Body iron levels have recently been shown to be a strong predictor for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of NAFLD in a general adult population, and to investigate the relationship between body iron levels, NAFLD and the metabolic syndrome (MetS). 2186 adults participated in the third National Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NAHSIT, 2005-2008). The participants underwent anthropometry measurements and phlebotomy after an overnight fast, and those with excessive alcohol intake, iron overload of serum ferritin > 600 ng/ml, hepatitis viral infection and hepatocellular carcinoma were excluded. Suspected NAFLD was diagnosed by three alanine transaminase (ALT) cut-points: cut-point 1: serum ALT > 40 U/l; cut-point 2: ALT ≥ 25 U/l for male and ALT ≥ 17 U/l for female; and cut-point 3: ALT ≥ 35 U/l for male and ALT ≥ 26 U/l for female. The prevalence proportion of suspected NAFLD among Taiwanese adults was 6.6% (cut-point 1), 36% (cut-point 2); and 14.3% (cut-point 3). Body iron levels were significantly higher in individuals with suspected NAFLD compared with those without. Distribution of hemoglobin levels, but not serum ferritin levels, by decade of age showed strong correlation with the prevalence of suspected NAFLD in individuals with MetS. Multivariate adjusted odds ratio (OR) showed that the best predictors for suspected NAFLD with the MetS were hemoglobin [OR 1.43 (1.21-1.68); P < 0.0001] and hyperlipidemia [OR 1.52 (1.19-1.94); P = 0.0007]. In individuals without MetS, the adjusted OR of suspected NAFLD was markedly higher for hemoglobin [OR 1.25 (1.12-1.41); P < 0.0001]. In conclusion, adults with high hemoglobin levels (14.4 μg/dl for male and 13.2 μg/dl for female) are at the greatest risk for developing abnormal liver function. Hemoglobin test should be considered as a part of clinical evaluation for patients with NAFLD.


We have developed a rapid method for the isolation of leptospiral chromosomal DNA which yields DNA of a purity suitable for restriction endonuclease analysis. A small volume (15 to 20 ml) of an exponentially growing culture of leptospires yielded 2 to 4 micrograms of chromosomal DNA. In a 1-day protocol, the DNA was isolated, restricted with endonucleases, and fractionated on an agarose gel. Chromosomal DNA from dinger zones (visible subsurface zones of leptospiral growth) of first semisolid subcultures of field isolates was also isolated and characterized, thus greatly speeding up the diagnostic process.


Many countries' concern over their level of health care expenditure raises the question of what the optimal level of national expenditure devoted to health care ought to be. It is, unfortunately, extremely difficult to define such a universal level of health care expenditure. A basic problem is that the objectives of the health care sector are not normally defined in an explicit manner. Efficiency is often stated as an objective, but is seldom quantified. Common wisdom holds equity as a major consideration in the resource allocation process, but equity, too, is hardly ever explicitly defined. Yet until the objectives are clearly outlined, it is impossible to state whether health care is under- or over-funded. Many arguments on both sides are misleading, generally supporting long-held biases or confusing the relevant issues. An economic perspective can, however, illuminate some points of this discussion. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The past 30 years have experienced a slight but steady increase in the share of national resources devoted to health care in a number of developed countries. This trend indicates that the income elasticity of health care expenditures, defined as the proportionate change in expenditure given a proportionate change in national income, is greater than one--a one percent increase in gross domestic product (GDP) is associated with a greater than one percent increase in health care spending. Real Health Care Gains That a number of countries are indeed devoting more national income to health care each year is shown in Figure 1 of "Health Care Headaches," which reports data on a few major Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Even during periods in which gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates are relatively low, growth in health care expenditure remains high. There are, of course, some periods of exception to this rule, but the general trend holds. Indeed, since 2000, growth rates in health care expenditure have far outstripped growth in GDP for most of these countries. Although the period is smaller and the choice of a base year therefore probably matters more, these relatively high growths in health expenditure occurred when GDP growth rates were relatively modest. It could be suggested that these recent growth rates are restoring the relatively high rates of expenditure of the 1960s and early 1970s. But given that health care expenditure is at a much higher level now than it was in those earlier periods, these higher growths in expenditure do in fact appear exceptional. Reliance on the restoration of historical rates of growth as the sole justification for increased expenditure has little real defense as an argument for retaining high health care expenditure. Another equally simple, supposed justification for the increased levels of health care expenditure compares relative expenditure across different countries by regressing health care expenditure per capita on GDP per capita. Such a regression is typically used to show that GDP per capita "explains" a remarkable 90 percent of the variation in health care expenditure per head across the majority of developed countries, as shown in Figure 2 of "Health Care Headaches." This explanation of the pattern of health care expenditure fails, however, when the United States and Luxemburg, two outliers, are taken into consideration. Therefore, such regression does not necessarily reflect any causal relationship between health and wealth at an aggregate level; high levels of GDP do not necessarily lead to high levels of health care expenditure. Nor can such relationships be used to determine whether some countries are under- or over-spending on health care. Regression operates on the basis of random variation. In other words, some observations will lie below and some above the regression line. The interpretation that because an observation lies below or above the regression line, it is evidence of under-spending or over-spending, involves a value judgment that observations that lie on the regression line are somehow "appropriate. …


Background/Aims: Cutaneous sun exposure and dietary vitamin D intake are important determinants of vitamin D status. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the vitamin D status of a group of healthy adolescent students living in Brazil. Methods: One hundred and thirty-six adolescents, 64 boys and 72 girls, aged 16–20 years old, living in a rural town in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, participated in this study. Results: The mean dietary vitamin D intake was 140 (120–156) IU/day [3.5 (3.0–3.9) μg/day]. Only 14.9% of the students met the daily adequate intake recommendation of vitamin D. Only 27.9% practice physical activity outdoors and 17.6% of the adolescents apply sunscreen daily. The mean 25(OH)D concentration was 73.0 (22.0) nmol/l [29.2 (8.8) ng/ml]. Vitamin D insufficiency was observed in 60% of adolescents. Conclusions: The present study suggests that even in a sunny climate like Brazil the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in adolescents is high. Most likely this is due to low intakes of vitamin D in this group. Due to the limited extent of natural dietary sources of vitamin D, a policy of vitamin D food fortification should be considered in the future, and in the meantime greater use of vitamin D supplements in this population group should be encouraged to provide the increased amounts of this essential nutrient for optimal health.


The Divine Retreat Centre, Muringoor, Kerala, India is internationally known for the changes it effects in the lives of its retreat participants. To date, over ten million participants have attended the retreats over a decade. However there is a dearth of empirical research on the change processes involved in this retreat experience. This study was formulated to investigate the following research question: how do the participants at the Divine Retreat Centre come to be what they come to be as a result of each day"s experience of the six day Inner Healing Retreat? This study is a qualitative investigation and the research strategy of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was broadly adopted for collecting and analysing the data. Eight participants of the Inner Healing Retreat were interviewed at the end of each of the six days of this Retreat. The participants ranged between 19-55 years and included five men and three women who met the criteria for homogeneity: Goan-Catholic lineage, English-speaking, firsttime Retreat participants. The findings reveal that the change process unfolded through seven super-ordinate themes: Crisis, Surrender, Opening up, Confession, Counselling, Inner Healing and Baptism in the Spirit. These themes contribute to an understanding of the nature of religious change or the change processes operating at the Divine Retreat Centre. The implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for future research suggested.


This book challenges a central assumption of the international law of territory. The author argues that, contrary to the finding in the Frontier Dispute case, uti possidetis is not a general principle of law enjoining states to preserve pre-existing boundaries on state succession. It demonstrates that African state practice and opinio juris gave rise to customary rules that govern sovereign territory transfer in Africa. It explains that those rules changed international law as it relates to Africa in many respects, leading chiefly to creating norms of African jus cogens prohibiting secession and the redrawing of boundaries. The book examines in-depth the singularity of secession in Africa exploring extensive state practice and case law. Finally, it advances a daring argument for a right to egalitarian self-determination, addressing people-to-people domination in multi-ethnic African states, to serve as an exception to the fast special customary rule against secession.


I truly appreciate the honor conferred on me by the Society in inviting me to deliver the fifth Charles Franklin Craig Lecture. This honor is appreciated not only on account of the high regard I entertain for Doctor Craig but also because the Society has complimented me by assuming that I may approach the high standard set by the four previous lecturers, to whom I have had the pleasure of listening.
In this paper no attempt will be made to present an adequate review of typhus fever since such a presentation would require many times the space and time permissible. Only those features of the disease will be mentioned which it is necessary to discuss in arriving at an understanding of the problems of control which face us today. With this in mind no effort has been made to make reference to all who have contributed to the voluminous literature dealing with typhus in recent years, mention being reserved for the work of those investigators whose contributions best illustrate the points under discussion at the moment.


Multiple challenges to President Obama's health care reform are percolating through the federal courts. Soon the Supreme Court will be asked to weigh in on perhaps the most important question of the post-New Deal era: Are there any remaining limits on the breadth and scope of federal power?Reinforced by decades of Court decisions that have gutted the Framers' original conception of limited government, the Obama administration has embraced an unprecedented expansion of centralized control. This paper addresses the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which includes a mandate that individuals either purchase a government-prescribed health insurance policy or pay a penalty.The Department of Health and Human Services has asserted three constitutional provisions as sources of authority for the mandate — the Taxing Power, the Commerce Clause, and the Necessary and Proper Clause. Each of those purported sources is deficient.First, the penalty for not buying health insurance is not a tax. Even if the penalty were a tax, it would fail the constitutional requirements for income, excise, or direct taxes. Second, the power to regulate interstate commerce extends only to economic activities; it does not permit Congress to compel such activities in order to regulate them. Third, the mandate is not necessary; indeed, it is merely a means to circumvent problems that would not exist if not for PPACA itself. Nor is the mandate proper; it cannot be reconciled with the Framers' original design for a limited federal government of enumerated powers.An essential aspect of liberty is the freedom not to participate. PPACA's directive that Americans buy an unwanted product from a private company debases individual liberty. And it's unconstitutional.


Book synopsis: These five volumes contain the most essential of the more than 2000 articles which have been written about Quine's work. Chosen for their clarity and brevity, they cover both basic ideas as well as objections to Quine's work. The collection is an ideal resource for students and scholars, containing difficult-to-find material as well as several articles written expressly for this set.


Research was carried out at the Institute of Biology and Plant Biotechnology of Aleksandras Stulginskis University and at the Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology of the Joint Research Centre. The effect of growth regulators on the direct organogenesis from isolated explants of Miscanthus × giganteus was analysed. Rhizome segments of Miscanthus × giganteus were cultivated in the Murashige and Skoog (MS) nutrient medium supplemented with different 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) or thidiazuron (TDZ) and ɑ-naftilacetic acid (NAA) combinations. It has been determined that the isolated explants in the nutrient medium without growth regulators did not form adventitious shoots. In the nutrient medium supplemented with growth regulators the regeneration frequency varied from 5.6 to 21.1%. The adventitious shoots formation frequency due to the TDZ exposure, depending on the concentration, was from 5.4 to 10.0% higher (in combination with 0.05 mg l–1 NAA) and from 4.4 to 8.8% higher (in combination with 0.1 mg l–1 NAA) in comparison with the adequate concentration of TDZ. The most intensive shoot formation frequency and the highest shoot number per explant have been obtained in the medium supplemented with 2.0 mg l–1 TDZ + 0.05 mg l–1 NAA.


The point spread function (PSF) is the most widely used tool for quantifying the spatial resolution of imaging systems. However, prerequisites for the proper use of this tool are linearity and space invariance. Because EIT is non-linear it is only possible to compare different reconstruction algorithms using a standard data set. In this study, the FEM is used to generate simulation data, which are used to investigate the non-linear behaviour of EIT, the space dependence of its PSF and its capability of resolving nearby objects. It is found that for the case of iterative backprojection (IterB), the full width half maximum (FWHM) values of single-object perturbations for central, intermediate and peripheral high-contrast objects are 27%, 18% and 14% of the imaging region diameter respectively. For the method based on singular value decomposition of the Geselowitz lead sensitivity matrix (GS-SVD), the FWHM is not space dependent and is 12% of the imaging region diameter. Conclusions obtained using single-object PSP studies must also be checked with double-object or more complex perturbations because EIT is non-linear. For example, the GS-SVD method fails to detect two widely separated objects unless the truncation level of SVD is carefully adjusted. With more truncation, however, the resolution of the method is worsened. Based on these and similar observations a set of simulation data, which is proposed for comparative evaluation of different EIT algorithms, is specified and explained in the conclusion section.


Abstract. Heavy rainfall occurs over the Korean peninsula mainly because of typhoons and a localized heavy rainfall, leading to severe flooding and landslide risk. KMA (Korean Meteorological Administration) has the criteria for issuing a Heavy Rain Advisory (HRA) over the peninsula even though each region or local government has different conditions in capability of disaster prevention (CDP) and different characteristics in rainfall and heavy rain damage. Therefore, the aim of this study is to suggest the methodology for the determination of Heavy rain Damage-Triggering Rainfall Criteria (HD-TRC) that HRA can be issued in each region. The study regions are local governments in Gyeonggi-province, Seoul-city, and Incheon-city in Korea. HD-TRC can be determined based on rainfall and heavy rain damage data. The data from 2005 to 2018 are collected and then the data for flood or rainy season from June to September are extracted. The rainfall data is provided in KMA and heavy rain damage data during disaster periods (DPs) can be obtained from the statistical yearbook of natural disaster (SYND) published by MOIS (Minstry of Interior and Safety) every year. Training set of 2005 to 2014 is used for obtaining HD-TRC and test set of 2015 to 2018 is used for evaluating three criteria of HD-TRC, Advanced HD-TRC, and HRA. Analysis for determining the best criteria is performed through data mining processes as follows: (1) Maximum rainfalls in durations of 1 to 24-hr (X1) and antecedent rainfalls of 1 to 7-day (X2) are obtained and used as independent variables. Heavy rain damage data are divided into damage day ( 1 ) and no damage day ( 0 ) used as dependent variables (Y). Principal component analysis (PCA) is performed and PCs (principal components) are obtained as PC.X1 and PC.X2 for independent variables. Then Risk Index (RI) is defined as PC.X1 + PC.X2 and RIs become the candidates for HD-TRC. The predicted damage (Ŷ) is obtained based on RIs and confusion matrix is constructed then the best HD-TRC is determined through the evaluation of classification performance. (2) However, 'abnormal days' (ADs) in a DP that the damage is occurred exists. The ADs mean the days which we do not have rainfall or have small rainfall amount during DP. Say, ADs have too small rainfall to damage even during DP. The ADs are defined as days below rainfall of 20 mm and 5 cases of ADs are also defined as 0, 0–5, 0–10, 0–15, and 0–20 mm in this study. We count total days in all the DPs and in ADs for a case. The ratio of ADs to total days during DPs could be the occurrence probability or prior probability (PP) of ADs for a case and 5 PPs are obtained. Also, the average AD for each case can be obtained and defined as risk range (RR). Then we define Advanced HD-TRC using MCS (Monte Carlo Simulation) linked with PP, RR, and from HD-TRC for each case. Therefore, HD-TRC is determined based on RI and Advanced HD-TRC for each case based on PP and RR. Finally, three criteria of HD-TRC, Advanced HD-TRC, and HRA are compared based on performance evaluation by test set. As a result, Advanced HD-TRC shows the best performance and so the suggested methodology can be used for regional heavy rain damage warning information.


To study the effects of diet complexity and multicarbohydrase (MC) supplementation, 144 piglets (6.70 ± 0.81 kg of BW) weaned at 21 ± 2 d of age (1:1 male to female ratio) were assigned to 1 of 6 dietary treatments in a 3 × 2 factorial arrangement based on diet complexity (complex1, complex2, and simple) and MC addition (0 vs. 0.1% of MC). Diets were provided in a 2-phase feeding program with phase I (d 1 to 14) and phase II diets (d 15 to 28). Complex1 was formulated to mimic a conventional weaner diet with blood plasma, fish meal, dried whey, and skim milk powder, whereas complex2 partially or totally replaced these ingredients with various plant-based ingredients. The simple diet primarily comprised corn, wheat, and soybean meal. No interactions were found between diet complexity and MC supplementation ( > 0.10), except for apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of ash and globulin concentration on d 28 ( < 0.05). Pigs fed the complex1 diet had greater ( < 0.01) ADG, ADFI, and G:F than those fed the other diets during the first week after weaning. However, no differences in ADG or ADFI were observed for pigs fed the complex1 and simple diets throughout the 28-d experimental period ( > 0.10), whereas the complex2 diet led to lower ADG and ADFI compared with the complex1 diet ( < 0.05). Overall, G:F was greater for pigs fed the simple diet compared with those fed the complex1 diet ( < 0.01). Pigs fed the simple diet showed ATTD of DM, OM, GE, and ash comparable to those fed the complex1 diet on d 14 ( > 0.10). In contrast, greater ATTD of DM, OM, NDF, GE, and ash was observed ( < 0.05) in pigs fed the complex1 diet than in those fed the complex2 diet or the simple diet on d 28. The simple diet increased the lymphocyte proportion in serum compared with the complex1 diet ( < 0.01) on d 14. Pigs fed the complex1 diet had a greater ( < 0.05) ratio of villus height (VH) to crypt depth (CD) in the ileum compared with the other diets. The complex2 diet decreased ( < 0.05) the fecal score during 3 wk of the postweaning period compared with the complex1 diet. Dietary MC supplementation increased ( < 0.05) G:F during the overall experimental period, VH in the ileum, VH:CD ratio in the duodenum, and ATTD of DM and GE but it reduced fecal score ( < 0.05). In conclusion, feeding a simple diet resulted in BW comparable to feeding the complex1 diet, but it led to inferior intestinal morphology and ATTD of nutrients on d 28. Also, MC supplementation could be beneficial regardless of diet complexity.


Elemental reorganisation and oxidation state changes of key active sites in Co–Fe spinels are investigated by in situ X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) under oxygen evolution operating conditions. The combination of the two techniques allows identifying both the surface and bulk modifications on the oxides and relating them to the activity loss during extended cycling. The results show that Co–Fe spinels experience a surface irreversible phase evolution under oxygen evolution reaction (OER) conditions, resulting in the formation of an amorphous layer composed of new stable Co(III) and Fe(III) species. Accelerated ageing tests show that the durability, intended as the performance loss during cycling treatments, is not directly related to the structural/chemical stability of the spinels but to the new species formed at the surface due to the electrochemical work. Thus, the material that experienced more significant changes was also the most durable one, demonstrating that the understanding of the chemical and/or structural evolution of the materials during the catalytic process can be the key for the design of highly active and stable catalysts.


The importance of time perception and timed performance is revealed in everyday activities from the sleep–wake cycle to verbal communication, playing, and appreciating music, the exquisite temporal control of both voluntary and involuntary behavior, and choice. With regard to the last point, making decisions is heavily influenced by the duration of the various options, the duration of the expected delays for receiving the options, and the time constraints for making a choice. Recent advances suggest that the brain represents time in a distributed manner and reflects time as a result of temporal changes in network states and/or by the coincidence detection of the phase of different neural populations. Moreover, the oscillatory properties of neural circuits can be shown to influence the acquisition of conditioned responding and the timing of motor responses. This Research Topic on "Interval Timing and Time-Based Decision Making" emerged from a symposium sponsored by the European COST-Action on Time In MEntaL activity: theoretical, behavioral, bioimaging, and clinical perspectives (TIMELY) that was a satellite of the European Brain and Behaviour Society meeting held in Seville, Spain (September 9, 2011). The focus of that TIMELY symposium was on "Neurobiology of Time Perception: From Normality to Dysfunction" and was organized by Valerie Doyere, Argiro Vatakis, and Elzbieta Szelag. The current volume contains 58 state-of-the-art original research, opinion, and review articles exploring the relationships between time and decision making with respect to the underlying psychological and biological mechanisms. The overall goal is to examine how time in the physical world is reconstructed, distorted, and modified in brain networks by emotion, learning, and neuropathology.

The contributions to the Research Topic have been divided by the co-editors into nine main categories in order to organize the breadth of coverage, from animal to human research. These categories were selected based upon research strategy and experimental techniques, and include the following:

(1)

Perception, representation, and categorization

(2)

Emotional distortions

(3)

Decision making and learning

(4)

Development of timing and counting

(5)

Neuroimaging and pathophysiology

(6)

Temporal conditioning and neurophysiology

(7)

EEG/ERP analyses and the role of the supplementary motor area

(8)

Molecular, neuropharmacological, and neuroendocrine mechanisms

(9)

Neural-network models

As papers often may belong to more than a single category, we apologize if some authors feel they have been "misplaced," but we tried to maintain equilibrium among the different categories without being unfaithful to the authors' main message.

It has been a great pleasure to be involved in this Research Topic as much progress has been made in exploring the temporal horizons of the mind and brain in the past few years. Much more work needs to be done and many issues remain to be addressed before we fully understand the functional and neural mechanisms of interval timing. We would like to thank all of the authors, reviewers, and Frontiers staff for helping to make this Research Topic possible and we look forward to further explorations of interval timing and time-based decision making.


From Shrine to Plinth examines the role of artist intervention in contemporary museums. It undertakes a critical review of the author's exhibition of a series of artworks at the Croydon Clocktower in 2008, which functioned as an intervention with an aim to critique the exhibition of Hindu deities in secular museums. This article calls into question the very classification of religious artefacts as art and its curatorial mechanisms in the museum that generate the secular act of close viewing and observation. It compares this with the temple ritual of viewing the deity. Emerging from two separate viewing traditions, the post Enlightenment inquisitive gaze in the former, and the transcendental viewing or 'darshan' in the latter, this article reflects upon the role of art in exploring non-tangible meanings of objects. It reflects upon the ritualistic behaviour of the visitors in exhibition From Shrine to Plinth and its effect on their response to the deities on display.
This paper makes an important contribution to the study of curating objects of worship, which is an ongoing debate in museum studies and offers alternative modes of curatorial thinking, which are closely aligned with art practice.


This article draws on research exploring adult women's engagement with narratives of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and identifies implications for both child and adult victims. As this research showed, any single story cannot accommodate all experiences. When that single story becomes dominant those whose experiences are not acknowledged are at risk of being silenced and left without a narrative framework to make sense of their experiences, which in turn risk being unrecognised as abuse by others. The article looks at contemporary understandings of CSA and argues for the need to move beyond a single damage narrative in which victims are constructed as sexually innocent, weak and passive and seen to be inevitably damaged by their experiences. The article argues for the need to separate wrongfulness from harm and (sexual) innocence from childhood. This would enable us to recognise sexual abuse in all sexually abused children, including those who do not conform to sexual innocence, and to recognise that CSA is wrong irrespective of psychological damage. In doing so, it is argued, we would all be better equipped to recognise sexual abuse and victims would be better able to tell their own stories which may, but may not, include psychological damage.


Abstract The performed scientific studies show that proper and skilful use of modern technologies can contribute to significant development of companies. Growth of technologies occurs rapidly, and the electronic environment continuously develops and improves along with it. The electronic environment now already offers companies practically all necessary marketing and communication tools for ensuring company development by creating competitive advantages; nevertheless, not all companies can employ the opportunities rendered by the e- environment, in order to increase company competitiveness and productivity. (Ščeulovs, Gaile-Sarkane 2014). The aim of the paper is to study and compare the enterprises communication in e-environment in two countries – Latvia and Kazakhstan. Study material – 130 enterprises of Latvia, 100 enterprises of Kazakhstan; method – survey. The study was conducted within the Erasmus+ project 'Mobility between programme and partner countries (KA107)'. Using previous researches and scientific studies, as well as survey of enterprises representatives in Latvia and Kazakhstan, in this paper, the authors a) give an overview of the main trends of enterprise communication in e-environment and b) compare the experience of the two countries.


Octocorals are commonly identified from the structure of their calcium carbonate sclerites. However, small recruits cannot always be identified in this manner. Primers for microsatellite loci developed for the Caribbean branching octocoral Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae were used to identify six common Pseudopterogorgia spp. on the Little Bahama Bank. The primers consistently generated polymerase chain reaction products of different molecular weights for each species, and a combination of up to three primers enabled identification of recruits whose identity was otherwise indeterminate. Recruits were collected and adult density was surveyed at three depths at Cross Harbour, Great Abaco, Bahamas, during May and November 2005. More recruits were collected during May than November, suggesting that most of the Pseudopterogorgia species reproduced between November and May. There were differences in both recruitment and adult density between the three sites among the surface‐brooding species. Covariation between adult and recruit abundance in P. bipinnata is consistent with the hypothesis that brooding species exhibit limited larval dispersal. Among the known broadcast‐spawning species, there was a significant difference in adult distribution between the sites but no significant difference in recruitment between sites, suggesting that larvae of broadcast‐spawning species are more widely dispersed.


This paper is aimed at assessing the impact of accounting system on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Bauchi Metropolis, Nigeria. This paper used a survey method of data collection. The population of the study consists of all the existing sixty six (66) Small and Medium Enterprises listed on the list of registered SMEs with the SMEs Directorate of Bauchi State Ministry of Commerce and Industry as at December, 2014 that engaged in manufacturing/production activities only. The stratified random sampling technique was employed to arrive at the sample size of sixty (60) SMEs from six groups (Food and Beverages, Printing/Paper Product, Metal and Aluminum Products, Non Metallic Products, Wood and Wood Products and Farm Products). The 4 point Likert Scale ranging from 4 (Strongly Agreed) to 1 (Strongly Disagreed) was used. The cut-off point of 2.5 was used (i.e 4+3+2+1/4), any mean above this indicates agreement with the statement and vise-versa. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics where mean rating was used as appropriate. It was established that even though proper accounting system enhances the level of profitability and financial strength of SMEs in Bauchi Metropolis, most of them do not keep proper accounting record. The paper recommends that to ensure a sound accounting system, SMEs operators should compelled themselves, to employ qualified accounting personnel, that will lead to growth and profitability of their enterprises. KeywordsAccounting System, Financial Information. Performance, Record Keeping, Small and Medium Enterprises, Nigeria.


A growing number of university teachers advocate the benefits of multimedia and digital technologies in their classrooms. Such technologies are promoted: as a means to ensure the relevance of subject disciplines; and, as tools of engagement to assist students to meet their learning outcomes. Digital storytelling or narration is one example of how educators can utilise technology to introduce innovative teaching methods. In its broadest sense, digital narration involves using digital resources in learning environments for the production by students of multimedia narratives. This paper reports on the results, over a two-year period, of an evaluation of the use of digital narratives in an advanced undergraduate unit on contemporary Australian literature in one Australian university. The evaluation explored students' and the teacher's experiences of digital storytelling. In particular, it examined participants' satisfaction with and anxieties about the use of digital narratives. It also considered the issues that the use of digital narratives raises vis-a-vis the constructive alignment with the themes, aims, and objectives of the unit, as well as the kinds and levels of technical training and assistance required to support students and staff. The results of this evaluation will be of interest to academics considering the use of multimedia technologies in their undergraduate classes.


Delayed eruption of deciduous teeth and continuous formation of the roots of permanent upper canines frequently lead to an altered eruption path of the canines and their palatal impaction. The aim of the present paper was to examine the relationship between deciduous canines' resorption and the eruption of permanent ones in patients with impacted canines. The patients under study were divided into two groups. In the clinical group, 196 panoramic radiographs were retrospectively examined, involving 98 patients with complete permanent dentition with presence of impacted permanent canines, with complete root development. In the control group, 182 panoramic radiographs were examined in the period of dentition formation, comprising 70 patients with all permanent teeth erupted, with complete root development. In order to determine the extent of resorption of persistent upper temporary canines, Tagychi's methodology was applied, modified by the researchers of this study. Monitoring teeth eruption and reporting deviations in the resorption of temporary teeth were seen as preventive steps with great importance for the impaction of permanent canines. Where there was impaction tendency for upper and lower canines from the beginning of late mixed dentition the study reported delayed resorption of upper temporary canines, persistent lower temporary canines as well as eruption deviation in permanent canines, which were all absent in a normally developing dentition.


RELATIONSHIP BARRIERS OF WOMEN IN POVERTY SEEKING TO MEET THEIR HIGHER EDUCATION GOALS Very little research has been done about the role of relationships of women in poverty seeking higher education goals. A grounded theory, qualitiative approach, was used to organize and interpret the data of study, a naturalistic inquiry of women's lives firsthand. As a group of 30 women began to be interviewed, saturation was reached when a common set of propositions emerged with one overall identifying theme: the power of relationships. This study found that women identified reliable and positive relationships that helped them persist. They also identified the one relationship that became a barrier to persistence in achieving their college goals: their mothers.


Purpose: Double-pigtail ureteral stent is placed cystoscopically after ureteroscopy. We describe a technique for fluoroscopic placement of ureteral stents and demonstrate its use in a non-randomized prospective study. Materials and methods: Double-pigtail stents were placed either fluoroscopically or cystoscopically in 121 consecutive patients. In the fluoroscopic method, the stent was placed over a guide wire using a stent pusher without the use of cystoscopy. Conversely, stents were placed through the working channel of the cystoscope under vision. The procedure, stent length, width, type, method, ureteral dilation, and use of a retrieval string were noted. Results: A wide range of stent sizes were used. The success with fluoroscopic placement of double-pigtail ureteral stents was 100% (89 of 89 cases). No stents migrated or required replacement. Stents were placed after ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy (53/89) and ureteroscopic tumor treatment (22/89). Cystoscopic visualization was used in 32 additional procedures requiring precise control (15 ureteral strictures and nine retrograde endopyelotomy). Conclusions: The fluoroscopic placement of ureteral stents is a safe and simple technique with a very high success rate. We have used cystoscopic placement only after incisional procedures such as retrograde endopyelotomy, stricture or ureterotomy.


Outcrop analogue studies can significantly improve the understanding of fracture distribution and their impact on fluid flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs. In particular, the outcrops may reveal details on the relationships between mechanical stratigraphy and fracture characteristics. This has been investigated in an integrated sedimentological-structural geological study in the Aquitanian sequence of the Asmari Formation on the NE limb of the Khaviz Anticline in the Zagros foothills in SW Iran. The Aquitanian sequence was deposited in a platform top setting and is characterized by well-defined bedding planes and relatively thin layers (<4 m) with rapid changes in textures from laminated peritidal mudstones to bioclast and ooid grainstones. Fractures in the studied area dominantly strike parallel to the fold axis, have a high angle to bedding and are stratabound. In the literature it is often reported that fracture spacing or the inverse fracture intensity (FI) is controlled by the mechanical layer thickness (MLT). However, in the present study area a rather poor correlation between FI and MLT was observed. Instead, the Dunham texture appears to be more important for the FI. Mud-supported textures (mudstone and wackestone) have higher FI than grain-supported (packstone and grainstone) ones. The degree of dolomitization does not appear to have any significant effect on FI within each texture class. A strong relationship between FI and MLT is observed generally in cases where there has been one single phase of extension and when interbed contacts are weak, e.g. interbedded competent limestones and incompetent shales. However, in the present study area a rather complex deformation history exists and well-developed shales between fractured carbonate layeres are lacking. It is suggested that in such cases the MLT is of minor importance for the FI, which is controlled by the texture.


The introduction and rapid adoption of herbicide-tolerant crops has renewed interest in better understanding the characteristics of herbicides and weed-management programs that are important to growers besides profitability. This study explores the importance of 13 characteristics, including characteristics that influence profitability, using data from a telephone survey of 1,205 corn, cotton, and soybean growers. We estimate a multivariate probit model to explore how the importance of these 13 characteristics varies with observable grower and farm-operation differences. Factor analysis based on the multivariate probit error correlations is conducted to gain further insight into the types of distinctions growers make between these 13 characteristics. Results show that growers rate characteristics such as consistency of control, crop safety, and family and employee health as very important more often than herbicide cost. The factor analysis suggests that health and environmental concerns, yield concerns, and herbicide-application concerns capture important unobservable preferences that influence grower decisions. These results imply that attempts to decompose the benefits of herbicide-tolerant crops by assigning unique values to specific characteristics that influence grower decisions can be confounded due to the difficulty in developing unique indirect measures of directly unobservable grower preferences.


Background In developed countries, tuberculosis is considered a disease with little loss of Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs). Tuberculosis treatment is predominantly ambulatory and death from tuberculosis is rare. Research has shown that there are chronic pulmonary sequelae in a majority of patients who have completed treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). This and other health effects of tuberculosis have not been considered in QALY calculations. Consequently both the burden of tuberculosis on the individual and the value of tuberculosis prevention to society are underestimated. We estimated QALYs lost to pulmonary TB patients from all known sources, and estimated health loss to prevalent TB disease. Methodology/Principal Findings We calculated values for health during illness and treatment, pulmonary impairment after tuberculosis (PIAT), death rates, years-of-life-lost to death, and normal population health. We then compared the lifetime expected QALYs for a cohort of tuberculosis patients with that expected for comparison populations with latent tuberculosis infection and without tuberculosis infection. Persons with culture-confirmed tuberculosis accrued fewer lifetime QALYs than those without tuberculosis. Acute tuberculosis morbidity cost 0.046 QALYs (4% of total) per individual. Chronic morbidity accounted for an average of 0.96 QALYs (78% of total). Mortality accounted for 0.22 QALYs lost (18% of total). The net benefit to society of averting one case of PTB was about 1.4 QALYs. Conclusions/Significance Tuberculosis, a preventable disease, results in QALYs lost owing to illness, impairment, and death. The majority of QALYs lost from tuberculosis resulted from impairment after microbiologic cure. Successful TB prevention efforts yield more health quality than previously thought and should be given high priority by health policy makers. (Refer to Abstracto S1 for Spanish language abstract)


We present a scalable and formal technique to verify locking time and stability for charge-pump phase-locked loops (PLLs). In contrast to the traditional simulation approach that only validates the PLL at a given operation condition, our proposed technique formally verified the PLL at all possible operation conditions. The dynamics of the PLL is described by a hybrid automaton, which incorporates the differential equations of the analog circuit elements as well as the switching logic of the digital circuit elements. Existing methods for computing reachable sets for hybrid automata cannot be used to verify the PLL model due to the large number of cycles required for locking. We develop a new method for computing effective overapproximations of the sets of states reached on each cycle by using uncertain parameters in a discrete-time model to represent the range of possible switching times, a technique we call continuization. Using this new method for reachability analysis, it is possible to verify locking specifications for a charge-pump PLL design for all possible initial states and parameter values in time comparable to the time required for a few simulation runs of the same behavioral model.


Between 25 and 27 May 2005, a conference entitled "Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy," was planned to be held at a public university in Istanbul. Conference aimed to call into question the Turkish official discourse relating to the 1915 events and would be the first time with such an approach the subject would be discussed openly in public. However, it has been opposed by several groups, leading to polarization among the society and media. This research studies the conflict escalation periods during this conference and questions the role of media in conflict escalation stages. It tries to analyze how newspaper ideology affects the representation of a contentious issue in general and whether this makes a difference in the representation of the Armenian conference in the Turkish case in particular. With such an analysis, it also studies how media contribute to the conflict environment with the rhetoric they create.


Two trends are reshaping the landscape of petroleum reservoir simulators, one architecturally and one application driven: an increasing number of cores per node and increasing computational intensity arising from higher fidelity physics at each cell. Implicit algebraic solvers being the dominant kernels, we present hybrid MPI and OpenMP implementations of the linear solver of GigaPOWERS, a full-scale real-world massively parallel simulator for black oil and composition models. We also evaluate the impact of explicit communication and computation overlap by including the halo exchange in the task-dependency graph. We analyze the performance of these modifications across multi- and many-core architectures, i.e., Intel Haswell, Skylake, and Knights Landing, using a variety of synthetic and real-world models. The hybrid approach results in up to 50% reduction of time to solution on a 16 million-cell SPE10-like model on Skylake whereas on a smaller, 1 million-cell, model on Haswell and Knights Landing both implementations achieve very similar performance. In the real-world reservoir simulations, the hybrid parallelism has reduced communication volume, memory consumption, and improved load balancing.


— A simulation tool was developed through MATLAB for comparing Centralized Energy Sharing (CES) and Interconnected Energy Sharing (IES) operating strategies with a standard Stand-Alone Photovoltaic System (SAPV). The tool can be used to investigate the effect of several variables on cost and trading behavior including: initial charge of Energy Storage System (ESS), amount of load variability, starting month, number of stand-alone systems, geographic location, and required reliability. It was found that the CES strategy improves initial cost by 7% to 10% compared to a standard SAPV in every simulation. The IES case consistently saved money compared to the baseline, just by a very small amount (less than 1%). The number of systems did not have a demonstrable effect, giving the same cost per system whether there were 2 systems or 50 involved in the trading strategies. Geographic locations studied (Indianapolis, Indiana; Phoenix, Arizona; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Erie, Pennsylvania) showed a large variation on the total installed cost with Phoenix being the least expensive and Erie being the most expensive location. Required reliability showed a consistent and predictable effect with cost going down as the requirement relaxed and more hours of outage were allowed.


Four N-[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl]-1,8-naphthalimide derivatives (ANNs) with different substituents (bromo group, primary amine, secondary amine, and tertiary amine) in the naphthalimide skeleton have been synthesized and can be used as one-component free radical photoinitiators or incorporated into multi-component photoinitiating systems for free radical or cationic photopolymerization under the irradiation of various LEDs. ANN2 (with secondary amine substituent) or ANN3 (with tertiary amine substituent) alone is capable of initiating the free radical polymerization of acrylates under a LED at 405 nm while ANN0 (with bromo substituent) or ANN1 (with primary amine substituent) does not work. When combined with various additives (e.g. iodonium salt, N-vinylcarbazole, chloro triazine, or tertiary amine), most of the ANN1–3 based multi-component photoinitiating systems are efficient in free radical photopolymerization at 385 nm, 405 nm, 455 nm, 470 nm and even under a low-intensity polychromatic visible light (from a halogen lamp) with the final conversions being higher than 60% (even more efficient than commercial photoinitiators bisacylphosphine oxide and camphorquinone). In addition, ANN1–3 based photoinitiating systems also exhibit a high efficiency for cationic photopolymerization of epoxides upon diverse LEDs. The ANN2 based photoinitiating system can also be used for the synthesis of interpenetrated polymer networks and adapted for 3D printing. The photochemical mechanisms of the ANN based systems have been comprehensively investigated and discussed in detail.


The article studies one of the reasons of the deficit of payments current account balance. These are lower prices of imported goods in comparison to goods made in Lithuania and sold at the internal market. The article presents data of comparative analysis about prices of the goods made in this country and imported goods. Difference in prices between the goods made and sold at the internal market and imported goods causes import turnover increase, thus it is increasing the deficit of payments current account balance. Detection the reasons of export and import changes, evaluation of the changes stipulated by changes of import and export volume level and the level it is stipulated by price change is important for analytical and forecasting purposes of national account systems and the payment balance. It's important to establish the prices and volume change during some certain period of time. Some indexes are employed for analysis of the issues. On the whole, the modern practice employs two different aggregate indexes, i.e. the indexes by Laspeyres and Paashe. Establishing of dependence between the indexes is important for practical calculations, especially while employing indexes of export-import of goods of different countries. The article presents dependencies between the volume and price indexes by Laspeyres and Paashe, their connection with the value of goods. Dependencies between indexes by Laspeyres and Paashe allow rationalize practical calculations and use available information fully. Differences of volume and price indexes by Laspeyres and Paashe are illustrated by factual data on fish production import to Lithuania in 1997–2001. The calculations show, that the value of volume and price indexes by Laspeyres is larger than analogous values of the indexes by Paashe. That is concomitant with economic matter of indexes. Under the stable economy, employing the volume and price indexes by Laspeyres is more expedient for foreign trade analysis.


Traumatic experiences have been shown to have a significant impact upon psychological wellbeing. However, this impact varies between individuals and it appears that certain trauma types and characteristics are more damaging than others. Therefore, developing a better understanding of the specific characteristics responsible for this differential impact would further the field of trauma research and improve interventions for traumagenic mental health difficulties. Moreover, particular negative emotional experiences have also been implicated in the development and maintenance of emotional and psychological distress following traumatic exposure. In particular, negative self-directed emotions, for example, disgust and shame have been shown to play a role across a range of mental health problems. The first section of this thesis describes a systematic literature review that employed narrative synthesis to examine quantitative evidence regarding the differential impact of betrayal trauma level on mental health outcomes. The review's findings were mixed, however, there was preliminary evidence that high betrayal trauma events lead to more symptom severity than medium or low betrayal traumas. The second section of the thesis is an empirical research paper. The paper reports findings from a study that used mediation analyses to examine the role of self-disgust in the relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis. The analyses also controlled for other relevant self-directed emotions to establish whether there was evidence for the discrete impact of self-disgust over and above related constructs. The study found that self-disgust significantly mediated the relationship between exposure to trauma in childhood and later onset of psychosis. Furthermore, self-disgust mediated this relationship despite the inclusion of self-esteem, external shame and general disgust as covariates. The third section of the thesis is a critical appraisal of the systematic review and empirical study and provides reflections on my experience of the research process as a whole.


This paper is a review of volatility trends, factors, and relationships in U.S. equity markets, with emphasis on the period of time from 1980 to the present, when volatility has been at higher levels than what had been observed earlier. Both finance academics and investment professionals are affected by this 'high-volatility' environment, as it impacts the traditional relationships that connect risk and return, and can therefore alter both individual asset and portfolio allocation decisions. Based on a thorough review of the literature on a stock's idiosyncratic volatility, we explain why it has increased in recent times, discuss factors that affect volatility level, and provide an overview of the empirical relationship between current volatility levels and future expected return. At the end of each section, we pose a related idea for future research – there are ten such ideas offered. The primary purposes of the paper are to convince the reader that volatility is an important investment consideration, to identify the major findings in recent volatility research, and to highlight some unanswered volatility questions for future academics and practitioners to explore.


This paper reviews the new debt-relief initiative for Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) designed to reduce the debt burden of potentially 36 poor countries. It finds that the HIPC initiative is not likely to make a major contribution to the problems of the world's poor. It offers limited and highly conditional resources, most of which are not likely to be additional to existing resource flows; the resources are not distributed according to need; and the policy packages accompanying HIPC are unlikely to do much for the major development problems that are constraining these countries' development efforts. A major problem with the initiative is that it excludes all the populous poor countries, so that the vast majority of the poor of the world will not be touched by it.


The Y-? diagram of Delano is applied to the design of gradient-index rods and is used to explain GRIN rod vignetting. Several detailed design examples are given which show how to use the diagram for GRIN rods. The Y-? diagram is a particularly useful tool to explore potential solutions involving diameter constraints and equips one with a rapid nonalgebraic investigation method.


The important questions about agriculture, climate, and sustainability have become increasingly complex and require a coordinated, multifaceted approach for developing new knowledge and understanding. A multistate, transdisciplinary project was begun in 2011 to study the potential for both mitigation and adaptation of corn-based cropping systems to climate variations. The team is measuring the baseline as well as change of the system's carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and water footprints, crop productivity, and pest pressure in response to existing and novel production practices. Nine states and 11 institutions are participating in the project, necessitating a well thought out approach to coordinating field data collection procedures at 35 research sites. In addition, the collected data must be brought together in a way that can be stored and used by persons not originally involved in the data collection, necessitating robust procedures for linking metadata with the data and clearly delineated rules for use and publication of data from the overall project. In order to improve the ability to compare data across sites and begin to make inferences about soil and cropping system responses to climate across the region, detailed research protocols were developed to standardize the types of measurements taken and the specific details such as depth, time, method, numbers of samples, and minimum data set required from each site. This process required significant time, debate, and commitment of all the investigators involved with field data collection and was also informed by the data needed to run the simulation models and life cycle analyses. Although individual research teams are collecting additional measurements beyond those stated in the standardized protocols, the written protocols are used by the team for the base measurements to be compared across the region. A centralized database was constructed to meet the needs of current researchers on this project as well as for future use for data synthesis and modeling for agricultural, ecosystem, and climate sciences.


Conflict among member states regarding the distribution of net financial burdens has been allowed to contaminate the entire design of the EU budget with very negative consequences in terms of equity, efficiency and transparency. To get around this problem and pave the way for a substantive budget reform, we propose to decouple distributional negotiations from the rest of the budget process by linking member state net balances in a rigid manner to relative prosperity. This would be achieved through the introduction of a system of compensating horizontal transfers that would take to its logical conclusion the Commission's proposal for a generalized compensation mechanism. We discuss the impact of the proposed scheme on member states' incentives and illustrate its financial implications using revenue and expenditure projections for 2013 that are based on the current Financial Perspectives and Own Resources Decision.


OBJECTIVES
The impact of combination antibiotic therapy on the composition of the intestinal microbiota remains ill-defined. We aimed to assess the effect of a 1 week antibiotic regimen on the intestinal microbiota of healthy humans for a period of up to 31 months.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Thirteen healthy adult men received either no treatment or oral broad-spectrum antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, vancomycin and metronidazole) for 7 days. At four timepoints (prior to treatment, on day 9, day 49 and 8-31 months later) faecal samples were collected and analysed using 16S RNA gene sequencing.

RESULTS
The short-term impact of broad-spectrum antibiotics on the gut microbiota was profound, with a loss of diversity and drastic shifts in community composition. In addition, antibiotics significantly reduced the abundance of bacterial taxa with important metabolic functions, such as the production of butyrate. The microbiota showed a remarkable return towards baseline after 8-31 months, but community composition often remained altered from its initial state.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that combined treatment with vancomycin, ciprofloxacin and metronidazole has a profound and long-lasting effect on microbiota composition, the consequences of which remain largely unknown.


The mammary gland from midpregnant rabbits has been dissociated into individual cells by enzymatic digestion, divalent cation chelation, and gentle shearing. A heterogeneous cell population is obtained, comprising approximately 60% parenchymal cells, approximately 10% myoepithelial cells, and approximately 30% connective tissue cells, including fibroblasts, plasma cells, and microphages. The epithelial cells are characterized by the presence of fat droplets, which in 65% of the cells form large supranuclear vacuoles. Their buoyant density is less than 1.045, allowing their separation from myoepithelial cells and connective tissue cells by isopycnic centrifugation in a density gradient. The homogeneity of the epithelial cell fraction has been assessed by light and electron microscopy. The cells are viable and functionally active as indicated by their ability to exclude vital dyes, incorporate labeled precursors, consume oxygen, maintain intracellular Na+ and K+ concentrations, and retain their structural integrity. In addition, when cultured in Petri dishes, the cells grow as a monolayer, reestablish junctional complexes and retain cell polarity.


High-power lithium ion batteries are often rated with multiple current and voltage limits depending on the duration of the pulse event. These variable control limits, however, are difficult to realize in practice. In this paper, a linear Kalman filter based on a reduced order electrochemical model is designed to estimate internal battery potentials, concentration gradients, and state-of-charge (SOC) from external current and voltage measurements. A reference current governor predicts the operating margin with respect to electrode side reactions and surface depletion/saturation conditions responsible for damage and sudden loss of power. The estimates are compared with results from an experimentally validated, 1-D, nonlinear finite volume model of a 6 Ah hybrid electric vehicle battery. The linear filter provides, to within ~ 2%, performance in the 30%-70% SOC range except in the case of severe current pulses that draw electrode surface concentrations to near saturation and depletion, although the estimates recover as concentration gradients relax. With 4 to 7 states, the filter has low-order comparable to empirical equivalent circuit models commonly employed and described in the literature. Accurate estimation of the battery's internal electrochemical state enables an expanded range of pulse operation.


The notion of non-trivial topological winding in condensed matter systems represents a major area of present-day theoretical and experimental research. Magnetic materials offer a versatile platform that is particularly amenable for the exploration of topological spin solitons in real space such as skyrmions. First identified in non-centrosymmetric bulk materials, the rapidly growing zoology of materials systems hosting skyrmions and related topological spin solitons includes bulk compounds, surfaces, thin films, heterostructures, nano-wires and nano-dots. This underscores an exceptional potential for major breakthroughs ranging from fundamental questions to applications as driven by an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas between areas in magnetism which traditionally have been pursued rather independently. The skyrmionics Roadmap provides a review of the present state of the art and the wide range of research directions and strategies currently under way. These are, for instance, motivated by the identification of the fundamental structural properties of skyrmions and related textures, processes of nucleation and annihilation in the presence of non-trivial topological winding, an exceptionally efficient coupling to spin currents generating spin transfer torques at tiny current densities, as well as the capability to purpose-design broad-band spin dynamic and logic devices.


A transient phase-measuring technique that uses a self-pumped phase-conjugate mirror as an optical novelty filter is presented. A change in the reflectivity of the mirror as a function of a change in the incident wave front permits the transient measurement of a two-dimensional phase distribution. This method allows us to investigate fast processes using media with slow response. A simple theoretical model explains the experimental results with sufficient accuracy. The results can be used for the calibration of the measuring system. The described method is used for the measurement of a temporally varying wave front.


INTRODUCTION
Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy uses different maximum treatment pressures. A side effect of HBO2 is oxygen toxicity seizure. The purpose of this study was to determine the overall incidence of oxygen toxicity seizure and assess risk at different treatment pressures.

METHOD
A retrospective chart review was performed on patients who underwent HBO2 at a university hospital and at an outpatient center. Statistical analysis was performed to determine overall incidence of seizure and identify risk factors including maximum treatment pressure.

RESULTS
A total of 931 patients were identified representing a total of 23,328 treatments. The overall incidence of seizure was one in 2,121 treatments (five per 10,000). There were zero per 10,000 at 2.0 atmospheres absolute/atm abs (0/16,430), 15 per 10,000 at 2.4/2.5 atm abs (1/669) and 51 per 10,000 at 2.8 atm abs (1/197). There was a statistically significant difference for seizure between the different pressures (χ2 (2, 23,540) = 31.38, p < .001).

DISCUSSION
The overall incidence of oxygen toxicity seizure in this study is consistent with recent reports. This study demonstrated a statistically significant increased risk of seizure with increasing treatment pressure. Treatment at higher pressure should be chosen based on demonstrable benefit with a clear understanding of increased risk with higher pressure.


Exploring the relationship between domestic law and international law had been a hobbyhorse of German and French public law scholarship well into the early twentieth century. The relevant debates revolved around two major positions: "dualism", on the one hand, and "monism", on the other.With international co-operation becoming at least moderately successful in the wake of the Second World War, these debates were no longer continued. They came to be regarded as intellectual relics stemming from a different age. Often with little accuracy, they were presented in the introductory chapters of textbooks, based on an understanding that they concern mere constructive matters. They were taken to be irrelevant to the progress of humanity that was to be advanced by international law. Quite remarkably, the themes relevant to the old debate have been resuscitated in discourses dealing with final authority in the European Union. The themes have become mingled with discussions of federalism and are now presented, without further ado, as issues possessing a constitutional significance. Hence, traditional disputes are recast in a manner that appears to affect, in one way or another, the "constitutionalisation" of the Union. As is well known, the European constitutionalisation farrago has in the meanwhile spilled over into general international law. Remarkably, the constructive questions revert to their original intellectual habitat, even if in the new cloth of ideas concerning the purported constitution of international law.As is often the case in intellectual history, when prior debates are almost forgotten the reformulation of older ideas comes dressed up in new vocabulary. What has emerged from the constitutional context of Union Law and begun to reach out into general international law are (relatively) new kids on the block, namely, "pluralism" and "cosmopolitanism". Adorned with constitutional pathos they are advanced as alternatives to the trite dualist and the long abandoned monist paradigm. The article argues, first, that pluralism and cosmopolitanism do not really offer any alternatives. Making sense of the relevant positions requires translating them into the conceptual world of the received debate. If defensible, pluralism, either in simple or cosmopolitan form, formulates a new version of monism; if not, it amounts to a travesty of constitutional ideas, which assimilates legality to the mindset of administrative action. Moreover, it is argued below – in a spirit somewhat reminiscent of Kelsen – that choosing one construction over the other is a question of political philosophy. Monism commends itself not least owing to its superb constitutionalist sensibilities.


Current-mode control in digitally controlled switched-mode power supplies typically requires analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion of at least two signals, voltage, and current. The complexity of voltage A/D converters can be reduced using window A/D techniques. In conventional current A/D conversion, however, relatively high resolution is required over a wide range of signals, which results in increased complexity, power consumption, and cost of the controller. This paper proposes a very simple feedback sensor capable of high-resolution average inductor current sensing using two analog comparators and an analog low-pass filter. The approach requires very few external components and employs minimal digital hardware resources. A dynamic model and performance of the average inductor current sensor are experimentally verified on a 12-V input, 19-V output, 50-W boost converter prototype. The applicability of the proposed sensor is demonstrated in a digitally controlled 400-W, 400-V output Boost power factor preregulator.


Earth, water, sky, air and fire; these are the five elements (panchmahabhut) which are considered to be very important in the Indian philosophy regarding a way to lead life. It is said that these five elements are essential for the entire creation, environment, consciousness and development of the universe. Of these, the earth can be considered as being the main basis of the other four elements. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi believed that land, air, water, sunlight and sky are God's gifts and under no circumstances should these come under the control of any person, business group, industrial group or any centralised form of power. These belong to the masses and are public resources. In reality the State is only their trustee and not their owner as they belong to the people at large. Therefore, in reality, these elements should be made community based, localised and decentralised and not be brought under government control, centralised or brought under any corporate.


Displaying visually assistant for research in architecture is a necessity and importance of using new technologies in this matter is inevitable. One of the main assistant for them could be analyzing the effect of non-built environment on human behavior. Also some studies use VR to analyze human behavior but all of them are implemented in lab environment and until now no study tries to examine the human behavior in a real urban context. So this survey diverse underestimated wide range of new technologies with the three-dimensional structure, and finally "Augmented Reality" is chose. Due to the implementation of AR in open spaces, some successful methodologies have been tested for accuracy of registration and City 3D-AR is selected as a practical test. Therefore, environmental factors, according to the characteristics of desired visual have been simulated and virtually laid out in Open Space of Residential Complex. Simulated factors with information of their latitude and longitude, by an interface (API), entered in the Android version of this software. By putting the smartphone in a location and angle that environmental factors have been laid out, these factors have been integrated with its surroundings and through the vent of screen mobile phone is visible. The results of the practical test show that augmented reality technology is a convenient and ideal way to visual characteristics of environmental factors in residential complexes with unique privileges such as freedom of polled individuals; a clear transition of issues and maximum similarity of the area of covered the test.


Introduction: The dynamism of new economy requires researchers in different disciplines including medicine, not only to create knowledge quickly but also to acquire and apply knowledge through knowledge sharing (KS). So, determining factors that may influence knowledge sharing among organizations has become an important area of research. The purpose of this paper is to identify and determine factors that positively affect knowledge sharing for inter-organizational collaboration among medical research centers and medical universities in Iran, as well as proposal of a comprehensive model for it. Methods: The method of this paper in data collection is mixed methods and applied research that was conducted in 2012. The faculty members of medical universities and research centers supervised by the Ministry of Health Treatment and Medical Education the population of the research included where "stratified random sampling" was used and a minimum required capacity of 423 people was provided. Spss 15, And Amos Graphics softwares as well as modeling methods of structural equation were used for testing hypotheses and assessment of the model. Results: With respect to the statistical results and the factor analysis from amongst three studied factors, results showed that only the effect of organizational factor on the frequency of inter-organizational knowledge sharing was recognized significant and the two individual and technical factors did not indicate significant effects on knowledge sharing. Eventually the inter-organizational knowledge sharing model was presented with the results obtained from the quantitative section. Conclusion: The results of this Study will provide empirical basis for planning and implementing knowledge sharing mechanisms.


Optimum production from a gas lift well mainly depends on proper injection gas quantity; injection pressure and depth of injection and gas lift valve performance. The quality of down hole gas lift valves plays a crucial role in achieving maximum efficiency of a gas lift system and uninterrupted oil and gas production. Gas lift valves can aid in the unloading and produce of a well. With the valves properly spaced and correctly pressured and proper selection of the port size, unloading proceeds in a stage-by-stage, valve-by-valve manner to the ideal point of lift, and maximum liquid production is reached. But if well situations change or if the gas lift design data was not very perfect, maximum liquid production is not achieved. Improper valve location, improper setting of operating pressures and gas pass at more than one point can stop wells from achieving maximum production. In this paper, smart gas lift valve which allows the port size of the gas lift to be remotely adjusted from the surface used computer program to determination of gas passage through the valve in order to distil real-time data on gas lift valve, on their turn these data are finally used for implementing conscious and forward looking control actions, ultimate results are, improved production profitability due to increased production rate, decreased operations cost and developed availability. Also the paper will address how smart gas lift valve will gain large benefits with different scenarios in natural flow and gas lift wells, will be illustrated in this paper; also investigate the effect of the valve port size, depth of injection on well productivity. The results show that smart gas lift valve can be used to control the amount of gas injection from down hole that leads to improve tubing well head pressure and enhanced well production and also indicated that the optimum opening is at 50% for both injection pressure rates. Keywords: Gas lift optimization, the effect of port size, depth effect


Conservation of heritage artifacts is a very sensitive task as conservators usually have very little information about the artifacts. Moreover, due to the uniqueness and the historic value of these artifacts, invasive analysis are not always possible. Therefore, without sampling options, conservators are required to use non-invasive diagnostic methods in order to identify the metal characteristics of the artifact. When confronted with an unknown artifact, conservators generate conceptual models of the corrosion forms. These models are based on formal representations of corrosion forms, but are not directly exploitable for drawing hypotheses regarding the underlying metal. This paper presents the design of a data structure generated from the conceptual models which supports the comparison and retrieval of corresponding artifacts. Integrated with a database of heritage artifacts, this data structure offers advanced decision support to conservators confronted with unknown artifacts.


One reason that tumors continue to grow unabated is that the immune system fails to mount a response to them. Solid tumors consist not only of the cancerous cells, but also a cast of supporting tissue in the form of stroma, which includes fibroblasts and vasculature. The tumor necrosis superfamily member LIGHT binds to the lymphotoxin-β receptor (LTβR) stromal cells and stimulates chemokine and adhesion molecule expression. LIGHT also binds T cells and serves as a costimulatory signal for T cell priming. Yu et al. found that expression of LIGHT, which was engineered to be resistant to proteolysis to increase surface expression, on tumor cells (Ag104 fibrosarcoma expressing the T cell epitope H-2Ld) promoted their rejection upon injection into host mice. The mice exposed to the LIGHT-expressing tumor then also rejected subsequent Ag104Ld tumors, even those not expressing LIGHT. Mice with established Ag104Ld tumors also showed tumor regression if Ag104Ld-LIGHT cells were injected into the tumor or were injected at a distal nontumorous site. Depletion of CD8+ T cells or exposure of the tumor-injected mice to an LTβR-immunoglobulin fusion protein, which competes for stromal LTβR binding of LIGHT, allowed tumor growth to proceed. Analysis of the Ag104Ld-LIGHT tumors from the mice, prior to rejection, showed that the stroma was stimulated to produce several chemokines and the adhesion molecule MAdCAM-1. Furthermore, naïve T cells were recruited to the tumor and activated. Thus, expression of LIGHT on a tumor population may allow the immune system to mount a response promoting the body's natural mechanism for defense against abnormal cells (see Houghton for commentary). P. Yu, Y. Lee, R. K. Chin, J. Wang, Y. Wang, A. Schietinger, M. Philip, H. Schreiber, Y.-X. Fu, Priming of naïve T cells inside tumors leads to eradication of established tumors. Nat. Immunol. 5, 141-149 (2004). [Online Journal] A. L. Houghton, LIGHTing the way for tumor immunity. Nat. Immunol. 5, 123-124 (2004). [Online Journal]


How our memory is affected as we age has been given considerable attention over recent decades as we strive to understand the cognitive processes involved. Memory types have been identified as either explicit (declarative - related to episodes or semantics) or implicit (non-declarative – related to procedures, habits, or earlier priming). Studies have identified likely age-related decline in explicit but not implicit memory though there are opposing results suggested from other studies. It is thought cognitive reserve capacities might explain any non-decline as aging individuals use alternative or additional pathways to 'remember'. This theory might be supported indirectly if older members remember material accurately but take longer to supply answers. In our current study we re-examined whether age-related differences in accuracy and speed of access in memory are present in both implicit and explicit memory processes and we increased the number of experimental age groups (from 2 to 3) - most previous studies have compared just two groups (young, and old). With three groups (young, middle-old, and older aged groups) we can identify trends across the age range towards deterioration or preservation of memory. We examined sixty-six participants (49 females; 17 males) aged 18 to 86 years (M = 50.27, SD = 21.06) from South-Eastern Queensland and divided these into younger (18 to 46 years of age), middle old (50 to 64) and older aged (65+) cohorts. Participants were administered tasks assessing implicit and explicit memory using computer presentations. Consistent with most prior research, no age differences were identified on accuracy in the implicit memory tasks (verbal and non-verbal, including priming), suggesting that memory for implicit material remains preserved. However, on the explicit memory tasks, older adults performed less accurately than the younger adults, indicative of decline in explicit memory as we age. The finding of a decline in explicit memory but no significant decline in implicit memory confirms most earlier research and is consistent with a view of modular decline rather than overall decline in memory with increasing age. In addition, differences found in speed of response in otherwise accurate implicit memory with older respondents significantly slower, suggests possible support for the cognitive reserve hypothesis.


This book offers a ground-breaking research methodology applied to an analysis of labor issues in Egypt. This volume is a sequel to a 1998 publication by the Economic Research Forum (ERF). Its true significance lies in the contributors' reliance on fresh data and solid analytical techniques used to examine a wide spectrum of pertinent issues concerning the labor market in Egypt. The range of topics includes labor supply, employment and unemployment, youth labor market school-to-work transition, internal and international migration, earnings and inequality, and gender and education. The papers in this volume are the very first research available based on data collected in the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey of 2006, a follow-up to the Egypt Labor Market Survey of 1998. The panel design used for collecting data is state-of-the-art methodology in the labor field, and has never before been implemented in Egypt on this scale.


We calculate energies and oscillator strengths of infrared transitions between ground and excited shallow acceptor states in quantum wells (QW's) for varying well width. The impurity states are calculated within a four-band effective-mass theory, which accounts for the valence-band mixing as well as for the mismatch of the band parameters and the dielectric constants between well and barrier materials. The envelope function is expanded into a basis set consisting of products of two-dimensional hydrogeniclike functions and impurity-free QW eigenfunctions at k parallel-to = 0. The present method is suited for s-type ground states as well as for p-type excited states. We obtain the absorption spectra for well widths ranging from 50 to 200 angstrom. We find an overall increase of the transition energies for decreasing well widths. For polarization in the layer planes, the oscillator strengths of the lines corresponding to the bulk G and D lines maintain their oscillator strengths for decreasing well widths, whereas the lines corresponding to the bulk C line are very weak for small well widths. On the other hand, in the case of polarization along the QW axis, the oscillator strengths of the main lines decrease considerably as the well width decreases. We compare our results with absorption spectra of a recent experiment, and find a fairly good agreement.


It has been suggested that the unequal coverage of different socio-economic groups by supplemental insurance could be a partial explanation for the inequality in access to health care in many countries. We analyse the situation in Belgium, a country with a very broad coverage in compulsory social health insurance and where supplemental insurance mainly refers to extra-billing in hospitals. We find that this institutional background is crucial for the explanation of the effects of supplemental insurance. We find no evidence of adverse selection in the coverage of supplemental health insurance, but strong effects of socio-economic background. A count model for hospital care shows that supplemental insurance has no significant effect on the number of spells, but a negative effect on the number of nights. This is in line with patterns of socio-economic stratification that have been well documented for Belgium. It is also in line with the regulation on extra-billing protecting patients in common rooms. For ambulatory care, we find a positive effect of supplemental insurance on visits to a dentist and on number of spells at a day centre but no effect on visits to a GP, on drugs consumption and on visits to a specialist.


Distributed in-memory key-value stores (KVSs), such as memcached, have become a critical data serving layer in modern Internet-oriented data center infrastructure. Their performance and efficiency directly affect the QoS of web services and the efficiency of data centers. Traditionally, these systems have had significant overheads from inefficient network processing, OS kernel involvement, and concurrency control. Two recent research thrusts have focused on improving key-value performance. Hardware-centric research has started to explore specialized platforms including FPGAs for KVSs; results demonstrated an order of magnitude increase in throughput and energy efficiency over stock memcached. Software-centric research revisited the KVS application to address fundamental software bottlenecks and to exploit the full potential of modern commodity hardware; these efforts also showed orders of magnitude improvement over stock memcached. We aim at architecting high-performance and efficient KVS platforms, and start with a rigorous architectural characterization across system stacks over a collection of representative KVS implementations. Our detailed full-system characterization not only identifies the critical hardware/software ingredients for high-performance KVS systems but also leads to guided optimizations atop a recent design to achieve a record-setting throughput of 120 million requests per second (MRPS) (167MRPS with client-side batching) on a single commodity server. Our system delivers the best performance and energy efficiency (RPS/watt) demonstrated to date over existing KVSs including the best-published FPGA-based and GPU-based claims. We craft a set of design principles for future platform architectures, and via detailed simulations demonstrate the capability of achieving a billion RPS with a single server constructed following our principles.


In ad hoc wireless networks, it is crucial to minimize power consumption while maintaining key network properties. This work studies power assignments of wireless devices that minimize power while maintaining k-fault tolerance. Specifically, we require all links established by this power setting be symmetric and form a k-vertex connected subgraph of the network graph. This problem is known to be NP-hard. We show current heuristic approaches can use arbitrarily more power than the optimal solution. Hence, we seek approximation algorithms for this problem. We present three approximation algorithms. The first algorithm gives an O(kalpha)-approximation where is the best approximation factor for the related problem in wired networks (the best alpha so far is O(log k)). With a more careful analysis, we show our second (slightly more complicated) algorithm is an O(k)-approximation. Our third algorithm assumes that the edge lengths of the network graph form a metric. In this case, we present simple and practical distributed algorithms for the cases of 2- and 3-connectivity with constant approximation factors. We generalize this algorithm to obtain an O(k2c+2)-approximation for general k-connectivity (2 les c les 4 is the power attenuation exponent). Finally, we show that these approximation algorithms compare favorably with existing heuristics. We note that all algorithms presented in this paper can be used to minimize power while maintaining -edge connectivity with guaranteed approximation factors. Recently, different set of authors used the notion of k-connectivity and the results of this paper to deal with the fault-tolerance issues for static wireless network settings.


We present Shadow Honeypots, a novel hybrid architecture that combines the best features of honeypots and anomaly detection. At a high level, we use a variety of anomaly detectors to monitor all traffic to a protected network or service. Traffic that is considered anomalous is processed by a "shadow honeypot" to determine the accuracy of the anomaly prediction. The shadow is an instance of the protected software that shares all internal state with a regular ("production") instance of the application, and is instrumented to detect potential attacks. Attacks against the shadow are caught, and any incurred state changes are discarded. Legitimate traffic that was misclassified will be validated by the shadow and will be handled correctly by the system transparently to the end user. The outcome of processing a request by the shadow is used to filter future attack instances and could be used to update the anomaly detector. Our architecture allows system designers to fine-tune systems for performance, since false positives will be filtered by the shadow. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach in a proof-ofconcept implementation of the Shadow Honeypot architecture for the Apache web server and the Mozilla Firefox browser. We show that despite a considerable overhead in the instrumentation of the shadow honeypot (up to 20% for Apache), the overall impact on the system is diminished by the ability to minimize the rate of false-positives.


We present a comparison study between communication protocols relative to carbon footprint within enterprise network. The comparative study focuses on three factors; the communication protocols (transmission control protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP)) of the transport layer, the quality of service (QoS) offered by the transmission line and the data encoding schemes in the physical layer. The high quality transmission lines produce low carbon footprint, whereby the maximum capacity of transmission line is utilized to reduce the number of transmissions. The carbon footprint of an enterprise is estimated from the power spectrum of the transmitted packets through Manchester coding. The enterprise is often susceptible to heavy transactions at the backbone, thereby producing more carbon footprint. Consequently, the carbon footprint reduction within the enterprise is formulated as an optimization problem, wherein the given single enterprise is synthesized into suitable clusters by integrating the heavily communicating nodes together. The simulation results demonstrate that a typical single enterprise comprising of 100 nodes with 4 GB backbone traffic when both the UDP and TCP utilize high capacity link produces low and nearly equal volumes of carbon. However, the difference becomes significantly high with the link offering poor QoS, in which, UDP based transmissions produce 14% less carbon than TCP based transmissions. The optimization within molecular assembly manages to produce 64.5% reduced annual carbon emission than the initial network.


This Article provides a new perspective on the growth of secret law in the United States. It is widely assumed that the U.S. government's exercise of national security powers suffers from excessive secrecy. Although secrecy presents significant challenges, it does not alone explain the lack of clarity surrounding the government's legal justifications for using military force, conducting surveillance, or exercising other national security powers. The Article argues that what is often labeled "secret law" may also be understood as a consequence of how legal standards are used in this context. The Article draws on the larger rules versus standards literature to help unpack the debate over secret law. This literature suggests that standards should become clearer and more predictable over time as a body of law accrues. The Article demonstrates, however, that in the national security context, standards tend to expand, becoming more fluid and indeterminate. While secrecy may impact the inflationary trajectory of national security standards, it does not alone explain it. The Article urges greater attention to how these standards are formulated and applied to produce a body of law that is more determinate and predictable and less prone to expansion. The Article also cautions against viewing national security as a form of legal exceptionalism and instead notes its connections to administrative law more generally.


A deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) microarray has the ability to record huge amount of genetic information simultaneously. Previous researches have shown that this technology can be helpful in the classification of cancers and their treatments outcomes. This has encouraged information technology engineers to cooperate in microarray data analysis for enhancing medicine and biology technologies. Typically, cancer-related microarray data are consisted of high dimensional gene expression levels (as features) for a limited number of samples. This characteristic in the structure of microarray data causes the phenomenon known as the curse of dimensionality, which is a particularly problem for standard classification models. It contradicts to the required ratio of samples to genes which should be much greater than 1 and it makes the direct application of machine learning techniques inefficient. Consequently, gene selection techniques have become a crucial element in the classification of microarray data. Based on previous researches in the context of microarray data classification, the results obtained from the classification of breast cancer data have the lowest accuracy among them. Therefore, this study was aimed in improving the classification accuracy of clinical outcomes for breast cancer by gene expression profiling. Filter and wrapper for gene selection are the main techniques in many existing microarray data analysis. Promising results obtained from filter-wrapper techniques have led to the design of a proposed model for this study. A gene selection model that integrates rank-partition and sequential wrapper was designed to find optimal subset of the most informative genes that enhances the predictive power of gene expression profiling. Evaluation of the obtained results for breast cancer data set demonstrates that the proposed integrated model achieved the objective in finding the optimal subset of the most informative genes that has the predictive power of 87% accuracy compared to 83% of the original study and 77% of the shrunken centroid method.


A young man had a congenital sinus of Valsalva aneurysm originating from the right coronary sinus, complicated by fistulas draining into both right atrium and right ventricle, as well as a congenitally abnormal aortic valve with mild aortic insufficiency. His dramatic clinical presentation, with the sudden appearance of severe biventricular cardiac failure unresponsive to intensive medical therapy, was an important clue to making the correct pre-operative diagnosis. The use of non-invasive techniques, such as phonocardiography and M-mode and two-dimensional echocardiography, is highlighted. Full cardiac catheterization was employed to define the cardiac pathophysiology. This was one of the few cases documented in which a catheter could be passed from the aorta into the right ventricle via the fistula connecting these two chambers. The fistulas were closed and the aortic valve replaced. Postoperative investigations confirmed the success of corrective surgery. As far as we are aware this is the first documented case of successful repair of a congenital sinus of Valsalva aneurysm rupturing into both the right atrium and right ventricle, accompanied by aortic insufficiency.


The enforcement of foreign arbitral awards has been recognized and accepted internationally through the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. However, the Convention also allows the court where the enforcement is sought to refuse the enforcement of an award. This kind of judicial control is very important. However, it should be conducted in accordance with the refusal grounds stipulated in the Convention. The refusal grounds are restrictive and should be interpreted narrowly. The use of other grounds other than and/or overly broad interpretation of the refusal grounds provided by the Convention will make it inefficient, which is from the outset the aim was to ease the recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award in Contracting Parties of the Convention. This paper discusses the implementation of judicial control of foreign arbitral awards in Indonesia. It seeks to find out whether the judicial control of foreign arbitral awards in Indonesia has been in line with the requirements of the New York Convention. It finds that judicial control of foreign arbitral awards made by Indonesia's judiciary sometimes could be considered not in line with the requirements of the New York Convention.


Many web applications store persistent data in databases. During execution, such applications spend a significant amount of time communicating with the database for retrieval and storing of persistent data over the network. These network round trips represent a significant fraction of the overall execution time for many applications and as a result increase their latency. While there has been prior work that aims to eliminate round trips by batching queries, they are limited by 1) a requirement that developers manually identify batching opportunities, or 2) the fact that they employ static program analysis techniques that cannot exploit many opportunities for batching. In this paper, we present Sloth, a new system that extends traditional lazy evaluation to expose query batching opportunities during application execution, even across loops, branches, and method boundaries. We evaluated Sloth using over 100 benchmarks from two large-scale open-source applications, and achieved up to a 3x reduction in page load time by delaying computation.