We report a microdispenser that can meter and mix subnanoliter liquids in a discrete quantity. Our device is based on the structural stopping valve used in passive dispensers. A vent channel was proposed, designed for the autonomous pausing of a metered liquid segment and the seamless joining of the subsequent segments. While the previous microfluidic devices could meter only a single drop [2-4], lacking in mixing multiple segments, our approach enables the metering/mixing of different liquids in a discrete ratio. This module will find applications in bio-engineering and pharmaceutical research including large-scale cell differentiation experiment and drug discovery platforms.


The anthracene thiosemicarbazone (ATSC) fluorescence 'turn-on' chemodosimeter for the detection of the persulfate anion (S2O82−) in 90% DMSO has been developed. ATSC is simple and exhibits high selectivity toward S2O82− anion in the presence of large interferences from other anions or cations. A fluorescence change from blue to green visualized under the UV light makes it possible to detect the persulfate anion with naked-eye. A mechanism underlying the molecular recognition has been explained from the 1H-NMR and single crystal X-ray structure experiments.


Medical expertise research has focused on why experienced physicians display remarkable performance in solving clinical problems and how this competency develops over many years of education and practice. The contemporary theory on the development of expertise in medicine proposes that students progress through different stages of knowledge restructuring (i.e., encapsulation and illness script) in which their knowledge is finely tuned towards practical situations. Although research in clinical case paradigm has provided us with a better understanding of the differences between students and doctors, it has almost exclusively focused on diagnostic performance, and patient management has received substantially less attention. This reflects an incomplete picture of a medical expert, as management is not only a crucial step in patient workup, but it is also highly connected to experience with patients. In their daily practice, doctors always diagnose and manage patients concurrently; hence, after a large number of patient encounters in practical settings, these two types of knowledge become integrated into one another. In order to incorporate management into contemporary theory, it is proposed that it should be considered as a part of the illness script structure. In the way towards expertise, knowledge about patient management becomes more prominent, and so 1 Monajemi, A., & Rikers, R. M. J. P. (2011). The role of patient management knowledge in medical expertise development: Extending the contemporary theory. International Journal of Person Centered Medicine, 1, 109–114. 2 Chapter 1. Extending the contemporary illness script theory an investigation of management knowledge could ultimately enable us to broaden our understanding of medical expertise.


Highly cross-linked polyurethanes have a high elastic modulus and creep resistance, but they undergo a brittle fracture below the glass transition temperature. Unfortunately, a large number of glassy polyurethanes are prone to brittle fracture without undergoing large elastic deformations; in particular, brittle failure is common under conditions such as low temperature and high strain rates. While the rigidity in polymers is required for practical applications, the lack of resistance against crack propagation is essential to avoid catastrophic failures. The toughening of polymers is a crucial aspect of improving the strength and ductility at specific temperatures and deformation rates. One method that has shown promise in recent years is the creation of local regions of reduced modulus that absorb strain energy and toughen the polymer. For instance, rubbers are typically added to epoxy which phase separate upon polymerization and create local elastic regions that significantly toughen the polymer.In this study, a variety of two-phase transparent polyurethanes in the form of single inclusions is designed to study the toughening mechanism of the local regions of reduced modulus with an embedded crack. Synthesized heterogeneous polyurethanes show a transition from brittle to ductile behavior in addition to a drastic increase in the maximum load that the polymer can withstand. Compact tension experiments demonstrate that a small reduction in the inclusion's Young's modulus (∼10%) leads to an increase in the toughness by factor of 7 (∼700%). Moreover, digital image correlation is performed to map the strain distribution around the crack in order to visualize possible toughening mechanism. Comparison between the induced strain field in samples with inclusion and samples without inclusion reveals an efficient toughening mechanism of the polymers.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


This paper describes the conceptual optimization as performed on an aileron from a typical medium sized aircraft. The goals were to re-design an existing configuration maintaining the overall stiffness and weight whilst reducing the manufacturing cost. A design methodology has been developed to rapidly generate the basic structural configurations to meet given performance requirements. These requirements are either transformed into constraints or an objective function during the optimization process. ANSYS has been used throughout the optimization process starting with a topological optimization study to determine basic internal lay-outs. The internal configuration was then decided concurrently by examining structural and manufacturing constraints. This was followed by parametric optimization carried out on a stepwise fashion to determine firstly the optimum position of internal ribs and spars and finally the optimum skin thickness in each bay. Different initial configurations were studied to determine whether a spar / rib dominated design would be most suitable for the given structure. Additional internal configurations proposed on the basis of minimum assembly/manufacturing cost were quickly analyzed using ANSYS parametric capabilities.


In the present work, flat-plate solar collector (FPSC) in terms of various parameters as well as in respect of lower (Area of FPSC, volume fraction concentration of nanofluids, and mass flow rate) has been studied in this work. The FPSC has been fabricated with 0.192 m, Dioxide silicon SiO2 (40nm) with the volume fraction of SiO2+Distilled water (0.05, 0.075, and 0.1%) and varying of flow rate (10, 15, 20L/h). These technological devices operate under forced circulation mode of fluid under varying climate conditions. The tracking mechanism has been used in the experiment of FPSC for tracking the sun position during the daytime. As per the ASHRAE standard. The results showed that at volume fraction 0.10 % and flow rate of 20 L/h, the highest increase in the absorbed energy parameter FR(τα) was 7.3 %, and the removed energy parameter FRUL was 11.9 % compared with distilled water. The changes in absorbed energy parameter FR(τα) they vary from 4.4% to 7.3% while in removed energy parameter FRUL, the vary from 1.3% to 11.9% as compared with the distilled water case. The maximum efficiency was about 70 % as the decreased temperature parameter [(Ti– Ta)/GT] is equal to zero at a volume fraction of 0.10 % and flow rate of 20 L/h. KeywordsFlat plate solar collector; thermal efficiency; SiO2/water Nanofluids How to cite this article: S.T. Hamidi, "An Experimental Investigation on Thermal Efficiency of Flat Plate Tube Solar Collector using Nanofluid with Solar Tracking Mechanism," Engineering and Technology Journal, Vol. 37, No. 11, pp. 475-487, 2019.


Abstract Objectives Childhood maltreatment is associated with altered neural reactivity during autobiographical memory (ABM) recall and a pattern of overgeneral memory (OGM). Altered ABM and OGM have been linked with psychopathology and poorer social functioning. The present study investigated the association between altered ABM and subsequent socio-emotional functioning (measured two years later) in a sample of adolescents with (N = 20; maltreatment group, MT) and without (N = 17; non-MT group) documented childhood maltreatment histories. Method At baseline, adolescents (aged 12.6 ± 1.45 years) were administered the Autobiographical Memory Test to measure OGM. Participants also recalled specific ABMs in response to emotionally valenced cue words during functional MRI. Adolescents in both groups underwent assessments measuring depressive symptoms and prosocial behavior at both timepoints. Regression analyses were carried out to predict outcome measures at follow-up controlling for baseline levels. Results In the MT group, greater OGM at baseline significantly predicted reduced prosocial behavior at follow-up and showed a trend level association with elevated depressive symptoms. Patterns of altered ABM-related brain activity did not significantly predict future psycho-social functioning. Conclusions The current findings highlight the potential value of OGM as a cognitive mechanism that could be targeted to reduce risk of depression in adolescents with prior histories of maltreatment.


Six food service supervisors (FSSs) working in skilled nursing facilities were trained to use a hand-held computer, COMPU-CAL/PRO 5.1, to screen institutionalized elderly patients for selected nutritional variables and to record results in the medical record. The study demonstrates that hand-held computer-assisted nutritional screenings: (1) are readily adaptable to on-going efforts, (2) are useful in identifying potential indicators of poor nutritional status in institutionalized elderly patients, (3) can be taught to FSS in a relatively short time, (4) increase nutritionally relevant variables that can be assessed, and (5) improve the quality of documentation in the medical record.


Safety inventory quantity computation based on Collaborative Planning Forecasting & Replenishment (CPFR) can avoid uncertainty of material supply in building construction, which can also coordinate relationship between supplier and construction side to reduce inventory cost and to ensure the progress of construction. The paper analyzed systematically on relationship between lead time and safety inventory. Combining with application of CPFR and based on establishing good relation between material supplier and construction contractors, safety inventory level was reduced with management of lead time. Supply of material supplier was also coordinated to reduce uncertainty of inventory quantity. Construction application example based on improved safety inventory quantity method also proves the feasibility of the proposed method.


Osteoarthritis (OA) is currently still an irreversible degenerative disease of the articular cartilage. Recent, dextrose (d‐glucose) intraarticular injection prolotherapy for OA patients has been reported to benefit the chondrogenic stimulation of damaged cartilage. However, the detailed mechanism of glucose's effect on cartilage repair remains unclear. Chitosan, a naturally derived polysaccharide, has recently been investigated as a surgical or dental dressing to control breeding. Therefore, in this study, glucose was adsorbed to chitosan membranes (CTS‐Glc), and the study aimed to investigate whether CTS‐Glc complex membranes could regulate the proliferation of human OA chondrocytes and to explore the underlying mechanism. Human OA and SW1353 chondrocytes were used in this study. The experiments involving the transfection of cells used SW1353 chondrocytes. A specific inhibitor and siRNAs were used to investigate the mechanism underlying the CTS‐Glc‐regulated proliferation of human chondrocytes. We found that CTS‐Glc significantly increased the proliferation of both human OA and SW1353 chondrocytes comparable to glucose‐ or chitosan‐only stimulation. The role of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling, including mTOR, raptor, and S6k proteins, has been demonstrated in the regulation of CTS‐Glc‐increased human chondrocyte proliferation. mTORC1 signaling increased the expression levels of maturated SREBP‐1 and FASN and then induced the expressions of cell cycle regulators, that is, cyclin D, cyclin‐dependent kinase‐4 and ‐6 in human chondrocytes. This study elucidates the detailed mechanism behind the effect of CTS‐Glc complex membranes in promoting chondrocyte proliferation and proposes a possible clinical application of the CTS‐Glc complex in the dextrose intraarticular injection of OA prolotherapy in the future to attenuate the pain and discomfort of OA patients.


INTRODUCTION I. INTO THE PRESSURE COOKER: THE DEMANDS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION AFFECT LAWYERS' RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR STAFF MEMBERS II. BUILDING AND SUSTAINING RELATIONSHIPS: MOTIVATED AND SATISFIED EMPLOYEES MEAN HAPPY CLIENTS III. EXAMINING EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND SATISFACTION IN LAW FIRMS: A CASE STUDY A. Survey Design B. Results C. Discussion D. Conclusions IV. A THEORETICAL DISCUSSION OF MOTIVATION A. Expectancy Theory B. Herzberg's Theory C. The Impact of Teamwork V. STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS: EXAMPLES OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND SATISFACTION IN CORPORATE AMERICA VI. STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION IN LAW FIRMS VII. CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION Legendary business icon and General Electric CEO Jack Welch was once asked which was more rewarding to people: money or recognition. (1) His answer was simple: "you have to get rewarded in the soul and the wallet." (2) Mr. Welch understood that it is not enough that companies pay their employees well and expect great work in return. Companies must also empower their employees and provide incentives for them to perform at high levels. Motivating employees and understanding the psychology behind employee motivation are essential to any successful organization. The most productive companies in the world, like Jack Welch's General Electric, make employee motivation and job satisfaction a top priority. Why? Because satisfied employees improve the bottom line. They work harder, longer, and more efficiently because they know they are critical to the success of the organization. Law firms should adopt this same philosophy. Running a law firm is a business. Indeed, one author has noted that because of the changing nature of the legal profession, lawyers who refuse to view the practice of law with a business mentality will be left behind. (3) Employees of law firms who are content and motivated are not only more productive, but also improve client perceptions of and strengthen clients' relationships with their firms. The idea for this note was based in large part on my business education in addition to my own experiences as a legal secretary at four different law firms. While in college, the underlying concept that my business professors drove home was that customer satisfaction is inherently dependent on employee satisfaction. Employee attitudes can mean the difference between a repeat customer, and one who discourages their friends and family from going back. (4) Yet, while working at the law firms, I was struck by how many secretaries were dissatisfied with their jobs and the lawyers for whom they worked. Most of the complaints centered around feelings that the lawyers they worked for did not value them as employees. They described their superior attorneys as pushy, controlling, easily agitated perfectionists. The most common complaint was that the lawyers expected them to stay late into the evening and come in on weekends. Many secretaries felt that these expectations were in complete disregard for the fact that they had other demands on their lives and were not receiving the same benefits for long hours that the attorneys did receive or could anticipate receiving, such as job security through partnership, high wages, and prestige. The secretaries' dissatisfaction affected how they treated and responded to clients' needs, and in some circumstances, impaired the attorney-client relationship. (5) My experiences and education led me to question whether my perceptions were accurate and, if so, whether law firms could learn and apply the experiences of the corporate sector to strengthen these relationships. This note examines the importance of employee motivation and job satisfaction to increased productivity and stronger client relationships with law firms. In Part I, I discuss how the pressures of the legal profession can affect lawyers' relationships with their staff members. …


The advanced WISPR summation (AWSUM) filter, a natural extension of the WISPR filter for higher filter order numbers, is presented and its performance is compared to the performance of the WISPR filter and the conventional summation processor. It is shown that the AWSUM filter achieves substantial gains in various measures of processor performance above those of the other two processors in spatial and spectral resolution, minimum detectable level (MDL), clutter reduction, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain. The important processing parameters are shown to be the percentage of overlap of the voltage time series and the number of FFT's averaged. SNR gains in excess of 20 dB were shown to be achievable for low-fluctuation amplitude tonals using measured data.


FYN is a SRC family kinase (SFK) that has been shown to be up-regulated in human prostate cancer (PCa) tissues and cell lines. In this study, we observed that FYN is strongly up-regulated in human neuroendocrine PCa (NEPC) tissues and xenografts, as well as cells derived from a NEPC transgenic mouse model. In silico analysis of FYN expression in prostate cancer cell line databases revealed an association with the expression of neuroendocrine (NE) markers such as CHGA, CD44, CD56, and SYP. The loss of FYN abrogated the invasion of PC3 and ARCaPM cells in response to MET receptor ligand HGF. FYN also contributed to the metastatic potential of NEPC cells in two mouse models of visceral metastasis with two different cell lines (PC3 and TRAMPC2-RANKL). The activation of MET appeared to regulate neuroendocrine (NE) features as evidenced by increased expression of NE markers in PCa cells lines treated with HGF. Importantly, the overexpression of FYN protein in DU145 cells was directly correlated with the increase of CHGA. Thus, our data demonstrated that the neuroendocrine differentiation that occurs in PCa cells is, at least in part, regulated by FYN kinase. Understanding the role of FYN in the regulation of NE markers will provide further support for ongoing clinical trials of SFK and MET inhibitors in castration-resistant PCa patients. Citation Format: Karen Cavassani, Murali Gururajan, Margarit Sievert, Peng Duan, Michael Freeman, Gina Chia-Yi Chu, Neil Bhowmick, Leland Chung, Edward Posadas. Src family kinase Fyn promotes the neuroendocrine phenotype and visceral metastasis in advanced prostate cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 177.


Perovskite solar cells have been at the center of intense research over the past decade. Efficiencies have gone from single digits to a certified 25.2%, an unprecedented improvement for any solar cell technology. At this stage, stability remains a concern regarding the suitability of these solar cells for commercialization. Here, we review recent developments in the use of carbon materials to improve the stability of perovskite solar cells. Incorporating carbon materials into perovskite solar cells promises to be revolutionary in the solar cell field, as degradation mechanisms are alleviated to achieve long-term stability making them attractive for commercialization.


Test results are presented for the HPOTP Turbine Interstage Seal with both the current and an alternate, aerodynamically designed, swirl brake. Tests were conducted at speeds out to 16,000 rpm, supply pressures up to 18.3 bars, and the following three inlet tangential velocity conditions: (1) no preswirl; (2) intermediate preswirl in the direction of rotation; and (3) high preswirl in the direction of rotation. The back pressure can be controlled independently and was varied to yield the following four pressure ratios: 0.4, 0.45, 0.56, and 0.67. The central and simplest conclusion to be obtained from the test series is that the alternate swirl brake consistently outperforms the current swirl brake in terms of stability performance. The alternate swirl brake's whirl frequency ratio was generally about one half or less than corresponding values for the current design. In many cases, the alternate design yielded negative whirl frequency ratio values in comparison to positive values for the current design. The alternate design can be directly substituted into the space currently occupied by the current design. There is no change in leakage performance.


BACKGROUND
Frey syndrome is a common complication after parotidectomy. The aim of this study is to investigate potential predictors for development of Frey syndrome and explore their implications in additional prophylactic procedures. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to address these issues.

METHODS
A computer search was performed to identify all patients who received parotidectomy from January 2009 to December 2011 in Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong. Individual case notes were reviewed to retrieve details for analysis.

RESULTS
A total of 155 parotidectomies were identified. Tumor size was the only statistically significant clinical predictor (Frey group: 43.5 ± 38.4 mm vs No Frey group: 33.1 ± 27.5 mm; P = 0.018). Disease pathology, type of resection, and previous treatments such as radiotherapy or parotidectomy did not appear to be associated with development of Frey syndrome.Post hoc analysis of our data showed that Frey incidence nearly doubled in patients with tumor size of 4 cm or greater (33%) compared to those with tumors that sized less than 4 cm (18%).

CONCLUSIONS
Frey syndrome is common after parotidectomy. Tumor size is the only statistically significant predictor of its development. Routine preventive interventions, for example, use of acellular dermal matrix, dermofat graft or muscle flaps to prevent Frey syndrome, should be considered for high risk patients.


The underlying theme in this text is an investigation into how modern developments in
information and communications technology can be safely, strategically and
progressively implemented into the healthcare structure at large. Beyond that there is a
lingering question as to why oncological care continues to lack the improvements (in
terms of reducing death totals) seen in other forms of disease.
The backbone of the analysis was constructed with the text assistance of
Mihailidis and Bardram's Pervasive Computing in Healthcare. PCIH definitively
examines various IT technologies and their probable corresponding functions in
healthcare. Notably, this thesis work is not nearly as complex as PCIH, but instead
covers a three-tiered structure in the technological paradigm of yesterday (already
implemented), today (partially, or entering implementation), and tomorrow (expected
to be implemented).
Using this structure as a rough schematic for a comprehensively digital clinical
environment, particular concepts are identified and analyzed in this specific order:
Health IT, data analysis, and telehealth (including wearables). This series was crafted
by necessity of a logical buildup: first internal data will be collected, next data will be
heavily analyzed, and finally, external data collection will be added to analysis. If
external data is added before analytical tools can safely and appropriately handle
! 2!
internal flows, scaling may not be manageable and data will drift towards
worthlessness.
The first chapter covers internal data collection tools, including computerized
physician order entry (CPOE), electronic health record (EHR), and more. The second
chapter offers an entry-level approach to data standards and trends and examines
concepts like Big Data analysis and how it can benefit healthcare. The final chapter
surveys external data collection methods and treatment outside of the typical clinical
environment in telehealth and wearables.
Naturally, much of the text relies on the exploration of nearly effective medical
tools that still reside in a largely novelty-esque sphere, until massive study and further
development can render them highly efficient and useful.
Concepts for future consideration and organic shortcomings of this text are
highly rooted in the fact that this paper is simply not all encompassing. Healthcare is an
incredibly complex institution and change is not to be taken lightly. After all, new
technologies can sometimes lead to unexpected scenarios that may cause unfortunate
consequences. Therefore, to properly understand how the new and rapidly advancing
tools can best fit into this system, it is first necessary for papers like this one to be
released in order to initiate interest, then extremely specified investigations will follow
to carefully make recommendations and suggestions based on safety and efficiency.
This paper is designed to inform those less industrially knowledgeable
individuals and to inspire optimism for new, promising ideas, which with many more
hours of research and development, could perhaps save at least one more life today than yesterday, all while improving quality of life and convenience.


Results The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of new multiplex qPCR was 98.80%, 100%, 100% and 99.69% respectively compared to uniplex qPCR. The discordant result of multiplex qPCR was detected in 1 sample. Developed multiplex qPCR showed 100% sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for C.trachomatis and N.gonorrhoeae respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for M.genitalium were 97.78%, 100%, 100% and 99.72% respectively. No cross-reactions were detected between target organisms or with related species. Conclusions Multiplex In house qPCR in this study has shown high sensitivity and specificity for detection of C.trachomatis, N.gonorrhoeae and M.genitalium in infertility patients which facilitate the opportunity to be used as a rapid diagnostic tool and for initiation of early treatment in resource poor settings where syndromic approach is being followed. This assay needs to be performed on the larger sample size and using different specimens prior to large-scale screening.


The energy yield (kWh/kWSTC) reported from photovoltaic (PV) installations were reviewed to look for consistent trends in performance between module technologies. The effect of higher operating temperature and lower light intensity are discussed in terms of different locations and module technologies. Both of these losses can favor thin film PV under controlled laboratory conditions but may not be significant under real field conditions. As received, PV modules suffer from a minimum ±5% uncertainty because of binning (±3%) and calibration (±2%). Differences between initial nameplate kWSTC and the actual field‐tested values cause larger uncertainty. Thin film modules suffer additional uncertainty because of calibration and stabilization issues. A recent study comparing 12 different module technologies in Nicosia and Stuttgart concluded that when properly measured and stabilized, thin film technologies could have a 1–4% advantage because of smaller temperature losses and 3% advantage due to improved low light efficiency but the tolerances and uncertainty in kW rating were greater at ±5–10%. Energy yield data from utility scale installations in sunny hot locations finds that CdTe outperforms c‐Si by ∼5–6%. Data for a‐Si is complicated by initial versus stabilized module ratings and summer annealing. Gains with Cu(InGa)Se2 (CIGS) are expected to be even less than CdTe or a‐Si. Analysis of data‐driven simulation finds at best a few percent advantage in kWh/kW for thin films. We conclude that any differences between thin film and c‐Si module technologies are much smaller than reported previously, and are often smaller than the measurement uncertainty especially between different locations.


Responses to acute cardiovascular variables in hypertensive patients undergoing a program of therapeutic exercises Objective: To evaluate the effects after treatment and the benefits of participation in hypertensive patients in a supervised program of therapeutic exercises. Method: Patients were submitted to a kinetic-functional evaluation; measurements of height and weight; analysis of resting heart rate (RHR) and measurement of blood pressure (BP). The intensity of training was done by calculating the heart rate training (HRT), between 60% and 75% heart rate reserve (HRR) and indirect value of VO2 demarcated by pulse frequency meters. Results: There was a reduction of the values of resting heart rate, systolic blood pressure and systolic maximum pressure with significant increase in VO2 after the period of indirect intervention. Conclusions: The program supervised therapeutic indices obtained significant acute change in cardiovascular variables.


ABSTRACT A recent paper published time series of concentrations of chemicals in drinking water collected from the bottom of Lake Mead, a major American water supply reservoir. Data were compared to water level using only linear regression. This creates an opportunity for students to analyze these data further. This article presents a structured introduction to time series decomposition that compares long-term and seasonal components of a time series of a single chemical (meprobamate) with those of two supporting datasets (reservoir volume and specific conductance). For the chemical data, this must be preceded by estimation of missing datum points. Results show that linear regression analyses of time series data obscure meaningful detail and that specific conductance is the important predictor of seasonal chemical variations. To learn this, students must execute a linear regression, estimate missing data using local regression, decompose time series, and compare time series using cross-correlation. Complete R code for these exercises appears in the supplementary information. This article uses real data and requires that students make and justify key decisions about the analysis. It can be a guided or an individual project. It is scalable to instructor needs and student interests in ways that are identified clearly in this article.


In the coming decades, a wide array of socioeconomic, environmental and technological changes will create new challenges for developing states. Climate change, the automation of work, cyber-threats, unsafe supply-chains and unregulated financial systems will create new risks and vulnerabilities. States may increasingly struggle to provide protection and services in new and emerging spaces – including cyberspace, emerging financial systems and unplanned urban spaces vulnerable to shocks from climate change. Without the protection of the state in these spaces, people will look elsewhere. In some cases, businesses, private actors or civil society will emerge to address risk and provide insurance against insecurity. But in others, criminal actors will step in - providing not just protection and services, but also dictating norms and offering meaning and identity to citizens. They may corrupt formal and legitimate institutions, businesses and markets, bending them away from their stated purpose. The result may be a significantly expanded role for organized crime in governance in the next three decades – and the rise of 'crooked states' and crooked governance more broadly. Drawing on a larger study on the future of organized crime and corruption out to 2050, this policy brief looks at how the changing nature of organized crime and corruption may impact state fragility, inequality and conflict in the coming decades. It examines three areas where tomorrow's vulnerabilities may create opportunities for new forms of criminal governance, and considers how development and stabilization policies can encourage resilience in the face of these criminalizing tendencies – and prevent the rise of crooked states in the first place.


Abstract Learning probabilistic logic programming languages is receiving an increasing attention, and systems are available for learning the parameters (PRISM, LeProbLog, LFI-ProbLog and EMBLEM) or both structure and parameters (SEM-CP-logic and SLIPCASE) of these languages. In this paper we present the algorithm SLIPCOVER for "Structure LearnIng of Probabilistic logic programs by searChing OVER the clause space." It performs a beam search in the space of probabilistic clauses and a greedy search in the space of theories using the log likelihood of the data as the guiding heuristics. To estimate the log likelihood, SLIPCOVER performs Expectation Maximization with EMBLEM. The algorithm has been tested on five real world datasets and compared with SLIPCASE, SEM-CP-logic, Aleph and two algorithms for learning Markov Logic Networks (Learning using Structural Motifs (LSM) and ALEPH++ExactL1). SLIPCOVER achieves higher areas under the precision-recall and receiver operating characteristic curves in most cases.


Over forty years ago, David Barron and Christopher Strachey published a startlingly elegant program for the Cartesian product of a list of lists, expressing it with a three nested occurrences of the function we now call foldr. This program is remarkable for its time because of its masterful display of higher-order functions and lexical scope, and we put it forward as possibly the first ever functional pearl. We first characterize it as the result of a sequence of program transformations, and then apply similar transformations to a program for the classical power set example. We also show that using a higher-order representation of lists allows a definition of the Cartesian product function where foldr is nested only twice.


Blockage of platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor by Reopro (c7E3 Fab-abciximab) has been shown to reduce markedly ischemic complications during and following elective and high-risk coronary intervention (CI). Between July '96 and February '98, 120 consecutive patients (85 men and 34 women, aged 34-90--mean 62) received Reopro (20 mg bolus, followed by 10 micrograms/min for 12-48 hours). 100 were treated with Reopro in the catheterization laboratory, in 76 as prophylactic treatment preceding high-risk CI and in 24 as bailout treatment for acute complications during CI. 20 additional patients were treated in the CCU for acute coronary syndromes, 17 of whom underwent CI 6-48 hours later. Coronary angiography demonstrated multivessel disease in 66 (56%), and the target lesions were LAD--77, RCA--41, LCX--22, SVG--6, and 2 unprotected LMCA (total: 148 lesions dilated in 117 patients). Of the 117 CI, 44 were PTCA alone, and 73 included stenting. Indications for prophylactic Reopro for high risk CI were: acute MI (< or = 48 hours), early post-MI angina, unstable AP, and/or complex anatomy with visible thrombus. In this high-risk population the overall success rate (open artery, no MI, discharged alive, no need for urgent re-vascularization) was 97% when Reopro was given prophylactically prior to CI. The success rate was lower (87.5%) when Reopro was given in bailout situations. In 20 patients with acute coronary syndromes treated in the CCU while receiving maximal combined conventional therapy (including full-dose heparin), all symptoms and dynamic ischemic ECG changes disappeared within minutes following Reopro. 17 underwent successful CI during hospitalization and 3 were treated medically. Reopro given prior to high risk CI was associated with a very low rate of complications. In a few cases with acute coronary syndromes, Reopro given in the CCU cases immediate relief of myocardial ischemia and reduced the need for urgent coronary intervention.


From the many different patterns that can be extracted from data, so-called emerging patterns (EPs) are a particular useful kind. EPs are itemsets whose supports increase significantly from one dataset to another. Existing methods used to discover EPs have been successfully applied only under a constrained search space. Although they may provide a very efficient way of discovering some sort of EPs, they are rather limited when the whole set of EPs is needed, as they just compute an approximation of that set. Recent EPs techniques rely on borders, a concise representation of the candidate itemsets which does not require computing an exponentially large number of such candidates. In this paper we outline a new method which exploits previously mined data using an incremental approach, requiring thus less dataset accesses. Our proposal also aims to reduce the amount of work needed to perform difference operations among borders taking into account special properties of the itemsets.


Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) was applied to diploid and tetraploid subspecies of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) to investigate the distribution of rRNA genes and to utilize the sites of 18S-5.8S-25S rDNA and 5S rDNA sequences as markers for studying the genome evolution within the species. Medicago glomerata Balb., the species considered to be the ancestor of alfalfa, was included in this study in order to obtain more information on the phylogenetics of alfalfa. Simultaneous in situ hybridization was performed with the probes pTa71 and pXVI labeled with digoxigenin and biotin, respectively. In the diploid taxa, M. glomerata, M. sativa ssp. coerulea Schmalh and ssp. falcata Arcangeli, the 18S-5.8S-25S rDNA sequences were mapped to two sites corresponding to the secondary constrictions of the nucleolar chromosome pair, while 5S rDNA appeared to be distributed in two pairs of sites. Chromosomes carrying 5S loci could be distinguished on the basis of their morphological characteristics. The number of rDNA sites detected in the tetraploid M. sativa ssp. falcata and ssp. sativa (L.) L. & L. were twice the number found in the respective diploid ssp. falcata and ssp. coerulea. The results of this study show that the distribution of ribosomal genes was maintained during the evolutionary steps from the primitive diploid to the cultivated alfalfa. Modifications of the number of rRNA loci were not observed. The importance of in situ hybridization for improving karyotype analysis in M. sativa L. is discussed.


Population growth in Queensland has been strong for the last 30 years, but has slowed in 2009 and 2010. There are three drivers of Queensland's growth: natural increase, net overseas migration (NOM), and interstate migration. For most of the 30-year period interstate migration was the strongest factor. Currently, however, it is weak, while national increase has grown and NOM, though lower than in 2008, is still significant. Why has interstate migration fallen? New South Wales has been the main source of internal migrants, attracted by plentiful jobs, lower house prices, and by the Queensland lifestyle. But levels of job creation in Queensland have eased and the cost of housing has risen steeply, thus mitigating two of the three main incentives for making a long-distance move. Though NOM has also fallen since 2008 this was from a record level and numbers remain high. Many immigrants are temporary workers sponsored not so much by the mining industry as by employers in healthcare and construction. Others are New Zealanders who are disproportionately attracted to Queensland. Whatever happens to interstate migration NOM will almost certainly continue to be a key driver of Queensland's population growth, as will natural increase.


This paper examines the structure of the labour market and unemployment in Sudan. One advantage of our analysis is that we explain several stylized facts on the labour market using new secondary data on population, employment and unemployment based on Sudan Central Bureau of Statistics 2010 the Fifth Sudan Population and Housing Census 2008. We explain several stylized facts on the relation between the structure of the labour market and demographic structure, labour force, participation rates, economic activities, low skill level and high unemployment rate defined by gender and mode of living in Sudan. Different from the findings in the empirical literature in support of the Phillips curve on the negative correlation between inflation and unemployment rates, we find a positive and significant correlation between unemployment and inflation rates in Sudan during the period 2000-2008. Moreover, different from the analysis in Sudanese literature, we present a more comprehensive analysis of four stylized facts on the unemployment problem in Sudan, including identifying several types of unemployment; interpretation of unemployment problems from due to endogenous and exogenous causes; analysis of the high incidence of unemployment among youth population and a high mismatch between educational qualifications supply and labour market requirements demand. The major policy implication from our findings is that the unemployment problem is related to endogenous and exogenous causes; therefore policy interventions for reducing unemployment should deal with these endogenous and exogenous causes. Notably, improvement of job creation and quality of educational policies and consistency between educational qualifications output and labour market requirements. Another major policy implication from our results on the significant positive correlation between increase in unemployment and inflation rates 2000-2008, implies that macroeconomic policies aimed at or targeting reducing inflation rates would also help to reduce unemployment rates in Sudan.


Abstract The collapse of South Asia's Gyps vulture populations is attributable to the veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac. Vultures died after feeding on carcasses of recently-medicated animals. The governments of India, Nepal and Pakistan banned the veterinary use of diclofenac in 2006. We analysed results of 62 necropsies and 48 NSAID assays of liver and/or kidney for vultures of five species found dead in India between 2000 and 2012. Visceral gout and diclofenac were detected in vultures from nine states and three species: Gyps bengalensis, Gyps indicus and Gyps himalayensis. Visceral gout was found in every vulture carcass in which a measurable level of diclofenac was detected. Meloxicam, an NSAID of low toxicity to vultures, was found in two vultures and nimesulide in five vultures. Nimesulide at elevated tissue concentrations was associated with visceral gout in four of these cases, always without diclofenac, suggesting that nimesulide may have similar toxic effects to those of diclofenac. Residues of meloxicam on its own were never associated with visceral gout. The proportion of Gyps vultures found dead in the wild in India with measurable levels of diclofenac in their tissues showed a modest and non-significant decline since the ban on the veterinary use of diclofenac. The prevalence of visceral gout declined less, probably because some cases of visceral gout from 2008 onwards were associated with nimesulide rather than diclofenac. Veterinary use of nimesulide is a potential threat to the recovery of vulture populations.


textabstractAlzheimer's disease (AD) is the most frequent cause of dementia and thus is a major public-health problem. Age and genetic predisposition to the disease are the most important risk factors. In 2001 more than 24 million people in the western world had dementia. This number is expected to double every 20 years up to 81 million in 2040 because of the anticipated increase in life expectancy. Genetically, AD is a heterogeneous disorder with both familial and sporadic forms.

Chapter 1 is a general introduction on epidemiological and genetic factors of AD and also describes the different studies performed in this thesis.

In chapter 2 the linkage studies are presented. Chapter 2.1 describes a whole genome screen on 112 AD patients and their first-degree relatives from the Genetics Research in Isolated Populations (GRIP) study. Of the 112 patients, 103 could be connected into an extremely large and complex pedigree. This pedigree cannot be analyzed with available linkage software. In this study, we developed an algorithm for splitting complex pedigrees to allow us to conduct linkage analysis. Then we determined genome wide significance thresholds for linkage analysis using the sub pedigrees obtained by our pedigree cutting algorithm and finally, we performed linkage analysis sing these sub pedigrees. The strongest evidence of linkage was for chromosome 1q21 (HLOD = 5.20, at marker D1S498), which is a locus identified earlier. We confirmed the AD locus at 10q24 (HLOD = 4.15, at marker D10S185). There is also significant evidence of linkage at chromosomes 3q23 (HLOD = 4.44 at marker D3S1569) and!
 18q12 (HLOD = 3.68, at marker D18S1152). Several single families contributed strong linkage signals on chromosomes 1, 3 and 18. Multiple families contributed moderate linkage signal to chromosome 10q24 locus. Finally, there is also suggestive evidence of linkage at chromosome 11q24 (HLOD = 3.29, at marker D11S1320).. We sequenced the obvious candidate genes on chromosome 1, nicastrin (NCST) and C-reactive protein (CRP) but no mutations on these genes were found. We also sequenced 21 genes on the locus on chromosome 3 including the transferrin gene, the gene encoding for butyrilcholinesterase, the neprilysin gene and the somatostatin gene. We screened these genes for mutations but no variants were found.

In chapter 2.2 we present a combined linkage and association study between the microtubule associated tau protein (MAPT) and granulin (GRN) genes and AD. In this study we investigated the association between the region including MAPT plus other eight confirmed genes (including the GRN gene) and five putative genes and AD in patients from the GRIP study. We studied 122 AD patients and 85 control subjects using an extensive Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) panel. No association was found for any individual SNP of the MAPT gene and linkage analysis including 7 tagging SNPs in MAPT excluded linkage. Nominally significant association was found for two SNPs located 722 kb upstream the MAPT gene in the N-myristoyltransferase 1 (NMT1) gene. The GRN gene was sequenced in 17 patients but no mutations were found. We also performed a meta analysis of all studies conducted to date on the associations between the MAPT gene and AD stratified by APOE*4. We found a very modest non-signif!
 icant association for carriers of the H2 haplotype compared to H1/H1 carriers, only in those with the APOE*4 allele. These findings suggest that the MAPT and GRN genes do not play a role in AD in our population.

Aiming to find genes involved in AD, in chapter 2.3 we performed a genome wide linkage analysis on an extended Dutch family with nine affected individuals. Two linkage peaks above 1.0 were found on chromosomes 1 and 7. A further two locus linkage analyses using only affected individuals yielded a LOD score of 2.92 for the combination of these 2 loci suggesting an epistatic effect between these two loci. We used a literature mining strategy to prioritize candidate gene selection from the genes present in the defined loci. Our literature mining approach suggested as potential candidate genes in these two regions the CASP9, TNFRSF1B and MTHFR genes on chromosome 1 and CDK5 and NOS3 on chromosome 7. These genes have been previously associated with AD and apoptosis. CASP9 on chromosome 1 and CDK5 on chromosome 7 were selected for sequencing. We found no variants in the coding exons or the splice sites of these genes but we found the rare allele of SNP rs9872 on the CDK5 gene pres!
 ent in all affected individuals suggesting that this gene maybe involved in AD in this family.

Chapter 3 describes the genetic association studies performed in this thesis. Three studies were carried out using the Rotterdam Study (chapters 3.1-3.3) a large prospective study of determinants of diseases in the elderly and one in the GRIP study (chapter 3.4). In chapter 3.1 we tested the association between 5 SNPs on the CDK5 gene and AD. We found a significantly increased risk of AD for carriers of the GG genotype of SNP rs2069442 (OR=1.8, 95% CI 1.16-2.79, p=0.009) in those without APOE*4. Our haplotype analysis showed that haplotype C, tagging the G allele of SNP rs2069442, was significantly associated (p=0.05) to AD. These result suggest that alterations in the expression of the Cdk5 protein may be relevant in neurodegenerative processes Taken together, the results of chapters 2.3 and 3.1 underscore the relevance of this gene on AD.

We also evaluated the relationship between the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) and AD in chapter 3.2. Here we show that there is a positive association between the VV carriers of the I405V polymorphism of the CETP and AD independently of the APOE gene and systemic HDL levels. Since the VV genotype is associated with lower levels of CETP and higher HDL, our study is compatible with the view that low CETP levels may increase the risk of AD through a reduction in neuronal repair capacity.

In chapter 3.3 we investigated the relationship between the ubiquilin 1 (UBQLN1) gene and AD, Parkinsonâ?Ts disease (PD) and cognitive function. This gene is involved in the ubiquitination machinery, related with general protein degradation. A SNP located downstream of exon 8 (rs12344615) of the UBQLN1 gene has been associated with AD. We found no significant difference in risk of AD or PD for carriers of the CC genotype of SNP 12344615 in our overall and stratified analyses in the Rotterdam Study. We did not find an association of this SNP and AD in our family based study, we did not find linkage of AD to the region including the UBQLN1 gene, and we detected no effect of this polymorphism on cognitive function. Our data suggest that it is unlikely that the SNP 12344615 of the UBQLN1 gene is related to AD, PD or cognitive function.

Chapter 3.4 shows the relationship between a 14-kb deletion extending into the DJ-1 gene and dementia using a case-control study of dementia patients and controls ascertained from GRIP study. We analyzed 191 demented patients and 129 non-demented controls. We found no association between this deletion and the presence of dementia. There were 3 heterozygous carriers of the DJ-1 gene deletion (two affected individuals and one control) that were related within 8 generations suggestion a common origin of the deletion. Form our results we cannot exclude that carriers of this deletion in the DJ-1 gene have a higher risk of developing AD. Variations in the DJ-1 gene different from the deletion may be associated with the risk of dementia. However, our results show that haploinsufficiency in the DJ-1 gene is not a major risk factor for dementia in this isolated population.

Finally, chapter 4 provides a general discussion on the results obtained on the studies on AD presented in this thesis and all findings are put into perspective for future studies.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the benefit of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in non-surgical orthopaedic procedures.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Wounds Specialized Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE (through PUBMED), Embase, and SCOPUS. We also searched clinical trials registries for ongoing and unpublished studies and checked reference lists to identify additional studies.

RESULTS
We found 36 randomised controlled trials (2,073 patients) that met our inclusion criteria. The included studies mostly had small numbers of participants (from 20 to 225). Twenty-eight studies included patients with lateral epicondylitis or plantar fasciitis. PRP was compared to local steroids injection (19 studies), saline injection (6 studies), autologous whole blood (4 studies), local anaesthetic injection (3 studies), dry needling injection (3 studies), and to other comparators (4 studies). Primary outcomes were pain and function scores, and adverse events. On average, it is unclear whether or not use of PRP compared to controls reduces pain scores and functional score at short- (up to 3 months) and medium- (4-6 months) term follow-up. The available evidence for all the comparisons was rated as very low quality due to inconsistency, imprecision, and risk of bias in most of the selected studies. There were no serious adverse events related to PRP injection or control treatments.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this meta-analysis, which documents the very marginal effectiveness of PRP compared to controls, does not support the use of PRP as conservative treatment in orthopaedics.


The primary goal of the present study was to investigate overall and domainbased life satisfaction of expatriate students attending international schools compared to students who attend international schools in their home country. The present study included 114 students from eleven international schools located across nine European countries. Participants completed measures concerning demographic information and the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS). Statistical analyses revealed levels of life satisfaction to be in the positive range for all students. Results indicated that domain-based and overall life satisfaction, as measured by the MSLSS, was similar for males and females. No significant differences were found between expatriate students and local students in overall life satisfaction. Family was the only MSLSS domain in which expatriate youth reported to be less satisfied compared to their local peers. The relationship between expatriate youth"s international relocation experiences and current life satisfaction was also explored. Expatriate students" number of relocations was negatively related to both age of first relocation and years in the host country, and positively related to years away from their home country. Findings revealed that years away from home country was negatively related to age of first relocation. Overall life satisfaction, however, as measured by the MSLSS, was not significantly related to any of the predictor variables. Future directions for research are discussed in light of the study"s limitations and implications.


In this paper we systematically investigate strong interactions between two like-signed quasi-geostrophic vortices containing different uniform potential vorticity. The interaction depends on six parameters: the potential vorticity ratio between the two vortices, their volume ratio, their individual height-to-width aspect ratio, their vertical offset, and their horizontal separation distance. We first determine the conditions under which a strong interaction may occur. To that end, we calculate equilibrium states using an asymptotic approach which models the vortices as ellipsoids and we additionally assess their linear stability. It is found that vortices having similar potential vorticity interact strongly (e.g. merge) at closer separation distances than do vortices with a dissimilar potential vorticity. This implies that interactions between vortices having significantly different potential vorticity may be more destructive, for a given separation distance. This is confirmed by investigating the nonlinear evolution of the vortices over a subset of the full parameter space, solving the full dynamical quasi-geostrophic equations. Many forms of interaction occur, but merger or partial merger (where the largest vortex grows in volume) is mostly observed for interactions between vortices of similar potential vorticity.


Hemp stem, a biomass waste, has been successfully explored as a green carbon source to prepare advanced N-doped hierarchical porous carbon by means of KOH pre-treatment and direct pyrolysis under NH3 flow. The NH3 flow can not only promote the activation of carbon but also bring nitrogen into the carbon framework. The simultaneous-activation of KOH and NH3 can enhance the specific surface area, nitrogen content and electrical conductivity, significantly affecting the electrochemical performance for supercapacitors. The as-prepared sample with a high specific surface area (1949 m2 g−1), high nitrogen content (4.4 wt%), hierarchical porosity and high electrical conductivity (3.5 S cm−1), exhibits remarkable electrochemical performance as a supercapacitor electrode material, such as a high specific capacitance of 352 F g−1, outstanding rate capability and excellent cycling stability (96.3% retention after 10 000 cycles at 5 A g−1) in 6 M KOH electrolyte. In addition, the as-assembled symmetric supercapacitor delivers an ultrahigh energy density of 99.5 W h kg−1 in an ionic liquid system. Moreover, a value of 27.7 W h kg−1 is still maintained even at a high power density of 22 000 W kg−1. More interestingly, the supercapacitor can light up a red light-emitting-diode for more than 8 minutes after being charged for only 4.4 seconds.


Background—There is abundant research indicating poor physical, psychological, and social functioning of patients with chronic heart failure (HF), a reality that can lead to poor health-related quality of life (QoL). Little is known about the experience of rural patients with HF. Methods and Results—This study was part of a randomized clinical trial titled Rural Education to Improve Outcomes in Heart Failure (REMOTE-HF) designed to test an education and counseling intervention to improve self-care in patients with HF. We evaluated 612 rural patients. Multiple validated questionnaires were administered to assess patient perceptions of health and health literacy. Baseline factors were collected and compared with baseline QoL measures only. Patients' health-related QoL was assessed using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure scale. The data were analyzed using a general linear model to test the association of various patient characteristics with QoL in rural patients with HF. Patients were 65.8 (+12.9) years of age. The majority were men (58.7%), married (56.4%), and had completed a high-school education (80.9%). Factors associated with reduced QoL among this population include geographic location, younger age, male sex, higher New York Heart Association class, worse HF knowledge, poorer perceived control, and symptoms of depression or anxiety. The data provided no evidence of an association between left ventricular ejection fraction and QoL. Conclusions—This study of rural patients with HF confirms previously identified factors associated with perceptions of QoL. However, further study is warranted with an urban control group. Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00415545.


In this study, the effects of first thinnings having different intensities in oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) plantation areas were investigated in terms of diameter and height growth of trees. Sample plots were chosen from oriental beech plantation areas which are within the boundaries of Maçka–Yeşiltepe and Vakfıkebir districts of Trabzon province, Turkey. With removing of 0%, 10%, 25% and 40% of basal area in a hectare of stands which are in sapling stage, sample plots were established by applying thinnings which are in four different intensities (control, light, moderate, strong). After the thinning applications, basal areas were calculated by measuring diameters and heights of trees in established sample plots in order to reveal stand growth. The effects of thinnings were revealed related to some stand characteristics (average diameter, basal area, average height, relative diameter increment, etc.) and determined chosen trees. The effect of thinning intensity on average diameter, basal area, and volume values is statistically important in every two plantations. 2-year results showed that thinning increased the diameter increment significantly, and the increase in diameter increment was positively correlated with the thinning intensity in both experiments. Moreover, increments of diameter, height, basal area, and volume were higher in Maçka-Yeşiltepe experiment than in Vakfıkebir experiment. But, the values of moderate and strong thinning intensities applied in Vakfıkebir were close to each other. When all the results are evaluated, application of strong thinning intensity for Yeşiltepe sample plot, the moderate thinning intensity for Vakfıkebir sample plot is seen appropriate by us in terms of both stand development.


Autonomy and the ability to maintain social activities can be challenging for people with disabilities experiencing reduced mobility. In the case of disabilities that impact mobility, power wheelchairs can help such people retain or regain autonomy. Nonetheless, driving a power wheelchair is a complex task that requires a combination of cognitive, visual and visuo-spatial abilities. In practice, people need to pass prior ability tests and driving training before being prescribed a power wheelchair by their therapist. Still, conventional training in occupational therapy can be insufficient for some people with severe cognitive and/or visuo-spatial functions. As such, these people are often prevented from obtaining a power wheelchair prescription from their therapist due to safety concerns. In this context, driving simulators might be efficient and promising tools to provide alternative, adaptive, flexible, and safe training. In previous work, we proposed a Virtual Reality (VR) driving simulator integrating vestibular feedback to simulate wheelchair motion sensations. The performance and acceptability of a VR simulator rely on satisfying user Quality of Experience (QoE). Therefore, our simulator is designed to give the user a high Sense of Presence (SoP) and low Cybersickness. This paper presents a pilot study assessing the impact of the vestibular feedback provied on user QoE. Participants were asked to perform a driving task whilst in the simulator under two conditions: with and without vestibular feedback. User QoE is assessed through subjective questionnaires measuring user SoP and cybersickness. The results show that vestibular feedback activation increases SoP and decreases cybersickness. This study constitutes a mandatory step before clinical trials and, as such, only enrolled people without disabilities. ACM Reference Format: Guillaume Vailland, Yoren Gaffary, Louise Devigne, Valérie Gouranton, Bruno Arnaldi, and Marie Babel. 2020. Vestibular Feedback on a Virtual Reality Wheelchair Driving Simulator: A Pilot Study. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '20), March 23–26, 2020, Cambridge, United Kingdom. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 9 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3319502.3374825


Abstract Bremsstrahlung radiation (hereinafter referred to as bremsstrahlung) production data are needed in the calculation of buildup factors, including the contribution of secondary photons by the photon transport codes, which do not handle electron transport. The emission of bremsstrahlung is treated as exactly as possible by the introduction of EGS4 results. The bremsstrahlung production data by pair-created electrons per pair creation reaction and Compton scattered electrons per Compton scattering are evaluated for 26 elements from hydrogen to uranium and four compounds and mixtures of water, concrete, air, and lead glass. The error estimation of bremsstrahlung contribution to buildup factors by the invariant embedding (IE) method coupled with these bremsstrahlung data is coincident with fully transported results by the EGS4 code within ˜5%. By the introduction of bremsstrahlung production data into IE methods, we can calculate buildup factors included by the contribution of those with good accuracy up to deep penetration. By the interpolation and mixture of bremsstrahlung production data for each element, we can evaluate the data of the element or mixture whose data are not evaluated by the EGS4 code.


Blue photonic crystal light-emitting diodes were evaluated with photonic crystal hole patterns. The diameter of the holes, lattice constant, and emission wavelength were selected to be 110, 220 and 450 nm, respectively, to attain a maximum enhancement in the wall-plug efficiency. The improvement in external quantum efficiency was 30–50%. Changes in voltage characteristics caused by the etched holes were found to be correlated with increased leakage current.


As a young man, Proust wrote both poetry and prose. Even after he embarked on his masterful "In Search of Lost Time" at the age of thirty-eight, he never stopped writing poetry. His verse is often playful, filled with affection and satire, and is peppered with witty barbs at friends and people in his social circle of aristocrats, writers, musicians, and courtesans. Few of the poems collected here under the editorship of Harold Augenbraum, founder of the Proust Society of America, have ever been published in book form or translated into English until now. In this dual-language edition of new translations, Augenbraum has brought together nineteen renowned poets and poetry translators to bring Proust's exuberant verse back to life. Marcel Proust (1871-1922) is generally viewed as the greatest French novelist and perhaps the greatest European novelist of the 20th century. He lived much of his later life as a reclusive semi-invalid in a sound-proofed flat in Paris, giving himself over entirely to writing "In Search of Lost Time".


The increasing demand for navigation and automation has led to the development of a number of accurate and precise navigation applications that make use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other sensors. However, GPS tends to suffer from multipath error, especially in urban environments. To overcome this problem, a method was developed for improving real-time kinematic GPS (RTK-GPS) using a low-cost inertial measurement unit (IMU) and conventional vehicle speed sensors. In the study, the quality of the complete observation data was assessed based on the carrier-to-noise ratio and satellite elevation angle, and the popular least-squares ambiguity decorrelation adjustment method and the ratio test were used to obtain the fix positions. We used speed information obtained from Doppler measurements as an alternative source of information, while information from the IMU and vehicle speed sensor (integrated with the RTK-GPS via a Kalman Filter) was used during the outage of visible satellites. We also used the IMU and vehicle speed sensors to detect the wrong fixes in the RTK-GPS. A Position and Orientation System for Land Vehicles (Applanix) was used to estimate the reference positions. During GPS outage, it is important to accurately determine the last heading of the car for precise navigation. In this study, it was found that a suitable measurement quality check is required to obtain better direction information. The results of the experiment demonstrate that, to some extent, our proposed method is beneficial as an alternative to the conventional RTK-GPS in an urban environment.


: Purpose: This paper examines traditional food producers' perceptions of food quality labels, indicating the incentives and challenges that food producers may face implementing such schemes. The aim is to identify the main factors affecting traditional food producers' adoption of food quality labels. Design/Methodology/Approach: The sample was composed of 101 traditional food producers in Poland that had completed the quality certification process. The survey was based on computer-assisted telephone interviews with closed questions (5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1-totally disagree to 5-totally agree). The interviewees were asked to express a judgment by declaring their level of agreement with the 19 statements. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used for data analysis. Findings: Results show that enterprises adopt quality signs to improve product image, reputation, and consumer confidence. The protection granted to food labels by the law may also exert effects on firms' profitability. Producers take advantage of food quality labels in different ways, according to their size and own business strategies. However, the emphasis often put on the positive effects of the food quality labels is far from its potentiality in many cases. Practical Implications: The study results will be beneficial to both food producers and public authorities seeking to encourage the application of quality labels in the traditional food sector. The identified benefits and barriers will help producers to adopt successful business models. The public authorities should make the certification process more effective and transparent, and promotion should explain to consumers what the food label guarantees. Originality/Value: This paper proposes several managerial and policy implications related to improving the business environment for the adoption of food quality schemes in the traditional food sector.


The influence of demographic characteristics on patients' ratings of the quality of psychiatric outpatient care has been given little attention in research. The aim of the present study is to elucidate the quality of psychiatric care among outpatients and investigate demographic and clinical factors associated with the way in which this quality is perceived. A sample of 1340 outpatients from 15 general adult psychiatric clinics in Sweden completed the quality in psychiatric care-out-patient (QPC-OP), with a response rate of 71%. The patients' highest ratings were for Encounter; the lowest were for discharge. Most notably, quality of care was rated higher by women, older people, those with a partner, those with a lower educational level and those who were gainfully employed. In regard to visits to the clinic, higher quality of care was associated with shorter waiting time, better information and fewer professions encounters. Older people and those gainfully employed reported better mental health. Thus the QPC-OP was associated with both demographic and clinical factors. In particular, 'wanting to come back to the clinic' was the single strongest predictor of quality.


A 2-yr experiment repeated at five locations across the northeastern United States evaluated the effect of weed density and time of glyphosate application on weed control and corn grain yield using a single postemergence (POST) application. Three weed densities, designed to reduce corn yields by 10, 25, and 50%, were established across the locations, using forage sorghum as a surrogate weed. At each weed density, a single application of glyphosate at 1.12 kg ai/ha was applied to glyphosate-resistant corn at the V2, V4, V6, and V8 growth stages. At low and medium weed densities, the V4 through V8 applications provided nearly complete weed control and yields equivalent to the weed-free treatment. Weed biomass and the potential for weed seed production from subsequent weed emergence made the V2 timing less effective. At high weed densities, the V4 followed by the V6 timing provided the most effective weed control, while maintaining corn yield. Weed competition from subsequent weed emergence in the V2 application and the duration of weed competition in the V8 timing reduced yield on average by 12 and 15%, respectively. This research shows that single POST applications can be successful but weed density and herbicide timing are key elements. Nomenclature: Glyphosate; corn, Zea mays L.; forage sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. Additional index words: Glyphosate-resistant corn, herbicide application timing, postemergence weed control, weed competition, weed density. Abbreviations: POST, postemergence; WAP, weeks after planting.


Yellow Iles is one of the agricultural commodities that can be used as an alternative functional foods is important for the body. Iles yellow is a kind of plant tubers that grow well under trees forest stands, so it will be able to increase the forest and reducing deforestation, without compromising the function of the forest. Through increasing the role of forests as agroforestry, will be able to enhance the role of forests than as a timber, food, as well as a provider of oxygen. This business is expected to increase over the maximum forest products, thereby increasing the motivation of people, especially forest communities to take an active role in managing and conserving forests that global warming issue will be resolved. Iles yellow has a very high economic value, in addition to domestic demand is quite high, also requests exports is still very high and Indonesia can not meet the demand. Request exports reached 10,000 tons per year, but Indonesia was only able to meet 40 percent of demand. Very promising business opportunities that this deserves to be arrested since the vast area of forest in Indonesia, particularly in the DIY forests that have not been used optimally. Forest area in Yogyakarta (DIY), state forest 18715.064 ha, ha 59835.68 forests and critical land area of 126,776 ha. These opportunities should be captured by the DIY community and government to increase people's income through the use of forest land by planting yellow iles. This plant, as well as producing stem tubers, as well as a producer of other products that are economically valuable tubers or leaves bulbil ("frog"), and seeds for sowing. Good opportunities can be implemented through several ways: (1) the use of land under forest stands are optimal, (2) establish rules of cooperation or partnership between forestry and farming communities around forest areas, (3) cultivation techniques appropriately Yellow Iles and (4) to prepare priority products needed for future DIY mupun daerrah about who will develop Iles Yellow. This paper is expected to be a positive inspiration to take advantage of opportunities, understand the potential and characteristics of yellow iles to be developed in order to improve people's welfare. Keyword: alternative functional food, agricultural commodities, agro-forestry


AIMS
Appropriate heart failure (HF) care and adequate resourcing require recognition of its clinical, social, and economic importance by the general public besides healthcare authorities and providers. The extent of public awareness in Europe is not known.

METHODS AND RESULTS
A total of 7958 subjects were randomly selected from nine European countries (minimum 100/group per country). Each completed a 32-question survey on HF covering recognition, impact on health, comparative prevalence and severity, treatment, and costs. Although 86% of respondents had heard of HF, only 3% could correctly identify HF from a description of typical symptoms and signs, 31% correctly identified angina, and 51% identified transient ischaemic attack/stroke. Only 29% thought that HF signs and symptoms indicate a 'severe' condition. Most thought that HF patients should reduce all physical activity and 34% believed HF a normal consequence of ageing. Sixty-seven per cent thought that HF patients live longer than cancer patients. Only 9% believed that HF leads to greater healthcare expenditure than cancer, HIV, or diabetes. Overall, responses were comparable between countries.

CONCLUSION
In Europe, community awareness of HF is low. Therefore, the general public is unlikely to demand appropriate measures by healthcare authorities and providers. A better understanding of HF could improve its prevention and management. Strategies to educate the public about HF are needed.


Aspergillus fumigatus is a ubiquitous mold found in soil and organic debris that is currently the most frequent cause of airborne invasive fungal infections in immunocompromised individuals. In this study the hypothesis that hypoxia is a stress faced in vivo by A. fumigatus and that the ability to sense, adapt to, and grow in hypoxic conditions is a virulence attribute of this human fungal pathogen was tested. Utilizing specific staining in 3 clinically relevant murine models, it was shown for the first time that hypoxic microenvironments occur at sites of A. fumigatus infection arguing that, A. fumigatus has to be able to adapt to these oxygen-limited conditions in order to cause disease. In this context, a SREBP ortholog was identified and characterized. Importantly, the SREBP null mutant was unable to grow in hypoxia and virtually avirulent. Interestingly, oxygen sensing and hypoxia adaptation mechanisms can be identified in other fungi suggesting an important role for these mechanisms for fungal biology and virulence. In addition, it was found that A. fumigatus utilizes ethanol (EtOH) fermentation in vivo and that this pathway is induced in in vitro hypoxia. While fermentation was shown to not be essential for growth in hypoxia and fungal virulence, it was found that loss of the alcohol dehydrogenase involved in EtOH fermentation under hypoxic conditions resulted in significant changes in the host immune response. Lastly, it was found that the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) of A. fumigatus seems to be involved in hypoxic signaling as a deletion of cytochrome C resulted in loss of EtOH fermentation activation in hypoxia. Furthermore, the ETC plays a role in the oxidative stress response and is important for A. fumigatus pathogenesis. Overall, the presented data shows that hypoxia occurs at the site of A. fumigatus infection and it suggests an important previously unidentified link between hypoxia adaptation and fungal pathogenesis of A. fumigatus.


The New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam is managed by the Savannah District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Since commercial navigation hasn't used the lock since 1979, the Lock and Dam hasn't served its authorized purpose for over twenty years. The Corps is obligated to reduce its maintenance costs whenever it can, so it recently conducted a study to determine what should be done with this aging and deteriorating structure. As it evaluated the functions that the structure presently provides, the picture became more complicated. Industries now use the upstream pool as a source of water for their operations. Private residences line the shore of the upper pool, attracted by the waterfront view. Local governments have similarly placed public developments along portions of the shore. The community holds annual speedboat races on the stable pool, bringing visitors and their dollars to local businesses. On the environmental side, the higher stable water surface in the pool now supports wetlands along the shore where they didn't exist before. The landside portion of the dam is highly used by fishermen. The area immediately upstream and downstream of the dam regularly attracts fishermen in boats, when no other boaters can be seen fishing that reach of the river. Regulatory discharge permits have been issued based on the pool being there. Yet removal of the structure would provide substantial benefits to fisheries by removing an impediment to migratory pathways and restoring the free-flowing character of a piedmont river. What initially appeared to be an easy decision — What to do with an old, deteriorating, structure that is a financial burden and no longer serves its authorized purpose — quickly became complicated. Savannah District struggled through its evaluation and sent its recommendation for removal of the structure to its higher headquarters for ultimate submission to the U.S. Congress. However, before Congress received the report, they authorized the Corps to rehabilitate the structure and add a fish passage feature, all at full Federal expense, and then transfer the structure to a local government. Will Congress fund these actions? Stay tuned...


Aim To estimate the number of colon cancer patients in New South Wales (NSW) Australia requiring cancer care in the future. Methods Prevalence of first primary colon cancer was estimated and projected forward, by stage of clinical care (initial care, long-term survivors, monitoring, and last year of life), for 2007–2016. Then using data from a patterns of care study for colorectal cancer, we estimated the type and amount of treatments that will be needed by colon cancer patients in each stage of care. Finally, data on metachronous tumours or second primary colon cancers were used to estimate the additional number of patients who will require care. Results In NSW in 2006, there were 17 687 patients aged 18–84 years alive with a past diagnosis of colon cancer. By 2016, this number will have increased to 22 262. The expected numbers of patients vary by stage of care with the majority in the monitoring stage (41.4%) or being long-term survivors (40.7%). There will be at least 1389 men and 1135 women requiring initial surgery for colon cancer in 2016. Of these 431 men and 352 women will also require adjuvant chemotherapy. In addition, there will be 741 patients with metachronous tumours or second primary colon cancers who will also need care in 2016 with 56% of them in the monitoring stage. Conclusions These estimates reveal that in NSW the numbers of colon cancer patients requiring care for colon cancer are projected to rise by over 25% from 2006 to 2016.


OF THESIS EFFECTS OF CALCIUM CHANGES ON HYSTERESIS IN RESTITUTION OF ACTION POTENTIAL DURATION Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a leading cause of fatalities. Several methods have been developed to predict instability in myocytes which could lead to SCD. The focus of this study was on altering memory in myocytes, i.e. hysteresis in restitution of action potential duration (APD), by differing levels of calcium. Determination of alteration was implemented by using a diastolic interval (DI) control program that implements a sinusoidal change in DI. Plotting APD versus previous DI, i.e. restitution, produces a hysteresis loop. From these hysteresis loops, five parameters were used to determine measures of memory: area, thickness, overall tilt, max delay and min delay. Calcium levels were then altered with either verapamil or BAPTA-AM. Statistically significant effects were found for the verapamil study, but not for the BAPTA-AM study. Simulations were used to explain significant results. The verapamil findings support clinical studies that have shown verapamil to not have anti-arrhythmic effects. Theory predicts that a decrease in memory would decrease the stability of a system, and perhaps verapamil may not increase stability as hypothesized previously. The results of the BAPTA-AM study were inconclusive, and further investigation is needed before it can be determined that BAPTA-AM has no significant effect on memory.


SUMMARY Obesity and concomitant comorbidities have emerged as public health problems of the first order. For instance, obese individuals have an increased risk for kidney cancer. However, direct mechanisms linking obesity with kidney cancer remain elusive. We hypothesized that diet-induced obesity (DIO) promotes renal carcinogenesis by inducing an inflammatory and tumor-promoting microenvironment. We compared chow-fed lean Wistar rats with those that were sensitive (DIOsens) or partially resistant (DIOres) to DIO to investigate the impact of body adiposity versus dietary nutrient overload in the development of renal preneoplasia and activation of tumor-promoting signaling pathways. Our data clearly show a correlation between body adiposity, the severity of nephropathy, and the total number and incidence of preneoplastic renal lesions. However, similar plasma triglyceride, plasma free fatty acid and renal triglyceride levels were found in chow-fed, DIOres and DIOsens rats, suggesting that lipotoxicity is not a critical contributor to the renal pathology. Obesity-related nephropathy was further associated with regenerative cell proliferation, monocyte infiltration and higher renal expression of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-6 receptor and leptin receptor. Accordingly, we observed increased signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) phosphorylation in tubules with preneoplastic phenotypes. In summary, our results demonstrate that high body adiposity induces an inflammatory and proliferative microenvironment in rat kidneys that promotes the development of preneoplastic lesions, potentially via activation of the STAT3 and mTOR signaling pathways.


Edwin A. Abbott's book Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions presents the world of Flatland as a utopia from which the reader can gain an enhanced perspective on their constructed reality. Because all humans are restricted by what is known, assumed, and perceived, fiction literature peels away some of these restrictions by exercising peoples' imaginations. When we think "outside the box," as we often must do to wrap our minds around fiction works, we are presented the chance to realize that our perceptions are limited by our reality, and that our realized reality is limited by our perceptions. Flatland encourages this by recounting the fantastical journey of A Square from his limited world of two dimensions to Spaceland. The novel stretches the imagination while also making the reader aware that what they perceive as "real" is entirely dependent upon the "dimension" (i.e., socially, culturally, and historically constructed reality) in which they are situated. When we gain new perspectives, we arrive closer to truths about our world, and truths about ourselves. To do so, we must escape our own "flatlands."


1. The binding of NAD(+) and NADP(+) to glutamate dehydrogenase has been studied in sodium phosphate buffer, pH7.0, by equilibrium dialysis. Approximate values for the dissociation constants are 0.47 and 2.5mm respectively. For NAD(+) the value agrees with that estimated from initial-rate results. 2. In the presence of the substrate analogue glutarate both coenzymes are bound more firmly, and there is one active centre per enzyme subunit. The binding results cannot be described in terms of independent and identical active centres, and binding is stronger at low coenzyme concentrations than at high concentrations. Either the six subunits of the oligomer are not identical or there are negative interactions between them in the binding of coenzymes in ternary complexes with glutarate. The latter explanation is favoured. 3. The binding studies support the conclusions drawn from earlier kinetic studies of the glutamate reaction. 4. ADP and GTP respectively decrease and increase the affinity of the enzyme for NAD(+) and NADP(+), in both the presence and absence of glutarate. The negative binding interactions in the presence of glutarate are abolished by ADP, which decreases the affinity for the coenzymes at low concentrations of the latter. 5. In the presence of glutarate, GTP and NAD(+) or NADP(+), the association of enzyme oligomers is prevented, and the solubility of the enzyme is decreased; the complex of enzyme and ligands readily crystallizes. 6. The results are discussed in relation to earlier kinetic studies.


The bacterial biota of the human vagina can have a profound impact on the health of women and their neonates. Changes in the vaginal microbiota have been associated with several adverse health outcomes including premature birth, pelvic inflammatory disease, and acquisition of HIV infection. Cultivation-independent molecular methods have provided new insights regarding bacterial diversity in this important niche, particularly in women with the common condition bacterial vaginosis (BV). PCR methods have shown that women with BV have complex communities of vaginal bacteria that include many fastidious species, particularly from the phyla Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria. Healthy women are mostly colonized with lactobacilli such as Lactobacillus crispatus, Lactobacillus jensenii, and Lactobacillus iners, though a variety of other bacteria may be present. The microbiology of BV is heterogeneous. The presence of Gardnerella vaginalis and Atopobium vaginae coating the vaginal epithelium in some subjects with BV suggests that biofilms may contribute to this condition.


Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to the beat-to-beat variation in the time intervals between heart contractions. This phenomenon reflects physiological processes that are trained in many biofeedback applications. HRV is routinely monitored using an electrocardiograph (ECG) or photoplethysmograph (PPG), supplemented by a respirometer. This article explains the importance of inspecting raw signals, describes the effects of prescription medications and social drugs, identifies common sources of signal contamination, and recommends practical precautions to increase recording fidelity.


Animals must navigate a complex mosaic of habitat types, both natural and artificial. As artificial habitats (e.g., agricultural fields) become increasingly abundant in many landscapes, species will be affected differently, depending on their habitat preferences. We investigated the diversity, richness, abundance, and biomass of mammals and birds with remote camera traps that optimized the capture of both large and small animals. Camera traps allowed us to capture natural rates of mammals and birds, which is difficult to obtain using human observers who can affect the behavior of animals and are limited in their spatio-temporal scope and ability to assess nocturnal communities. Our camera trap arrays were established along two transects in a local conservation reserve; one transect ran from an agricultural field to an upland forest and another from a wetland to an upland forest. Over the 6-week study our cameras recorded 2,245 images, within which we observed 483 individuals comprising 16 species of mammals and birds. Our data showed that species composition and abundances were only marginally different between the two transects, with species common to both transects not exhibiting any statistical difference in abundances. Coyotes and armadillos were unique to the riparian transect, and many more bird species were present along the riparian transect than the agricultural transect. Diversity, richness, and total community biomass did not differ significantly between the two transects nor along each transect but there were non-significant trends in predicted directions. Our results revealed that fewer species use the forest immediately adjacent to the agricultural field, but more species use the wetland and the forest immediately adjacent to the wetland. Our results corroborate other studies revealing that certain species are more common in forested areas but also that some species thought to prefer forested areas may actually be more habitat generalists than previously thought.


The cross‐cultural experiences of Chinese international students in Western countries have been subject to intensive research, but only a very small number of studies have considered how these students adapt to learning in an online flexible delivery environment. Guided by Berry's acculturation framework (1980, 2005), the investigation discussed in this article aimed to address this gap by exploring the adaptation processes of Chinese international students to online learning at an Australian university. This article reports on the challenges perceived by two students from Mainland China, their coping strategies, changes in their opinions of online learning, and their respective patterns of adaptation. By presenting two indicative case studies drawn from a wider study, this article aims to demonstrate the use of Berry's concepts as a means to frame such studies.


We apply the standard union bound to turbo-coded modulation systems with maximum-likelihood decoding. To illustrate the methodology, we explicitly derive the bounds for the 2-bits/s/Hz 16 QAM system. Generalization of this bound to other turbo-coded modulation systems is straightforward. As in the case of the standard union bound for turbo codes, we expect these bounds to be useful for rather large values of signal-to-noise ratios, i.e., signal-to-noise ratios for which the code rate is smaller than the corresponding cutoff rate. The bound is based on "uniform interleaving" just as its counterpart for standard turbo coding. The derived bound provides a tool for comparing coded modulation schemes having different component codes, interleaver lengths, mappings, etc., using maximum-likelihood decoding. It is also useful in studying the effectiveness of various suboptimal decoding algorithms. The bounding technique is also applicable to other coded-modulation schemes such as serially concatenated coded modulation.


With the continuing movement of social life into new types of places such as cyberspace the function and meaning of gift-exchange has emerged as being an important anthropological tool for the investigation of social relations online. In cyberspace several fascinating questions come into light, for example: what kinds of gifts are exchanged in cyberspace; how are these gifts exchanged there and what does the exchange of gifts in cyberspace signify? An analysis of the 'gift of time' is particularly pertinent when investigating friendship in virtual communities because gift exchange in cyberspace can be related to notions of reciprocity and trust. For example, my own ethnographic research in Cybertown, a virtual community on the Internet, suggests that one important concept for friendship in Cybertown is the exchange of the 'gift of time', and highlights its role in the creation of trust and reciprocity. In explaining this phenomenon, this paper examines the function and meaning of gift exchange in Cybertown in relation to contemporary theoretical notions of the gift, explains what kinds of obligations gifts engender and what role gift practices play in creating networks of friendship.


At this time of rapid global environmental change and demands for sweeping societal transformation, we call for greater scrutiny of the persistence of particular policies and ideas. In this Special Section we focus on REDD+, which for long has enjoyed remarkable global support in spite of poor outcomes and widespread criticisms. The central policy proposition of REDD+, that is, forest-based emissions reduction through market-based instruments and non-market means, are now carried forth under the new banner of Natural Climate Solutions. We examine REDD+ to understand how and why some environmental policies and ideas persist despite dubious impacts. We conceptualize policy persistence by drawing on three strands of political ecology literature - critical policy studies, assemblage studies, and political economy - that illuminate the dynamics of policy persistence in different yet complementary ways. We argue that the persistence of policies and policy ideas rests in a tentative balance of the counteracting processes of stabilization and contestation, which precipitate both intended and unintended outcomes. We show how the stabilization of REDD+ itself lends stability to broader ideas of forest-based climate change mitigation. We suggest that policy persistence is an area of political ecological research, which now calls for renewed engagement. Keywords: Policy persistence, REDD+, climate change mitigation, Natural Climate Solutions, political ecology


Pamphlet printed by the Texas Capital Visitor's Center. Contains a foreward and two O. Henry short stories: "Bexar Scrip 2692" and "Georgia's Ruling." Both stories take place in the old land office building where O. Henry worked as a draftsman, and both are about Texas land grants.


Lorenz curves and associated tools for ranking income distributions are commonly estimated on the assumption that full, unbiased samples are available. However, it is common to find income and wealth distributions that are routinely censored or trimmed. We derive the sampling distribution for a key family of statistics in the case where data have been modified in this fashion.


Organizational scholars often adopt biological models to explain the emergence and evolution of organizations and human systems. One recent example of such adoption is the organizational ecosystem metaphor. In this article, we contend that taking a rigorous ecological approach over the application of loose ecosystem language has the potential to illuminate patterns in the life span of organizations and human systems. We first define five central properties of biological ecosystems and demonstrate their potential relevance to human-constructed systems (organizational ecosystems). We then argue the value of developing biologically based hypotheses that can be tested in the context of organizational systems. Next, we propose a set of hypotheses specific to organizational stability and disruption, using Arizona charter schools as an example to demonstrate the promise of the rigorous application of the organizational ecosystem metaphor. We close with a discussion of how the insights generated might be applied across other organizational settings and systems.


: The authors elaborated and tested a number of elective-differential media for swarming of salmonellae. When pure cultures of Proteus, E. coli and salmonellae were seded on these media the latter exeeded the rest of enteric bacteria by the intensity of swarming. In the capacity of saprophyte inhibitors the most effective were media with the addition of penicillin and sodium selenite. Satisfactory results were obtained on the mentioned media in isolation of salmonellae from the artificially contaminated feces by the method of swarming