PURPOSE
To investigate the protein level of matrilysin and stromelysin-1 and the gene expression of matrilysin in rat corneas after excimer keratectomy using immunofluorescence staining, reverse transcriptase-polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), and in situ hybridization.

METHODS
Rat corneas were treated with 3-mm excimer laser keratectomy (193-nm ArF). Unwounded corneas served as controls. Confocal microscopy was used to immunolocalize matrilysin protein at 6 hours, 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after surgery. RT-PCR was performed to analyze matrilysin mRNA in unwounded controls and in 3-day wounded corneas. In situ hybridization was performed to localize matrilysin mRNA.

RESULTS
Matrilysin was immunolocalized to the epithelial layers of unwounded and wounded corneas, predominantly to the leading edge at 6 hours and 1 day after wounding and to the epithelial layer at 3 to 7 days after surgery. Stromelysin-1 was expressed in the deep stromal layer in the first 3 days after wounding and in the area of newly synthesized stromal matrix 1 week after surgery. Upregulation of matrilysin expression 3 days after wounding was confirmed by RT-PCR. In situ hybridization revealed that the gene expression of matrilysin in rat corneas was upregulated during the migration phase (6 hours, 1 day) and that matrilysin mRNA was predominantly localized to the basal cell layers during the subsequent cell proliferation phase (7 and 14 days).

CONCLUSIONS
Basal epithelial cells express matrilysin during the migration proliferation phase of corneal wound healing after excimer keratectomy.


Summary Many animals experience periods of food shortage in their natural environment. It has been hypothesised that the metabolic responses of animals to naturally‐occurring periods of food deprivation may have long‐term negative impacts on their subsequent life‐history. In particular, reductions in energy requirements in response to fasting may help preserve limited resources but potentially come at a cost of increased oxidative stress. However, little is known about this trade‐off since studies of energy metabolism are generally conducted separately from those of oxidative stress. Using a novel approach that combines measurements of mitochondrial function with in vivo levels of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in brown trout (Salmo trutta), we show here that fasting induces energy savings in a highly metabolically active organ (the liver) but at the cost of a significant increase in H2O2, an important form of reactive oxygen species (ROS). After a 2‐week period of fasting, brown trout reduced their whole‐liver mitochondrial respiratory capacities (state 3, state 4 and cytochrome c oxidase activity), mainly due to reductions in liver size (and hence the total mitochondrial content). This was compensated for at the level of the mitochondrion, with an increase in state 3 respiration combined with a decrease in state 4 respiration, suggesting a selective increase in the capacity to produce ATP without a concomitant increase in energy dissipated through proton leakage. However, the reduction in total hepatic metabolic capacity in fasted fish was associated with an almost two‐fold increase in in vivo mitochondrial H2O2 levels (as measured by the MitoB probe). The resulting increase in mitochondrial ROS, and hence potential risk of oxidative damage, provides mechanistic insight into the trade‐off between the short‐term energetic benefits of reducing metabolism in response to fasting and the potential long‐term costs to subsequent life‐history traits.


The aim of this paper is discuss the "public" and "private" spheres dichotomy, trying to show how it was used by traditional historiography to situate chronologically and thematically the High Middle Ages in an ambit of a general evolution that would have conduced, through the triumph of "public" over "private", for the construction of the modern world. Will also search, from some juridical texts, show how this dichotomy is impossible to the comprehension of the frankish world at the High Middle Ages.


We solve a challenging yet practically useful variant of 3D Bin Packing Problem (3D-BPP). In our problem, the agent has limited information about the items to be packed into a single bin, and an item must be packed immediately after its arrival without buffering or readjusting. The item's placement also subjects to the constraints of order dependence and physical stability. We formulate this online 3D-BPP as a constrained Markov decision process (CMDP). To solve the problem, we propose an effective and easy-to-implement constrained deep reinforcement learning (DRL) method under the actor-critic framework. In particular, we introduce a prediction-and-projection scheme: The agent first predicts a feasibility mask for the placement actions as an auxiliary task and then uses the mask to modulate the action probabilities output by the actor during training. Such supervision and projection facilitate the agent to learn feasible policies very efficiently. Our method can be easily extended to handle lookahead items, multi-bin packing, and item re-orienting. We have conducted extensive evaluation showing that the learned policy significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. A preliminary user study even suggests that our method might attain a human-level performance.


This PhD thesis delivers an artistic research practice based on a deconstruction of the photographic image. Photography in post-photographic, digital culture has, due to changes in technology, become a matter of style while neglecting its own traditional process base. This thesis claims that similar automated processes can be found within information technology, which in the artistic realm has a strong relation to Conceptual art. A post-conceptual critique of the notion of 'information' in Conceptual practice allows for a repositioning of the image. Focusing on visual, transformative reflection, the thesis resists the temptation to present generalising philosophical speculation in favour of an artistic research practice that focuses on the inner, transformative workings of artworks, or the work's 'figuration' as I call it, following Jean-Francois Lyotard and Georges Didi-Huberman.

This research project offers an artistic interrogation into the potential of post-photographic practices under post-conceptual conditions. Apart from photography, the practice employs drawing, installation art, painting and printmaking to produce work that is often conceptually developed on the computer. Much of the work consists of abstract, blob- like 'figures' appropriated from digital-image material, while other work is measurement- based. Figuration is advanced in each of these through constructive processes that remain visible.

A developed understanding of process-oriented practices within the digital realm, which this PhD offers, allows present-day photography to connect to its traditional diversity. The necessary re-thinking of the image, which is a key result of the research, may affect artistic practices beyond photography, giving an extended contemporary photographic practice increased artistic relevance.

The research is supported by art-historical discussions concerning the history of photography, the history of Conceptual art, and what Svetlana Alpers calls 'the northern mode' of painting. Technical discussions of post-photography and the notion of 'information' help clarify underlying processes, while philosophical considerations are used to give meaning to a changed concept of the image. Finally, a methodological discussion contextualises the research within current notions of practice-led research.


Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) are toxic chemical entities emitted invariably from stationary thermal operations when a trace of chlorine is present. Replacing the high-temperature destruction operations of these compounds with catalytic oxidation has led to the formulation of various potent metal oxides catalysts; among them are ceria-based materials. Guided by recent experimental measurements, this study theoretically investigates the initial steps operating in the interactions of ceria surface CeO2(111) with three CVOC model compounds, namely chloroethene (CE), chloroethane (CA) and chlorobenzene (CB). We find that, the CeO2(111) surface mediates fission of the carbon–chlorine bonds in the CE, CA and CB molecules via modest reaction barriers. As a result of localization of excess electrons left behind after creation of oxygen vacancies, analogous fission over an oxygen vacant surface systematically necessitates lower energy barriers. Dehydrochlorination of CE and CA molecules preferentially proceeds via a dissociative addition route; however, subsequent desorption of vinyl and ethyl moieties requires less energy than surface assisted β C–H bond breakage. The profound stability of hydrocarbon species on the surface contributes to the observed deactivation of ceria at temperatures as low as 580 K under pyrolytic conditions. Adsorption of an oxygen molecule at an oxygen vacant site initiates decomposition of the adsorbed phenyl moiety. Likewise, adsorbed surface hydroxyl groups serve as the hydrogen source in the observed conversion of CB into benzene. A plausible mechanism for the formation of 1,4-dichlorobenzene incorporates abstraction of a para hydrogen in the CB molecule by an O− surface anion followed by chlorine transfer from the surface. Plotted conversion–temperature profiles via a simplified kinetic model against corresponding experimental profiles exhibit a reasonable agreement. The results from this study could be useful in the ongoing efforts to improve ceria's catalytic capacity for destroying CVOCs.


The formation of branched tubular organs, such as the mammalian lung kidney and vascular system, is an essential process in animal development. The Drosophila tracheal (respiratory) system provides a genetic model system to study the highly ordered process of branch outgrowth and fusion required to form continuous tubular networks.In a transposon mutagenesis screen we identified several genes involved in the different steps of tracheal network formation, including branch fusion. We initially studied the differentiation of the fusion cell in the dorsal branches (DBs). The DBs consists of 5-6 cells, one of which acquires the fusion cell fate. Our results point to a role for Decapentaplegic (Dpp), the Drosophila homolog of transforming growth factor-b (TGFb), in inducing the DB fusion cells fate. The Delta/Notch pathway is then required to select and restrict the fusion cell fate to a single cell in the DBs.After the outgrowth and fusion of tracheal branches, the constituent tubes acquire distinct size and shapes to generate a functional tubular tissue. We have found that a mutation in the grainyhead (grh) gene cause the branches to elongate excessively. Cellular and ultrastructural analyses showed that this phenotype was generated by apical cell membrane overgrowth. It was further shown that the activity of Grh is modulated by Branchless, the key regulator of branch outgrowth. Mutations in the Na/K ATPase a subunit (ATP a) and the fasiclin II (fasII) genes, cause similar elongated tracheal tubes as the ones found in grh mutants, but instead these mutations affect the lateral subcellular compartment, independently of the function of Grh in the apical cell domain.In a search for downstream effectors of Grh, we found the krotzkopf verkehrt (kkv) gene, encoding a Drosophila chitin synthase. Analysis of kkv mutants suggests that a chitinous intralumenal cable, lacking in kkv embryos, is essential for the tracheal tubes to attain their correct length and diameter. The composition of the chitinous filament is also affected in mutants of various septate junction components, indicating that their tube size defects are at least in part caused by an inability to correctly assemble the intralumenal chitinous matrix formed by Kkv.


Abstract
Objective - To collect and share information about the prevalence of precarious work in libraries and the factors associated with it.
Methods - The authors collected and coded job postings from a nationwide job board in Canada for two years. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to explore the extent of precarity and its relationship with job characteristics such as job type, institution type, education level, and minimum required experience.
Results - The authors collected 1,968 postings, of which 842 (42.8%) were coded as precarious in some way. The most common types of precarious work were contracts (29.1% of all postings) and part-time work (22.7% of all postings). Contracts were most prevalent in and significantly associated with academic libraries and librarian positions, and they were most often one year in length. Both on-call and part-time work were most prevalent in school libraries and for library technicians and assistants, and they were significantly associated with all institution types either positively or negatively. Meanwhile, precarious positions overall were least prevalent in government and managerial positions. In terms of education, jobs requiring a secondary diploma or library technician diploma were most likely to be precarious, while positions requiring an MLIS were least likely. The mean minimum required experience was lower for all types of precarious positions than for stable positions, and the prevalence of precarity generally decreased as minimum required experience increased.
Conclusion - The proportion of precarious positions advertised in Canada is substantial and seems to be growing over time. Based on these postings, employees with less experience, without advanced degrees, or in library technician and assistant roles are more likely to be precarious, while those with managerial positions, advanced degrees, or more experience, are less likely to be precarious. Variations in precarity based on factors such as job type, institution type, education level, and minimum required experience suggest that employees will experience precarity differently both within and across library systems.


This paper makes the case for designing interactive robots with their expressive movement in mind. As people are highly sensitive to physical movement and spatiotemporal affordances, well-designed robot motion can communicate, engage, and offer dynamic possibilities beyond the machines' surface appearance or pragmatic motion paths. We present techniques for movement centric design, including character animation sketches, video prototyping, interactive movement explorations, Wizard of Oz studies, and skeletal prototypes. To illustrate our design approach, we discuss four case studies: a social head for a robotic musician, a robotic speaker dock listening companion, a desktop telepresence robot, and a service robot performing assistive and communicative tasks. We then relate our approach to the design of non-anthropomorphic robots and robotic objects, a design strategy that could facilitate the feasibility of real-world human-robot interaction.


We fabricated field-effect transistors based on individual single- and multi-wall carbon nanotubes and analyzed their performance. Transport through the nanotubes is dominated by holes and, at room temperature, it appears to be diffusive rather than ballistic. By varying the gate voltage, we successfully modulated the conductance of a single-wall device by more than 5 orders of magnitude. Multi-wall nanotubes show typically no gate effect, but structural deformations—in our case a collapsed tube—can make them operate as field-effect transistors.


Individual running performances at different distances can be described by log v-log t-models. The study tests, if
rating of perceived exertion while submaximal graded exercise (GXT) and constant load test (CLT) can be used for
parameter estimation of log-log-models so that running performance can be predicted. Under laboratory and field
conditions 13 and 12 subjects performed a submaximal GXT and CLT, where RPE was measured using RPE15-Scale
(Borg, 2004) to calculate 3000m running-performance. Finally, maximal 3000m track runs were done for model
verification. Predicted and measured running speed were highly correlated (r = .92 vs. r = .96, p < .001). In the
laboratory study predicted speeds were significant lower than measured speeds, whereas by field tests predicted
values didn´t differ from measured ones. It is concluded that the presented approach offers an accurate, economic
and non-exhaustive possibility of performance prediction in running.


Obesity in the U.S. has reached epidemic proportions. A dilemma of this sort must be attacked with a comprehensive, multi-faceted scheme. Litigation against the companies providing dangerous food has been called trivial, but allowing market forces to regulate has proven ineffective. The history of tobacco litigation has revealed that industry is willing to ignore dangers, act solely in the interest of profit, and completely disregard public health. The notion that all consumers have enough information to make an autonomous choice and focus only on health when purchasing food borders is unrealistic. Legislatures, that will ignore the huge lobbying dollars spent by the food industry, and enact laws with only the public health of the citizenry in mind, fall in the same category of naivete. Corporations are obligated to shareholders, who are concerned universally with profits. To get the attention of food industry, it is necessary to hit them where they notice - in the wallet - by way of legal damage awards. The battle against bad food needs to be fought on every possible front and the courtroom should be one theater of combat. As evidence of fraudulent and deceptive industry practice is brought to light, state attorneys general have a responsibility to take the same course of action as tobacco, by filing fraud suits to recoup state funds spent on the negative health effects of the detrimental food.


The new venture launching its first product faces substantial risks and is typically resource-poor. Moreover, failure with the first product is closely related to failure of the new venture itself, as investors seek alternate investments with better track records. While much guidance appears in the literature for large, established firms developing and launching new products, little research has examined the specific challenges faced by entrepreneurial startups launching first products. We develop a model of competitive advantage for studying the development of the new venture's first product. We identify and investigate the skills, resources, and knowledge needed for achieving positional advantage and, ultimately, developing a successful first product. We collect data from 694 first products launched by new ventures in China to test our model. While most of our hypotheses are supported, we obtain some interesting findings regarding the stage in the development process when technology resources and skills, and marketing resources and skills have the greatest effects on product performance. Our research makes several contributions to engineering management, innovation, and entrepreneurship literatures. Finally, we provide managerial insights on how the entrepreneur should acquire resources and knowledge in order to improve the performance of the first product.


New Zealand mice develop a naturally occurring thymocytotoxic antibody (NTA) which increases in titer with age. This antibody causes a loss of recirculating peripheral T cells and interferes with T cell functions. To study the potential pathogenic role of NTA in murine autoimmune disease, NZB/W mice were injected daily with NTA-containing serum starting at 3 to 5 days of age. Littermate controls received normal mouse serum (NMS). After 4.5 weeks of treatment, spleen cells from female NZB/W mice treated with NTA had a significant increase in capacity to induce graft-vs-host disease in newborn Swiss mice, suggesting a deficiency of suppressor cells.
 Con A-activated spleen cells from NMS-treated animals suppressed IgM synthesis in vitro; however, Con A-activated spleen cells from NTA-treated mice were not suppressive. The NTA-induced loss of suppressor cell function was prevented by prior absorption of the NTA with thymocytes. Cells from control (NMS-treated) and NTA-treated litter-mates responded similarly to mitogens (Con A, PHA, PWM, LPS) and allogeneic lymphocytes in vitro. Although the number of nucleated spleen cells and splenic B cells was not changed by NTA treatment, a moderate reduction of T cells was seen (37% to 26% Thy 1.2 positive cells). Nevertheless, NTA treatment did not alter either skin allograft injection or the antibody response to immunization with the T-dependent antigen SRBC.
 These studies suggest that NTA causes a selective loss of suppressor cells in NZB/W mice, supporting the hypothesis that NTA may play a pathogenic role in murine autoimmunity.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper develops a conceptual model of social influence for Internet banking adoption (IBA) using social networking platforms (SNPs). It identifies the antecedents of social influence that can positively and negative influence the IBA among a targeted population of conventional and Islamic banks. Moreover, this paper contributes various factors to social influence theory with the purpose of enhancing its implication in the context of Internet banking uptake in developed and developing countries. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a social constructivism approach to understand customer experiences, thoughts, knowledge, awareness and perceptions in relation to IBA. For this study, data were collected from 2030 respondents using semi-structured interviews and purposive sampling. Findings: Social influence comprises customer recommendations, suggestions, ratings, reviews, experiences and thoughts regarding the IBA of Islamic and conventional banks. The findings reveal that social reviews, social experts, social consensus, social responsibility and social perceptions are the key antecedents of social influence that can enhance IBA of SNPs. The research finds that positive social reviews, expert support, consensus, social responsibility and social perceptions are significant in relation to conventional Internet banking. The respondents revealed serious concerns about the privacy of their personal and financial information especially in relation to Islamic banks. Research limitations/implications: The effective and well-organized use of SNPs can foster service reviews, word of mouth, higher levels of service awareness, interactive communication, social consensus and social trust to drive the adoption of Internet banking. This study proposes the conceptual model which has positive business implications and provides the banks direction to use the SNPs to their advantage to influxes their customers to adopt the use of Internet banking. Originality/value: Most previous studies have used technology acceptance model, theory of planned behavior and unified theory of acceptance and the use of technology theories in the adoption of technology and IBA. These theories have not fully illuminated the role of social content as a way to enhance or decrease the number of customers in conventional and Islamic banks. This study develops social influence theory by exploring several dimensions (i.e. social reviews, awareness, consensus, cooperation and experts support) in the context of IBA for users of SNPs. Social influence can create more reviews and can lead to more prepurchase information. It can drive customer inquiries and engagement and can inform purchase decisions for IBA. On the other hand, it can motivate existing customers of Islamic banks to use conventional banking services due to effective word of mouth. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.


Insights in Public Health is a monthly solicited column from the public health community and is coordinated by HJMPH Contributing Editors Tetine L. Sentell PhD from the Office of Public Health Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and Donald Hayes MD, MPH from the Hawai'i Department of Health in collaboration with HJMPH Associate Editors Lance K. Ching PhD, MPH and Ranjani R. Starr MPH from the Hawai'i Department of Health.


International peace parks—transnational conservation areas established and managed by two or more countries—have become a popular way of protecting biodiversity while promoting international cooperation and regional development. In Transforming the Frontier , Bram Buscher shows how cross-border conservation neatly reflects the neoliberal political economy in which it developed.

Based on extensive research in southern Africa with the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project, Buscher explains how the successful promotion of transfrontier conservation as a "win-win" solution happens not only in spite of troubling contradictions and problems, but indeed because of them. This is what he refers to as the "politics of neoliberal conservation," which receives its strength from effectively combining strategies of consensus, antipolitics, and marketing. Drawing on long-term, multilevel ethnographic research, Buscher argues that transfrontier conservation projects are not as concerned with on-the-ground development as they are purported to be. Instead, they are reframing environmental protection and sustainable development to fit an increasingly contradictory world order.


The interrelated logical concepts of validity, entailment, and consequence are all standardly defined in terms of truth preservation. However, imperative sentences can stand in these relations, but they are not truth-apt (they do not express propositions). This puzzle can be understood as an inconsistent triad: T1 Imperatives can be the relata of the consequence relation. T2 Imperatives are not truth-apt. T3 The relata of the consequence relation must be truth-apt. These three claims cannot all be true. So, to solve the problem of imperative consequence we must reject one of the three claims. Solutions can be categorised into three types: those that reject T1, those that reject T2, and those that reject T3. In this thesis, I first outline and motivate each of these three claims. I then consider, in turn, theories of imperative logic and semantics, all of which fall into one of the three types of solution. I consider and reject two versions of solution type 1, the type that rejects T1. These versions argue that it is impossible for imperatives to stand in logical relations, and attempt to provide alternative explanations for what's happening when it seems like they are doing so. I then consider and reject several versions of solution type 2, the type that rejects T2. These theories claim that, despite appearances based on surface grammar, imperatives are disguised declaratives and thus truth-apt. Each theory proposes a translation schema– it outlines the truth-conditions for imperatives. Next, I outline several versions of solution type 3, the type that rejects T3. These theories aim to develop a formal account of imperative logic. I reject each of these theories in turn, and finally propose a solution that avoids the problems I raise with the other theories.


Father Owen Lee is internationally known for his intermission commentaries featured during the Saturday afternoon broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. A Season of Opera: From Orpheus to Ariadne gathers together for the first time Father Lee's best broadcast and cassette commentaries, public lectures, and articles on twenty-three works for the musical stage. The essays range from the pioneering Orpheus of Monteverdi to the forward-looking Ariadne of Richard Strauss. Included are Father Lee's famous discussions of Mozart's Magic Flute and Beethoven's Fidelio, Verdi's La Traviata and Falstaff, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, and Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites. The concluding chapter, originally published as the lead article in The Opera Quarterly's special issue on the end of the twentieth century, is a thought-provoking forecast of opera's future. Recommendations for further reading, CD recordings, and videos are also included. Opera Canada has applauded Father Lee's 'extraordinary ability to engage, challenge, and enlighten a vast and diverse audience' and called his learning-worn-lightly commentaries 'a unique mix of spiritual empathy, classical scholarship, and psychological insight.' Opera lovers, or anyone interested in psychology and mythology, humanities and comparative literature, or the art of the essay will welcome this book.


Actin is an evolutionary conserved molecule that self assembles into long polymers. These filaments form the building block of the actin cytoskeleton. This system is one of the main engines enabling cell motility processes. In muscle cells stable actin filaments participate in contraction. In nonmuscle cells, however, the filaments are more dynamic and polymerisation of actin generates the force for the formation of cellular protrusions required for cell migration. Various actin-binding proteins orchestrate this dynamic turnover of actin filaments and thereby contribute to the different migration modes possible for nonmuscle cells. Next to its role in the cytoplasm actin also resides in the nucleus where it may regulate transcription in multiple ways. Because of its complexity, impaired regulation of the actin cytoskeleton disturbs cell function and deregulations of the actin machinery are associated with an increasing number of diseases such as myopathies and cancer.

Key Concepts:

Actins are conserved proteins with important functions during development and in adult life.

Actin self-assembles into structurally and kinetically polarised filaments.

Numerous actin-binding proteins regulate (dis)assembly and organise filaments in higher order structures.

Dynamic actin polymerisation drives multiple types of nonmuscle cell migration via formation of specific subcellular structures.

Actin cytoskeletal diseases are caused by mutations in actins or via disturbed regulation of the cytoskeleton.

In addition to its cytoplasmic function in cell motility processes, actin has a nuclear role in transcription.

Keywords:

actin-binding proteins;
cell motility;
cytoskeleton;
microfilament;
polymerisation


Introduction Handoffs are defined as verbal and written communications during patient care transitions. With the passage of recent ACMGE work hour rules further limiting the hours interns can spend in the hospital, many fear that more handoffs will occur, putting patient safety at risk. The issue of handoffs has not been studied in the neurosurgical literature. Methods A validated, 20-question online-survey was sent to neurosurgical residents in all 98 accredited U.S. neurosurgery programs. Survey results were analyzed using tabulations. Results 449 surveys were completed yielding a 56% response rate. 63% of neurosurgical residents surveyed had not received formal instruction in what constitutes an effective handoff; 24% believe there is high to moderate variability among their co-residents in terms of the quality of the handoff provided; 55% experience three or more interruptions during handoffs on average. 90% of neurosurgical residents surveyed say that handoff most often occurs in a quiet, private area and 56% report a high level of comfort for knowing the potential acute, critical issues affecting a patient when receiving a handoff. Conclusions There needs to be more focused education devoted to learning effective patient-care handoffs in neurosurgical training programs. Increasingly, handing off a patient adequately and safely is becoming a required skill of residency.


The Review has chosen to open this issue with the voices of residents of Aleppo, Syria. Fighting in the city of Aleppo has stopped since the last opposition fighters were evacuated from the eastern areas of the city in December 2016 as part of a deal, but war continues in the rest of Syria, including in large parts of Aleppo governorate. This section is meant to frame the academic discussion to follow in light of the realities faced by those who live in cities at war. The stories below were told to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Aleppo on 6 and 8 February 2017. These people agreed to share their experience with the ICRC so that others may understand what their lives are like. Although they have suffered much, they still have hope for the future. In order to protect them and their families, only their first names will be used.


The authors analyse the evolution of citizens' living standards in the European Union (EU), considering the EU as a single country. Average living standards have improved considerably as the European integration process has unfolded. EU28 income inequality has steadily declined, mostly as a result of the macroeconomic convergence of new EU-accession countries. EU15 income inequality fell steadily until the mid-1980s, but picked up again during the economic turmoil following the Great Recession, largely reflecting the divergence between periphery and core countries in the Euro Area. Using a common EU standard reveals more progress in terms of poverty reduction. It also shows that the patterns of income convergence across member states differ across categories of residents, thus calling for a more careful consideration of the personal and national dimensions of EU policies.


The TV industry is a two-sided market where both advertisers and viewers buy access to the programs offered by competing TV channels. Under the current market structure advertising prices are typically set by TV channels while viewer prices are set by distributors (e.g. cable operators). The latter implies that the distributors partly internalize the competition between the TV channels, since they take into account the fact that a lower viewer price at one channel will harm rival channels. We nonetheless find that a shift to a market structure where both advertising prices and viewer prices are set competitively by the TV channels might increase joint industry profits. The reason is that this market structure, in contrast to the one we observe today, directly addresses the two-sidedness of the market. We also show that this is to the benefit for the viewers.


D1- and D2-dopamine receptor-mediated regulation of immediate early gene levels in identified populations of neurons in the striatum was examined with quantitative in situ hybridization histochemical techniques. Levels of messenger RNA (mRNA) encoding the immediate early genes zif268 and c-fos were examined in two experiments in rats with unilateral lesions of the nigrostriatal dopamine pathway. In a dose- response study, animals were treated with doses of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mg/kg of the D1 agonist SKF-38393 either alone or in combination with the D2 agonist quinpirole (1 mg/kg). Levels of immediate early gene mRNAs 60 min following drug treatments showed a dose-related increase to the D1 agonist alone and a potentiation to combined D1 and D2 against treatment. In a second experiment, in animals receiving 1 mg/kg SKF-38393 either alone or in combination with 1 mg/kg quinpirole, the level of zif268 mRNA was measured with a double-labeling method in striatal neurons containing enkephalin mRNA, a marker of D2-containing neurons, and in neurons not containing enkephalin, putative D1- containing neurons. In the dopamine-depleted striatum, D1 agonist treatment alone did not affect enkephalin-positive neurons but significantly elevated zif268 mRNA levels in nearly all enkephalin- negative neurons. Combined D1 and D2 agonist treatment further increased zif268 mRNA levels in this population of enkephalin-negative neurons and decreased zif-268 mRNA levels in enkephalin-positive neurons. These data indicate that the synergistic response to combined D1- and D2-receptor stimulation is mediated by interneuronal interactions involving the activation of D1 and D2 receptors on separate populations of striatal neurons.


The article presents a new model for understanding the sudden success of prose in four literatures: Greek, Latin, French and Old Norse. Through comparison and quantitative observations, and by focusing on the success of prose rather than its invention, it is shown that in all four cases two or three decades were crucial for creating prose literature. This turn can be described by the term »librarization«: the fact that private book collections and reading habits emerged helps us understand the space into which a host of prose writers were suddenly writing. This reading habit factor (inlcuding reading aloud) has been underplayed in previous scholarship mostly focused on authorial choices and invention. For two of the literatures (Greek, French) the fast dynamics of the rise of prose has already been identified and discussed, but for the two others (Latin, Old Norse), the observation is new. It is also suggested that the exactly contemporary rise of French and Old Norse prose (c. 1200-1230) most probably is connected. The four literatures are each shown in chronological charts so as to visualize the timeline and the relation between poetic and prosaic works. The article furthermore reflects on a number of characteristics and implications of prose literature by drawing on comparisons and contrasts between the ancient and the medieval, important among which is the profound effect of prose librarization on the canonization of existing poetic literature.


Tropical cyclones (TC) in the western North Pacific (WNP) pose a serious threat to the coastal regions of Eastern Asia when they make landfall. The limited amount of observational data and the high computational cost of running TC-permitting dynamical models indicate a need for statistical models that can simulate large ensembles of TCs in order to cover the full range of possible activity that results from a given climate change. I construct and apply a statistical track model from the 1945-2007 observed "best tracks" in the IBTrACS database for the WNP. The lifecycle components--genesis, track propagation, and death--of each simulated track is determined stochastically based on the statistics of historical occurrences. The length scale that dictates what historical data to consider as "local" for each lifecycle component is calculated objectively through optimization. Overall, I demonstrate how a statistical model can be used as a tool to translate climate-induced changes in TC activity into implications for risk.In contrast to other studies, I show that the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has an effect on track propagation separate from the genesis effect. The ENSO effect on genesis results in higher landfall rates during La Nina years due to the shift in genesis location to the northeast. The effect on tracks is more geographically and seasonally varied due to local changes in the mid-level winds. I use local regression techniques to capture the relationship between ENSO, cyclogenesis, and track propagation. Stationary climate simulations are run for extreme ENSO states in order to better understand changes in TC activity and their implication for regional landfall. Additionally, Several diagnostics are performed on model realizations of the historical period, confirming the model's ability to capture the geographical distribution and interannual variability of observed TCs. Lastly, as a step to connect synthetic TC track simulations to economic damage risk assessment, I use a Damage Index and total damage data for U.S. landfalling hurricanes and fit generalized Pareto distributions (GPD) to them. The Damage Index uniquely separates out the effects of the physical damage capacity of a TC and the local economic vulnerability of a coastal region. GPD fits are also performed using covariates in the scale parameter, where bathymetric slope and landfall intensity are found to be useful covariates for the Damage Index. Using the Damage Index with covariates model, two examples are shown of assessing damage risk for different climates. The first takes landfall data input from a statistical-deterministic TC model downscaled from GFDL and ECHAM model current and future climates. The second takes landfall data from a fully statistical track model with different values of relative sea surface temperature given as a statistical predictor.


In this chapter, I discuss a phenomenon observed on the shifting borders of metaphor that I have called 'physical-and-speech action' expressions. These expressions combine a physical action verb with a prepositional particle and a speech action verb: stand up and declare, turn round and say, sit down and talk, and the physical action verb metaphorically carries attitude and value in respect of the speech action. I present empirical findings around two such expressions, using a methodology that combines small and large corpora, and offer a theoretical explanation, using complex dynamic systems theory and recent developments in grounded cognition to integrate the social, cognitive, linguistic and affective.


An offender's character is a consideration that often influences the outcomes of Australian sentencing hearings; good character is generally a mitigating consideration, while bad character can increase the severity of the penalty. Character can also play a central role in lawyers' and health practitioners' disciplinary proceedings and lead to determinations that restrict the practise of their professions. In this article, we argue that it is unfair and unnecessary for purported evaluations of the character of the subject of a sentencing or disciplinary hearing to influence decisions made in those matters about penalties or determinations respectively. The concept of character is vague and incoherent, and lacks any settled definition or empirical foundation. Consequently, judicial and tribunal decisions that are based on assessments of individuals' character and impinge on their legal rights and interests may be unjust and violate the rule of law. Further, it is sufficient for decision-makers to evaluate the crime or misconduct of the subjects of sentencing and disciplinary hearings, without referring to their character, to reach decisions that achieve the appropriate objectives of those proceedings and, in particular, the protection of the community. We therefore propose that the law be reformed to abolish character as a consideration in sentencing hearings and professionals' disciplinary proceedings.


Background Bronchodilators such as long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMAs) and long-acting β2-agonists (LABAs) are central to the pharmacological management of COPD. Dual bronchodilation with umeclidinium/vilanterol (UMEC/VI; 62.5/25 μg) is a novel LAMA/LABA combination approved for maintenance treatment for patients with COPD. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of maintenance treatment with UMEC/VI compared with tiotropium (TIO) 18 μg, open dual LAMA + LABA treatment, or no long-acting bronchodilator treatment in patients with moderate to very severe COPD. Methods A Markov model was developed to estimate the costs and outcomes associated with UMEC/VI treatment in patients with moderate to very severe COPD (GSK study number: HO-13-13411). Clinical efficacy, costs, utilities, and mortality obtained from the published literature were used as the model inputs. Costs are presented in US dollars based on 2015 prices. The model outputs are total costs, drug costs, other medical costs, number of COPD exacerbations, and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). Costs and outcomes were discounted at a 3% annual rate. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the effects of changing parameters on the uncertainty of the results. Results UMEC/VI treatment for moderate to very severe COPD was associated with lower lifetime medical costs ($82,344) compared with TIO ($88,822), open dual LAMA + LABA treatment ($114,442), and no long-acting bronchodilator ($86,751). Fewer exacerbations were predicted to occur with UMEC/VI treatment compared with no long-acting bronchodilator treatment. UMEC/VI provided an 0.11 and 0.25 increase in QALYs compared with TIO and no long-acting bronchodilator treatment, and as such, dominated these cost-effectiveness analyses. Sensitivity analyses confirmed that the results were robust. Conclusion The results from this model suggest that UMEC/VI treatment would be dominant compared with TIO and no long-acting bronchodilator treatment, and less costly than open dual LAMA + LABA treatment in patients with moderate to very severe COPD.


In recent years GNSS has become the recognised core element for the provision of accurate and reliable positioning, velocity and timing (PVT) data for multiple navigational applications. However, since the occurrence of strong ionospheric disturbances impacts the accuracy of GNSS measurements leading consequently to unreliable PVT solutions, not only precision and accuracy but also high-level reliability on the GNSS based solutions is demanded. For autonomously working GNSS receivers, it is necessary to provide algorithms responsible for the reliability control, with the ability to mitigate the influence of such phenomena. Traditionally, geometrical parameters, such as the elevation angle, and signal-related parameters, such as the C/N0, are used to describe the quality properties of GNSS observables. Nevertheless, parameters derived from physical phenomena, such as ionospheric scintillations, can provide additional information not correlated with these aforementioned approaches. The use of indices describing ionospheric scintillations is expected to provide the opportunity of improved error detection for the mitigation of threats. Thus, this work proposes the assessment of the performance of a RAIM-based reliability algorithm using a stochastic model derived from scintillation indices, for the improvement of reliability and accuracy on the final positioning solutions, in comparison with the traditional elevation angle- and C/N0 based stochastic models. Initial results indicate the potential of this approach for GNSS applications under the influence of strong ionospheric disturbances and suggest the advantages of their use.


This research has investigated a broad range of issues associated with the use of mobile information systems in Australian utility companies. In particular, special consideration has been given to the existing infrastructure, business processes and information systems used in the participating organisations to support its field workers. This research has used a Technology, Organisation & People (TOP) multi-perspective model to conduct five case studies obtaining various technical, organisational and personal issues associated with the adoption of mobile information systems. These findings will help other large organisations to better manage their geographically distributed assets and workforce.


Given an undirected graph with edge weights, the MAX-CUT problem consists in finding a partition of the nodes into two subsets, such that the sum of the weights of the edges having endpoints in different subsets is maximized. It is a well-known NP-hard problem with applications in several fields, including VLSI design and statistical physics. In this article, a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP), a variable neighborhood search (VNS), and a path-relinking (PR) intensification heuristic for MAX-CUT are proposed and tested. New hybrid heuristics that combine GRASP, VNS, and PR are also proposed and tested. Computational results indicate that these randomized heuristics find near-optimal solutions. On a set of standard test problems, new best known solutions were produced for many of the instances.


Ring resonators with TiO2 core confinement factors from 0.07 to 0.42 are fabricated and measured for thermal sensitivity achieving -2.9 pm/K thermal drift in the best case. Materials used are CMOS compatible (TiO2, SiO2 and Si3N4) on a Si substrate. The under discussed role of stress in thermo-optic behavior is clearly observed when contrasting waveguides buried in SiO2 to those with etched sidewalls revealed to air. Multiphysics simulations are conducted to provide a theoretical explanation of this phenomenon in contrast to the more widely reported theories on thermo-optic behavior dominated by confinement factor.


Most of people who live in Karo are farmer. They are using pesticide to maintain their farm. They using of pesticide which does not meet the procedures causes many impact. Such as poisoning for farmers. The purpose of this research is describe the behavior of farmer using pesticides having personal protective equipment (PPE) and health complaints of farmer in Suka Julu Kecamatan Barus Jahe Kabupaten Karo. The type this research was descriptive with 95 person as samples. The sampling technique was purposive sampling. The result of this research about the characteristic of farmers, were over 30 years old farmers were 78 person (82,1%), male farmers were 62 person (65,3%), Senior high school farmers were 82 person (86,3%) frequency in using pesticide more than 3 times a week 58 person (61,1%), application pesticide in the morning was 77 person (81,1%). Farmer whose good knowledge were 22 person (23,2%), farmers whose good manner were 83 person (87,4%), farmers whose good practice were 87 person (91,6%). The characteristic of pesticide based on liquid formula was 62 person (65,3%). The type of pesticide was insecticide is 52 person (54,7%). The farmer whose application carbamate pesticide were 44 person (46,3%), The dossage which not suggested is 63 person (66,3%). Respondents whose health complaints caused by pesticide in the last one week are 77 person (81,1%). The symptoms caused by using pesticide was headache which were 56 person (58,9%), dizziness which is 64 person (67,4%), nausea which were 66 person (69,5%), watery eyes which were 75 person (78,9%). The suggested to farmers to use pesticide and having personal protective equipment (PPE) properly as already set in the procedure and the recommendation. Keywords :Behavior, Pesticides, Personal Protective Equipment, Health Complaints


Recent advances in deep learning have made the use of large, deep neural networks with tens of millions of parameters suitable for a number of applications that require real-time processing. The sheer size of these networks can represent a challenging computational burden, even for modern CPUs. For this reason, GPUs are routinely used instead to train and run such networks. This paper is a tutorial for students and researchers on some of the techniques that can be used to reduce this computational cost considerably on modern x86 CPUs. We emphasize data layout, batching of the computation, the use of SSE2 instructions, and particularly leverage SSSE3 and SSE4 fixed-point instructions which provide a 3× improvement over an optimized floating-point baseline. We use speech recognition as an example task, and show that a real-time hybrid hidden Markov model / neural network (HMM/NN) large vocabulary system can be built with a 10× speedup over an unoptimized baseline and a 4× speedup over an aggressively optimized floating-point baseline at no cost in accuracy. The techniques described extend readily to neural network training and provide an effective alternative to the use of specialized hardware.


Background: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of Real-time Auditory stimulation Feedback (RAF) on balance and gait in stroke patients and to suggest a more effective method of gait training.
Methods: This was a hospital-based, randomized controlled trial with a blinded assessor. Twenty four chronic stroke patients who were more than six months post-stroke participated in this study. They were randomly allocated to 1 of 2 groups: Real-time Auditory stimulation Feedback (RAF) group (n= 12) and treadmill group (n=12). Patients in the RAF group received three 30-minute sessions of treadmill gait training combined with RAF per week over a period of four weeks. Patients in the treadmill group received general treadmill training under the same experimental condition without RAF. The following clinical measures were used for assessment of static balance and gait abilities: Balancia, Timed Up and Go Test. Spatiotemporal gait parameters were also collected using the GAITRite system.
Results: Significant differences in outcomes for average perturbation velocity and total perturbation distance in closed eyes condition were observed in the RAF group compared with the control group. In addition, measurements for the TUG test indicated significant differences in the RAF group. Results for gait speed, step length and stride length, single limb support percentage of the affected side, and gait asymmetry showed a more significant difference in the RAF group compared with the control group.
Conclusion: Gait training using RAF is effective for restoration of balance and gait ability, and it improves the existing problem of rhythmic auditory stimulation gait training.


Although the first edition of the study appeared over seventy years ago, Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar remains the most comprehensive presentation of Middle Egyptian available, and is still an essential reference tool for all advanced work in the language. The latest, third, edition, appeared in 1957 and is now in its tenth reprinting. After each new element of grammar the learner is given a set of exercises, and the book also contains useful resources such as a list of hieroglyphic signs and information about the development of the language


The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to widen and develop our theoretical frameworks for discussion and analyses of feedback practices in management accounting, particularly shedding light on its formal and informal aspects. The concept of feedback in management accounting has conventionally been analyzed within cybernetic control theory, in which feedback flows as a diagnostic or comparative loop between measurable outputs and pre-set goals (see e.g. Flamholtz et al. 1985; Flamholtz 1996, 1983), i.e. as a formal feedback loop. However, the everyday feedback practices in organizations are combinations of formal and informal elements. In addition to technique-driven feedback approaches (like budgets, measurement, and reward systems) we could also categorize social feedback practices that managers see relevant and effective in the pursuit of organizational control. While cybernetics or control theories successfully capture rational and measured aspects of organizational performance and offer a broad organizational context for the analysis, many individual and informal aspects remain vague and isolated. In order to discuss and make sense of the heterogeneous field of interpretations of formal and informal feedback, both in theory and practice, dichotomous approaches seem to be insufficient. Therefore, I suggest an analytical framework of formal and informal feedback with three dimensions (3D's): source, time, and rule. Based on an abductive analysis of the theoretical and empirical findings from an interpretive case study around a business unit called Division Steelco, the 3Dframework and formal and informal feedback practices are further elaborated vis-á-vis the four thematic layers in the organizational control model by Flamholtz et al. (1985; Flamholtz 1996, 1983): core control system, organizational structure, organizational culture, and external environment. Various personal and cultural meanings given to the formal and informal feedback practices ("feedback as something") create multidimensional interpretative contexts. Multidimensional frameworks aim to capture and better understand both the variety of interpretations and their implications to the functionality of feedback practices, important in interpretive research.


[1] The spatial and temporal components of a published wind power parameterization method are evaluated using observed winds (9 m to 90 m) from 7 years of data collected at four towers in the Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station network. The temporal component is governed by two parameterization inputs which represent the amplitude and mean of an assumed sinusoidal diurnal variation of the ratio of the 80 m to 10 m winds, respectively. Comparison with tower observations shows that the estimates of the mean ratio are robust but biased high, indicating that the temporal variation of the observations can be approximated by, but is not, a pure sinusoid. The observed and parameterized amplitude are poorly correlated as the amplitude estimate is sensitive to small phase shifts in the diurnal variation of the ratio of the wind speeds. The observed annual wind power for the site is consistent with what is known about the wind energy potential in Florida, while wind power estimates based on the temporal extrapolation are more than twice that observed. The erroneous wind power estimate is shown to be related to an assumption that negative amplitude estimates are indicative of a diurnal phase shift in the ratio of the 80 m to 10 m winds. When the assumed phase shift is removed from the data and the observed inputs are applied, the parameterized 80 m wind power estimates were comparable to those observed. The spatial component of the parameterization depends on a least squares fit of four different wind extrapolation methods to 0000 and 1200 UTC wind profiles. Comparison of the observed 80 m winds with those obtained via the least squares method indicates that the 0000 UTC 80 m wind and power estimates exceed (by as much as 1 m s−1 and 200 W m−2, respectively) the observed 80 m winds and power for all months. When compared against the 0000 UTC regression, the 1200 UTC 80 m wind and power estimates are closer to the observed power for all months. The power law often yields the lowest residual (on the order of 15–20% of the time) but is also largely responsible for high power estimates. The positive power bias (i.e., estimated greater than observed) is a result of the combination of two factors, namely, (1) the 0000/1200 UTC profiles and 10 m winds are, in general, not representative of the daily averaged values, with the 0000 and 1200 UTC 10 m winds less than their daily average, and (2) the differences between the observed 80 m and 10 m 0000 and 1200 UTC winds are greater than the difference between the daily averaged 80 m and 10 m mean winds. These results illustrate the potentially problematic nature of combining the lowest residual producing (extrapolation) method, obtained from a fit to the 0000 or 1200 UTC wind profiles, and the daily-averaged 10 m wind to produce a daily-averaged 80 m wind estimate.


The purpose of this study was to examine the classroom practices of the Physical Science educators and analyze how these practices influence deep conceptual learning and understanding. Four secondary schools in the Pietermaritzburg area, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal were selected as cases for in-depth qualitative study. All the schools were African schools servicing a working class community. From each school only one educator participated, and each educator was observed teaching one of his/her classes. Two educators were observed teaching Grade 12 learners and the other two taught Grade 11 learners. The study utilized participant observation, interviews and relevant documents as source of data. The main findings of the study suggest that educator practices were predominantly traditional. They were characterized by lack of effective interactions with learners, dealing with surface features of the content without probing for depth necessary for understanding. It was also found that schools lack a culture of resource development. Though resources were inadequate, the little that educators had was not effectively utilized. The educators seemed to be shifting towards employing a variety of assessment methods, but the difference was still superficial. The findings have implications for policy, practice and in-service training of educators (INSET). Evidence suggests that educators' beliefs have a major influence on how they teach, and that unsound beliefs about teaching and learning are a threat to the implementation of policy. INSET programmes need to target the beliefs of educators about science teaching and learning.


Simulation studies on the effects of the modulation line codes and WDM wavelengths of the dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator are presented. The two coding formats considered are non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to-zero (RZ) operating at 10 and 40 Gbit/s within a wavelength range of 1548-1553 nm. The transmission performance of the compensated system has been evaluated. The results of Q-factor and bit-error-rate (BER) diagrams have shown that NRZ codes are much less affected by the detuning of the WDM wavelengths than the RZ format.


On 1st July 1895 Arnold Ridyard, a Chief Engineer with the Elder Dempster & Co. donated his first group of artefacts to Liverpool Museum. Twenty one years and 77 voyages later, he had transported almost six-and-a-half thousand objects from coastal regions of West and Central Africa to Liverpool (Clubb 1916:1). The collection comprised both natural history and ethnographic objects, of which the latter totalled around two-and a-half thousand -almost a quarter of the present-day African collection. Ridyard barely missed a voyage in 21 years at sea, donating objects on a regular three to four monthly basis. He wasn't alone in his collecting efforts for he established a network of associates along coastal locales of Africa who donated via Elder Dempster to Liverpool Museum. An astounding total of 190 names are recorded in the Museum register as giving through this system of maritime transportation, including such prominent figures as the Governor of Sierra Leone, the Eastern Divisional Commissioner of Southern Nigeria as well as African kings, princes and chiefs (Tythacott 1998). So significant was the Ridyard collection, and so rapidly did it increase, that Annie Coombes has characterised it as...'one of the largest and fastest growing [African collections] in Britain from 1890 to 1913, second only to the national collection at the British Museum' (Coombes 1994:129).

Numerous official documents attest to the rapid growth of the collections: from the 1909 Annual Report we learn that since 1896 - the year after Ridyard's first donation -11,371 ethnographic objects had been accessioned into the museum (Annual Report 1910:37), representing over a third of the present-day ethnographic holdings in a period of only fourteen years. Though not all the acquisitions derive from Ridyard, the engineer remains the single most prolific donor of his time. In 1916 - the year of his retirement - the Museums Committee even named a section the 'Ridyard' Collection of African Ethnology and described it as...'probably the finest in the country' (Clubb 1916:153).

This chapter traces the formation of the Ridyard collecting phenomenon. It associates the particularity of this collection with the city that nurtured its growth and contends that only the world port of Liverpool could have fostered such a maritime associated collection. Ridyard was positioned at the interface of two changing museological worlds, and his collection was reconfigured over the 21 year period by the new orderly museum. At the beginning, he chose singularly powerful objects: there is an emphasis on so-called ju jus and masks, and particularly on the dramatic Central African minkisi - or power figures - embedded with nails, scissors and magical substances. Fifteen years after his first donation, Liverpool Museum established a more systematic framework for Ridyard's collecting activities. In 1910, a new Director - a natural historian - requested he focus on 'representative' examples of arts and industries that were thought to be dying out, in particular the 'primitive potter's art' (Annual Report 1911). The Museum intervened in the collecting methods of its most loyal and committed benefactor: an educational rationale was imposed on the engineer. The Ridyard collection thus came to be filtered through the gaze of a scientific natural historian and the lens of an increasingly pedagogical institution.


Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during muscle contractions is associated with muscle fatigue and damage in the short term and adaptive responses in the long term. When adaptation is inconsequential acute antioxidant supplementation may be able to attenuate muscle fatigue and damage to enhance performance. This study aimed to determine the effects of acute oral N-acetylcysteine (NAC) supplementation on Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1 (YIRT-L1) performance after repeated bouts of damaging intermittent exercise. In a pair-matched design, 12 recreationally trained men engaged in 6 d of either NAC (n = 6) or placebo (n = 6) supplementation. After a treatment-loading day, participants completed 3 testing sessions, on alternating days, consisting of a preexercise isokinetic dynamometry (IKD) test, a damaging intermittent-exercise protocol, YIRT-L1, and a postexercise IKD test. Another IKD test was completed on the 2 intervening d. NAC treatment resulted in a significant preservation of YIRT-L1 performance (p ≤ .0005). IKD performance significantly deteriorated over time at all contraction speeds, and this deterioration was not influenced by treatment group. Plasma creatine kinase values increased significantly over time (p = .002) and were significantly greater in the NAC group than in the placebo group (p = .029). NAC induced mild gastrointestinal side effects. NAC supplementation may be a useful strategy to enhance performance during short-term competitive situations when adaption is inconsequential. Titration studies to elucidate a treatment dose that enhances performance without inducing side effects are now required.


Magnetic anomalies provide surprising structural detail within the previously undivided Coastal Belt, the westernmost, youngest, and least-metamorphosed part of the Franciscan Complex of northern California. Although the Coastal Belt consists almost entirely of arkosic graywacke and shale of mainly Eocene age, new detailed aeromagnetic data show that it is pervasively marked by long, narrow, and regularly spaced anomalies. These anomalies arise from relatively simple tabular bodies composed principally of magnetic basalt or graywacke confined mainly to the top couple of kilometers, even though metamorphic grade indicates that these rocks have been more deeply buried, at depths of 5–8 km. If true, this implies surprisingly uniform uplift of these rocks. The basalt (and associated Cretaceous limestone) occurs largely in the northern part of the Coastal Belt; the graywacke is recognized only in the southern Coastal Belt and is magnetic because it contains andesitic grains. The magnetic grains were not derived from the basalt, and thus require a separate source. The anomalies define simple patterns that can be related to folding and faulting within the Coastal Belt. This apparent simplicity belies complex structure mapped at outcrop scale, which can be explained if the relatively simple tabular bodies are internally deformed, fault-bounded slabs. One mechanism that can explain the widespread lateral extent of the thin layers of basalt is peeling up of the uppermost part of the oceanic crust into the accretionary prism, controlled by porosity and permeability contrasts caused by alteration in the upper part of the subducting slab. It is not clear, however, how this mechanism might generate fault-bounded layers containing magnetic graywacke. We propose that structural domains defined by anomaly trend, wavelength, and source reflect imbrication and folding during the accretion process and local plate interactions as the Mendocino triple junction migrated north, a hypothesis that should be tested by more detailed structural studies.


We present a method for structural summarization and abstraction of complex spatial arrangements found in architectural drawings. The method is based on the well-known Gestalt rules, which summarize how forms, patterns, and semantics are perceived by humans from bits and pieces of geometric information. Although defining a computational model for each rule alone has been extensively studied, modeling a conjoint of Gestalt rules remains a challenge. In this work, we develop a computational framework which models Gestalt rules and more importantly, their complex interactions. We apply conjoining rules to line drawings, to detect groups of objects and repetitions that conform to Gestalt principles. We summarize and abstract such groups in ways that maintain structural semantics by displaying only a reduced number of repeated elements, or by replacing them with simpler shapes. We show an application of our method to line drawings of architectural models of various styles, and the potential of extending the technique to other computer-generated illustrations, and three-dimensional models.


When the American Bar Association (ABA) adopted its Code of Professional Responsibility at its annual meeting in August 1969, the American legal profession was a publicly respected and economically vibrant body. Lawyers, though always more feared than loved, became increasingly important in post-World War II America. The demand for their services exploded for a quarter-century, and lawyers assumed an increased role in the economic and political life of the United States. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the Cold War led American lawyers and other public figures to re-emphasize the rule of law as defining the difference between the United States and the Soviet Union. Relatedly, American lawyers argued they possessed a central role in maintaining the rule of law. From the 1950s through the mid-1960s, the popular image of lawyers may have peaked. It was at this time that the ABA began its work to update the 1908 Canons of Ethics. The ABA's adoption of the Code of Professional Responsibility in 1969 was the first significant reformulation of a lawyer's code of ethics, and was intended to demonstrate that lawyers deserved the trust placed in them by American society. The ABA's adoption of the Code, and its quick acceptance by most states as law, were the last acts in a "golden age." By 1974, the American legal profession was reeling from the turmoil of the late 1960s, followed by the Watergate affair and an economic downturn that adversely affected many lawyers. The larger legal profession was buffeted by a series of lawsuits alleging antitrust violations by the ABA and state bar organizations, and the Supreme Court held in 1977 that a ban on lawyer advertising for ethical reasons was unconstitutional. Although some lawyers did exceedingly well economically during the 1970s, many struggled. In late 1977, the President of the ABA called for the Code's replacement. Shortly thereafter, the ABA's House of Delegates approved the nomination of the members of the Kutak Commission, which was handed this task. During the half-decade effort to craft the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the problematic ethical behavior of lawyers continued to make national news. Within the profession, a significant segment of the Bar rejected the structure and tenets of the Code, demanding a "modern" code of legal ethics befitting the needs of modern lawyers. Another segment of the lawyer population challenged the particular vision within the Code of the ethical duties of lawyers in representing clients. When the ABA adopted its Model Rules of Professional Conduct, it replaced a code that combined rules and aspirations with an approach that merely set a floor regarding lawyer conduct. The drafters of the Model Rules intentionally created a law of lawyering that supplanted an ethic of lawyering. Much more so than the Code, the Model Rules ushered in the modern understanding of lawyer. This Article examines a crucial period in the history of American legal ethics, 1970-1985. Its thesis is that a shallow, though broad, consensus among American lawyers concerning the ideals of legal professionalism dissolved during the 1970s. An ideological dissensus, propelled by the scandalous behavior of some Executive Branch lawyers in the Watergate affair, joined by a heightened fear of economic torpor, shattered the post-World War II profession's accepted self-definition. The Model Rules of Professional Conduct implicitly acknowledged this ideological disagreement, a disagreement that has coursed through the history of the American legal profession from the late 1970s to the present.


African Americans and other people of color seek redress for their racial injuries. However, if we are living in a post-racial society, one that is blind to race, then widespread redress makes no sense since widespread discrimination allegedly is a thing of the past. Therefore, it is worth asking, "if racial justice is about remembering racial injury, ha[s] our law made that memory impossible, erased by official color-blindness?" This question has been central to the study of law among Critical Race theorists since Critical Race Theory's (CRT) inception. Therefore, an analytical convergence of CRT and Marxism should help disentangle the morass that is antidiscrimination law. The connection between Marxism and CRT can be appreciated by examining the limitations of civil rights laws in alleviating some of the most pressing social and political stresses on communities of color today. And yet, the connection seems to get lost beneath the din of those who claim that we are experiencing our first post-racial moment in a larger post-Marxist epoch. The aim of this Essay is to examine how a convergence of Marxism and CRT might enhance a critique of the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of race discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.


Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War. HUGH GUSTERSON. Berkeley: University of California, 1996; 351 pp. Hugh Gusterson's Nuclear rites: A weapons laboratory at the end of the Cold War, an anthropological study of the Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons design laboratory in California, tells fascinating stories relevant to the sociologies of science and technology, social movements, bureaucracy, adult socialization, and legitimization. Drawing extensively from postmodern and orthodox social theories, Gusterson amply demonstrates the power of anthropological investigation and analysis for the interpretation of North American and European society. Although the secrecy enshrouding weapons research limited Gusterson's access to certain types of information, shortages of data that should have been available and presented render less forceful some dimensions of the analysis. Nuclear rites should provoke great discussion in undergraduate and graduate courses about the ethics and consequences of the science and technology industries. According to Gusterson, accepting the necessity of designing ever more powerful nuclear weapons depends upon believing the theory of ddtente. The greater the destructive power of nuclear weapons and the sturdier the dynamic equilibrium between contending forces, the less likely nuclear weapons would ever be used. Nuclear weapons designers think of themselves as peacemakers, not warmongers, like the MX missile they built. No simple social or psychological factors explain how weapons scientists come to accept the doctrine of ddtente. Weapons scientists do not profess uniform political or religious creeds. Although most weapons scientists are male, many women sustain weapons research through other kinds of work. Learning to accept detente is part of becoming socialized and developing a career as a nuclear weapons designer, processes emergent from actually working on weapons design. Security clearance procedures function as important devices for legitimating detente because they outwardly identify individual scientists' own identities with the laboratory's central mission. As weapons scientists' clearances rise, the scientists move from the periphery to the center of the lab's work in a process mirroring their career development. Participating in the live test of a nuclear device of their own design culminates and redefines the careers of nuclear weapons designers by initiating them into the most exclusive echelon of this elite cult. Gusterson juxtaposes the experiences of nuclear weapons scientists and anti-nuclear activists and explicitly cites dilemmas emergent from his personal participation in both social worlds. In the most compelling parts of this book, Gusterson explains how members of these two, often opposed communities develop commitment by melding body with mind in specific "bodily disciplines. …


The growth of regional trading blocks is now a major feature of international relations. This book examines regionalism from the viewpoint of developing countries, and provides a comprehensive account of existing economic theory, and empirical results. In a thorough analysis of the politics, and dynamics of regionalism, the book considers the relationship between regionalism, and multilateralism, and explores the economic advantages of non-discriminatory trade liberalization, which the authors argue should be exploited to the maximum extent. Designed as a practical guide for policymakers whose countries are considering membership in a trade block, this book will also be of interest to scholars, and students of international trade.


The aim of this work was to calculate synthetic digital chest tomosynthesis projections using a computer simulation model based on the Monte Carlo method. An anthropomorphic chest phantom was scanned in a computed tomography scanner, segmented and included in the computer model to allow for simulation of realistic high-resolution X-ray images. The input parameters to the model were adapted to correspond to the VolumeRAD chest tomosynthesis system from GE Healthcare. Sixty tomosynthesis projections were calculated with projection angles ranging from +15 to -15 degrees. The images from primary photons were calculated using an analytical model of the anti-scatter grid and a pre-calculated detector response function. The contributions from scattered photons were calculated using an in-house Monte Carlo-based model employing a number of variance reduction techniques such as the collision density estimator. Tomographic section images were reconstructed by transferring the simulated projections into the VolumeRAD system. The reconstruction was performed for three types of images using: (i) noise-free primary projections, (ii) primary projections including contributions from scattered photons and (iii) projections as in (ii) with added correlated noise. The simulated section images were compared with corresponding section images from projections taken with the real, anthropomorphic phantom from which the digital voxel phantom was originally created. The present article describes a work in progress aiming towards developing a model intended for optimisation of chest tomosynthesis, allowing for simulation of both existing and future chest tomosynthesis systems.


The Magna Carta is one of the most celebrated documents in English history and one of the British Library's greatest treasures. But despite this, the reinterpretations of it since 1215 have tended to obscure its real meaning for King John and his baronial opponents. Magna Carta was not intended to be a lasting declaration of legal principle, still less an embryonic code of human rights. It was a practical solution to a political crisis and it served the interests of the highest ranks of feudal society by reasserting the power of custom to limit arbitrary behaviour by the king. This work explores the context in which Magna Carta was issued to discover what it really meant to its creators and how it came to be an iconic historical document. This updated edition includes full colour illustrations.


Although large buyers like Walmart and Tyson Foods occupy important positions in the American economy, antitrust law remains focused on the conduct of sellers. Moreover, when mergers of buyers have been challenged, the cases have been based on a single theory – that the merger would create a dominant buyer (or group of buyers) that would exploit small, powerless suppliers. Most powerful buyers, however, face suppliers with power of their own, and in such cases, the buyers exert "countervailing power," which can also be anticompetitive. Yet buyer mergers that reduce competition through the exercise of countervailing power are not addressed by the government's guidelines, the leading treatises, or the case law. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the role of buyer power in merger enforcement. It defines the types of buyer power, describes their competitive effects, and reviews an array of evidence. It also discusses the traditional approach to buyer mergers, suggesting modifications to better reflect the true dynamics of buyer power. Most important, it recommends that courts and enforcement agencies halt mergers that enhance anticompetitive countervailing power. Because many buyer combinations that increase such power are beneficial, the article identifies ten situations in which a merger that augments countervailing power would reduce competition and diminish the welfare of consumers, suppliers, or society.


When experimenting with or extending protocols, it is often necessary to use some sort of protocol number or constant in order to actually test or experiment with the new function, even when testing in a closed environment. For example, to test a new DHCP option, one needs an option number to identify the new function. This document recommends that when writing IANA Considerations sections, authors should consider assigning a small range of numbers for experimentation purposes that implementers can use when testing protocol extensions or other new features. This document reserves some ranges of numbers for experimentation purposes in specific protocols where the need to support experimentation has been identified.


This article briefly presents an account of bilateralism in international economic relations - encompassing intellectual property regulation - that suggests that the TRIPS Agreement should never have been understood as a crowning point of international intellectual property regulation. The article explores the implications of this possible reformulation of the theory and place of the TRIPS Agreement in international intellectual property law and policy. The author argues that the new bilateralism, while similar in form, serves a different agenda from the old bilateralism which relied principally on commercial agreements as a means to stabilize, formalize and advance interests ostensibly mutual to the contracting parties. Notwithstanding this different function, and in spite of the deployment of coercive measures enforced through unilateral trade policy, the author seeks to consider what, if any, real prospects for gain may exist for developing countries under the new bilateralism.


Karyotype, chromosome number and composition, is a basic characteristic of species and its changes are frequently associated with speciation. Karyotype conversion, from mostly telocentric (centromere terminal) to mostly metacentric (centromere internal), typically reflects fixation of Robertsonian (Rb) fusions, a common chromosomal rearrangement that joins two telocentric chromosomes at their centromeres to create one metacentric. Fixation of Rb fusions can be explained by meiotic drive: biased chromosome segregation during female meiosis. However, there is no mechanistic explanation of why fusions preferentially segregate to the egg in some populations, leading to fixation and karyotype change, while other populations preferentially eliminate the fusions and maintain a telocentric karyotype. Using laboratory models and wild mice, we show that differences in centromere strength predict the direction of drive. Stronger centromeres, with higher kinetochore protein levels and altered interactions with spindle microtubules, are preferentially retained in the egg. Rb fusions preferentially segregate to the polar body in laboratory mouse strains when the fusion centromeres are weaker than those of telocentrics. Conversely, fusion centromeres are stronger relative to telocentrics in natural house mouse populations that have changed karyotype by accumulating metacentric fusions. Preferential chromosome segregation is predicted to depend on spindle asymmetry. We show that meiosis I (MI) spindles are asymmetric, with more stable microtubules (MTs) oriented towards the cortex. Based on our observations we propose a model in which a signal from the cortex induces MT asymmetry. We exploit Rb fusions to study mechanisms of meiotic chromosome segregation when erroneous kinetochore-MT attachments are recognized and destabilized. Improper attachments typically lack tension between kinetochores and are positioned off-center on the spindle. Low tension is a widely accepted mechanism for recognizing errors, but whether chromosome position regulates MT attachments is unknown. We show that proximity to spindle poles destabilizes kinetochore-MTs, and that stable attachments are restored by inhibiting Aurora A kinase at spindle poles. During the correction of attachment errors, kinetochore MTs detach near spindle poles to allow formation of correct attachments. We propose that chromosome position on the spindle provides spatial cues for the fidelity of meiotic cell division. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Biology First Advisor Michael A. Lampson This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1654


Understanding flow-microstructure interactions in macromolecular fluids is of great importance in the design and optimization of ubiquitous polymer processing operations. Further, such interactions are routinely encountered in separation of biopolymer mixtures using gel electrophoresis and microfluidic technologies, manufacturing of polymer-based functional nanocomposites and polymer-induced reduction in turbulent friction drag. To date, the vast amount of theoretical/computational modeling efforts on flowmicrostructure coupling has focused on continuum-level and stochastic descriptions. Such approaches, while useful in qualitatively predicting polymer dynamics and rheology in model systems, are incapable of describing the effects of polymer-solvent, polymerpolymer and polymer-wall interactions. Further, in the context of polymer solutions, the incorporation of hydrodynamic interaction are often computationally challenging. Hence, the goal of this work has been to investigate the structure, dynamics and rheology of solutions of flexible linear polymers using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in presence of explicit solvent mediated interactions. Coarse-grained (CG) molecular models and corresponding force fields are employed to describe the polymer, solvent and the underlying physico-chemical interactions. The CG models are validated against atomistic ones by comparing the predictions of certain structure parameters such as persistence length, radius of gyration and radial distribution functions of the monomeric units. Results are first presented for the dynamics of a single polymer chain in shear flow. The effects of chain length and shear rate on the configuration statistics, e.g. tumbling frequency and orientation distribution of the end-toend vector, are presented and compared to experimental observations as well as predictions of mesoscopic stochastic dynamic theories. Further, the effects of solventpolymer interactions on the configuration dynamics of a single polymer chain under good, theta and poor solvent conditions are discussed. Specifically, the role of solvent quality is shown to have a pronounced effect on coil-stretch transition in shear flow. We also show that in addition to tumbling dynamics, polymer chain may undergo configurational changes through a novel mechanism, namely collapse dynamics. CGMD predictions for the relationship between the zero-shear viscosity and polymer concentration in dilute and semi-dilute regimes are presented and compared to experiment results. Shear thinning behavior is observed in both dilute and semidilute solutions in non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. Possible approaches to parameterizing phenomenological constitutive models using MD simulation data is explored. Subsequently, influence of solvent quality on the rheological properties of dilute and semidilute solutions is discussed. Finally, the effect of geometric confinement on equilibrium configurations as well as shear-induced migration of the polymer chains is described. STRUCTURE, DYNAMICS AND RHEOLOGY OF POLYMER SOLUTIONS FROM COARSE–GRAINED MOLECULAR DYNAMICS: EFFECTS OF POLYMER CONCENTRATION, SOLVENT QUALITY AND GEOMETRIC CONFINEMENT By Yutian Yang B.S. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2010 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering Syracuse University December 2015 Copyright 2015 Yutian Yang All rights Reserved


This paper provides some new insights about approximate factor structures, as defined by Chamberlain and Rothschild [2], and their implications for empirical tests. First, we show that any economy that satisfies an approximate factor structure can be transformed, in a manner that does not alter the characteristics of investor portfolios, into an economy that satisfies an exact factor structure, as defined by Ross [9]. Second, we show that principal components analysis represents just one of many methods of forming groups of well-diversified portfolios with no idiosyncratic risk in large samples. Correct factor loadings will be obtained by regressing security returns on any group of these portfolios. Our interpretations of the Chamberlain and Rothschild results also provide additional insights into the testability of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory. We show that securities cannot be repackaged to hide factors in the manner suggested by Shanken [10] without the variance of some of the repackaged securities approaching infinity in large economies.


How should we interpret the transnational economy of comic books produced and published by American Israelis in Israel that are distributed by American Jewish publishers in the United States? When such comic books earn haskamot--letters of approbation by religious authorities attesting to their religious merit and educational worthiness--and become religiously sanctioned Jewish books, what are the consequences for our understanding of American Jewish writing? Are Orthodox comic books a novel, albeit conservative form of Jewish oppositional culture? I asked these questions at the conclusion of an earlier essay on contemporary American Jewish comic books (Roth 17), hoping that others would see them as indicative of the issues describing and catalyzing a new area of American Jewish literary studies. In what follows I probe for answers: first, by establishing a critical and sociohistorical context for reading Mahrwood Press's Orthodox comic books as innovative but understudied cultural productions; and second, by analyzing a number of examples to show how they convey a masculinist, Jewish ethos opposed to an individualist, secular modernity while admiring ingenuity that conserves tradition. Mahrwood Press provides an exemplary case study, because its founder's biography and publishing vision, the artists and writers he commissioned, and the stories he wrote and published spotlight how issues of cultural renewal and heterogeneity complicate our understanding of networks and the flow of information across spaces, places, and times. Mahrwood also reveals a provocative strand of the contemporary religious imaginary in US and American Jewish comic books. What constitutes innovation in comics is always under debate, but one critical perspective currently ascendant in US literary studies has recreated a kind of lowbrow-highbrow divide within comic book scholarship, the undoing of which might open up fresh perspectives in American Jewish literary studies and on literary and cultural innovation in comic books. This divide has its roots in comics studies' deep ambivalence about the popularity of the superhero genre and the mass-produced material published by large houses such as Marvel and DC Comics. As Charles Hatfield points out, the publication of Art Spiegelman's Maus in 1986 and Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics in 1993 started a slow shift in the field toward a "new formalism" (369-70) and, consequently, an increasing focus among US academics within English departments on experimental and ostensibly more innovative alternative comics. (1) As with many new trends and fields that must legitimize their places within English departments, literary comic book scholarship was discovered by some as an inchoate field that needed rationalization and justification--or as Hillary Chute asserts, "The field hasn't yet grasped its object or properly posed its project" ("Comics" 452). Chute has become the most vocal proponent within US English departments of such rationalization and of a specific understanding of comic book innovation. (2) She begins her short history of comics by electing to "not emphasize the development of the commercial comic book industry," instead formulating what is in essence a history of avant-garde, formal experimentation in the medium, her primary indicator of comic book innovation. In her timeline, comics begin as "both a mass-market product and one that influenced and was influenced by avant-garde practices, especially those of Dada and surrealism" (455), becoming fully realized as a medium only with the arrival of underground comics in the 1960s (456). For Chute, study of the graphic narrative "investigates the potential of the form at large" (457), especially in terms of "ethical representations of history" (462) that in the exemplary work of Spiegelman, Joe Sacco, and Marjane Satrapi are always self-aware and self-reflexive in the best tradition of innovative modernist and postmodernist literary art. …


Background: In many Western countries, parents have a legal right to be involved and influence children's healthcare decisions, ensuring that children's healthcare is shaped and customised as far as possible to meet the children's and their families' needs and preferences. It is expected that this kind of parental involvement increases patient safety and quality of care. Parental involvement in children's healthcare decisions has been an important area of health services in several countries for many years; however, it has not been sufficiently implemented in clinical practice. Aim: This thesis' overall aim was to gain insight, from a healthpromoting perspective, into parental involvement in decision-making about shaping and customising children's healthcare in an interprofessional hospital environment. The purpose was to enhance the knowledge on parental involvement in these decision-making processes and to identify areas for improvement. The research aims were as following: 1) To describe and establish a synthesis of previous research on parents' perceptions of their participation in decision-making and the challenges they face in healthcare services for children. (Paper I) 2) To explore parents' experiences on parental involvement in decisionmaking about their child's healthcare at the hospital and to identify how health professionals can improve parental involvement. (Paper II) 3) To explore and describe parents' experiences of how healthprofessionals facilitate parental involvement in decision-making surrounding children's healthcare and to identify how health professionals can improve parental involvement in the hospital. (Paper III) 4) To explore health professionals' construction of the phenomenon parental involvement in decision-making about children's healthcare at the hospital and identify how parental involvement can be improved. (Paper IV) Methodology: This thesis uses an explorative, sequential, descriptive, qualitative design; is situated within a constructivist research paradigm; and involves four sub-studies (Paper I-IV). Sub-study 1 is a systematic integrated review on literature, published from January 2000 to February 2011, concerning research aim 1). This review was conducted according to Whittemore and Knafl's framework. Sub-studies 2 through 4 are explorative, descriptive, qualitative studies involving individual semi-structured interviews. Sub-studies 2 and 3 comprise a purposive sample of 12 parents. Qualitative content analysis was performed according to Graneheim, Lindgren and Lundman. Sub-study 4 recruited 12 health professionals using a purposive selection procedure. The construction of the phenomenon in the interviews was analysed according to Silverman. The cultural stories were then interpreted and organised using Graneheim et al.'s qualitative content analysis. Findings: This thesis contributes new insights into parents' and health professionals' roles during decision-making about shaping and customising children's healthcare at hospital. Parents' personal factors seemed to influence their involvement; however, health professionals' individually tailored facilitation of parental involvement appeared to empower the parents and increase active engagement. The health professionals' attitudes and competencies seemed to influence how they involved the parents. Important elements that seem to improve parental involvement included empathetic communication, confidence in the health professional-parent relationship, high-quality intra- and interprofessional collaboration and adequate organisational resources. Conclusion: This thesis highlights the complexity of shared decisionmaking about children's healthcare, including parents' and health professionals' essential, demanding roles. These roles need to be supported according to family-centred care, the World Health Organisation's health promotion strategy and the biopsychosocial theory. The foremost responsibility of healthcare managers is to facilitate health professionals' parental involvement and arrange for adequate organisational resources. Furthermore, this thesis provides new knowledge of how health professionals' practice of shared decisionmaking in paediatric clinical settings influences parents' ability to cope with their parental role and the quality of their children's healthcare. Increased understanding of involving both the paediatric patient and parents in these decision-making processes is required to safeguard the paediatric patients a technical, safe and justifiable healthcare that is in keeping governmental directives, evidence-based practice and the biopsychosocial theory.