the blood and bone marrow of pigs with PMWS. This fragment was identical in size to conserved lentiviral sequences that were amplified from plasmids containing DNA from several lentiviruses. Cloning and sequencing of the fragment from affected pigs, however, did not reveal homology with the recognized lentiviruses. Together the results of these analyses suggest that the RT activity present in tissues from control and affected pigs is the result of endogenous retrovirus expression, and that a lentivirus is not a primary pathogen in PMWS.


India is witnessing tremendous growth in infrastructure and construction development. The construction industry in India is one of the largest economic activities and
is growing at an average rate of 9.5% as compared t o the global average of 5%. A country's economic growth is marked by its infrastructure. The Iron and Steel Industry is the largest consumer of energy amongst all industries. This industry has lighting energy consumption of about 3-10% of the total electricity. Energy cost contributes nearly 30-35% of this sector's total production cost. Energy growth is essential for economic growth. Recent trends in
energy conservation and management comes into picture in this era of green technology so that harmful effects due to this industry on the environment and the people are curtailed to a minimum.
Lighting is an indispensible requirement in all inhabited areas especially where artificial processes take place. Proper lighting not only tends to increase human and equipment safety and productivity of the organization but also provides workers satisfaction, safety and more
work output. Research shows that in a facility, lighting consumes nearly 22% of the total electricity consumption. Henceforth, energy saving potential in these areas is very high with the use of right kind of technology. Many lighting schemes can be adopted for efficient
lighting utilization like daylight harvesting, using energy efficient artificial lighting technologies and intelligent control in the form oflighting automation wherever applicable.
Lighting controls delivers a substantial saving of 35% of energy costs with safety, reliability and ease of installation.
This paper focuses on the proposal of energy efficient lighting solution for Steel Industry with simulation results considering the operating environmental conditions existing in this type of industry using the software DIALux and payback calculation to compare non-conventional technology (LEDs) with conventional light sources like Metal Halide Lamps, High Pressure Sodium Vapor Lamps, Fluorescent Lampsand High pressure Mercury Vapor
Lamps. The design will also be done so that in general areas like cabins and corridors, etc., the Light Power Density (LPD) comes under specifiedIndian Green Building Council (IGBC) norms.
Lighting automation will be suggested for daylight and artificial light integration and even the use of occupancy sensors and time switches wherever applicable. Implementation of lighting automation can reduce energy consumption i n the whole area considered.


Anti-p185HER2 monoclonal antibodies often show intense reactivity with the basement membrane of tumor cells that overexpress the HER2/neu gene product (p185HER2). To evaluate a possible interaction between p185HER2 and adhesion molecules or their receptors, the polarity of p185HER2 was tested in lung carcinoma cell line Calu-3, which overexpresses this protein, in cultures grown as confluent monolayers or as aggregates. MAb immunostaining patterns indicated that p185HER2 is concentrated on the baso-lateral membrane of cells and that it colocalizes with the integrin alpha 6 beta 4 at the cell-cell junctions where laminin is also found. The same membrane region showed intense reactivity with antiphosphotyrosine antibodies. Furthermore, integrin clustering induced by the specific antibody was accompanied by the clustering of p185HER2, as indicated by immunoelectron microscopy, and by a subsequent increase in p185HER2 tyrosine phosphorylation. Treatment with exogenous laminin also resulted in increased basal levels of p185HER2 phosphorylation. These data suggest a physical interaction between the integrin and the oncoprotein that might be functionally relevant in directly controlling the tyrosine phosphorylation of the catalytic domain of p185HER2.


Recurrent Neural Networks - RNNs are state-of-the-art models able to deliver very high accuracy in sequence modeling and machine translation tasks. In particu- lar the Encoder-Decoder architecture excels in sequence-to-sequence tasks in which input and output sequences may not have the same length. These networks work in two stages, at first the input sequence is encoded in a fixed length representa- tion, which is then decoded in order to produce a new target sequence. Due to the abundance of the network parameters, performing inference using these models requires a high computing power and results in large energy consumption, typically unsustainable for an embedded device. While executing the inference on edge nodes is beneficial in terms of latency and responsiveness of the system, generally such nodes do not have the hardware resources needed to sustain the heavy computa- tions involved. To this end, this work proposes an algorithm to improve the energy efficiency of Encoder-Decoder RNNs. In particular a novel dynamic Beam Search algorithm is introduced, in which the Beam Width - BW is varied according to the evolution of a translation. This method is able to dynamically adapt the Beam Width parameter, i.e. one of the parameter that mostly dominates the inference complexity, according to the currently processed input and the corresponding network's confidence. Results on two different machine translation models underline that the proposed methodology is able to reduce the average BW by up to 33%, thus significantly reducing the inference execution time and energy consumption, while maintaining the same translation performance.


OBJECTIVE
The identification of khat dependence and the association between khat dependence, use patterns, and related health problems have not been quantitatively described in Australia. The current study aimed to describe khat dependence, use patterns, and khatrelated health problems in Australian migrant communities.

METHOD
A 48-item questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 52 participants from African migrant communities who self-reported using khat in four Australian state capital cities between April 1 and June 1, 2012. Associations between Severity of Dependence Scale for khat use (SDS-khat) screening status, use patterns, and khat-related psychological and physical health problems were assessed using multivariate loglinked Poisson regression controlling for potential sociodemographic confounders.

RESULTS
Overall, 44.2% (n = 23) of the study participants screened positive on the SDS-khat, indicating probable khat dependence. Screening positive for khat dependence was associated with increased risk for khat use frequency in the last 30 days (adjusted prevalence risk ratio [APRR] = 2.26, 95% CI [1.23, 4.15], p = .009), experiencing three or more psychological health problems (APRR = 1.87, 95% CI [1.04, 3.36], p = .037), and experiencing two or more physical health problems (APRR = 1.92, 95% CI [1.13, 3.27], p = .016) after using khat.

CONCLUSIONS
Screening positive on the SDS-khat is associated with increased recent khat use frequency and elevated physical and psychological health problems, providing preliminary evidence that probable khat use dependence may be associated with an increased risk of harm in Australia. Furthermore, these preliminary results support the potential utility of the SDS-khat to healthcare providers to identify those at risk for khatrelated harms. Further investigation into the relationship between khat dependence, use patterns, and related health outcomes is warranted.


ABSTRACT Building on proxemics theory and social exchange theory, this study investigated how different levels of psychological social distancing, protective wears, and social interactions influence customers' perceived risk, social exchange with service employees and their intention to avoid dining in restaurants under the 'new normal' of COVID-19. Using an experimental design with a total of 404 participants in US, this study shows that regardless of social distancing measures, both protective wear and social interaction levels can significantly influence customers' risk perception and social exchange quality. The study contributes to the tourism and hospitality literature by providing a timely understanding of customers' psychological perceptions, and responses of dining in restaurants during this difficult transition time. More importantly, this study adds hard empirical evidence to the current debate of restaurant re-open measures beyond widely circulating opinion pieces.


De Barsy syndrome (DBS) is characterized by progeroid features, ophthalmological abnormalities, intrauterine growth retardation, and cutis laxa. Recently, PYCR1 mutations were identified in cutis laxa with progeroid features. Herein, we report on a DBS patient born to a nonconsanguineous Chinese family. The exceptional observation of congenital glaucoma, aortic root dilatation, and idiopathic hypertrophic pyloric stenosis in this patient widened the range of symptoms that have been noted in DBS. Mutation analysis of PYCR1 revealed compound heterozygous PYCR1 mutations, including a p.P115fsX7 null mutation allele and a second allele with two missense mutations in cis: p.G248E and p.G297R. The effect of mutation results in a reduction of PYCR1 mRNA expression and PYCR1 protein expression in skin fibroblasts from the patient. The findings presented here suggest a mutation screening of PYCR1 and cardiovascular survey in patients with DBS. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


It is commonly asserted that monetary and fiscal policy may have to be coordinated if they are to provide a nominal anchor and avoid the pathological outcomes of sunspots or explosive price paths. In this paper, we study a model in which government bonds are an imperfect substitute for money in the transactions technology, providing a new channel for debt dynamics to feed into inflation dynamics. This modification of an otherwise standard NNS model substantially alters the conditions for local determinacy and the requirements for macroeconomic policy coordination: the Taylor Principle is no longer sacrosanct; a weak fiscal response to debt is no longer the panacea for a weak monetary policy; sunspot equilibria may be less relevant than previously thought; and the need for coordination may be less than previously thought. In addition, our model provides a new way of thinking about the structural break that is thought to have occurred around 1980 in monetary policy and in the dynamics of government spending and private consumption.


Current Loran-C radio navigation equipment has demonstrated a repeatable precision index of less than 0.01 μs/km. Thus, two co-located receivers measuring the same time difference will deviate less than this amount as to the standard deviation of their measured time difference. It is therefore concluded that operation of Loran-C in a differential mode is a feasible technique for such practical matters as collision avoidance, instrument landing systems, air traffic control, precise location of surface vessels used out of sight of land in underwater exploration, and ground based vehicle location in the non-urban environment. By differential operation mode, we mean that two vehicles can determine their distance apart, their rate of closing or separation, and indeed their direction of relative motion, if the measured time difference information on each vehicle is relayed between vehicles.

Loran-C can be compared quantitatively with other systems such as Omega operating in a differential mode. A comparison of Loran-C data with the Beukers-Nard Omega data reveals a possible 20 to 100 accuracy improvement factor if we use Loran-C instead of Omega in the 0 to 700 km differential separation range. We conclude that the fundamental reason for part of the improvement is the reciprocal phase measurement improvement with frequency. The remainder of the improvement is a consequence of the greater stability of the pulsed ground wave propagation mechanism of Loran-C as compared with the single frequency ionospheric waves of Omega. Frequencies greater than 100 kHz would give greater improvement with a loss of range or coverage area.

We have found that Loran-C is an excellent propagation measuring device for the detection and identification of effects of irregular, in-homogeneous terrain in the spatial domain, and the study of meteorological variations in the time domain. Furthermore, the Loran-C skywave signal can be used as a D-region diagnostic to study particle precipitation events and D-region variations with latitude, season and solar zenith angle.

We make the observation from our Loran-C studies that the first prerequisite to a capability for prediction of propagation phenomena is the ability to separate, identify, and understand the physical nature of the observed radio measurements. This prediction capability is essential to the successful operation of radio navigation systems in both the normal and the differential mode of operation.


Nonenzymatic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide proceeded more rapidly in ice than in liquid water. At 5 x 10-7M ferric chloride or 10-8M cupric chloride, breakdown of hiydrogen peroxide was significant at -11� and -18� but negligible at +1�C. Ascorbic acid oxidation was faster in ice both with or without added metalion. Nonparallel effects of metals and pH indicate, mechanism changes in ice.


The synthesis of p-aminobenzoic acid and folic acid was investigated in three strains of Staphylococcus sensitive to sulphonamide drugs, and in four substrains resistant to sulphonamides. Another strain (Staphylococcus aureus R 122) which was resistant to sulphonamides when isolated was also examined. A microbiological assay was used to measure the synthesis of p-aminobenzoic acid during the growth of organisms in a partially defined medium. S. aureus R122 formed about twenty times as much p-aminobenzoic acid as did any of the other strains, among which the synthesis showed only small variations and was not greatly affected by growth of the organisms in presence of sulphathiazole. Folic acid was assayed as Lactobacillus casei factor. The response curve of the assay organism to extracts of every strain of Staphylococcus examined was the same; but it differed from the response to known forms of folk acid. The active material had little growth-promoting activity for Leuconostoc citrovorum or for Streptococcus famalis. Washed suspensions of Staphylococcus tactis 2102 R formed about 10 times its much folic acid as the sensitive parent strain (2102) from glucose, p-aminobenzoate and glutamate; the sulphonamide-resistant substrain (2102 R) also formed more folic acid during growth. However, a second resistant S. ladis substrain ( 2 1 0 2 ~ 2 ) formed little more folic acid than did the parent strain. S. aurew ~ 1 2 2 synthesized an amount of folic acid similar to that formed by 8. lactis 2 1 0 2 ~ . With two other strains (8. aureus H and J H M ) the synthesis of folk acid was not increased when resistance was acquired. Washed suspensions of all the sulphonamide resistant substrains were able to synthesize folic acid in the presence of higher concentrations of sulphathiazole than were the sensitive strains.


We report a case of trisomy 2 mosaicism detected upon amniocentesis in a woman with advanced maternal age. A mos 47,XY,+2(4)/46,XY(21) karyotype was revealed using standard GTG banding. There were no pathological sonographic findings and the fetal size was normal for gestational age at 16th week. The use of serial high-resolution ultrasound examination of the fetus to detect major abnormalities was offered as an option to the parents who, however, decided for termination of the pregnancy. Fetal autopsy did not reveal any malformations. Trisomy 2 mosaicism is associated with variable phenotypic abnormalities without a specific pattern, intrauterine growth restriction, fetal demise or stillbirth. The rarity of trisomy-2 mosaicism in prenatal diagnosis, as well as the increased risk of an abnormal outcome makes the diagnostic approach and genetic counseling difficult.


In der vordersten Reihe der Dichter, die das wahre Amerika offenbaren, steht ein Frau: Willa Cather. Ihre Werke errangen Erfolg und werden auch in Deutschland freudig begriisst werden [In the first row of the poets revealing the true America stands one woman: Willa Cather. Her works have achieved unparalleled success in America and England, and they will be hail'ed in Germany as well] --Dust jacket copy of Willa Cather's Frau im Zwielicht ["Woman in Twilight," also known as A Lost Lady], 1949. Despite her deep and abiding love of, and respect for, various elements of German culture, Willa Cather never personally set foot in Germany. Her fictions, on the other hand--both translated and in English--had a significant presence there during her lifetime. Before her death in 1947, six German-language translations of her works were published, and nine different English-language editions of her novels and short story collections were produced and distributed throughout Germany and the rest of Europe by the Bernhard Tauchnitz firm of Leipzig, Germany. Many of these editions were reviewed in various German periodicals, acquired by German libraries, and used for English instruction at both the secondary and post-secondary level. The result was that, as attested by the dust jacket copy cited above in the epigraph, Cather was fairly well-known in Germany at the time of her death. Despite the numerous editions of her works available from German booksellers and libraries today, however, Cather is not nearly as well known or as critically respected as her American contemporaries, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, or F. Scott Fitzgerald. For a brief time in the 1990s, it appeared as if Cather's reputation in Germany was about to rise sharply, in large part due to the efforts of Sabina Lietzmann, a German journalist who served as the American correspondent of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper from 1961 until her retirement in 1984. Lietzmann became enamored with Cather and worked tirelessly to promote her works to German readers; one major result was the publication in 1992 of an eleven-volume set of Cather's works by Albrecht Knaus publishers in Germany. Judging from a 1993 overview of Cather's career published in Der Spiegel, one of Germany's most respected general circulation magazines, this set appears to have briefly achieved Lietzmann's desired effect. Writer Susanne Weingarten confidently asserted about Cather: "Jetzt erlebt sie eine grosse Renaissance [She is now experiencing a great Renaissance]." A few years later, Cather was even included in a volume entitled, Beriihmte Frauen: Dreihundert Portrats [Famous Women: Three Hundred Portraits] (Pusche and Gretter). Yet, after this period of heightened promise for Cather's reputation among Germans, it never did rise as fully as it has in the United States. As Verena Lueken concluded in a Frankfurter Allgemeine review of a new edition of a Cather novel published in 2009, "Willa Cather ist bei uns immer noch viel zu wenig bekannt [Willa Cather is still very little known in Germany]." The reasons for Cather's current lack of significant recognition in Germany can be at least partially understood by tracing the early history of the translations of her works into German and by analyzing the German commentary on Cather during her lifetime. Due to space limitations, this essay focuses almost exclusively on those Cather texts translated into German before her death, and thus it does not discuss the Cather titles translated only afterwards, such as My Mortal Enemy and The Professor's House; it also refers only briefly to the English-language editions by Tauchnitz, a topic 1 am currently researching. Analysis of these early German editions and the various commentaries on them reveals that from the beginning, most readers of her works in German viewed her--and were prompted to view her--as a relatively middle-brow, Regionalist, Realist writer whose ostensibly straightforward writings about the American West and the "pioneer" experience were valuable largely for the ethnographic insights they provided about American life and about Americans themselves. …


This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the problem of Internet child pornography that spotlights the connection between technology and behavior, presenting practical suggestions for reducing this pervasive problem.
 The role of the Internet in fueling the problem of child pornography is enormous. Prior to the Internet, child pornography was typically locally produced, of poor quality, expensive, and difficult to obtain. United States' law enforcement officials were able to boast in the late 1970s that the traffic in child pornography had virtually been eliminated. The advent of the Internet in the 1980s made vast quantities of child pornography instantly available in the privacy of the viewer's home. Today, child pornography largely exists because of the opportunities provided by the Internet.
 Internet Child Pornography provides a comprehensive overview of the issue by describing the problem of child pornography, examining the impact of the Internet, and presenting a profile of users. With this foundation in place, the authors then address responses to child pornography and shed light on the complexities of dealing with criminal activities that are perpetrated largely online—for example, the fact that people behave differently in online environments than they do in other areas of their lives. The book examines prevention efforts designed to reduce access to child pornography, law enforcement responses designed to catch known offenders, and treatment responses designed to reduce reoffending.


Discoseismic c modes in accretion discs have been invoked to explain low-frequency variabilities observed in black hole X-ray binaries. These modes are trapped in the innermost region of the disc and have frequencies much lower than the rotation frequency at the disc inner radius. We show that because the trapped waves can tunnel through the evanescent barrier to the corotational wave zone, the c modes are damped due to wave absorption at the corotation resonance. We calculate the corotational damping rates of various c modes using the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation. The damping rate varies widely depending on the mode frequency, the black hole spin parameter and the disc sound speed, and is generally much less than 10 per cent of the mode frequency. A sufficiently strong excitation mechanism is needed to overcome this corotational damping and make the mode observable.


BACKGROUND
Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is a peripheral nervous system disease associated with polyautoimmunity.

CASE
We report a previously healthy 13-year old boy who was referred to our outpatient clinic with gait disturbance and distal lower limb weakness that had been increasing for six months. The patient had decreased deep tendon reflexes in the upper extremities and absence in the lower extremities, reduced muscle strength in the distal and proximal lower extremities, muscle atrophy, drop foot, and normal pinprick sensations. The patient was diagnosed with CIDP as a result of clinical findings and electrophysiological studies. Autoimmune diseases and infectious agents were investigated in terms of triggering CIDP. Although there was no clinical sign other than polyneuropathy, he was also diagnosed with Sjögren`s syndrome due to positive antinuclear antibodies and antibodies against Ro52, and with autoimmune sialadenitis. After six months of monthly intravenous immunoglobulin and oral methylprednisolone treatments, the patient was able to dorsiflex his left foot and walk without support.

CONCLUSIONS
To our knowledge, our case is the first pediatric case with the coexistence of Sjögren`s syndrome and CIDP. Therefore, we suggest investigating children with CIDP in terms of underlying autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren`s syndrome.


Our objective is to illustrate the bias introduced in assessing factors associated with age at menopause when the population sample has been selected using restricted criteria, i.e. number of years since menopause, by using a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a population-based randomized clinical trial. The participants were women who participated in the Postmenopausal Estrogen/Progestins Intervention (PEPI) trial, had not had a hysterectomy, were between 45 and 64 years old, and were menopausal for at least 1 but not greater than 10 years. The outcome measures were self-reported age at menopause and factors thought to be associated with it, including smoking, alcohol use, oral contraceptive use, number of pregnancies, education, income, body mass index, waist-hip ratio, thigh girth, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures. At entry, the mean age of the 601 women was 56.2 years. Mean age at menopause was 51.0 years. Chronologic (current) age was strongly correlated with age at menopause (r = 0.74, p = 0.0001). In bivariate analyses, factors associated with younger age at menopause were ever-use of cigarettes, former oral contraceptive use, and higher thigh girth; factors associated with later age at menopause were greater number of pregnancies, higher waist-hip ratio, and higher systolic blood pressure. After stratification by 5-year age intervals, these associations were no longer statistically significant. Because of restricted sampling, an artificial association was observed between chronologic age and age at time of menopause. This artifact made it difficult to distinguish between factors associated with chronologic age and those that may be independently associated with menopause. Failure to recognize this bias could lead to erroneous conclusions.


Nut growing has become more popular and technology has developed significantly over the last 5 years. This book is the starting point for prospective commercial nut growers – large or small scale, for farmers who want to diversify and also for gardeners interested in growing nut trees in their back yards.

Nut Grower's Guide is the first comprehensive book to growing almonds, cashews, chestnuts, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pistachios and walnuts. All aspects of site selection are covered, from soil and climate to aspect and topography through to previous land use and local pest species. Soil preparation, irrigation, planting and propagating trees are also covered. It covers the cultivation and processing of each of the major nut species and also provides guidance on packaging and the wholesale and retail marketing of nuts in Australia and overseas.


Abstract There is a need for simple and robust techniques for assessment and monitoring of populations of the Endangered snow leopard Panthera uncia to inform the development of action plans for snow leopard conservation. We explored the use of occupancy modelling to evaluate the influence of environmental and anthropogenic features on snow leopard site-use patterns. We conducted a camera trap survey across 480 km2 in Gansu Province, China, and used data from 60 camera traps to estimate probabilities of site use and detection using the single season occupancy model. We assessed the influence of three covariates on site use by snow leopards: elevation, the presence of blue sheep Pseudois nayaur and the presence of human disturbance (distance to roads). We recorded 76 captures of snow leopards over 2,906 trap-days, representing a mean capture success of 2.62 captures per 100 trap-days. Elevation had the strongest influence on site use, with the probability of site use increasing with altitude, whereas the influence of presence of prey and distance to roads was relatively weak. Our findings indicate the need for practical and robust techniques to appraise determinants of site use by snow leopards, especially in the context of the limited resources available for such work.


Summary Objective: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the results of routine haematological, serum iron and iron binding capacity analyses in cattle with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) infection. Material and methods: Thirty-eight cows were included in the study. An ELISA for MAP, intradermal Johnin test and microscopic examination of the animals faecal smears for acid fast organisms were performed. According to the results 19 cows (4–8 years old) were found positive and 19 cows (4–7 years old) from the same herd were negative and served as control group. In all cows routine haematological values as well as serum iron level and iron binding capacity were evaluated. Results: When compared with control animals, routine haematological values including haematocrit, haemoglobin and erythrocyte counts were significantly (p < 0.05) lower in positive cows. Also serum iron level (p < 0.01) and iron binding capacity (p < 0.01) were significantly lower in positive cows than in the control group. Conclusion: As a result, these parameters can be important for the mechanism of the pathogenesis of paratuberculosis.


Post-socialist cities are often characterised by large suburban, densely developed areas for manufacturing industry on the periphery, hardly maintained traditionally important inner city areas, and a deteriorating ring of housing between them. Implementing sustainable development and participatory planning practices in the redevelopment of these areas has become a challenge for planners in the former command economies. In the study, the role of public and private agents in promoting rehabilitation and gentrification in the rundown areas in Tartu are looked at.


A conformity index is a measure of how well the volume of a radiosurgical dose distribution conforms to the size and shape of a target volume. Because the success of radiosurgery is related to the extremely conformal irradiation of the target, an accurate method for describing this parameter is important. Existing conformity ratios and indices used in radiosurgery are reviewed and criticized. It will be demonstrated that previously proposed measurements of conformity can, under certain conditions, give false perfect scores. A new conformity index is derived that gives an objective score of conformity for a treatment plan and gives no false scores. An analysis of five different treatment plans is made using both the existing scoring methods and the new conformity index.


This research investigates the behavior of the managers of the Bangladeshi firms in applying Earnings manipulation through the technique of Accruals Earnings Management (AEM). This study examines whether the firm managers of Bangladesh involve themselves in earnings manipulation in the form of accruals earnings management that whether they beat of meat the earnings benchmarks in the context of Return on Assets, Changes in Return on Assets, Earnings per Shares and Changes in Earnings per Shares. The modified Cross Sectional Jones (1991) model has been applied to estimate the proxy for accruals earnings management (Abnormal Accruals) by using a 1652 firm-years observations of 168 companies of 10 industries (excluding Banking Industry, Financial Institutions, Insurance Industries and Telecommunication industries) over the 15 years from 2002 to 2016. Managers of other variables of accruals earnings management activities, this research reports that there is no evidence of earnings manipulation in the form of accruals earnings management from the evidence from Bangladeshi firms.


This monograph is a grammar of Thangmi, an endangered Tibeto-Burman language spoken in central-eastern Nepal. Alongside a collection of glossed oral texts and a trilingual lexicon, an extensive ethnolinguistic introduction to the speakers and their culture is also provided.


Objective: Plasma D-dimer levels are elevated in patients with a variety of solid tumors. Recently, it has been reported that the level before curative surgery is a prognostic factor for colorectal cancer (CRC). We investigated whether the plasma D-dimer level before systemic chemotherapies is a predictor for advanced or recurrent unresectable CRC. Methods: This study included 42 patients treated with systemic chemotherapies for advanced or recurrent unresectable CRC. Variables including clinicopathological factors, plasma D-dimer levels and the modified Glasgow Prognostic Factor Score (mGPS) were evaluated. Results: The plasma D-dimer level was closely related to the mGPS. Survival was shorter for patients with plasma D-dimer levels >5 µg/ml than for those with lower levels. Compared with an mGPS of 0 or 1, an mGPS of 2 was predictive of poor prognosis (p < 0.0001). Old age, advanced stage, plasma D-dimer level and mGPS were significantly associated with mortality, but plasma D-dimer level was the only independent risk factor in multivariate analysis, and was significant related to the clinical response to chemotherapy (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Survival was significantly shorter in patients with elevated plasma D-dimer levels having advanced or recurrent CRC. The plasma D-dimer level before systemic chemotherapies was an independent mortality predictor.


Worldwide prevalence of childhood obesity dramatically increases every year. To combat this obesity, parents play a key role. The present study focuses the effectiveness of nutritional counselling to prevent childhood obesity by assessing the lifestyle practices of obese children. Experimental research design with stratified random sampling method 150 obese school children (age group of 6-12 years) parents were called for interview to assess the lifestyle practices of their children. Nutritional counselling was given to the parents in 3 sittings and at the end of 6th month post assessment done. Statistical significance calculated by using one-way analysis of variance and student independent t-test. The study finding reveals more number of obese children in the age group of 6.1-8 years (39.19%). Their birth order two (56.66%) and two child family norm (71.67%). The obese children mother's education was mostly higher secondary standard (42.50%) and was homemaker (78.33%). All obese children consuming non-vegetarian food and their frequency of intake is thrice a week (40%). The life style practices of obese during pre-test were poor (53.33%) and after nutritional counselling 65.83% of them scored good practice and 34.17% of them scored moderate practice. Nutrition counselling was very effective to parents of obese children who help them to adapt the healthy lifestyle practices preventing the obesity among children and prevent the increasing risk of obesity and chronic diseases in adult.


The concept of temporal networks provides a framework to understand how the interaction between system components changes over time. In empirical communication data, we often detect non-Poissonian, so-called bursty behavior in the activity of nodes as well as in the interaction between nodes. However, such reconciliation between node burstiness and link burstiness cannot be explained if the interaction processes on different links are independent of each other. This is because the activity of a node is the superposition of the interaction processes on the links incident to the node and the superposition of independent bursty point processes is not bursty in general. Here we introduce a temporal network model based on bursty node activation and show that it leads to heavy-tailed inter-event time distributions for both node dynamics and link dynamics. Our analysis indicates that activation processes intrinsic to nodes give rise to dynamical correlations across links. Our framework offers a way to model competition and correlation between links, which is key to understanding dynamical processes in various systems.


The paper presents the results obtained on a fatigue study on the life extension ofnon-load carrying fillet welded joints loaded in bending at the main plate and with fatiguecracking at the weld toes of the attachment in the main plate and through the plate thickness.Results of the stress distributions at the crack propagation line at the weld toe obtained by a 2DFE analysis were obtained. These results were obtained using a elastic-plastic model, with theelastic-plastic cyclic stress-strain curve derived from LCF tests carried out in the base material.The residual stresses were measured at the surface, using X-ray diffraction and hole drillingtechniques. Very good agreement was obtained between the experimental residual stress and thecomputed values, using a 2D and 3D elastic-plastic finite element model of the hammer peenedprocess. The residual stresses induced by hammer peening at the weld toe were found to begreater along the longitudinal direction of the plate than in the transverse direction. The peakresidual stresses near the weld toe were found to be close to yield in compression, justifying thegreat benefit of hammer peening.


had a creatinine level of 2 30 mmol/l (26 mg/l00 ml) and was presumably urine. This was confirmed by further examination in our clinical chemistry laboratory. The cells cultured were presumably bladder epithelium. The diagnostic hazard is, of course, mistakenly concluding that the chromosome complement from such cells represents that of the fetus. Since these cells may be difficult to subculture, such an error may be more liable to occur in laboratories that examine metaphases in cell colonies from primary cultures. It is of interest that this sample was one of three of the 144 amniotic fluid specimens sent to our laboratory last year which were found to be urine. This occurred in spite of the fact that all of the amniocenteses were done with the aid of ultrasound by experienced obstetricians. It is often considered desirable for the patient's bladder to be full during this procedure, as it was in these cases, to buoy or support the uterus, especially when the placenta is anterior.2 This may, of course, increase the risk of bladder puncture.


The slow growth rate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis hinders research progress, since estimating the bacterial numbers present in all experiments normally relies on determination of colony forming units on agar plates. M. tuberculosis colonies can take as long as four to six weeks to become visible. Whole animal imaging is an emerging technology that has broad applications in all areas of biological sciences, including monitoring infections. Imaging allows bacterial numbers to be determined in real-time for each infected animal, individually, which allows inter-animal variability to be observed and controlled for. Reporter enzyme fluorescence (REF) utilizes custom substrates that allow production of a fluorescent product after cleavage by a bacterial enzyme. In our recently published studies, we demonstrate that the enzyme β-lactamase, a naturally occurring enzyme expressed by M. tuberculosis, can be used for REF. The resulting imaging system is the first that allows non-invasive detection of natural M. tuberculosis strains directly in pulmonary infected living animals. Use of REF for M. tuberculosis infected mice allows detection of ~10⁴ CFU in the lungs, which is very sensitive. This system also displays promise for allowing rapid evaluation of differences in virulence strains and efficacy of therapeutics and vaccines. This system could be developed into a diagnostic tool for tuberculosis through the use of REF to identify infected tissues or other diagnostic specimens.


The chemoattractant receptor-homologous molecule expressed on Th2 cells (CRTH2) is a G protein-coupled receptor that mediates the pro-inflammatory effects of prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) generated in allergic inflammation. The CRTH2 receptor shares greatest sequence similarity with chemoattractant receptors compared with prostanoid receptors. To investigate the structural determinants of CRTH2 ligand binding, we performed site-directed mutagenesis of putative mCRTH2 ligand-binding residues, and we evaluated mutant receptor ligand binding and functional properties. Substitution of alanine at each of three residues in the transmembrane (TM) helical domains (His-106, TM III; Lys-209, TM V; and Glu-268, TM VI) and one in extracellular loop II (Arg-178) decreased PGD2 binding affinity, suggesting that these residues play a role in binding PGD2. In contrast, the H106A and E268A mutants bound indomethacin, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, with an affinity similar to the wild-type receptor. HEK293 cells expressing the H106A, K209A, and E268A mutants displayed reduced inhibition of intracellular cAMP and chemotaxis in response to PGD2, whereas the H106A and E268A mutants had functional responses to indomethacin similar to the wild-type receptor. Binding of PGE2 by the E268A mutant was enhanced compared with the wild-type receptor, suggesting that Glu-268 plays a role in determining prostanoid ligand selectivity. Replacement of Tyr-261 with phenylalanine did not affect PGD2 binding but decreased the binding affinity for indomethacin. These results provided the first details of the ligand binding pocket of an eicosanoid-binding chemoattractant receptor.


Recent studies demonstrate the profitability of stock portfolios constructed according to implied volatility measures inferred from option prices. This article examines industry effects on such portfolios' performance. Results show that quintile portfolios constructed using volatility skew and volatility spread are subject to substantial industry effects, which are particularly strong during market turbulence. The authors form industry-neutral portfolios and compare their performances to those of full-universe portfolios that do not consider industry exposure. Results show significant improvement when portfolio strategies are implemented in an industry-neutral manner, based on either volatility skew or volatility spread.


We studied experimentally and theoretically the structural transition of diamond under an irradiation with an intense femtosecond extreme ultraviolet laser (XUV) pulse of 24–275 eV photon energy provided by free-electron lasers. Experimental results obtained show that the irradiated diamond undergoes a solid-to-solid phase transition to graphite, and not to an amorphous state. Our theoretical findings suggest that the nature of this transition is nonthermal, stimulated by a change of the interatomic potential triggered by the excitation of valence electrons. Ultrashort laser pulse duration enables to identify the subsequent steps of this process: electron excitation, band gap collapse, and the following atomic motion. A good agreement between the experimentally measured and theoretically calculated damage thresholds for the XUV range supports our conclusions.


It can be challenging to identify the forces that drive speciation in marine environments for organisms that are capable of widespread dispersal because their contemporary distributions often belie the historical processes that were responsible for their initial diversification. In this contribution we explore the likely sequence of events responsible for the radiation of walking sharks in the genus Hemiscyllium using a dated molecular phylogeny. The nine currently recognised species in the genus consist of small, benthic sharks that are restricted to the Indo-Australian Archipelago and show limited dispersal at both juvenile and adult stages. We discuss how major tectonic changes, sea level fluctuations and the unique biology of the species may have influenced speciation in the group, as well as the current distribution of the genus and each of its constituent species. Phylogeographic analysis of the genus combined with biogeographic reconstruction of the region shows a recent radiation during the Miocene and Pliocene, and supports a combination of vicariance and founder modes of speciation mediated by major tectonic, geological and oceanographic historical processes.


Recognizing the importance of physical environments as a major product of an urban design process for the livability of the built environment, this study focuses on urban planning and design characteristics within three different neighborhood typologies of Basra City. The aim of the study is to support future urban developments in the city based on evidences from the association between the current qualities of neighborhood design and the computed walking minutes of residents. These characteristics are determined from reviewed literature in urban design as reliable physical environmental perceived or objectively measured qualities. The methodology of this study describes four steps of analysis such as: (1) the use of the cadastral maps of the case studies as a source of raw information for objective measurement; (2) the use of objective and subjective measures as defining indicators that are utilized from previous studies; (3) the application of defined indicators for the selected neighborhoods through a comparative analysis; and (4) the conducting of statistical analysis to reveal the influence of the defined indicators on the walking. The findings of this study have led to conclusions on the importance of design attributes to future master planning of neighborhoods especially those of the traditional neighborhood, such as the Al-Saymmar neighborhood in Basra city.


In August 1975 the M.V. Lindenbank went aground on Fanning Atoll and dumped 17,797 metric tons of cargo onto a pristine coral reef. Nearly 10,000 tons of the cargo were vegetable oils and edible-oil raw materials such as copra. Although no toxic substances were dumped into the water, the effects of these oily substances were similar to those occurring after a petroleum oil spill. Fishes, crustaceans, and mollusks were killed and an excessive growth of Enteromorpha and Viva occurred. The animal kill was most likely attributable to asphyxiation and clogging of the digestive tract, while the algal growth was most likely attributable to the elimination of algal competitors, increased fertilization from the pollution and ship, and reduced grazing pressure. Oil may have suppressed certain algal species while stimulating others. Complete recovery of the original coralline algal community proceeded in sequence from Enteromorpha to Viva to Cladophora-Lyngbya to Hypnea-Caulerpa to JaniaGelidium. The climax community became evident II months after the original spill.


Almost all quantum chemical studies performed on enzyme mechanisms have relied on high-resolution X-ray structures as starting points. Since no such structure yet exists for photosystem II, a model study of this enzyme is unusually difficult. In this chapter, the approach adopted to obtain the mechanism for OO bond formation in this enzyme is described. Another difficulty, in common with many other enzymatic mechanisms, is that electrons and protons are stepwise removed from the active complex. A method is outlined in which accurate redox potentials and pKa values can be obtained from rather small models. In this approach, the main effects of the enzyme, homogeneous and inhomogeneous, are included. The most important result is that the OO bond is formed between an oxygen radical and an oxo group. In the S2 to S3 transition a reconstruction of the oxygen evolving complex takes place due to insertion of a water molecule. Good agreement with most experimental observations is obtained.

Keywords:

photosynthesis;
density functional theory;
OO bond formation;
Redox potentials;
pKa values;
spin requirement


This article analyses economic performance of Rwanda between 1973 and 2011. The economic history of Rwanda during this period can be divided into three periods i.e. pre-genocide period (1973-1989), inter-genocide period (1990-1994) and post—genocide period(1995-2011). Real GDP (constant 2000 US$) was used as the dependent variable and as a proxy for economic performance. The explanatory variables used were all expressed as percentages of GDP. They included Domestic Investment (DI), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Domestic Savings (DS) and Trade (TR).Chow test based on data for the entire period (1973-2011) rejected the null hypothesis of no structural change/break. After exclusion of observations for the conflict and genocide period, the Chow test  corroborated by the Wald test further showed strong presence of structural break for the pre and post genocide periods. The apparent existence of structural change for the two regimes suggests that the disequilibrium impact of genocide on the Rwandan economy was transitory. This could be explained by the interventions and policies initiated by post genocide leadership to develop, pacify and unite the people of Rwanda. Although structural change was established for the pre and post genocide periods, the change did not emanate from the shift in the intercept, but rather from slope vectors. This means the unobserved qualitative characteristics of the two regimes were similar but that the policies which led to changes in the explanatory variables impacted differently on performance in the two regimes. Incidentally, it was found out that the bulk of the difference in the models across the two regimes was explained mainly by changes in the intercept, DI and FDI. Keywords : Economic performance, structural change/break, pooled model, fixed effects model, separate regressions, subset of coefficients.


ABSTRACT The term 'tory Anarchism' is reasonably well known but largely unanalysed in either popular or academic literature. It describes a group of apparently disparate figures in English popular and political culture whose work has, in part, satirised key British institutions and social relations. At the same time, tory anarchists also provide interesting insights into questions of British, though predominantly English, identity, by focusing upon issues of class, empire and nation. This article examines tory anarchism by focusing upon four representative figures: Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell, Peter Cook and Chris Morris. Keywords: Tory anarchism, popular culture, world system, English identity, empire INTRODUCTION: THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF TORY ANARCHISM Tory anarchism is a term that describes a group of (largely) English writers and artists who span the twentieth century. As a concept it is infrequendy referred to and lacks any systematic analysis in either academic or popular literature. It is a predominandy English phenomenon, associated with men, not women, and members of the middle and upper-middle classes in revolt against what they sec as the denigration of the core values of England or the idiocies of the ruling establishment. Although often linked with social satire, tory anarchism is much more than this and embraces ideas about die nation, morality, class, culture and patriotism.1 The argument that I develop in this paper is that tory anarchism emerges against the background of Britain's changing circumstances as a global power. In particular it should be seen in the following context: * The end of empire and relative decline of the UK (more specifically England) as a political force. In this respect it is both an evocation of and a commentary upon the changing nature of English identity over the course of the twentieth century. * An ambivalent reaction to modernity and capitalism that invokes a cultural critique sharing many concerns with those of the Frankfurt School: 1. The death of the individual; 2. The rise of authoritarianism and totalitarianism; 3. The subordination of moral to monetary values; 4. An ambiguous attitude towards both elite and mass popular culture. However, tory anarchism offers a profoundly different analysis of these problems and ultimately hankers after a different kind of utopia to those of die critical theorists, one rooted in a romanticised past rather than a romanticised future. What, then, does it mean, to describe someone as being both a tory and an anarchist? On one level the term is clearly paradoxical; conservatism and anarchism are often seen as political opposites and yet in truth there are often striking overlaps in these political philosophies: a concern with the local and the empirical,2 the concrete reality of everyday lived experience, as opposed to more abstract, universal theorising;3 and the importance of class in understanding social order. However, the analyses that orthodox anarchists and conservatives offer to explore these issues are radically different. What can be said to characterise the idea of a tory anarchist then? First, it is an individualist creed. There can be no party of tory anarchists as it is an anti-political stance or posture that would make such an idea impossible in practice. There is no institution in which the tory anarchist is housed and nor is it a political badge that simply anyone can wear. The history of tory anarchism suggests that it is restricted in its meaning to members of a particular social class, working in areas of popular culture. To be a tory anarchist in practice means having an authence for your work, to be someone that has made an impact on popular and political culture. Given the rebellious nature of tory anarchism it is difficult to make a case for lay people adopting die mande with any degree of conviction. Tory anarchists are essentially public figures who use their public image to unsettle, to question and to challenge the failings and contradictions of English society. …


An imperfect spatial resolution of a hot-wire anemometry makes it necessary to introduce a suitable correction procedure into the data processing. To derive the required correction functions based commonly on the assumption of isotrppy and homogeneity of turbulence structure there is a need to adopt a certain form of E(k) spectrum, describing the turbulence energy distribution in a high wavenumber range. The paper analyses to what extent the given form of E(k) spectrum affects the numerically computed values of the particular correction functions. The obtained results have been compared with the available experimental data.


Water scarcity is a global risk that could arguably be mitigated by using water more efficiently, that is, increasing water's productivity. However, the effects of water productivity on water stress have not been empirically tested or validated across countries. Evidence from other natural resource sectors suggests that improving productivity may, in fact, lead to "rebound" effects that exacerbate resource exploitation. An econometric analysis is used to evaluate the relationship between water stress and productivity at the country level. A 1.0% increase in productivity is associated with a 0.81% decrease in water stress through time within a country, on average, and accounts for 75% of the variance of water stress. This suggests that targeting improvements in productivity have the ability to lower water stress. Analysis of trends in stress and productivity demonstrates that several developed countries are starting to exhibit decreasing trends in stress. Conversely, stress is low in developing countries, but rising. Productivity is generally increasing across all countries. Fixed effects panel regressions demonstrate that population, cultivated land, and political stability are also related to a variance in stress within a country. Differences in gross domestic product and precipitation explain variations in stress when looking across countries. The results of this analysis show that as a country develops, water stress is initially likely to increase. Increasing water productivity, which typically occurs later in a country's development pathway, is linked to decreasing stress, so water stress has the potential to be mitigated if a "productivity transition" were to take place sooner.


The quality of IC testing can be improved by applying appropriate design strategies. In this paper, we present a testability-oriented routing methodology, which can be used to modify the IC layout so as to reduce the probability of test escape. A testability-oriented iterative channel routing tool based on this methodology has been developed. Example applications of this tool illustrating the methodology are also presented in the paper.


A new method of classifying multimedia traffic flows was proposed for the next generation Internet (NGI). By analyzing the time level correlation of traffic flows, a model of competitive artificial neural network was designed to identify and classify different traffic flows and modulate them which can help to marking the Ipv6 flow label. Simulation result shows that the method can increase the precision of classification, and has little impact on the throughput of border gateway, has actual value.


The activation of key signaling pathways downstream of antigen receptor engagement is critically required for normal lymphocyte activation during the adaptive immune response. CARD11 is a multidomain signaling scaffold protein required for antigen receptor signaling to NF-κB, c-Jun N-terminal kinase, and mTOR. Germline mutations in the CARD11 gene result in at least four types of primary immunodeficiency, and somatic CARD11 gain-of-function mutations drive constitutive NF-κB activity in diffuse large B cell lymphoma and other lymphoid cancers. In response to antigen receptor triggering, CARD11 transitions from a closed, inactive state to an open, active scaffold that recruits multiple signaling partners into a complex to relay downstream signaling. However, how this signal-induced CARD11 conversion occurs remains poorly understood. Here we investigate the role of Inducible Element 1 (IE1), a short regulatory element in the CARD11 Inhibitory Domain, in the CARD11 signaling cycle. We find that IE1 controls the signal-dependent Opening Step that makes CARD11 accessible to the binding of cofactors, including Bcl10, MALT1, and the HOIP catalytic subunit of the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. Surprisingly, we find that IE1 is also required at an independent step for the maximal activation of HOIP and MALT1 enzymatic activity after cofactor recruitment to CARD11. This role of IE1 reveals that there is an Enzymatic Activation Step in the CARD11 signaling cycle that is distinct from the Cofactor Association Step. Our results indicate that CARD11 has evolved to actively coordinate scaffold opening and the induction of enzymatic activity among recruited cofactors during antigen receptor signaling.


This paper aims to comprehensively examine fiscal and monetary policies spillovers to real GDP and inflation in ASEAN-5 countries. We examine the effects of shocks from each of the ASEAN members and advanced economies by employing the global vector autoregression (GVAR) model because it allows us to investigate this issue in a multinational system. The empirical results show several important findings. Generally, both internal and external fiscal and monetary spillovers have a significant effect on all ASEAN-5 countries, although internal monetary spillover seems to be stronger than internal fiscal spillovers. At country level, out of the five ASEAN countries, Indonesia's variables of interest are less affected by external policy shocks. Regarding fiscal spillovers, expansionary fiscal shocks cause a significant increase in real GDP of ASEAN-5 countries. Particularity, fiscal spillovers from other East Asia countries (in particular, China) to ASEAN-5 countries have a much stronger effect than those from the advanced countries. Regarding monetary spillover, the effects of monetary spillover from advanced economies (especially, the U.S. and European countries) are much larger than those of the East Asia countries. However, the effects of monetary spillovers on ASEAN countries' real GDP and inflation are ambiguous, and we found negative impacts of internal and external monetary spillovers (from some ASEAN countries, China, and advanced economies) on ASEAN-5's real GDP. The inverse impacts of policy spillovers implicate the need for policy coordination at both regional and global levels.


Drawing on a case study, this article questions the role of planning and management strategies in the process of transforming a regional public healthcare system that involves a number of organizations and is characterized by fluidity in its functions and division of power. It examines the efficacy of the Regional Plan for the Organization of Health Services (PROS) in reforming the mental health sector in a health and social service district in Quebec, in terms of integrated regional management of mental healthcare and activities at the local level. The regional planning procedure involves a major transformation in management of the mental health system, organizational roles and clinical and professional practices. Our assessment of PROS highlights the importance of taking into account the context of implementation and the instrumental value of planning, before judging its efficacy. To transform a complex healthcare system at the regional and local level, the study suggests a revised conception of the main roles played by planning and of the process shaping its implementation. Our study concludes in favour of developing management strategies at the operational, clinical and professional levels, and integrating them as a planning aid that allows a more corporate and matrix-based system to be set up.


Abstract This paper describes a field-deployable decision support system that assists state highway department bridge inspectors in recognizing potential scour hazards and assessing the vulnerability of bridge sites in a cost effective manner. Scour and stream stability is an extremely important problem related to bridge safety as approximately 75% of all bridge failures are related to scour. The purpose of the expert system is to: (1) determine the state of scour risk at a bridge based upon site observations and site history and (2) catalog/store/retrieve information describing bridge site conditions. The system requests from the user a wide range of information about the bridge and bridge site, such as bank countermeasure presence and damage, location erosion, debris accumulation, and bed cross section profile and based upon an extensive rule base determines if abatement actions are necessary. This paper briefly describes what the system does and how the "knowledge" contained in the system is implemented. Major features of the system are described, including Stream Cross Sectional Analysis, Photographic Cataloging/Storage/ Retrieval, System Help, and a Logic Tracing Facility. The range of System Conclusions that the system produces is also briefly presented. Testing and evaluation of the system are also described as well as potential future modifications.


Calculating Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) from RNA-sequencing requires replicates to estimate gene-wise variability, a requirement that is at times financially or physiologically infeasible in clinics. By imposing restrictive transcriptome-wide assumptions limiting inferential opportunities of conventional methods (edgeR, NOISeq-sim, DESeq, DEGseq), comparing two conditions without replicates (TCWR) has been proposed, but not evaluated. Under TCWR conditions (e.g., unaffected tissue vs. tumor), differences of transformed expression of the proposed individualized DEG (iDEG) method follow a distribution calculated across a local partition of related transcripts at baseline expression; thereafter the probability of each DEG is estimated by empirical Bayes with local false discovery rate control using a two-group mixture model. In extensive simulation studies of TCWR methods, iDEG and NOISeq are more accurate at 5%<DEGs<20% (precision>90%, recall>75%, false_positive_rate<1%) and 30%<DEGs<40% (precision=recall~90%), respectively. The proposed iDEG method borrows localized distribution information from the same individual, a strategy that improves accuracy to compare transcriptomes in absence of replicates at low DEGsconditions. http://www.lussiergroup.org/publications/iDEG.


Focusing on the severity of asphalt pavement surface crack, a finite element analysis model of 20-node isoparametric elements was established by the commerce FEM software ABAQUS with the base of fracture mechanics theory. The surface crack of pavement was numerical analyzed and the crack propagation life was evaluated by Paris formula. In the course of surface crack propagation the change of the stress intensity factor (K2) was discussed and the effect of pavement parameters on surface crack fatigue life was studied. The analysis indicates: (1) the propagation of surface crack is dominated by deflection load. In the course of crack propagation, at first K2 increases to the top then drops down slowly. (2) the important influence factors to the surface crack propagation life at the scope of road structure parameter, are thickness and modulus of surface course, the modulus of base course. But modulus of subgrade, thickness and modulus of subbase course and thickness of base course are of no effect.


In this paper, we come up with an optimal DSR based on ant colony algorithm to improve the operational efficiency of wireless sensor network. Firstly we introduce the concepts of virtual grid and effective information propagation radius, then accord to the sensor's translational speed and the rest energy to estimate the sensors' persistence of life; besides, depend on the radius of effective information propagation we set the size of virtual grid and use this virtual grid as the unit to divide clusters. Finally, we realize the goal of steady information translation and effective energy usage. Under the same simulation environment, we compared the running results of DSR, LEACH and HDSR, the results illustrate that HDSR is not only able to improve the efficiency of information transportation but also equipoise the energy cost, it effectively increases the robustness of WSN.


We propose a novel family of Soft-Input Soft-Output detectors for iterative, point-to-point, MIMO receivers. Compared to the optimal Maximum A Posteriori receiver, low complexity is achieved restricting the detector search to small subsets of the entire QAM hyper-symbol constellation, through simple criteria. These criteria are applied to an improved version of the non-iterative Layered ORthogonal lattice Detector. We show that, notwithstanding the suboptimal low-complexity implementation, this detector approaches the EXtrinsic Information Transfer of the MAP detector. Therefore, when included in an iterative receiver it delivers the same performance. Furthermore, the deterministic complexity and highly parallelizable structure of the proposed detector are well suited for HDL and ASIC implementation. To focus on a specific setting, we consider the indoor MIMO wireless LAN 802.11n standard, taking into account errors in Channel Estimation and a frequency selective, spatially correlated channel model.


Interpersonal violence whether it is sexual or nonsexual, remains a major problem in large parts of the world. Sexual violence against children and women brings with it long-term sequelae, both psychiatrically and socially. Apart from sexual gratification itself, sexual violence against women is often a result of unequal power equations both real and perceived between men and women and is also strongly influenced by cultural factors and values. Within sociocentric and ego-centric cultures, the roles and representations of genders, and attitudes toward sexual violence differ. Cultures which are described as feminist, provide equal power to both men and women. Sexual violence is likely to occur more commonly in cultures that foster beliefs of perceived male superiority and social and cultural inferiority of women. Although culture is an important factor to understand sexual violence in its entirety, we need to look at, as well as beyond cultural structures, their strengths and weaknesses.


This article looks into the competence of second language acquisition investigating that how a language learner does learn English as a second language effectively by using his own abilities.Many studies have examined the function of Self-Efficacy in academic achievement, though as Pajares (2000) mentioned the relation of language achievement and Self-Efficacy has not been studied well and there has been small research in this regard. This made the researcher to investigate the relationship between Pakpattan ESL learners' language achievements and their Self-Efficacy.
It also studies the variations of ESL learners' Self-Efficacy and their majors. Besides, it explores the differences between ESL learners' majors and their language achievements. Population of this study was 200 ESL learners of The University of Lahore Pakpattan campus but 60 ESL learners from different departments of The University of Lahore Pakpattan campus selected for the sample of present study in order to measure ESL learners' language proficiency. Different types of tests applied for its measurement.

A questionnaire was prepared and conducted. Computer statistical program SPSS XXII was used for statistics. Literature were reviewed and the work cited mentioned as well.


Key Points CD180 Ag targeting facilitates Ag presentation by B cells to CD4+ T cells. Immature B cells are sufficient for TFH cell maturation. Compared with CD180, CD40 targeting induces slower and lower-affinity IgG responses. Targeting Ags to the CD180 receptor activates both B cells and dendritic cells (DCs) to become potent APCs. After inoculating mice with Ag conjugated to an anti-CD180 Ab, B cell receptors were rapidly internalized. Remarkably, all B cell subsets, including even transitional 1 B cells, were programed to process, present Ag, and stimulate Ag-specific CD4+ T cells. Within 24–48 hours, Ag-specific B cells were detectable at T–B borders in the spleen; there, they proliferated in a T cell–dependent manner and induced the maturation of T follicular helper (TFH) cells. Remarkably, immature B cells were sufficient for the maturation of TFH cells after CD180 targeting: TFH cells were induced in BAFFR−/− mice (with only transitional 1 B cells) and not in μMT mice (lacking all B cells) following CD180 targeting. Unlike CD180 targeting, CD40 targeting only induced DCs but not B cells to become APCs and thus failed to efficiently induce TFH cell maturation, resulting in slower and lower-affinity IgG Ab responses. CD180 targeting induces a unique program in Ag-specific B cells and to our knowledge, is a novel strategy to induce Ag presentation in both DCs and B cells, especially immature B cells and thus has the potential to produce a broad range of Ab specificities. This study highlights the ability of immature B cells to present Ag to and induce the maturation of cognate TFH cells, providing insights toward vaccination of mature B cell–deficient individuals and implications in treating autoimmune disorders.


Background: Interferon gamma (IFNγ) and tumor necrosis factor-related weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) molecules seem to have a potential effect on angiogenic factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The aim of this study was to assess a possible interplay between IFNγ and TWEAK cytokines and VEGF machinery in the different steps of colorectal carcinogenesis. Methods: A total of 92 subjects with colonic adenoma or cancer who underwent screening colonoscopy or surgery were prospectively enrolled. Polypoid lesion tissue samples were collected and frozen. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction for IFNγ, TWEAK, and VEGF-A mRNA expression was performed. Immunoassays for VEGF-A, VEGF-C, VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2, and VEGFR-3 were also performed. Nonparametric statistics, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, and logistic multiple regression analysis were used. Results: IFNγ and TWEAK mRNA expression was higher in patients with T2 or more advanced colorectal cancer than in those with adenomas or T1 cancer (p < 0.001 and p = 0.01, respectively). IFNγ and TWEAK mRNA expression levels directly correlated with VEGF-A mRNA expression levels (rho = 0.44, p < 0.001 and rho = 0.29, p = 0.004, respectively). On the contrary, IFNγ and TWEAK mRNA expression levels inversely correlated with VEGF-C protein levels (rho = –0.29, p = 0.04 and rho = –0.31, p = 0.03, respectively). Similarly, IFNγ and TWEAK mRNA expression levels inversely correlated with VEGFR2 protein levels (rho = –0.38, p = 0.033 and rho = –0.40, p = 0.025, respectively). Conclusion: This study showed that in colorectal polypoid lesions, IFNγ and TWEAK expressions are directly correlated to VEGF-A expression but inversely correlated with VEGFR2 levels, suggesting a possible feedback mechanism in the regulation of VEGF-A expression.


The impacts of trade policy reform on poverty have been a subject of heated debate. Some have argued that multilateral trade reform could make substantial inroads into global poverty, while others assert that the price changes associated with global trade reform are minimal and may not be distinguishable from price fluctuations induced by annual shocks to the global economy. This paper formally addresses the issue by developing an approach to assess whether poverty changes induced by trade reform are statistically discernable from the average annual random fluctuations in poverty due to inherent commodity market volatility. We focus specifically on the staple grains sector. Volatility in the grains markets is implemented via stochastic supply shocks introduced into a CGE model of the global economy. The resulting price distributions are inputted into a micro-simulation model built upon national household surveys in order to evaluate the likely poverty impacts. Conclusions are drawn based on comparison of the resulting poverty distributions from the weather-induced variability only, versus the combined effect of the latter with trade reform as well. Hypothesis tests permit us to determine whether the two distributions are statistically distinct. Results indicate that, when only grains markets are considered, the short-run impacts on poverty of trade liberalization can not be distinguished from market volatility in six of the fifteen focus countries.


This article analyzes usage of the term "supersessionism," in the December 2015 document authored by the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and entitled, "The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable: A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations on the Occasion of the 50 th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate " (No.4). After setting the document in the context of postconcilar Catholic reflection on Jews and Judaism, the article argues that while "Gifts and the Calling" provides important guidance for theological reflection, the document does not identify supersessionism with necessary precision. Drawing upon the thought of the French-Jewish historian Jules Isaac, and the Methodist theologian R. Kendall Soulen, the article demonstrates how their critical remarks about a particular Christian teaching regarding Christ's fulfillment of Jewish law greatly clarifies the language of supersessionism for the Catholic-Jewish dialogue.


Purpose – To: evaluate Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory as functional models of decision making and risk within various contexts; compare and analyze risk models and decision-making models; evaluate models of stock risk developed by Robert Engle and related models; establish whether the models are related and have the same foundations; relate risk, decision making and options theory; and develop the foundations for a new model of decision making and risk named "belief systems". Design/methodology/approach – Critiques existing academic work in different contexts. Analyzes the shortcomings of various measures of risk, and group decision making, which was not addressed in developing Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory. Develops the characteristics of a mew model for decision making and risk named "belief systems", and then differentiates it from belief networks. Findings – Decision making is a multi-factor, multi-dimensional process that often requires the processing of information, and thus, it is inaccurate to impose rigid models in decision making; the existing metrics for quantifying risk are inadequate; Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory were developed using questionable methods and data, and are impractical; the analysis of probabilistic insurance and most of the theories and "effects" developed by Kahneman and Tversky's articles are invalid and impractical; Prospect Theory, Cumulative Prospect Theory, Expected Utility Theory, and market-risk models are conceptually the same and do not account for many facets of risk and decision making; risk and decision making are better quantified and modeled using a mix of situation-specific dynamic, quantitative and qualitative factors; belief systems can better account for the multi-dimensional characteristics of risk and decision making. Research limitations/implications – Areas for further research include: development of dynamic market-risk models that incorporate asset-market psychology, liquidity, market size, frequency of trading, knowledge differences among market participants, and trading rules in each market; and further development of concepts in belief systems. Practical implications – Decision making and risk assessment are multi-criteria processes that typically require some processing of information, and thus cannot be defined accurately by rigid quantitative models; Prospect Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory are abstract, rigid, and are not practical models for decision making; and existing market-risk models are inaccurate, and thus the international financial system may be compromised. Originality/value – The issues discussed are relevant to government regulators, central banks, judges, risk managers, executives, derivatives regulators, stock exchange regulators, legislators, psychologists, boards of directors, finance professionals, management science/operations research professionals, health-care-informatics professionals, scientists, engineers, and people in any situation that requires decision making and risk assessment.


The authors of the book are quite well-known as professors in Michigan University. It is one of the best book for a new-comer or student in supply chain field. It owns a lot of industrial insights as well as supporting cases and also, quite a few other useful data and tables. The theoretic structure of the book is quite fruitful and helpful, especially to people that want to have a clear and complete picture of the supply chain management. It not only discusses the issues of logistics and supply chain management, but also provides reader with a whole new view of the business operation and management. It raises the question how to run a successful and competitive firm and offers some useful ideas to help reader reach the conclusion by himself. It is quite a good book for students to use at class and read off class as well. Of course, managers who interested in supply chain and logistics should appreciate it very much.


Abstract This article explores the ways rural followers of Marcus Garvey crafted and adapted a theological understanding of African redemption in the South during the 1920s and early 1930s. Members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association rarely spoke in concrete terms about the process of redemption or African state-building. Rather, when rural members talked of African redemption, they did so in eschatological terms, that is, as a theory of the end of the world. Above all else, they understood "redemption" to mean both their own individual salvation and the collective deliverance of black people. Their interpretations ranged from postmillennial visions of a climax of the history of the race bringing earthly peace and prosperity to a premillennial interpretation that plotted sudden, often violent, deliverance of the most race-conscious. These variant and seemingly contradictory readings of African redemption reveal an ontological shift among black Christians in the rural South during these years. African redemption provided rural Garveyites an existential language for reappraising notions of redemption, retribution, and the fate of the race in this world and the next that had profound implications for ongoing efforts to seek political and economic justice. This struggle over meaning and purpose lay at the very heart of rural black politics in this period as both an ideological constraint and a vehicle for innovation.


Culture and politics in Morocco are an interactive blend of conflict and congruence. John P. Entelis argues that no single form defines Morocco's national identity and identifies four cultural patterns-monarchial, modernist, militarist, and messianic-that compete with each other yet share strong ties to an overriding cultural core of 'Muslim consensus'. This consensus explains much of the country's success in reconciling cultural differences in a relatively nonviolent manner and in creating a pluralistic, open and populist society. Entelis argues that Morocco, at a critical juncture in its postindependence history, may be able to overcome challenges from international pressures and socioeconomic problems because of its cultural harmony. Previously published in 1989 by Westview Press.


Wave equation depth migration methods such as phase-shift plus interpolation, extended split-step Fourier, or Fourier finite difference plus interpolation require a limited set of reference velocities for efficient wavefield extrapolation through laterally inhomogeneous velocity models. In basic implementations, reference velocities are selected as either a linear or a geometric progression spanning the range of model velocities. However, it is unlikely that the model velocities are distributed linearly or geometrically. If the reference velocities can be distributed statistically to more closely approximate the actual distribution, the accuracy of the extrapolation step can be improved. In this paper, we present a modification to a previously published algorithm for statistical selection of reference velocities (Bagaini et al. 1995). Key features of our automatic reference velocity selection algorithm are 1) division of the velocity distribution into clusters 2) entropy based statistical control to determine the minimal number of reference velocities required within a cluster, 3) a novel 'greedy search' that selects reference velocities within each cluster at or near peaks in the probability distribution, and 4) calculation of a single reference velocity if the velocity range within each cluster is less than a minimum threshold. We show that our method is superior to Bagaini et al.'s method, which includes only step (2) above, and - in place of step (3) - selection of reference velocities by piecewise constant interpolation of the probability distribution of the underlying velocities. Our automatic velocity selection algorithm can be run using a single parameter – the approximate desired velocity step expressed as a percentage – although the maximum step and minimum threshold can be specified if the defaults are not suitable. The automatic velocity selection algorithm is implemented as part of a prestack PSPI depth migration of the 2-D Marmousi model. The resulting images are clearly superior to images created using a linear or geometrical distribution of a similar number of reference velocities. The algorithm is suitable for 3-D data, where the tradeoff between accuracy and efficiency is more pronounced.


This article examines the several and sometimes contradictory accounts of sentencing in proposed revisions to the Model Penal Code. At times, sentencing appears to be an art, dependent upon practical wisdom; in other instances, sentencing seems more of a science, dependent upon close analysis of empirical data. I argue that the new Code provisions are at their best when they acknowledge the legal and political complexities of sentencing, and at their worst when they invoke the rhetoric of desert. When the Code focuses on the sentencing process in political context, it offers opportunities to deploy both practical wisdom and empirical analysis that may actually make American sentencing less arbitrary and, importantly, less severe. When the Code retreats to retributive or desert theory, it appeals to indeterminate and unpredictable principles that threaten to undermine the new provisions' more salutary proposals.


The problem of the genuineness of Antigone's lines Ant. 904–20 has never been satisfactorily resolved. The passage has been vehemently impugned for more than a century and a half; yet the majority of editors print it without brackets, and probably the majority of scholars accept it. This stalemate is aggravated by the manner in which the argument has traditionally been conducted.


We present K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph (KMOS) observations of 18 red supergiant (RSG) stars in the Sculptor Group galaxy NGC 55. Radial velocities are calculated and are shown to be in good agreement with previous estimates, confirming the supergiant nature of the targets and providing the first spectroscopically confirmed RSGs in NGC 55. Stellar parameters are estimated for 14 targets using the J-band analysis technique, making use of state-of-the-art stellar model atmospheres. The metallicities estimated confirm the low-metallicity nature of NGC 55, in good agreement with previous studies. This study provides an independent estimate of the metallicity gradient of NGC 55, in excellent agreement with recent results published using hot massive stars. In addition, we calculate luminosities of our targets and compare their distribution of effective temperatures and luminosities to that of other RSGs, in different environments, estimated using the same technique.