In spring 1965, this was in reply to audience demands for a definition of dangerousness at the first panel discussion ever held on the topic at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. Almost a decade after the symposium proceedings were published, Steadman (1973) once again grappled with the concept of dangerousness. He offered that it represents a probability estimation that something "dangerous" will happen in the presence of an individual. In attempts to further clarify the concept, he added that dangerousness is not an inherent characteristic of a person or situation and that it does not represent a quality, but rather an attribution of a quality. Because of such vague conceptualizations, misguided public perceptions, and the tendency to clinically overestimate violence potential, the prediction of dangerousness among persons with mental disorders has been viewed as an inherently dangerous proposition (Shah, 1975). While the risks are not underestimated, more than ever, the assessment of dangerousness has important consequences in numerous decisionmaking processes: (1) Mental health professionals remain accountable to the public and courts, for their clinical judgments regarding future violence potential of patients (Lidz & Mulvey, 1995); (2) Estimates of dangerousness represent essential components of day-to-day management of many patients (Jones, 1995); and (3) There is a duty to protect potential victims (Monahan, 1993). Hence, concerns of the new millen1. Clinical Assessment of Dangerousness: An Overview of the Literature


This article offers an overview of the main jurisdictional provisions of the EU Status of Forces Agreement (EU SOFA) of 2003. The article is derived from my more detailed commentary on the EU SOFA published in the Military Law and the Law of War Review. The EU SOFA was signed by the representatives of the governments of the member states of the EU on 17 November 2003. Its purpose is to define the legal position of the military and civilian personnel, as well as the forces and headquarters, deployed by one EU member state in the territory of another member state in the context of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). The EU SOFA makes an important contribution to the development of the EU's crisis management capabilities. By addressing some of the key legal and practical questions raised by the presence of European military and civilian personnel in the territory of other EU member states, the Agreement facilitates their transit and temporary deployment throughout the territory of the EU for the purposes of the ESDP. The EU SOFA is based on the NATO Status of Forces Agreement (NATO) of 1951. As such, it confirms the pre-eminent position of the NATO SOFA as a model for multilateral status of forces agreements governing the legal position of visiting forces deployed among politically equal partners.


In the paper, the quadratic shape function were applied to construct an interpolation model of a plane axisymmetric source. Optimizing the least squares distance between the exact directivity function and directivity of the model, an optimal interpolation model was found. The optimal model was considered as a function of the shape of the vibration velocity, wave number and the place of the driving surface in the baffle. An optimal model was compared to other interpolation models, namely regular and irregular ones.


In the Burythorpe area of the Howardian Hills, located on the northern margin of the Market Weighton High, the Callovian succession is represented only by Lower Callovian sediments. These belong to the Kellaways Sand Member (Kellaways Formation), up to 12 m thick, but thinning southwards to 5 m. This contrasts with the more complete Callovian succession (Osgodby Formation) on the Yorkshire coast (Cleveland Basin) which is up to 32.5 m thick. At Burythorpe Quarry the Kellaways Sand Member has yielded palynomorphs and ammonites confirming an Early Callovian (Koenigi Zone) age with depositional hiatuses above and below. The sequence consists of a yellow-white, poorly cemented, fine-to medium grained, unimodal uncemented sand (moulding sand) with sparse grey clay beds and laminae, in marked contrast to the broadly coeval Red Cliff Rock Member (Osgodby Formation) of the Cleveland Basin. The depositional environment is interpreted as a tidally influenced shallow sea on the margin of the Market Weighton High, in a shallow sub-tidal regime, similar to the sub-tidal sand-mud lithofacies in the Heligoland region of the present-day North Sea. Winnowing of the sand in highly mobile substrate resulted in a unimodal grain size, lack of impurities, and sparse shelly- and ichnofaunas. However, during quieter water phases, grey clay laminae were deposited at the base of channels, allowing colonization of the substrate by burrowing ichnofauna and deposition of palynomorphs. Sparse, calcite-cemented tabular beds with a benthic shelly fauna, ammonites, Planolites burrows and mudstone rip-up clasts are interpreted as the deposits of periodic storm events. The marked local variation in thickness of the Kellaways Sand Member in the Howardian Hills is probably due to synsedimentary east–west-trending faulting related to the Flamborough Fault Zone.


This study seeks to examine the role of play in learning in order to define how games may be used as an effective tool for instruction in an inquiry-based classroom. Given the multitude of games that are available that purport to be educational, an effective means of choosing games for the classroom is explored. The connection between the use of inquiry-based instruction and games is investigated with an eye toward developing criteria for assessing games for use in the classroom. Numerous online games were evaluated from four different websites to determine the usefulness of these criteria for discriminating between games that were purely drill and games that involved inquiry-based instruction.


Laser sawing of diamonds is beginning to revolutionize the diamond-cutting industry. Not only does the laser saw offer savings in time and money, but it also enables the cutting of material virtually unworkable by conventional methods and makes available an almost limitless assortment of fancy shapes. This article describes the components and operation of the laser saw, as well as the situations in which it has proved most useful.


Supplemental digital content is available in the text. ABSTRACT As a growing profession, forensic nursing requires research to establish best practice guidelines leading to evidence-based practice. In addition, forensic nursing quality improvement projects are necessary to evaluate and improve practices and policies. The purpose of this article is to provide step-by-step guidelines on research and quality improvement projects to encourage all forensic nurses to actively contribute to and utilize research in practice. Research will expand our forensic nursing science and knowledge base. Ultimately, forensic nursing research will benefit our patients and communities by establishing enhanced, evidence-based care.


The study examines to what extent weak labor unions and an abundance of labor have a negative effect on less developed countries terms of trade, as hypothesized by Hans Singer (1950) and Raul Prebisch (1950). Using a sample from panel data for 74 less developed countries during the period 1980 – 2010 in OLS-regressions with fixed effects, I find some evidence that weak labor unions and abundance of labor is negatively correlated with the terms of trade, which could be interpreted in favor of the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis. The marginal effect of an abundance of labor also appears to have less negative impact on the terms of trade as labor unions grow stronger.


Sexual harassment has always been more about sexism than it is about sex. Nearly twenty years ago, Vicki Schultz pioneered a new understanding of sexual harassment that recognized and theorized this empirical reality. The framework she developed in two articles published in the Yale Law Journal—Reconceptualizing Sexual Harassment and The Sanitized Workplace—still holds important lessons for today. The emergence of the #MeToo movement has brought about a welcome, renewed focus on sexual harassment and motivated long-overdue terminations of accused harassers across industries. Yet pervasive narratives still narrowly emphasize sexualized forms of harassment and assault—at the expense of broader understandings of harassment and its causes. This Essay revisits and expands on Schultz's previous work in the contemporary context, drawing on the technology and film industries as case studies and showing that sex segregation and unchecked, subjective authority are central institutional causes of sex-based harassment. To end harassment will thus require more than firing individual harassers. It will require structural reform to eliminate arbitrary authority and sex segregation at work. Bold solutions are needed if we are to ensure sexual harassment isn't still prevalent twenty years from now.


Background Application to cardiology specialty training is competitive with uncertainty among candidates as to what the secret recipe for a successful appointment is. We aimed to investigate objective variables, which were demonstrated by successful appointees to cardiology training schemes in the UK. Methods Data from successful cardiology applicants for the years 2014 to 2016 were obtained from the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board under the Freedom of Information Act. These data included basic demographics as well as objective scores awarded for selection categories such as qualifications, academic, teaching and other achievements. Results There were a total of 976 applicants during the study period, of whom 423 were successfully appointed, generating a competition ratio of 2.3 applicants for each position. There was an increasing proportion of successful female applicants (22% in 2014, 28% in 2015 and 32% in 2016). Median scores for postgraduate exams (14/14), presentations (6/6) and quality improvement (10/10) scores corresponded to maximum possible scores, whereas median scores for additional undergraduate and postgraduate degrees were 0. Median scores for prizes, publications and teaching experience were 6/10, 4/8 and 9/10, respectively. Conclusion The secret to a successful cardiology training appointment is associated with completion of all postgraduate clinical exams, completion and presentation of quality improvement projects, national presentations and substantial teaching achievements. At least half of the successful candidates had no additional undergraduate or postgraduate degrees but had evidence of some prizes and publications. The ratio of successful female candidates is rising, but remains less than males in cardiology training.


In 1989, the Cold War abruptly ended and it seemed as if the world was at last safe for democracy. But a spirit of uneasiness, discontent, and world-weariness soon arose and has persisted in Europe, in America, and elsewhere for two decades. To discern the meaning of this malaise we must investigate the nature of liberal democracy, says the author of this provocative book, and he undertakes to do so through a detailed investigation of the thinking of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Tocqueville. Paul A. Rahe argues that these political thinkers anticipated the modern liberal republic's propensity to drift in the direction of "soft despotism"-a condition that arises within a democracy when paternalistic state power expands and gradually undermines the spirit of self-government. Such an eventuality, feared by Tocqueville in the nineteenth century, has now become a reality throughout the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. So Rahe asserts, and he explains what must be done to reverse this unfortunate trend.


Most Sartrean scholarship attributed Sartre's ontology of hostile intersubjectivity to Hegel's theory of recognition, and a Sartrean politics of violence to Hegel's master-slave dyad. This article sets out to examine Sartre and Hegel in three areas of their work: first, a reassessment of Sartre's ontology which was commonly thought to be founded on Hegel's thymos; second, a reconsideration of Fukuyama's conceptualisation of democracy as the end of Hegel's historical progress and Sartre's critique of democracy based on a humanist version of Marxism as philosophy of our time; and finally, a re-evaluation of the conceptualisation of freedom through Hegel's universal will and Sartre's principle of universal fraternity.


Although CO 2 and H 2 O account for more than 90 mol% of volcanic gases, the rates at which these gases are emitted from volcanoes are difficult to determine because of their high atmospheric background levels. We report the first precise field measurements of volcanic CO 2 , and H 2 O, in addition to HCl, HF, and SO 2 , in the plume of Masaya volcano, Nicaragua, a basaltic volcano with a record of Plinian activity. The molar ratios for CO 2 : SO 2 (2.3–2.5) and H 2 O: SO 2 (66–69) observed in February–March 1998 and March 1999 show no significant variation over the 12 month period. The molar composition of the gas is similar to other basaltic arc volcanoes in Central America. Emission rates of SO 2 from the summit crater, determined by correlation spectroscopy, averaged 21 kg s −1 during the study periods, indicating CO 2 , H 2 O, HCl, and HF emission rates of 32–36, 380–420, 7.0–7.8, and 0.86–0.95 kg s −1 , respectively. At these rates it takes only a few years to emit the equivalent volatiles associated with Masaya9s prehistoric Plinian eruptions.


This volume explores the ethical questions that arise in the development, creation and use of robots that are capable of semiautonomous or autonomous decision making and human-like action. It examines how ethical and moral theories can and must be applied to address the complex and critical issues of the application of these intelligent robots in society. Coverage first presents fundamental concepts and provides a general overview of ethics, artificial intelligence and robotics. Next, the book studies all principal ethical applications of robots, namely medical, assistive, socialized and war roboethics. It looks at such issues as robotic surgery, children-robot and elderly-robot therapeutical/social interactions and the use of robots, especially autonomous lethal ones, in warfare. In addition, a chapter also considers Japanese roboethics as well as key intercultural and robot legislation issues. Overall, readers are provided with a thorough investigation into the moral responsibility (if any) of autonomous robots when doing harm. This volume will serve as an ideal educational source in engineering and robotics courses as well as an introductory reference for researchers in the field.


The underlying transcriptional mechanisms that establish the proper spatial and temporal pattern of gene expression required for specifying neuronal fate are poorly defined. We have characterized how the Hb9 gene is expressed in developing motoneurons in order to understand how transcription is directed to specific cells within the developing CNS. We found that non-specific general-activator proteins such as E2F and Sp1 are capable of driving widespread low level transcription of Hb9 in many cell types throughout the neural tube; however, their activity is modulated by specific repressor and activator complexes. The general-activators of Hb9 are suppressed from triggering inappropriate transcription by repressor proteins Irx3 and Nkx2.2. High level motoneuron expression is achieved by assembling an enhancesome on a compact evolutionarily-conserved segment of Hb9 located from –7096 to –6896. The ensemble of LIM-HD and bHLH proteins that interact with this enhancer change as motoneuron development progresses, facilitating both the activation and maintenance of Hb9 expression in developing and mature motoneurons. These findings provide direct support for the derepression model of gene regulation and cell fate specification in the neural tube, as well as establishing a role for enhancers in targeting gene expression to a single neuronal subtype in the spinal cord.


Fluids in rocks can be traced to great depths, and are found in crustal rocks as well as in mantle rocks. Information about the deep fluid which is obtained from fluid inclusions must be handled with care, for the way up after entrapment in a crystal is long and full of interferences at different pressures and temperatures. The fluid system may be a very complex mixture (H₂0, CO₂ , CH₄ , N₂, CO, NH₃, and H₂ ) with distinct physical and chemical proporties. Chapter 1 indicates that many types of fluids have been recognized in rocks, and that each type may be related to a distinct grade of metamorphism (eg. Sorby 1858). For example, the type of fluid recognized in inclusions from very deep rocks, like granulites and upper mantle rocks is pure CO₂, Many interpretations of fluid inclusions are based on the assumption that fluid inclusions do not change in density and composition after entrapment. In recent years it was recognized that fluid densities may change during the long way up, and some voices were heard argueing compositional changes. In this study (Chapter 2 and Chapter 3) it is experimentally proven that CO₂-H₂0 fluid inclusions, which are synthesized in Brazilian Quartz at 835 K and 200 MPa, leak preferentially H₂0 during reequilibration at different conditions. The inclusions are submitted to an internal overpressure and underpressure. The remaining inclusions become relatively enriched in CO₂, and the H₂0 must have diffused through the crystal, for there are no traces of cracks. Several underpressurized inclusions have "implosion halos" after re-eQuilibration, which consist of many small secondary inclusions. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations of the reequilibrated Brazilian Quartz and of Quartz lenses from Naxos, Greece, (Chapter 4) indicate that dislocations adjacent to fluid inclusions account for the non-decrepitative preferential H₂0 leakage. Ductile strain of the Quartz neighbouring inclusions, which are overpressurized and underpressurized, is expressed in the localized occurrence of many dislocations. Selective diffusion of H₂0 along dislocations, which are assumed to be inaccessible for CO₂, results in the observed preferential H₂0 leakage. Additionally, a solubility gradient of quartz in water between an underpressurized fluid inclusion and a dislocation cause the growth of small secondary bubbles at dislocations to optically visible ftimplosion halos" at the expense of the fluid inclusion. The fluid which should occur at great depths can be indirectly obtained through thermodynamical calculations. The theoretical background of these calculations is described in Chapter 5. The well documented metamorphism from Rogaland (SW Norway) provides enough information to proceed these fluid calculations (Chapter 6). The calculated gaseous fluid inclusions are similar to the observed natural fluid inclusions. However, the calculated aqeous fluids are not recognized or registered by natural fluid inclusions. The absence of H₂0 in low density metastable CO₂ -CH₄ -rich inclusions with graphite, and the occurrence of CH₄-N₂-rich inclusions are both proposed to result from preferential H₂0 leakage. The occurrence of CO₂ rich inclusions in granulites and mantle rocks may partly be caused by the fact that before exposure, these deep rocks have usually suffered more intensive recrystallization during uplift than shallow rocks. In future studies on fluid inclusions the effect of deformation on aqueous inclusions can not be ignored.


This article explores what digital media ethnography as a methodological approach can offer to the study of contiguous media events with an unexpected, violent and fluid nature. Emphasising the role of media events in the present organisation of social life, we as digital media anthropologists acknowledge the tendency in the current digital media environment to eventise and spectacularise social life. This development serves the power-related purposes of attention seeking and public recognition in the digital world. The article is structured as follows: first, we provide a brief outline of the field of digital media ethnography in relation to the study of media event; second, we identify what we claim are three key methodological dilemmas in applying digital media ethnography to the study of today's digitally circulating media events (scale, mobility and agency) and reflect on them in the context of our methodological positioning; third, we conclude this article by considering some epistemological and ontological implications of this methodological endeavour in relation to what can be called the 'meta-field' and the related instability in current digital research.


Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a technologically important and complex quaternary semiconductor and a highly promising material for the absorber layer in sustainable thin film solar cells. Its photovoltaic performance is currently limited by low open-circuit voltage, thought to be due to a range of point defects such as disorder between the copper and zinc lattice sites. This is the highest-resolution neutron diffraction study reported for CZTS, which unambiguously identifies the crystal symmetry and accurately quantifies precise values for the disorder on all cation symmetry sites as a function of temperature. Two samples of CZTS were fabricated by solid state reaction and their compositions were measured by inductively-coupled plasma mass spectroscopy, which identified significant tin loss during growth, leaving the samples Sn-poor, Cu-rich and Sn-poor, Zn-rich respectively. Both samples were found exclusively to adopt the tetragonal kesterite crystal structure with significant cation disorder, which is investigated in detail over the range 4–1275 K. Importantly, and in contrast to previous reports, the 2a Wyckoff site shows disorder equal to or greater than the 2c site. The order–disorder phase transition was observed at different temperatures for the two compositions, 489 and 501 K respectively, lower than previously reported. The kesterite–sphalerite transition was observed between 1250 and 1275 K for the Sn-poor, Cu-rich sample, significantly higher than previously reported. These results provide new insights into the high levels of disorder present in CZTS and confirm that composition and cation disorder have a significant effect on the phase transition mechanism. This work will enable the development of routes to the fabrication of higher-efficiency photovoltaic devices.


The January anomaly has attracted much academic interest and has been explained in different ways. However, the multitude of explanations has created confusion about the validity and relative importance of those explanations. In some cases, the hypotheses are examined individually though the evidence may be consistent with more than one hypothesis. Furthermore, prior work has not adequately controlled for the bid-ask bounce. Therefore, the results leave the reader somewhat confused regarding the January effect: is it caused by tax-loss selling, window-dressing, information, bid-ask bounce, or a combination of these causes? In this paper, we try to disentangle different explanations of the January effect and identify its primary cause. We find that past losers are more likely to be sold in December than in January to realize the tax advantage of capital losses. Past winners are more likely to be sold in January than in December to postpone payment of taxes. The selling is accompanied by changes in volume around turn of the year consistent with the tax-related selling hypotheses. The results are not materially affected when we use the midpoint of quotes instead of actual prices: the bid-ask bounce accounts for about 20-25% of the observed returns. To verify the window-dressing hypothesis, we examine stock returns around June-July, the period of semi-annual reporting by institutional managers that is not contaminated by tax-related trading. We do not find an economically meaningful difference between the 5-day return at the end of June and the 5-day return at the beginning of July, which is not consistent with window dressing. If the January effect occurs due to release of new information in January that affects the information-poor firms more than the information-rich firms then the returns in January should be related to availability of information (for example, with the number of analysts as a proxy). We do not find a correlation consistent with the information hypothesis. There is no information-related effect in June-July. The evidence here supports the tax-related selling hypotheses as the drivers of January effect.


For diagnosis of breast cancer by mammography, the mammograms must be viewed by a radiologist. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of display resolution on the specific clinical task of detection of breast lesions by a human observer. Using simulation techniques, this study proceeded through four stages. First, we inserted simulated masses and calcifications into raw digital mammograms. The resulting images were processed according to standard image processing techniques and appropriately windowed and leveled. The processed images were blurred according to MTFs measured from a clinical Cathode Ray Tube display. JNDMetrix, a Visual Discrimination Model, examined the images to estimate human detection. The model results suggested that detection of masses and calcifications decreased under standard CRT resolution. Future work will confirm these results with human observer studies. (This work was supported by grants NIH R21-CA95308 and USAMRMC W81XWH-04-1-0323.)


In this study, the author focuses on the exclusionary school and societal practices that route American males from schools to juvenile detention and adult prisons. Well documented are the linkages between these practices and dropping out or early school leaving. Leaving school without a diploma sets youth on a trajectory toward incarceration. Moreover, the disproportionate confinement of African American males in secure juvenile detention mirrors their experiences with school discipline. Given the potential influence of teacher and leadership preparation programs on pre- and in-service teacher and school practices, teacher educators must deconstruct and reverse pathways from the schoolhouse to the "Big House." As an imperative, teacher educators must explicitly prepare school personnel to understand and address the complex factors that shuttle African American males from schools and into juvenile justice and adult correctional systems. Findings are reported from focus groups conducted with African American male adolescents who dropped out of school and were adjudicated. In addition, recommendations are provided for teacher educators to reverse school-to-prison pathways.


Objectives Understanding respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) morbidity may help to plan health care and future vaccine recommendations. We aim to describe the characteristics and temporal distribution of children diagnosed with RSV admitted in a Spanish hospital. Methods Descriptive study for which the hospital discharges of children < 5 years of age with RSV infection were analyzed. The information was extracted from the hospital discharge database of a reference pediatric hospital in northern Spain for the 2010–2011 to 2014–2015 RSV seasons. Results Six hundred and forty-seven hospitalizations of children with RSV infection were analyzed, 94% of which occurred between the second week of November and the last week of March. Most children (72%) were under one year of age and 95% were previously healthy infants. Infants born from October to December had the highest risk of hospitalization in the first year of life. The median length of hospital stay of children with and without comorbidities was six and three days, respectively. 6.5% of the hospitalized cases were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit; this percentage was higher among children < 2 months (adjusted odds ratio 4.15; 95% confidence interval: 1.37–12.61) or with comorbidities (adjusted odds ratio 4.15; 95% confidence interval: 1.53–11.28). The case lethality was 0.3%. Conclusions The risk of hospitalizations for RSV is high during the first year of life and increases among infants born in the fall. Being under two months of age and presenting comorbidities are the main risk factors associated to pediatric intensive care unit admission.


We present a C-aperture encircled by a groove that makes possible the hybrid effect of coupling surface plasmon resonance to propagating waves. Compared to a single C aperture, the groove-encircled aperture can increase transmission by a factor of 2.45 in the near field and by a factor of 1.88 in the far field, showing good agreement with our theoretical calculation.


With this paper we try to contribute to the debate on the nature of research intensive universities and the chances to create this type of institution in Poland. Research universities are presented as elite, flagship institutions for educating students mostly at the doctoral level and to produce the bulk of the research output. Examples of world-class research intensive universities from various countries are presented. It is shown that intensified competition among universities exists to prove their performance through global university league tables or ranking exercises and it is discussed whether Poland is at the stage to create at least one such institution playing important role in that competition. We argue that the establishment of a University of the Polish Academy of Sciences could be a solution. This University stands to become a unique research institution in Poland and one of very few establishments of its type in Central and Eastern Europe. The University will conduct scientific research and provide programs of the highest standard, exploiting the research and teaching potential of the PAS institutes as well as the competence and experience of members of the Academy's corporation. It is intended as a higher education institution with a decentralized organizational structure, based on the PAS research institutes. The University of the Polish Academy of Sciences will have a quality-boosting impact on the PAS institutes as well as initiate their consolidation and reorganization in the field of teaching.


This article seeks to fill a critical gap in the current literature relating to the international ordering of cyberspace: the link between jurisdictional assertions by realspace sovereigns and their effects on the global effort to administer the Internet. We analyze the United States' response to disputes over domain names, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), which permits a trademark owner to seek cancellation or transfer of the domain name by proceeding in rem against the domain name itself, thereby expanding the scope of the ACPA to encompass disputes with little direct connection to the United States. Congress appears to have developed 15 U.S.C. s. 1125(d)(2) based on a misunderstanding of the constitutional requirements for adjudicative jurisdiction in the U.S. courts; and early court decisions interpreting the provision have perpetuated the misunderstanding. We argue that there exist no cases of foreign cybersquatting (aside from certain cases involving anonymous registrants) as to which the in rem provision will be both applicable and constitutional. In short, the ACPA is notable mainly for its aggressive approach to jurisdiction. This expansive view of jurisdiction reveals the extent to which realspace sovereigns have a critical, and yet overlooked, role in the continued viability of a global unsegmented domain name system. By mapping the logical control over the domain name system - the distributed hierarchy that is the basis of the system's design - onto realspace territory, the potential for sovereign regulation of the system becomes apparent, either under the recognized principles of prescriptive jurisdiction in international law or as a de facto result of the geographic facts of the domain name system. We contend that the ACPA exemplifies uncoordinated actions that are likely to result in segmentation of the domain name system and thus a decline in social welfare.


This thesis presents an in-depth investigation of the use of participatory photography in qualitative research in a mental health setting in one regional area of England, UK. Whilst the field of visual methods has been growing for several years, there are few in-depth explorations of the ways in which photographs taken by research participants are reviewed and analysed. In particular, very few studies have used participant-generated photography with inpatients and staff at mental health hospitals. This study aimed to address these gaps in knowledge.
A methodological review of international studies where research participants took photographs as part of the research process was conducted. This included data extraction on 53 papers (52 individual studies) interrogating how photographs were used in processes of data collection, data analysis and dissemination. Several phases of visual data collection with participants from a mental health hospital followed.
Following ethical approval, staff and service users [n=17] took photographs of the hospital environment. Focus group, photo-elicitation and mobile photo-interview data were collected between March 2007 and June 2011. Several participants were not interviewed, leaving some sets of photographs with no supporting text. Photographs [n=5] which could not be anonymised, or which had not been developed properly, were removed. All remaining photographs were analysed using a method of thematic visual analysis. This resulted in a thematic visual 'thin description' of the hospital environment. Focus group, photo-elicitation and mobile photo-interview data were coded thematically alongside the visual data and interpreted in terms of the discourses they constructed or reflected.
Findings centred upon what these visual methods and forms of visual data contribute to qualitative research in the context of mental health hospital environments. It was found that whilst it is possible to construct a 'thin description' of the hospital environment using images alone, the addition of third party speculations, interview data and observational notes served to 'thicken' this description significantly. In particular, the sensorial nature of mobile photo-interviews enriched the interpretive process by submerging me in the lived experience of the participant, if only for a very short time.


Author(s): Schiller, Steven R; Hoffman, Ian M; Murphy, Sean; Leventis, Greg; Schwartz, Lisa C | Abstract: This study estimates the cost of saving a therm of natural gas from energy efficiency programs funded by utility customers during the period 2012 to 2017. Berkeley Lab researchers compiled and analyzed efficiency program data reported by investor-owned utilities and other program administrators in a dozen states representative of the four U.S. Census regions — Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Utah. Depending on the year, the dataset accounts for about 50 percent to 70 percent of annual national spending on natural gas efficiency programs. The estimated cost of saving natural gas during the study period is $0.40 per therm. The analysis also includes estimates of the program administrator cost of saved energy for three core sectors for natural gas: commercial and industrial, residential, and low-income households. It aggregates these sectors to provide regional and national values. Our metrics include savings-weighted averages, unweighted medians, and interquartile ranges (25th and 75th percentiles) of the levelized program administrator cost of saving gas, in constant 2017 dollars. In addition, the study analyzes cost trends during the study period, finding that average program costs trended downward. The U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office supported this work.


Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is the most common mental health disorder and remains a leading cause of disability and lost productivity with huge costs for society. MDD has high rates of relapse and recurrence, and it has strong correlations with feelings of low social support and disrupted sleep. However, MDD is also commonly misdiagnosed by primary care providers, which leads to delayed treatment and unnecessary suffering. Changes in technology now make it possible to cheaply and effectively monitor social and sleep behaviors, offering the potential of early detection of the onset of MDD. We report on the design of Big Black Dog, a smartphone-based system for gathering data about social and sleep behaviors. We also report on the results of a pilot evaluation to understand the feasibility of gathering and using data from smartphones for inferring the onset of depression.


The Miskitus Cays, on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, consist of eighty mangrove and two sand and gravel cays, surrounded by seagrass beds, octocoral gardens, patch reefs, reef crests, extended algae platforms, short reef walls, and two marginal reefs around the sand cays. Seventy sites were inspected and eighteen sites were selected for rapid assessments in order to determine the status of the coral reefs. Linear transects and the intercept point methods were used to determine the relative benthic cover, and the density, size and health of coral colonies was estimated follow- ing the AGRRA protocol. Water was highly turbid due to the shallowness of the reefs and high wave energy. Northwest reefs, closer to the Coco river mouth, were affected by terrestrial sediments and were overgrown by algae whereas storm damage was evident in the eastern reef crest fronts. In total, 39 stony coral species were found and 12 new species were reported for Cayos Miskitus. Mean live coral cover was high (43.4%), but it was still lower than the algae cover (54.2%). Mean coral diameter (59.7 cm) and height (4.2 cm) were high but total mortality (27.9%), bleaching (4%) and diseases (3%) were low. Reefs of Nicaragua are in the best condition of the Caribbean region of Central America but good management of the fisheries, the marine reserve, and the Coco river basin are urgent to maintain reef quality.


Many countries are considering alternative approaches to conventional in-service clinical training because of high costs and disruption to service delivery when providers are pulled away from health facilities. Research on alternative and cost effective blended training approaches moves us closer to the objective of building competencies of health providers and minimizing the impact of necessary trainings on health service delivery. This technical brief presents an overview of the study's key findings with respect to blended and conventional BEmONC learning approaches, followed by a recommendation for BEmONC training programming and implementation.


[Introduction]: In 1963, around £79 million was held in solicitors' trust accounts in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. None of that earned interest. At the time,
banking regulations prohibited the crediting of interest to 'current accounts' - bank accounts characterised by frequent deposits and withdrawals, the latter usually by cheque. In offering solicitors trust account facilities, the banks therefore got sizable sums by interest free loan: 'all the cream off the cake'. That was to
change in the 1960s as the Law Institute of Victoria pioneered a scheme for getting banks indirectly to credit interest to trust account deposits and to direct that money
to fidelity funds and, later, to legal aid. Interest on Lawyers' Trust Fund Accounts (IOLTA) schemes then spread to other parts of Australia, and were later exported,
to New Zealand (NZ), Zimbabwe, South Africa, Canada and the United States(US). Slowly refilled and expanded, Australian IOLTA schemes are now entrenched in the funding base for legal aid and the legal profession infrastnicture.
They now add well over $30 million every year to the budgets of the nation's legal aid commissions.

IOLTA schemes evidently help the public good, so far as that is promoted by the work of the legal profession. However, despite the genesis of IOLTA schemes in Australia, they have, apart from Adrian Evans' pioneering work on the Victorian IOLTA arrangements, received no scholarly attention. In this article, I therefore
explore and evaluate the structure, role and ethics of the present IOLTA schemes in Australia and, agreeing with Evans, conclude that they are, so far as public standards are concerned, structured unethically. I add, however, that the moral character of IOLTA schemes can be salvaged, if they are reformed. In this article, the means by which IOLTA is acquired by public agencies are therefore outlined
(Part 2). Then, the different programs that are funded by IOLTA are discussed, with particular focus on legal aid (Part 3). This enables an analysis of the public ethics
of IOLTA schemes, which is helped to a significant extent by the literature and adjudication on IOLTA that has emerged in the US and the Scottish case of Brown
v Inland Revenue Commissioners. I nevertheless take the judicial reasoning in these cases as exemplifying and guiding moral reflection on the structure of
rOLTA schemes, rather than giving them legal direction (Part 4). The discussion of the public ethics of these schemes then informs conclusions on the best form that
restructured IOLTA schemes would take (part 5).


The Book of Alexander the Great - or the Phyllada - has for three centuries been the most popular account of Alexander's career in modern Greece. After circulating in manuscript form, it was first published in 1680 in Venice, and has been continuously in print in Greek ever since. The Phyllada broadly follows the structure of the ancient Alexander Romance, but is much better organised and is a work of popular literature reflecting the immense interest that the Conqueror has generated since earliest times. Numerous folktales and local legends kept his story alive, and many works about Alexander circulated in manuscript during the Byzantine period. The Phyllada is the culmination of this tradition. Yet it has never been translated into English: a surprising neglect which Richard Stoneman - an acknowledged expert on Alexander - makes good in this elegant rendering supplemented by a full introduction. As a piece of literature the Phyllada is among the best treatments of the Alexander legend, being full of colour and human interest. Alexander not only encounters the heroes of Troy on his adventures but wears the crown and robe of Solomon. His descent into the 'Cave of the Gods' (Greek and Egyptian gods in the Romance) becomes a visit to a hell described in Christian terms. The pagan Alexander is thus filtered through a modern lens and becomes an emblem of the good king. The sophisticated narrative structure and world view of the Phyllada account for its lasting influence. This new translation does it full justice.


Background De novo donor specific anti-HLA antibodies (dnDSA) may cause graft loss in renal transplant recipients. The capability to bind the complement may help to stratify the risk for inferior outcomes associated with dnDSA. We developed a modified C1q-binding assay and hypothesized that C1q-binding dnDSA could differentiate between indolent and harmful dnDSA causing antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) and graft loss. Methods We retrospectively identified 59 renal transplant recipients who developed dnDSA and had serum available and complete follow-up. All patients were analyzed for C1q-binding dnDSA at the time of dnDSA detection, and 1-year later or at time of AMR. AMR-positive patients were also tested 6 to 12 months before the event if IgG dnDSA was present. Results Thirty-seven of 59 dnDSA+ patients developed AMR during 5.9 ± 3.1 years follow-up. AMR-positive patients had more dnDSA with a significant higher frequency of class I, a higher frequency and a higher mean fluorescence intensity value of C1q+-dnDSA at all time-points. Death-censored AMR-free and allograft survivals were significantly lower in C1q+-dnDSA patients. In multivariate analysis, C1q+-dnDSA was an independent risk factor for AMR. Conclusions C1q-binding dnDSA is associated with inferior outcomes, yet not in all patients. Nevertheless, C1q+-dnDSA was shown to be an independent risk factor of AMR and graft loss and may be a useful tool to stratify the immunological risk for AMR.


We propose a peer-to-peer architecture designed to overcome asymmetries in upload/download speeds that are typical in end-user dialup, broadband and cellular wireless Internet connections. Our approach allows users at remote locations to access information stored on their home computers at rates often exceeding their home connection's upload capacity. The key to this approach is to share file data when communications are idle using random linear coding, so that, when needed, an end-user can download a file from several sources at a higher data rate than his home computer's upload capacity. We prove that our proposed system is asymptotically fair, in that (even malicious) users are proportionally assigned idle bandwidth depending on how much bandwidth they contribute, and that there is a natural incentive to join and cooperate fairly in the system. In addition, our approach provides cryptographic security and geographic data robustness to the participating peers.


This thesis aims to analyze the service operations and networks in the automotive industry as research into the automotive After Sales service network lacks the necessary fine details and industrial feedback. Its purpose is to present the insights and lessons learned from studying the After Sales service network of Volkswagen, thereby defining a roadmap for further research, and to discuss the needs of the sector. The foremost idea in defining the research question was based on the observation that the automotive After Sales business could be improved by applying and adapting principles and methods used in other industries and in the field of Business Operations research. The initial step thereafter was an extensive external and internal literature research. The key characteristics of the automotive industry in Germany, at the VW Group, at OEMs and at the wholesale level were identified and are described in chapter two. In chapter three the primary After Sales processes are described and analyzed, from the interaction with the customer to the necessary activities at wholesale and OEM level. The proposed research methodology relied on extensive external and internal research and a qualitative and quantitative approach based on structured, in-depth interviews and direct observation. The objective of the interviews was to highlight the most important activities in the service delivery operations within the network and identify the major key factors for success or failure. The best practice dealer model is described in chapter five and was subsequently abstracted and generalized so that it can be applied to other industries too. A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), described in chapter six, was undertaken to determine the "efficient frontier" of service operations. Key performance indicators were identified from the important elements discussed and the best practices. In order to achieve an in-depth understanding of their general business models a benchmark analysis of six companies from industrial sectors complementary to the automotive business was then carried out and is described in chapter seven. The thesis highlights the development of a "best practice" network in chapter eight. This network grasps the dynamics of After Sales activities in the light of new technological developments and the experience gained from the benchmark with other industries. The thesis closes with an evaluation of the research work.


This book examines the role of computers in language learning and teaching in higher education. In particular, it considers the pedagogical and practical value of designing a language-learning environment around computer technology. Whereas considerable research has already been undertaken in analysing the value of individual computer tools and packages (such as e-mail), the study gives a broad appraisal of their individual and collective value, without being too exhaustive. Using quantitative and qualitative data, based on research visits to three universities, Ulster, Cambridge and Toronto, this study provides examples of effective practice in the area of the exploitation of Information and Communication Technology for language learning and teaching. It draws on the experience of these three institutions, as well as the findings of current literature in this area, in order to establish a set of essential criteria that institutions need to meet when creating a computer-based environment. Although these criteria are based on experience with language-learning environments, they are essentially generic in nature and may be applied to other computer-based learning environments.


This article presents a review of the literature over the past 10 years into the use of technological interventions that tutors might use to encourage students to engage with and action the feedback that they receive on their assessment tasks. The authors hypothesise that technology has the potential to enhance student engagement with feedback. During the literature review, a particular emphasis was placed on investigating how students might better use feedback when it is published online. This includes where an adaptive release technique is applied requiring students to submit an action plan based on their feedback to activate the release of their grade, and electronic generation of feedback using statement banks. Key journals were identified and a snowball technique was used to select relevant literature. The use of technology to support and enhance student learning and assessment is well documented in the literature, and effective feedback practices are similarly well published. However, in terms of the use of technology to support and enhance feedback processes and practices (i.e. production, publication, delivery and students making use of feedback through technology), we found the literature to be limited. Keywords: engagement; feedback; technology DOI: 10.1080/21567069.2011.586677


Miniaturizing dielectric electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators will lead to highly-integrated mechanical systems on a chip, combining dozens to thousands of actuators and sensors on a few cm2. We present here µm to mm scale electroactive polymer (EAP) devices, batch fabricated on the chip or wafer scale, based on ion-implanted electrodes. Low-energy (2-10 keV) implantation of gold ions into a silicone elastomer leads to compliant stretchable electrodes consisting of a buried 20 nm thick layer of gold nanoparticles in a silicone matrix. These electrodes: 1) conduct at strains up to 175%, 2) are patternable on the µm scale, 3) have stiffness similar to silicone, 4) have good conductivity, and 5) excellent adhesion since implanted in the silicone. The EAP devices consist of 20 to 30 µm thick silicone membranes with µm to mm-scale ion-implanted electrodes on both sides, bonded to a holder. Depending on electrode shape and membrane size, several actuation modes are possible. Characterization of 3mm diameter bi-directional buckling mode actuators, mm-scale tunable lens arrays, 2-axis beam steering mirrors, as well as arrays of 72 cell-size (100x200 µm2) actuators to apply mechanical strain to single cells are reported. Speeds of up to several kHz are observed.

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/165656/files/Miniaturized EAPs with compliant electrodes fabricated by ion implantation.pdf


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Studies that relate parameters of muscular performance in different sports, and especially in soccer, have been frequently reported in the literature. However, the methodological variations among studies, the type of dynamometer used in each search and placement of each subject during the evaluations results in the divergence of the data collected. Therefore, the objective of this study was to perform a data collection to provide figures on the muscular profile and establish normative parameters for the professional soccer players' muscular performance, supporting scientific research and future studies. METHODS: The sample consisted of 39 athletes from a professional soccer club in Porto Alegre. In order to evaluate muscular performance, an isokinetic dynamometer was used and the tests consisted of maximal concentric contractions, being knee flexors and extensors muscles tested at 60o/s and 240o/s velocities. Analysis of means by t test (independent samples) was used to investigate significant differences between legs considering the parameters evaluated in this study. For all statistical procedures the confidence interval was 95% (p <0.05). RESULTS: The results of this study characterized the muscular profile of professional soccer players on the capacity of torque, work and maximum power, normalized by body weight. Moreover, significant differences were observed between legs considering some of the study's variables. CONCLUSION: The normative data set can be used as reference values for prevention, training and rehabilitation of athletes, and serve as reference for future studies with the aim to relate parameters of muscular performance and incidence of injuries in soccer.


In Giles v. California (2008), as in Crawford v. Washington (2004), Justice Scalia's majority opinion purported to follow the framing-era Confrontation Clause. Giles did comport with historical doctrine insofar as it limited forfeiture by wrongdoing to instances of a defendant's deliberate witness tampering. However, Giles departed from framing-era doctrine in other, fundamental ways. Specifically, in framing-era law forfeiture applied only to sworn prior testimony given under the Marian statutes; that is either in Marian post-arrest committal proceedings or in coroners' inquests. Likewise, during the nineteenth century, forfeiture applied only to prior sworn and confronted testimony. Forfeiture was never a basis for admitting unsworn and unconfronted hearsay statements such as that at issue in Giles until the late twentieth century - and then were allowed under the Roberts "reliability" formulation of confrontation that Crawford rejected as an inadequate formulation of the right. Hence, a genuine "originalist" analysis would have undermined the constitutionality of current Federal Rule of Evidence 804(b)(6).Additionally, all of the opinions in Giles persisted in endorsing Crawford's completely fictional claim that the original confrontation right regulated only "testimonial" hearsay, but did not apply at all to "nontestimonial" hearsay - notwithstanding that Justice Scalia made several assertions in Giles that undercut that pretended historical distinction. For example, and in contrast to Crawford, he acknowledged that the general ban against hearsay arose from the same roots as the confrontation right itself. Nevertheless, dicta in Giles indicates that the justices intend to narrowly confine "testimonial" hearsay - and thus the confrontation right itself - to only those hearsay statements made to (or by) government officers, but to exempt all other hearsay as "nontestimonial," including even statements made to physicians or nurses involved in gathering evidence for domestic violence prosecutions. In sum, the purported originalism in Giles was so selective that it did not amount to originalism at all.


Atmospherically deposited nitrogen to the terrestrial environment due to human activity has been increased over the last decades. It is important to elucidate the response of ecosystems towards nitrogen deposition. In this study, a triple oxygen isotope approach was used as a tracer for environmental fate of atmospheric NO3 in a temperate forest with heavy snow for the years 2015 and 2016. The ΔO values of NO3 for precipitation and throughfall ranged from 22 to 32‰ and reflect the seasonal variation between summer (minimum) and winter (maximum), this is attributed to the changes in atmospheric formation pathways of NO3 over seasons. Based on ΔO values of NO3 in litter layer and mineral soil at 25, 55, and 90 cm depths respectively, calculated fraction of NO3 atm (fatm) shows that nitrification mainly occurs in the litter layer in the summer. In the winter, on the other hand, relatively high ΔO values of NO3 in litter layer were observed, indicating that nitrification does not occur in the litter layer due to the existence of snowmelt water. Although different fatm for litter layer were observed over the seasons, fatm of stream water were constant (approximately 10%) in both winter and summer. In addition, gross nitrification rates (GNR) based on fatm for stream water and total NO3 input for this study site in summer were lower than those in winter, suggesting higher nitrification activity in winter due to higher loads of NO3 and NH4 + inputs in the latter season. So far, nitrogen and oxygen isotopic values for biologically produced NO3 showed no significant correlation, indicating no detectable trend of assimilation by plants and/or denitrification.


It is important to study the literature of foreign cultures because doing so not only provides insight into other lifestyles, but also because it helps us understand our place in our own society as well as our place in the world around us. Literature provides an avenue for which individuals learn to sympathize or relate in some other way to people and cultures that they might otherwise never know. It does this by introducing the reader to a specific character in a specific place and time. The reader inevitably forms some kind of connection, whether positive or negative, with the text. I use the word foreign very loosely in this analysis. This thesis serves as an attempt to understand Irvine Welsh's use of violence in Marabou Stork Nightmares. Irvine Welsh is a Scottish writer and is, obviously, foreign in relationship to me as an American reader. However, since the setting of this novel places the reader in the inner city drug culture of Edinburgh, that particular lifestyle is also foreign in the sense that is very unfamiliar to some, but not all, readers. When it comes to Irvine Welsh's literature, I am interested primarily in the evolution and critique of violence against women and against developing nations. This thesis is an exploration of those very ideas.


The main purpose of this study is to know the improvement of teaching English pronunciation by using communicative drilling techniques. The method of this research is classroom action research (CAR). The data in this research is used percentages analysis. The respondents of this research are X2 students of SMAN 07 South Bengkulu which consist of 30 students. Based on result of data analysis there is improvements on students' pronunciation achievement in each cycle. The data shows that in pre-assessment students' pronunciation is 3.33% (excellent), 3.33% (very good), 20% (good) 36.66.33(low) and 33% (failed). In cycle I students pronunciation achievement is 6.66% (excellent), 26.66% (very good), 20% (good), 23.33% (low), 23,33% (failed). In cycle II the students pronunciation achievement is 10% (excellent), 30% (very good), 26.66% (good), 20% (low) and 13% (failed). In cycle III students' pronunciation achievement is 26.66% (excellent), 30% (very good), 33.33% (good), 10% (failed) and 0% (failed). This research indicates that the using of drilling technique can improve students' pronunciation achievement at the first year students of SMAN 07 South Bengkulu academic year 20011/ 2012.


Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has emerged as a significant public health problem both in human and veterinary medicine. Strains of S. aureus resistant to β-lactam antibiotics are known as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Overuse of antibiotics has been ascribed for MRSA emergence. MRSA in cattle was first reported in 1975. Since then, many literatures describing MRSA in cattle have been published. MRSA causes incurable intra-mammary infection and skin diseases in cattle. In severe cases, it causes deep-seated infections like endocarditis and osteomyelitis.  MRSA got zoonotic importance when scientists suggested the possibility of cattle serving as reservoirs for human MRSA infection. In this article, we review the current knowledge of MRSA in cattle and its zoonotic implications. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijasbt.v2i1.9861 Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol. 2(1): 29-33


Research summary: Within an ecosystem, standard setting coordinates development of complementary technologies across firms. But each firm can itself own multiple of these complementary technologies. We study how a firm's own complementary technologies influence its disclosure inclination during standard setting. We identify a tradeoff: disclosure increases value-creation of the firm's non-disclosed complementary technologies, but also heightens expropriation risk. Using data on the U.S. communications equipment industry 1991–2008, we show that the firm's complementary technologies increase its disclosure inclination when its technological areas are less crowded, but decrease such inclination when there are SSO members with strong expropriation abilities. Findings stress that disclosure involves but a piece of the firm's portfolio; a systemic perspective of the entire portfolio provides a more comprehensive picture of value-creation during standard setting.

Managerial summary: Why should a firm disclose its key technology to participate in standard setting within an ecosystem? We urge managers to think beyond "disclosing to ensure compatibility with other firms' complementary technologies within the ecosystem" as a motivation, to also consider how disclosure affects the firm's own complementary technologies within its portfolio. Disclosure in one technological area makes the firm's nondisclosed complementary technologies in other areas more valuable to itself, especially with fewer rivals competing in these other areas. But disclosure also renders the firm susceptible to losing these complementary technologies to rivals, especially when rivals have strong expropriation abilities. Analyzing disclosure decisions by communication equipment firms, we show that this tradeoff is indeed a relevant consideration in managers' strategic calculations when participating in standard setting. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Background: Arsenic is one of the most common environmental contaminants. Long-term exposure to arsenic causes human bronchial epithelial cell (HBEC) malignant transformation and lung cancer. However, the mechanism of arsenic lung carcinogenesis is not clear, and the migratory and invasive properties of arsenic-transformed cells (As-transformed cells) have rarely been studied. Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the migratory and invasive behavior of As-transformed HBECs and the underlying mechanism. Methods: As-transformed p53lowHBECs were generated by exposing p53-knockdown HBECs to sodium arsenite (2.5 μM) for 16 weeks. Cell migration was assessed by transwell migration and wound-healing assay. Cell invasion was evaluated using Matrigel-coated transwell chambers. Gene overexpression, small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdowns, and pharmacological inhibitors were used to determine the potential mechanism responsible for enhanced cell migration and invasion. Results: Transwell migration and invasion assays revealed that As-transformed p53lowHBECs were highly migratory and invasive. Akt (also known as protein kinase B) and extracellular signal–regulated protein kinase 1/2 (Erk1/2) were strongly activated in As-transformed p53lowHBECs. Stable expression of microRNA 200b in As-transformed p53lowHBECs abolished Akt and Erk1/2 activation and completely suppressed cell migration and invasion. Pharmacological inactivation of Akt but not Erk1/2 significantly decreased cell migration and invasion. Inhibition of Akt reduced the expression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition–inducing transcription factors zinc-finger E-box–binding homeobox factor 1 (ZEB1) and ZEB2. siRNA knockdown of ZEB1 and ZEB2 impaired As-transformed p53lowHBEC migration and invasion. Conclusions: Akt activation plays a critical role in enabling As-transformed HBEC migration and invasion by promoting ZEB1 and ZEB2 expression.


Abstract The incentive to speed up real‐time location has motivated previous researchers to go beyond standard location procedures and use not only P ‐wave arrival at some network stations but also its nonarrival at others. In addition to being sensitive to velocity model and picking uncertainties, this approach is also highly dependent on time delays due to unknowns network latencies, processing, and packet size. Thus, seeking ways to add independent real‐time constraints on earthquake location are important for earthquake early warning applications. In this study, we assess the robustness of three independent real‐time back‐azimuth (BAZ) determination schemes, using offline records of southern California earthquakes. We find that BAZ values computed by the three methods provide equivalent levels of accuracy. By sending the three BAZ estimates to a screening module that checks for coherency and signal‐to‐noise ratio criteria, we show that accurate BAZ estimates are obtainable in real time, with a standard deviation of 13°. Through examination of two earthquake scenarios that use offline data, we show that the inclusion of BAZ estimates into real‐time location schemes improves the performance of real‐time hypocenter determination, by cutting the time it takes to obtain well‐constrained hypocenters.


Most manufacturing firms today realise that licensing is a powerful means to achieve their strategic goals. As an increasing number of industries experience globalisation, large as well as small firms are contemplating licensing in their wish to reach new markets or to reduce manufacturing costs. Among the numerous questions raised by licensing in the different fields of management, the technology pricing issue figures prominently. Previous research on technology pricing has essentially focused on the possible existence of economic drivers, however, the strategic dimension of licensing has been neglected. A better understanding of the pricing policy of firms implies taking their licensing rationales into consideration. This is what we intend to do in the present paper. After reviewing the literature that provides a framework for most research on technology pricing, we will present an analysis of the licensing motives leading to the identification of three generic licensing strategies and to the formulation of some hypotheses. It will be seen that our approach is not contradictory to previous ones, particularly Contractor's, but rather builds on them by identifying the conditions under which they are valid.


This Article identifies a new kind of nonacquiescence and suggests ways to deal with it. "Nonacquiescence" is an agency's persistence in its own interpretation of a statute in the face of contrary judicial precedent. It has its pros and cons. For example, it aids in the development of a coherent national body of law by facilitating the "percolation" of important issues up to the Supreme Court, but in the short term the very process of percolation imposes on parties the costs of repetitive litigation and uncertainty about the law. The intractability of the problems nonacquiescence raises with respect to the proper role of the administrative state have made it a frequent source of friction between courts and agencies, as well as a hardy perennial in Congress and law reviews. Traditionally, nonacquiescence has been divided into three forms: intercircuit, intracircuit, and venue choice. But there is at least one more form, which this Article labels "remedial nonacquiescence." Unlike the traditional forms, which involve agency flouting of precedent, remedial nonacquiescence operates silently. Using the National Labor Relations Board as an example, this Article shows how each federal appellate court's commitment to its own "law of the circuit," combined with each court's willingness to enforce broad agency remedial orders that reach beyond a court's geographical jurisdiction, can enable an agency to leverage a court's contempt power to avoid problems of nonacquiescence in other jurisdictions. The results are bad. For example, percolation is corrupted because litigation in multiple circuits on some hard issues is replaced by contempt actions in the original enforcing circuit, yet the costs of repetitive litigation and uncertainty increase because agencies enjoy the flexibility to opt for contempt when the law of the enforcing circuit is favorable, or for a new enforcement action in another jurisdiction when the enforcing circuit's law is unfavorable. Remedial nonacquiescence is, in other words, forum shopping without tears for agencies. Courts can use existing Supreme Court precedent to combat remedial nonacquiescence. To do so, however, they must be modest in their devotion to the "law of the circuit" and in their willingness to impose that law in broad remedial orders.


Abstract. Stratigraphic units can influence the fate and transport of subsurface contaminants within groundwater. Units having coarse-grained sediments act as preferential flow pathways, and therefore can accelerate the transport of contaminants to reach human and ecological receptors. At legacy waste sites, detailed knowledge of subsurface stratigraphy can be used for effective monitoring and remediation planning to help minimize risk to human health and the environment. Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) methods can non-invasively provide information on kilometer-scale or larger subsurface stratigraphic features and fill informational gaps in directly sampled data from sparsely located boreholes. In this paper, we present inversion results of a 412 line-km frequency-domain AEM survey to delineate subsurface stratigraphic features at the Hanford Site, located in southeastern Washington State. The inversion was performed using a massively parallel 3D electromagnetic modeling and inversion code, where the modeling is based on solving frequency-domain Maxwell's equations using an unstructured-mesh finite-element method and the inversion employs a Gauss-Newton optimization scheme. The results are compared to an underlying geologic framework model (GFM), built by interpolating contact depths of stratigraphic units interpreted from site borehole datasets. In areas with good borehole coverage, the inversion results show a good match with the GFM to a depth of about 60 m. Outside of these areas, the inversion results exhibit inconsistencies from the assumptions made to create the GFM, demonstrating that the AEM survey results can be used to improve the understanding of the geological conceptual model.


Aims: Study and compare the effectiveness of different mouthwashes on dental plaque and assess the efficiency of text messages on the response of participants. Materials and Methods: The study was approved by Research Ethics Committee board (University of Mosul, College of Dentistry, REC reference No. POP/R.10/1/21). The Participants were (88) dental students, aged between 18 to 25 years (44 males and 44 females). Students with mild to moderate gingivitis were randomly divided into four groups, 22Participants for each. In Group A, participants were advised kin gingival mouthwash, Group B participants used Wisdom daily gum health mouthwash, Group C participants were given LACALUT aktiv, and KIN B5Gums was given to Group D. The subjects were advised to use 10ml of mouthwash for 30seconds, twice a day, not immediately after tooth brushing (at least5 minutes after tooth brushing), for 14days. Half of the students in all groups (44students) were motivated on regular intervals by personal text messages, to use mouthwash on regular basis. The parameter was recorded for Plaque index (TQHPI) at day 0 and14. Results: The reduction in dental plaque is highly significant on day 14(T1) compared to baseline values (T0). There are highly significant differences among the four types of mouthwashes used on the reduction of dental plaque. Mouthwash in Group C and D were significantly more effective than Group A and B. Mouthwash in Group A was significantly more effective than mouthwash in Group B. Group C mouthwash did not differ significantly from Group D nor Group A mouthwash in plaque build-up reduction. Conclusions: The four mouthwashes used has good efficacy in reducing dental plaque and there were differences in efficiency between them. KIN B5Gums and LACALUT aktiv mouthwashes were the most effective. Wisdom daily gum mouthwash was the least effective.


Hashing techniques are powerful for approximate nearest neighbour (ANN) search.Existing quantization methods in hashing are all focused on scalar quantization (SQ) which is inferior in utilizing the inherent data distribution.In this paper, we propose a novel vector quantization (VQ) method named affinity preserving quantization (APQ) to improve the quantization quality of projection values, which has significantly boosted the performance of state-of-the-art hashing techniques.In particular, our method incorporates the neighbourhood structure in the pre- and post-projection data space into vector quantization.APQ minimizes the quantization errors of projection values as well as the loss of affinity property of original space.An effective algorithm has been proposed to solve the joint optimization problem in APQ, and the extension to larger binary codes has been resolved by applying product quantization to APQ.Extensive experiments have shown that APQ consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art quantization methods, and has significantly improved the performance of various hashing techniques.


The change from an institutional to community care model of mental health services can be seen as a fundamental spatial change in the lives of service users (Payne, 1999; Symonds & Kelly, 1998; Wolch & Philo, 2000). It has been argued that little attention has been paid to the experience of the specific sites of mental health care, due to a utopic (idealised and placeless) idea of 'community' present in 'community care' (Symonds, 1998). This project hence explored the role of space in service users' experiences, both of mental health care, and community living. Seventeen 'spatial interviews' with service users, utilising participatory mapping techniques (Gould & White, 1974; Herlihy & Knapp, 2003; Pain & Francis, 2003), plus seven, already published first person narratives of distress (Hornstein, 2009), were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Mental health service sites are argued to have been described as heterotopias (Foucault, 1986a) of a 'control society' (Deleuze, 1992), dominated by observation and the administration of risk (Rose, 1998a), which can in turn be seen to make visible (Hetherington, 2011) to service users a passive and stigmatised subject position (Scheff, 1974; 1999). Such visible positioning can be seen to 'modulate' (Deleuze, 1992) participants' experiences in mainstream space. The management of space has hence been argued to be a central issue in the production and management of distress and madness in the community, both in terms of a differential experience of spaces as 'concordant' or 'discordant' with distress, and with movement through space being described as a key mediator of experiences of distress. It is argued that this consideration of space has profound implications for the 'social inclusion' agenda (Spandler, 2007; Wallcraft, 2001).


Exemplar learning is a powerful paradigm for discovering visual similarities in an unsupervised manner. In this context, however, the recent breakthrough in deep learning could not yet unfold its full potential. With only a single positive sample, a great imbalance between one positive and many negatives, and unreliable relationships between most samples, training of Convolutional Neural networks is impaired. Given weak estimates of local distance we propose a single optimization problem to extract batches of samples with mutually consistent relations. Conflicting relations are distributed over different batches and similar samples are grouped into compact cliques. Learning exemplar similarities is framed as a sequence of clique categorization tasks. The CNN then consolidates transitivity relations within and between cliques and learns a single representation for all samples without the need for labels. The proposed unsupervised approach has shown competitive performance on detailed posture analysis and object classification.


Understanding the wear behavior of various railroad steels used in different components such as rails, wheels, crossings, and curves has a direct impact on the performance of the rail-wheel system in railroad technology. In the present investigation, the wear behavior of steels having varying microstructures (pearlite, ferrite-pearlite, austenite, and bainite) and different chemical compositions has been studied, utilizing a ball-on-disk sliding tribometer under prototypic load and dry conditions. Results indicate that the wear performance of the steel and the mechanism responsible for its wear are significantly governed by the microstructure as well as changes that occur in the contact region during sliding. The formation of tribo-particles comprising oxides of Fe and their possible smearing resulted in high wear resistance in pearlitic steels with considerable plastic deformation of ferrite lamellae compared with austenitic and bainitic steels. In the case of bainitic steel, the absence of any significant smearing of oxide debris, combined with the presence of some distributed tungsten from the ball, contributed to severe wear. On the other hand, in the case of austenitic steel, third-body abrasion by debris particles, comprising a mix of hard metallic and oxide particles, contributed to severe wear despite its high work-hardening ability. On the whole, the pearlitic steel exhibited superior wear resistance with a lower friction coefficient compared with the bainitic and austenitic steels. [DOI:10.1115/1.4003485]


SYNOPSIS In early 2008, Zubair Bhatti, administrative head of the Jhang district in Pakistan's Punjab province, recognized the need to reduce petty corruption in the local civil service—a problem that plagued not only Punjab but also all of Pakistan. He began to contact citizens on their cell phones to learn about the quality of the service they had received. Those spot checks became the basis for a social audit system that spanned all 36 districts in Punjab by 2014. The provincial government outsourced much of the work to a call center, which surveyed citizens about their experiences with 16 different public services. The data from that call center helped district coordination officers identify poorly performing employees and branches, thereby enhancing the capability of the government to improve service delivery. By early 2014, the province was sending about 12,000 text messages daily to check on service quality. More than 400,000 citizens provided information between the beginning of the initiative and 2014. Known as the Citizen Feedback Monitoring Program, the Punjab's social audit system became the template for similar innovations in other provinces and federal agencies in Pakistan.


Both adults' habits-of-thought and their understanding of children's stories shape how adults interpret children's participation in conversations. In the light of the requests on children's rights that follow from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) this paper stresses the relevance of authorities having semiotically informed knowledge on children's meaning-making within conversations with adults. In Article 12, the CRC stipulates the right of children to participate in and to be heard about decisions that affect their everyday lives. According to the same Article, however, these rights can be restrained, based on the authority's judgements of the child's age and maturity. Sociological studies have highlighted the importance of adopting the child's perspective in judging matters that concern her. The present paper further suggests that narrow conceptualization of the sign can help one to observe different levels of meaning in adults' and children's conversations better. Although Paul Ricœur did not investigate children's narratives per se, his theory of narratives and narrativity offers a phenomenological approach to development that allows for better theoretical discriminations of narrative as a semiotic resource, and can thus assist adults in truly listening to children.


The NS3 protease and NS5 polymerase structures of the Zika virus were constructed and processed using a virtual screening pipeline. MM-PBSA calculations show that some of the ligands found by the pipeline demonstrate a good affinity to vulnerable sites in both proteins. The anti-hypertension drug eprosartan is among the selected ligands; and inhibition of the tick-borne encephalitis virus has already been confirmed in vivo by a previous study. In the present study phytochemicals bisabolol and andrographolide are suggested as the candidates for antiviral therapy.


Data races often result in unexpected and erroneous behavior. In addition to causing data corruption and leading programs to crash, the presence of data races complicates the semantics of an execution which might no longer be sequentially consistent. Motivated by these observations, we have designed and implemented a Java runtime system that monitors program executions and throws a DataRaceException when a data race is about to occur. Analogous to other runtime exceptions, the DataRaceException provides two key benefits. First, accesses causing race conditions are interruptedand handled before they cause errors that may be difficult to diagnose later. Second, if no DataRaceException is thrown in an execution, it is guaranteed to be sequentially consistent. This strong guarantee helps to rule out many concurrency-related possibilities as the cause of erroneous behavior. When a DataRaceException is caught, the operation, thread, or program causing it can be terminated gracefully. Alternatively, the DataRaceException can serve as a conflict-detection mechanism inoptimistic uses of concurrency.
 We start with the definition of data-race-free executions in the Java memory model. We generalize this definition to executions that use transactions in addition to locks and volatile variables for synchronization. We present a precise and efficient algorithm for dynamically verifying that an execution is free of data races. This algorithm generalizes the Goldilocks algorithm for data-race detectionby handling transactions and providing the ability to distinguish between read and write accesses. We have implemented our algorithm and the DataRaceException in the Kaffe Java Virtual Machine. We have evaluated our system on a variety of publicly available Java benchmarks and a few microbenchmarks that combine lock-based and transaction-based synchronization. Our experiments indicate that our implementation has reasonable overhead. Therefore, we believe that inaddition to being a debugging tool, the DataRaceException may be a viable mechanism to enforce the safety of executions of multithreaded Java programs.


A Comparative Study of Self-finance and Regular Scheme of M.Sc Economics in International Islamic University Islamabad was conducted. The major objectives of the study were :(a) To compare the regular and self finance scheme of M.Sc Economics; (b) To find out the differences in the results of both schemes; (c) To know the interests of students about both schemes; (d) To give some suggestions and proposals.

Survey study method was used for collection of data. Forty female students of M.Sc Economics and Finance and their parents, sixty female students of M.Sc Economics Regular and their parents were selected as sample of the study. Four types of questionnaires were developed for the collection of data for the study. The data were collected through personal visits of the researcher to the sample students and parents. The collected data were tabulated and analyzed in the light of the objectives of the study. The major findings of study were: courses of both schemes were different, classes of both schemes were held separately, fee of M.Sc Economics and Finance was very high than the fee of M.Sc Economics Regular. Most students of M.Sc Economics and Finance and their parents were facing financial problems due to fee. Most students of M.Sc Economics and Finance and majority students of M.Sc Economics Regular could not continue their higher education due to self finance. Interest of most of the students of M.Sc Economics and Finance for selecting self-finance scheme was due to social demand and interest of majority of students of M.Sc Economics Regular for selecting regular scheme was due to fewer fees. Majority of both students were not satisfied with library's stock and allied facilities.

Keeping in view the findings and conclusions, following recommendations were made related to drawn conclusions for the improvement of both schemes. Fee of students of M.Sc Economics and Finance may be affordable; library of International Islamic University may be well equipped with latest material. Additional revenues earned by self finance scheme should be used for the constructions of necessary infrastructure and revival of research.


This research examines the corporeal experience of dance artists in Ireland
implicated in the production and promotion of the nation and in possibilities of
citizenship at multiple scales. Dance, as an art-form practised in the formation of
individual and collective bodies, is proposed as a valuable resource for imagining,
embodying and reflecting on alternative corporealities that make spaces for
diverse and contested experiences within and beyond Ireland's borders. As an art
form concerned with the organisation of movement in space, dance provides a
framework for analysing the spatialities of substantive citizenship, recognising that
the nation state is not the only scale at which citizenship operates. Who is
permitted to appear where and when is a question that guides the geographical,
ethical, political and choreographic perspectives deployed throughout. Also of
concern has been how the corporeal knowledge and experience of choreography
appears in the written form of a PhD thesis. In a challenge to totalising and
deadening accounts of live performance, the thesis draws on the distinctive
insights of the choreographer-scholar that nonetheless acknowledges the partial,
mobile and emergent quality of its situated knowledge. Using a queer bricolage as
methodology, the research focuses on my choreography as an example of
contemporary dance practice, operating independently of formal structures of
incorporation, but nonetheless dependent of multiple networks of support, to ask
what agency is available to the individual dance artist in shaping the nation brand
and in proposing structures hospitable to the kinds of embodiment disadvantaged
by hegemonic conceptions of the national body. The research situates my
choreographic practice in the context of cultural policy and practice in the Irish
State, as evidenced through The Arts Council, Culture Ireland and, to a lesser
extent, Creative Ireland. My recent work, The Casement Project, the largest of the
Arts Council's projects for the Ireland 2016 commemoration programme, offers
valuable material for addressing the relationship between the dance artist and the
nation.


In a 2014 article, Professor Shawn Bayern demonstrated that anyone can confer legal personhood on an autonomous computer algorithm by putting it in control of a limited liability company. Bayern's demonstration coincided with the development of "autonomous�? online businesses that operate independently of their human owners—accepting payments in online currencies and contracting with human agents to perform the off-line aspects of their businesses. About the same time, leading technologists Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Stephen Hawking said that they regard human-level artificial intelligence as an existential threat to the human race. This Article argues that algorithmic entities—legal entities that have no human controllers—greatly exacerbate the threat of artificial intelligence. Algorithmic entities are likely to prosper first and most in criminal, terrorist, and other anti-social activities because that is where they have their greatest comparative advantage over human-controlled entities. Control of legal entities will contribute to the threat algorithms pose by providing them with identities. Those identities will enable them to conceal their algorithmic natures while they participate in commerce, accumulate wealth, and carry out anti-social activities. Four aspects of corporate law make the human race vulnerable to the threat of algorithmic entities. First, algorithms can lawfully have exclusive control of not just American LLC's but also a large majority of the entity forms in most countries. Second, entities can change regulatory regimes quickly and easily through migration. Third, governments—particularly in the United States—lack the ability to determine who controls the entities they charter and so cannot determine which have non-human controllers. Lastly, corporate charter competition, combined with ease of entity migration, makes it virtually impossible for any government to regulate algorithmic control of entities.


Author: Oleson, Steven, T. MS Institution: Purdue University Degree Received: December 2018 Title: In-vivo Tracing of Vagal Projections in the Brain with Manganese Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging Committee Chair: Zhongming Liu Current challenges in neuronal tract tracing include sacrificing the animal, detailed sectioning of the brain, and cumbersome reconstruction of slices to gather information, which are very tedious, time consuming, and have low-throughput. In this regard, Manganese-enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MEMRI) has been an emerging methodology for fiber tract tracing in vivo. The manganese ion (Mn) is paramagnetic and is analogous to calcium ions (Ca), which allows it to enter excitable cells through voltage-gated calcium channels, thereby reporting cellular activity in T1-weighted MR images. Moreover, once the Mn enters the cell, it will move along the axon by microtubules, release at the synapse, and then uptake by postsynaptic neurons, hence revealing the pathway of Mn transportation. While most MEMRI neuronal tracing studies have focused on mapping circuitries within the brain, MEMRI has rarely been applied to trace peripheral nerve projections into the brain. In this thesis, I will propose the use of MEMRI to trace vagal nerve projections into the central nervous system by showing enhancement of neuronal pathways with an optimized protocol. This protocol demonstrates in vivo monitoring of manganese transport into the brain from the nodose ganglion and shows how the enhancement in MR images can be promoted with vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). Additionally, I will present preliminary findings, for the very first time, that show the downstream projection of the sympathetic pathway from the brainstem. In sum, the technique presented in this thesis will shed light on the use of MEMRI to study the functional results of using clinically-based VNS settings.


In the works of Guy Debord and Asger Jorn, durnement played an essential role in the construction of art during the early stages of the SI (Situationist International). For the Situationists durnement was used to create political statements rather than art. In order to explain this topic I will start with a brief description of both Guy Debords and Asger Jorns histories prior to their union in the SI. The construction of a time line will help to illustrate the sequence of events that eventually lead up to the student revolts in 1968 in the streets of Paris and other parts of France. This thesis will be concerning the formation years of the SI, in particular the events surrounding Debord and Jorn from the late 1940's just after WWII, until about 1960 when the SI had been formed. Th e people they worked with prior to meeting each other very much defined the directions they were to take. Although their interests were very similar, the forms of expression that each of them gave to them were quite different. Debord's more theoretical and textual approach complemented Jorn's more artistic approach to finding a new form of expression and communication. Debord was a strategic man; he always thought everything through, theorizing before acting. Jorn was just the opposite and believed that the theory would get in the way of his artistic spirit; instead he would work in concentrated intervals on a project or series, only to try and understand it and theorize it afterwards. His written contribution to the art world and the SI is not to be neglected. Each of these men was in search of a world, they dreamt of it, and attempted to show what it could look like, in their joint work. More than art, their work became, or essentially was a political message. Against a changing society that induced passiveness, they attempted to stage a revolt from within. They were aware that the medium they needed to communicate their message was the same medium that was the cause of this state of mind. They experimented with new implementations for media. Jorn worked with painting and collages in search of meaning in primitive and folkart together with numerous groups and movements, many of which he initiated. Debord investigated the textual and cognitive aspects of language, coming in contact with the Lettrists Movement early in his life. These events made their awareness of the medium all the greater, combined with their theories and conception of a new world they paired up (along with others) to form the SI, which built on concepts developed by the Lettrists as well as the many artists active in the Avant-garde at the time. This paper comments on and illustrates the use of media by Guy Debord and Asger Jorn during the founding period of the Lettrist International (LI) and the Situationist International (SI). The maps they made together based on their theories of the dve, durnement and psychogeography, and in particular they way in which Fin de Copenhague (Copenhagen: 1957) and Mires (Copenhagen: 1959) have come into being.


The familiar optically recorded rainbow hologram is frequently used to produce color holograms. It is simple to compute the corresponding synthetic hologram structures, which would require no recording process and would be capable of displaying virtual three-dimensional objects. It is difficult, however, to materialize the computed structures because of the high space-bandwidth product required. To find a way around this problem we used a set of three computer-generated holograms as master holograms for an optical recording process in which each master hologram contains information about a different color. This reduces the space-bandwidth product requirements for the synthetic structures to convenient values.


This paper considers the problem of forecasting in large macroeconomic panels using Bayesian model averaging. Practical methods for implementing Bayesian model averaging with factor models are described. These methods involve algorithms that simulate from the space defined by all possible models. We explain how these simulation algorithms can also be used to select the model with the highest marginal likelihood (or highest value of an information criterion) in an efficient manner. We apply these methods to the problem of forecasting GDP and inflation using quarterly U.S. data on 162 time series. Our analysis indicates that models containing factors do outperform autoregressive models in forecasting both GDP and inflation, but only narrowly and at short horizons. We attribute these findings to the presence of structural instability and the fact that lags of the dependent variable seem to contain most of the information relevant for forecasting.


Matter wave optics is a fascinating area of physics touching many scientific disciplines ranging from microscopy to high precision gravity measurements. One of the major recent breakthroughs was the realization in 1995 of a Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms a perfectly coherent atom source. Bose-Einstein condensates have been studied intensely over the last couple of decades, but surprisingly little work has been done on manipulation of the condensates using their de Broglie wavelength. The original aim of this thesis was to create a Fresnel zone plate for the first focusing of a Bose-Einstein condensate via the de Broglie wavelength. The zone plate design parameters were chosen to fit the experimental setup of Prof. Zeilinger in Vienna, currently one of the only setups in the world where this experiment can be carried out. The original aim of the thesis has been fulfilled. A free-standing silicon nitride zone plate with a diameter of 5 mm, and a focal length of 60 cm for a wavelength of 100 nm has been successfully created, tested with laser light and is now ready for experiments in Vienna. The zone plate has 44 zones, a 2 mm central stop and the width of the outermost zone is 12 μm. To the best of our knowledge this zone plate has a diameter more than an order of magnitude larger than any zone plates previously created for the focusing of matter waves. The much larger wavelength of the Bose-Einstein condensate compared to previous experiments meant that previously used fabrication methods could not be applied and new methods had to be developed as part of this thesis. Aluminium wet etching, dry-etching of SiO2 and silicon nitride using only a PMMA mask and quantified wet-etching of silicon were all established for the first time at the UiB NanoStructures laboratory as part of this thesis.