fore in danger of being opened. The exposure is also difficult. After trying the above incision, I have now resorted to another. The skin is incised a few millimetres above the skin margin. The incision is therefore on the skin portion of the umbilicus. A thick white sheath is at once revealed. If this is incised horizontally with a deep cut the thick sheath gapes, and the insertion of an artery forceps will easily pick up the vein. The procedure is simple and takes only a few minutes. The incision heals well with a hardly noticeable scar.-I am, etc.,


With the increasing human activities in the marine environment, such as fisheries, dredging, coastal protection or construction of marine infrastructure, seabed sediment and habitat mapping have become highly relevant for the development of sustainable marine management strategies. Compared to traditional mapping methods, primarily based on bed sampling, multibeam echosounding belongs to the cutting-edge technology to time-efficiently acquire high-resolution bathymetric and backscatter (BS) data over large areas. Using classification methods to combine the acoustic data with ground-truthing, large-scale maps can be automatically and objectively produced, that enables to describe the distribution of benthic habitats or quantify marine resources. However, acoustic sediment classification still does not allow to discriminate between the entire heterogeneity of the seabed and is generally applied to a single multibeam echosounder dataset by means of revealing the seabed state only at a given time instant. Two challenging issues addressed within the scope of this thesis are summarized as: (1) Investigation on the applicability of repetitive multibeam (single-frequency) BS measurements for monitoring the seabed; and (2) Evaluation of the potential of multispectral BS to increase the acoustic discrimination between different seabed environments.


Objectives: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, the causal relationship between NAFLD and the development of CKD is uncertain, particularly in patients with type 2 diabetes. We aimed to investigate the association between the presence and severity of NAFLD and incident CKD in patients with type 2 diabetes. Research Design and Methods: In this longitudinal cohort study of patients with type 2 diabetes, 3,188 patients with preserved renal function were followed for the occurrence of incident CKD. NAFLD was defined as the presence of hepatic steatosis on ultrasonography without any other causes of chronic liver diseases. Advanced liver fibrosis of NAFLD was defined as NAFLD fibrosis score >0.675. CKD was defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) Results: At baseline, 1,729 (54.2%) patients had NAFLD, of whom 94 (5.4%) had advanced liver fibrosis. During the follow-up of 8.3 ± 3.6 years, 472 (14.8%) patients developed incident CKD, 220 (15.1%) in the non-NAFLD group, 226 (12.8%) in the hepatic steatosis alone group and 26 (27.7%) in the advanced liver fibrosis group. There was no increased risk of incident CKD in the NAFLD group compared with the non-NAFLD group (p = 0.79). However, among patients with NAFLD, advanced liver fibrosis was associated with an increased risk of CKD (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.78 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14-2.76), p=0.011). Conclusions: Advanced liver fibrosis in NAFLD is independently associated with an increased risk of incident CKD in patients with type 2 diabetes. Disclosure D. Seo: None. Y. Cho: None. S. Ahn: None. S. Seo: None. S. Hong: None. Y. Lee: None. S. Kim: None. Funding National Research Foiundation (2017R1D-1A1B03034581)


The SpaceWire network standard is used in spacecraft communications and has been selected for future ESA satellites. In order to guarantee the safety and reliability of on-board systems, the designers have to make sure that all critical timing constraints are satisfied. The SpaceWire network is a wormhole based network which makes its timing analysis significantly complex. Some methods for computing upper-bounds of end-to-end delays of certain wormhole network models have been developed. However, those models require some explicit assumptions and dedicated real-time mechanisms which cannot be supported by the current SpaceWire networks. Moreover, some work has proposed analysis approaches for SpaceWire networks assuming the Round-Robin arbitration scheme only. In this paper, we focus on the priority based arbitration scheme instead and we propose a worst-case response time analysis to evaluate the end-to-end delays of traffic transmissions in SpaceWire networks. The corresponding proofs to our analysis are presented along with a case study.


OBJECTIVE: To investigate the benefit of intensive dynamic exercises in comparison to range of motion (ROM) and isometric exercises in rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: 100 consecutive rheumatoid arthritis patients on stable medication were randomly assigned to (1) intensive dynamic group exercises which included full weight bearing exercises and conditioning exercises on a stationary bicycle while the heart rate was maintained at 70-85% of the age predicted maximum heart rate, (2) range of motion (ROM) exercises and isometric exercises in a group, (3) individual isometric and ROM exercises, and (4) home instructions for isometric and ROM exercises. Variables of physical condition, muscle strength, joint mobility, daily functioning (HAQ), and disease activity were assessed before and after the 12 week exercise course, and 12 weeks thereafter. An intention to treat analysis was performed. RESULTS: Increases in aerobic capacity (n = 77), muscle strength, and joint mobility in the high intensity exercise programme were respectively 17%, 17% and 16% and differed significantly from the changes in aerobic capacity, muscle strength, and joint mobility in the other exercise groups. No deterioration of disease activity was observed. Twelve weeks after discontinuation of the exercise course the gain in physical capacity had disappeared. CONCLUSIONS: Intensive dynamic training is more effective in increasing aerobic capacity, joint mobility, and muscle strength than ROM exercises and isometric training in rheumatoid arthritis patients with well controlled disease.


Recent empirical studies argue that the implementation of quality standards among agricultural exporters has the character of a fixed cost. However, this can be misleading if fixed costs are only understood in terms of required investments. Instead, we argue that standard adoption is the result of exporting countries' private and public organisations managing to solve the standard implementation problem. We demonstrate that a newly developed theoretical approach to the role of problem solving in the production process can be interpreted as a model of a country's ability to implement foreign trade standards. Predictions of this model are tested within a gravity framework: we compare doing business indicators as proxies for the institutional characteristics of countries that successfully export fruits, dairy products, meat, fish, and vegetables to the EU (as a high standard market) against characteristics of countries that serve all markets. Results indicate that institutional characteristics like e.g. starting a business, enforcing contracts, and getting credits are more relevant for exports to markets with relatively high quality standards than for overall exports.


Spent sulphite liquor, the major byproduct from the sulphite pulp production process, was diluted to 50% and used for production of an edible zygomycete Rhizopus sp. The focus was on production, yield, and composition of the fungal biomass composition. The fungus grew well at 20 to 40°C, but 32°C was found to be preferable compared to 20 and 40°C in terms of biomass production and yield (maximum of 0.16 g/g sugars), protein content (0.50-0.60 g/g), alkali-insoluble material (AIM) (ca 0.15 g/g), and glucosamine content (up to 0.30 g/g of AIM). During cultivation in a pilot airlift bioreactor, the yield increased as aeration was raised from 0.15 to 1.0 vvm, indicating a high demand for oxygen. After cultivation at 1.0 vvm for 84 h, high yield and production of biomass (up to 0.34 g/g sugars), protein (0.30-0.50 g/g), lipids (0.02-0.07 g/g), AIM (0.16-0.28 g/g), and glucosamine (0.22-0.32 g/g AIM) were obtained. The fungal biomass produced from spent sulphite liquor is presently being tested as a replacement for fishmeal in feed for fish aquaculture and seems to be a potential source of nutrients and for production of glucosamine.


Global orbits connect the saddle points in an infinite period through the homoclinic and heteroclinic types of manifolds. Different from the periodic movement analysis, it requires special strategies to obtain expression of the orbit and detect the associated profound dynamic behaviors, such as chaos. In this paper, a global dynamic frequency method is applied to detect the homoclinic and heteroclinic bifurcation of the complicated nonlinear systems. The so-called dynamic frequency refers to the newly introduced frequency that varies with time t, unlike the usual static variable. This new method obtains the critical bifurcation value as well as the analytic expression of the orbit by using a standard five-step hyperbolic function-balancing procedure, which represents the influence of the higher harmonic terms on the global orbit and leads to a significant reduction of calculation workload. Moreover, a new homoclinic manifold analysis maps the periodic excitation onto the target global manifold that transfers the chaos discussion of non-autonomous systems into the orbit computation of the general autonomous system. That strategy unifies the global bifurcation analysis into a standard orbit approximation procedure. The numerical simulation results are shown to compare with the predictions.


Abstract. Many phenomena (such as attenuation and range degradation) can influence the accuracy of rainfall radar estimates. They introduce errors that increase as the distance from radar increases, thereby decreasing the reliability of radar estimates for applications that require quantitative precipitation estimation. The present paper evaluates radar error as a function of the range, in order to correct the rainfall radar estimates. The radar is calibrated utilizing data from the rain gauges. Then, the G/R ratio between the yearly rainfall amount measured in each rain gauge position during 2008 and the corresponding radar rainfall amount is calculated against the slant range. The trend of the G/R ratio shows two behaviours: a concave part due to the melting layer effect close to the radar location and an almost linear, increasing trend at greater distances. A best fitting line is used to find an adjustment factor, which estimates the radar error at a given range. The effectiveness of the methodology is verified by comparing pairs of rainfall time series that are observed simultaneously by collocated rain gauges and radar. Furthermore, the variability of the adjustment factor is investigated at the scale of event, both for convective and stratiform events. The main result is that there is not a univocal range error pattern, as it also depends on the characteristics of the considered event. On the other hand, the adjustment factor tends to stabilize itself for time aggregations of the order of one year or greater.


Previous research finds negative effects in the short and medium term for those who initially entered the labor force during weak labor markets. Discerning the effects of initial market conditions is difficult as young workers may attempt to time their entry by, for example, spending additional time in school during weak markets. In this paper, we take advantage of a novel form of exogenous variation that affected a large group of older workers to study longer-term effects of entering labor markets during bad economic times. Using the Health and Retirement Study, we focus on veterans from the draft era and examine the effects of leaving military service during periods of high unemployment on earnings, wealth, and retirement. These men had little choice about the timing of entry into the labor force; they generally were drafted or volunteered based on world events, and they left the military at the end of fixed contracts after short terms of service. Our results indicate that draft-era veterans who entered the labor force during a weaker economy had lower levels of earnings, and the effects lasted for more than a decade. We also find that while veterans who enter weak labor markets eventually catch up with other veterans in terms of earnings, the accumulated negative effects on wealth and financial preparedness for retirement are large; we find some evidence that veterans compensate by extending their working lives.


the important finding that a negative thermogram virtually excludes a recent deep venous thrombosis. Not unexpectedly, "old" venous thrombi, in which the active processes of platelet aggregation and fibrinolysis are long past, are associated with normal thermograms unless the legs are exercised, when collaterals become evident as linear "hot spots.' This manoeuvre was not described in the paper by Dr Thomas and others and presumably was not performed. In a previous investigation with infrared thermography, in which the material was revised to exclude "old" thrombi, the predictive value of a negative thermogram was determined to be 91%,7 a conclusion later confirmed by others. Liquid crystal thermography has yielded similar results. It would have been helpful for Dr Thomas and others to have given details of the false negative thermograms-for example, the possible age and size of the thrombus, the veins affected, and the likely clinical significance of the thrombi.


Random orientation of liquid-suspended magnetic nanoparticles (Ferrofluids) gives rise to a zero net magnetic orientation. An external magnetic field tends to align these nanoparticles into clusters, leading to a strong linear dichroism on a propagating wave. Using 10 nm-sized Fe3O4, we experimentally realize a polarization-sensitive magnetic modulator operating at terahertz wavelengths. We reached a modulation depth of 66% using a field as low as 35 mT. The proposed concept offers a solution towards fundamental terahertz magnetic modulators.


Background The hands are an important aesthetic feature that can reveal aging through surface pigmentary changes, loss of skin thickness and ectatic dorsal hand veins. Techniques addressing these changes already exists but are not routinely combined for optimum results. Objective The combination techniques of dorsal hand veins sclerotherapy and sub-dermal filler injections are described. Methods The dorsal hand veins are treated with sclerotherapy (0.5% Sodium tetradecyl sulphate). This is then followed by subdermal injection of 0.75 mL–1.5 mL calcium hydroxylapatite (Radiesse, Merz) per hand, in conjunction with tumescent anaesthetic. The dorsal hands should be gently massaged for 2 min (per hand), twice a day for two days. If necessary, the procedure can be repeated after one month for further improvement. Results The techniques of sclerotherapy and filler injections complement each other well in hand rejuvenation. Calcium hydroxylapatite is safe and effective for hands and associated with high patient satisfaction. In suitable patients, the reduction in ectatic veins from sclerotherapy results in a longstanding improvement that complements volume restoration with fillers. Conclusion Aging hands with ectatic dorsal hand veins and skin atrophy/wrinkling not fully responsive to filler correction alone can further improve with the combination of sclerotherapy and filler injections.


One could not pertinently speak about the recent experience of multi-partyism in Africa without acknowledging the 'teleological meta-narratives' of democracy. That is, a system of knowledge and a series of discourses, theories and ideologies that were constructed around the very idea of political liberalization, and that helped to frame its principles, as well as to orientate its form, expression, mode of functioning and representation. But whatever their orientations, assumptions or theoretical oppositions, all these savoirs shared the same messianic approach to democracy and the same uni-linear evolutionist vision about the social and political adjustment which many African countries were going through in the early 1990s. Indeed, political liberalization, as envisaged by both developmentalist and modernist philosophies, assumed not only the universal principle of elective representation, good governance, freedom, fair competition and alternation, but also embraced the enlightenment ideals of emancipation, progress, change and betterment. In this contribution, which does not claim to assess the experience of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa, we want to examine how these grand narratives have affected Africans' imaginations and the way they represent multi-party politics, and how, as a result of these millenarian ideologies, many of them have transformed the political adjustment into a sort of mythology of redemption. However, what is much more important to us is to demonstrate that modernist (developmentalist and evolutionist) formulations of the democratization process of the early 1990s, as a simple replication of western modernity, have failed to take up the conceptual and methodological challenges which these theories encountered when they travelled from the West to sub-Saharan Africa.


This study is on the common European immigration policy and specifically on the rights of resident third country nationals, illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. This study examines a puzzle: despite the rights of legally resident third country nationals have expanded considerably those of the illegal immigrants and asylum seekers have diminished in the course of the European integration process. This study highlights the role played by the securitization process in explaining such puzzle. The research reached the following findings: first, the rights of TCNs are expanding since their integration into the societies started to handled in the realm of social and economic integration and second the illegal immigrants and asylum seekers rights are decreasing as they have become a part of the security policies in the EU level as a consequence of being presented as threat. This study reached a conclusion that policies concerning integration of third country nationals and the policies on preventing illegal immigration despite seemingly contradictory are indeed integral parts. In other words, the securitization process during which a subject/issue is transformed into the realm of security policy through the discourse of the securitizing actor, is an all-inclusive process, though the legally resident immigrants are not presented as threat as opposed to the criminalization of the illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. Therefore, the extraordinary measures in protecting borders -legimized on the grounds of criminilized illegal immigrants and fake asylum seekers- and the recognition of the TCNs as equal members rather than vulnerable internal others can not be sustained simultaneously.


Transformation and the embracing of diversity remains a major challenge at South African universities. This article reflects on the contradictory nature of first-year university students' experiences of diversity and highlights the difficult terrain that students need to navigate, often with hardly any preparation for the university environment based on their schooling experiences. Using the capabilities approach as the guiding theoretical framework, the article interprets these contradictory diversity experiences in the first year in light of data on encounters with diversity at high school. It draws on the results of a large-scale mixed methods study. Qualitative data, using focus group and visual methodologies, was collected from 270 first-year students in 2009 and 2010. In addition, a total of 2.816 high school learners selected from a diverse sample of 20 local schools completed a mainly quantitative survey that included various items about interaction with diverse peers and the broader community as well as engagement with complex and diverse ideas. The school-level data provides important contextual background for understanding and interpreting students' experiences. Such understanding is critical if we are to confront and challenge the contradictory diversity experiences during the first year at university.


We propose and estimate a structural model of daily stock market activity to test competing theories of trading volume. The model features informed rational speculators and uninformed agents who trade either to hedge endowment shocks or to speculate on perceived information. To identify the model parameters, we exploit enormous empirical variation in trading volume, market liquidity, and return volatility associated with regular and extended-hours markets as well as news arrival. We find that the model matches market activity well when we allow for overconfidence. At plausible values of overconfidence and risk aversion, overconfidence--not hedging--explains nearly all uninformed trading, while rational informed speculation accounts for most overall trading. Without overconfident investors, over 99% of trading volume disappears even when informed rational traders disagree maximally. These findings illustrate that modest overconfidence can help explain stark patterns in stock market activity.


About 55% of spinal tumors are extradural arising from vertebral bodies, epidural and surrounding neural and soft tissues. More than 90% of extradural spinal tumors are metastatic lesions. Extradural spinal tumors are common cause of back pain, sensory motor deficit and sphincters dysfunction. The wide range of lesions and varied clinical profile, make management of spinal extradural tumors a challenging task for any neurosurgeon. Aim of this study is to analyze and discuss the results of extradural spinal tumors after surgical treatment and relevant literature will be reviewed. This is a retrospective study of 36 patients who were operated for spinal extradural tumors between May 1999 and December 2012 in our institute. Follow up period ranged from 3 years to 12 years. Functional neurological outcome was assessed by McCormick's grading. There were 20 male and 16 female and age ranged from 10 to 80 years. 30 patients presented with back pain and 15 had radicular pain. On presentation 18 patients had motor sensory deficit and 15 had sphincters dysfunction. Most common involved level of spines were thoracic followed by cervical and lumbar. Gross total excision of masses were carried out in all cases. Common pathologies were neurofibromas (16), Ewing's sarcoma (7), granulomas (3), metastatic lesions (2), angiolipoma (2), chondroma (2), aneurysmal bone cyst (1), plasmacytoma (1), rabdomyosarcoma (1) and neuroblastoma (1). Out of 14 patients who harbored malignant pathology 12 patients received radio and chemotherapy. Post operative wound infection occurred in 5 patients. Regarding post operative neurological status, 18 patients showed improvement, 6 patients remained same and 12 patients had deteriorated neurology. Tumor recurrence occurred in 15 patients; 12 patients with malignant and 3 patients with benign lesions on follow up period. There was no surgery related mortality, however, 11 patients died during 3 years follow up period due to adverse pathology they were having. Nepal Journal of Neuroscience 13:3-10, 2016


Ageing affects many phenotypic traits, but its consequences for social behaviour have only recently become apparent. Social networks emerge from associations between individuals. The changes in sociality that occur as individuals get older are thus likely to impact network structure, yet this remains unstudied. Here we use empirical data from free-ranging rhesus macaques and an agent-based model to test how age-based changes in social behaviour feed up to influence: (1) an individual's level of indirect connectedness in their network; and (2) overall patterns of network structure. Our empirical analyses revealed that female macaques became less indirectly connected as they aged for some, but not all network measures examined, suggesting that indirect connectivity is affected by ageing, and that ageing animals can remain well integrated in some social contexts. Surprisingly, we did not find evidence for a relationship between age distribution and the structure of female macaque networks. We used an agent-based model to gain further understanding of the link between age-based differences in sociality and global network structure, and under which circumstances global effects may be detectable. Overall, our results suggest a potentially important and underappreciated role of age in the structure and function of animal collectives, which warrants further investigation.


This section is intended to supply the readers with quick informa tion on recent developments in Hospitality Education and Research. Research Notes may consist of: (1) new research findings including preliminary data from pilot studies; (2) reports on small research pro jects not requiring extensive presentation; (3) case study reports that describe a truly new phenomenon; (4) methodological comments; (5) brief theoretical statements that are either an original contribution or comments on previously published studies. All such notes must be prepared in the appropriate Hospitality Education and Research Journal style and not exceed 3000 words.


In previous work from this laboratory, it has been found that the urban heat island intensity (UHI) can be scaled with the urban length scale and the wind speed, through the time-dependent energy balance. The heating of the urban surfaces during the daytime sets the initial temperature, and this overheating is dissipated during the night-time through mean convection motion over the urban surface. This may appear to be in contrast to the classical work by Oke (1973). However, in this work, we show that if the population density is used in converting the population data into urbanized area, then a good agreement with the current theory is found. An additional parameter is the "urban flow parameter," which depends on the urban building characteristics and affects the horizontal convection of heat due to wind. This scaling can be used to estimate the UHI intensity in any cities and therefore predict the required energy consumption during summer months. In addition, all urbanized surfaces are expected to exhibit this scaling, so that increase in the surface temperature in large energy-consumption or energy-producing facilities (e.g., solar electric or thermal power plants) can be estimated.


Recent work has observed that one can outperform exact inference in Bayesian neural networks by tuning the "temperature" of the posterior on a validation set (the "cold posterior" effect). To help interpret this phenomenon, we argue that commonly used priors in Bayesian neural networks can significantly overestimate the aleatoric uncertainty in the labels on many classification datasets. This problem is particularly pronounced in academic benchmarks like MNIST or CIFAR, for which the quality of the labels is high. For the special case of Gaussian process regression, any positive temperature corresponds to a valid posterior under a modified prior, and tuning this temperature is directly analogous to empirical Bayes. On classification tasks, there is no direct equivalence between modifying the prior and tuning the temperature, however reducing the temperature can lead to models which better reflect our belief that one gains little information by relabeling existing examples in the training set. Therefore although cold posteriors do not always correspond to an exact inference procedure, we believe they may often better reflect our true prior beliefs.


To study the biomimetic mineralization behaviour of piezoelectric pulp-cap films, bioelectret chitosan films were prepared by polarization in an electric field and soaked in PBS with lysozyme for piezoelectricity attenuation testing. The results showed that comparing these with samples stored in an exsiccator, the films soaked in PBS had accelerated d33 loss. Calcium phosphate crystals nucleated and grew on the surfaces of samples soaked in supersaturated calcification solution at 37 for 1, 6, 12 and 24 h. OCP and HA were found to co-precipitate on the surfaces within 24 h of immersion. This novel piezoelectric inorganic-organic pulp-cap has the potential to be applied in dental pulp capping.


Quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are applied in combination to investigate the dynamics of methane in H-ZSM-5 zeolite catalysts used for methanol-to-hydrocarbons reactions. Methane is employed as an inert model for the methanol reaction feedstock, and studies are made of the fresh catalyst and used catalysts with varying levels of coke buildup to investigate the effect of coking on reactant mobility. Measurements are made in the temperature range from 5 to 373 K. Methane mobility under these conditions is found to be extremely high in fresh ZSM-5, with the majority of movements occurring too fast to be resolved by the QENS instrument used. A small fraction of molecules undergoing jump diffusion on QENS time scales is identified and found to correspond with short-range jump diffusion within single zeolite pores as identified in MD simulations. Agreement between QENS and MD mobility measurements is found to be within 50%, validating the simulation approach employed. Methane diffusion is found to be minimally affected by moderate levels of coke buildup, while highly coked samples result in the confinement of methane to single pores within the zeolite with minimal long-range diffusion.


BACKGROUND
Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a cancer syndrome associated with many different cancer types. There are limited studies examining melanoma risk in this population.

OBJECTIVE
To identify melanoma cases in NF1 patients and compare melanoma incidence rates relative to a general population sample.

METHODS
A retrospective single institution case review of 857 NF1 patients (seen from 7/1997 to 7/2017) was conducted. We calculated age- and calendar period-adjusted standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) for white patients >20 years old overall (N=282) and for females (N=156) at their last visit date. We obtained general population melanoma reference rates from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 9 database.

RESULTS
Among 857 patients, 52.2% were female, 54% were <20 (mean±sd=10.9±4.6) years old, and 46% were >20 (40.4±14.9) years old at their last visit date. One white female patient had a malignant melanoma diagnosed at 47 years old. The adjusted SIR was 0.97 (95% CI 0.05-4.78) overall (N=282) and 1.62 (95% CI 0.08-7.98) for females (N=156).

CONCLUSIONS
We did not find statistical evidence for an increased melanoma risk in adults with NF1. However, additional large studies are warranted to clarify whether melanoma risk is increased in NF1 patients.


Bangladesh has become known as something of a success in advancing gender equality since the 1990s. There have been rapid gains in a number of social and economic domains, yet by most objective standards the current condition and status of women and girls within Bangladeshi society remain low. Rapid progress has come about under conditions of mass poverty and interlocking forms of social disadvantage, political instability and underdevelopment, overlain with persistent 'classic' forms of patriarchy. Mass employment of women and girls in the country's flagship export sector – the readymade garments (RMG) sector – has been one of the more visible and prominent changes in women's lives since its late 1970s' introduction.Whether and the extent to which RMG or garments employment has changed the lives of women workers for the better has been the subject of much debate, and the research and analysis it has generated offers valuable insights into the processes of economic and social empowerment for poor women in low income developing countries. Yet as this paper notes, close observers of social change in Bangladesh have become dissatisfied with the limits of a focus on individual economic empowerment. Paid work may enable some women to negotiate the 'structures of constraint' that shape their lives and relationships, but what of the structures of constraint themselves? In the Bangladesh context the experience of mass RMG employment has given rise to questions about whether women have gained greater recognition as citizens with rights and roles as carers in the private and political actors within the public spheres. Revisiting the question of women's empowerment in this context means interrogating whether paid employment has contributed to investments in the education and skills of women and girls, improvements in their public safety and rights to occupy public space. Given labour militancy in the sector and its partial successes in raising the minimum wage, what has the experience of labour politics meant for women's political empowerment? Drawing mainly on the rich literature available on women's RMG employment, this paper explores the wider and less well-documented effects of such employment on public policy relating to gender equality in these areas. It concludes that the overall direction of change in the industry points plainly to the need for investments in worker productivity, with a host of implications for women's work and gender equality more broadly. Factory owners have to date shown few signs of recognising their interests in supporting better state health, education and public safety for women and girls, or changing management practices to retain and raise productivity of skilled women workers. Yet with downward pressure on wages increasingly effectively resisted by workers at a time of global economic volatility and rising living costs, the tide may now be turning for the RMG workers of Bangladesh. Productivity gains require the state and the industry to treat women workers as full citizens with public policies that promote their skills and safety and respect, and which guarantee the representation of their rights and demands. RMG employment continues to be a source of empowerment for women in Bangladesh, but social and economic change means that that power now depends less on the individual economic effects of paid work on household decision-making than it once did. RMG employment is increasingly a source of power for women because of its more collective effects on women's citizenship and political agency. This matters all the more because of how this group is exposed to the volatilities of the global economy.


1. Human embryonic lung and skin fibroblasts were allowed to incorporate 32SO42- or 35SO42- and D-[1-3H]glucosamine. After removal of the medium the monolayer was subjected to sequential extractions by using EDTA, brief trypsin digestion, extraction with dithiothreitol ofllowed by freeze--thawing and extraction with trichloroacetic acid. The heparan sulphate and galactosaminoglycan contents of the various extracts were estimated after deaminative cleavage of the former component. Heparan sulphate was the major component of the trypsin digest, whereas galactosaminoglycans were the dominant component of other fractions. 2. Galactosaminoglycans of the various fractions were subjected to chemical (periodate oxidation/alkaline elimination) and enzymic (chondroitinase-AC and -ABC, as well as testicular hyaluronidase) degradations. Galactosaminoglycans from the insoluble cell fraction and the dithiothreitol extract contained larger amounts of L-iduronic acid than did those of other fractions. 3. Pulse-chase experiments were performed with and without replating of the cells at the start of the chase period. Radioactive glycans were isolated from the various extracts during the chase period. The half-lives of glycans of the insoluble cell fraction and the dithioreitol extract were shorter (5--8h) than were those of the trypsin digest and the EDTA extract (22h and 11h respectively). After replating of the cells in chase medium, radioactive cell-associated glycans were secreted from the cells and could be recovered in the trypsin digest, the EDTA extract and the medium. Furthermore, 35S/3H ratios of glycans from all these fractions decreased during the chase period. The following conclusions were reached. The insoluble cell fraction contains the synthesis pool and some structural material, whereas the soluble cell fraction is the storage and degradation pool. The dithiothreitol extract appears to contain the immediate precursors of secreted material. The trypsin-released glycans comprise structural components as well as material destined for pinocytosis or secretion into the medium. The EDTA extract is considered to consist of glycans en route to the medium. 4. The two presumptive precursor pools were preferentially depleted of L-iduronic acid-rich galactosaminoglycans during the chase. Glycans recovered from the trypsin digest, the EDTA extract and the medium during the chase contained larger amounts of periodate-resistant uronic acid residues (D-glucuronic acid and/or L-iduronic acid O-sulphate) than did their precursors. It is proposed that polymer-level modifications of secreted glycans are partly responsible for the results.


Improvements in disk speeds have not kept up with improvements in processor and memory speeds. One way to correct the resulting speed mismatch is to stripe data across many disks. The authors address how to stripe data to get maximum performance from the disks. Specifically, they examine how to choose the striping unit, that is, the amount of logically contiguous data on each disk. Rules for determining the best striping unit for a given range of workloads are synthesized. It is shown how the choice of striping unit depends on only two parameters: (1) the number of outstanding requests in the disk system at any given time, and (2) the average positioning time*data transfer rate of the disks. The authors derive an equation for the optimal striping unit as a function of these two parameters; they also show how to choose the striping unit without prior knowledge about the workload.<<ETX>>


This policy brief presents evidence that SME internationalisation is at very low level in Zimbabwe. It identifies the major factors that are inhibitors of SME internationalisation in the manufacturing sector, including negative attitudes by SME owner/managers, lack of international market knowledge, risk perception by owner/ managers, inadequate financial resources, poor networks and unfavourable regulation. Furthermore, it outlines the actions the government and industry associations need to take to improve the performance of manufacturing SMEs through internationalisation. It is recommended that government should work closely with SME associations to better understand their resource needs.


Aneurysmal benign fibrous histiocytoma is an uncommon pathologic variant of dermatofibroma. In addition to the features of a typical dermatofibroma, it has large cleft-like or cavernous blood-filled spaces with numerous hemosiderin pigments. It should be differentiated from angiomatoid malignant fibrous histiocytoma, malignant melanoma, and vascular tumors such as Kaposi's sarcoma and angiosarcoma. Atrophic dermatofibroma is also a rare variant of dermatofibroma, and the combination of aneurysmal and atrophic features is rarer still. We report a case of aneurysmal benign fibrous histiocytoma with atrophic features in a 27-year-old male who had a grayish-brown atrophic patchy lesion on his back for 2 years.


MASAO OHNISHI. Von Wright-Anderson's decision procedures for Lewis's systems S2 and S3. Ibid., pp. 139-142. Formula a is an E2-[S2-, E3-, S3-] tautology iff each F-row, Row (/), of the truth-table for a satisfies conditions I and II [I—III, I'-I", I'—III']. The terminology of Anderson (see this JOURNAL, vol. 19 (1954), p. 154) is presupposed. The conditions are these: (I[I']) Some constituent • /? of a has value Tin Row (i) where fl has value Fin Row (i). (II) Some constituents n y x , • • •, Uyn (n S 1) all have value T, and some constituent Dj8 has value F, in Row (i), where (y & y2 &• • • & y") D j3 is an E2-tautology. (Ill) Some constituent • /? has value Fin Row (i) where j8 is an E2-tautology. (II') Some constituents Dyi , • • •, Dyn (n 5: 1) have value 7", and some constituent • / J has value F, in Row (/) where (1°) for some constituents QSi , • • •, Q8m (m £: 0), (Dri & • • • & Ovn) => (D8i v • • • v Q 8 J is an LK-tautology, and (2°). (Dyi &• • • & Dy") = P is of modal order less than a and is an E3-tautology. (Ill') Some constituent D/3 has value F in Row (i), when for some constituents Oh , • • •, DSm (m & 0), fi v (Oh v • • • v DSm) is an LK-tautology and j8 is an E3-tautology. The main result is that o is provable in S2[S3, E2, E3] iff a is an S2-[S3-, E2-, E3-] tautology. Short and elegant proofs are obtained by applying cut-free Gentzen formulations of the systems. Since modal tautologies can be effectively determined the result provides an alternative, but laborious, decision method for the systems. RICHARD ROUTLEY


Yan, Wuguang. M.S., Department of Economics, Social and Applied Economics, Wright State University, 1996. Economic growth performance of selected countries. This paper reviews economic growth theories and studies the East Asian economic growth characteristics. The descriptive analysis shows that the high performance Asian Economies(the HPAEs) have been expericing continued rapid per capita income growth for over two decades. They have enjoyed the high savings rates, high investment rates, low population growth rates as well. The living standard of these countries tends more and more closer to the U.S. standard. Compare to the Latin American countries, the HPAEs' achievment is very impressive. The statistical analysis performed in this paper also offers the insights of the relationship between per capita GDP growth and other factors investment rate, the degree of openness, manufacturing growth, and the oil crisis. Regression results provided more information on detailed quantitical level. It is conducted that high savings made high investment possible; the manufacturing growth assured exports grow fast; the application of advanced technology and better educated work force guranteed the productivity growth. Free trade was a considerable factor in the HPAEs high growth. The oil crisis did negatively affect world economy. The results of this study are consistent with previouse studies. However, it addressed the economic growth issue from different levels and angles.


Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a muldisciplinary area which refers to environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people and objects. The rapid progress of technology and simultaneous reduction of hardware costs characterizing the recent years have enlarged the number of possible AmI applications, thus raising at the same time new research challenges. In particular, one important requirement in AmI is providing a proactive support to people in their everyday working and free-time activities. To this aim, Computer Vision represents a core research track since only through suitable vision devices and techniques it is possible to detect elements of interest and understand the occurring events. The goal of this thesis is presenting and demonstrating efficacy of novel machine vision research contributes for different AmI scenarios: object keypoints analysis for Augmented Reality purpose, segmentation of natural images for plant species recognition and heterogeneous people identification in unconstrained environments.


Significant progress in nonlinear and ultrafast optics has recently opened new and exciting opportunities for terahertz (THz) science and technology, which require the development of reliable THz sources, detectors, and supporting devices. In this work, we demonstrate the first solid-state technique for the coherent detection of ultra-broadband THz pulses (0.1–10 THz), relying on the electric-field-induced second-harmonic generation in a thin layer of ultraviolet fused silica. The proposed CMOS-compatible devices, which can be realized with standard microfabrication techniques, allow us to perform ultra-broadband detection with a high dynamic range by employing probe laser powers and bias voltages much lower than those used in gas-based techniques. Eventually, this may pave the way for the use of high-repetition-rate ultrafast lasers and commercially available electronics for the coherent detection of ultrashort THz pulses.


A period of a rational integral is the result of integrating, with respect to one or several variables, a rational function over a closed path. This work focuses particularly on periods depending on a parameter: in this case the period under consideration satisfies a linear differential equation, the Picard-Fuchs equation. I give a reduction algorithm that extends the Griffiths-Dwork reduction and apply it to the computation of Picard-Fuchs equations. The resulting algorithm is elementary and has been successfully applied to problems that were previously out of reach.


Significance The plant growth-promoting bacterium Bacillus subtilis is frequently found associated with plant roots where it protects plants from infection. Here, we demonstrate that B. subtilis root attachment depends on production of an extracellular matrix that holds the cells together in multicellular communities termed biofilms. We found that plant polysaccharides (major components of the plant's cell wall) act as an environmental cue that triggers biofilm formation by the bacterium. Furthermore, these plant polysaccharides can serve as a carbon source used to produce the extracellular matrix. This work sheds light on how plants stimulate their colonization by this plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium. Bacillus subtilis is a plant-beneficial Gram-positive bacterium widely used as a biofertilizer. However, relatively little is known regarding the molecular processes underlying this bacterium's ability to colonize roots. In contrast, much is known about how this bacterium forms matrix-enclosed multicellular communities (biofilms) in vitro. Here, we show that, when B. subtilis colonizes Arabidopsis thaliana roots it forms biofilms that depend on the same matrix genes required in vitro. B. subtilis biofilm formation was triggered by certain plant polysaccharides. These polysaccharides served as a signal for biofilm formation transduced via the kinases controlling the phosphorylation state of the master regulator Spo0A. In addition, plant polysaccharides are used as a source of sugars for the synthesis of the matrix exopolysaccharide. The bacterium's response to plant polysaccharides was observed across several different strains of the species, some of which are known to have beneficial effects on plants. These observations provide evidence that biofilm genes are crucial for Arabidopsis root colonization by B. subtilis and provide insights into how matrix synthesis may be triggered by this plant.


Using detailed micro-level data, we show that individuals' beliefs about climate change influence their choice and level of flood insurance coverage. Our empirical strategy exploits the heterogeneous impact of widening partisan polarization on climate change beliefs after the 2016 general election. We find that, in areas where flood insurance is not mandatory, a one-standard-deviation drop in the fraction of adults who believe global warming is happening leads to a 26% drop in the demand for flood insurance. In areas where flood insurance is mandatory, a similar drop in beliefs is associated with a lower propensity to carry voluntary content coverage and a higher likelihood of choosing the maximum deductible amount. As a secondary test, we exploit the flood insurance premium increases due to the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. We show that homeowners who do not believe global warming is happening were more likely to terminate mandatory flood insurance coverage by prepaying mortgages.


This book aims at outlining the fundamental tenets of Sufi mysticism, which derived its inspiration from the teachings of the Quran and developed as 'a process of spiritual culture' within the framework of Islam. The discussion opens with an introduction acquainting the readers with various attempts at a definition of Sufism and an appreciation of what it holds out for its adherents. Chapters are then devoted to delineations of Sufi concepts of God in immanence and transcendence; the worship of God and the descent of the absolute; inward and outward experience of divine presence; and, the concepts of good and evil, free will and determinism. The author's arguments are put forward convincingly. The exposition is lucid and scholarly. References supplementing the text are from original Arabic sources. Indexes cover names of persons and places, and technical terms. "The Quranic Sufism" is highly acclaimed. It fills the void felt by researchers and scholars as well as general readers.


This paper demonstrates a method for global localization of autonomous mobile robots based on the creation of visual memory maps, through detection and description of reference points from captured images, associated to odometer data in a specific environment. The proposed procedure, coupled with specific knowledge of the environment, allows for localization to be achieved through the pairing of these memorized features with the scene being observed in real time. Experiments are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed method for the localization of mobile robots in indoor environments. The results are analyzed and navigation alternatives and possible future refinements are discussed.


This research examines mainland China's reunification policy towards Taiwan with a particular focus on the years of 1979-1987. Following the establishment of Sino-U.S. diplomatic relations in January 1979, Communist leaders in Beijing carried out a series of intensive campaigns to woo the Nationalists in Taiwan to accept peace talks and to re-unify Taiwan and mainland China under the formula of "One Country Two Systems". The formula implies that, after unification, two different systems will remain - Socialism on the mainland and Capitalism in Taiwan for at least 50 years. Although Beijing's reunification policy has been further developed and persistently propagated, its efforts, so far, have met with little success. The Taiwan issue is by no means solved, neverthe-less, the peaceful initiatives from Beijing have significantly changed Taiwan-China relations as well as the situation in East Asia. The questions this study is seeking to answer are: What are the origins and development of contention over the issue of Taiwan. In the period of 1979-87, what have been the main factors which have led China's decision-makers to change their position on Taiwan from that of an antagonist seeking military liberation to one of a seeming conciliator seeking benign-sounding peaceful reunification. To what extent has the "One Country Two Systems" policy been effective in shaping Taiwan-China relations. In what sense does the policy theoretically and practically modify the continuing contest over the separation of Taiwan and China. Internationally, how has the "One Country Two Systems" formula been applied to solve the issues of Hongkong and Macao, as they have become important models for the future settlement of the Taiwan problem. And how has the policy been conditioned by Washington-Beijing and Washington-Taibei relations. Because these questions are closely interlinked, the study makes detailed review from international and intranational perspectives so as to disentangle the complexities of the Taiwan issue. Although the policy readjustment made in 1987 by the Taipei government in response to the PRC peaceful proposal signalled a crucial change on the route of China's national reunification and in relations between Taiwan and the mainland, the One Country Two Systems formula, as the study argues, has continued to fall short of providing an acceptable political solution of the Taiwan issue. However, as long as the Chinese Communists are in power, it seems certain that the formula will be maintained as their paramount principle for managing China-Taiwan relations.


Structural properties of populations strongly influence dynamic transport and interaction such as the transmission of infectious diseases. In this paper a hierarchical block model is investigated, that schematically describes the configuration of social communities. It is shown that these models can produce super-diffusive spread and that the balance between intra- and inter-community contacts is a suitable factor for controlling the expression of this feature. The qualitative characteristics of epidemics simulated with this model are reproduced in numerical simulations of a basic fractional-in-space differential equation SIR model. Based on a stochastic formulation of the block structure, a preliminary connection between both models can be derived. The results of this paper confirm that certain structural characteristics of interacting populations can be simulated in aggregated models by employing fractional derivatives.


Temporal variability of physicochemical parameters and phytoplankton primary productivity, abundance and composition were investigated at Babitonga Bay, southern Brazil, using a hierarchical sampling design on the scales of months, weeks and days during spring 2012 and summer 2013. Only temperature, respiration rates and concentrations of dissolved oxygen and silicate exhibited significant differences in the greatest timescale (seasons: spring; summer). In contrast, most physicochemical parameters, such as salinity and the concentration of nitrogen compounds, varied mainly among weeks and days. This short-scale variability was similarly observed for the microphytoplankton abundance, ranging from 0.04 to 1.7.10 6 cells L –1 during a bloom of the diatom Skeletonema costatum . Two major phytoplankton assemblages were associated with high primary production rates: > 30 μm centric diatoms such as Cyclotella spp. and Cymatodiscus sp., in spring; and a summer assemblage dominated by smaller, bloom-forming diatoms ( S. costatum and Eucampia cornuta ). Primary production ranged from 10.5 to 1793 mg C m –2 d –1 and varied significantly between days and months, being associated with the photosynthetic active radiation level and weather conditions on the sampling day. Abundance of specific plankton taxa appeared controlled by trophic interactions, as revealed for the mixotrophic, toxic dinoflagellate Dinophysis acuminata complex and its prey, the ciliate Mesodinium rubrum .


Richard Merrill is perhaps best known for editing the 1976 anthology Radical Agriculture, a formative text in the sustainable agriculture movement, along with the 1978 Energy Primer: Solar, Water, Wind, and Biofuels. Merrill was born in San Mateo, California, in 1941, and earned his MS in population biology at UCLA, studying with ecologist Monte Lloyd just as the modern ecology movement gathered power. He went on to study ecology at the Ph.D. level with another eminent ecologist, Joe Connell, at UC Santa Barbara, but left the academy to dedicate his life to the community-based teaching and activism that he considered more relevant during that time of tumultuous social change. He was profoundly inspired by the writings of the anarchist social ecologist Murray Bookchin. Merrill helped start the El Mirasol urban organic farm in Santa Barbara, California. In 1975, he founded the Environmental Horticulture Department at Cabrillo College, which he directed until retiring in 2005. While at Cabrillo, Merrill mentored and inspired several generations of students, who went on to become organic farmers, gardeners, and activists in the Central Coast region and beyond. Currently Merrill runs his own environmental consulting service, Merrill Associates. He recently co-authored (with Joe Ortiz) The Gardener's Table: A Guide to Natural Vegetable Growing and Cooking. He is now editing an anthology called The Greening of Agriculture: Creating a More Sustainable Future for our Food and Farms. Merrill spoke at The Organic Summit conference's plenary session in Washington state in 2009. Ellen Farmer conducted this oral history with Richard Merrill at her house in Santa Cruz, California, on April 18 and June 20, 2007.


Isolated cleft palate is among the most common human birth defects. The TCOF1 gene has been suggested as a candidate gene for cleft palate based on animal models. This study tests for association between markers in TCOF1 and isolated, nonsyndromic cleft palate using a case‐parent trio design considering parent‐of‐origin effects. Case‐parent trios from three populations (comprising a total of 81 case‐parent trios) were genotyped for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the TCOF1 gene. We used the transmission disequilibrium test and the transmission asymmetry test on individual SNPs. When all trios were combined, the odds ratio for transmission of the minor allele, OR(transmission), was significant for SNP rs15251 (OR = 2.88, P = 0.007), as well as rs2255796 and rs2569062 (OR = 2.08, P = 0.03; OR = 2.43, P = 0.041; respectively) when parent of origin was not considered. The transmission asymmetry test also revealed one SNP (rs15251) showing excess maternal transmission significant at the P = 0.005 level (OR = 6.50). Parent‐of‐origin effects were assessed using the parent‐of‐origin likelihood ratio test on both SNPs and haplotypes. While the parent‐of‐origin likelihood ratio test was only marginally significant for this SNP (P = 0.136), analysis of haplotypes of rs2255796 and rs15251 suggested excess maternal transmission. Therefore, these data suggest TCOF1 may influence risk of cleft palate through a parent‐of‐origin effect. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


It is argued that parents provide help with housing downpayments in order to encourage the production of grandchildren, and that such a subsidization emanates from the "demonstration effect:" a child's propensity to furnish parents with attention and care can be conditioned by parental example. Parents who desire such transfers in the future have an incentive to make transfers to their own parents in order to instill appropriate preferences in their children. This generates a derived demand for grandchildren since potential grandparents will be treated better by their adult children if the latter have their own children to whom to demonstrate the appropriate behavior. Empirical work indicates behavior consistent with subsidization of the production of grandchildren and the demonstration effect.


— This paper represents theory and evolution of Supply Chain Management (SCM) as well as highlights chronological prospective of SCM in terms of time frame in different areas of manufacturing and service industries. SCM has been widely researched in numerous application domains during the last decade. Despite the popularity of SCM research and applications, considerable confusion remains as to its meaning. There are several attempts made by researchers and practitioners to appropriately define SCM, particularly for the service industries. Amidst fierce competition in all industries, SCM has gradually been embraced as a proven managerial approach to achieving sustainable profits and growth. Finally, this study demonstrates Educational Supply Chain Management, as the application of SCM in the service industry, which would unlock other applications of SCM in different arenas, including service idustries. Integrated Tertiary Educational Supply Chain Management (ITESCM) model would be verified through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Techniques that would be described in this paper.


Canada's Western Grain Stabilization program is analyzed to determine the extent to which it acts as a buffer between the Canadian grains economy and the international grains economy. A dynamic stochastic simulation model is constructed to examine how Canada's Western Grain Stabilization Program modifies the transmission of: (a) domestic yield variability to the foreign grain market and (b) foreign demand variability to the domestic grains market. With respect to (a), the program was found to aggravate international uncertainty only very slightly while with respect to (b) it was found to substantially reduce domestic uncertainty.


This article explores the current state of biblical and theological literacy in the discipline of Victorian studies. It observes the ordinarily strong, careful, and impressive work done in recent decades, especially since some scholars have become interested in a postsecular approach to the field. It also, however, presents some egregious lapses in basic biblical and theological literacy that mar otherwise meticulous contemporary scholarship. This article hopes to open a conversation on how such glaring errors and misunderstandings have found their way into peer-reviewed work over and over again and to invite Victorian scholars to commit to finding ways to prevent this in the future.


Knowledge of space is inherently relative. Therefore, in order to make use of spatial knowledge, it must be encoded with respect to a particular perspective so that values such distance and angle have meaning. This stored perspective is known as the reference frame, and many judgments about remembered space are calculated based on this perspective. Past work using a single layout of objects has identified egocentric, environmental, and intrinsic cues that affect which perspective will be selected as the reference frame and have demonstrated that the particular perspective chosen is not limited to those experienced. This project expands on preliminary work to determine whether these same cues used for individual layouts influence the macro-reference frame used when making judgments between two independent layouts. Macro-reference frames are not explicitly studied, and therefore may or may not be subject to the same cues observed previously in the literature. Throughout the course of this project, results mirror those from the single layout literature where egocentric experience, external environmental cues, and intrinsic features of the object set all contribute to macro-reference frame selection. Furthermore, the macro-reference frame is formed independent of the micro-reference frames selected for the multiple, independent groups. These results indicate that previous work regarding reference frames for a single layout can safely be extended to macro-reference frame selection.


The formation of amorphous calcium carbonate particles from supersaturated aqueous solution is relevant to many processes in nature and industry. The present work introduces time-resolved static light scattering as a new tool to investigate the initial stage of this process. The process is initiated by mixing a solution of Na(2)CO(3) with a CaCl(2) solution or, alternatively, by mixing solutions of the dimethyl ester of carbonic acid and CaCl(2) with solutions of NaOH. Particle formation was analyzed by recording scattering curves as a function of time. Scattering data indicate the formation of compact spheres with diameters close to 360 nm. In the case of particle formation induced by ester hydrolysis, nucleation sets in after a certain lag time. Particle size is homogeneous, and the growth mechanism corresponds to an addition of ions or small constituent particles to a constant number of growing spheres. An increase of the NaOH concentration, which triggers ester hydrolysis, decreases the lag period prior to the onset of particle formation. An increase of the solution temperature also decreases this lag period. The temperature and NaOH dependent duration of the lag time could successfully be interpreted in terms of the kinetics of the ester hydrolysis. The work establishes time-resolved static light scattering as an efficient tool to investigate the particle formation process of amorphous calcium carbonate.


The use of 99mTc Macroaggregated Albumin (MAA) as a perfusion agent has been evaluated since 1965. With the advent of Positron Emission Tomography (PET), an initial attempt to produce pharmaceutical grade 68Ga-MAA was successfully performed in 1989. However, a comparison of both perfusion agents, beyond the advantages of PET over Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPET) has not been performed to date. Both 99mTc-MAA and 68Ga-MAA were used to perform lung perfusion studies in male Sprague Dawley rats. Images were taken at several time points. Animals were euthanized at 2 and 4 hours, organs collected and biodistribution determined. Biodistribution of both agents was very similar within the first hour; however, 99mTc is released from the MAA after the first hour and it is excreted into the urine. 68Ga-MAA remains stable until 68Ga decays and more than 95% of the injected activity is concentrated in lungs. The previously reported 6 hour "in vivo" half-life of MAA is challenged. Both imaging agents are suitable for lung perfusion studies. However, the observed half-life of MAA, greater than 6 hours, has significant implication for other applications. 68Ga-MAA is introduced as a possible candidate for Selective Internal Radiation Treatment Planning agent.


Second hand represent one of the sources of illness due to environmentally related disease and injury. Used clothes are sold all over the country since they are very cheap compared with the new ones. The current study included collecting samples from different used clothing markets in Baghdad and comparing the efficiency of detergents used to reduce microbial load in the garments. The samples were adult's clothes, babies' clothes, and fabric toys. Isolation and identification of bacteria with CFU were done to determine which cloth samples carry the highest bacterial contamination and dominant pathogenic microbes associated with skin infection. Culture and biochemical methods were used for the identification. Samples were washed using two types of detergents (soap, granulated detergent) to investigate the efficiency of these detergents in reducing bacterial contamination in such clothes. The results showed that the dominant isolate bacteria in adult clothes were Staphylococcus sp. and Enterobacteriace sp. while Enterobacteriace sp., Bacillus sp. in baby clothes and Bacillus sp. in fabric toys. The results of CFU found to be the highest in baby's clothes (4x10 6 ), fabric toys (2.2x10 4 ), adult clothes (20x10 2 )respectively. Results showed that the isolated fungi were Aspergilus flavus, Aspergilus niger, Rhizopus. After washing with detergents including soap and granulated detergent, the results showed that the granulated detergent is more effective in reducing bacterial and fungal contamination than soap in all samples. This study concluded that babies' cloths are vulnmrable to contaminating with bacteria and fungi then fabric toys followed by adult clothes. It's recommended to wash second hand clothes using other methods to remove both bacterial and fungal contamination such as disinfectants then ironing. [DOI: 10.22401/JUNS.20.3.19]


High cycle fatigue behavior of gravity cast magnesium alloy AZ91D were investigated using an up-and-down load method. High cycle fatigue tests were carried out up to 107cycles at a stress ratio R=0.1 and frequency of 90Hz on specimens using a high frequency fatigue machine. Fatigue fracture surfaces of specimens that in the high cycle fatigue tests were also observed using a scanning electron microscope for revealing the micro-mechanisms of fatigue crack initiation and propagation. The results showed that fatigue limit of AZ91D alloy at room temperature is 54.5 MPa under the numbers of cycle to failure Nf=107 conditions using up-and-down method calculation. The fatigue strength of the alloy is about 32% of its tensile strength. The micro-fatigue fracture surface of AZ91D alloy included three representative regions. These regions are fatigue initiation area, fatigue crack propagation area and fatigue fracture area. Fatigue cracks of AZ91D alloy initiate principally at inclusions of alloy surface and subsurface, and propagate along the grain boundary. The fatigue striations of fatigue crack propagation area are not clear. The fatigue fracture of test specimens shows the rupture characteristics of quasi-cleavage.


Contrary to postmodernist clichee, avant-garde moving image culture is not dead; rather it is ubiquitous, although in intertwined utopian and dystopian forms. A plethora of independent exhibition venues in Los Angeles and indeed the urban fabric of the city sustain unprecedentedly vibrant and complex forms of popular cinema, according to this survey of 2008 events.


The International Phonetic Association's by-laws recognize as Life Members those members who have paid membership dues over 30 years. The awarding of Life Membership is intended to honour the impressive records of service of long-time IPA members and to acknowledge their contribution in a symbolic and in a practical way.


: A 67-year-old male patient with pulmonary emphysema was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis. Further investigations revealed an alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency caused by a PiZZ mutation. The liver cirrhosis was complicated by the development of a hepatocellular carcinoma. The patient died from the consequences of mesentary vein thrombosis. The protease inhibitor alpha 1-antitrypsin controls the tissue damaging effects of proteases which are produced by granulocytes. In the case of alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, progressive damage of the lung tissue occurs, resulting in emphysema. The accumulation of abnormal alpha 1-antitrypsin in hepatocytes can result in cirrhosis, with an increased chance of carcinoma. The deficiency is caused by a mutation in the Pi-gene on chromosome number 14. Although treatment options are at present limited, making an early diagnosis has important implications for the prognosis and intended management with respect to the prevention of complications, both in the patient as well as in first degree relatives (children and siblings).


had a closer relationship with him and may have been better informed about residents' medical needs and treatment. Knowing that they could rely on a regular weekly visit from a doctor was also seen to be of value. Dr Masterson quotes The Last Refuge,' in which Townsend found that health care provisions in old people's homes were inadequate and inferior to those provided in the community. Our study appears to be supporting that conclusion in respect of both medical and nursing services.


: In a study of 223 consecutive autopsies of subjects older tumours were found in 36 cases (16%) (25/130 males and 11/93 females). Only eight kidneys showed multiple lesions. Renomedullary interstitial cell tumours were correlated with the presence or absence of hypertension and no statistically significant correlation could be demonstrated. The incidence of renomedullary interstitial cell tumours increases with age.


We provide regressions for the net immigration flows of developing countries. We show that (i) savings finance emigration and worker remittances serve to make staying rather than migrating possible; (ii) lagged dependent migration flows have a negative sign in the presence of migration stock variables; (iii) stocks of migrants in six OECD countries and in the developing countries have non-linear effects. Some of the non-linear effects of the economic variables vanish if indicators for disasters, conflicts and political instability are taken into account but new ones come in for these latter variables.


Inherent and incredible properties of liquid crystals (LC) such as optical and dielectric anisotropy make them special candidates for flat-panel display devices; bi-stable reflective displays; high-definition spatial light modulators; switchable windows; haze-free normaland reverse-mode light shutter devices; projectors; optical, thermal and strain sensors; tuneable lenses; etc. Non-linear response of LC material to the applied electric field is very useful in the above-mentioned applications. When a low molecular weight LC material is doped in a high molecular weight polymer matrix to obtain polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films, it offers flexibility and mechanical strength (structural stabilization) to the composite films—PDLC devices. Depending upon the concentration of monomer/polymer, these composite films are classified as polymer-stabilized liquid crystal (PSLC), PDLC and holographic PDLC (HPDLC) films. Depending upon the process conditions, we get phase-separated randomly dispersed micron-sized LC droplets in a continuous polymer matrix. These nematic LC droplets exhibit light scattering transmission properties depending on their orientation, which can be controlled by external electric field. This chapter gives deep insight about operating principle, phase separation techniques involved, alignment of LC and controlling LC droplet morphology of PDLC films to obtain desired properties. In order to improve the optical efficiency and to obtain the desired result from PDLC films, various guest entities such as dye and nanomaterials are doped in the host LC material. This chapter also accounts for various possible LC dopants desired for improving the electro-optic (EO) and dielectric properties of PDLC devices. Various applications of PDLC composite films are also described in this chapter.


FPGA is known as Field Programmable Gate Array that can be programmed in the field after manufacture. It can be reprogrammed to desired application or functionality requirements after manufacturing. The major difference between FPGA and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), which are custom manufactured for specific design tasks. Due to their programmable nature, FPGAs are an ideal fit for many different markets. As the industry leader, Xilinx provides comprehensive solutions consisting of FPGA devices, advanced software, and configurable, ready-to-use IP cores for markets and applications. However, the power consumption of FPGAs remains prohibitive for some applications. Power dissipation and Leakage power is the major issue of FPGAs. Thus, low-leakage FPGAs are essential if they are to be used for hand-held applications. Some more techniques are discussed here to reduce power dissipation. Power gating and Clock gating techniques are more efficient for leakage power reduction


In the described seven case reports, the authors have demonstrated a number of varied applications of osseointegrated implant techniques including both removable and fixed prostheses. All patients had expressed dissatisfaction with previous prosthetic efforts to restore a satisfactory level of mastication or a desire to do away with removable oral prostheses. A high level of patient satisfaction was achieved through the application of implant techniques in these patients. Proper treatment planning must now include a consideration of implant dentistry as well as the previously available conventional alternatives for our edentulous and partially edentulous patients.


This work aimed to provide a better understanding of how the structure and function of marine ecosystems and trophic control mechanisms influence their response to perturbations. Comparative analysis of Ecopath models of four Northeast Atlantic ecosystems was used to search for rules of thumb defining the similarities and differences between them. Ecosystem indicators, related to the ecology of species interactions, were derived from these models and compared. Two main questions were addressed. (i) What are the main energy pathways and mechanisms of control? (ii) Do these ecosystems exhibit the widespread and potentially stabilizing food-web structure such that top predators couple distinct energy pathways? A strong bentho-pelagic coupling operated over the Bay of Biscay Shelf, while energy reached higher trophic levels mostly through pelagic compartments, in northern areas. Zooplankton was demonstrated to be trophically important in all ecosystems, acting as a regulator of the abundance of small pelagic fish. A latitudinal pattern in flow control was highlighted by this analysis, with a significant contribution of top-down effect at higher latitudes. This top-down control of the Baltic Sea, combined with the fact that this ecosystem did not exhibit the potentially stabilizing two-channel structure, suggested a non-stable environment.


Previous studies of superplasticity using surface markers have tended to use either diamond paste scratches, with which it is difficult to make quantitative measurements, or regular grids with spacing greater than the grain size, which prevents measurements of any deformation occurring within the grains. This paper reports the etching of regular marker grids with submicron line spacings using Focused Ion Beams (FIB), as well as mesoscopic grids with line spacings many grains across. These have enabled us to make quantitative measurements of deformation within the surface grains, and at length scales up to 0.5 millimeters. Further refinements used include the use of Interferometric Surface Profilometry to measure the out-of-surface displacement during deformation. Results on Sn-Pb eutectic alloy tested in tension in Regions I and II showed that there was almost no intragranular deformation anywhere in any of the surface grains. Grain boundary sliding took place, particularly at Sn-Sn grain boundaries, and the accommodation mechanism was separation of interfaces normal to the tensile axis where sliding was blocked, particularly Pb-Pb grain boundaries. It is argued that this is a surface artifact not readily available in the bulk thus the case is made for testing under a different strain condition.


Saudi Arabia has recently established its renewable energy targets as part of its "Vision 2030" proposal, which represents a roadmap for reducing the country's dependence on oil over the next decade. This study provides a foundational assessment of the wind resource in Saudi Arabia that serves as a guide for the development of the outlined wind energy component. The assessment is based on a new high‐resolution weather simulation of the region generated with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Furthermore, we propose a spatiotemporal stochastic generator of daily wind speeds that assists in characterizing the uncertainty of the energy estimates. The stochastic generator considers a vector autoregressive structure in time, with innovations from a novel biresolution model based on a skew‐t distribution with a low‐dimensional latent structure. Estimation of the spatial model parameters is performed using a Monte Carlo expectation‐maximization (EM) algorithm, which achieves inference over approximately 184 million points and enables to capture the spatial patterns of the higher order moments that typically characterize high‐resolution wind fields. Our results identify regions along the western mountain ranges and central escarpments that are suitable for the deployment of wind energy infrastructure. According to the assessment, between 30 and 70% of the national electricity demand could be met by wind energy.


For centuries, most textile manufacturing relied on people working in their own homes. All that changed in 1761 when Richard Arkwright began construction of the first water-powered cotton mill in Derbyshire. Soon mills spread across the north of England and into Scotland and tasks were taken out of the cottage into the factory. Later, power looms began to take over from the handlooms, but not without fierce resistance - these were the years of Luddism and machine breaking. The new machines did not require the same skills and thousands of children were recruited, many living in special apprentice houses. Conditions were harsh and the children worked with dangerous machinery. There were employers, such as Robert Owen of New Lanark, who reduced the children's hours and gave them an education. As the industry developed so towns grew and many developed appalling slums. The arrival of steam power brought its own problems - woollen towns lived under a permanent pall of smoke, but for many the biggest problem was the noise - and mechanisation did not mean an end to hard work. There was a time when Britain sent textiles around the world: this is the story of the workforce, mainly women and children, who made this possible - and created the factory age.


The fuel-air mixture explosion incidents in the large-scale metal oil storage tank are frequent occurrence and rapidly extend because of the tank structure being fractured and damaged by the fuel-air mixture explosion. In this paper, the simulation experiment and numerical simulation has been carried out for the fuel-air mixture explosion in the large-scale metal storage tank. The shock waves characteristic of the explosive pressure has been studied and discussed. The fracture and damage effects caused by the shock waves characteristic to the tank structure has been analyzed and discussed too.


A particle filtering (PF) approach is presented for performing sequential geoacoustic inversion of a complex ocean acoustic environment using a moving acoustic source. This approach treats both the environmental parameters [e.g., water column sound speed profile (SSP), water depth, sediment and bottom parameters] at the source location and the source parameters (e.g., source depth, range and speed) as unknown random variables that evolve as the source moves. This allows real-time updating of the environment and accurate tracking of the moving source. As a sequential Monte Carlo technique that operates on nonlinear systems with non-Gaussian probability densities, the PF is an ideal algorithm to perform tracking of environmental and source parameters, and their uncertainties via the evolving posterior probability densities. The approach is demonstrated on both simulated data in a shallow water environment with a sloping bottom and experimental data collected during the SWellEx-96 experiment.


The evolution of gravitationally unstable protoplanetary gaseous disks has been studied with the use of three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations with unprecedented resolution. We have considered disks with initial masses and temperature profiles consistent with those inferred for the protosolar nebula and for other protoplanetary disks. We show that long-lasting, self-gravitating protoplanets arise after a few disk orbital periods if cooling is efficient enough to maintain the temperature close to 50 K. The resulting bodies have masses and orbital eccentricities similar to those of detected extrasolar planets.


The discovery and development of conjugated polymers has led to a large and vibrant research field due to their unique semiconducting properties and possibility of offering a completely new paradigm due to their abundant, lightweight, flexible and solution processable properties. In particular, the optoelectronic properties of these materials make them very well suited to applications such as organic light emitting diodes or organic photovoltaics and their relatively high charge mobility also make them useful in organic circuits. There are several reasons why the performance of these materials is presently limited compared to inorganic alternatives. Recently, significant work has been done trying to improve the performance of these materials by synthetically tuning the electronic properties such as the band gap and energy levels. There have been many other studies trying to improve intermolecular transport by enhancing crystallinity through annealing. In all of these studies the performance organic electronics still tends to be limited because the morphology of these materials is very complex and difficult to optimize. Many different length scales must be simultaneously optimized because the structure of a single polymer chain, their interactions with other polymer chains, the orientation of these chains and their degree of mixing with other components in the device all are extremely important to the performance of these materials. In this work, block copolymers containing conjugated polymers are used to optimize the morphology of these materials through self assembly processes. Block copolymers can be used to produce a wide variety of thermodynamically stable morphologies with long range order and tunable domain sizes. The self assembly of conjugated polymers using block copolymers is complicated because the delocalization of electrons along the backbone, which produces their interesting semiconducting properties, also makes these polymers rod-like, liquid crystalline and drastically increases their intermolecular interactions. This thesis focuses on some of the basic issues that must be understood when trying to create and optimize techniques that can be used to produce self assembled structures containing conjugated polymers using block copolymers.The chain shape of conjugated polymers is related to their intramolecular interactions and is a fundamental property of the polymer chemistry. This contributes to their specific properties that make every conjugated polymer behave slightly differently, making it difficult to build design rules that can be used for all conjugated polymers or even classes of polymers. By understanding the chain shape of these conjugated polymers, we can begin to understand how to tune their intermolecular interactions and block copolymer phase diagram. In this work we have examined the chain shape of polythiophenes, one of the most commonly used classes of conjugated polymers. We have also explored the use of polythiophenes in block copolymers to control the morphology in polymer photovoltaics. In order to optimize the properties of these materials it is also important develop techniques to align the block copolymer structure and the conjugated polymer backbone. This work examines the use of magnetic field alignment as a method to achieve these two goals. It has been shown that high degrees of alignment have been achieved with easily accessible field strengths. Additionally, work has been done examining methods to optimize the alignment procedure for magnetic field alignment of block copolymers by examining the effect of the field strength on the block copolymer phase behavior and through detailed work focusing on the dynamics of the alignment process. By building methods to optimize the morphology of block copolymer containing conjugated polymers we hope see these techniques applied to increase the performance of polymer optoelectronics.


Thrips (a.k.a. thunderflies) are minute slender piercing-sucking insects represented by over 5000 species in the order Thysanoptera. The western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, is a devastating pest insect on numerous crop species worldwide. Besides the direct damage inflicted by feeding on cell contents, they transmit pathogenic viruses leading to significant yield losses. Exploring and understanding the genetic basis of plant resistance mechanisms to thrips can greatly benefit the development of thrips-resistant crops. However, for the most part resistance mechanisms at the molecular level are still unclear. Screening plants for resistance to insects is generally a costly exercise in terms of space, time and labor. The need for efficient large-scale phenotyping systems is increasing now that next-generation sequencing has rendered a wealth of genomic information. Combining quantitative genetics with high-throughput phenotyping systems could reveal new genetic markers and genes that underlie thrips resistance in plants. Breeding for host plant resistance with the help of these markers may lead to a durable solution to F. occidentalis. This review will focus on the mechanisms that plants can use to chemically defend themselves against thrips, current methods of phenotyping for host plant resistance against thrips and the role of quantitative genetics in elucidating novel resistance mechanisms in natural plant populations.


Agroforestry system has been considered as one of the effective ways of the plantation for increasing a production and securing the environment as well as plays an important role in the social and economic development. Mindi development has been widely practiced in community forests but the agroforestry system is only limited to local knowledge obtained from old generation. This causes the people's forests to tend to be unable to survive due to the demands of the people's food needs. Arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea L.) had an important crop as a potential source of food and substitute for wheat flour and potential to be planted under Mindi trees (Melia azedarach L.) which had also potential as an alternative tree planting for the community forest. This research was aimed to 1) analyze the growth of Mindi trees and the productivity of arrowroot under mindi trees compared to monoculture system, 2) analyze the nutrient content of arrowroot under mindi trees compared to monoculture system. The experiment used a complete randomized design (CRD) with the agroforest under mindi trees and monoculture system as a factor. The result of growth in mindi showed that there is no significant difference in height, diameter, and canopy variable in agroforestry and monoculture plantation system while the root variable had significant difference among agroforestry and monoculture system. The physicochemical and nutrients content of arrowroot were diverse whereas there is no significant difference between the two system tested.


I AM CERTAINLY NOT THE FIRST SCHOLAR TO NOTICE Orientalist elements in Lord Dunsany's fantasies, (1) but I believe a focused study of the different kinds of Orientalism employed by Dunsany in the construction of his literary corpus has so far been lacking. This paper will examine two main categories of Orientalism, traditional and non-traditional, as they appear in two representative collections of Dunsany's short stories: The Book of Wonder, originally published in 1912, and Tales of Wonder, also known as The Last Book of Wonder and first published in 1916. As we shall see, some of the tales in these two collections include Oriental themes and language which fall directly under Edward Said's explanatory model of Orientalist cultural discourse. These occurrences of Orientalism I label traditional, and their structural functions include the building of adventure drama, the creation of humor, and the evocation of a textual aesthetics of exoticism. Others of Dunsany's "Wonder" tales, however, demonstrate an Orientalism which seems more postcolonial than colonial, ahead of its time in inviting readers to reflect on such issues as how social narratives about the cultural Other are constructed and deployed, and how the perspective of the cultural Other may inform us about our own way of life. These manifestations of Orientalism in The Book of Wonder and Tales of Wonder I label non-traditional, and they are the ones I particularly wish to draw attention to in considering how Dunsany's Orientalist literary fantasies by turns lie in continuity with and transcend Western Orientalism, as that system of thought and discourse is commonly construed by the postmodern academy. Orientalism: Definition and Context First: what is Orientalism as construed by the postmodern academy? Edward Said wrote the foundational work on the subject, describing the word "Orientalism" in his 1978 book of the same title as a multivalent term which has been used to designate the academic project of area studies on Africa, Asia, the Near East or Middle East, dealing with such aspects as language, mythology, and geopolitical relations; or, alternatively, a "style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between 'the Orient' and [...] 'the Occident,'" a way of defining the West in contradistinction to the East and vice versa (Said 2-3). In addition, Said argues that a third meaning for "Orientalism," which comes historically from the confluence of the other two, is "a corporate institution for dealing with the Orient" which consists of Westerners "making statements about [the East], authorizing views of it, describing it [...] teaching it, settling it, ruling over it" (Said 3). This "corporate institution," according to Said, has been operative since the end of the Enlightenment, most actively since the growth of Western imperialism in the late eighteenth century. Thus it is fettered to European, and to a lesser extent, American, colonial interests in Oriental geopolitics. Orientalism in the academic and hemispherical senses feeds a cultural system which, as "a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient" (Said 3), cannot be divorced from political issues. Nor, it is Said's argument, can this cultural institution of Orientalism be divorced from the processes of thought itself, because the way human beings think about the world is conditioned by the sociocultural structures they are born into. It is Said's contention that Orientalist discourse, a system of received Western thoughts and ideas about the Orient, places such "limitations on thought" that "no one writing [...] on the Orient" could possibly remain unaffected by it (Said 3). So, who writes on the Orient, and what do they write? Along with academic and more purely political texts dealing with the Orient, such as encyclopedias of Western knowledge about Islam or reports on colonial uprisings, Said identifies a distinctly literary brand of Orientalism which includes creative works and travel guides by such canonical Western authors as Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, Gerard de Nerval, Gustav Flaubert, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Said 99-100). …


We consider software written for networked, wireless sensor nodes, and specialize software verification techniques for standard C programs in order to locate programming errors in sensor applications before the software's deployment on motes. Ensuring the reliability of sensor applications is challenging: lowlevel, interrupt-driven code runs without memory protection in dynamic environments. The difficulties lie with (i) being able to automatically extract standard C models out of the particular "avours of embedded C used in sensor programming solutions, and (ii) decreasing the resulting program's state space to a degree that allows practical verification times. We contribute a platform-dependent, OS-independent software verification tool for OS-wide programs written in MSP430 embedded C with asynchronous hardware interrupts. Our tool automatically translates the program into standard C by modelling the MCU's memory map and direct memory access. To emulate the existence of hardware interrupts, calls to hardware interrupt handlers are added, and their occurrence is minimized with a double strategy: a partial-order reduction technique, and a supplementary reachability check to reduce overapproximation. This decreases the program's state space, while preserving program semantics. Safety speci!cations are written as C assertions embedded in the code. The resulting sequential program is then passed to CBMC, a bounded software veri!er for sequential ANSI C. Besides standard errors (e.g., out-of-bounds arrays, null-pointer dereferences), this tool chain is able to verify application-speci!c assertions, including low-level assertions upon the state of the registers and peripherals. Veri!cation for wireless sensor network applications is an emerging !eld of research; thus, as a !nal note, we survey current research on the topic.


This thesis is articulates and empirically testing the effect of ownership on board composition and ultimately on firm performance. As per extant literature, ownership is subsumed into corporate governance and studies build on agency theory's premise of dispersed shareholders as the owners of the firm. Governance literature also accept Board of Directors as representatives of the dispersed shareholders, mandated to discharge the investor-owners' fiduciary responsibility. The composition of the board is usually seen as a reflection of its effectiveness however the determination of board composition is not fully understood. Overall, governance is generally viewed in terms of mitigating the agency costs, which should lead to a homogeneous performance objective of firm value maximization. However recent meta-analyses do not find support for any direct relationship between any of the agency theory driven governance mechanisms. In addition, some recent studies also point towards concentrated ownership being the norm worldwide. Furthermore, there seems to be other types of owners apart from the dispersed investors as shareholders in a firm. Building on these findings, this thesis proposes an alternative ownership framework, wherein ownership is analyzed in terms of the different types of shareholders within a firm - unlike previous focus on 'inside' managers and 'outside' dispersed investors. The basic premise of the thesis is to examine the possibility that neither the firm's ownership, nor its board composition, nor its performance objectives are homogeneous. Utilizing a multi-theoretic framework, this thesis examines and empirically tests ownership-board composition and ownership-performance relationships respectively. The conceptualization of ownership is as an aggregation, defined as combining the different types of owners and their respective ownership concentrations. The research setting is all US public firms for which ownership and board data is available, and the data is collated and analyzed by utilizing EQS software. I find empirical support for the multi-theoretic framework as well as general support for most of the proposed hypotheses. In conclusion, this thesis contributes to the growing awareness that corporate governance is not a 'one size fits all' mechanism and offers an alternative multi-theoretical framework that might help resolve the mixed findings in governance and ownership literature.