Ardent identity politics dominate the world stage. As Afghanistan struggles to overcome Taliban rule, the international community attempts to help rebuild a nation torn apart by violent ethnic clashes. Recent eruptions of violence between the Hindu majority and the Muslim minority in the Indian state of Gujarat have focused international attention on communal conflicts in the region. In both cases, and many more like them, women's bodies become one of the primary sites for contested national identity. In Afganistan, the struggle for nationalist identity violated women's international human rights through extreme forms of seclusion, isolation, and violence. In Gujarat, the religious conflict led to large-scale rape and murder. In addition to the violence visited on women as a result of extreme nationalism around the world, women in such situations are also often forced to choose between nationalist struggles and struggles to achieve gender equality. Identity politics, as popularly conceived, leave no room for women to situate themselves at the crossroads of both struggles and lead to oversimplified notions of women's identity. Although feminists in the global South have criticized this understanding of women's human rights around the world. The international human rights community has, in fact, relied on its own permutation of a unified, monolithic identity for women, which has led to a myopic approach to women's human rights that fails to address complex forms of human rights violations. The international human rights community has, in recent years, expanded its definition of human rights violations to include many of the human rights abuses commonly perpetrated against women. Although this expansion represents significant progress for the world's women, the movement has consistently relied on a rigid, unitary category of "women." With the exception of some voices from the global South, the international women's human rights community's focus on "women" to the exclusion of other ididentity categories, such as ethnicity, race, class, religion, and sexual orientation, has resulted in a limited understanding of women's human rights. One explanation for this is that, like the domestic women's rights movement in the United States, the international women's human rights movement began by focusing on perceived "shared experience" in an effort to maximize support for the movement. Only in the last few years have activists begun to critically examine whether the international women's human rights movement, as currently understood, can accommodate a complex, nuanced understanding of human rights violations. The predominant narrow, relatively static notion of women's human rights does not adequately reflect the eperience of women within minority racial or ethnic communities, lesbians, disabled women, or other women who may experience discrimination or human rights violations as a result of both gender and another ground. In 1998, for example, members of the Indonesian ethnic majority raped a number of ethnically Chinese women who constitute an ethnic minority in Indonesia. These women suffered human rights violations, including death threats and rape, based simultanelusly on their gender and ethnicity. The international community, however, largely failed to recognize abuses such as these as products of both racism and sexism. The international human rights community historically has not responded to such human rights violations as both violation of rights related to race or ethnicity and gender. "Neither the gender aspects of racial discrimination nor the racial aspects of gender discrimination are fully comprehended within human rights discourses." This is due to both the theoretical framework of human rights and the fragmented structure of human rights organizations and institution, which divide responsibility for addressing human rights along rigid substantive lines separating, for example, race and gender. Indeed, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights observed, "The United Nations, governments, inter-governmental and non-governmentatal organizations have often addressed racial and gender discrimination as two separate problems, leaving women faced by multiple forms of dicrimination unsure of where to turn for redress." The current theoretical foundations, organizational structure, and practice of the United Nations and many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) does not permit a nuanced human rights analysis that would account for multiple forms of human rights abuses occurring simultaneously.


The use of theory in the planning and implementation of health promotion programs will more reliably produce positive outcomes. Following on from the success of the second edition, 'Theory in a Nutshell 3' explores the main theoretical concepts and models in health promotion and explains the significance, practical application and impact of different theories on the individual, community and organisation. This edition includes concise reviews of established theories, such as social cognitive theory and health belief model, as well as expanding on new developments in the field including evidence-based policy making and health impact assessment. Thoroughly revised and updated, the book maintains the accessible style suitable for public health practitioners, health promotion and health education specialists, epidemiologists and social policy makers, as well as students of public health and health promotion.


Sodium alginate is a very popular thickening agent used in food, pharmaceutical and textile industry. It is also used in different biomedical applications and wound dressings due to its biocompatible properties. In this study, however, this biopolymer was electrospun from aqueous solution by combining a small portion of polyethylene oxide (PEO) as carrying polymer. In the spinning solution, 70:30 Na-alginate/PEO of total 4.0 wt.% was used to obtain bead-free nanofibres from electrospinning. To provide insolubility and antibacterial properties, these fibres were then chemically modified by treating with CaCl2 and AgNO3 in ethanol absolute solution. During chemical treatment process, 1.0 and 5.0 wt.% of CaCl2, and 0.5 and 1.0 wt.% of AgNO3 were used. The nanofibres structure and morphology were investigated by Field Gun Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersion X-ray (EDX), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The results prove that silver-loaded antibacterial alginate nanofibres have been successfully produced.
Key words: electrospinning; sodium alginate; poly(ethylene oxide); anti-bacterial; nanofibres


Rasmussen's encephalitis (RE) is a neuroinflammatory disease that typically affects only one hemisphere of the brain, resulting in severe seizures. Sixty years after the disease was first described, the preferred and best treatment option for RE is grotesque and involves removing a hemisphere of the brain (hemispherectomy); therefore, a better understanding of this seizure disorder may provide additional, less invasive therapeutic options. In this issue of the JCI, Carmant and colleagues have developed an animal model of this focal seizure disorder. The model provides experimental insights into the pathogenesis of RE and potential new treatments for this disease.


In three experiments, we examined the effects of accents and production on free recall and yes/no recognition memory. In the study phase, native English participants heard English words pronounced by a speaker with an accent that is highly familiar to the participant (American English) or with a less familiar accent (Dutch). Participants had to either say aloud (produce) the word that they heard in their natural pronunciation (Exp. 1a) or imitate the original speaker (Exp. 1b) or simply listen to the word. In all experiments, in both recall and recognition, produced words and words spoken in an unfamiliar accent were more likely to be recalled and more likely to be recognized, than words that were listened to or words spoken in a more familiar accent. In recognition but not in recall, listening to words spoken in an unfamiliar accent improved memory more than listening to words spoken in a familiar accent. Results suggest that listening allows the acoustic-phonetic details of a speaker to be retained in memory, but that production attenuates details about the original speaker's pronunciation. Finally, the benefit of production for memory does not differ whether one produces in one's natural accent or imitates that of the speaker.


In the past decade, fast advancements have been made in the sequencing, digitalization and collection of the biological data. However the bottleneck remains at the point of analysis and extraction of patterns from the data. We have developed a method that is aimed at widening this bottleneck by automating the knowledge extraction from the biological data. Our approach is aimed at discovering patterns in a set of DNA sequences based on the location of transcription factor binding sites or any other biological markers with the emphasis of discovering relationships. A variety of statistical and computational methods exists to analyze such data. However, they either require an initial hypothesis, which is later tested, or classify the data based on its attributes. Our approach does not require an initial hypothesis and the classification it produces is based on the relationships between attributes. The value of such approach is that is is able to uncover new knowledge about the data by inducing a general theory based on basic known rules. The core of our approach lies in an inductive logic programming engine, which, based on positive and negative examples as well as background knowledge, is able to induce a descriptive, human-readable theory, describing the data. An application provides an end-to-end analysis of DNA sequences. A simple to use Web interface accepts a set of related sequences to be analyzed, set of negative example sequences to contrast the main set (optional), and a set of possible genetic markers as position-specific scoring matrices. A Java-based backend formats the sequences, determines the location of the genetic markers inside them and passes the information to the ILP engine, which induces the theory. The model, assumed in our background knowledge, is a set of basic interactions between biological markers in any DNA sequence. This makes our approach applicable to analyze a wide variety of biological problems, including detection of cis-regulatory modules and analysis of ChIP-Sequencing experiments. We have evaluated our method in the context of such applications on two real world datasets as well as a number of specially designed synthetic datasets. The approach has shown to have merit even in situations when no significant classification could be determined.


Selenium (Se) was first considerate as toxic, being today considered as an antioxidant trace mineral important for health and development. Lack of selenium in humans has been associate with high risk of mortality, deficient immune functions, cognitive decline, Keshman disease and white muscle disease. The growing demand for efficient, bioeconomic and sustainable strategies to increase Se content in rice is therefore justified, as is the study of the technical and nutritional implications inherent to its production and industrial processing for food products.

Se biofortification is a strategy that promotes nutrient enhancement in food crops and can increase nutrient uptake and accumulation in the human body. The technical itinerary was implemented, using two commercial varieties of rice (Ariete and Ceres) and two advanced lines of INIAV National Rice Genetic Improvement Program (OP1505 and OP1509). Five selenium concentrations were tested in the forms of selenate and sodium selenite by foliar application. It was verified using the EDXRF M4 Tornado ™ system, by spectral mapping, the preferential location of Se in rice. As such, it was found that Se was preferentially accumulated in the inner zone of rice grain. The contents of C, H and O, present in the different treatment concentrations, were also quantified. The average of Se biofortification index in variety Ceres was 16,3 % and the opposite was verified in variety Ariete, by atomic absorption.


Starting from Marr's ideas about levels of explanation, a theory of the data structures and access processes in human memory is demonstrated on 10 tasks. Functional characteristics of human memory are captured implementation-independently. Our theory generates a multidimensional task classification subsuming existing classifications such as the distinction between tasks that are implicit versus explicit, data driven versus conceptually driven, and simple associative (two-way bindings) versus higher order (threeway bindings), providing a broad basis for new experiments. The formal language clarifies the binding problem in episodic memory, the role of input pathways in both episodic and semantic (lexical) memory, the importance of the input set in episodic memory, and the ubiquitous calculation of an intersection in theories of episodic and lexical access.


The compounds 1-naphthyliminoferrocene, 1, and 2-methyl-1-naphthyliminoferrocene, 2, were prepared by the reaction of ferrocenecarboxaldehyde and the corresponding amine, 1-naphthylamine and 2-methyl-1-naphthylamine with one drop of pyrrolidine as the catalyst, in CH2Cl2, under an inert atmosphere. The compounds were fully characterized by elemental analyses, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF), FT-IR, 1H and 13C NMR as well as two-dimensional, NOESY, COSY and HSQC, NMR spectroscopy. Mossbauer spectroscopic studies were performed to characterize iron species in both compounds. The solid-state molecular structures of compounds 1 and 2 were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Analysis of the electrochemical behaviour of complexes 1 and 2 was performed by cyclic and square wave voltammetry. Compounds 1 and 2 were tested as chromogenic and electrochemical sensors for Hg2+.


Many researchers have demonstrated the advantages of plants in the phytoremediation of soils and waters contaminated with heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides, leachates, etc. The unique morphological characteristics of Chrysopogon zizanioides, commonly known as vetiver, make it a hyperaccumulator of metals; its roots can store high concentrations of heavy metals such as As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, and Zn, and it has thus been successfully used in the field of environmental protection. This chapter presents the importance of vetiver, its characterization, and its potential use as phytoremediation potential for toxic elements in contaminated matrices.


Braided wire stents demonstrate distinct characteristics compared to welded ones. In this study, both braided and welded wire stents with the same nominal dimensions were crimped inside a sheath and then deployed into a stenosed artery using finite element analysis. The braided wire stent was generated by overlapping wires to form crisscross shape. A welded wire stent was created by welding the intersection points of wires to avoid sliding between wires. The effect of fabrication technique on mechanical behavior of Nitinol wire stents was evaluated. The results showed that relative sliding between wires reduced the deformation of the braided stent, which led to less radial strength than the welded one; therefore, the deployed braided stent was more conformed to the anatomic shape of the lesion and much less efficient for restoring the patency of the stenotic artery. Post balloon-dilation was commonly used to improve its performance in terms of lumen gain and deployed shape of the stent. On the contrary, the welded wire stent exhibited a high capacity for pushing the occlusion outward. It reached an approximately uniform shape after deployment. The welded joints caused larger deformation and high strain on the stent struts, which indicate a potential earlier failure for the welded stent. In addition, higher contact pressure at the stent-lesion interface and higher arterial stresses were observed in the artery supported by the welded stent. The peak stress concentration may increase the occurrence of neointimal hyperplasia.


The processes of scientific knowledge production and technological invention are of crucial interest to the discipline of Science, Technology and Society studies (STS). In the book, "Cycles of Invention and Discovery: Rethinking the Endless Frontier", the authors have challenged the popular understanding of the processes of scientific and technological knowledge production and innovation. Science and technology are social institutions, affected as much by societal forces as they affect society. One such social, indeed political, factor upon which the central argument of this book is based is the utilization of categories employed in the classification of research activities for the purpose of state funding of research. The authors explain the need to recognize the futility of and the difficulties arising from the dichotomy that results from this categorization causing hindrance to the actual process of scientific and technological research. This dichotomy, the authors discuss, is embodied in the usage of the terms, 'basic' and 'applied' that have come to demarcate strictly the boundaries between fundamental and applicationoriented research. The book analyzes the serious limitations of the language used in Science and Technology (S&T) policy-making in the United States of America characterized by static ideas and unchanging definitions of the terms 'basic', 'applied', 'pure', 'science' and 'engineering' (p. 17). The authors argue that this language has resulted in patterns of allocation and distribution of federal funds that pose significant challenges to the practice of science and engineering in the US.


The realistic spirit, a nonmetaphysical approach to philosophical thought concerned with the character of philosophy itself, informs all of the discussions in these essays by philosopher Cora Diamond. Diamond explains Wittgenstein's notoriously elusive later writings, explores the background to his thought in the work of Frege, and discusses ethics in a way that reflects his influence. Diamond's new reading of Wittgenstein challenges currently accepted interpretations and shows what it means to look without mythology at the coherence, commitments, and connections that are distinctive of the mind. Representation and Mind series


Abstract Mica-chlorite mixed-layering was identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) as a major or subordinate constituent in several slates of the Puncoviscana Formation from Sierra de Mojotoro (Eastern Cordillera, NW Argentina). In order to determine the crystallochemical characteristics of these mixed-layered sequences and interpret their petrological meaning, anchizonal slate P90 was chosen for TEM observations. In this slate, dioctahedral mica and chlorite form interleaved phyllosilicate grains (IPG) or stacks, up to 110 μm long, preferentially oriented with (001) planes at a high angle to the slaty cleavage but also oblique to S0. In agreement with XRD results, the main phyllosilicates identified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were dioctahedral mica and random mixed-layer muscovite-chlorite, with chlorite in subordinate amounts and scarce smectite. In the lattice-fringe images of mixed-layer packets, a sequence of irregular stacking that produced apparent 24 Å (10 + 14) layers was observed, but it was frequently possible to distinguish the 10 Å layers from adjacent 14 Å layers. In nearly all packets, 14 Å layers prevail, exhibiting 14 Å :10 Å ratios between 1:1 and 3:1. Some elongated lenticular fissures which are probably a consequence of layer collapse caused by the TEM vacuum were identified in these packets. The straight, continuous appearance of lattice fringes plus the scarce evidence of collapsed layers identified suggest that these packets correspond principally to mixed- layer muscovite-chlorite, which is confirmed by analytical electron microscopy analyses. However, smectite-like layers are probably the third component of some of these mixed-layer sequences, which may account for their high Si and low (Fe + Mg) contents, their low interlayer charge in relation to theoretical interlayer muscovite-chlorite, and for the presence of Ca in the interlayer site. Textural relationships between chlorite and muscovite packets in IPG along with the observed transformations from 14 Å to 10 Å along the layer, is compatible with a prograde metamorphic replacement of chlorite in stacks by dioctahedral mica layers, probably in the presence of an aqueous fluid.


This paper uses a sample of 4,410 firms from 29 countries to investigate the relation between corporate governance and the shareholder base. In contrast to previous work, our results strongly support the notion that poor corporate governance, at both the firm and country level, negatively impacts the willingness of foreign investors to hold a firm's equity. Specifically, we find that firms whose managers have sufficiently high control rights that they may reasonably be expected to expropriate minority equity investors attract significantly less U.S. investment, especially in countries with poor external governance. Our findings suggest that the prices U.S. investors are asked to pay for firms with poor governance are not low enough to fully compensate them for expected expropriation or increased estimation risk associated with expected poor disclosure by these firms. Because prior research shows that a smaller shareholder base is associated with a lower firm value, our results are consistent with the notion that the shareholder base represents an important channel through which poor expected corporate governance contributes to a reduction in firm value.


Layers of volcanic ash and Andosol soils derived from the ash may play an important role in preserving snow and ice as well as in the development of permafrost conditions in (a) the immediate vicinity of volcanoes at high elevations or at high latitudes and (b) land areas that are often distant from volcanic activity and are either prone to permafrost or covered by snow and ice, but have been affected by subaerial ash deposition. The special properties of volcanic ash are critically reviewed, particularly in relation to recent research in Kamchatka in the Far East of Russia. Of special importance are the thermal properties, the unfrozen water contents of ash layers, and the rate of volcanic glass weathering.Weathering of volcanic glass results in the development of amorphous clay minerals (e.g. allophane, opal, palagonite), but occurs at a much slower rate under cold compared to warm climate conditions. Existing data reveal (1) a strong correlation between the thermal conductivity, the water/ice content, and the mineralogy of the weathered part of the volcanic ash, (2) that an increase in the amounts of amorphous clay minerals (allophane, palagonite) increases the proportion of unfrozen water and decreases the thermal conductivity, and (3) that amorphous silica does not alter to halloysite or other clay minerals, even in the Early Pleistocene age (Kamchatka) volcanic ashes or in the Miocene and Pliocene deposits of Antarctica due to the cold temperatures. The significance of these findings are discussed in relation to past climate reconstruction and the influence of volcanic ash on permafrost aggradation and degradation, snow and ice ablation, and the development of glaciers.


The Prediction Error Method (PEM) is related to an optimization problem built on input/output data collected from the system to be identified. It is often hard to find the global solution of this optimization problem because the corresponding objective function presents local minima and/or the search space is constrained to a nonconvex set. The existence of local minima, and hence the difficulty in solving the optimization, depends mainly on the experimental conditions, more specifically on the spectrum of the input/output data collected from the system. It is therefore possible to avoid the existence of local minima by properly choosing the spectrum of the input; in this paper we show how to perform this choice. We present sufficient conditions for the convergence of PEM to the global minimum and from these conditions we derive two approaches to avoid the existence of nonglobal minima. We present the application of one of these two approaches to a case study where standard identification toolboxes tend to get trapped in nonglobal minima.


The general purpose of this study was to examine Native content inclusion in the Division one language arts program . Particular attention was given to gaining insight into, a) what Native content was being included, b) how Native content was being included, and c) what help was received affecting inclusion . During the 1988-89 school year, five Division One teachers in two Community Schools with high Native student population, volunteered to participate in the study . Both Community Schools were affiliated with the Saskatoon Public Board of Education . The participating teachers were interviewed through the use of semistructured interviews during the study . Informal observations also took place over the duration of the study, and the participating teachers recorded on log sheets what forms and strategies they used for Native content inclusion . Treatment of data included a presentation of verbatim statements on matrices for each teacher interviewed, a search for general themes, and a comparison of interview and log data which highlighted patterns among responses . Over the course of the school year, all of the participating teachers reported that they had included Native content in their language 'arts program . The degree to which Native content was included varied from teacher to teacher, as did the support they received . They recognized the need for Native content in their iv language arts programs and felt they were significant participants in the process of Native content inclusion . The study also revealed that the participating teachers believed that they could have included even more Native content in the language arts program, had they more Division One resource materials and urbanized materials to work with . Findings from this study have important implications for educators and for further research . Over the course of the year, support, in-service and the availability of resource materials must be in place to meet the needs of the teachers in their lesson and program planning . Consultants, community coordinators and administrators need to be aware of the individual needs of teachers so they in turn can meet the needs of their students .


Un-trained convolutional neural networks have emerged as highly successful tools for image recovery and restoration. They are capable of solving standard inverse problems such as denoising and compressive sensing with excellent results by simply fitting a neural network model to measurements from a single image or signal without the need for any additional training data. For some applications, this critically requires additional regularization in the form of early stopping the optimization. For signal recovery from a few measurements, however, un-trained convolutional networks have an intriguing self-regularizing property: Even though the network can perfectly fit any image, the network recovers a natural image from few measurements when trained with gradient descent until convergence. In this paper, we provide numerical evidence for this property and study it theoretically. We show that---without any further regularization---an un-trained convolutional neural network can approximately reconstruct signals and images that are sufficiently structured, from a near minimal number of random measurements.


Synthetic analogues and mimics of the natural genetic material deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are potential gene therapeutic (antisense or antigene) drugs. One of these mimics, peptide nucleic acids (PNAs), are chemically closer to peptides and proteins than to DNA, but nonetheless have retained many of the structural properties of DNA. These molecules have found applications as probes in genetic diagnostics and are also being developed into antisense (ribonucleic acid (RNA) interference) gene therapeutic drugs, targeting selected genes through sequence-specific recognition of (messenger or micro)RNA, and in the future also antigene applications targeting the double-stranded DNA of the genes themselves leading to gene silencing or guiding specific gene repair. Finally, the special chemical and structural properties of PNA suggest that these or similar molecules might have played a role in the prebiotic origin of life (on Earth) and also could be interesting components of possible artificial life.

Key Concepts:

Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is a DNA mimic in which the backbone consists of a charge neutral pseudo peptide.

Peptide nucleic acids can be designed to bind sequence selectively to duplex DNA and thus may function as 'antigene' drugs.

A range of chemical structures can mimic various functions of our genetic material, the DNA.

Chemical modifications and structural mimics of DNA are useful as genetic diagnostic probes and are being developed into gene therapeutic drugs.

RNA interference drug sequences specifically bind to cellular (messenger or micro)-RNA and interfere with (inhibit) their function.

Prebiotic origin of life could have involved peptide nucleic acid molecules as predecessors of RNA.

Keywords:

peptide nucleic acid (PNA);
antisense;
genetic diagnostics;
gene therapeutic drugs;
origin of life


»Ein Modell für die Integration von interaktiven Visualisierungen in den Prozess von Informationssuche und Informationsverlinkung im Web«. The Web provides access to a mass of heterogeneous information such as: websites, news, articles, statistics, numbers, facts and so on. Accessing this information through search engines and browsing is nowadays a standard procedure for everyone. Interactive visualizations are not yet an integral part of this search process due to a long-time lack of standards for native graphics on the Web and a lack of models for their connectivity. However, interactive visualizations provide a lot of benefits like (1) a variety of different representations for big, heterogeneous and complex information and (2) their interactivity that supports the cognition process of the user. In this article, a model for the integration of interactive visualizations into the process of information searching and linking on the Web is developed. This enables interactive visualizations to be an integral part of the web search process. The model has been used as basis for the implementation of the Vizgr toolkit and has been applied and tested in different application scenarios. This article is a shortened and revised summary of the relevant chapter in the dissertation of Hienert (2013).


Summary

Oak decline has been a serious problem in Europe since the beginning of the twentieth century. In south-west Spain, Quercus ilex and Q. suber are the main affected species, and their decline has been associated with Phytophthora cinnamomi. During the last 10 years, a severe decline of Q. ilex and Q. faginea accompanied by a significant decrease in the production of acorns affecting natural regeneration was observed in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the possible involvement of Phytophthora spp. in the decline. A forest in the Natural Park 'Carrascar de la Font Roja' in Comunidad Valenciana (eastern Spain), which is dominated by Q. ilex and Q. faginea, was surveyed during 2010–2011. Symptomatic trees showed thinning and dieback of the crown, withering of leaves and death. An extensive loss of both lateral small woody roots and fine roots and callusing or open cankers on suberized roots were observed. Soil samples containing fine roots were baited using both Q. robur leaves and apple fruits. Six Phytophthora species were isolated: P. cryptogea, P. gonapodyides, P. megasperma, P. quercina, P. psychrophila and P. syringae. These are the first records of P. quercina and P. psychrophila on Q. faginea, of P. quercina in Spain and of P. psychrophila in mainland Spain. A soil infestation trial was conducted for 6 months under controlled conditions with 1-year-old seedlings of Q. ilex and Q. faginea. Phytophthora cinnamomi was included in the pathogenicity test for comparison. The results showed that Q. ilex seedlings were generally more susceptible to infection than Q. faginea with P. cinnamomi being the most aggressive pathogen to both oak species. The two most commonly isolated Phytophthora species, P. quercina and P. psychrophila, also proved their pathogenicity towards both Q. ilex and Q. faginea.


Background Transmitted drug resistance (TDR) limits antiretroviral options and thus complicates the management of HIV-positive patients. HIV disproportionately affects the southern US, but available national estimates of TDR prevalence principally reflect large metropolitan centres outside this region. Methods The Duke/UNC Acute HIV Program has collected data on acute or recent HIV infections (ARHI) in North Carolina since 1998. Acute infections represent antibody-negative, RNA-positive patients. Recent infection was determined by history of HIV testing or concordance between detuned ELISA and antibody avidity assays. Genotypic sequence data from the earliest collected pretreatment plasma samples were analysed with the Stanford HIV Database and screened for surveillance drug resistance mutations (SDRMs). Results A total of 253 individuals with ARHI between May 1998 and May 2007 had complete genotypic sequence data for analysis; 39.5% were acute infections, 78.7% were male, 64.8% were non-White and 53.8% were men who have sex with men. The overall prevalence of TDR was 17.8%, with SDRMs for non-nucleoside/ nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) in 9.5% of the cohort. Mutations for nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) were detected in 7.5% and for protease inhibitors (PIs) in 3.2%. K103N was the most common mutation (7.5%). Thymidine analogue mutations were found in 4.7% of samples; the most common PI SDRM was L90M (2.4%). Dual- or triple-class antiretroviral resistance was rare, encountered in only six (2.4%) samples. Conclusions The prevalence of TDR in North Carolina is similar to estimates from the US metropolitan areas. These findings have implications for initial regimen selection and secondary prevention efforts outside of large, metropolitan HIV epicentres.


In this work, we report a new, economical, scalable synthetic strategy to prepare pure carbon spheres (CSs) without dopants or residual metal. The CSs gave rise to an excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance in terms of activity and reaction kinetics. They showed particularly superior stability: there was no attenuation of the half-wave potential for CSs-20 h-900 after 13 500 cycles of CV in O2-saturated 0.1 M KOH. Our results confirmed the significant role of intrinsic defects for high-activity ORR without the need to include other dopants. The study of carbon defects shed fresh light on the true origin of the activity of metal-free ORR catalysts and is fundamentally important and technically promising for promoting the development of other original, low-cost, high-efficiency carbon-based metal-free electrocatalysts.


For decades now, the dominant narrative about indigenous reindeer pastoralism in northern Norway has been that there is a crisis of excess: an oversized reindeer population, poorly held in check by poorly governed herders, is overgrazing the tundra, degrading the pasture grounds, spilling over into urban spaces and precipitating moral crises by starving to death "out there," on the tundra. Set against the background of this ongoing crisis, the present paper focuses on a set of particularly dense conceptual intersections that cluster around the notion of weight, and the manner in which weight functions both as a crisis indicator and a metric for assessment in contemporary Norwegian pastoral governance. Tracing the work and structure of the weight concept as applied to reindeer—against a dominant government narrative that parses numerical indicators as neutral, objective and apolitical—the paper outlines some of the erasures that the weight metric simultaneously carries out and occludes. The aim of the exercise is to specify and critically reframe certain core issues in the current management of Norwegian pastoralism, by problematising the supposedly neutral, scienti�耀c operation of quantitative metrics and assessment practices.


In the last number of years, the Irish Health Service has come under major criticism. The emergence of Hospital Acquired Infections has sent the Health sector in to a state of disarray. The most common of these infections is Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) which has now become a term of everyday language. By 1960, the United Kingdom (U.K) discovered that methicillin could combat this staphylococcus (staph) aureus infections. However by 1961,the staph aureus strain had evolved and created a new resistance to methicillin which became known as MRSA. The law of medical negligence, has devised it's own rules to assess medical difficulties. These Dunne principles do not appear however, to be capable of assessing such MRSA claims through their association of the 'general and approved practice' theories. This would lead us to ask how would the Dunne principles apply to an MRSA claim. There are numerous proposals for making new MRSA cases. These would include Statutory breach such as Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, Occupiers Liability Act 1995, Supply of Goods and Services Act 1980. However these statutory elements do not stand alone as the issues of vicarious liability, the maxim of res ipsa loquitur and the complicated issue of causation can also be applied. Questions regarding the relaxation of the causation rules as was seen in the English mesthelioma cases must also be reviewed. Although the issue of MRSA is an old one, the legal questions it poses are many and still need clarification by our Supreme Courts. Therefore it must be asked if the law of Tort is efficient enough to provide justice and fairness in the medical negligence claims associated with MRSA.


Parc mine in north Wales was abandoned after closure in 1963 and spoil heaps were left to erode into the Nant Gwydyr and Conwy River. A storm event in 1964 caused the west slope of the tailings dam to collapse into the river, polluting 11 ha of farmland with lead and zinc. Reclamation work commenced in 1978 and involved reshaping the tailings pile and capping the north and central sections of the site with limestone quarry waste. The north section was also sown with metal-tolerant vegetation (Festuca rubra, Argostis tenuis and Trifolium repens). The aim of the study was to understand how different reclamation surfaces affected soil chemistry using GIS. The uncapped south section, whilst having the most heavily polluted soil (74 mg/kg As, 24,000 mg/kg Pb, and 19,000 mg/kg Zn), supported the establishment of patchy but diverse metal-tolerant vegetation (Alnus incana, Fagus sylvatica, Ulex, Sorbus aucuparia). The capped north section had the least polluted soil (19 mg/kg As, 478 mg/kg Pb, and 1400 mg/kg Zn), densely vegetated with a nitrogen-fixing legume (Trifolium repens), and was able to support grazing animals, but remained visually incongruous and failed to support the re-establishment of native vegetation. The central section, which combined capping with native vegetation (Betula pubescens and Quercus petraea), was considered moderately polluted (26 mg/kg As, 3908 mg/kg Pb, and 9000 mg/kg Zn). Zinc was found to be the limiting contaminant for vegetation growth with soil concentrations exceeding 12 000 mg/kg corresponding to areas of bare ground in the south and central sections. Barium was the only element to increase in the capped sections, indicating the limestone quarry waste used to cap the tailings was most likely barium-rich.


Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) source and soybean meal (SBM) level on growth performance of late nursery pigs. A total of 1,064 and 1,011 pigs (PIC 280 × 1050), initially 23.1 and 24.1 lb body weight (BW), were used in Exp. 1 and 2, respectively, with 21 to 27 pigs per pen. For approximately 21 days after weaning, pigs were fed common phase 1 and 2 diets. Then, pens were assigned to treatments in a randomized complete block design. There were 6 treatments in each experiment with 7 pens per treatment. Treatments 1 to 5 were replicated in Exp. 1 and 2, whereas treatment 6 was fed only in Exp. 1 and treatment 7 was fed only in Exp. 2. Treatments 1 to 3 consisted of diets with 23% conventional DDGS (Valero, Aurora, SD) and 21, 27, or 35% SBM. Treatments 4 and 5 were corn-SBM-based diets with 27 or 35% SBM. Treatment 6 consisted of a corn-SBM-based diet with 20% high protein DDGS (HP DDGS; Purestream 40, Lincolnway Energy, LLC, Nevada, IA) replacing the 23% conventional DDGS with the same amount of SBM (21%) as treatment 1 and same neutral detergent fiber (NDF) as treatment 2. Finally, treatment 7 consisted of a diet similar to treatment 2 but with 23% Lincolnway DDGS (Lincolnway Energy, LLC, Nevada, IA) replacing the 23% conventional DDGS. Data were analyzed with the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS. There was no evidence for treatment × experiment interactions, thus data from treatments 1 to 5 were combined. In Exp. 1, pigs fed diets containing HP DDGS had decreased (P < 0.01) average daily gain (ADG) and poorer (P < 0.01) feedto-gain ratio (F/G) compared to pigs fed diets with conventional DDGS at the same NDF level, conventional DDGS at the same SBM level, or corn-SBM diet. In Exp. 2, there was no evidence for differences (P > 0.10) in performance of pigs fed diets with Lincolnway DDGS or conventional DDGS. Feeding diets with 23% conventional DDGS decreased (P = 0.033) average daily feed intake (ADFI) and improved (P = 0.033) F/G compared to corn-SBM-based diets. Finally, ADG increased (linear, P = 0.001) and F/G improved (quadratic, P = 0.007) as SBM level increased from 21 to 35%. In conclusion, decreased growth performance indicates that the nutrient profile of the HP DDGS may have been overestimated. The net energy of conventional and Lincolnway DDGS seemed to be underestimated due to the improved F/G compared to corn-SBM diets. Finally, feeding diets with increasing SBM resulted in improved growth performance in late nursery pigs.


Internet content is growing exponentially and searching for useful content is a tedious task that we all deal with today. Mobile phones lack of screen space and limited interaction methods makes traditional search engine interface very inefficient. As the use of mobile internet continues to grow there is a need for an effective search tool. I have created a mobile search engine that uses clustering and query expansion to find relevant web pages efficiently. Clustering organizes web pages into groups that reflect different components of a query topic. Users can ignore clusters that they find irrelevant so they are not forced to sift through a long list of off-topic web pages. Query expansion uses query results, dictionaries, and cluster labels to formulate additional terms to manipulate the original query. The new manipulated query gives a more in depth result that eliminates noise. I believe that these two techniques are effective and can be combined to make the ultimate mobile search engine. Table of


The empirical, or "ℙ," distribution determines profits and losses from market price changes, while the risk- neutral "ℚ" distribution is what is embedded in derivatives prices. Expected returns under the ℙ distribution include expected risk premia, while under the ℚ, those risk premia are embedded in the probabilities. Risk-neutral probabilities, and hence market prices for derivatives, move randomly because expectations about true (ℙ-density) probabilities change and also because risk premia are variable too. While changes in the ℚ density are observable in option prices, the breakdown between true expectations and risk premia is not. Although evidence suggests that risk premia may fluctuate as much as probability beliefs do, it is rare for their dynamics to be formally modeled. That is what Rebonato and Ng do in this article looking at exchange rates. Starting with the assumption of a standard Heston model for dynamics under the P measure, they construct a corresponding volatility process under the ℚ measure by modifying the long-term variance level and the reversion speed. Rather than modeling these as constant parameters, they introduce mean-reverting diffusions for both parameters. The effects of these generalizations are explored by holding one constant while the other is varied. After showing the extra flexibility that the "complex Heston" formulation allows, they devise an analytic approximation formula using the average projected parameter values from the dynamic model as the constant parameters in the standard Heston specification and show that the approach works very well. Finally, they take the model to the data for the EURUSD, JPYUSD, and GBPUSD exchange rates and demonstrate that the new model can fit well over time without the need to refit parameter values.


Efforts to understand peer influence among adolescents have established the robust relationship between having deviant peers and future deviant behavior. Nonetheless, research suggests peer influence affects different types of adolescents in different ways. Specifically, Black adolescents may be less susceptible to friends compared to White adolescents and possess stronger family-orientation, suggesting that another peer may assume a heightened salience. Namely, siblings may affect deviance of Black adolescents whereas friends will have a minimal impact. This thesis used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to evaluate the relative strength of friend and sibling influence on Black and White adolescent deviant behavior. Results indicate that siblings explain Black and White adolescent drinking and smoking; however, the effect of siblings is stronger among Black adolescents. Friends only emerge as a significant predictor of delinquency for White adolescents. Methodological and theoretical implications for future research on peer processes are discussed.


Sustainability reports are tools for disseminating information to stakeholders and the public, serving the organizations in the dual purpose of communicating CSR and being accountable. The production of these reports has recently become more prevalent in the food industry, despite the fact this practice has received heavy criticism on two fronts: The quality of the tool for communication, and the extent of accountability. In addition to these criticisms, organizations must overcome the additional challenge of publishing sustainability reports that successfully meet the demands of a multi-stakeholder audience. In light of the importance of this practice, this paper presents a method to assess the communication and accountability characteristics of Spanish food companies' sustainability reports. This method is based on the method Analytic Network Process (ANP) and adopts a multi-stakeholder approach. This research, therefore, provides a reference model for improving sustainability reports, with the aim of successfully meeting their communication objectives and the demands of all stakeholders.


In order to study the applicability of a slip-casting technique to preparation of ceramic composites consisting of powders with different specific gravity, the technique was applied to ZrO2-WC system. During casting process, ZrO2 and WC were afraid to separate due to the difference in their specific gravity, that is, 6.07 for ZrO2 and 15.6 for WC.. For preparing fluidal and thick slurry, the optimum amounts of water and dispersant were determined on the basis of the viscosity and the density of green compacts. The optimum amounts of water and dispersant were 60vol% and 0.35mass%, respectively. The dispersibility was estimated by an EDX analysis and SEM observation. WC powders were found to disperse uniformly in ZrO2 matrix, when the thick slurry consisting of raw powders was cast. The prepared compacts were sintered at a temperature from 1400°C to 1700°C. The density and mechanical properties of composites were improved with an increase in sintering temperature. The bending strength and fracture toughness of the composites sintered at 1700°C were 820MPa and 7.4MPa⋅m1/2, respectively. The improvement of the boundary between ZrO2 and WC was guessed to make their properties enhanced further.


Background. The reasons for high use of primary care, and in particular the role of psychosocial factors, remain unclear. Methods. We identified and interviewed 236 frequent attenders and 420 normal users, matched by age and sex, of a public Health Centre in Granada, Spain. Users were questioned about mental health (GHQ-28), social support (Duke-UNC-11), family dysfunction (family APGAR) and health beliefs (health belief model, locus of health control and medical care expectations). We also measured a set of individual, social and illness variables. Results. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that mental health was the main factor associated with frequent attender status (odds ratio = 3·1; 2·4–3·9). The association was stronger than that between frequent attender status and perceived illness, and between the former and reported chronic illness. Family dysfunction and perceived susceptibility to and severity of disease were also significantly but more weakly associated with frequent attender status. Affective support was more strongly associated with FA status than was confidant support, but both associations disappeared when mental health and family function were controlled for. Conclusions. Our findings document the association of psychosocial factors and primary health care use. We suggest that the effective management of mental health problems from a family-based approach may reduce primary health care high use.


Cooperstein proved that every finite symplectic dual polar space $DW(2n-1,q)$, $q \neq 2$, can be generated by ${2n \choose n} - {2n \choose n-2}$ points and that every finite Hermitian dual polar space $DH(2n-1,q^2)$, $q \neq 2$, can be generated by ${2n \choose n}$ points. In the present paper, we show that these conclusions remain valid for symplectic and Hermitian dual polar spaces over infinite fields. A consequence of this is that every Grassmann-embedding of a symplectic or Hermitian dual polar space is absolutely universal if the (possibly infinite) underlying field has size at least 3.


Preface Introduction and Main Results Chapter 1 Theory of Semigroups Section 1.1 Banach Space Valued Functions Section 1.2 Operator Valued Functions Section 1.3 Exponential Functions Section 1.4 Contraction Semigroups Section 1.5 Analytic Semigroups Chapter 2 Markov Processes and Semigroups Section 2.1 Markov Processes Section 2.2 Transition Functions and Feller Semigroups Section 2.3 Generation Theorems for Feller Semigroups Section 2.4 Borel Kernels and the Maximum Principle Chapter 3 Theory of Distributions Section 3.1 Notation Section 3.2 L^p Spaces Section 3.3 Distributions Section 3.4 The Fourier Transform Section 3.5 Operators and Kernels Section 3.6 Layer Potentials Subsection 3.6.1 The Jump Formula Subsection 3.6.2 Single and Double Layer Potentials Subsection 3.6.3 The Green Representation Formula Chapter 4 Theory of Pseudo-Differential Operators Section 4.1 Function Spaces Section 4.2 Fourier Integral Operators Subsection 4.2.1 Symbol Classes Subsection 4.2.2 Phase Functions Subsection 4.2.3 Oscillatory Integrals Subsection 4.2.4 Fourier Integral Operators Section 4.3 Pseudo-Differential Operators Section 4.4 Potentials and Pseudo-Differential Operators Section 4.5 The Transmission Property Section 4.6 The Boutet de Monvel Calculus Appendix A Boundedness of Pseudo-Differential Operators Section A.1 The Littlewood--Paley Series Section A.2 Definition of Sobolev and Besov Spaces Section A.3 Non-Regular Symbols Section A.4 The L^p Boundedness Theorem Section A.5 Proof of Proposition A.1 Section A.6 Proof of Proposition A.2 Chapter 5 Elliptic Boundary Value Problems Section 5.1 The Dirichlet Problem Section 5.2 Formulation of a Boundary Value Problem Section 5.3 Reduction to the Boundary Chapter 6 Elliptic Boundary Value Problems and Feller Semigroups Section 6.1 Formulation of a Problem Section 6.2 Transversal Case Subsection 6.2.1 Generation Theorem for Feller Semigroups Subsection 6.2.2 Sketch of Proof of Theorem 6.1 Subsection 6.2.3 Proof of Theorem 6.15 Section 6.3 Non-Transversal Case Subsection 6.3.1 The Space C_0( \ M) Subsection 6.3.2 Generation Theorem for Feller Semigroups Subsection 6.3.3 Sketch of Proof of Theorem 6.20 Appendix B Unique Solvability of Pseudo-Differential Operators Chapter 7 Proof of Theorem 1 Section 7.1 Regularity Theorem for Problem (0.1) Section 7.2 Uniqueness Theorem for Problem (0.1) Section 7.3 Existence Theorem for Problem (0.1) Subsection 7.3.1 Proof of Theorem 7.7 Subsection 7.3.2 Proof of Proposition 7.10 Chapter 8 Proof of Theorem 2 Chapter 9 A Priori Estimates Chapter 10 Proof of Theorem 3 Section 10.1 Proof of Part (i) of Theorem 3 Section 10.2 Proof of Part (ii) of Theorem 3 Chapter 11 Proof of Theorem 4, Part (i) Section 11.1 Sobolev's Imbedding Theorems Section 11.2 Proof of Part (i) of Theorem 4 Chapter 12 Proofs of Theorem 5 and Theorem 4, Part (ii) Section 12.1 Existence Theorem for Feller Semigroups Section 12.2 Feller Semigroups with Reflecting Barrier Section 12.3 Proof of Theorem 5 Section 12.4 Proof of Part (ii) of Theorem 4 Chapter 13 Boundary Value Problems for Waldenfels Operators Section 13.1 Formulation of a Boundary Value Problem Section 13.2 Proof of Theorem 6 Section 13.3 Proof of Theorem 7 Section 13.4 Proof of Theorem 8 Section 13.5 Proof of Theorem 9 Section 13.6 Concluding Remarks


One of the most challenging tasks of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 is to meet the goal of performing explosive detection system (EDS) screening on 100% of checked baggage by the end of calendar year 2002. Accomplishing this goal within the imposed deadline and within the typically tight space constraints of airport terminals will require significant changes in the way airlines and airports manage passengers and their baggage. One of the up-front keys to integrating 100% checked-baggage screening into airports is to identify realistic throughput rates of various EDS machines available to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) planners. Some of the issues associated with the implementation of EDS equipment are discussed, and an analysis is performed on the throughput of the equipment, using modeling and discrete event-simulation tools. One conclusion of the analysis is that a significant difference exists between the scan rate and the effective throughput rate for the InVision CTX5500, one of the tested EDS machines. This finding is extremely important for TSA planners, who are determining the number of EDS machines to buy and deploy at all 429 U.S. commercial airports. The deployments are based on passenger demand at peak hours of the day. Matching this relatively high-volume operation against the slow processing rate of a standalone EDS will generate large passenger queues unless multiple machines are installed to provide an acceptable level of customer (passenger) service. As a result, the effective throughput rate, not the machine scan rate, should be used in determining the number of EDS machines to install at a particular airport.


OBJECTIVE
To review the radiological management of a solitary pulmonary nodule.

DATA SOURCES
MEDLINE literature search (1958-2002).

STUDY SELECTION
All review articles and original articles. Key words for the literature search were 'solitary pulmonary nodule' and 'imaging'.

DATA EXTRACTION
All relevant information and data.

DATA SYNTHESIS
The solitary pulmonary nodule remains a perennial problem in radiological practice, particularly with current trends using low-dose computed tomography to screen for lung cancer. Determining the likelihood of malignancy forms the basis of the radiological approach of a solitary pulmonary nodule. Several factors that influence risk analysis include morphological and enhancement characteristics of the solitary pulmonary nodule on imaging, stability of the nodule, age of patient, smoking history, and history of malignant disease. Other ancillary procedures and imaging techniques that assist in the evaluation of a solitary pulmonary nodule include fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography, technetium Tc 99m depreotide imaging, bronchoscopy with bronchioloalveolar lavage and biopsy, image-guided transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy, video-assisted thorascopic surgery, and thoracotomy.

CONCLUSIONS
The success of any radiological management of a solitary pulmonary nodule rests on careful clinical evaluation and risk stratification for malignancy before the implementation of appropriate imaging techniques.


For the past several years we have been working with models of benzene distribution and metabolism, principally in the rat, but more recently in humans. Our biologically related objectives have been primarily to assist our laboratory-based colleagues in their quest for understanding of the mechanisms by which benzene exerts its toxic action. A secondary goal has been to develop or adapt models useful in risk assessment applications. We have also had methodological goals that relate to applications of sensitivity analysis on the one hand, but more fundamentally to the connection between experimental data and model structure and parameterization. This paper presents an overview of our work in these areas.


Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is moderately effective for depression, but it tends to be expensive and inconvenient for clients. This article describes an attempt to provide more cost-effective and convenient treatment for major depression by using the Internet to provide the bulk of the treatment. Nine adults with major depression participated in the study, and six of these individuals completed the treatment. The clients who completed treatment received a mean of 3.7 individual sessions and showed substantial improvement, equivalent to similar individuals who received far more individual sessions in studies of traditional CBT for depression. The results suggest that it is feasible, at least with some clients, to use the Internet to provide a major part of CBT for depression and to thereby minimize costs and inconvenience to clients.


This book seeks to gain a better understanding of the paradoxical relationship between the alleged need of European labour markets to become more flexible and the way in which national policies pursue this aim without jeopardising existing high standards of income and employment security. Special interest is devoted to the way in which countries opt for different policy routes to cope with the aim of balancing flexibility and security goals in their respective labour market and social protection policies. The contributions in this book all try to unveil the particular changes or transitions occurring in the various labour markets, to learn about their medium and longer term effects and the role of institutions and policies to cushion the adverse consequences of these changes. By studying some 'best practices' in Denmark, Canada and Australia they also draw some important lessons about the reasons why national policies might either fail or better cope with the challenges Europe face today.


Background Takayasu's arteritis is a chronic idiopathic arteritis affecting the aorta and its primary branches. The symptoms of the disease are varied and patients can present asymptomatically with impalpable pulses. The incidence of Takayasu's is higher in females than that of males, and the disease most commonly presents between ages 15 to 30. Pregnancy is only recommended in patient's whose disease is in remission. Due to increase vascular volume complications of Takayasu's in pregnancy can include that of Hypertension and exacerbation of aortic regurgitation and congestive heart failure. Hypertension can be severe and is thought to potentially cause intrauterine growth retardation and fetal haemorrhage. Case KW is a 35 year old gravida 2 para 1 lady with a past medical history of Takayasu's arteritis and hypothyroidism. She was diagnosed with Takayasu's aged 28 when a thyroid scan showed carotid artery stenosis. Her medications include Prednisolone, Azathioprine and Thyroxine. Her first pregnancy was unremarkable. She remained well throughout her pregnancy and was induced with propess at 40 weeks gestation, and went on to have a normal vaginal delivery and an unremarkable puerperium. She is currently 33/40 in her second pregnancy and being managed with labetalol due to systolic BP of 140, in which her pre pregnancy systolic was 80. At 8 weeks she sustained a left hemispheric transient ischaemic event. Conclusion This case study looks at a 35 year old lady currently in her second pregnancy with Takayasu's arteritis. The case study will discuss her ongoing antenatal care and delivery.


This present thesis deals with the development of active olefin polymerization catalysts based on late transition metal (nickel and iron) imino-pyridine complexes supported on nanomaterial. Chapter I gives a comprehensive literature review of unsupported and supported ethylene polymerization catalyst. In Chapter II we report the ethylene polymerization studies using nickel complexes containing an –NH2 group for covalent immobilization on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) of the corresponding precatalysts. Comparison of the homogeneous catalysts with their supported counterparts evidenced higher catalytic activity and higher molecular weights for the polymers produced. In Chapter III, iron complexes containing a pyrene group have been synthesized and immobilized on MWCNTs through non-covalent π-π interactions between pyrene group and surface of MWCNTs. Activated by MMAO, both the iron complexes and immobilized catalysts show high activities for ethylene polymerization. It was possible to evidence that MWCNTs have a great influence on the catalytic activity and on the structure of the resulting polyethylenes. Imino-pyridine nickel complexes containing various kinds of aromatic groups have been synthesized in Chapter IV and polymerization conditions in the presence and in the absence of nanocarbon materials, such as MWCNTs or few layer graphene (FLG), are discussed. For those nickel catalysts bearing 1-aryliminoethylpyridine ligands, the presence of MWCNTs in the catalytic mixture allows the formation of waxes of lower molecular weight and polydispersity, whereas the presence of FLG proved to be beneficial for the catalytic activity. In Chapter V, isoprene polymerization catalyzed by iron complexes containing polyaromatic groups and non-covalently supported on nanoparticles and confined into the inner cavity of MWCNTs (Cat@NPs and Cat@NPs@MWCNTs) are investigated. Iron complexes show excellent activity for the isoprene polymerization and produced high glass temperature polyisoprene with a high trans-1,4-polyisoprene selectivity. Polymer nanocomposites are produced by supported catalysts and, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) evidenced efficient coating of the resulting polyisoprene around the oxygen sensitive iron° nanoparticles.


We report on the generation of phase-locked terahertz pulse pairs and tunable narrow-band terahertz pulses by means of optical pulse shaping combining a liquid crystal spatial light filter and optical rectification in ZnTe. They are generated through simple sinusoidal and/or triangular phase modulations and do not require any optimization algorithm. The corresponding spectra are tunable between 0.5 and 2.5 THz with a spectral bandwidth as narrow as 140 GHz.


This study examines the utility of the MMPI-2 in predicting responsibility in pre-trial forensic patients, using a post hoc sample of 94 offenders from Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital in Gauteng. Firstly, the overall characteristics of the pre-trial forensic patients are discussed, following an analysis of demographic, clinical, criminal and MMPI-2 pre-trial data, as well as an overview of the Megargee typological classification of offenders. The sample is classified into Criminally Responsible (CR), Diminished Criminal Responsibility (DCR) and Not Criminally Responsible (NCR), and the CR and DCR groups are collapsed (CR/DCR) for many of the analyses when comparing them to the NCR group. Secondly, the variance of variables with responsibility is discussed, after examining one-way ANOVA's of demographic, clinical, criminal and MMPI-2 variables, as well as an overview of high point pairs. Thirdly, discriminant analyses were conducted of demographic, clinical and MMPI-2 variables. When comparing the collapsed CR/DCR group to the NCR group, psychiatric diagnosis, presence of psychosis, the MMPI-2 Pa and Es scales, as well as race and substance abuse each had unique predictive power and created a substantial discriminative equation (F (6,70) = 45.732, p <0.0005) with a successful prediction rate of 96%. Using only MMPI-2 variables to predict responsibility showed significant unique contributions for the Pa, Es, MAC-R and Mf scales, with the BIZ scale not quite significant, and a fairly significant overall discriminant equation (F (5,73) = 6.474, p < 0.0005), with an overall successful prediction rate of 82%, with the MMPI-2 variables adding an additional 3% to the predictive power of the demographic and clinical variables. Similarly, when examining the more complex 3 group responsibility classification of CR, DCR and NCR, it was found that the demographic, clinical and MMPI-2 variables of psychiatric diagnosis, psychosis, race, substance abuse, and the Pa, Es and Ma scales all had significant contributions to a powerful discriminant analysis (F (14, 136) = 19.758, p < 0.0005) that was capable of correctly reclassifying almost 95% of the sample, and the MMPI-2 variables providing an increase in predictive power of 8%. Differences in responsible and not responsible pre-trial forensic patients are discussed, as well as the role of the MMPI-2 in assessing these differences, and the fact that it is highly likely that it adds more to the forensic assessment of responsibility than a 3% (CR/DCR versus NCR) or 8% (CR versus DCR versus NCR) increase in predictive power. Limitations of the study are discussed, together with recommendations for future research with the MMPI-2 for assessment of criminal responsibility. The suggestion is made that the MMPI-2 can become a valuable tool in South African forensic settings, not only in the assessment of responsibility and malingering, but also in the placement, management, follow-up and treatment of offenders, to maximize the limited resources in South Africa allocated for the rehabilitation of offenders, and minimize the risk of recidivism or rehospitalization.


Many information providers today offer reference-linking services as part of their Web-based services. Most of these linking services typically consist of a link from metadata to the full content of the resource described by the metadata. That is, the provider of the metadata to the end user is also the provider of the reference-linking services, which address only a small portion of the linking possibilities available via the Internet. Such frameworks have several drawbacks; most significantly, the links are not context sensitive and they are generally limited to the provision of the full text of articles. Furthermore, in many of the currently available systems, the end user's institution has either no control or only limited control over links and the targets they lead to. This lack of control and the non-context-sensitive nature of the links have given rise to the "appropriate copy" problem in today's frameworks. These issues and more were thoroughly investigated by a team led by Dr. Herbert Van de Sompel at the University of Ghent in Belgium, and the outcome was the OpenURL framework and SFX technology. The OpenURL framework proposes that the role of data provider be separated from that of service provider. In addition, the framework defines a standard for transferring metadata from a data provider to a service component. Configured by the end user's institution, the (software) service component acquires the relevant metadata as input via an OpenURL and presents the user with the relevant services. The OpenURL standard, now undergoing adoption as a NISO standard, provides the syntax for transporting metadata about objects between information services. Two main elements make up an OpenURL: (1) the base URL, which is the Web address of the relevant service component; and (2) the content. The content could be the metadata of a specific object or reference to that object's metadata. The SFX server is the manifestation of a service component that is already in use around the world. After receiving an OpenURL as input, the server gathers the metadata by parsing it from the OpenURL or fetching it via the identifier supplied by the OpenUR or by combining the two methods. At this stage, SFX can analyze the metadata, determine the services that can be offered to the user according to the institution's strategies and subscription policies, and generate the appropriate menu screen. As an open system, the OpenURL framework is compatible with other solutions for reference linking, such as the DOI/CrossRef linking system. Indeed, the OpenURL framework complements the latter by permitting the generation of extended context-sensitive services within that framework


The notion of the continuum is applied to special education in diverse contexts across many nations. This article explores its conceptual underpinnings, drawing on a systematic search of the literature to review recurring ideas associated with the notion and to explicate both its uses and shortcomings. Through a thematic analysis of the literature, the research team derived 29 continua, situated within six broad groupings (space, students, staffing, support, strategies, and systems). This provides a clear structure for reconsidering the issues that the notion of the continuum is supposed to describe and enables a reconceptualization of how the delivery of services is represented. We present the initial underpinnings for a community of provision in which settings and services work together to provide learning and support for all children and young people in their locality.


The inclusion of organ deformation and movement in radiosurgery treatment planning is of increasing importance as research and clinical applications begin to take into consideration the effects of physiological processes, like breathing, on the shape and position of lesions. In this scenario, the challenge is to localize the target in toto (not only by means of marker sampling) and to calculate the dose distribution as the sum of all the contributions from the positions assumed by the target during the respiratory cycle. The aim of this work is to investigate the use of nonrigid registration for target tracking and dynamic treatment planning, i.e., treatment planning based not on one single CT scan but on multiple CT scans representative of the respiration. Twenty patients were CT scanned at end-inhale and end-exhale. An expert radiation oncologist identified the PTV in both examinations. The two CT data sets per patient were nonrigidly registered using a free-form deformation algorithm based on B-splines. The optimized objective function consisted of a weighted sum of a similarity criterion (Mutual Information) and a regularization factor which constrains the transformation to be locally rigid. Once the transformation was obtained and the registration validated, its parameters were applied to the target only. Finally, the deformed target was compared to the PTV delineated by the radiation oncologist in the other study. The results of this procedure show an agreement between the center of mass as well as volume of the target identified automatically by deformable registration and manually by the radiation oncologist. Moreover, obtained displacements were in agreement with body structure constraints and considerations usually accepted in radiation therapy practice. No significant influence of initial target volume on displacements was found. In conclusion, the proposed method seems to offer the possibility of using nonrigid registrations in radiosurgery treatment planning, even if more cases need to be investigated in order to give a statistical consistency to parameter setup and proposed considerations.


Gout is an inflammatory disease characterized by the deposition of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals in joints and other tissues. In a significant portion of patients, hyperuricemia is part of the metabolic syndrome; therefore, secondary causes of gout should be looked for and treated. The authors present a case of a persistent and refractory gout, despite standard therapeutics, leading to the need to explore a new pharmacological approach - anti-IL1r. J Med Cases. 2017;8(4):124-126 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc2790w


This paper presents results of investigation of lubricant effects on refrigeration distribution by conducting a series experiments in a real MAC system at two SAE conditions. Infrared images of evaporator and condensers are taken and compared with two previous publications. It is found that the lubricant effect on evaporator largely depends on geometry and structure of evaporator, such as the inlet position and orientation. For condenser, the inlet header acts as an oil separator, which results in the oil accumulation at the bottom of the first pass of condenser.


Abstract. The surface runoff process in fluvial/pluvial flood modelling is often simulated employing a two-dimensional (2-D) diffusive wave approximation described by grid based digital elevation models (DEMs). However, this approach may cause potential problems when using the 2-D surface flow model which exchanges flows through adjacent cells, with conventional sink removal algorithms which also allow for flow exchange along diagonal directions, due to the existence of artificial depression in DEMs. In this paper, we propose an effective method for filling artificial depressions in DEM so that the problem can be addressed. We firstly analyse two types of depressions in DEMs and demonstrate the issues caused by the current depression filling algorithms using the surface flow simulations from the MIKE SHE model built for a medium-sized basin in Southeast England. The proposed depression-filling algorithm for 2-D overland flow modelling is applied and evaluated by comparing the simulated flows at the outlet of the catchment represented by DEMs at various resolutions (50 m, 100 m and 200 m). The results suggest that the existence of depressions in DEMs can substantially influence the overland flow estimation and the new depression filling algorithm is shown to be effective in tackling this issue based upon the comparison of simulations for sink-dominated and sink-free DEMs, especially in the areas with relatively flat topography.


Demand for animal products is expected to increase due to human population growth, resulting in a need for increased production. At the same time, climate change poses a major threat to the viability and sustainability of livestock production systems. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the sus-tainability of dairy cattle farms belonging to three farming systems (rainfed, irrigated, and mixed) at the northeast zone of Tunisia using the IDEA method (version 3). Collected data of 102 farms were subjected to an analysis of variance using the GLM procedure of SAS software (version 9.4). Results showed that the socio-territorial scale was the limiting factor for all systems and that the irrigated sys-tem had the lowest scores of agro-ecological and socio-territorial scales, compared to the other ones, but it recorded the highest score for the economic scale. The best agro-ecological and socio-territorial scores characterized the mixed system. However, it had the lowest score on the economic scale. Finally, the rain-fed system was exhibited medium performances of the three scales. It was concluded a differ-ence between the three farm systems, but there was no disassociation between the three sustainability dimensions; thus, improvements should proceed across all scales simultaneously.


Note: Proc. 23rd EPS Conference on Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics, Kiev, Ukraine, June 1996 Reference CRPP-CONF-1996-035 Record created on 2008-05-13, modified on 2017-05-12


'A Trivial Comedy for Serious People': its subtitle is the best summary of a play that is the theatrical equivalent of a butterfly. The verbal brilliance of its highly self-conscious characters hides deep anxieties about social and personal identity: Jack Worthing, found as a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station and named after a railway ticket, is prepared to be re-christened to obtain the Christian name - Earnest - his beloved Gwendolen requires in a husband; he then has to confront the stigma of being the illegitimate child of a servant, before fortune, and a benevolent dramatist, reveal his true and entirely respectable identity. This is the only one-volume edition of the play to include an appendix with earlier versions and additional scenes that allow an appreciation of Wilde's creative process.


This thesis aims to examine how a specific Islamic organization called the Hizmet Movement constructs the codes of masculinities with particular features. In addition to the discourse analysis of Fethullah Gulen's writings and sermons, his position of a male leader is rethought in this thesis. Another special feature of the community as structuring the movement with the abi system which designates an elder guide for the followers is examined to understand how masculinity codes are conveyed through generations. By understanding the huge network of the Hizmet Movement as a new form of kinship substituting for the families of the followers, a new model of Muslim man that crystallized after the 28th February process is observed to understand the political implications of new codification of Muslim man in the Hizmet Movement. This study also tries to observe how individuals act within a well organized religious community by resisting or negotiating hegemonic discourses about masculinities by also revealing the gender regime constructed by the Hizmet Movement in a specific historical context.


The crisis in the music industry has been brought about only in part by the digital revolution. The layering of copyright ownership interests and the complexity of copyright law, particularly as it applies to music, has also played a major role in the inability of the industry to respond to the rapidly evolving ways in which digital works can be distributed and otherwise exploited. After detailing the tangle of legal rights in the music industry and identifying the vested industry players and their respective roles, this article describes the difficulties faced by users of new technology in attempting to comply with the law. These problems may explain, at least in part, the widespread phenomenon of what many in the industry see as infringement on a massive, and global, scale. Without low-transaction-cost solutions and reasonable absolute price for obtaining authorization for the digital activities of millions of users, we see a classic example of market failure. Users respond to this failure by effectively exiting the failed market, completely ignoring the overly cumbersome requirements of the law. This article proposes concrete changes that should be implemented in the Copyright Act. First, the Copyright Act should embrace derivative work independence, eliminating the problems that result from the dual layers of copyright ownership in a final product utilized by downstream listeners. For such a consolidation to be effective in the music industry, however, two additional changes are necessary. First, the compulsory mechanical license for musical works, codified in section 115 of the Copyright Act, must be repealed. Second, sound recording copyright owners must be granted rights equal to those of musical work copyright owners. This package of three changes constitutes a significant modification in the structure of rights in the music industry that would result in a more efficient market for downstream use. The article also recommends that copyright owners be granted a unified right to "commercially exploit" the copyrighted work, rather than the divisible rights that the Copyright Act currently grants in section 106. In the music industry, copyright owners routinely assign or exclusively license their separate rights to different industry players, dividing these legal entitlements and causing a fractionation of rights in a single copyrighted work. In the digital realm, each of the owners claims that a variety of uses implicates her rights and thus requires her permission. A unified right would take time to influence contracting behavior, but should create vested industry players divided by logical markets rather than clustered around the different statutory rights granted to the copyright owner. Finally, the article explores the problems associated with industry consolidation and the existing and potential mechanisms to reduce the negative effects of the present consolidation. Congress has included provisions in the Copyright Act aimed at curbing potential abuses of monopoly power, such as the compulsory mechanical license. Over time, however, that compulsory license has significantly contributed to the complicated nature of the industry.


The future predictive performance of a Bayesian model can be estimated using Bayesian cross-validation. In this article, we consider Gaussian latent variable models where the integration over the latent values is approximated using the Laplace method or expectation propagation (EP). We study the properties of several Bayesian leave-one-out (LOO) cross-validation approximations that in most cases can be computed with a small additional cost after forming the posterior approximation given the full data. Our main objective is to assess the accuracy of the approximative LOO cross-validation estimators. That is, for each method (Laplace and EP) we compare the approximate fast computation with the exact brute force LOO computation. Secondarily, we evaluate the accuracy of the Laplace and EP approximations themselves against a ground truth established through extensive Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation. Our empirical results show that the approach based upon a Gaussian approximation to the LOO marginal distribution (the so-called cavity distribution) gives the most accurate and reliable results among the fast methods.


Rolling element bearings are one of the critical elements in rotating machinery of energy engineering systems. A defective roller of bearing moves in and out of the load zone during each revolution of the cage. Larger amplitude impact transients (LAITs) are produced when the defective roller passes the load zone centre and the defective area strikes the inner or outer races. A series of LAIT segments with higher signal to noise ratio are separated from a continuous vibration signal according to the bearing geometry and kinematics. In order to eliminate the phase errors between different LAIT segments that can arise from rotational speed fluctuations and roller slippages, unbiased autocorrelation is introduced to align the phases of LAIT segments. The unbiased autocorrelation signals make the ensemble averaging more accurate, and hence, archive enhanced diagnostic signatures, which are denoted as LAIT-AEAs for brevity. The diagnostic method based on LAIT separation and autocorrelation ensemble average (AEA) is evaluated with the datasets captured from real bearings of two different experiment benches. The validation results of the LAIT-AEAs are compared with the squared envelope spectrums (SESs) yielded based on two state-of-the-art techniques of Fast Kurtogram and Autogram.


Power flow between source and passive receiver structures is a common metric for characterizing the dynamics of coupled structures. The objective is generally to reduce the amount of power flow between the structures by means of structural modifications, insofar as to reduce the overall levels of vibration of the coupled system. As such, the sensitivity of power flow to changes in inertial, elastic, and dissipative properties of the structure is quantified. It is shown that power flow into a receiver is not always directly proportional to the amount of damping in the receiver, but is also dependent on the amount of damping present in the source at a given frequency. The sign of the sensitivity can provide information as to when a change in damping will increase or decrease power flow; positive indicates an increase in power flow, negative indicates a decrease. A similar analysis is performed on modifications made to a structure's mass and stiffness properties. Relationships between power flow and power flow sensitivity are shown for a simple single degree of freedom source-receiver coupling, and is extended to a multi-degree of freedom coupling between two beam structures.


In order to assign space value and enter it into an exchange economy, capitalism works to reduce it to an abstract plan. Writing about this process, Henri Lefebvre coins the term 'abstract space' and describes the logics of this kind of space in detail. These logics are also at work in the digitally animated spaces of virtual cinematography, such as those used in The Matrix Reloaded (Andy and Larry Wachowski, 2003). Creating totalized, predictable spaces and populating them with highly instrumental and manageable digital replacements of actors (sometimes known as synthespians), virtual cinematography takes space and individuals to be open to geometric abstraction. Using Lefebvre's work to interpret this virtual spatial production allows a critical evaluation of the motives and consequences of this kind of computer animation to take place, and emphasizes the manner in which virtual cinematography joins up with other visual systems of spatial representation and quantification.


Background and Aims: Quality of services and products has always attracted people. Synergy model provides a unified framework to describe nursing job, peer review functionality, quality of performance improvement and the care pathway. This study aimed to determine the intensive care unit nurses' quality of performance in Shiraz and Jahrom according to Synergy model. Material &Methods: It was a descriptive study. The nurses working in ICUs were recruited by census (n=364) in 2012. The checklist of quality performance was constructed according to Synergy model concepts and was completed by nurses. Total performance score and the scores of different dimensions were calculated. Data was analyzed by chi-square test; t-test and Wilcoxon test using SPSS-PC (v. 16). Results : The results show that the nurses have expressed their best performance in the areas of collaboration (99.1± 6.02) and caring practice (97.92± 3.6); and their lowest performance in the areas of clinical inquiry (81.98± 4.7) and response to diversity (85.98± 3.8). Also additional findings revealed that there were statistically significant differences between Shiraz and Jahrom nurses ' performance in the areas of clinical judgment, collaboration, system thinking, response to diversity, and learning facilitation and overall performance (p value <0.05). Conclusion : Regarding the capabilities of Synergy Model in determining the required standards to empower ICU nurses, it can improve the quality of health care team performance, especially nurses and thus improve the care outcomes, prognosis and satisfaction of patients in ICUs .


While theoretically more efficient than starch-based ethanol production systems, conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol is not without major challenges. A multi-region, multi-period, mixed integer mathematical programming model encompassing alternative feedstocks, feedstock production, delivery, and processing is developed. The model is used to identify key cost components and potential bottlenecks, and to reveal opportunities for reducing costs and prioritizing research. The research objective was to determine for specific regions in Oklahoma the most economical source of lignocellulosic biomass, timing of harvest and storage, inventory management, biorefinery size, and biorefinery location, as well as the breakeven price of ethanol, for a gasification-fermentation process. Given base assumptions, gasification-fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol may be more economical than fermentation of corn grain. However, relative to conventional fermentation processes, gasification-fermentation technology is in its infancy. It remains to be seen if the technology will be technically feasible on a commercial scale.


The constraints imposed during modeling must satisfy biologically representative phenotypes of the studied organism. Simultaneously, identification and analysis of these constraints enhances our understanding of the evolution/operational paradigms of the organism. It was postulated by Varma and Palsson[1] that it is possible to define limits on metabolic behavior using flux balance analysis, but in order to accurately capture the metabolic responses, detailed information about enzyme kinetics and their regulation is needed. Since development of mechanistic kinetic models is a difficult task due to uncertainty in kinetic properties of enzymes, a substantial number of recent works consider only the mass action (MA) term in their model formulation. As kinetics is one of crucial factors in governing the metabolic capabilities of a cell, i.e. realizable metabolic flux and concentration states, considering only the mass action term does not necessarily provide a realistic description of the feasible space of fluxes and concentrations. In this work, using the ORACLE[2] framework, we constructed a large-scale mechanistic kinetic model of optimally grown E. coli that considers the enzyme saturations as observed in biological systems. Using this model, we performed an analysis of the complex interplay between stoichiometry, thermodynamics, and kinetics in determining flexibility and capabilities of metabolic networks. Our analysis indicates that enzyme saturation is an important and necessary consideration in modeling metabolic networks. Extended ranges of feasibility, both in the space of metabolic fluxes and metabolite concentrations, of kinetic models involving the enzyme saturation suggests that the enzymes in metabolic networks have evolved to function at different saturation states so as to ensure higher flexibility and robustness of the cell.


This article investigates the aesthetic potential of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a medical imaging technique, both inside the laboratory and in the arts. By combining Rancière's understanding of aesthetics with Merleau-Ponty's notion of embodied perception, it argues that an imagegenerating technique conceived in the scientific field can successfully migrate into the realm of fine art, opening up new aesthetic and perceptual possibilities. Although aesthetic qualities are already present in the laboratory, they remain hidden by the necessity of reading the image-data obtained according to the interpretative framework of the medical discourse. Two paths are covered: the first goes from the viewer's encounter with the MRI-based sculptures by Marc Didou, the case-study examined, to the principles of MRI; the second describes the principles of MRI concluding with the artwork. The process of travelling along these paths highlights the aesthetic potential inscribed both in MRI and in our seeing.


Objective: The primary objective of this research was to validate the Chinese Juvenile Victimisation Questionnaire (JVQ) in a Chinese population. Design: A validation study. Setting: This study is based on the pilot study of the Optimus Study on Child Sexual Abuse in China. Participants: A representative sample of students aged 15 to 17 who were in Grades 10 to 12 at schools in a district of Hong Kong was recruited for the survey (N=415). Results: The Chinese JVQ demonstrated a good internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha exceeding 0.70 for almost all subscales and 0.89 for the total scale. Also, it correlated significantly with all the hypothesized psychosocial variables, namely depression, physical health, and mental health. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence for the validity and reliability of the Chinese JVQ. Also, it finds that youth who suffer from victimisation are more likely to experience trauma symptoms. The authors suggest that such a scale is useful for measuring and identifying the victimisation patterns among youth within a Chinese population. Furthermore, the validation of the Chinese JVQ can lead to more multi-sites and cross-cultural studies.


Following the signing of the Paris Peace Accord in 1973, the relationship between the United States and Vietnam remained essentially frozen. In 2000, the signing of the United States-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement was an epic step in the normalization of relations. In addition, the BTA was hailed as a means of effectuating positive change in the area of Vietnam's human rights. Unfortunately, the state of religious freedom in Vietnam has deteriorated while economic ties with the United States have strengthened. Despite Vietnam's purported respect for religious freedom, violations continue. Vietnam restricts the practice of religion, detains religious leaders, and tolerates forced renunciations of faith by local officials. These acts violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam has acceded. Vietnam's violations of the right to religious freedom have also drawn the concern of the international community. Specifically, the United States has called for improvements in Vietnam's religious rights record, utilizing diplomatic means coupled with continued engagement in the hopes that Vietnam will voluntarily enact changes. However, this approach has failed to yield concrete progress. In 2004, the U.S. Department of State designated Vietnam a Country of Particular Concern as provided in the International Religious Freedom Act. Because the IRFA mandates affirmative action against violators of religious freedom, the United States must abandon constructive engagement in Vietnam. Instead, the IRFA provides the framework for opposing violations under the responsible engagement doctrine. In doing so, the United States may employ economic pressure to narrowly target violators, while allowing the liberalizing effect of engagement to continue where it does not sustain violations. By fully implementing the IRFA in accordance with the tenets of responsible engagement, the United States would actively oppose violations rather than engaging Vietnam with the hope that improvements will occur. Moreover, this extreme makeover of current policy would balance the dual interests of improved religious freedom and bilateral relations.


BACKGROUND
delirium is under-recognised in comparison to other common and serious acute disorders. A 2006 survey of UK junior doctors (not undertaking specialist training) identified poor knowledge of the diagnostic criteria and treatment of delirium. We hypothesised that increased prominence accorded to delirium in the form of national initiatives and guidelines may have had an impact on understanding among junior doctors.

OBJECTIVE
we repeated a multi-centre survey of knowledge of and attitudes to delirium in junior doctors (not undertaking specialist training) assessing unselected acute medical presentations (the 'medical take').

DESIGN
questionnaire-based survey in 48 acute hospitals in UK and Ireland.

METHODS
we used questionnaires designed to test understanding of delirium, including prevalence, knowledge of the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria, use of specific screening tools, association with adverse outcomes and pharmacological management.

RESULTS
one thousand two hundred and fifteen trainee physicians participated. Compared with the 2006 cohort, improvements were seen in 9 of 17 knowledge-based questions and overall score improved in the 2013 cohort. Nonetheless, significant deficits in knowledge, particularly for the diagnostic criteria for delirium, remained.

CONCLUSIONS
despite improvements in some aspects of delirium knowledge, the diagnostic criteria for delirium remain poorly understood. Challenges remain in ensuring adequate training for junior doctors in delirium.


It is increasingly necessary for the compiler to overlap successive loop iterations in order to find sufficient instruction-level parallelism to effectively utilize the resources of high-performance processors. Two competing-methods have been developed for moving instructions across iteration boundaries: unrolling followed by global acyclic scheduling and software pipelining. This dissertation investigates modulo scheduling, a software pipelining technique. Much of the previous work on modulo scheduling has targeted the relatively well-behaved loops in numeric programs. This dissertation develops new techniques that allow modulo scheduling to be effectively applied to control-intensive non-numeric programs. These techniques overcome the restrictions imposed by problematic control flow and loop exits.
This dissertation also demonstrates that unrolling-based optimization prior to scheduling improves the performance of modulo scheduled loops and is, in fact, necessary to allow modulo scheduling to surpass the performance of acyclic scheduling for control-intensive general-purpose programs. Modulo scheduling has the following advantages over the acyclic scheduling approach for control-intensive general-purpose programs. First, modulo scheduling increases performance by maintaining the overlap of loop iterations throughout the execution of the loop. Second, modulo scheduling reduces register pressure by initiating iterations at a consistent rate that is sustainable for the given resources and dependence structure. Third, with the appropriate architectural support, modulo scheduling results in less code expansion because unrolling is required only for optimization, but not to amortize the loss of overlap across the back edge.