Observers of Indonesia's formal labour export programme claim that traffickinglike practices occur at each stage of the migration process. Many reports single out the actions of recruitment agents for particular attention. For example, the US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report states that Indonesia's licensed recruitment agents operate 'similarly to trafficking rings', noting that they 'routinely falsif[y] birth dates, including for children, in order to apply for passports and migrant worker documents' (US Department of State 2009: 159). The United States government also criticizes the fact that these agents keep female recruits in holding centres, sometimes for periods of many months, during which time they are not free to leave. In addition, agents allow women to finance migration through wage deductions after they have been deployed, a practice which the report argues creates situations of debt bondage and forced labour in the countries where they work. Not all of these practices contravene Indonesian law: indeed, post-deployment payment of recruitment fees and the use of holding centres are sanctioned by the state. However, it is clearly illegal to refuse recruits the right to leave those facilities and to falsify their personal data. Yet public officials responsible for monitoring the programme seldom refer evidence of illegality to law enforcement officers, choosing instead to ignore it.


Groundwater quality sampling guidance typically requires representative samples to be obtained. Such guidance is not always clear what this means and which sampling methods are most appropriate. The situation is complicated by increasing well screen/open interval length. Uncertainty, resulting particularly from observations of vertical flow in wells has led to calls for the use of long-screen (> 3 m) wells to be abandoned for groundwater quality monitoring. Here, four complementary field and modelling studies at various scales are used to examine appropriate groundwater quality sampling in such wells. Numerical modelling demonstrates that literature reported vertical flows in wells < 10 m in length are sufficient to bias pumped groundwater quality sampling. Bias starts for vertical well flow rates less than 50 % of the pumping rate. Vertical flow measurements explain differences and similarities in historical passive sampling between four boreholes and allow vertical aquifer concentration distributions to be quantified. However, such quantification requires per-borehole flow measurement. New technology (Active Distributed Temperature Sensing) provides a versatile alternative to existing borehole flow characterisation methods under ambient and pumping conditions. Data from contrasting field environments demonstrate that even without comprehensive flow investigation long-screen wells can still provide useful information about groundwater concentrations and trends.


Handling slug flow is a matter of necessity in the oil and gas industry. Large slugs cause problems at the production platform by overfilling the first stage separator leading to poor separation and pressure increase, which again could lead to more flaring or even complete process shut-down. Using the riser base pressure as the controlled variable has been shown in several academic papers to have a stabilizing effect on the slug flow. In this thesis it has been concentrated on designing robust anti-slug controllers using this variable as the controlled variable. Experience from Hydro's multiphase rig at their Research Centre in Porsgrunn shows that re-tuning of anti-slug controllers during experiments is necessary to be able to keep the flow stabilized. This is caused by the change in process gain, which is large for operation around small valve openings and low for operation around large valve openings. An OLGA model was developed for this multiphase rig. This model was shown to predict the amplitude of the slugs and their frequencies fairly well, however, the transition point from stable flow to slug flow differed to a larger extent. Several gain scheduling controllers were designed and tested on this model. The best gain scheduling approach which was found was based on a gain scheduling regime controlling the riser base pressure in a secondary loop without integral action, with a slow primary loop controlling the valve opening (with integral action). The scheduling variable was a low-pass filtered measurement of the valve opening. This approach was also robust with respect to noise and lowered inlet rates.


One of the most important issues in the development of software product lines is the elicitation, management, and representation of the variability. In this context, one of the most used instruments is the feature model. But a feature model (due to the open definition of feature) usually contains an amalgamation of various different variability aspects as structural, behavioral, non-functional, or platform variability. We propose to separate these variability aspects of the product line, using other models as goals or UML diagrams but keeping features as the core model. The second part of the article explores the possibilities of identifying mappings between the feature models and the correspondent architectural counterparts. With these mappings, the automated creation of traceability links between the product line models is possible and hence the productivity in the development process of the product line will be enhanced. This approach also simplifies the separation in several development stages, using the appropriate paradigms as goals, features, package models, platforms...


Text summarization aims to generate a headline or a short summary consisting of the major information of the source text. Recent studies employ the sequence-to-sequence framework to encode the input with a neural network and generate abstractive summary. However, most studies feed the encoder with the semantic word embedding but ignore the syntactic information of the text. Further, although previous studies proposed the selective gate to control the information flow from the encoder to the decoder, it is static during the decoding and cannot differentiate the information based on the decoder states. In this paper, we propose a novel neural architecture for document summarization. Our approach has the following contributions: first, we incorporate syntactic information such as constituency parsing trees into the encoding sequence to learn both the semantic and syntactic information from the document, resulting in more accurate summary; second, we propose a dynamic gate network to select the salient information based on the context of the decoder state, which is essential to document summarization. The proposed model has been evaluated on CNN/Daily Mail summarization datasets and the experimental results show that the proposed approach outperforms baseline approaches.


This article examines some of the main threats and new opportunities encountered by teachers of social inequalities in health in contemporary academia. Focusing mostly on the recent US and European experiences, I suggest that lay world views legitimating social inequalities are often in conflict with explanations arising from social epidemiology and medical sociology. The dominance of medicine in public health, through its often implicit assumptions about the biological determinants of human behaviour, is also identified as a barrier to teaching social inequalities in health. Educational elitism, which restricts higher education to members of the upper middle class, is identified as another barrier to teaching social inequalities in health. On the other hand, teachers in this field can benefit from a recent growth of empirical studies during the last decade aimed at understanding the social determinants of health inequalities. Finally, I suggest that familiarity with current critical scholarship within public health, as well as the use of techniques developed by sociologists to teach social stratification, can be valuable resources for teaching social inequalities in health.


Ubiquitous computing raises new usability challenges that cut across design and development. We are particularly interested in environments enhanced with sensors, public displays and personal devices. How can prototypes be used to explore the users' mobility and interaction, both explicitly and implicitly, to access services within these environments? Because of the potential cost of development and design failure, these systems must be explored using early assessment techniques and versions of the systems that could disrupt if deployed in the target environment. These techniques are required to evaluate alternative solutions before making the decision to deploy the system on location. This is crucial for a successful development, that anticipates potential user problems, and reduces the cost of redesign. This thesis reports on the development of a framework for the rapid prototyping and analysis of ubiquitous computing environments that facilitates the evaluation of design alternatives. It describes APEX, a framework that brings together an existing 3D Application Server with a modelling tool. APEX-based prototypes enable users to navigate a virtual world simulation of the envisaged ubiquitous environment. By this means users can experience many of the features of the proposed design. Prototypes and their simulations are generated in the framework to help the developer understand how the user might experience the system. These are supported through three different layers: a simulation layer (using a 3D Application Server); a modelling layer (using a modelling tool) and a physical layer (using external devices and real users). APEX allows the developer to move between these layers to evaluate different features. It supports exploration of user experience through observation of how users might behave with the system as well as enabling exhaustive analysis based on models. The models support checking of properties based on patterns. These patterns are based on ones that have been used successfully in interactive system analysis in other contexts. They help the analyst to generate and verify relevant properties. Where these properties fail then scenarios suggested by the failure provide an important aid to redesign.


We compared (1) the differences in the retinal nerve fiber layer between 26 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 30 age- and race-matched normal controls with use of blue-light high-resolution photography, (2) the differences in disc pallor between 30 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 32 controls with use of a boundary-tracking program and fundus photographs, and (3) the topographic disc variables between 26 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 36 controls with use of an optic nerve head analyzer. A higher proportion of patients with Alzheimer's disease had detectable nerve fiber damage as seen by red-free photography compared with controls. Although the pallor area-to-disc area ratio was not significantly different between patients with Alzheimer's disease and controls, the patients with higher pallor area-to-disc area ratios had higher Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) scores and longer durations of disease. Patients had an increased cup-to-disc ratio and cup volume and decreased disc rim area compared with controls. These variables also correlated significantly with ADAS scores and the duration of disease. The correlation among the optic nerve head changes and the ADAS scores in patients with Alzheimer's disease suggests a potential role for optic nerve head analysis in monitoring the progression of Alzheimer's disease and in assessing the effectiveness of any treatments developed.


ABSTRACT Sweden is one of the most forested countries in Europe, and it has one of the highest shares of productive forest. Production in forestry is largely reliant on the private non-industrial forest owners, who own half of the forest land. As in many countries, however, forest ownership is changing towards a higher extent of urban, female or non-forestry-background owners. This poses a challenge for the forestry services sector, mainly forest owners' associations and companies, but also broadly the sector at large. By exploring the sales and marketing processes, this paper analyses the service logics and strategies of Swedish forestry under changing forest ownership, drawing on an interview study covering all the large actors in the Swedish forestry sector. The study illustrates an increased focus of forestry organizations on services from a strategic and managerial perspective, in customer-oriented relationship development and in value creation and sales processes, specifically in order to manage "new" forest owners and the demand of forest industries. The results highlight the domination of service logics associated with timber production and the challenges for the service market and the provision of diversified services to forest owners.


The presented research aims to contribute to the conceptualisation of the nation-brand of Latvia with the purpose of stimulation of national export performance. The subject of the research is three aspects presumably challenging the branding of Latvia with reference to national export development. The investigated challenges are the barriers and opportunities for green-branding of Latvia; the absence of the generally accepted indication of the geographical identity of the Baltic region; and the contradictable popular image of Latvia as a cheap country. The research poses two research questions inquiring into the issues of nation-branding of Latvia currently being faced in the context of exports and possible measures to overcome them. The applied research methods are theoretical analysis of scientific literature and empirical analysis of the representation of Latvia on the official website of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia and its comparison with the official websites of respective institutions in Lithuania and Estonia. The research observes the interconnection between the defined challenges, offers the perspective for the possible transformation of the challenges into nation-branding opportunities, and estimates the green brand of the country as a gateway for feasible solution for the defined challenges and for the stimulation of national exports. In addition, the research identifies further challenges the nation-branding of Latvia is currently facing for further discussion.


Test theories can be divided roughly into two categories. The first is classical test theory, which dates back to Spearman's conception of the observed test score as a composite of true and error components, and which was introduced to psychologists at the beginning of this century. Important milestones in its long and venerable tradition are Gulliksen's Theory of Mental Tests (1950) and Lord and Novick's Statistical Theories of Mental Test Scores (1968). The second is item response theory, or latent trait theory, as it has been called until recently. At the present time, item response theory (IRT) is having a major impact on the field of testing. Models derived from IRT are being used to develop tests, to equate scores from nonparallel tests, to investigate item bias, and to report scores, as well as to address many other pressing measurement problems (see, e.g., Hambleton, 1983; Lord, 1980). IRT differs from classical test theory in that it assumes a different relation of the test score to the variable measured by the test. Although there are parallels between models from IRT and psychophysical models formulated around the turn of the century, only in the last 10 years has IRT had any impact on psychometricians and test users. Work by Rasch (1980/1960), Fischer (1974), 9 Birnbaum (1968), ivrighi and Panchapakesan (1969), Bock (1972), and Lord (1974) has been especially influential in this turnabout; and Lazarsfeld's pioneering work on latent structure analysis in sociology (Lazarsfeld, 1950; Lazarsfeld & Henry, 1968) has also provided impetus. One objective of this introduction is to review the conceptual differences between classical test theory and IRT. A second objective is to introduce the goals of this special issue on item response theory and the seven papers. Some basic problems with classical test theory are reviewed in the next section. Then, IRT approaches to educational and psychological measurement are presented and compared to classical test theory. The final two sections present the goals for this special issue and an outline of the seven invited papers.


Motor shaft is one of the most important parts of motor, which is widely used in industrial field. The straightness of the shaft has a potentially significant effect on motor performance, which is determined by the straightening process in the manufacturing process of the shaft. Considering the grooved characteristics on the micro-motor shaft and using the classical material mechanics principle, the stress and deformation models of the circular shaft with the grooves during the straightening process are established in this paper. By deriving the straighttening stroke-initial deflection model, an accurate and practical relationship between the straightening stroke and the initial deflection was provided. In order to verify the theoretical straightening model, some grooved shaft specimens are designed and manufactured for the straightening experiments. Through the simulation and experimental research, the straightening stroke-initial deflection model for the micro-motor shaft is compared and analyzed, and the correctness and feasibility of the model is verified.


Professionalism is a fundamental and elementary concept in nursing. The demand for nursing professionalization has become greater than ever in recent years. The present study aimed to examine Iranian registered nurses level of professionalism and associated factors. Methods: In this exploratory cross-sectional study, all qualified registered nurses working in two teaching hospitals (Imam Sajad and Rajaei hospitals) in North of Iran were invited to participate. The Hall's Professionalism Inventory (HPI) scale was used to assess the nurse's level of professionalism. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software (v17.0; PASW Statistics). Results: Of the 133 nurses, 83.5% (n=111) were female and 16.5% (n=32) were male. The mean age of participants was 33.5±8.4 years and mean years of experience was 8.4±7.7 years. The mean score of nurse's professionalism in all domains were 68.5±6.8. With regards to HPI scale domains, higher and lower mean score were related to autonomy and sense of calling with 15.6±2.2 and 11.3±2.3 respectively. Among related factors, only nurses' age and their years of experience have significant coloration with their level of professionalism (p<0.05). Conclusion: Iranian registered nurses in present study showed moderate level of professionalism. Factor such as age and year of nursing experience affect their level of professionalism. Further study recommended in this regards. Keywords: Professionalism, nurses, Hall's Professionalism Inventory (HPI) scale, developing country.


An abattoir survey reported an overall teat papillomatosis prevalence of 36% in 721 cattle examined. Affected animals possessed an average of five papillomas on each of two affected teats. Significant sex differences occurred in the prevalence of the disease, and nulliparous female cattle had significantly fewer affected teats than parous females. Morphologically separable lesions were seen and on histological examination were shown to be papillomas, fibropapillomas and focal epithelial hyperplasia-like lesions. Bovine papilloma virus was extracted from all three lesion types. Electron microscopic examination revealed that BPV extracted from teat papilloma, fibropapilloma and focal epithial hyperplastic lesion had significantly different particle diameters. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of BPV from cutaneous fibropapillomas showed a major capsid protein band which has a consistently higher apparent molecular weight than teat lesion extracts. Epidemiological evidence suggested the presence of at least two separate virus/ host interactions were present since the distributions of the individual teat lesions differed in both number and shape of curves When single case, single lesion type BPV extracts were inoculated into experimental calves, four morphologically separable lesions resulted. BPV from teat and cutaneous fibropapillomas produced cutaneous fibro-papillomas which were morphologically indistinguishable from each other; BPV from anogenital fibropapillomas produced cutaneous fibropapillomas morphologically separable from those above; BPV from teat papilloma and focal epithelial hyperplastic lesions produced papilloma and focal epithelial hyperplastic lesions respectively on transmission to normal bovine skin. BPV was extracted from all transmitted lesions. Experimental calves were challenged with BPV from all five lesion types and a differential immunity was demonstrated. The fibropapilloma calves were immune to challenge with most but not all fibropapilloma isolates, but susceptible to challenge with teat papilloma and focal epithelial hyperplasia isolates. Conversely papilloma and focal epithelial hyperplasia BPV infected calves remained susceptible to all fibropapilloma isolates and regression of fibropapillomas was not accompanied by the regression of the former lesions. It was considered that two broad virus categories occurred with papilloma and focal epithelial hyperplasia BPV forming one and fibropapilloma BPV the other category. Within these two categories there were morphological and developmental differences suggesting further heterogeneity which may be confirmed with the use of larger numbers of experimental animals. When inoculated intracerebrally, two fibropapilloma BPV isolates produced meningiomas. One isolate was from a single case of cutaneous fibropapillomas. The other was from cutaneous fibropapillomas which appeared along scarification lines of a calf experimentally inoculated with BPV extracted from a pooled sample of alimentary lesions. A third calf, intracerebrally inoculated with BPV from single case teat focal epithelial hyperplastic lesions, developed similar lesions at intradermal sites but did not develop a meningioma,, In vitro, foetal bovine skin, conjunctiva, palate and meninges derived cell cultures were shown to be sensitive to transformation by BPV extracted from fibropapillomas but not papillomas and focal epithelial hyperplastic lesions. Only two skin cultures were sensitive and both of these came from near-term foetuses. Cultures from the pia mater and arachnoidea were sensitive while dura mater derived cultures were not. The in vitro transformation assay was developed and shown to be more sensitive and precise than haemagglutination, however the two systems probably measure different parameters. No significant differences occurred in the transformation titre of two BPV isolates when different tissues of the same foetus and the same tissues of different foetuses were used. BPV transformed cells were shown to be tumourigenic in nude mica but not in calves following intracerebral, subcutaneous, intradermal and submucosal injection., However, inoculated calves showed an increased in vivo resistance to challenge with fibropapilloma derived BPV but not papilloma or focal epithelial hyperplasia derived BPV. BPV-transformed cells showed an increased lifespan when compared with control cultures. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).


The forces required to break or dislodge benthic macroalgae can be linked to many important ecological processes such as survival, transport and dispersal, and it is, therefore, important to understand what factors affect these forces. We review existing studies, using simple vote-counting, to establish what ecological factors have been found to influence macroalgal break forces. We also used the compiled information to test for the existence of a general allometric relationship between thallus area and break force. We found 30 studies reporting break forces for 27 species of macroalgae from 118 populations. Species within the orders Laminariales, Fucales and Gigartinales were well studied whereas other orders had been neglected. Two-thirds of all studies were from rocky intertidal habitats and two-thirds were from North American coastlines. The most frequently tested ecological factor was wave exposure (14 studies with 7 significant effects). Other factors that were found to affect break force significantly in at least one study included time of sampling, thallus size, substratum and species. Generally, most factors had been addressed only a few times, emphasizing a need for further study. We found a highly significant positive relationship between thallus size and break force across a wide range of species and ecological conditions, providing evidence that size alone is an important determinant of macroalgal break force. To strengthen inferences and ensure that meta-analyses can be conducted, we suggest that future studies (i) use nested replication in space and time, (ii) include taxa and regions that have not been studied in detail, and (iii) report, as a minimum, corresponding information on break forces, thallus sizes, substratum type, wave exposure and time of sampling.


After photoexcitation, energy absorbed by a molecule can be transferred efficiently over a distance of up to several tens of angstroms to another molecule by the process of resonance energy transfer, RET (also commonly known as electronic energy transfer, EET). Examples of where RET is observed include natural and artificial antennae for the capture and energy conversion of light, amplification of fluorescence-based sensors, optimization of organic light-emitting diodes, and the measurement of structure in biological systems (FRET). Forster theory has proven to be very successful at estimating the rate of RET in many donor-acceptor systems, but it has also been of interest to discover when this theory does not work. By identifying these cases, researchers have been able to obtain, sometimes surprising, insights into excited-state dynamics in complex systems. In this article, we consider various ways that electronic energy transfer is promoted by mechanisms beyond those explicitly considered in Forster RET theory. First, we recount the important situations when the electronic coupling is not accurately calculated by the dipole-dipole approximation. Second, we examine the related problem of how to describe solvent screening when the dipole approximation fails. Third, there are situations where we need to be careful about the separability of electronic coupling and spectral overlap factors. For example, when the donors and/or acceptors are molecular aggregates rather than individual molecules, then RET occurs between molecular exciton states and we must invoke generalized Forster theory (GFT). In even more complicated cases, involving the intermediate regime of electronic energy transfer, we should consider carefully nonequilibrium processes and coherences and how bath modes can be shared. Lastly, we discuss how information is obscured by various forms of energetic disorder in ensemble measurements and we outline how single molecule experiments continue to be important in these instances.


A portable filter fluorometer, the hematofluorometer--which utilizes "front face" optics, internal standards, and digital computation capabilities--has been specifically designed for the rapid (approximately 5 s) assay of erythrocyte zinc protoporphyrin in unprocessed blood. A small (unmeasured) drop of blood, such as is obtained from a finger puncture, is placed on disposable cover slip and inserted in the sample holder of the instrument. The operator pushes the holder of the instrument. The operator pushes the holder, which also holds the permanent blank and standard, into the instrument. Zinc protoporphyrin concentration is automatically and instantaneously computed and the value is displayed on a digital readout as micrograms of zinc protoporphyrin per deciliter of blood for some standard hematocrit. No calibration adjustment need be performed by the operator. The hematofluorometer is designed for "field" use as well as for laboratory assays.


Precast prestressed concrete pavement (PCP) technology is of recent origin, and the information on PCP performance is not available in literature. This research presents a finite-element analysis of the potential benefits of prestressing on the jointed concrete pavements (JCP). With using a 3-dimensional (3D) Finite-element modeling (FEM) the load transfer efficiency (LTE) of the prestressed pavement had been discussed. Longitudinal and transverse prestressing with various prestressing forces were analyzed. It was concluded that prestressing although increased the deflection at mid slab but the reduction in load transfer to adjacent is minor and engineers can benefit from the prestressing to reduce the slab thickness. The higher prestressing force, might affect the load transfer in the prestressed pavement, so using a prestressing for more than 400 kN should be revised carefully. Keywords: Prestressed concrete pavement; Dowel bar; Finite element; Load transfer efficiency


In a fast‐moving and unpredictable world, there can be little doubt that organizational change is one of the most important issues facing organizations. This is especially so, when it is claimed that over 60 per cent of all change projects are considered to fail. Not surprisingly, therefore, there is also much debate about which approach to change is the best. Over the past 20 years, the emergent approach appears to have superseded the planned approach as the most appropriate. However, as this paper will argue, the idea that planned and emergent changes are competing approaches, rather than complementary, is contestable. This paper looks at the case of XYZ construction which, between 1996 and 2000, used both emergent and planned approaches to transform itself. The paper concludes that organizations need to avoid seeking an "one best way" approach to change and instead seek to identify the approach which is best suited to both type of changes they wish to undertake, according to the organization's context.


The larger aquatic plants growing in wetlands are usually called macrophytes. These include aquatic vascular plants, aquatic mosses and some larger algae. The presence or absence of aquatic macrophytes is one of the characteristics used to define wetlands, and as such macrophytes are an indispensable component of these ecosystems. As the most important removal processes in constructed treatment wetlands are based on physical and microbial processes, the role of the macrophytes in these has been questioned. This paper summarizes how macrophytes influence the treatment processes in wetlands.

The most important functions of the macrophytes in relation to the treatment of wastewater are the physical effects the presence of the plants gives rise to. The macrophytes stabilise the surface of the beds, provide good conditions for physical filtration, prevent vertical flow systems from clogging, insulate the surface against frost during winter, and provide a huge surface area for attached microbial growth. Contrary to earlier belief, the growth of macrophytes does not increase the hydraulic conductivity of the substrate in soil-based subsurface flow constructed wetlands. The metabolism of the macrophytes affects the treatment processes to different extents depending on the type of the constructed wetland. Plant uptake of nutrients is only of quantitative importance in low-loaded systems (surface flow systems). Macrophyte mediated transfer of oxygen to the rhizosphere by leakage from roots increases aerobic degradation of organic matter and nitrification. The macrophytes have additional site-specific values by providing habitat for wildlife and making wastewater treatment systems aesthetically pleasing.


Value is one of the most fundamental concepts in economics. The existing main definitions of value have certain limitations and are difficult to be unified and quantified. Thus, this article presents a method of quantifying value based on the conditional probability theory; we set value as a random variable, a price is the value of the good in terms of money, according to the price's historical records, quantitative statistics and human experiences, and thus uses conditional probability distribution to measure value. Furthermore, the mean and variance of random variables are used to describe the weighted average of the possible values and the dispersion of values distribution. This method provides a new perspective for the measurement of value.


Two species of the nematode family Diplopeltidae are described from Skagerrak. The new genus Belgopeltula gen. nov. is proposed for Diplopeltula belgica Vincx & Gourbault, 1992 and is characterised by: amphidial fovea circular in female and double-loop-shaped in male; excretory pore located at the level of cephalic setae bases; oral opening on the dorsal side of the body; pharynx subdivided into strongly muscularised fusiform corpus and weakly muscularised narrow and long postcorpus; female didelphic with antidromously reflexed ovaries; supplements absent. Mudwigglus micramphidium sp. nov. is characterised by: a body of 0.6 mm long; cephalic sensilla 1.5 µm long; amphidial fovea loop-shaped, 8 µm long and 3.5 µm wide; gymnostom without cuticularised ring; tail elongate conoid, with subcylindrical distal part; terminal setae absent; spicules 15 µm long; gubernaculum present; two midventral precloacal setae. It is distinguished from M. macramphidium Leduc, 2013 in having shorter amphidial fovea, shorter spicules and presence of two precloacal setae. Redescription of Diplopeltis cylindricauda Allgen, 1932 is provided based on type material. Diplopeltula minuta Vitiello, 1972 is transferred to the genus Mudwigglus Leduc, 2013. Diplopeltis cylindricauda Allgen, 1932, Diplopeltula laminata Vitiello, 1972 and Diplopeltula cassidaignensis Vitiello, 1972 are transferred to the genus Pseudaraeolaimus Chitwood, 1951.


In-situ synthesis and densification of hafnium diboride - silicon carbide (HfB2-SiC) ceramic composites were studied by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) method using HfO2, B, and SiC as starting powders. Influence of SiC particle size (∼2 µm and ∼10 µm) on mechanical properties and oxidation resistance of in-situ composites were extensively investigated. According to the achieved results, the highest densification (∼95 % TD) was obtained with fine SiC particle reinforcement. The measured Vickers hardness and fracture toughness of the composites containing fine SiC were 14.3 GPa and 5.42 MPa.m1/2, respectively. The fracture mode changed from transgranular cleavage to a mixed-mode, and the crack deflection was believed to be the primary toughening mechanism. From oxidation test result, the composite with fine SiC particles exhibited more inhomogeneous oxide scales compared to that of coarse SiC containing composite.


Rearing insect colonies in insectarium is often encountered with some problems. Cold-preservation can serve as an alternate option and can save large amount of insects without time-lapse, this method is also found valuable and cost-effective. In present study Lucilia sericata adults were used for cold preservation. One hundred twenty (120) L. sericata pupae were used in this study, these insects were divided in three groups of forty member, and each group was stored in 50 ml tubes containing sawdust and kept at 4°C for 3, 6 &12 months. After the completion of required exposure time (3, 6 and 12 months), pupae were taken out from 4°C and placed under standard maggotarium conditions on sawdust in 40 × 40 cm cages. This was followed by the counting adult number, result of study revealed that after three months, 28 (70%) pupae were transformed into adults. While in case of 6 and 12 months this transformation number was 20 (50%) and 8 (20%) pupae respectively. From the result of study it can be concluded that this method is cost effective and time saving and L. sericata can be reared when ever required. This method opens new horizons for mass rearing of L. sericata for laboratory, research and business requirements * Corresponding author KEYWORDS


This paper considers the implications of the increasing adoption of digital platforms for work and value creation. To do this we develop a taxonomy not of types of platforms but the types of work and value creation. In this way, we show that platforms are far more prevalent and structuring of societal value creation than most of the literature indicates. To confirm this we introduce a taxonomy of work and value creation in the platform economy.

Our taxonomy defines main groups into which one can separate individuals creating value for the digital platforms. Although our focus is work, we do not confine ourselves to digital labor market platforms that have attracted so much attention from those interested in "sharing economy" firms or those providing remote gig worker. This focus has resulted in authors dramatically understating the impact of platforms. Such labor platforms are only a small part of the larger story that is more complex and more significant. The under-estimation of the importance can be seen by the recent focus upon the impacts of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. But also consideration of the role of platforms such as Yelp and Booking.com. These also structure capitalist competition and, by extension, value creation and capture and how workers are treated.


Prairie voles have emerged as an important rodent model for understanding the neuroscience of social behavior. Prairie voles are well known for their capacity for pair bonding and alloparental care. These behavioral phenomena overlap with human social behavior but are not commonly observed in traditional rodent models. In this review, we highlight the many benefits of using prairie voles in neuroscience research. We begin by describing the advantages of using diverse and non-traditional study models. We then focus on social behaviors including pair bonding, alloparental care, and peer interactions that have brought voles to the forefront of social neuroscience. We then describe many additional features of prairie vole biology and behavior that provide researchers with opportunities to address an array of research questions. We survey neuroethological methods that have been used with prairie voles, spanning from classic to modern techniques. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of other vole species, particularly meadow voles, and their own unique advantages for neuroscience studies. Together, this review provides a foundation for researchers who are new to working with voles, as well as for experienced neuroscientists who want to expand their research scope.


BACKGROUND
High-quality healthcare should be effective, safe and patient-centred. How important patient-centredness is in relation to effectiveness of fertility care has never been investigated. This study aimed to determine and compare the importance of patient-centredness, relative to pregnancy rates, to patients and physicians.

METHODS
A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was designed. Participants had to choose between hypothetical fertility clinics differing in following attributes: travel time; pregnancy rate (effectiveness); physicians' attitude; information on treatment; and continuity of physicians (the latter three represent patient-centredness). A total of 1378 patients and 268 physicians from eight Dutch and Belgian fertility clinics received the DCE-questionnaire. The attributes' relative importance was analysed using multinomial logistic regression. Additionally, patients' actual choice behaviour was investigated.

RESULTS
In total, 925 patients and 227 physicians participated. Pregnancy rates were relatively more important to physicians. Patients assigned more value to patient-centredness (P < 0.001) and were willing to trade-off a higher pregnancy rate for patient-centredness than physicians recommended them to do (P < 0.05). For example, patients considered pregnancy rates 1.5 times as important as an interested physician's attitude, whereas physicians considered this 2.4 times as important (P < 0.001). The willingness to trade-off pregnancy rate for this attitude was 9.8% for patients and 6.3% for physicians (P < 0.001). A lack of patient-centredness was the most cited non-medical reason for changing fertility clinics.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients and physicians put considerable value on pregnancy rates. However, physicians significantly undervalue the importance of patient-centredness to patients. Clinics aiming to optimize the quality of their services should be aware of the substantial importance their patients assign to patient-centredness.


The past few years, it has become explicit that failure due to transverse instability is difficult to be observed in actual structures after the event of seismic excitation, even if it is certain that it exists as phenomenon and can even lead to general collapse of structures. Consequently, because of the big importance of transverse instability and the role that plays in the seismic behavior and safety of constructions, a sedulous study is required about the mechanism of occurrence of this phenomenon and the factors that lead to its growth. The present work is experimental and consists of 5 test specimens of scale 1:3 simulating the boundary edges of structural walls. These specimens were reinforced with the same low longitudinal reinforcement ratio (1.79%). The degree of elongation applied was different for each specimen. The present paper tries to investigate the influence of the degree of elongation to the displacements and the modes of failure of test specimens.


Objectives: Fractional moving blood volume (FMBV) can be calculated automatically in a video sequence. The aim of this study is to evaluate the agreement between observers on the placental blood perfusion assessment evaluated by time-averaged maximum perfusion (TAMP). Methods: Anterior placentas from 20 normal pregnant singleton pregnant women between 24 to 32 weeks were evaluated. The power Doppler (PDU) color box was placed in a sagittal plane of the placenta with visualization of the site of insertion of the umbilical cord. The PDU color box was adjusted to the maximum placental length and height with the following settings: low-pass filter, smoothing set at 1/1, pulse repetition frequency of 0.6 kHz, and normal quality image. A 4–5 seconds video sequence was saved in an AVI format without compression for offline analysis. Recordings were obtained without maternal and fetal movements. For analysis, the region of interest (ROI) was delineated in the first image of the video sequence and then all the images included in the video loop were automatically calculated, the final value was termed time-averaged maximum perfusion (TAMP). Video files and TAMP values were blindly obtained and recorded by two experienced maternal fetal medicine specialists Inter and intra observer agreement was evaluated by means of the intraclass (intraCC) and interclass (interCC) correlation coefficients. Results: TAMP was successfully evaluated in all patients by both observers. IntraCC for TAMP evaluation was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.82–0.97) and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.85–0.98) for observer A and B respectively. InterCC between both operators was 0.90 (95% CI: 0.88–0.91). Conclusions: Perfusion evaluation by TAMP can be reliable performed by different experienced operators.


Palmiet, Prionium serratum, is an endemic wetland plant which dominates oligotrophic wetlands throughout the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. Palmiet is often perceived as undesirable by landowners, in part because it is thought to have high water-use, although little is known about the water-use of this important wetland species. We estimated the water-use dynamics of Palmiet at the leaf scale, using stomatal conductance measurements, and at the wetland scale, by modelling evapotranspiration using remote sensing and an energy-balance model. Factors that influenced Palmiet water-use were also considered, and seasonal variations were analysed. The aim was to estimate Palmiet wetland water-use, and to develop a set of crop factors (Kc) for use in hydrological modelling of catchments containing Palmiet wetlands. Results show that Palmiet has a comparatively low stomatal conductance (11–152 mmol∙m-2∙s-1), which was lower in summer than winter, and moderate evapotranspiration for a riparian species (1 220 mm∙a-1 compared to a local reference evapotranspiration of 1 302 mm∙a-1 and A-Pan evaporation of 2 809 mm∙a-1), which was higher in summer (more energy to drive evapotranspiration and higher vapour pressure deficits). Morphological and physiological adaptations to nutrient poverty or periodic drought are suggested theories which may explain the controls on transpiration for Palmiet.


Purpose

This paper aims to systematically study the effect of reinforcement type, processing methods and reflow cycle on actual retained ratio of foreign reinforcement added in solder joints.

Design/methodology/approach

Two kinds of composite solders based on SAC305 (wt.%) alloys with reinforcements of 1 wt.% Ni and 1 wt.% TiC nano-particles were produced using powder metallurgy and mechanical blending method. The morphology of prepared composite solder powder and solder pastes was examined; retained ratios of reinforcement (RRoR) added in solder joints after different reflow cycles were analysed quantitatively using an Inductively Coupled Plasma optical system (ICP-OES Varian-720). The existence forms of reinforcement added in solder alloys during different processing stages were studied using scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffractometry and energy dispersive spectrometry.

Findings

The obtained experimental results indicated that the RRoR in composite solder joints decreased with the increase in the number of reflow cycles, but a loss ratio diminished gradually. It was also found that the RRoR which could react with the solder alloy were higher than that of the one that are unable to react with the solder. In addition, compared with mechanical blending, the RRoRs in the composite solders prepared using power metallurgy were relatively pronounced.

Originality/value

Present study offer a preliminary understanding on actual content and existence form of reinforcement added in a reflowed solder joint, which would also provide practical implications for choosing reinforcement and adjusting processing parameters in the manufacture of composite solders.


Problem . In Gospel studies the term "pericope" has been generally defined as a "unit," but there is no uniformity in the application of the term in either studies of the Gospels, or in harmonies, synopses, and gospel parallels ("comparators"). This present study was undertaken to determine what factors influence editors of comparators in determining the beginnings and ends of pericopes. Method . A list was compiled of the major comparators of the twentieth century. The text references (e.g., Matt 1:1-17, 1:18-25, etc.) for the pericopes which contained passages from Matthew were entered into a computer for each comparator. The references were collated, sorted in canonical order, and a cross tabulation was generated to indicate which pericopes were found in each comparator. Each pericope was then analyzed to determine the reasons for its beginning and end as possible judgements of the editors of the comparators. The reasons were taken from narrative indicators within the text of Matthew, from evidence taken from the structure of the comparators containing each pericope, and from evidence that might be found in data external to the composition of the comparator (possible audience, ecclesiastical orientation, et al.). Results . The beginnings and ends of pericopes most often occurred because of changes in narrative elements or other indicators within thetext. A number of the Matthaean pericopes in the comparators were determined by the editor's understanding of the relationship of the gospel material (Synoptic Problem, parallels, etc.). Relatively few beginnings and endings were determined by influences exterior to the harmony, synopsis, or gospel parallel. A structured list of the types of beginnings and endings to pericopes was then developed. Conclusions . There is no uniformity in Matthew in the determination of a pericope in gospel comparators. A pericope is what the author or editor determines it to be. This lack of standardization also applies to commentaries and studies on the Gospels.


Due to the dynamic nature of the grid computing and P2P in networks, the behavior of system might be very unpredictable in respect of reliability. Thus, we need well-organized system architecture to provide high system availability with resource scheduling scheme for P2P grid application. In this paper, we propose the SLA-constrained resource scheduling policy methodology in order to enhance system performance in P2P grid. The simulation results show that SCPA-based job scheduling can support the load balancing and guarantee the high system availability in system performance.


This guide points out useful resources for research on gender and related topics, such as sexuality, gender roles, feminism, and cultural influences.


Throughout an illustrious career that spanned the half-century from the Spanish-American War through World War II, Benjamin O. Davis proved that determination and diplomacy could overcome the barriers raised by racial bigotry. Today there are as many as 10,000 black officers in the army. In Davis's day there weren't more than two or three. As Marvin Fletcher's admiring but balanced portrait shows, this enormous change owes not a little to the persistent efforts and quiet dignity of Benjamin O. Davis. Davis helped "lay the foundation for the integration of the armed forces, the first major break in the wall of segregated America." Born into the black middle class of Washington, D.C., Davis maintained a lifelong love for the military, despite the debilitating effects of the army's segregation policies. Such policies repeatedly denied Davis promotions and meant " safe assignments" Liberia, Tuskegee Institute, Wilberforce University designed to keep him from commanding white troops. It took thirty years from his enlistment until his promotion to colonel, and another decade before he became America's first black general Promoted to brigadier general at the start of World War II, Davis headed a special section that monitored black military units at home and overseas, investigated an increasing number of racial disturbances, and bolstered the black soldier's morale. He was largely responsible for persuading the Army to try a limited form of integration. The success of that effort led to a federal mandate for the integration of the entire American armed forces."


Operating license extension (OLE) is an important trend in the development of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). About 30.2% of the units in operation in the world have reached or exceeded 40 years of operation. "License Renewal, LR" and "Periodic Safety Review, PSR" are two commonly strategies used for operating license extension demonstration. In December 2015 the technical policy of OLE in China was issued by National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA), with the main works of the demonstration include: (1) Current License Basis Review, (2) Scoping and Screening of Structures, Systems and Components (SSCs), (3) Aging Management Review (AMR), (4) Time Limited Aging Analysis (TLAA), (5) Updated of Finally Safety Analysis Report (FSAR), (6) Environment Evaluation. The demonstration of OLE of NPPs were carried out in two NPPs since 2013. In this paper, the demonstration strategies for OLE were introduced, the processes of the demonstration by LR in USA and PSR in France were provided. The interpretation of technical policy and Domestic status of OLE in China were illustrated. The technical issues for the OLE safety assessment were also reviewed. Furthermore, the trends for OLE in the future, such as multiple plants demonstration at one time, the secondly license renewal were discussed as well.


Since the early 1980s U.S. bank regulators have focused increasingly on the adequacy of banks' capital ratios. This article begins with a review of the changes to U.S. capital regulations and theoretical models for determining banks' capital strategy. The authors then survey numerous studies that examine banks' responses, and the costs associated with their responses, to these regulations. ; The authors categorize banks' responses into two primary types. The first of these, termed cosmetic changes to the capital ratio, may be achieved in one of two ways: a bank may reduce its total assets while increasing the proportion of risky assets, or it may exploit differences between capital as measured for regulatory purposes and the bank's true economic capital. Such cosmetic changes may bring a bank's capital ratio within regulatory guidelines without reducing either the probability that the bank will fail or the losses to depositors and the deposit insurance agency if the bank fails. The second general type of response a bank may make to capital regulation is to effectively increase its capital cushion by either reducing its risk exposure or increasing its capital levels. ; The authors point out that regulators need to consider what response they want to elicit when formulating new regulations. If the regulations are being imposed to reduce the risk of a systemic problem and the expected losses of the deposit insurance agency, then regulations that encourage cosmetic responses are, by definition, unlikely to accomplish regulatory goals. The authors also note that the best way to reduce a bank's riskiness in many cases--diversification and hedging--is not adequately recognized under current capital standards.


Although cyberattacks on machine learning (ML) production systems can be destructive, many industry practitioners are ill equipped, lacking tactical and strategic tools that would allow them to analyze, detect, protect against, and respond to cyberattacks targeting their ML-based systems. In this paper, we take a significant step toward securing ML production systems by integrating these systems and their vulnerabilities into cybersecurity risk assessment frameworks. Specifically, we performed a comprehensive threat analysis of ML production systems and developed an extension to the MulVAL attack graph generation and analysis framework to incorporate cyberattacks on ML production systems. Using the proposed extension, security practitioners can apply attack graph analysis methods in environments that include ML components, thus providing security experts with a practical tool for evaluating the impact and quantifying the risk of a cyberattack targeting an ML production system.


Radio duty cycling is a commonly employed mechanism to support long-term sustainable operations of WSNs. Combined with the effect of unreliable wireless links, many challenges arise for ensuring delay bounded data delivery with reliability constraint. However, research on energy-efficient data forwarding with statistical delay bound in duty-cycled WSNs still remains unaddressed. This paper proposes EDGE, a novel opportunistic forwarding technique tailored for duty-cycled WSNs with unreliable wireless links. The key idea is to exploit the available path diversity to minimize the transmission cost while providing statistical delay guarantees. Delay quantiles are derived at each node in a distributed manner and are used as the guidelines in forwarding decision making, so that an early arriving packet will be opportunistically switched to the energy-optimal path for communication cost minimization. Comprehensive evaluation results show that EDGE effectively reduces the transmission cost with statistical delay guarantees under various network settings.


In Remains of the Day, Mr. Stevens the butler guards his pantry well and does not allow the housekeeper to be "coming and going." When Ms. Kenton intrudes on his private time and wants to see the novel he is reading, he resists. Mr. Stevens's internal monologue about the pantry and all of his interaction with Ms. Kenton reveal his state of mind. A reserved person, Mr. Stevens never comes out and says, "I have feelings for Ms. Kenton, but I am so afraid to let her in. She might wreak havoc on my heart." In fact, most of us are not so constantly self-aware of our emotional states. Thus, in story, the character's interaction with the external world reveals the internal state of mind. The pantry is Stevens' internal world -- it is his well-guarded heart. In legal narratives, it is even more important to have some sort of concrete proof of internal states of mind. We must prove pain and suffering, emotional distress, intent, insanity, and so on. Simply asserted, "I am suffering," is not convincing and is conclusory. Worse still, the attorney could write, "Bethany was so very sad. She was suffering deep down to her core, and it pained her so." Such a declaration is melodramatic and conclusory. However, if we view the manner in which Bethany interacts with the world as she suffers, we can feel the emotional weight of that suffering. The alarm goes off, and she turns it off and pulls the covers over her head. She lays in bed and cries all day long. She wants to drag herself to the kitchen to scarf down a pint of ice cream, but each time she tries to roll over, pain shoots down her back...and so on. This article defines these objective correlatives, shows the difference between them and other writing concepts, and provides examples of effective and ineffective objective correlatives in both fiction narratives and legal narratives.Some of the fiction works explored included Anna Karenina, Inexcusable, Hamlet, Bud Not Buddy, State of Wonder, and Every Time a Rainbow Dies. The brief to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the recent controversial death penalty case, Panetti v. Quarterman is also explored. Mr. Panetti argued that he was not competent to be executed, and his attorney's brief uses Panetti's incoherent connection to the external world to show his incompetent mental state. Some of the other examples include U.S. v. Johnson and Davis v. Washington.


Embryo-like structures generated from stem cells can achieve varying developmental milestones, but none have been shown to progress through gastrulation, neurulation, and organogenesis.1–7 Here, we show that "ETiX" mouse embryos, established from embryonic stem cells aggregated with trophoblast stem cells and inducible extraembryonic endoderm stem cells, can develop through gastrulation and beyond to undertake neural induction and generate the progenitors needed to create the entire organism. The head-folds of ETiX embryos show anterior expression of Otx2, defining forebrain and midbrain regions that resemble those of the natural mouse embryo. ETiX embryos also develop beating hearts, trunk structures comprising a neural tube and somites, tail buds containing neuromesodermal progenitors and primordial germ cells, and gut tubes derived from definitive endoderm. A fraction of ETiX embryos show neural tube abnormalities, which can be partially rescued by treatment with the metabolically active form of folic acid, reminiscent of common birth defects and therapies in humans. Notably, ETiX embryos also develop a yolk sac with blood islands. Overall, ETiX embryos uniquely recapitulate natural embryos, developing further than any other stem-cell derived model, through multiple post-implantation stages and within extra-embryonic membranes.


WEI, MIN. FABRICATION OF POLYMER MATERIALS FROM THEIR CYCLODEXTRIN INCLUSION COMPLEXES. ( Under the direction of Prof. Alan E. Tonelli. ) Inclusion complexed (IC) and coalesced biodegradable poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA), and their diblock copolymer (PCL-b-PLLA) were achieved by forming ICs between host α-cyclodextrin(α-CD) and guest PCL, PLLA, and PCL-bPLLA, followed by removing the α-CD host with an amylase enzyme. The melting and crystallization behavior of these CD-IC treated polymers are investigated. Both isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization studies demonstrate that the PCL and PLLA blocks in the IC-coalesced samples are more readily and homogeneously crystallized than those in the as-synthesized samples or their physical blend, even though the level of crystallinity in the IC-coalesced diblock copolymer is significantly lower. Moreover, unlike the as-synthesized diblock copolymer, the crystallization of PCL and PLLA blocks in the IC-coalesced diblock copolymer are not influenced by their covalent connection. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and bisphenol A polycarbonate (PC) samples have been produced by the coalescence of their segregated, extended chains from the narrow channels of the crystalline inclusion complexes formed between the γ-cyclodextrin (γCD) host and PET and PC guests. Experimental observations of PET and PC samples coalesced from their crystalline ICs suggest structures and morphologies that are different from those of samples obtained by ordinary solution and melt processing techniques. PC crystals formed upon the coalescence of highly extended and segregated PC chains from the narrow channels in the CD host lattice are possibly more chain-extended and certainly more stable than chain-folded PC crystals. The coalesced PET melt rapidly recrystallizes during the attempted quench, and so upon reheating, it displays neither a glass transitions temperature (Tg) nor a crystallization exotherm but simply remelts at the as-coalesced melting temperature (Tm). An inclusion complex between nylon-6 and α-cyclodextrin was obtained and we attempted to use the formation and subsequent disassociation of the nylon-6/α-CD inclusion complex to manipulate the properties of nylon-6. Examination of as-received and IC coalesced nylon-6 samples shows that dominated α-form crystalline phase of nylon-6 and a great increase in crystallinity are in the coalesced sample. When inherently immiscible polymers are included as guests in the narrow channels of their common inclusion complexes formed with host cyclodextrins and then these polymer-1/polymer-2-CD-IC crystals are coalesced, an intimately mixed blend of the polymers is obtained. Polycarbonate (PC)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blends coalesced from their common γ-CD-ICs are amorphous and generally exhibit single glass transitions at temperature (Tg) between those of pure PC and PMMA. FTIR spectroscopy suggests an intimate mixing of and possible specific interactions between PC and PMMA chains in the coalesced blends. An attempt to achieve an intimate blend between nylon 6 and nylon 66 by forming and dissociating their common α-CD-IC was also made. Experimental results demonstrate that α-cyclodextrin can only host single nylon polymer chains in the IC channels. Spectroscopic results illustrate that there is intimate mixing existing in the IC coalesced blend, but not in their solution cast physical blend. FABRICATION OF POLYMER MATERIALS FROM THEIR CYCLODEXTRIN INCLUSION COMPLEXES


We performed a systematic review of studies focusing on the automatic prediction of the progression of mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia, and a quantitative analysis of the methodological choices impacting performance. This review included 172 articles, from which 234 experiments were extracted. For each of them, we reported the used data set, the feature types, the algorithm type, performance and potential methodological issues. The impact of these characteristics on the performance was evaluated using a multivariate mixed effect linear regressions. We found that using cognitive, fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography or potentially electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography variables significantly improved predictive performance compared to not including them, whereas including other modalities, in particular T1 magnetic resonance imaging, did not show a significant effect. The good performance of cognitive assessments questions the wide use of imaging for predicting the progression to AD and advocates for exploring further fine domain-specific cognitive assessments. We also identified several methodological issues, including the absence of a test set, or its use for feature selection or parameter tuning in nearly a fourth of the papers. Other issues, found in 15% of the studies, cast doubts on the relevance of the method to clinical practice. We also highlight that short-term predictions are likely not to be better than predicting that subjects stay stable over time. These issues highlight the importance of adhering to good practices for the use of machine learning as a decision support system for the clinical practice.


The knowledge deficit model with regard to the public has been severely criticized in the sociology of the public perception of science. However, when dealing with public decisions regarding scientific matters, political and scientific institutions insist on defending the deficit model. The idea that only certified experts, or those with vast experience, should have the right to participate in decisions can bring about problems for the future of democracies. Through a type of "topography of ideas," in which some concepts from the social studies of science are used in order to think about these problems, and through the case study of public participation in the elaboration of the proposal of discounts in the fees charged for rural water use in Brazil, we will try to point out an alternative to the deficit model. This alternative includes a "minimum comprehension" of the scientific matters involved in the decision on the part of the participants, using criteria judged by the public itself.


Human activities have led to the loss and fragmentation of rainforest around the world's
tropics and sub-tropics, whilst internal fragmentation by linear clearings has subdivided
many remaining areas of rainforest, exacerbating the effects of the initial disturbance.
Linear clearings for human infrastructure, including roads and powerlines, are
widespread within the rainforests of the world and the Wet Tropics World Heritage
Area of north-eastern Queensland in particular. Edge effects of these linear clearings
have the potential to substantially increase the disturbed area within existing tracts of
rainforest and affect a wide range of rainforest biota.

I examined the edge effects of two artificial linear clearings on rainforest
understorey microclimate, physical disturbance regimes, vegetation structure and
composition and tree seedling survival and growth. Edge effects adjacent to powerline
clearings and highways were compared with those near perennial creeks, the only type
of widespread natural linear canopy opening available in the complex mesophyll vine
forest of the Palmerston Region in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of northeastern
Queensland (average annual precipitation 3000 – 4000 mm).

Understorey microclimate of rainforest adjacent to highways, powerline
clearings and creeks was significantly altered from that of the forest interior. Light
intensity was elevated near the edges of powerline clearings, highways and creeks with
the effect being strongest for creek edges. Air temperature and vapour pressure deficit
were elevated near powerline clearing edges in the dry season and highway edges in
both wet and dry seasons but were not elevated near creek edges in either season. In
contrast, soil moisture was reduced near creek edges but remained unaltered near
powerline clearing and highway edges. Air speed was not significantly related to
distance from the forest edge when assessed with instantaneous measurements although
slight increases in air speed were detected near the edge of the forest when diurnal
patterns were assessed using data loggers. The predominant air speed throughout the
study sites, however, remained at or close to 0 m s-1. Canopy temperature was elevated
near highway edges and lowered near powerline edges in the wet season but no edge
gradients in canopy temperature were detected near creek edges in either season. These
different edge gradients may be largely the result of differences in the fluxes of latent
and sensible heat within each type of linear canopy opening with these data indicating that the nature of the linear canopy opening is at least as important as the width in
determining the severity and extent of microclimatic edge effects.

Variation in the understorey light environment was assessed using the red:far
red ratio, which has been shown in other studies to correlate very closely with percent
canopy transmittance as well as other commonly used measures of canopy cover and
light availability. Average red:far red values were elevated near creek edges and
reduced near powerline and highway edges although the proportion of high light
measurements (≥ 0.70) was elevated within 12 m of all edge types. These data indicate
that anthropogenic edges are more 'sealed' (ie have a greater foliage density near the
edge) than creek edges. This more open vegetation structure near creek edges was
accompanied by a decline in soil moisture (due to changes in soil texture) suggesting
that periodic flooding may be one of the causative factors maintaining lower foliage
density and thus a comparatively more open edge structure.

Measures of physical disturbance provided mixed results. There were greater
numbers of fallen trees near the edges of powerlines, highways and creeks but no
particular tree size appeared to be disproportionately at risk of tree-fall mortality. As
there was also a greater number of living trees near the forest edge, it is uncertain
whether the mortality rate of canopy trees truly was elevated near the forest edge. In
contrast, small-scale disturbance to seedlings through falling leaf litter and canopy
debris was not consistently greater near the forest edge than in the forest interior.
Although the rate of small-scale disturbance, as measured with artificial seedlings, was
elevated near highway edges, there was no consistent reduction in the stature of taller
(≥ 50 cm) seedlings near the edge as might be expected amongst seedlings suffering
greater rates of physical trauma. Whilst the elevated rate of damage to artificial
seedlings near highway edges might be a result of greater moisture stress, perhaps as a
result of elevated wet season canopy temperatures and year-round increases in
understorey vapour pressure deficit near highways, the lack of any consistent signal in
seedling stature suggests that this effect may not significantly influence the seedling
community.

Vegetation structure and composition were altered near the edge of the forest,
relative to the forest interior. The abundances of vines, small trees and saplings were
elevated near the forest edge. Pioneer species were also more abundant near the edge,
particularly adjacent to creeks. Light-demanding herbs occurred more frequently and
late-successional shrubs less frequently near the forest edge than in the interior. Grasses and weeds were found almost exclusively on the very edge of the forest but were also
recorded in large canopy gaps within 12 m of highway edges and at low abundance
within 12 m of creek edges. Changes in the proportions of early-, mid- and latesuccessional
tree species between adults and juveniles suggested that understorey light
conditions were no longer suitable for the recruitment of early-successional trees near
anthropogenic edges. This suggests that anthropogenic edge structure has become more
sealed since these edges were created. In contrast, understorey light availability near
creek edges remained sufficient for the recruitment of light-demanding pioneer species.

Proximity to the edge did not significantly affect seedling survival or growth for
eight species included in a herbivore-exclusion experiment. The seedlings of pioneer
species survived only in areas with high light availability (ie within the powerline
clearing and near creek edges). Light availability was also the strongest determinant of
the survival of seedlings of mid- and late-successional species. There was weak
evidence for a decrease in herbivory pressure near the forest edge and no evidence of an
effect of edge distance on seedling survival or growth. The majority of seedlings did not
experience any growth in this experiment although the probability of seedlings
experiencing positive growth rates increased with increasing light availability. The
major differences observed in this study occurred in seedling survival rather than
seedling growth, suggesting that the ability of seedlings to persist in the understorey
may have been an important factor influencing the composition of the tree seedling
community.

These data indicate that artificial linear clearings were associated with edge
gradients in the abiotic environment of the adjacent forest and that these abiotic edge
effects were the driving force behind changes observed in the plant community at the
forest edge. The understorey of forest near the edges of highways and powerlines was
brighter, warmer and drier than the forest interior although only slightly windier. In
contrast, the edges of natural linear canopy openings did not cause elevated moisture
stress but did experience elevated light availability. Analysis suggests that a
combination of differences in the degree of edge 'sealing' among edge types caused by
varying disturbance regimes in the clearings and differences in the physical properties
of the linear canopy openings themselves (particularly in the level of evaporative
cooling) were responsible for the observed biotic and abiotic edge gradients near natural
and anthropogenic linear canopy openings.


This study investigates the prosodic realization of negation in Saisiyat, an endangered aboriginal Austronesian language of Taiwan, and compares the prosodic properties of its affirmative and negative sentences with those of British English. In order to test Yaeger-Dror's "Cognitive Prominence Principle," according to which cognitively prominent items (such as negators) should be prosodically marked, we measure the F0 peak, the intensity peak, and duration of lexical items appearing in affirmative and negative sentences. Our results indicate that sentential subjects are the most acoustically prominent items with respect to F0 height and intensity in Saisiyat negative sentences, whereas the negator itself is the most acoustically prominent item with respect to F0 in an English sentence. In addition, the presence of a negator does not significantly change the prosodic parameters of contiguous words in Saisiyat. English, in contrast, exhibits relatively large-scale prosodic differences in both F0 and intensity between affirmative and negative sentences. This paper suggests that the following typological features can account for the differences observed between Saisiyat and English: (1) the relationship between prosodic prominence and syntactic subjects in Saisiyat, (2) transparency of the negation system in Saisiyat, and (3) the relationship between prosodic prominence and semantically defined focus in English.


Purpose: This study aims to analyze the effect of taste value, epistemic value, emotional value on the culinary destination image with tourist attitude as an intervening variable. Research methods: This research uses quantitative methods. Primary data is obtained directly from tourists who have visited and enjoyed local cuisine. The sample was determined using nonprobability sampling with a purposive sampling technique and obtained a sample of 335 respondents. The data collection method in this study used a questionnaire that was distributed online through Google forms. This research was analyzed using SPSS software. Results and discussions: The results of this study indicate that all variables have a significant effect on tourist attitudes. Variable attitude of tourists significantly influence the image of culinary destinations. Taste value, epistemic value, emotional value variables significantly influence the image of local culinary destinations mediated by tourist attitudes. Conclusion: Taste value, epistemic value, and emotional value significantly influence the image of culinary destinations mediated by tourist attitudes.


Galectins are a family of mammalian β-galactoside-binding proteins that positively and negatively regulate T cell death. Extracellular galectin-1 directly induces death of T cells and thymocytes, while intracellular galectin-3 blocks T cell death. In contrast to the antiapoptotic function of intracellular galectin-3, we demonstrate that extracellular galectin-3 directly induces death of human thymocytes and T cells. However, events in galectin-3- and galectin-1-induced cell death differ in a number of ways. Thymocyte subsets demonstrate different susceptibility to the two galectins: whereas galectin-1 kills double-negative and double-positive human thymocytes with equal efficiency, galectin-3 preferentially kills double-negative thymocytes. Galectin-3 binds to a complement of T cell surface glycoprotein receptors distinct from that recognized by galectin-1. Of these glycoprotein receptors, CD45 and CD71, but not CD29 and CD43, appear to be involved in galectin-3-induced T cell death. In addition, CD7 that is required for galectin-1-induced death is not required for death triggered by galectin-3. Following galectin-3 binding, CD45 remains uniformly distributed on the cell surface, in contrast to the CD45 clustering induced by galectin-1. Thus, extracellular galectin-3 and galectin-1 induce death of T cells through distinct cell surface events. However, as galectin-3 and galectin-1 cell death are neither additive nor synergistic, the two death pathways may converge inside the cell.


Contemporary energy storage devices significantly rely on the rational design of micro and nano-structural features of electrode materials for efficient ion transport. A judicious concept of utilizing the extended charge mobility on the third dimension along with an active redox couple to significantly maximize the capacitance has been demonstrated via (a) the fabrication of a 3D network from 2D graphene and (b) the introduction of an active redox species. Compared with traditional graphene systems, an unprecedented 8-fold gain of capacitance that was sustained with minimal loss even beyond 5000 cycles is achieved and is reported for the first time. This was due to the complementary advantage of both the electric double layer capacitance of the 3D graphene electrode and the redox-mediated pseudocapacitance of K3Fe(CN)6 in alkaline electrolytes. Colloidal polystyrene spheres with a tunable size range were used as sacrificial templates for generating the 3D network. This design outperforms others, is an excellent candidate as an ultracapacitor and is envisaged to lead to new opportunities in several electrochemical applications.


Abstract The cost of composite materials limits the use of these materials. For this reason, many studies have been done with composites to reduce costs. In this study, the filler effect on vinylester matrix composites was investigated in order to contribute to cost reduction. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and aluminum hydroxide Al(OH)3 were used as filler, and E-glass was used as reinforcement material. In addition, the filler ratio, which was added to the structure, was 5 wt.-%,10 wt.-% and 15 wt.-%. The production method was vacuum infusion, and the manufacturing of the composite plates completed. A tensile test, bending test, hardness test and ash test were performed on the samples. Also, microstructural images were examined by scanning electron microscope. Finally, it was found that 15 wt.-% CaCO3 filler increased hardness considerablely. Tensile properties and flexural strength properties did not change dramatically with the addition of filler. Moreover, the addition of filler decreases the cost of the composite. Thus, when we compare the cost effectiveness of fillers, CaCO3 filler on a vinylester matrix composite is advantageous for decreasing cost.


In order to retain information in working memory (WM) during a delay, distracting stimuli must be ignored. This important ability improves during childhood, but the neural basis for this development is not known. We measured brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging in adults and 13-year-old children. Data were analyzed with an event-related design to isolate activity during cue, delay, distraction, and response selection. Adults were more accurate and less distractible than children. Activity in the middle frontal gyrus and intraparietal cortex was stronger in adults than in children during the delay, when information was maintained in WM. Distraction during the delay evoked activation in parietal and occipital cortices in both adults and children. However, distraction activated frontal cortex only in children. The larger frontal activation in response to distracters presented during the delay may explain why children are more susceptible to interfering stimuli.


BACKGROUNDS/AIMS
Increasing evidence supports the contribution of the pro-/anti-inflammatory cytokine balance and genetic factors to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we investigated whether genetic interferon gamma polymorphisms were associated with HCC in Korean patients with chronic hepatitis B.

METHODOLOGY
We genotyped a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP, rs2430561, +874A/T) and a microsatellite (rs3138557, (CA) (n) repeat), located in the first intron of the interferon gamma gene, by direct sequencing and the gene scan method. A population-based case-control study of HCC was conducted and included 170 patients with chronic hepatitis and HCC, and 171 with chronic hepatitis B patients without hepatocellular carcinoma in a Korean population.

RESULTS
Genotype and allele distributions of the interferon gamma gene SNP were associated with HCC. The frequencies of the AA genotype and the A allele were significantly increased in hepatocellular carcinoma subjects (p < 0.05). Combined analysis using the genotype of rs2430561 and the number of microsatellites revealed that the frequencies of AT-CA12, and TT-CA12 increased significantly in hepatocellular carcinoma subjects (p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that the interferon gamma gene may be a susceptibility gene and a risk factor for HCC in the Korean population.


Objectives: One of the essential requirements for improving Quality of Service of Cloud is to design load balancing algorithms that equally spread the load among the VMs such that neither of them is overloaded at any given point of time while ensuring that each of the VM is optimally utilised. The objective of this paper is to propose an efficient VM load balancing policy called Timestamp based Stateful Throttled VM load balancing algorithm. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The proposed algorithm deals with the space performance constraints of the existing Stateful Throttled VM Load balancing algorithm. It is based on the principle of locality of reference and deletes the old state information to reclaim space. The authors have carried out an experimental analysis to compare the proposed algorithm with the existing algorithms. Findings: The comparative analysis shows that the algorithm behaves in the same manner as Stateful Throttled Algorithm while taking into consideration its space performance limitations. The authors have observed better performance in terms of response time and data center processing time for Timestamp based Stateful Throttled VM load balancing algorithm than Throttled VM load balancing algorithm in case of spatially distributed VMs. Application/Improvements: The salient features of the proposed algorithm are better response time and data center processing time in case of spatially distributed data centers in cloud.


The object of this paper is to look at what Switzerland and the European Union have in common and to draw some lessons from their common characteristics. The Author first ascertains what are the major problems which Europe has to face in its move towards integration and compares its problems with those faced by Switzerland. Then he turns to an examination of the nature of the institutional arrangements of the Swiss Confederacy and of those of the European Union to see to what extent they are similar and whether the European Union would gain by modelling its institutions more closely on those of Switzerland. Finally, some other characteristics of the Swiss political life are examined to see whether their introduction might benefit the European Union. According to the Author, Switzerland can provide guidance to the European Union as well as demonstrate to both sceptics and enthusiasts that in the path towards unity, the cultural and social' diversity of Europe can be protected and has to be protected. To make such a development fully acceptable the Author recognized that, above all, progress towards unity has to be slow, very slow indeed.


A classifier structure is described to construct boosted tree classifier stages for detecting dynamic objects such as human faces. It is based on using simple and weak classifiers based on Haar-like features which are easily computed by integral image representation values (Viola, P. et al., IEEE CVPR, 2001) and putting these weak classifiers into the nodes of a binary tree structure by performing the AdaBoost algorithm. Each classifier stage consists of decision trees containing simple classifiers at their nodes. Each node classifier is constructed using only one simple feature and is divided into sub nodes if the decision tree error on the training set is greater than a predetermined threshold. This division process continues until the error is lower than the threshold and a maximum tree depth is not exceeded. By this approach, it is tried to obtain a faster convergence to a certain classifier performance value.


Fragment I was isolated from rabbit γ-globulin which contained antibodies to Salmonella. On a weight basis the fragment I and γ-globulin were compared as to their ability to promote phagocytosis, protect mice against infection with Salmonella typhimurium, and prepare bacteria for the bactericidal effect of complement. Fragment I retains 1 to 2% of the activity of intact γ-globulin in clearance and protection tests. It retains no activity in the bactericidal test nor in the sensitization of red cells for complement lysis. Although certain components of complement may be involved, the complete system as defined by hemolytic activity or bactericidal activity is not essential either for opsonization of Salmonella or for preparation for in vivo kill.


Doris Lessing's new novel - which she defines as 'inner space fiction' - is an incomparably exciting voyage into the the marvellous, terrifying, unexplored, yet sometimes glimpsed territory of the inner man. Professor Charles Watkins (Classics), doomed to spin endlessly in the currents of the Atlantic, makes a landfall at last on a tropical shore. He discovers a ruined stone city, participates - moon-dazed - in bloody rituals in the paradisical forest, witnesses the savage war of the Rat-dogs and is borne on the back of the lordly White Bird across the sea of the dead. Finally, the Crystal claims him, whirling him out into space on a breathtaking cosmic journey. Yet this most exotic of trips is firmly rootedin the reality of a mental breakdown as De Quincey's fantasies were in the chemistry of opium. Watkins is a patient of Central Intake Hosptial, an enigma to the doctors who try with ever more powerful drugs to subdue his mind's adventure, a candidate for electric shock treatment. In a series of extraordinary letters - brilliantly illuminating both on the writers and their subject - Watkins is reconstructed by those who have know him: the forgotten women who have loved him; the pedant, incensed by his intellectual anarchy; the wartime colleague around whose exploits with the Yugoslavian partisans Watkins builds an astonishing fantasy. Doris Lessing believes that society's treatment of the mentally ill is civilisation's biggest and blackest blind spot, and that it is through the minds of the 'broken-down' that truths we choose to shut out enter like the disguised messengers in myths and fairy tales. Developing themes central to The Golden Notebook and The Four Gated City, this book is her most astounding imaginative achievement - a rare work which explores new areas of thought.


Several applications involve a transient stream of data which has to be modeled and analyzed continuously. Their continuous arrival in multiple, rapid, time-varying and possibly unpredictable and unbounded way make the analysis difficult and opens fundamentally new research problems. Examples of such data intensive applications include stock market, road traffic analysis, whether forecasting systems etc. In this study, we have used a Data Stream Management System tool- Stanford STREAM to model and analyze data from two different application domains- Road Traffic analysis and Habitat Monitoring analysis. Based on the results we discuss advantages and disadvantages of STREAM.


Mycotoxins are metabolites produced naturally, due to their presence in foodstuffs and their potential risk for human health, the food industries require analytical methods to secure the quality and stability of raw materials, processes and products. These methods must offer real time data that allow to control and to monitor each process to safeguard the innocuity of the nutritional products. The traditional analytical methods have to deal determinations with limited sensitivity levels and little specificity, they are expensive. Although the chromatographic methods show highly reproducible results and good limits of detection. Other alternative is the use of biosensors. In this review, some electrochemical methods about the detection of mycotoxins are presented with the objective to review and updated information of the methods employed to detect mycotoxins besides to know the regulation of the limits of mycotoxins in food.


S ince 1989, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has organized annual symposia entitled Frontiers of Science. The goal of these symposia is to bring together some of the very best young scientists to discuss exciting advances and opportunities in their fields in a format that encourages informal discussions among participants, both in groups and one-on-one. Speakers present their talks on cutting-edge research in their disciplines to colleagues outside of their fields and address questions such as: ''What are the major research problems and distinctive tools of your field?'' ''What are the current limitations in advancing your field?'' and ''How might insight derived from other fields contribute to overcoming these limitations?'' The process of formulating and answering such questions involves surmounting the barriers imposed by the specialized terminologies and techniques that characterize different branches of science. This process poses formidable challenges that these symposia are addressing with success. The U.S. Frontiers symposium series has spawned similar programs, including the Japanese–American Frontiers of Science symposia, under the auspices of the Science and Technology Agency of Japan and in coordination with the Japan Science and Technology Corporation. These symposia are attended by approximately 80 scholars under 45 years of age (half from the U.S. and half from Japan), by up to a dozen senior colleagues, and by several science writers. At the symposium, some 25 young scientists report on current research within their disciplines to an academically trained and scientifically diverse audience. They highlight major research challenges, methodologies, and limitations to progress at the frontiers of their respective fields. All attendees participate actively in a general discussion period, during which they learn from and form collaborative relationships with other young scientists in different fields. Frontiers of Science symposia are also organized with Germany, Japan, and China. Thus, the Frontiers of Science symposia have become a major instrument in bringing together the best young researchers (the next generation of leaders) in the natural sciences and engineering in the United States, and, increasingly, in other countries. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) publishes collected summaries of the talks presented at these symposia, as part of the ''From the Academy'' series that is designed to inform PNAS readers about the workings of the National Academy of Sciences. Summaries of presentations from the 1990 U.S. symposium (1), and the 1991 and 1992 U.S. symposia (2) have been published by the National Academy Press. Starting with the 1995 U.S. Frontiers of Science symposium (3–7), these collected summaries, including the German– American Frontiers of Science (8–11), the Japanese–American Frontiers of Science (12, 13), and the Chinese–American Frontiers of Science (14–16) have been published in PNAS. The following papers summarize sessions of the third Japanese– American Frontiers of Science symposium held September 22–24, 2000, at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Science and Engineering in Irvine, CA.


A genomic library of Pseudomonas fluorescens subsp. cellulosa DNA, constructed in lambda ZAPII, was screened for carboxymethyl-cellulase activity. The pseudomonad insert from a recombinant phage which displayed elevated cellulase activity in comparison with other cellulase-positive clones present in the library, was excised into pBluescript SK- to generate the plasmid pC48. The nucleotide sequence of the cellulase gene, designated celE, revealed a single open reading frame of 1710 bp that encoded a polypeptide, defined as endoglucanase E (CelE), of M(r) 59663. The deduced primary structure of CelE revealed an N-terminal signal peptide followed by a 300-amino-acid sequence that exhibited significant identity with the catalytic domains of cellulases belonging to glycosyl hydrolase Family 5. Adjacent to the catalytic domain was a 40-residue region that exhibited strong sequence identity to non-catalytic domains located in two other endoglucanases and a xylanase from P. fluorescens. The C-terminal 100 residues of CelE were similar to Type-I cellulose-binding domains (CBDs). The three domains of the cellulase were joined by linker sequences rich in serine residues. Analysis of the biochemical properties of full-length and truncated derivatives of CelE confirmed that the enzyme comprised an N-terminal catalytic domain and a C-terminal CBD. Analysis of purified CelE revealed that the enzyme had an M(r) of 56000 and an experimentally determined N-terminal sequence identical to residues 40-54 of the deduced primary structure of full-length CelE. The enzyme exhibited an endo mode of action in hydrolysing a range of cellulosic substrates including Avicel and acid-swollen cellulose, but did not attack xylan or any other hemicelluloses. A truncated form of the enzyme, which lacked the C-terminal CBD, displayed the same activity as full-length CelE against soluble cellulose and acid-swollen cellulose, but exhibited substantially lower activity than the full-length cellulase against Avicel. The significance of these data in relation to the role of the CBD is discussed.


Lukoye Atwoli, Editor in Chief, East African Medical Journal, Abdullah H. Baqui, Editor in Chief, Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, Thomas Benfield, Editor in Chief, Danish Medical Journal, Raffaella Bosurgi, Editor in Chief, PLOS Medicine, Fiona Godlee, Editor in Chief, The BMJ, Stephen Hancocks, Editor in Chief, British Dental Journal, Richard Horton, Editor in Chief, The Lancet, Laurie Laybourn-Langton, Senior Adviser, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, Carlos Augusto Monteiro, Editor in Chief, Revista de Saúde Pública, Ian Norman, Editor in Chief, International Journal of Nursing Studies, Kirsten Patrick, Interim Editor in Chief, CMAJ, Nigel Praities, Executive Editor, Pharmaceutical Journal, Marcel G. M. Olde Rikkert, Editor in Chief, Dutch Journal of Medicine, Eric J. Rubin, Editor in Chief, NEJM, Peush Sahni, Editor in Chief, National Medical Journal of India, Richard Smith, Chair, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, Nick Talley, Editor in Chief, Medical Journal of Australia, Sue Turale, Editor in Chief, International Nursing Review, Damián Vázquez, Editor in Chief, Pan American Journal of Public Health