: The practice of longwall mining is potentially an efficient and cost effective means of extracting coal from underground seams. However, for production targets to be achieved not only must the longwall perform as expected but roadway development must be kept ahead of the longwall advance. The evaluation of development options is a challenging exercise due to the interactions between mining, tramming and clearance operations. In particular, the high levels of variability and uncertainty in operations make it difficult to assess how a particular configuration may perform. A simulation model RoadSIM using the A RENA modelling system has been produced to assist in the analysis of the roadway development process. The RoadSIM simulator provides means for assessing the operational limitations of roadway development practices at a particular coalmine. The simulation model provides a what if tool to allow a range of equipment, configuration and operating practices to be assessed in terms of achievable advance rates and equipment utilisation. Output from the simulator is in the form of a dynamic visualisation as well as summary reports and detailed logs of operations over time.


Under Black-Scholes assumptions, the returns process for an option's underlying asset follows a logarithmic diffusion. The volatility parameter determines all aspects of risk. But Black-Scholes falls short of explaining real world returns, as well as real world option prices. Extensions to the model add stochastic volatility, possibly through a stochastic time-change, or jumps; or might even replace the diffusion entirely with an infinity of jumps of different sizes as in the variance gamma (VG) model. These models are flexible enough that they all can fit a sample of returns and price plain vanilla options quite well. This article brings into consideration another type of option contract: the one-touch option. The payoffs on these path-dependent contracts are determined not by the level of the underlying at expiration but by the extreme values along the price path from the initial date to expiration. The option pays when, and only if, the underlying hits a prespecified level at some point during its lifetime. Buesser notes that the various returns processes have quite different path behavior, so calibrating against one-touch options provides a significant source of additional information about the market dynamics investors expect. Comparing relative performance across models for the FX market, plain vanilla options on USDEUR and JPYUSD appear to embed a substantially different returns process than is implied by one-touch options.


The aim of the present work is to describe the semantics and the discursive functions from a general cognitivist point of view of the usage of the Present Perfect in the spoken Spanish of Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. It is argued that cross-linguistic values often ascribed to perfect, such as continuity, current relevance and recency to the speech time –ST– do not offer a consistent view of the actual usage. It is assumed that a basic meaning of the perfect operates in the studied dialects and is retrievable in all tokens, which differs significantly from the current descriptions of the perfect of "general" Spanish. The results show that the ST might very well be an inference of the basic meaning of the Perfect but it is not an intrinsic component of the Perfect's semantics. Based mainly on Dahl & Hedin (2000), as well as on Langacker (1987), the revitalizing of the concepts type and token reference are suggested as key principles for identifying the respective domains of the Spanish Present Perfect and the Simple Past in the studied area. The Perfect, through type reference, makes an assertion of a situation as a representation of the class-type of the verbal semantics. The Simple Past, however, through token reference conceptualizes the situation as having explicit or implicit anchoring in the chronological axis of time. Three main kinds of contexts occur typically with the Perfect in the samples: detemporalized ascertainment, summary (in a broad sense of the word) and aspectual complexity. Summary scanning (Langacker, 1987), i.e. the schematic and holistic detemporalized conceptualization of the development of a given situation, is claimed to be used by informants for discursive purposes, granting a greater rhetorical weight to the Perfect. The results founded in this thesis indicate that the perfect tenses in Spanish have followed (and are following) different developmental paths that are not necessarily restricted to the same sequences and mode of grammaticalization.


Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of Khanda Pippali Avaleha in the management of Amlapitta 2 and to compare the efficacy of Khanda Pippali Avaleha with a standard drug. Materials and Methods: A total of 30 clinically diagnosed patients were selected from OPD/IPD of Panchakarma, Department of Rishikul Campus, Haridwar, and randomly categorized into two equal group. In Group A, Khanda Pippali Avaleha was administered orally in a dose of 10 g. Period of the study was for 60 days along with follow-up after 1 month. In control group, omeprazole was given in the dose 20 mg once a day for 60 days empty stomach. The assessment was done on the basis of classical symptomology of Amlapitta. Results and Discussion: Obtained results were analyzed statistically, and significance of results was evaluated (GraphPad InStat 3.10). Interventions were found to be significantly effective in reducing Daha, Amlodgara, Shula, Chhardi, and Avipaka and associated symptoms with P < 0.001, more percentage relief was found in Daha, Amlodgara, and Shula in patients treated with the standard drug. After 1 month of treatment, more sustained response was observed in patients treated with Khanda Pippali Avaleha. In Group A, only 7.69% show relapse to moderate improvement after having marked improvement. In Group B, 16.66% show relapse from marked to mild improvement. Conclusion: A small attempt has been made to prove Khanda Pippali Avaleha is quite promising and efficacious treatment; its efficacy can be better interpreted by conducting a clinical trial on large sample.


Business surveys provide a timely read of the average rate of capacity utilisation at Australian firms. However, discussions with company managers in the Reserve Bank's business liaison program reveal considerable variation in how 'capacity utilisation' is interpreted. This variation is important, as it affects the interpretation of survey measures of capacity utilisation and their implications for firms' resourcing needs and pricing decisions. For firms in the more capitalintensive goods-related industries, a high level of capacity utilisation may reveal an impetus to hire more labour and to invest in the capital stock, while for services firms it is more likely to reflect an incentive to hire more labour only. Consequently, movements in aggregate measures of capacity utilisation are likely to contain information about the labour market, while the implications for business investment are likely to be identified at a more granular level. Much of the recent increase in survey measures of capacity utilisation has been driven by services firms. In contrast, capacity utilisation remains relatively low for firms in goods-related industries, which may help to explain why aggregate capital expenditure has remained subdued.


Rule extraction (RE) from recurrent neural networks (RNNs) refers to finding models of the underlying RNN, typically in the form of finite state machines, that mimic the network to a satisfactory degree while having the advantage of being more transparent. RE from RNNs can be argued to allow a deeper and more profound form of analysis of RNNs than other, more or less ad hoc methods. RE may give us understanding of RNNs in the intermediate levels between quite abstract theoretical knowledge of RNNs as a class of computing devices and quantitative performance evaluations of RNN instantiations. The development of techniques for extraction of rules from RNNs has been an active field since the early 1990s. This article reviews the progress of this development and analyzes it in detail. In order to structure the survey and evaluate the techniques, a taxonomy specifically designed for this purpose has been developed. Moreover, important open research issues are identified that, if addressed properly, possibly can give the field a significant push forward.


Low and highly variable rainfall are major sources of risk for farms in semiarid environments, including the Mallee region of Australia where risk management is largely based on a conservative, low-input approach. This approach has substantial opportunity costs (missing the benefits of wetter seasons) and low yield per unit rainfall. We combined field and modeling experiments to evaluate an intensive, flexible cropping approach based on (i) an opportunistic combination of crops, including wheat (Triticum aestivum L), canola (Brassica napus L.), and grain legumes, and (ii) a close matching of N input to soil and seasonal conditions. In a 4-yr field trial established on a coarse-textured soil, an intensive cropping approach doubled gross margin and halved its coefficient of variation in relation to current practice. Modeling experiments revealed the underlying mechanisms of this response and estimated the effect of cropping intensification on N leaching and deep drainage. Simulated yield improvement under intensive cropping was related to increased water use efficiency [biomass per unit evapotranspiration (ET)] at the expense of N use efficiency (biomass per unit of N uptake); this is consistent with the theoretical expectation that plant growth is maximized when all resources are equally limiting. Simulations indicated no substantial increase in N leaching and moderate decrease in drainage beyond the root zone with the more intensive approach. The approach to intensification in this research provides a platform to improve production and profit and to reduce its seasonal variation with neutral or positive effects on environmentally relevant processes.


When developing a "smart healthcare" application that takes the participants beyond their experience of the conventional analogue of that application, a challenge is to gather the requirements for the application and to map those requirements onto a successful design.  Some requirements will come from the conventional way of delivering the healthcare service.  Some will come from the domains of the technologies that have been used to create the smart healthcare application.  Some requirements, however, particularly for point-of-care applications, will emerge from the interplay of the actual clinical situation and the novelty of the smart healthcare application.  This paper draws on a case study of the development and clinical trial of a point-of-care telehealth application at a tertiary level of healthcare to illustrate the process of requirements elucidation and the mapping of those requirements onto the design of the telehealth system.  The telehealth application supports outpatient consultations for post-operative paediatric surgery patients.  The consultations involve multiple participants, each with different requirements for the application.  They engage in a complex dialogue supported by many shared sets of patient data.  They bring differing points of view to the consultation and have differing criteria for a successful outcome. The case study highlights that, at this complex level of healthcare, important requirements for the ongoing success of a smart healthcare application may be uncovered during early clinical trials.  While these early clinical trials need to focus on clinical outcomes, they also need to not be bound by rigid trial protocols. Unforeseen events and behaviour may occur during the trials. These should be accommodated, in the interests of the patient, and properly recorded, so that they can contribute to a wider understanding of what is needed for the healthcare application to be successful.


The South African government's Strategic Arms Package (SAP), has been
the largest public controversy of the post-Apartheid era. We synthesise the debates
about two dimensions of the SAP, military necessity and affordability, in order to
get a better understanding of civil-military relations in democratic South Africa. Our
synthesis shows that the economic enthusiasm about the SAP is both naive and an
opportunity for government and dominant business and industry to wed their
interests in a way that is not that different from the Apartheid era. In military terms,
the SAP has equipped the South African Air Force (SAAF) and South African Navy
(SAN) for the most improbable of primary missions. The equipment is also not very
relevant to secondary missions. The way that the SAP decisions were reached
suggests that civil-military relations are marked by the continuing impact of past
compromises, corruption and the centralisation of power in the executive branch. Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies Vol. 36 (1) 2008: pp. 52-77


The paper launches a normative debate on an under-assessed health policy problem, namely post-war mental health. It explores its ethical dimensions and argues for a strong moral claim to invest in it as a form of reparation that must be added to the jus post-bellum's truncated list of recommendations. Many countries are currently involved in armed conflict and many more still recovering from past wars. These generally belong to the low-to-middle income group that spend minimally on social and health expenditures.The problem worsens post-war for these countries are burdened with an increased prevalence of mental health disorders with far-reaching repercussions. Failure to recognize in particular war-related psychosocial sequels could weaken capacity to recover and may contribute to a nation's socio-political unrest that could perpetuate throughout generations. The paper argues that reconstructing war-torn societies should be achieved by rebuilding first and foremost the shattered individual. Policy-makers have a stronger positive obligation to invest in post-war mental health because of a shared responsibility for the harm inflicted. This consequently means a shared responsibility in building a sustainable and viable post-war 'minimally just state'.The paper draws on Pogge's 'relational conceptions of justice' and the concept of'shared responsibility' used in contemporary environmental discourses. It challenges the old paradigmatic model of the just-war tradition which views the world as an archipelagos of well-delineated, self-contained and atomized actors. It also aims to set the stage for an 'ethics of post-war mental health' in line with what Ricoeur calls 'an ethics of memory'.


1. Answering many of the critical questions in conservation, development and environmental management requires integrating the social and natural sciences. However, understanding the array of available quantitative methods and their associated terminology presents a major barrier to successful collaboration. 2. We provide an overview of quantitative socio-economic methods that distils their complexity into a simple taxonomy. We outline how each has been used in conjunction with ecological models to address questions relating to the management of socio-ecological systems. 3. We review the application of social and ecological quantitative concepts to agro-ecology and classify the approaches used to integrate the two disciplines. Our review included all published integrated models from 2003 to 2008 in 27 journals that publish agricultural modelling research. Although our focus is on agro-ecology, many of the results are broadly applicable to other fields involving an interaction between human activities and ecology. 4. We found 36 papers that integrated social and ecological concepts in a quantitative model. Four different approaches to integration were used, depending on the scale at which human welfare was quantified. Most models viewed humans as pure profit maximizers, both when calculating welfare and predicting behaviour. 5. Synthesis and applications. We reached two main conclusions based on our taxonomy and review. The first is that quantitative methods that extend predictions of behaviour and measurements of welfare beyond a simple market value basis are underutilized by integrated models. The second is that the accuracy of prediction for integrated models remains largely unquantified. Addressing both problems requires researchers to reach a common understanding of modelling goals and data requirements during the early stages of a project.


Recently, optical fibers comprising a crystalline semiconductor core in a silica cladding have been successfully drawn by a conventional drawing process. These fibers are expected to exhibit a photoconductive response when illuminated by photons more energetic than the band gap of the core. In the photoconducting state, such a fiber can be expected to support driven RF currents so as to function as an antenna element, much as a plasma antenna. In this paper, we report the first device-related results on a crystalline semiconductor core optical fiber potentially useful in a photoconducting optical fiber antenna array; namely, optically induced changes to the electrical conductivity of a glass-clad germanium-core optical fiber. Since DC photoconduction measurements were masked by a photovoltaic effect, RF measurements at 5 MHz were used to determine the magnitude of the induced photoconductive effect. The observed photoconductivity, though not large in the present experiment, was comparable to that measured for the bulk crystals from which the fibers were drawn. The absorbed pumping light generated photo-carriers, thereby transforming the core from a dielectric material to a conductor. This technology could thus enable a class of transient antenna elements useful in low observable and reconfigurable antenna array applications.


Title of Dissertation: ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS IN TIDAL MARSHES CONSTRUCTED WITH FINE GRAINED, NUTRIENT RICH DREDGED MATERIAL Lorie Winchell Staver, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Professor J. Court Stevenson, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science An ecological study was undertaken of the tidal marshes at Poplar Island, a restoration project utilizing fine grained dredged material from the shipping channels in upper Chesapeake Bay. The goals of the study were to examine the effect of a nutrient rich substrate on vegetation development, elevation change, and nutrient cycling in the constructed tidal marshes. Specifically, I examined macrophyte production, nitrogen (N), carbon (C) and silicon (Si) budgets, as well as the success of a silica amendment in enriching plant tissue concentrations. Establishment of Spartina alterniflora and S. patens on fine grained dredged material was rapid, and growth peaked in the second year. Thereafter S. alterniflora dieback occurred sporadically during the growing season, but the causes remain unclear. Elevation change averaged 7.9 ±0.8 mm y in the dredged material marshes (low marsh only), compared to 7.4 ±1.4 mm y in a low nutrient onsite reference marsh. Elevation change was significantly correlated with biomass production suggesting that inputs of organic matter from high rates of aboveground biomass production on nutrient rich dredged material offset the reduced contribution of belowground biomass to vertical accretion. However, dieback may have a detrimental effect on vertical accretion, which is essential for keeping up with apparent sea level rise (13.6 and 11.0 mm y at Baltimore and Solomon's tide gauges, respectively) since elevation monitoring began at Poplar Island. The tidal flux study revealed that the marsh exports ~665 kg of N y, including 100 kg NH4 -N y, and 67,874 kg y TSS, and imports 35 kg NO3-N y . Silicon is also exported on both a seasonal and annual basis, including 4,337 kg dissolved Si y and 3,924 kg biogenic Si y, with highest exports in July, an overlooked benefit of dredged material restoration projects. Soil Si amendments increased plant tissue concentrations significantly, but this study did not show increased resistance to N related stress effects on the vegetation. Overall, this study suggests that when considering trajectories of vegetation development, nutrient exchanges and elevation change in constructed marshes, it is essential to consider the initial nitrogen content of the substrate. ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS IN TIDAL MARSHES CONSTRUCTED WITH FINE GRAINED, NUTRIENT RICH DREDGED MATERIAL


Objectives: To translate the Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ) into Portuguese and adapt it to the Brazilian context, for use in children and adolescents with asthma and to validate the adapted version of the questionnaire (PAQLQ-A). Methods: Children and adolescents (7 to 17 years old) with asthma answered the PAQLQ-A on admission and were assessed using a clinical severity score. According to this score, patients were classified as mild ( 2). They were reassessed on at least two occasions at an interval of 2 to 4 weeks. Furthermore, patients in whom asthma was properly controlled were classified as stable, and those in whom it could not be controlled, as unstable. Results: The reproducibility of the PAQLQ-A was evaluated in stable patients by comparing the mean domain scores: symptoms, emotions, activities, and the overall clinical severity score on two predefined occasions with an interval of 15 to 30 days in between. Responsiveness was evaluated among unstable patients. The mean domain scores and the overall score were different on both occasions, and so was the clinical severity score. The validity of the questionnaire was determined by the application of Cronbachis alpha reliability coefficient (α = 0.909). Conclusions: The translation of the PAQLQ into Portuguese did not modify the framework of the original questionnaire; the PAQLQA is easy to use, with easy reproducibility, constituting a valuable instrument for the evaluation of the quality of life in children and adolescents with asthma.


Fine particulate organic matter (FPOM) accumulated in streambeds is a major component of organic matter budgets in headwater streams and greatly affects productivity and metabolism of stream communities. The spatiotemporal distribution of benthic FPOM in the stream, as well as its quantity and quality, depend on inputs from different source types. These can be natural such as soils, streambanks and riparian vegetation, or anthropogenic such as effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). In addition, stream flow is a key driver of FPOM dynamics, which influences the balance between its transport and accumulation in the streambed. Yet, the link between FPOM dynamics and its effects on stream metabolism is still largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of stream channel hydromorphology on water transport and streambed accumulation of fine particulate matter (FPM) (mineral and organic fractions), FPOM (organic fraction) and its quality (characterized by %OM, %C, %N and the C:N molar ratio). In addition, we quantified the metabolic activity associated with FPM at the habitat scale, and its potential contribution to whole-reach ecosystem respiration using the resazurin-resorufin bioreactive tracer as a proxy for aerobic respiration. We also characterized water transport and metabolic activity with combined additions of hydrological and bioreactive tracers at the reach scale. The study was conducted in the Cànoves stream (Catalonia, NE Spain) downstream of a WWTP that contains three reaches that were hydromorphologically modified using bioengineering techniques. Slower local velocities at the habitat scale increased accumulation of FPM, but did not influence the spatial variability of its quality. Instead, FPM quality declined further downstream from the WWTP. Accumulation of FPM did not increase metabolic activity, but higher %OM of FPM and lower C:N ratios favored the microbial metabolic activity efficiency (normalized by the gram of FPM). Reach-scale metabolic activity was higher in reaches with higher water exchange rate and longer relative travel times, highlighting hydromorphology as an important driver of microbial metabolic activity at the reach-scale. This demonstrates that the interplay of hydrologic exchange and residence time in streambed sediments associated with the microbial metabolic activity of FPOM can ultimately influence reach-scale metabolic activity.


ABSTRACT We investigated the adaptation to milk of Streptococcus thermophilus LMG18311 using a proteomic approach. Two-dimensional electrophoresis of cytosolic proteins were performed after growth in M17 medium or in milk. A major modification of the proteome concerned proteins involved in the supply of amino acids, like the peptidase PepX, and several enzymes involved in amino acid biosynthesis. In parallel, we observed the upregulation of the synthesis of seven enzymes directly involved in the synthesis of purines, as well as formyl-tetrahydrofolate (THF) synthetase and serine hydroxy-methyl transferase, two enzymes responsible for the synthesis of compounds (THF and glycine, respectively) feeding the purine biosynthetic pathway. The analysis also revealed a massive increase in the synthesis of pyruvate formate-lyase (PFL), the enzyme which converts pyruvate into acetyl coenzyme A and formate. PFL has been essentially studied for its role in mixed-acid product formation in lactic acid bacteria during anaerobic fermentation. However, formate is an important methyl group donor for anabolic pathway through the formation of folate derivates. We hypothesized that PFL was involved in purine biosynthesis during growth in milk. We showed that PFL expression was regulated at the transcriptional level and that pfl transcription occurred during the exponential growth phase in milk. The complementation of milk with formate or purine bases was shown to reduce pfl expression, to suppress PFL synthesis, and to stimulate growth of S. thermophilus. These results show a novel regulatory mechanism controlling the synthesis of PFL and suggest an unrecognized physiological role for PFL as a formate supplier for anabolic purposes.


A wide range of problems such as signal reconstruction, denoising, source separation, feature selection, and graphical model search are addressed today by posterior maximization for linear models with sparsity-favouring prior distributions. The Bayesian posterior contains useful information far beyond its mode, which can be used to drive methods for sampling optimization (active learning), feature relevance ranking, or hyperparameter estimation, if only this representation of uncertainty can be approximated in a tractable manner. In this paper, we review recent results for variational sparse inference, and show that they share underlying computational primitives. We discuss how sampling optimization can be implemented as sequential Bayesian experimental design. While there has been tremendous recent activity to develop sparse estimation, little attendance has been given to sparse approximate inference. In this paper, we argue that many problems in practice, such as compressive sensing for real-world image reconstruction, are served much better by proper uncertainty approximations than by ever more aggressive sparse estimation algorithms. Moreover, since some variational inference methods have been given strong convex optimization characterizations recently, theoretical analysis may become possible, promising new insights into nonlinear experimental design.


Title of Document: PRESERVATION AS PERPETUATION: A REVIEW OF FEDERAL TRIBAL CULTURAL PRESERVATION RECOMMENDATIONS AND PROGRAMS Rachel E. H. Brown, Masters of Historic, 2012 Directed By: Dr. Don Linebaugh, Director, Historic Preservation Program One of the goals of the modern Indian movement is the protection and perpetuation of tribal cultural practices, which includes the retention of tribal language, religion, oral histories, and the protection of sacred sites. Both the modern Indian movement and the preservation movement can trace similar paths in their rise in popularity, and their efforts to advance certain policy initiatives in the 20 century. These movements, however, have sometimes come into conflict with one another. U.S. preservation policies and programs were initially strictly focused on the preservation of historic buildings, and using preservation to tell the American story. Recognition of sacred sites or tribal connections to the land, as well as telling the Native American point of view of western expansion was not a priority of federal efforts to preserve America's past. Throughout the 1970's and 1980's, tribes fought for greater recognition of the significance of traditional cultural properties and the repatriation of Indian human remains and sacred and funerary objects. In response, Congressional directed the National Park Service (NPS) to report on funding needs related to sites of historical significance on Indian lands. The NPS subsequently issued a report titled Keepers of the Treasures: Protecting Historic Properties and Cultural Traditions on Indian Lands (Keepers of the Treasures). The report concluded that tribes must have an opportunity to participate fully in the national historic preservation program, but on terms that respect their cultural values, traditions, and sovereignty. The report concluded with thirteen policy recommendations to Congress regarding ways in which the federal government could create, adapt, or change preservation programs to better suit the unique needs of Indian tribes. Keepers of the Treasures was issued 21 years ago and raised many concerns about the effectiveness of federal preservation programs in relation to Indian tribes and cultural preservation. After two decades, many issues and questions raised in the report remain unresolved or unanswered. Through an evaluation of NPS preservation programs and the thirteen recommendations made in Keepers of the Treasures, this paper analyzes the efforts made by the federal government to adapt its preservation programs to assist Native American communities (American Indian tribes, Native Alaska Villages and Corporations, and Native Hawaiian Organizations) with cultural preservation projects. Additionally, this study attempts to document the ways in which preservation priorities of Native American communities have shifted over the last 21 years. The overall goal of this paper is to help the federal government improve its effectiveness in assisting tribes as they work to preserve not only significant sites, but also tribal language and culture. PRESERVATION AS PERPETUATION: A REVIEW OF FEDERAL TRIBAL CULTURAL PRESERVATION RECOMMENDATIONS AND PROGRAMS


Micro-level analyses of the farm sector may be conducted at intra-household, household or village levels. Most economists have preferred to work at the household level because of the existence of a well-developed farm-household theory. Empirical studies at the micro level have mostly used econometric or mathematical programming approaches. For both, but especially the former, the strong assumption of separability of production and consumption decisions is usually crucial. While the number and sophistication of empirical studies continue to grow, operational shortcomings remain severe. The limited use in policy making of many analyses is noted and the merits of combining comprehensive formal models with less formal and relatively simple approaches are canvassed.


The purpose of this article was to identify psychosocial determinants of childhood and adolescent obesity. Some of the determinants were considered non-modifiable such as genetics, sex, age, and race. The risk of developing obesity started early on in life, with high birth weight, rapid growth in infancy, maternal smoking during pregnancy, and lack of breastfeeding indicated as positive predictors. Family food environment and dietary behaviors were considered modifiable determinants and included: consumption of unhealthy foods, portion sizes, snacking, and number of family meals. Physical activity was also considered a protective factor against the development of obesity, with overweight children significantly less active than those who were non-overweight. Recommendations for successful interventions and future research were discussed.


The appearance of interference blots and of the dislocation of interference fringes is studied by means of modeling an arbitrary inhomogeneous birefringent medium with rotating principal optical axes by a system of two birefringent plates. A theoretical explanation of these irregularities is given. Conditions for the appearance of interference blots and fringe dislocations are derived. A method of classification of singular points in the fringe patterns is presented.


Clinical Significance Glycosylated hemoglobin (GHb) is formed continuously by the adduction of glucose by co-valent bonding to the amino terminal valine of the hemoglobin beta chain progressively & irreversibly over a period of time and is stable till the life of the RBC. This process is slow, non enzymatic and is dependent on the average blood Glucose concentration over a period of time. A single glucose determination reflects the glucose level at that time. GHb on the other hand reflects the mean glucose level over an extended period of time. Thus GHb reflects the metabolic control of glucose level over a period of time unaffected by diet, insulin, other drugs, or exercise on the day of testing. GHb is now widely recognized as an important test for the diagnosis of Diabetes mellitus and is a reliable indicator of the efficacy of therapy.


Abstract. Malaria is a vector borne disease which is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. It is one of the major diseases in the category of infectious diseases. The survival and bionomics of malaria is affected by environmental factors such as climatic, demographic and land-use/land-cover etc. Currently, a very few under developing countries are using Geo-informatics approaches to control this disease. Gujrat a district of Pakistan, is still under threat of malaria disease. Current research is carried on malaria incidents obtained from District Executive Officer of Health Gujrat. The objective of this study was to explore the spatio-temporal patterns of malaria in district Gujrat and to identify the areas being affected by Malaria. Furthermore, it has been also analyzed the relationship between malaria incident and environmental factors in highly favorable zones. Data is analyzed based on spatial and temporal patterns using (Moran's I). Moreover cluster and hot spots analysis were performed on the incident data. This study shows positive correlation with rainfall, vegetation index, population density and water bodies; while it shows positive and negative correlation with temperature in different seasons. However, variation between amount of vegetation and water bodies were observed. Finding of this research can help the decision makers to take preventive measures and reduce the morbidity and mortality related with malaria in Gujrat, Pakistan.


The kissing number problem asks for the maximal number k(n) of equal size nonoverlapping spheres in n-dimensional space that can touch another sphere of the same size. This problem in dimension three was the subject of a famous discussion between Isaac Newton and David Gregory in 1694. In three dimensions the problem was finally solved only in 1953 by Schutte and van der Waerden. In this paper we present a solution of a long-standing problem about the kissing number in four dimensions. Namely, the equality fc(4) = 24 is proved. The proof is based on a modification of Delsarte's method.


BACKGROUND
Lack of adherence to blood pressure-lowering medication is a major reason for poor control of hypertension worldwide. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of interventions to increase adherence to blood pressure-lowering medication.

METHODS
We performed a systematic review of randomized controlled trials and searched for all-language publications in the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL in April 2002.

RESULTS
We included 38 studies testing 58 different interventions and containing data on 15 519 patients. The studies were conducted in 9 countries between 1975 and 2000. The duration of follow-up ranged from 2 to 60 months. Because of heterogeneity between studies in terms of interventions and the methods used to measure adherence, we did not pool the results. Simplifying dosing regimens increased adherence in 7 of 9 studies, with a relative increase in adherence of 8% to 19.6%. Motivational strategies were partly successful in 10 of 24 studies with generally small increases in adherence up to a maximum of 23%. Complex interventions comparing more than 1 technique increased adherence in 8 of 18 studies, ranging from 5% to a maximum of 41%. Patient education alone seemed largely unsuccessful.

CONCLUSIONS
Reducing the number of daily doses appears to be effective in increasing adherence to blood pressure-lowering medication and should be tried as a first-line strategy, although there is so far less evidence of an effect on blood pressure reduction. Some motivational strategies and complex interventions appear promising, but we need more evidence on their effect through carefully designed randomized controlled trials.


To encourage cross-border transactions in the Single Market of the European Community, the Commission has proposed general framework legislation to set general standards that forbid unfair marketing practices towards consumers, thereby increasing consumer confidence when deciding whether or not to shop abroad in the Community, either in person or through modern methods of electronic purchasing through the Internet. The essays in this volume critically examine the proposed Directive that prohibits unfair commercial practices, and in particular they consider the potential legal and economic implications of a legal duty to trade fairly in the context of general contract law, the protection of consumers, and the needs of competition policy. The distinguished authors of these essays, from Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom, explain the different approaches of national legal systems to the legal regulation of marketing practices, and assess the compatibility of the proposed Directive with national law and its likely success in achieving the promotion of trade in the Single Market.


'Perytons' are millisecond-duration transients of terrestrial origin, whose frequency-swept emission mimics the dispersion of an astrophysical pulse that has propagated through tenuous cold plasma. In fact, their similarity to FRB 010724 had previously cast a shadow over the interpretation of 'fast radio bursts' (FRBs), which otherwise appear to be of extragalactic origin. Until now, the physical origin of the dispersion-mimicking perytons had remained a mystery. We have identified strong out-of-band emission at 2.3–2.5 GHz associated with several peryton events. Subsequent tests revealed that a peryton can be generated at 1.4 GHz when a microwave oven door is opened prematurely and the telescope is at an appropriate relative angle. Radio emission escaping from microwave ovens during the magnetron shutdown phase neatly explains all of the observed properties of the peryton signals. Now that the peryton source has been identified, we furthermore demonstrate that the microwave ovens on site could not have caused FRB 010724. This and other distinct observational differences show that FRBs are excellent candidates for genuine extragalactic transients.


Colonial Tasmania's aged poor were initially managed through incarceration in government institutions under strict discipline and supervision. Essentially regimented penal environments, they were founded as a means to isolate, seclude and control pauper emancipists who were perceived as a social contagion. The incipient charitable institution housed an undifferentiated pauper population in which all inmates were seen as undeserving. This thesis investigates the mechanisms by which one constituent, the aged poor, transcended its mid-century categorisation to join the, ranks of the deserving. At first the agencies which dealt with invalids were ad hoc and marked by incompetence. As administrators learnt from their mistakes and came to better understand the scale of the problem confronting them, new approaches were implemented. These may be characterised as refined inmate classification, institutional specialisation, centralisation of administrative power, bureaucratic professionalism and medicalisation of institutions. These tools, along with other measures, particularly coerced labour, strict discipline, confinement, surveillance, regimentation and punishment were used increasingly to control the lives of pauper invalids. They were also the means which led to reformers fighting for progressive invalid management regimes. Invalids were not passive participants in these events. They resisted the control measures imposed upon them and they proved to be proficient adversaries in manipulating the charitable system to their advantage. Classification, specialisation and surveillance resulted in a greater understanding of the issues confronting invalids. As the middle class involved themselves directly with invalids, the significance of the issues which had alienated them waned. Increasingly they were perceived as a medical rather than a moral problem. Coupled with this there were many changes in the conditions of institutional life which by our modern standards we would judge as progress. While there continued, and continues, to be unsavoury aspects to the management of the aged poor, what differed in 1901 when compared to earlier periods was that a greater number of people were prepared to involve themselves in changing the system for the better. Part of this was the result of increased knowledge. Foucault has drawn our attention to the link between knowledge and power. While he has focused attention upon the use of this power to discipline and punish this thesis demonstrates that knowledge can also be used as a vehicle for progressive reform.


Marine mammals experience radical seasonal changes in body composition, which would be expected to affect their buoyancy in the water. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between such changes in buoyancy and diving behavior in northern elephant seals Mirounga angustirostris. This was achieved by modifying the buoyancy of 13 juvenile elephant seals translocated from Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA, USA, and released at various sites in Monterey Bay, CA, USA. The buoyancy of each seal was calculated and was increased or decreased using syntactic foam or lead weights, and their diving behavior was recorded as they returned to Año Nuevo. The seals were divided into three groups: increased buoyancy (B+), reduced buoyancy (B-) and control seals (Bc). Mean descent rates were 0.77+/-0.3 ms-1 for the B+ seals, 0.82+/-0.2 ms-1 for the control seals and 0.87+/-0.3 ms-1 for the B- seals, and were significantly different. Mean ascent rates for the three treatments were 0.82+/-0.3 ms-1 for the B+ seals, 0.86+/-0.3 ms-1 for the control seals and 0.82+/-0.3 ms-1 for the B- seals. All the B+ seals ascended faster than they descended, while four of the five B- seals descended faster than they ascended. There was a significant negative correlation between buoyancy and descent rate, with less buoyant seals descending faster than more buoyant seals. There was, however, no correlation between ascent rate and buoyancy. This suggests that seals may use negative buoyancy to drift passively during descent, but that all seals may swim continuously during ascent. There was a significant correlation between buoyancy and the drift descent rate of C-type drift dives, including upwards drift in the most buoyant seal. Buoyancy was not correlated with diving depth, trip duration, dive duration or surface-interval duration. This study demonstrates that buoyancy plays a significant role in shaping diving behavior in northern elephant seals and that elephant seals may adjust their behavior to suit their buoyancy, rather than adjusting their buoyancy to suit a dive. This study also validated the truncated cones method of calculating body composition in this species by comparing it with body composition determined using tritium dilution.


For over 25 years there has been uncertainty over the pathway from CO(2) to acetyl-CoA in chloroplasts. On the one hand, free acetate is the most effective substrate for fatty acid synthesis by isolated chloroplasts, and free acetate concentrations reported in leaf tissue (0.1-1 mM) appear adequate to saturate fatty acid synthase. On the other hand, a clear mechanism to generate sufficient free acetate for fatty acid synthesis is not established and direct production of acetyl-CoA from pyruvate by a plastid pyruvate dehydrogenase seems a more simple and direct path. We have re-examined this question and attempted to distinguish between the alternatives. The kinetics of (13)CO(2) and (14)CO(2) movement into fatty acids and the absolute rate of fatty acid synthesis in leaves was determined in light and dark. Because administered (14)C appears in fatty acids within < 2-3 min our results are inconsistent with a large pool of free acetate as an intermediate in leaf fatty acid synthesis. In addition, these studies provide an estimate of the turnover rate of fatty acid in leaves. Studies similar to the above are more complex in seeds, and some questions about the regulation of plant lipid metabolism seem difficult to solve using conventional biochemical or molecular approaches. For example, we have little understanding of why or how some seeds produce >50% oil whereas other seeds store largely carbohydrate or protein. Major control over complex plant biochemical pathways may only become possible by understanding regulatory networks which provide 'global' control over these pathways. To begin to discover such networks and provide a broad analysis of gene expression in developing oilseeds, we have produced microarrays that display approx. 5000 seed-expressed Arabidopsis genes. Sensitivity of the arrays was 1-2 copies of mRNA/cell. The arrays have been hybridized with probes derived from seeds, leaves and roots, and analysis of expression ratios between the different tissues has allowed the tissue-specific expression patterns of many hundreds of genes to be described for the first time. Approx. 10% of the genes were expressed at ratios > or = 10-fold higher in seeds than in leaves or roots. Included in this list are a large number of proteins of unknown function, and potential regulatory factors such as protein kinases, phosphatases and transcription factors. The arrays were also found to be useful for analysis of Brassica seeds.


AIMS--To compare the assessment of dyskaryosis in cervical smears made by specialist consultant cytopathologists and consultant general histopathologists. METHODS--One hundred and ten cervical smears were circulated to 10 observers from five district general hospital histopathology departments and five major departments of cytopathology. Their responses were analysed by five consultant general histopathologists and five consultant specialist cytopathologists. In 54 of the 110 cases, the histology of a corresponding cervical biopsy specimen was compared with the smear assessments. RESULTS--Specialist cytopathologists were more consistent than non-specialists when diagnosing and grading dyskaryosis. They chose the higher grades of dyskaryosis more frequently than the non-specialists. The cytopathologists recommended referral for colposcopy more frequently, but if they asked for a repeat smear, they wanted it done within three months more frequently than the histopathologists. The specialists were more frequently in agreement with the biopsy grade of intra-epithelial neoplasia than the non-specialists, whose smear diagnoses tended to underestimate the severity of the histopathological abnormality. CONCLUSIONS--This study has shown major differences between specialist and non-specialist cytopathologists in the diagnosis and grading of cervical smears and in the recommended management of patients with abnormal smears. These differences may result in uneven clinical management of women with smear abnormalities. It is therefore important to explore possible strategies for standardising the reporting of cervical smears, such as centralisation of screening services, accreditation in cytopathology for non-specialist consultants, and the value of participation in external quality assessment schemes.


Architectural Lighting, the latest addition to the Architecture Briefs series, provides both a critical approach to and a conceptual framework for understanding the application of lighting in the built environment. The key considerations of lighting design are illuminated through accessible texts and instructional diagrams. Six built projects provide readers with concrete examples of the ways in which these principles are applied. Short essays by architect Steven Holl, artist Sylvain Dubuisson, and landscape architect James Corner explore the role of lighting in defining spatial compositions.


Reverend Lee doesn't realise that his dyslexia is affecting his sermons. His parishioners are at first amused and then shocked by the garbled messages coming from the pulpit. Finally a cure is found. The Vicar must walk backwards for the rest of his life. By the author of The Witches.


A library is not just books. A library is the place of meeting "The New". That is why we would like to present our CreativeSpace@Library project realised within the framework of European Voluntary Service. It is one of the most interesting forms of developing an active and open society, a society that cares about a common welfare. The beneficiaries of the project are the volunteers from different countries, a local community and the library itself. We want to show, that the library is a meeting-place of people who expand their horizons, come to know new cultures and languages and who include local community in their activities. This creates an unrivalled opportunity of practicing an everyday communication at the junction of cultures, creating and obeying collective rules and also respecting disparate views and values. Thanks to the participation in the project all its beneficiaries - volunteers, librarians and local community working together - learn receptivity to cultural diversity and respect towards it. At the moment we are hosting volunteers from Armenia, Belarus, France and Spain. Our collaborative effort in the framework of intercultural cooperation helps to prevent prejudice, racism and all the comportment that leads to rejection. By teaching tolerance and understanding for alterity, we prove that the ascertainment "each different, all equal" is a fact. Our activities will be presented with interesting graphics, which will inspire our colleagues working not only in European libraries. For nearly 5000 organisations accredited by European Commission, a little more than 20 are libraries.


The global economic crisis has stretched its harmful effects including banking activity, this being one of the severely affected economic domains where the greatest efforts of resuscitation were done, sometimes with serious consequences over public money. In this context, restoring the credit institutions' activity on actual basis, through a more efficient organizational system and re-editing the attributions of the management organs, so that to be able to guarantee for an effective and fast risk management framework, represented a globally assumed goal. Romanian law cannot remain outside this framework especially considering the obligation to join the model imposed by the European legislator by taking over the domestic law of the European directive CRD IV. This paper proposes a comparative study between the current and the previous legislation in order to highlight the main elements of novelty brought by Basel III, CRD IV and GL Guide 44/2011 on the internal governance of credit institutions elaborated by the European Banking Authority.


eIQ Consumer Pulse 2019 determines the 6 largest e-commerce in Indonesia, namely Blibli, Bukalapak, JD.id, Lazada Indonesia, Shopee and Tokopedia. This is due to an increase in e-commerce transactions. The COVID-19 pandemic, which emphasizes social distancing and physical distancing, has also played a role in increasing these transactions. Indonesia is also predicted to become the market leader in Southeast Asia due to this. On the other hand, each e-commerce customer has their preferences in choosing e-commerce to use in transactions. Various criteria make customers confused due to intense competition between e-commerce companies. DSS is a solution in choosing the right e-commerce for each customer's preferences. The AHP-WASPAS and AHP-MOORA methods can be used in calculations for determining favorite e-commerce in Indonesia. The CRISP-DM framework also helps in preparing the research flow well. 3 decision-makers are used to provide weighting criteria using AHP. The results of this study indicate that the Tokopedia alternative is the best e-commerce, with a preference value of 0.8964 for AHP-WASPAS and 0.4245 for AHP-MOORA. The second and third places are Bukalapak and Lazada, respectively. The weighting of the criteria by the decision-maker, the alternative normalization process and the calculation technique for the preference value have a significant impact on the ranking results.


Background: Dyslexia is defined as difficulty in learning to read and spell despite adequate education, intelligence, socio cultural opportunities and without any obvious sensory deficits.

Objective: 1) To estimate the prevalence of dyslexia among school children. 2) To study the factors associated with dyslexia.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted in 4 randomly selected government schools of Mysore for a period of two months from August 2013 to September 2013. Data was collected by using a pretested dyslexia screening questionnaire.

Result: Out of 400 students overall prevalence of dyslexia was found to be 13.67%. When compared with gender, prevalence of dyslexia was 19.00 % among males and 8.50% among females. About 66.70% dyslexics gave a family history of dyslexia. History of difficulty with spellings was seen among 54.80% of dyslexics. About 61.70% experienced difficulty in copying from the blackboard, 56.30% were confused following instructions while playing games. It was noticed that about 64.30% dyslexics were left handed. It was found that 64.30% dyslexics were unable to count backwards from 100 down to 0 and about 77.80% dyslexics were observed reversing numbers or digits. Eighty percent of dyslexics had difficulty in following directions like left and right. On observing their handwriting 59.60% dyslexics had illegible handwriting.

Conclusion: This study suggests that the prevalence of dyslexia is on a higher side which suggests that more prevalence studies is required to develop remedial education and policy interventions in the educational system to improve the school performance of such children.


We examine trends in the use of predictive analytics for a sample of more than 25,000 manufacturing plants using proprietary data from the US Census Bureau. Comparing 2010 and 2015, we find that use of predictive analytics has increased markedly, with the greatest use in younger plants, professionally-managed firms, more educated workforces, and stable industries. Decisions on data to be gathered originate from headquarters and are associated with less delegation of decision-making and more widespread awareness of quantitative targets among plant employees. Performance targets become more accurate, long-term oriented, and linked to company-wide performance, and management incentives strengthen, both in terms of monetary bonuses and career outcomes. Plants increasing predictive analytics become more efficient, with lower inventory, increased volume of shipments, narrower product mix, reduced management payroll and increased use of flexible and temporary employees. Results are robust to a specification based on increased government demand for data.


Current legal mandates require that students with disabilities in K-12 settings have access to assistive technology (AT) devices and services. Therefore, educational teams serving students with Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs) must consider various ATs and identify services to support their implementation in educational settings. However, research has reported that insufficient teacher expertise continues to impede effective student access to AT and that models and strategies for improving teacher expertise, particularly at the preservice level, are desperately needed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a model for integrating AT throughout a preservice undergraduate special education teacher preparation program at a large public university. Results indicated that special education teacher candidates were satisfied with their AT instruction and felt prepared for using ATs with students. Discussion and implications for integrating AT throughout a teacher education program are provided.


The role of national parliaments in the EU has been at the centre of a long debate. Since the Maastricht treaty, new powers to the EU level have been accompanied not only by an increasing role of the European Parliament (EP) in the legislative process, but also by a number of declarations and protocols to ensure that national parliaments received the information and documents required to effectively monitor their governments in EU affairs. The Lisbon Treaty extended the guarantees and also included new modes of direct participation. The proper use of the mechanisms in place, namely, the subsidiarity checks, the political dialogue with the Commission and the inter-parliamentary cooperation with the European Parliament, has become of vital importance in view of recent developments in EU economic policy and beyond. The choice for increasing inter-governmentalism in decision-making and the centralisation of the implementing and supervisory powers in the Commission and the Central Bank have raised questions about political accountability and the appropriate involvement of parliaments. However, the extent to which national parliaments should be more involved is also rather controversial.This essay examines the difficulty of defining and addressing the question of the democratic legitimacy in the EU. It examines the role of the national parliaments in the treaties and explores ways in which they can contribute to improving that legitimacy.


The Data for Refugees (D4R) Challenge is a non-profit challenge initiated to improve the conditions of the Syrian refugees in Turkey by providing a special database to scientific community for enabling research on urgent problems concerning refugees, including health, education, unemployment, safety, and social integration. The collected database is based on anonymised mobile Call Detail Record (CDR) of phone calls and SMS messages from one million Turk Telekom customers. It indicates broad activity and mobility patterns of refugees and citizens in Turkey for one year. The data collection period is from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017. The project is initiated by Turk Telekom, in partnership with the Turkish Academic and Research Council (TUBITAK) and Bogazici University, and in collaboration with several academic and non-governmental organizations, including UNHCR Turkey, UNICEF, and International Organization for Migration.


Abstract The influence of the dominance of different processes on the microstructural development of a quartzite was investigated using the numerical model 'ELLE'. Dynamic recrystallization of a polycrystalline aggregate was simulated by the concurrent operation of viscous deformation, lattice rotation, subgrain formation, rotational recrystallization, nucleation of new grains from strongly strained grains and recovery. The different observed microstructural characteristics depend on the relative rates at which grain boundary migration, subgrain formation, recrystallization by rotation and nucleation affect the microstructure. Observed sizes of recrystallized grains are significantly influenced by these different relative rates of processes. These rates are determined by parameters that mainly depend on temperature, fluid absence or presence, shear stress and strain rate. Therefore, the specific conditions at which deformation took place have to be taken into account if recrystallized grain sizes are used for palaeopiezometry. Comparison and combination of our results with experimental data and observations in natural examples provide the possibility of interpreting microstructures quantitatively in terms of temperature and shear strain rate.


Objective : The objective of this study was to analyses the major risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) for patients with ischemic heart disease in Kerala. Design : A cross-sectional study among patients with established CAD admitted in the Department of Cardiology during the month of June-Dec 2012. Setting : Study was carried out in a tertiary cardiac center in Kerala. Participants: A total of 496 patients who were admitted in the Cardiology department between June 2012 and December 2012 with acute coronary syndrome or coronary angiographic or Electrocardiography evidence of ischemic heart disease. Risk factors studied were the conventional risk factors for coronary artery disease - hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, body mass index (BMI), smoking, and family history of coronary artery disease. Data are collected from the patients, old medical records, Clinical Examination and Laboratory results of the patients were analyzed for the study. Results: From the study, it was seen that in Keralites-irrespective of gender, diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance (79%) and dyslipidemia (71%) are the major risk factor for Coronary artery disease. Hypertension (39%) and cigarette smoking (24%) were not seen to be a major risk factors for coronary artery disease as only a minority of the study population had hypertension or gives a history of cigarette smoking. 57% of the study population had a family history of coronary artery disease. Among the studied population, 55% of females are with increased BMI, whereas only 16% of males with CAD were with BMI above 30. Conclusion: Among South Indian population irrespective of gender, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia are the major Risk factor for Coronary artery disease. So early detection of diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia and proper treatment of both, before developing the end organ damage, play a vital role for the prevention of coronary artery disease.


In order to handle inconsistencies in ordinal and monotonic information systems, the Variable Consistency Dominance-based Rough Set Approach (VC-DRSA) has been proposed and successfully applied in real decision making. However, there exists an error spread of inconsistencies in VC-DRSA. In this paper, we firstly induce a strict-dominance relation into Variable-Precision Rough Sets (VPRS). Two new equivalence relations are constructed by the strict-dominance relation. Then, we propose a new model, e.g., Strict-Dominance-based Probabilistic Rough Set Approach (SD-PRSA), which may release the error spread of inconsistencies. An example of performance evaluation in a university is employed to illustrate SD-PRSA and validate the advantage of SD-PRSA compared with VC-DRSA.


Background: Violence in the workplace is now universally recognized as a significant global public health issue and is one of the most serious issues affecting the healthcare sector. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of workplace violence. Methods: We performed a multicenter cross-sectional study using an anonymous questionnaire submitted to doctors from Northern Italy. The survey investigates socio-demographic information, the number of years of work in the health sector and the physical and verbal aggressions that occurred in the workplace in the last 12 months. Results: The sample consists of 4545 healthcare workers, of whom 2603 (57.27%) are females. The mean age of the sample is 49.79 years (SD ± 12.63). The risk of being victim of physical aggression at work in the last 12 months is significantly associated with the following independent variables: male gender (aOR 2.09, 95% CI 1.51-2.88), work in the public sector (aOR 2.57, 95% CI 1.72-3.85), being victim of verbal aggression at work in the last 12 months (aOR 22.52, 95% CI 10.97-46.20), work in the operational units of the Medical area (aOR 2.36, 95% CI 1.33-4.21) and the Territorial area (aOR 1.97, 95% CI 1.04-3.74). Discussion: The prevalence of violent behaviour is difficult to assess, because violent incidents are underreported or unreported. The results of the study suggest that increased awareness is necessary to develop effective control strategies at individual, hospital and national levels.


TRANSMUTATION) RATE OF MINOR ACTINIDES AND PLUTONIUM PERFORMED BY FAST B/T REACTOR. Calculation and analysis of B/T (Burning and/or Transmutation) rate of MA (minor actinides) and Pu (Plutonium) has been performed in fast B/T reactor. The study was based on the assumption that the spectrum shift of neutron flux to higher side of neutron energy had a potential significance for designing the fast B/T reactor and a remarkable effect for increasing the B/T rate of MA and/or Pu. The spectrum shifts of neutron have been performed by change MOX to metallic fuel. Blending fraction of MA and or Pu in B/T fuel and the volume ratio of fuel to coolant in the reactor core were also considered. Here, the performance of fast B/T reactor was evaluated theoretically based on the calculation results of the neutronics and burn-up analysis. In this study, the B/T rate of MA and/or Pu increased by increasing the blending fraction of MA and or Pu and by changing the F/C ratio. According to the results, the total B/T rate, i.e. [B/T rate]MA + [B/T rate]Pu, could be kept nearly constant under the critical condition, if the sum of the MA and Pu inventory in the core is nearly constant. The effect of loading structure was examined for inner or outer loading of concentric geometry and for homogeneous loading. Homogeneous loading of B/T fuel was the good structure for obtaining the higher B/T rate, rather than inner or outer loading.


It is doubtful that any subject in the history of procurement or supply chain management has created more excitement and enthusiasm than "e-procurement". It promises to revolutionize the way we do business, and produce significant savings. The subject of strategic sourcing creates almost as much excitement, and possibly even more return-oninvestment (ROI). It is therefore incumbent upon all procurement/supply chain professionals to become conversant on both of these subjects, and to understand the relevance of each to the procurement process.


Consuming a high fat diet can lead to many negative health consequences, such as obesity, insulin resistance, and enhanced sensitivity to drugs acting on dopamine systems. It has recently been demonstrated that dietary supplementation with fish oil, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, can prevent this high fat diet-induced enhanced sensitivity to dopaminergic drugs from developing. However, it is not known whether fish oil supplementation can reverse this effect once it has already developed. To test the hypothesis that dietary supplementation with fish oil will reverse high fat diet-induced enhanced sensitivity to quinpirole, a dopamine D2/D3 receptor agonist, male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either standard chow (17% kcal from fat), high fat chow (60% kcal from fat), standard chow, or high fat chow supplemented with 20% (w/w) fish oil. Body weight, food consumption, and sensitivity to quinpirole-induced (0.0032–0.32 mg/kg) penile erections were examined throughout the course of the experiment. Eating high fat chow enhanced sensitivity of rats to quinpirole-induced penile erections (i.e. resulted in a leftward shift of the ascending limb of the dose–response curve). Dietary supplementation with fish oil successfully treated this effect, as dose–response curves were not different for rats eating standard chow and rats eating high fat chow with fish oil. These results suggest that in addition to preventing the negative health consequences of eating a high fat diet, fish oil can also reverse some of these consequences once they have developed.


The social economic impacts of the Covid-19 crisis in informal urban settlements are widely discussed in the literature, as are the risk factors for particular social and economic groups in these areas. However, government responses and evidence of their impact do not appear to rise to the challenges posed by these studies. Pre-pandemic analyses of risk factors in informal urban settlements and newly collected evidence from different contexts are available to understand the unique and pressing challenges that the pandemic poses to wellbeing in informal urban settlements. In contrast, there is little evidence of effective policy and programme solutions to address these challenges, which is likely driven by the absence of targeted policies and programmes to support people living in informal urban settlements. As a result, many communities have had to rely on their own limited resources and support networks to respond to the crisis (Wilkinson, 2021). This report briefly summarises the range of available evidence on the social economic impacts of the Covid-19 crisis in informal urban settlements and the intersectional differences in how different identity groups living in them have experienced the pandemic. Following a short introduction to the context of the Covid-19 crisis in these areas, the report outlines three thematic areas that have received significant attention in the literature and policy discourses – livelihoods and poverty, food security, and education. While not an exhaustive list, this range of topics is indicative of the range of evidence available and outstanding gaps. The remaining section details evidence of how different identity groups living in informal urban settlements have experienced the pandemic based on gender, disability, age, and migration status. The review draws on a mixture of academic and grey literature, with some opinion pieces and blogs also included given the ongoing nature of the pandemic.


This article begins with the observation that "[f]ish, especially salmon, are necessary for the survival of the Native peoples of the Pacific Northwest, both as individuals and as a people." It considers conventional approaches to regulating contamination of the waters that support the fish on which these peoples depend, and finds that the narrow focus on human physical health fails fully to comprehend the multiple dimensions of the harm to these fishing peoples. Importantly, this focus fails to appreciate the cultural dimensions of the harm. The article examines health and environmental agencies' standard-setting practices and challenges their failure to account for Native Americans' unique fish consumption practices. In the process, this piece questions the hegemony of quantitative risk assessment in agencies' standard-setting efforts. It goes on to criticize the resulting standards and the justifications offered by agencies – and sanctioned by courts – for the "lower yet adequate" level of protection they afford Native American subpopulations relative to the general population. In so doing, it considers the role of science and judgment in environmental risk policy, explicating such technical concepts as "variability" and "uncertainty." It clarifies that discussing degrees of "conservatism" makes sense only in connection with agencies' responses to uncertainty. In the case of responses to interindividual variability, it is not a matter of choosing among errors. Rather, it is a matter of deciding, with full knowledge, whom to protect. As such, these responses ought be discussed in terms of "protectiveness." Having laid this groundwork, the article argues for agencies' differential treatment of Native American subpopulations from both a normative and doctrinal standpoint. Relevant normative commitments include respect for cultural integrity, equality and just process. Relevant legal obligations include treaties, the federal trust responsibility, and civil rights legislation. Finally, the article concludes with recommendations that agencies and tribes might consider, in consultation, as they engage in the process of environmental standard-setting.


Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia presents the major achievements in the scientific fields of water supply technologies and management throughout the millennia. It provides valuable insights into ancient water supply technologies with their apparent characteristics of durability, adaptability to the environment, and sustainability. A comparison of the water technological developments in several civilizations is undertaken. These technologies are the underpinning of modern achievements in water engineering and management practices. It is the best proof that "the past is the key for the future."

Rapid technological progress in the twentieth century created a disregard for past water technologies that were considered to be far behind the present ones. There are a great deal of unresolved problems related to the management principles, such as the decentralization of the processes, the durability of the water projects, the cost effectiveness, and sustainability issues such as protection from floods and droughts. In the developing world, such problems were intensified to an unprecedented degree.

Moreover, new problems have arisen such as the contamination of surface and groundwater. Naturally, intensification of unresolved problems led societies to revisit the past and to reinvestigate the successful past achievements. To their surprise, those who attempted this retrospect, based on archaeological, historical, and technical evidence were impressed by two things: the similarity of principles with present ones and the advanced level of water engineering and management practices.

ISBN: 9781843395409 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780401041 (eBook)


Industrial-style furniture is in fashion - bistro tables and chairs, lockers, mail sorting racks and jointed lamps are all common elements in today's interior design. In this book, Brigitte Durieux, an authority on the style, tells us the story behind fifty European and American objects that have made the surprising transition from factories to our livings rooms and become cult furniture. Featuring more than 250 images, Industrial Chic is a beautifully illustrated showcase that reveals the incredible reach, versatility and long-lasting appeal of industrial design. The remarkable histories of these distinguished objects - including the Gras lamp, the Singer stool, the Holophane reflector, the Brillie clock and more - accompany brilliant photographs by Laziz Hamani.


Background: Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is a second-line therapy for steroid-refractory chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD). Objective: We describe the long-term efficacy and tolerability of ECP according to the cutaneous phenotype of cGVHD and report on the reduced need for immunosuppressant drugs in this setting. Patients and Methods: Fourteen patients (8 females) with cutaneous and/or mucosal cGVHD, treated with ECP between October 2010 and May 2016 within a single center, were included. Final analyses included patients who had received ECP for at least 12 months. We prospectively evaluated the efficacy of ECP using lesion-specific clinical scores and by recording changed doses of systemic immunosuppressants. Results: Of the 14 patients, sclerotic skin lesions were present in 10 (71%). The mRODNAN score decreased in all patients from month 9 onwards, with 40 and 77% reductions at 12 and 36 months, respectively. Six patients (43%) presented with cutaneous lichenoid lesions: this score was reduced in all patients by month 3, reaching a 93% reduction by month 12. Five patients (36%) experienced oral mucosal lichenoid lesions: these scores were decreased by 55% at month 12 and by 100% by month 33. The use of systemic immunosuppressants was reduced in all patients; 4 patients could stop all immunosuppressant drugs after 2 years. ECP was stopped in 3 patients after a complete response. No major ECP-associated adverse effects were observed. Discussion and Conclusion: ECP was an effective long-term therapy for oral and cutaneous cGVHD: consequently, dose levels of therapeutic immunosuppression could be reduced.


Once at the forefront during the greater part of Marcos' autocratic reign, this paper examines how the initial decision of non-participation by the Left eventually led to their marginalization within the broad anti-fascist movement. Taking into account the historical circumstances, it argues that the left grossly misjudged the overall political climate and underestimated the level of militancy of the masses in the 1986 snap elections. Acceptance of the boycott policy created fissures within the group. Eventually, the BAYAN-led Left, the only ones who subscribed to the hard-line policy, found themselves isolated from the popular activities before and after the electoral campaigns. Realizing their miscalculations based on the momentum the "parliament of the streets" was gaining, attempts were made to once again be involved. However, all efforts were to no avail. This shift in gears by BAYAN conveyed the image of inconsistency and thus resulted to a credibility gap. Presently, BAYAN has to deal with two main issues. First, it must overcome the mistrust that Cory's supporters harbor against them. Second, they are left with the decision of whether it should temporarily set aside the major issue of US imperialism in order to help complete the democratic revolution. In the final analysis, unity of all democratic forces is essential if the gains of the anti-fascist struggle are to be preserved and consolidated. Dominant Left groups must make significant shifts in policy and strategy in tune with the changing times, if they are to remain major factor in the newly unfolding process of socio-economic change.


My central claim is that the United States has conducted a distinctive form of 'anti-diplomacy', accepting in practice many diplomatic norms and practices while remaining reluctant to acknowledge the fact. To support this claim, this article argues that since its rise as a world power, the United States has participated in international society's diplomatic culture in a distinctive way and that this distinctiveness stems from seven interconnected characteristics of American diplomacy: (1) America's long-held distrust and negative view of diplomats and diplomacy, which has contributed to the historical neglect and sidelining of the US Department of State in the United States' policy-making process; (2) a high degree of domestic influence over foreign policy and diplomacy; (3) a tendency to privilege hard power over soft power in foreign policy; (4) a preference for bilateral over multilateral diplomacy; (5) an ideological tradition of diplomatically isolating states that are considered adversarial and of refusing to engage them until they meet preconditions; (6) a tradition of appointing a relatively high proportion of political rather than career ambassadors; and (7) a demonstrably strong cultural disposition towards a direct, low-context negotiating style. A consequence of these distinguishing characteristics is that American diplomacy tends to be less effective than it might otherwise be, not only in advancing the United States' own interests, but also in advancing wider international cooperation. A goal here is to provide a working framework with which to evaluate any US administration's relationship to diplomacy as the country's interests and identity evolve.


Seedling and adult-plant resistance have been used to manage leaf rust, caused by Puccinia triticina, but there is little information on resistance genes in contemporary cultivars and advanced breeding lines of soft red winter wheat (Triticum aestivum). Lack of information on the genetic basis for resistance leads to uncertainty about durability of resistance and makes pyramiding resistance genes more difficult. The objective of this study was to determine the genetic basis for race-specific seedling resistance to leaf rust among the 116 contemporary lines from the 1998-99 Arkansas Wheat Cultivar Performance Test and the Uniform Eastern and Southern Soft Red Winter Wheat Nurseries. To postulate the presence of genes for leaf rust resistance (Lr genes), seedlings of each line and 24 isolines in a Thatcher background were evaluated for infection type in growth chambers at 22/18°C (day/night) or constant 17 or 18°C using 22 races of P. triticina. A computer program was used to analyze infection type data and facilitate identification of Lr genes. Genes Lr1, 2a, 2c, 3, 3ka, 9, 10, 11, 14a, 18, 20, 23, 24, and 26 were identified among the lines tested. Genes Lr3, 10, and 11 were the most common. Genes Lr15, 28, and 30 were postulated as possibly present in some lines but were not likely to be important among the lines. Genes Lr16, 17, 21, 32, 36, 38, and 39 were not detected. Fifty-four lines had one or more unidentified Lr genes that were not included in the set of 24 isolines. Only four lines (Agripro Marion, APD94-5282, NC94-7197, and VA97W-375) were resistant to all races used in this study, and these were postulated to have the combination of Lr9, 24, and 26.


Abstract. The Marine Institute, Ireland, runs a suite of operational regional and coastal ocean models. Recent developments include several tailored products that focus on the key needs of the Irish aquaculture sector. In this article, an overview of the products and services derived from the models are presented. The authors give an overview of a shellfish model developed in-house and that was designed to predict the growth, the physiological interactions with the ecosystem, and the level of coliform contamination of the blue mussel. As such, this model is applicable in studies on the carrying capacity of embayments, assessment of the impacts of pollution on aquaculture grounds, and the determination of shellfish water classes. Further services include the assimilation of the model-predicted shelf water movement into a new harmful algal bloom alert system used to inform end users of potential toxic shellfish events and high biomass blooms that include fish-killing species. Models are also used to identify potential sites for offshore aquaculture, to inform studies of potential cross-contamination in farms from the dispersal of planktonic sea lice larvae and other pathogens that can infect finfish, and to provide modelled products that underpin the assessment and advisory services on the sustainable exploitation of the resources of marine fisheries. This paper demonstrates that ocean models can provide an invaluable contribution to the sustainable blue growth of aquaculture and fisheries.


Overweight and obesity have developed into major illnesses in most Western societies and significantly contribute to the financial burden of modern public health systems. Almost daily, new therapeutic proposals are published in the lay press, and also the scientific literature has increased dramatically in recent years. E.g., when searching MEDLINE (1966 - May 2008 (1)), the key word "obesity" meanwhile appears in more than 108,000 articles. Primary focus however, is put upon aspects of treatment, neglecting the role of taste and appetite regulation. Combining keywords like "obesity + treatment" results in over 50.000 citations, "obesity + diet" in over 23.000, "obesity + energy + expenditure" in over 13.000 citations (even "obesity + gastric + bypass" still evoke 2.600 citations), whereas "obesity + appetite + regulation" result in some 3.000, "obesity + NPY" - neuropeptid Y being one of the major chemical stimulators of appetite - evoke some 500 and "obesity + Arc + nucleus" - the arcuate nucleus being the anatomical centre of appetite regulation - no more than 370 scientific publications. The apparent scarcity of literature about taste and appetite regulation and the amazing lack of interest in neuronal information processing in overweight and obesity, has prompted the authors to brainstorm new aspects of the world-wide derailment of weight control.


The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) has been heralded for restoring the protected class of individuals with disabilities to the broad scope that Congress intended when it enacted the original Americans with Disabilities Act over two decades ago. But the ADAAA accomplished something even more profound. By restricting the accommodation mandate only to individuals whose impairments are or have been substantially limiting, and by expanding basic antidiscrimination protection to cover individuals with nearly all forms of physical or mental impairment, the ADAAA extricated disability from the broader concept of impairment and implicitly bestowed upon impairment the status of an independent protected class under federal antidiscrimination law. The ADAAA's effective elevation of impairment to protected class status demands a deeper understanding of the ways in which impairment discrimination - as distinct from disability discrimination - manifests itself in the workplace. This Article explores one aspect of that larger inquiry by analyzing whether impairment discrimination encompasses employment decisionmaking based on the symptoms of an impairment or on the mitigating measures that one uses for an impairment. This Article demonstrates that understanding symptom-based and mitigation-based decisionmaking as a form of impairment discrimination is not only consistent with the statutory language and legislative intent, but also accurately reflects the social, medical, and practical reality of what it means to be "impaired."


Objectives: A proper neurobehavioral development is important for acquiring the skills of a healthy and productive life. Determining intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) impact on different aspects of development may help in mitigation, and probably, prevention of the developmental delays. Materials and Methods: We evaluated the developmental quotients (DQ) of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants, who experienced IVH during neonatal period, at 24–36 months of their corrected age, using Gesell schedules of child development. Furthermore, we assessed the relationship between the severity, extent and sidedness of IVH, and total DQ, its subdomains, and common neurological and non-neurological comorbidities. Results: The study included 54 patients (36 males and 18 females). Bilateral IVH was more common in females, who exhibited also a trend toward left-sided IVH. Patient's sex, birth-weight, and gestational age, however, have not shown significant associations with the total DQ, or its subdomains. Severe IVH was significantly associated with both cerebral palsy, and reduction in total DQ, but not in its personal-social subdomain. Left-sided IVH was associated with a significant reduction in total DQ, but right-sidedness showed no such association. Periventricular leukomalacia was significantly associated with reduction in total DQ and in its personal-social subdomain. No significant associations were detected in patients with the non-neurological comorbidities. Conclusions: VLBW infants with left-sided, bilateral or severe IVH are at higher risk of worse neurobehavioral outcomes at 24–36 months of age. Non-neurological comorbidities seem to have little impact on the DQ and its subdomains assessed at this age.


The article paints a picture of a healthcare system that not only has been slow to deliver appropriate treatments but also stands as a structural determinant of this crisis. Structural determinants create barriers that stop or slow the remediation of social determinants while perpetuating others. This paper argues that the healthcare system has failed those struggling with OUD and co-morbidities and is itself a structural determinant that creates barriers to effective behavioral health services. In some ways (such as poor preventative care and over-prescribing) the healthcare system justifiably can be viewed as a cause of the opioid epidemic. However, its true failing is the way it has amplified the crisis, seemingly unable or unwilling to identify appropriate points of intervention or deliver the necessary services. The root causes of the opioid epidemic must be treated with improved education, better surveillance, and generally improving the social determinants of health. However, the U.S. healthcare system is responsible for many of the symptoms of the opioid crisis and several of barriers to effective solutions. The article examines some of healthcare's flaws relevant to the opioid crisis, critically examining access and benefit stratification, the changing role of Medicaid, and problems associated with fragmentation of care and the lack of wraparound services. It also provides a brief overview of the extreme healthcare-related structural determinants present in our jails and prisons.


This unique collection presents Native American perspectives on the events of the colonial era, from the first encounters between Indians and Europeans in the early seventeenth century through the American Revolution in the late eighteenth century. The documents collected here are drawn from letters, speeches, and records of treaty negotiations in which Indians addressed settlers. Colin Calloway's introduction discusses the nature of such sources and the problems of interpreting them and also analyzes the forces of change that were creating a "new world" for Native Americans during the colonial period. An overview introduces each chapter, and a headnote to each document comments on its context and significance. Maps, illustrations, a bibliography, and an index are also included.


Carmel Snow, who changed the course of our culture by launching the careers of some of today's greatest figures in fashion and the arts, was one of the most extraordinary women of the twentieth century. As editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958 she championed the concept of "a well-dressed magazine for the well-dressed mind," bringing cutting-edge art, fiction, photography, and reportage into the American home. Now comes A Dash of Daring, a first and definitive biography of this larger-than-life figure in publishing, art, and letters. Veteran magazine journalist Penelope Rowlands describes the remarkable places Snow frequented and the people whose lives she transformed, among them Richard Avedon, Diana Vreeland, Geoffrey Beene, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cristobal Balenciaga, Lauren Bacall, and Truman Capote. She chronicles Snow's life on both sides of the Atlantic, beginning in nineteenth-century Ireland and continuing to Paris, Milan, and New York City, the fashion capitals of the world. Snow was the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who was herself a forward-thinking businesswoman, and she worked in her mother's custom dressmaking shop before being discovered by the magazine publisher Conde Nast and training under Edna Woolman Chase, the famous longtime editor of Vogue. From there it was on to Harper's Bazaar which, with the help of such key employees as Avedon, Vreeland, and art director Alexei Brodovitch, Snow turned into the most admired magazine of the century. Among the disparate talents who worked at Bazaar in the Snow era were Andy Warhol, the heiress Doris Duke, Maeve Brennan, and members of the storied Algonquin Round Table. Overflowing with previously untold stories of the colorful and glamorous, A Dash of Daring is a compelling portrait of the fashion world during a golden era.


In this work, we suggest that the poorer results obtained with particle swarm optimization (PSO) in some previous studies should be attributed to the cross-validation scheme commonly employed to improve generalization of PSO-trained neural network river forecasting (NNRF) models. Cross-validation entails splitting the training dataset into two, and accepting particle position updates only if fitness improvements are concurrently measured on both subsets. The NNRF calibration process thus becomes a multi-objective (MO) optimization problem which is still addressed as a single-objective one. In our opinion, PSO cross-validated training should be carried out under an MO optimization framework instead. Therefore, in this work, we introduce a novel MO variant of the swarm optimization algorithm to train NNRF models for the prediction of future streamflow discharges in the Shenandoah River watershed, Virginia (USA). The case study comprises over 9,000 observations of both streamflow and rainfall observations, spanning a period of almost 25 years. The newly introduced MO fully informed particle swarm (MOFIPS) optimization algorithm is found to provide better performing models with respect to those developed using the standard PSO, as well as advanced gradient-based optimization techniques. These findings encourage the use of an MO approach to NNRF cross-validated training with swarm optimization.


Background : Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is one of the most frequently reported sexually transmitted infections (STI) in Australia, the UK, and Europe. Yet, rates of screening for STIs remain low, especially in younger adults. Objective : To assess effectiveness of Chlamydia screening interventions targeting young adults in community-based settings, describe strategies utilised, and assess them according to social marketing benchmark criteria. Search strategy : A systematic review of relevant literature between 2002-2012 in Medline, Web of Knowledge, PubMed, Scopus and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health was undertaken. Results : Of 18 interventions identified, quality of evidence was low. Proportional screening rates varied, ranging from: 30.9% to 62.5% in educational settings (n=4); 4.8% to 63% in media settings (n=6); and from 5.7% to 44.5% in other settings (n=7). Assessment against benchmark criteria found that interventions incorporating social marketing principles were more likely to achieve positive results, yet few did this comprehensively. Most demonstrated customer orientation and addressed barriers to presenting to a clinic for screening. Only one addressed barriers to presenting for treatment after a positive result. Promotional messages typically focused on providing facts and accessing a testing kit. Risk assessment tools appeared to promote screening among higher risk groups. Few evaluated treatment rates following positive results, therefore impact of screening on treatment rates remains unknown. Discussion : Future interventions should consider utilising a comprehensive social marketing approach, using formative research to increase insight, and segmentation and tailoring of screening interventions. Easy community access to both screening and treatment should be prioritised.


Aims. We present here a first comparative study between the observed damping of numerous fast kink oscillations and the theoretical model of their damping due to the cooling of coronal loops. The theory of damping of kink oscillations due to radiation of the solar plasma with a temporally varying background is applied here to all known cases of coronal kink oscillations. Methods. A recent dynamic model of cooling coronal loops predicts that transverse oscillations of such loops could be significantly damped due to the radiative cooling process (Morton & Erdelyi 2009, ApJ, 707, 750). The cooling of the loop plasma also has the consequence that the kink oscillation has a time-dependent frequency. The theory is applied to a relatively large number of known and reported examples of TRACE observations of damped kink oscillations. Results. We find that, for cooling timescales that are typical of EUV loops (500-2000 s), the observed damping of the transversal (i.e. kink) oscillations can be accounted for almost entirely by the cooling process in half of the examples. No other dissipative mechanism(s) seems to be needed to model the damping. In the remaining other examples, the cooling process does not appear to be able to account fully for the observed damping, though could still have a significant influence on the damping. In these cases another mechanism(s), e.g. resonant absorption, may be additionally required to account for the complete decay of oscillations. Also, we show that because of the dynamic nature of the background plasma, allowing for a time-dependent frequency provides a better fit profile for the data points of observations than a fit profile with a constant frequency, opening novel avenues for solar magneto-seismology.