A \u3ci\u3ePerithous\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Introduced from Europe

A female specimen of Perithous (Hybomischos) septemcinctorius (Thunberg) was collected from a spider web in a garage in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 4, 1972. The specimen was dead but intact and had evidently been trapped the previous fall, although late enough that it was not fed on by a resident spider

The Gate-Resonance Model - The interface of policy, media and the public in technology conflicts

The gate/resonance model provides an analytical frame for the description of technology conflicts. It offers an analytical scheme to conceptualise the interaction between public opinion, interest representing organisations, the media and the political system. The model distinguishes structural elements, functional elements and processes. Structural elements are the public with sub-publics and representational fields, the regulatory system with its institutions, intermediary organisations representing interests and bridging the gap between the public(s) and the regulatory system, the regulatory space and the media that mirror and participate in interest conflicts. Functional elements are resources, which enable intermediary organisations to convey interests to regulation, and filters that prevent information overflow within regulatory institutions: the gate as a formal function selects information according to statutory criteria, detectors according to usefulness for the institution. Processes described are the movement of issue fields due to re-interpretation; resonance, the tuning-in on issue interpretation among different actors; mobilisation, the generation of political pressure through resonance; and policy change through the abol-ishment of established interest and actor equilibrium due to mobilisation and ensuing gate failure. The model is applied to the example of biotechnology conflicts.theoretical framework, technology conflict, interest representation, public mobilisation, resources

Sicherheitsansprüche an neue Technologien - das Beispiel Nanotechnologie

Neue "strategische" Technologien finden zuweilen wenig Zuspruch bei BürgerInnen, weil in ihrer Anwendung Risiken gesehen werden, in der Vergangenheit etwa bei der Kernenergie und Teilen der Gentechnik. Manche prophezeien der Nanotechnologie ein ähnliches Schicksal wie der Gentechnik, weil es Hinweise, wenngleich wenig Gewissheit über Risiken gibt. Kann und soll man der Nanotechnologie das Schicksal der Agro-Gentechnik ersparen? Die Frage ist nicht nur, wie sicher Technologien sind bzw. was man darüber weiß, sondern was man nicht weiß, für wie (un)sicher sie gehalten und welche Anforderungen an ihre Sicherheit gestellt werden. Weil der Kontext wesentlich ist, wird Sicherheit zum Kürzel für andere akzeptanzrelevante Aspekte, nicht zuletzt für die mit Technologieentwicklung verbundenen Ziele. Führt das aus Wettbewerbsgründen unweigerlich zu einer Anpassung an die Zielvorstellungen der Technologie-Leader, allen voran der USA? Das Beispiel "Converging Technologies" zeigt, dass eine derartige Übernahme nicht zwangsläufig erfolgen muss. Vielmehr lehrt die Erfahrung mit der Gentechnik, dass gerade die Vernachlässigung der gesellschaftlichen Einbettung zu den nun beklagten Ergebnissen führte. Daher sollte der Einbettung neuer "strategischer" Technologien größere Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt werden.Technische Risiken, Unsicherheit, gesellschaftliche Einbettung, Nanotechnologie, converging technologies

The effects of complexity, accuracy, and fluency on communicative adequacy in oral task performance

Communicative adequacy is a key construct in second language research, as the primary goal of most language learners is to communicate successfully in real-world situations. Nevertheless, little is known about what linguistic features contribute to communicatively adequate speech. This study fills this gap by investigating the extent to which complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) predict adequacy, and whether proficiency and task type moderate these relationships. In all, 20 native speakers and 80 second language users from four proficiency levels performed five tasks. Speech samples were rated for adequacy and coded for a range of CAF indices. Filled pause frequency, a feature of breakdown fluency, emerged as the strongest predictor of adequacy. Predictors with significant but smaller effects included indices of all three CAF dimensions: linguistic complexity (lexical diversity, overall syntactic complexity, syntactic complexity by subordination, and frequency of conjoined clauses), accuracy (general accuracy and accuracy of connectors), and fluency (silent pause frequency and speed fluency). For advanced speakers, incidence of false starts also emerged as predicting communicatively adequate speech. Task type did not influence the link between linguistic features and adequacy

Oppkjøp i krisetider : finanskrisens effekter på markedet for selskapskontroll i Norge

Denne oppgaven er skrevet som del av Norges Handelshøyskoles forskningsprosjekt, “Krise, omstilling og vekst”. Oppgaven undersøker Finanskrisens effekter på markedet for selskapskontroll i Norge, nærmere bestemt innenfor oppkjøpsmarkedet. Vi ser på utviklingen av oppkjøpstransaksjoner over en femårs periode, relaterthet, samt en logistisk regresjonsanalyse av variablene soliditet, likviditet, lønnsomhet og vekst i forhold til sannsynligheten for krisetransaksjon. Vi finner at det frem til Finanskrisen inntreffer var en jevn stigning i antall transaksjoner som ble gjennomført, men at Finanskrisen bringer med seg en knekk, der oppkjøpsaktiviteten avtar. I forhold til relaterthet, kan det se ut til at bedrifter foretar mer urelaterte oppkjøp i krisetider. Den logistiske regresjonsanalysen viser at oppkjøpere i krisetid er større bedrifter med dårligere likviditet og lavere vekst i årene før transaksjonen skjer, sammenlignet med transaksjoner som skjer i tider uten krise. Vi finner også at bransjer involvert i oppkjøp i krisetider generelt har lavere gjeld, bedre lønnsomhet og lavere vekst årene før transaksjonen skjer. Regresjonsanalysen for oppkjøpsmål viser at oppkjøpsmål generelt har lavere gjeld, lønnsomhet, likviditet og vekst i årene før transaksjonen skjer, sammenlignet med transaksjoner som blir foretatt i tider uten krise. Bransjene disse oppkjøpsmålene kommer fra i krisetider har generelt lavere gjeld og bedre lønnsomhet årene før transaksjonen skjer, enn transaksjoner som skjer i tider uten krise

Behandling av bakteriell vaginose i svangerskapet for å forebygge komplikasjoner

ABSTRACT Background. Bacterial vaginosis is a clinical entity characterized by offensive vaginal discharge caused by a disturbance of the normal vaginal bacterial flora. The hydrogen peroxidase producing lactobacilli are replaced by several anaerob bacteriae and the vaginal pH is increased. Bacterial vaginosis during pregnancy is associated with preterm delivery and as much as 40% of preterm deliveries can be linked to bacterial vaginosis. Preterm delivery is the major cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. The exact pathogenesis for bacterial vaginosis leading to obstetric complications has not been established, though ascending inflammation and initiation of immunological cascades have been proposed. The treatment for bacterial vaginosis is antimicrobial therapy, most commonly Metronidazole or Clindamycin, administered orally or intravaginally. Several studies undertaking the task of preventing obstetric complications by treating bacterial vaginosis with antibiotics have been inconclusive with respect to treatment recommendations. The current guidelines recommend treatment of symptomatic bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy, but not screening of asymptomatic women. Method. Litterature searches in Cochrane library, Pubmed and Embase were performed for the periode 1994 - September 2009 examining whether antibiotics were successful in preventing obstetric complications such as preterm delivery, late abortions and low birthweight. Results. Antibiotics are effective treatment of bacterial vaginosis. The findings were inconclusive in regards to the prevention of preterm birth, late miscarriage and low birthweight. Review articles have proven unable to draw firm conclusions in regards to the effect of interventions for prevention of preterm birth. However, several studies published in recent years with interventions performed early in pregnancy have shown promising results with respect to preterm birth. Discussion. One major methodological problem in reviewing litterature on bacterial vaginosis and pregnancy complication is the heterogeneity with respect to study design, diagnostic measures, onset of treatment, as well as treatment regime. Moreover, there seems to be a lack of understanding of the exact microbiological processes of bacterial vaginosis leading to obstetric complications. Recently published papers have undertaken the task of identifying the microbiological markers of bacterial vaginosis preceding complications. Conclusion Early intervention with antimicrobial treatment has shown promising results in treatment of bacterial vaginosis in order to prevent complications such as preterm birth. Before large screening programs can be implemented, the effect of early antimicrobial treatment on clinically significant endpoints needs to be documented in large-scale controlled studies with standardised diagnostic procedures and treatment regimes. Furthermore, identification of the exact microbiological processes needs to be identified

Towards a Java Subtyping Operad

The subtyping relation in Java exhibits self-similarity. The self-similarity in Java subtyping is interesting and intricate due to the existence of wildcard types and, accordingly, the existence of three subtyping rules for generic types: covariant subtyping, contravariant subtyping and invariant subtyping. Supporting bounded type variables also adds to the complexity of the subtyping relation in Java and in other generic nominally-typed OO languages such as C# and Scala. In this paper we explore defining an operad to model the construction of the subtyping relation in Java and in similar generic nominally-typed OO programming languages. Operads, from category theory, are frequently used to model self-similar phenomena. The Java subtyping operad, we hope, will shed more light on understanding the type systems of generic nominally-typed OO languages.Comment: 13 page

Optimal cloning of mixed Gaussian states

We construct the optimal 1 to 2 cloning transformation for the family of displaced thermal equilibrium states of a harmonic oscillator, with a fixed and known temperature. The transformation is Gaussian and it is optimal with respect to the figure of merit based on the joint output state and norm distance. The proof of the result is based on the equivalence between the optimal cloning problem and that of optimal amplification of Gaussian states which is then reduced to an optimization problem for diagonal states of a quantum oscillator. A key concept in finding the optimum is that of stochastic ordering which plays a similar role in the purely classical problem of Gaussian cloning. The result is then extended to the case of n to m cloning of mixed Gaussian states.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure; proof of general form of covariant amplifiers adde