Abstract. Electrical generation by wind turbines is increasing rapidly, and has been projected to satisfy 15% of world electric demand by 2030. The extensive installation of wind farms would alter surface roughness and significantly impact the atmospheric circulation due to the additional surface roughness forcing. This forcing could be changed deliberately by adjusting the attitude of the turbine blades with respect to the wind, which would enable the "management" of a large array of wind turbines. Using a General Circulation Model (GCM), we represent a continent-scale wind farm as a distributed array of surface roughness elements. Here we show that initial disturbances caused by a step change in roughness grow within four and a half days such that the flow is altered at synoptic scales. The growth rate of the induced perturbations is largest in regions of high atmospheric instability. For a roughness change imposed over North America, the induced perturbations involve substantial changes in the track and development of cyclones over the North Atlantic, and the magnitude of the perturbations rises above the level of forecast uncertainty.


Locally dimmable backlight modules can effectively improve the dynamic range of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) to human vision range. The resolution of addressable segments and the optical profile of these segments primarily determine the perceived image quality such as the contrast enhancement and boundary visibility. Contrast sensitivity function, the gradient of backlight image of of background luminance (units: nits/degree), was found as the threshold for the visibility of boundaries. Additionally, a study on a recommended profile with an economical number of segments was studied. Our results confirm that image qualities with this backlight modulation are improved in contrast enhancement and boundary perception using 2D-dimming backlight.


Swimming organisms can enhance mixing in their natural environments by creating eddies in their wake and by dragging water along. However, these mixing mechanisms are inefficient for microorganisms, because swimming‐induced variations in velocity, temperature, and dissolved substances are evened out before they can be advected. In bioconvection, however, microorganisms induce water movement not by propulsion directly but by locally changing the fluid density, which drives convection. Observations of bioconvection have so far mainly been limited to laboratory settings. We report the first observation and quantification of bioconvection within a stratified natural water body. Using in situ measurements, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the bacterium Chromatium okenii is capable of mixing 0.3 to 1.2 m thick water layers at around 12 m water depth in the Alpine Lake Cadagno (Switzerland). As many species are capable of driving bioconvection, this phenomenon potentially plays a role in species distributions and influences large‐scale phenomena like algal blooms.


This article considers the varying treatment of merger-related efficiencies in overseas jurisdictions and in Australian and New Zealand merger authorisation and clearance determinates. This analysis leads to the conclusion that the inclusion of an efficiency defence in the legislative regime that regulates the competitive effects of mergers tends to cause decision-makers to adopt a less sophisticated approach when assessing the competitive effects of merger activity. It is therefore argued that the Australian Competition Tribunal, the body now responsible for determining authorisation applications, should be alert to the fact that the effects of merger-related efficiencies are relevant to both the assessment of public benefits and public detriments. By considering the competition and resource saving effects of merger-related efficiencies separately, the tribunal will be better placed to assess the merger's effect on competition and perform a more meaningful trade-off between competition and efficiency as part of its analysis of merger authorisation applications.


AIM
The aim of the study was to develop insights into how nurses, senior preceptors and head nurses experience the integration of caring science in practice and how they value the contributions of nursing students to the integration of caring science in practice.

BACKGROUND
Research still reveals differences between theory and practice by nursing students. In Sweden, clinical education units have become one way of creating consistency between university and health care practices on values of caring.

METHOD
The study is hermeneutic in design comprising data from three focus group interviews. The participants include registered nurses, senior preceptors and head nurses.

RESULT
The study shows that roles and mandates are not clearly defined between the different actors. The university and hospital collaboration in caring science integration was regarded as 'someone else's responsibility'. Research and development seemed excluded from the everyday life of the hospital units. The students seemed to fall somewhere between the hospital 'practice and concrete world of production' and the university 'theory world of education and research'. Three themes emerge: 'integration--someone else's responsibility', 'the hospital--a culture of production' and 'the hospital and the university--different realities'.

DISCUSSION
The results suggest the need for professionals within health care and university to reflect on their responsibilities in terms of research and development. The ethos of caring science implies the alleviation of suffering and caring for vulnerable patients including research and development.


The in vitro growth of ovarian follicles is an emerging technology for fertility preservation. Various strategies support the culture of secondary and multilayer follicles from various species including mice, non‐human primate, and human; however, the culture of early stage (primary and primordial) follicles, which are more abundant in the ovary and survive cryopreservation, has been limited. Hydrogel‐encapsulating follicle culture systems that employed feeder cells, such as mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), stimulated the growth of primary follicles (70–80 µm); yet, survival was low and smaller follicles (<70 µm) rapidly lost structure and degenerated. These morphologic changes were associated with a breakdown of the follicular basement membrane; hence, this study investigated ascorbic acid based on its role in extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition/remodeling for other applications. The selection of ascorbic acid was further supported by a microarray analysis that suggested a decrease in mRNA levels of enzymes within the ascorbate pathway between primordial, primary, and secondary follicles. The supplementation of ascorbic acid (50 µg/mL) significantly enhanced the survival of primary follicles (<80 µm) cultured in alginate hydrogels, which coincided with improved structural integrity. Follicles developed antral cavities and increased to diameters exceeding 250 µm. Consistent with improved structural integrity, the gene/protein expression of ECM and cell adhesion molecules was significantly changed. This research supports the notion that modifying the culture environment (medium components) can substantially enhance the survival and growth of early stage follicles. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2014;111: 1417–1429. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Powdery mildew of cucurbits, which include cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, cucumber and squash, occurs every year in Arizona. Moderate temperatures and relative humidity, succulent plant growth and reduced light intensity brought about by a dense plant canopy are factors that promote development of powdery mildew, which is caused by the pathogenic fungus Sphaerotheca fuliginea. Potential new fungicides were evaluated and compared to existing chemicals for control of powdery mildew of cantaloupe in a field trial conducted during the spring of 1998 at the Yuma Agricultural Center. A high level of disease had developed by crop maturity (June 23). On the upper leaf surface where spray coverage was good and disease severity on nontreated leaves was moderate (24% of upper leaf surface infected), all treatments significantly reduced the severity of powdery mildew. These treatments included Sovran, Flint, Procure, Topsin M, Quadris, Benlate, quinoxyfen, Rally, Trilogy, Actigard, Bravo, JMS stylet oil, Kaligreen and Bayleton. In contrast, on the lower leaf surface where spray coverage was not as good and disease severity on nontreated leaves was very high (94% of lower leaf surface infected), the best disease control was achieved with chemistries that have systemic properties. Treatments that held the infected lower leaf surface to 20% or less included Sovran, Flint, Procure, Topsin + Microthiol, and Quadris. The potential availability of new chemistries for management of powdery mildew of cantaloupe and other cucurbits could help improve overall control of powdery mildew as well as the implementation of fungicide resistance management strategies, which strive to minimize the risk of resistance development by the pathogen to these compounds.


This study explores the possibilities of challenging European-American middle-class social codes perpetuated by fairy tales through creative writing and artmaking. For centuries, writers and artists have continued to create new versions of old tales. Critiquing through recreation of fairy tales can reveal biases of personal and cultural constructions of race and gender. Like authors and illustrators of children's books, 25 pre-service teachers were invited to "contaminate" fairy tales from their childhood, through which to become aware of metaphors they live by and explore where and how pre-existing codes entered their lives. 1heir retellings of traditional tales and accompanying illustrations show their awareness, as well as unawareness, of gender and racial stereotypes in children's fairy tales. Students were comfortable reconstructing the traditional gender roles, but hesitated to challenge the racial identities in their creations. The students and I gained insight about the possibilities of children recreating fairy tales in future classrooms.


We examine the short-term impact of COVID-19 on consumption spending and labor market outcomes. Using monthly panel data of individuals mainly aged 50–70 in Singapore, we find that COVID-19 reduced consumption spending and labor market outcomes immediately after its outbreak, and its negative impact quickly evolved. At its peak, the pandemic reduced total household consumption spending by 22.8% and labor income by 5.9% in April. Probability of full-time work also went down by 1.2 pp and 6.0 pp in April and May, respectively, but employment and self-employment were only mildly affected. Our heterogeneity analysis indicates that the reduction in consumption spending was greater among those with higher net worth, while the decreases in labor market outcomes were greater among those with lower net worth. However, we find little evidence that those in worse health status experienced larger reductions in consumption spending and labor market outcomes. Reductions in consumption spending correlated with increased risk avoidance behavior, the nationwide partial lockdown, worsening economic outlook, and reduced income.


This provocative essay uses as a starting place the work of two towering figures in Canadian intellectual history: Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan. Graeme Patterson questions conventional understanding of the thought of Innis and McLuhan and the relationship between their work. Historians have generally considered communications an area distinct from (and irrelevant to) their own. Harold Innis is usually regarded as having moved from the field of Canadian history in his early work to non-Canadian history and communications. The distinction, Patterson suggests, is false; both the early and the late work of Innis are in the field of communications and, indeed, so is the study of history itself. Using nineteenth-century Upper Canadian political history as a focus, Patterson applies communications theory to such familiar subjects as the Family Compact, responsible government, and the rebellion of 1837, and shows how Canadian opinion was generated and shaped by media of communication. Both Innis and McLuhan held that the technologies of writing and printing conditioned and structured human consciousness, resulting in 'literal mindedness.' Using that insight, Patterson explores the thinking of nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers of Canadian history, including Donald Creighton, J.M.S. Careless, and Chester Martin. In his challenge to long-standing views, Patterson offers a new way of understanding the work of two key thinkers, and new ways to think about communications theory, Canadian history, historiography, and history as a discipline.


We investigated patterns of prevalence and intensity of gastrointestinal nematode infections in a tropical natricine snake, the keelback (Tropidonophis mairii). Ninety-eight per cent of keelbacks were infected with Tanqua anomala (Gnathostomidae), with infection intensities of up to 243 worms per snake. Infection with T. anomala caused severe inflammation of stomach mucosa and submucosa at the sites of parasite attachment and encystment. Nonetheless, we did not detect detrimental effects of nematode infection on measures of fitness among wild or captive snakes. Snakes with heavier nematode infections had higher body condition scores than less-infected individuals. Deworming captive snakes had no measurable effect on their growth rate, body condition or locomotor performance. In combination with an earlier study on blood-dwelling hepatozoons, our work suggests that keelbacks have a high tolerance to parasites. The 'fast-pace' life history and short lifespan of these snakes may make it beneficial for them to tolerate infection, rather than expend energy on resisting parasite attack.


In Chile, most avocado orchards have been planted using 'Hass' as the scion variety on seedling rootstocks. This has led to the presence of a large variety of individuals, some of which show, among other characteristics, high productivity and a low degree of biennial bearing cycle in the same growing conditions. The most common method used in other countries to propagate such rootstocks from trees involves severe topping; however, this technique is notably destructive, making it difficult to employ in commercial orchards. With the goal of developing alternate methods for forcing shoot production from the rootstock, we tested two different procedures in July 2002 and March 2003, respectively: wounding in conjunction with the application of 1.1 M or 2.2 M benzylaminopurine (BAP) and the removal of one half of the tree canopy (on a vertical plane) and girdling (at widths of 2 or 5 mm). The results indicate that, by removing the top layer of the soil, wounding and applying the BAP spray (1.1 M in July), it is possible to force the production of epicormic or basal sprouting from the rootstock. Additionally, vigorous shoots were obtained on both evaluation dates through the removal of half of the canopy or through girdling


Existing research on myoelectric control systems primarily focuses on extracting discriminative characteristics of the electromyographic (EMG) signal by designing handcrafted features. Recently, however, deep learning techniques have been applied to the challenging task of EMG-based gesture recognition. The adoption of these techniques slowly shifts the focus from feature engineering to feature learning. Nevertheless, the black-box nature of deep learning makes it hard to understand the type of information learned by the network and how it relates to handcrafted features. Additionally, due to the high variability in EMG recordings between participants, deep features tend to generalize poorly across subjects using standard training methods. Consequently, this work introduces a new multi-domain learning algorithm, named ADANN (Adaptive Domain Adversarial Neural Network), which significantly enhances (p = 0.00004) inter-subject classification accuracy by an average of 19.40% compared to standard training. Using ADANN-generated features, this work provides the first topological data analysis of EMG-based gesture recognition for the characterization of the information encoded within a deep network, using handcrafted features as landmarks. This analysis reveals that handcrafted features and the learned features (in the earlier layers) both try to discriminate between all gestures, but do not encode the same information to do so. In the later layers, the learned features are inclined to instead adopt a one-vs.-all strategy for a given class. Furthermore, by using convolutional network visualization techniques, it is revealed that learned features actually tend to ignore the most activated channel during contraction, which is in stark contrast with the prevalence of handcrafted features designed to capture amplitude information. Overall, this work paves the way for hybrid feature sets by providing a clear guideline of complementary information encoded within learned and handcrafted features.


ABSTRACT For the last three decades, the "Oncogene Revolution" prompted investigators to develop agents against oncogenes, with the goal of blocking cell growth and metastasis. It is now clear that the cancer cell genome is too varied oncogenes too numerous for this strategy to work effectively for most tumors. One new approach takes advantage of an alteration shared by many advanced cancer cells but not found in normal cells: aneuploidy. The generation of an abnormal chromosome number is driven by chromosomal instability. By supplying extra copies of genes and/or regulators, aneuploidy creates a genetic imbalance that alters a cell's behavior and its ability to complete mitosis, a situation that should kill the cell. However, most aneuploid tumor cells can deregulate specific subsets of genes so as to retain their abnormal chromosomal integrity during cell division. This maintenance of the aneuploid state permits the cancer cell to continue its altered behavior, contributing to further genomic instability and accelerating tumor progression. We hypothesized that disruption of this deviant process might be exploited to terminate the mitosis of aneuploid cells. By using multi-dimensional datasets for human breast cancer and focussing on cancer cell aneuploidy, we identified polo-like kinase-4 (PLK4), an enzyme critical for aneuploidy maintenance, as a promising therapeutic target. We conducted a drug discovery program that culminated in the isolation of CFI-400945, a potent and selective PLK4 inhibitor. Cancer cells treated with CFI-400945 exhibit effects consistent with PLK4 kinase inhibition, including dysregulated centriole duplication, mitotic defects and cell death. Importantly, CFI-400945 has significant antitumor activity as a single agent in preclinical tumor models. Oral administration of CFI-400945 to mice bearing human cancer xenografts results in significant inhibition of tumor growth at doses that are well-tolerated. Among these cancer xenografts, CFI-400945 exhibits increased antitumor activity against PTEN-deficient xenografts compared to PTEN wild-type xenografts. Our findings provide a rationale for the clinical evaluation of CFI-400945 in patients with solid tumors exhibiting aneuploidy, and particularly for malignancies deficient in PTEN. Disclosure: The author has declared no conflicts of interest.


Public concern regarding food safety has emerged as a major policy issue. Chemicals and biotechnological processes are perceived as risks of food safety despite their contribution to an efficient, low cost agriculture and food industry. Increases in uses of biotechnological processes for foods are expected to be a major potential source of productivity improvements for Alberta and Canadian agriculture in future years. However, the demand for food safety involves increasing awareness and concern by consumers of chemical inputs and biotechnological processes in the agriculture and food industries. Nonetheless, there is a lack of basic economic and agricultural economic theory and methodology to analyze these issues and a need for policy, socioeconomics and marketing research on biotechnology and other environmental risk situations in the agricultural and food industry. This project was directed at developing and applying economic theory and methodology to help fill this gap. A major contribution of the project is the identification and verification of methodologies of stated choice to analyse tradeoffs arising from food safety perceptions of concerns by consumers. One component of the research project involved assessment of Alberta consumers' stated preferences and purchase behaviour for foods exhibiting a range of environmental risks, including perceptions of pesticide residues and hormonal treatments derived from biotechnological processes. The results of this survey indicated that Albertans were more concerned about pesticide use in food production than about the use of hormones. In contingent valuation questions developed for the study, more Albertans wish to restrict pesticide use (relative to a base case of not restricting either hormones or pesticides). They tended to persist in these choices in the face of potential increases in food costs, reflecting a higher level of concern with pesticides than hormones. Increasing education increased this concern. Increasing food cost decreased the probability of choosing to restrict pesticide or hormone use. Women appeared to perceive pesticide use in food production as a greater food safety risk than was perceived by men. The inferred average willingness to pay to restrict pesticide and growth hormone use in food production amounted to about 25% and 13% respectively of the average Albertan's food expenditures respectively. In the second survey of consumers' food/environmental risk perceptions undertaken relative to this project, the responses of a random sample of consumers to the use of recombinant bovine somatotrophin (rBST) in milk production were elicited using a stated preference methodology. A conditional logit model of consumer choice was developed and tested to analyse consumers' choices of milk with varying characteristics of fat content, price, freshness and rBST treatment. Awareness of rBST presence or otherwise is implied by labelling. The approach attempts to simulate market conditions with and without rBST labelled milk and to predict consumers' responses to variations in these conditions. Welfare calculations for a representative consumer indicate welfare losses with the introduction of rBST. These were slightly less for a male than a female household food purchaser and were less for food purchasers with higher levels of income and education. There was a small welfare gain when the representative food purchaser was offered a full range of "rBST" and "non-rBST" milks. The results suggest that making appropriately labelled "rBST-free" milk available to consumers could decrease consumer welfare losses associated with any introduction of rBST. The outcomes from application of these methodologies were related to the evidence of consumers' purchasing behaviour after licensing of the technology of rBST for use in the United States; this introduction did not require labelling. The assessment suggests a critical impact of product labelling policies and strategies on potential market impacts. An assessment is also made of Canada's food safety regulatory framework. The need for increased transparency and greater public participation in regulatory processes as means to increase public confidence in such food safety regulatory processes, specifically relating to biotechnology, is also identified.


COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE introduces a whole new way of understanding what a firm does. Porter's groundbreaking concept of the value chain disaggregates a company into 'activities', or the discrete functions or processes that represent the elemental building blocks of competitive advantage. Now an essential part of international business thinking, COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE takes strategy from broad vision to an internally consistent configuration of activities. Its powerful framework provides the tools to understand the drivers of cost and a company's relative cost position. Porter's value chain enables managers to isolate the underlying sources of buyer value that will command a premium price, and the reasons why one product or service substitutes for another. He shows how competitive advantage lies not only in activities themselves but in the way activities relate to each other, to supplier activities, and to customer activities. That the phrases 'competitive advantage' and 'sustainable competitive advantage' have become commonplace is testimony to the power of Porter's ideas. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE has guided countless companies, business school students, and scholars in understanding the roots of competition. Porter's work captures the extraordinary complexity of competition in a way that makes strategy both concrete and actionable.


This paper provides a guide to calculating statistical power for the complex multilevel designs that are used in most field studies in education research. For multilevel evaluation studies in the field of education, it is important to account for the impact of clustering on the standard errors of estimates of treatment effects. Using ideas from survey research, the paper explains how sample design induces random variation in the quantities observed in a randomized experiment, and how this random variation relates to statistical power. The manner in which statistical power depends upon the values of intraclass correlations, sample sizes at the various levels, the standardized average treatment effect (effect size), the multiple correlation between covariates and the outcome at different levels, and the heterogeneity of treatment effects across sampling units is illustrated. Both hierarchical and randomized block designs are considered. The paper demonstrates that statistical power in complex designs involving clustered sampling can be computed simply from standard power tables using the idea of operational effect sizes: effect sizes multiplied by a design effect that depends on features of the complex experimental design. These concepts are applied to provide methods for computing power for each of the research designs most frequently used in education research.


With the explosive growth in the Internet, network security has become an inevitable concern for any organization whose internal private network is connected to the Internet. Network security is setup to guard against unauthorized access, alteration, or modification of information, and unauthorized denial of service. When a network is connected to the network that is vulnerable to potential intrusions and attacks. Security of data can be done by a technique called cryptography. So one can say that cryptography is an emerging technology, which is important for network security. This paper covers the various cipher generation algorithms of cryptography which are helpful in network security.


Background: Due to the intensive treatment requirements needed to maintain diabetes control, optimal diabetes outcomes can be difficult to achieve for individuals with type 1 or type 2 diabetes from child- hood through adulthood. While risk factors related to individual differences in outcomes have been studied in depth, there is a growing body of research that has revealed the effects of positive personal and environmental characteristics on diabetes management and glycemic control. The goal of this review is to summarize the existent literature on the role of positive characteristics in diabetes outcomes. Method: Extensive literature searches were conducted using Medline, PsychInfo, and CINAHL to identify studies assessing positive personal and environmental characteristics and diabetes outcomes. Included articles were published between 1989 and 2012. Results: Across the lifespan, positive personal characteristics such as self-efficacy, self-esteem, and adaptive coping were associated with diabetes management and glycemic control. Positive environmental factors such as parental monitoring and support were also important predictors of good outcomes, particularly for adolescents. Conclusions: Positive personal and environmental factors have been shown to be associated with diabetes outcomes and should be addressed in efforts to improve outcomes at all life stages. Clinical research and practice may be enhanced through efforts to evaluate and promote positive personal and environmental factors with the ultimate goal of reducing barriers to optimal diabetes management and control.


This report summarizes the state of the art on building air tightness by reviewing the current and recent literature on both research and practice. The focus of this report is on techniques to measure the tightness of the building envelope and on what has been learned by doing so. This report reviews over 100 of the most important publications relating to the topic. The report covered the fundamentals of air leakage including the hydrodynamics of leaks, which has led to all of the measurement techniques currently in use. The measurement techniques reviewed focus on the fan pressurization technique and its derivates, but the report covers novel techniques as well. Air tightness metrics allow data to be shared and compared and the basic air tightness metrics are reviewed and discussed as well as a brief discussion on norms and normalization. The bulk of the report discusses data which has been taken over the last twenty years and what it can tell us about buildings of different types, locations and properties.


Institutions that conduct agricultural research must plan for emergencies and disasters that have the potential to compromise the health and safety of research animals and personnel. Agricultural research facilities have unique challenges owing to the overall size and scope of operations, wide range of species housed, and various types of facilities maintained. Identification of hazards and development of strategies to minimize anticipated risks are important to creating a successful mitigation and recovery plan that will minimize both short- and long-term adverse effects on program operations and resources.


China's importance as a major donor outside the traditional Western donors has been increasing and this has helped to bridge the funding gaps in developing countries. At the same time, South-South financial assistance still comes with less conditionality making China's aid model different to Western donors. China dominates as a donor for Zimbabwe with substantial aid also going into Uganda and South Africa while South Africa is the darling of Western donors. Chinese funded projects are not confined to a specific sector and the scale of the projects varies across countries. While little is known about environmental aid from China, the magnitude of environmental aid from Western donors suggests there is a need to explore other areas to leverage the effect of environmental aid on the environment. Overall we find that aid disbursements are significantly lower than commitments for all three countries.


An integrated stratigraphic study was conducted on the shallow water carbonate platforms of the Guadeloupe archipelago to refine the tectonic evolution of the Lesser Antilles forearc. The carbonate platforms are now dated to the Zanclean–Calabrian interval, and their demise occurred between 1.5 and 1.07 Ma. The precise chronostratigraphy allows dating of the main extensional tectonic events since the late Miocene. An initial episode occurred during the late Miocene, related to the reactivation of inherited N130°E-trending shear zones, and led to the emergence of most parts of the forearc. Subsequently, Zanclean to early Piacenzian carbonate platforms developed in association with a general subsidence of the forearc. During the late Piacenzan, a second extensional episode occurred. At this time La Désirade underwent major uplift and emergence whereas most of the forearc remained submerged. Prior to 1.07 Ma, a third north–south extensional episode occurred and led to the final demise of the carbonate platforms. Thus the forearc was characterized by general subsidence since the early Pliocene interrupted by three main extensional episodes and related differential uplifts. This suggests that the Lesser Antilles subduction is probably erosive north of latitude 15°N since c. 5 Ma, related to aseismic ridge subduction. Supplementary data: Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages, calcareous nannofossil taxa associations, 40Ar/39Ar geochronological data and palaeomagnetic data are available at www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18724.


The aim of extracorporeal detoxification through plasma exchange therapy is to eliminate protein-bound components and to prevent their potential toxic effects. It is thought that hyperbilirubinemia has a direct cytotoxic effect on T lymphocytes and that it thus increases infection and sepsis. The use of bilirubin absorption column reduces bilirubin levels in patients with hepatic insuf- ficiency. For the first time in Turkey, we presented a patient with cardiac cirrhosis and high bilirubin levels who was successfully treated with bilirubin absorption column method.


Increased competition tends to benefit all buyers with increasing product variety and decreasing prices. However, if local and external market channels compete for the same class of products, increased competition from the external market crowds out local variety. Under local monopoly, local buyer surplus co-moves with external buyer surplus. Under local free entry oligopoly, buyer surplus is U-shaped. If buyer surplus in the external market is low, local surplus is better provided by local oligopoly, but moves against external surplus; if it is high, local and external surplus co-move, and local surplus is better provided by local monopoly.


We propose a modified effective-refractive-index model for the design of relief dielectric structures on a metal surface to realize phase modulation of surface-plasmon polaritons (SPPs). In this model, the length of the dielectric structure is optimized to reach phase shifting between the SPP waves transmitted through dielectric structure and those directly propagated with the consideration of SPP losses. Specifically, a one-dimensional dielectric Fresnel zone plate is designed by employing the proposed model to demonstrate phase modulation of SPPs for the highest focusing efficiency.


Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a condition due to blood clots obstructing pulmonary arteries, often related to deep venous thrombosis (DVT). PE can be responsible for acute and even life-threatening clinical situations and it may also lead to chronic sequelae such as chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Signs and symptoms associated to PE may overlap those of many other diseases (e.g. chest pain, dyspnea, etc.), therefore an accurate clinical evaluation is mandatory before referring the patient to the most appropriate imaging technique. Pulmonary angiography (PA) has been traditionally considered the gold standard regarding the diagnosis of PE and it is also useful regarding the treatment of said condition. However, PA is an invasive technique, implying all the known risks concerning endovascular procedures. Nowadays, computed tomography angiography (CTA) is considered the imaging technique of choice regarding the diagnosis of PE. This technique is readily-available in most centers and it is able to provide high resolution images, although it implies the administration of ionizing radiations and iodinated contrast medium. Conventional CTA has further been improved with the use of ECG-gated protocols, aimed to reduce motion artifacts due to heartbeat and to evaluate other causes of sudden onset chest pain. Moreover, another interesting technique is dual energy computed tomography (DECT), which allows to elaborate iodine maps, allowing to detect areas of hypoperfusion due to the presence of emboli in pulmonary arteries. This review is aimed to describe the main findings related to PE with an emphasis on CTA, also discussing technical aspects concerning image acquisition protocol.


The WTO can be viewed as a public good in that it provides a forum for negotiations which also produces the necessary legal framework to act as a support for agreed liberalization. To avoid any misunderstandings, in this article the discussion focuses on the WTO as a forum and a set of agreements, not on free trade. Since the legal agreements coming under its aegis are for good reasons incomplete, the WTO provides an additional public good by "completing" the original contract through case law. The importance of this feature increases over time as tariffs are driven towards irrelevance. In turn, the WTO has no particular attitude towards public goods provided by its Members.


Synthetic peptide-based vaccine prototypes are the future potential vaccination. Antigens, which belong to minimal microbial component and produce antibodies such as peptides and polysaccharides, can promote long-term protection against pathogens that can cause infectious diseases. Production of peptides becomes simple with solid phase peptide synthesis and microwave-assisted solid phase peptide synthesis using automatic synthesizers. The use of synthetic peptides was approved by the health authorities for vaccine design. Peptides are themselves very weak immunogens and need adjuvants to provide an effective autoimmune response. For this reason, peptide antigens are conjugated with biopolymers and loaded with nanoparticles. The toxicity of vaccine prototypes is evaluated in cell culture, and non-toxic prototypes are selected for vaccinating experimental animals. The most effective peptide-based vaccine prototype is determined as the one with the highest antibody level. The goal of this book chapter is to illustrate the use of peptides vaccine systems and present their opportunities with their future development.


Disturbances in biological rhythms could lead to unfavorable health impact. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of functional dyspepsia (FD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in rotating shift workers, and to determine the factors that have significant association with the prevalence of FD and IBS. The research had been carried out among nurses and nursing assistants working at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital between December 2010 and February 2011. The subjects completed self-reported questionnaires, including the quality of the sleep and the level of stress. The prevalence of FD and IBS defined by ROME III criteria, and factors associated the disorders in rotating shift workers were compared with those of day workers. A total of 207 subjects were included in the study with 147 rotating shift workers (71.0%), and 60 (29.0%) day workers. The prevalence of IBS in rotating shift workers was higher than that in day workers (32.7% vs 16.7%, P = 0.026). However, no significant difference in the prevalence of FD was observed between the two groups (19.7% vs 20.0%, P = 0.964). In the multivariate analysis, the risk factors for IBS were rotating shift work (OR, 2.36; 95% CI, 1.01-5.47) and poor sleep quality (OR, 4.13; 95% CI, 1.82-9.40), and the risk factors for FD were poor sleep quality (OR, 2.31; 95% CI, 1.01-5.28), and severe stress (OR, 2.19; 95% CI, 1.06-4.76). A higher prevalence of IBS among rotating shift workers could be directly associated with the circadian rhythm disturbance. The circadian rhythm disturbance may be related with the pathogenesis of IBS.


The aim of the paper is to assess consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for a local food produced in a less-favoured area in the Aragon region (Spain). In particular, we examine whether consumers value lamb meat products (lamb and suckling lamb) labelled as "Ojinegra from Teruel", traditionally produced in these area. We use a nonhypothetical experimental auction to elicit Spanish consumers' WTP for "Ojinegra from Teruel" labelled lamb products. Results show that consumers are willing to pay a positive premium for a lamb and suckling lamb labelled as "Ojinegra from Teruel".


The tools and guidance you need to make wellness a part of your everyday nursing practice While many books have covered the theoretical aspects of wellness, only one resource gives you a real sense of what wellness looks like at the bedside: the Nurse's Toolbook for Promoting Wellness. Compact and easy to use, this unique how-to guide is filled with wellness-oriented clinical tools and practical suggestions, from teaching nutritional wellness to promoting specific aspects of patients' wellness such as moving and breathing well. Features Wellness Assessment Tools that give specific instructions on how to identify areas for potential wellness interventions Wellness Teaching Tools specifically designed to be used as handouts educate patients about how they can participate in their own care Insightful stories from nurses and patients demonstrating the role of wellness in patient care Clear three-part organization that begins with a helpful overview of wellness nursing, then covers how to promote patients' wellness in their daily lives and facilitate specific aspects of patients' wellness Detailed, step-by-step guidelines that provide specific techniques to use at the bedside Hands-on self-assessment tools that enable you to utilize wellness techniques in your own life


Zero rating, the practice of not charging data to a mobile broadband subscriber's contract, is emerging a potent issue in telecom policy. While zero rating of mobile subscriptions has been extant for almost two decades with little to no controversy.

Zero rating has become increasingly popular in both developed and developing countries and plays a particularly important role in developing countries, where the costs of mobile data services are higher relative to per capita incomes. About half of all mobile operators employ the strategy in some way. In fact network operators have used the equivalent of such strategies to incentivize both subscribers and content providers to be part of their network for well over a century.

In the last two years, however, zero rating become a flashpoint in the net neutrality debate. Whether a country allows it has become a litmus test for net neutrality supporters to certify the strength of the rules. At issue is whether operators and their customers should have the freedom to create contracts for mobile broadband service based on their preferences and constraints or whether mobile Internet service must be sold in a so-called "neutral" fashion where the only differentiating parameters are speed and megabytes. As the Internet increasingly transitions to mobile platforms, and the likelihood that the next two third of world who yet to come online will do so via mobile, who and how to provision mobile bandwidth has is an important, complex issue.

This paper examines the arguments for and against zero rating and the charges that zero rating hurts competition and consumers. It formulates 5 assertions based on the alleged harms and attempts to test them with empirical analysis from quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The paper reviews the leading database of financial information of the world's mobile operators to see whether the impact of zero rating may be observed, for example with undue financial benefits earned by operators through the use of zero rating. To understand the issue more closely, the paper reviews zero rating in Chile, Netherlands, and Slovenia, countries which have banned some forms of the practice. The paper then examines whether there is harm to consumers and innovation by reviewing a leading database of mobile application market data. The paper concludes by suggesting reasons why zero rating is maligned in telecom policy debates.


Collegiate combative physical education classes, such as boxing, grappling, wrestling, and martial arts, offer many positive benefits to students and institutions. There has been an increased interest in combative sports in recent years. As a result of media focus on high-profile female athletes in combative sports, combative physical education classes have become increasingly popular with women. Physical education programs stand to greatly benefit from gender integration of combative classes. Educators and administrators, however, need to consider a number of social, psychological, physiological, and medical factors in order to ensure successful gender integration. Approaching gender integration with a careful and deliberate process that involves physical educators, administrators, and medical personnel will ensure programs maintain an authentic yet safe environment contributing to the attainment of course objectives. When executed in a prudent and deliberate manner, gender integration of combative course offerings has been anecdotally observed to improve women's self-confidence, sense of inclusion, teamwork, and to enhance cohesion among students of both genders.


Bile acids are amphipathic molecules formed from cholesterol in the liver by two main pathways, the neutral and the acidic. Biosynthesis of bile acids generates bile A¯¬â€sow which is important for biliary secretion of free cholesterol, endogenous metabolites, and xenobiotics. Bile acids play an important role as biological detergents that make possible intestinal absorption of lipids and fat-soluble vitamins but also as metabolic regulators of lipid, glucose, and energy homeostasis. Several enzymatic steps and subcellular compartiments are involved in the biosynthesis of bile acids. In general, the synthetic pathways of bile acids consist of modification of the steroid nucleus, oxidation and cleavage of the corresponding side chain, and finally conjugation with the amino acids glycine or taurine. Genetic defects in one of these enzymes result in an accumulation of atypical bile acids or intermediates. These defects can cause beside others liver diseases that can vary from mild to very severe. Detection of elevated concentrations of unusual bile acids, intermediates and other endogenous metabolites can be performed by mass spectrometry. In this article, the most known inborn errors in bile acid metabolism and their mass spectrometric confirmation in biological fluids are concisely reviewed.


Background Long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) are regarded as an important alternative to oral medication for patients with schizophrenia. However, LAIs remain under-utilized in clinical practice. Aims The aims of this investigation were to 1) obtain information on patients' attitudes toward LAIs and 2) assess factors associated with patients' acceptance of LAIs, and 3) identify predictors of the discrepancy between patients and referring psychiatrists' opinions regarding the appropriateness for LAIs. Methods Anonymized data were collected from a questionnaire distributed to 159 patients with schizophrenia and their referring psychiatrists at three psychiatric hospitals between February 2014 and July 2014. The patients completed an original questionnaire developed to evaluate their attitudes regarding LAIs. Regarding the appropriateness of LAI prescription, patients and their referring psychiatrists were asked to rate, on a 5-point scale, how appropriate they felt the depot prescription was for the patients. The participants also answered instruments to assess symptom severity, antipsychotic-induced extrapyramidal symptoms, functions, quality of life, and self-esteem levels. Results Patients currently on LAIs have favorable attitudes toward LAIs with respect to side effects, relapse prevention, efficacy, pain, and cost. Expectation of relapse prevention was significantly associated with patients' acceptance of LAIs (answering that those drugs are appropriate for their own treatment). In addition, the discrepancy between the patients' and referring psychiatrists' opinions regarding the appropriateness of LAI treatment was significantly associated with symptom severity, expectation of relapse prevention, belief that LAIs are painful, and belief that LAIs offer a reduced range of antipsychotic choices. Conclusion Attitudes toward LAIs need to be considered when deciding whether to prescribe this formulation. Access to information on LAIs, including their benefit in relapse prevention, might enhance the acceptance and use of this formulation among patients with schizophrenia.


Sixty-six pigs (averaging 21 d of age and 11.8 lb) were used in a 7-d experiment to evaluate the effects of specially processed soy products on function and morphology of the small intestine. Treatments were: 1) corn-milk products control; 2, 3, 4, and 5) simple corn-based diets with either soybean meal, soy isolate2, soy concentrate3, or modified soy flour4 as the major protein source; 6) a high nutrient density diet (HNDD) containing 20% dried skim milk and 20% dried whey; 7, 8, and 9) the HNDD with soy isolate, soy concentrate, or modified soy flour plus lactose replacing 100% of the dried skim milk. Xylose absorption was determined from plasma collected on d 6 post-weaning. On d 7 post-weaning, serum was collected for determination of antisoy titers, and four pigs/trt were sacrificed for collection of tissues to determine villus height and crypt depth. The milk diet was more digestible than the other treatments, and the complex diets were more digestible than the simple diets. Nitrogen from soy isolate and concentrate was more digestible than N from soy flour in the simple diets. Pigs fed diets with the specially processed soy products had lower antisoy titers than pigs fed diets with soybean meal. However, diets with the specially processed soy products resulted in lower xylose absorptions than the diet with soybean meal. Pigs fed the corn-milk products control tended to have longer villi and lower crypt depths than pigs fed the other treatments. In conclusion, it appears that the specially processed soy products were better utilized than soybean meal but of lower nutritional value than milk products. Of the specially processed soy products, soy protein isolate had the greatest nutritional value in simple diets, but the soy products were of similar nutritional value in the complex diets.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 15, 1990


Migration was not an explicit goal of the Millennium Development Goals MDGs, rightly so in this writers view, but it was indirectly an integral part of achieving many, if not all, of the goals themselves. As we move towards the end of the MDG period in 2015, it is worth reflecting upon what will follow, and if and how migration should be incorporated into what is to follow. Two dimensions are central to such a discussion first, the nature of the development goals post2015; second, how migration might fit into these goals. These notes and reflections will conclude with a possible policy direction that just might provide a path towards integrating migration into development.


This review report sets out the outcomes of a 10 month investigation to describe the landscape of practice-led research in Art, Design and Architecture (ADA) in the UK and beyond. We were asked for a qualitative review but of course it has been important to gather some numbers to check and illustrate our observations. We have consulted widely, both face to face and in the virtual world, with experts and novices in the UK and around the world. We have tried to strike a balance between the natural desire of our colleagues to debate the more contentious aspects of this territory (they were never going to forgo that opportunity) and the equally strong wish of the AHRC that we should provide a clear description of what is happening.

We have collected some diverse examples of research and subjected them to various examinations. We have also examined a selection of research projects funded by AHRC and other projects by creative practitioners, funded by a non-research organisation.

From all this we have been able to describe the landscape in a straightforward sense: We have measures of the proportions of ADA academics involved in practice-led research. We have clarified differences in the ways that the different ADA disciplines engage with practice-led research and identified some problems that indicate possible future support strategies.

We have discussed some problems with general definitions of research and identified issues that should be addressed to ensure that the AHRC definition can be applied to the full range of practice-led research. We have picked out some specific case examples that illustrate the range of contexts, methods and contributions made by practice-led researchers, and more are described in detail in Appendix F. We have also sought to assess how this research relates to the wider international picture in which the UK appears to have a strong position in both volume and development of research.

We have also set out some issues that affect this community of researchers: What strengths and weaknesses have we observed and where is there a need to support development? Do the AHRC definition of research and guidance on practice-led research provide an effective framework?

We have illustrated the state of development of research in ADA, and some reasons why it is less robust than might be expected from such long established disciplines.

We recommend that the career path of researchers in ADA needs some attention and make some suggestions about how that could be achieved. We have also indicated some areas of inquiry that might be supported to advance the theory and methods of practice-led research. In particular we have come to the conclusion that conventional ideas of contribution to knowledge or understanding may not be serving us well. This is significant to fine artists but we believe that it relevant across ADA and a shared effort to develop appropriate new models would be a constructive development. The full set of recommendations can be found in chapter 5.


THE SECULAR TRANSFORMATION OF PRIDE AND HUMILITY IN THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF DAVID HUME Kirstin Carlson McPherson, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2016 In this dissertation I examine Hume's secular re-definition and re-evaluation of the traditional Christian understanding of pride and humility as part of his project to establish a fully secular account of ethics and to undermine what he thought to be the harmful aspects of religious morality. Christians traditionally have seen humility, understood as receptivity to God, to be crucial for individual and social flourishing, and pride as the root of individual and social disorder. By contrast, Hume, who conceives of pride and humility immanently in terms of our self-appraisals, sees pride as a key virtue that serves as the ultimate source of moral motivation and deems humility a 'monkish virtue' (i.e., a vice). Hume, moreover, sees religious appeals to a transcendent moral source to be a threat to individual flourishing in that they encourage the formation of what he calls 'artificial lives' (of which the monkish virtues are an expression) as well as a threat to social concord, insofar as they foster unnecessary religious factions, intolerance, and theologically sanctioned violence. In part to combat this, Hume promotes a wholly secular ethic rooted in common life. I uncover the real points of agreement and disagreement that underlie Hume and traditional Christian conceptions of pride and humility in order to articulate what is essentially at issue between these contrasting perspectives and, ultimately, to identify some of what is gained or lost in Hume's secularization of ethics. I, thus, explore the reasons that Hume rejects Christian morality and seeks to replace it with a secular one. I then assess whether Hume's secular perspective has sufficient resources for addressing the biased judgments and rivalries that can arise precisely because of what Hume sees as our natural desire for the 'passion of pride' (i.e., for a positive sense of ourselves before others). I conclude both that Hume identifies genuine dangers in attempting to go beyond the human and also that there are genuine dangers in Hume's attempt to close the window to a transcendent moral source. I, therefore, contend that any adequate view of human flourishing must take account of both these dangers.


In 2005 India introduced an ambitious national anti-poverty program, now called the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The program offers up to 100 days of unskilled manual labor per year on public works projects for any rural household member who wants such work at the stipulated minimum wage rate. The aim is to dramatically reduce poverty by providing extra earnings for poor families, as well as empowerment and insurance. If the program worked in practice the way it is designed, then anyone who wanted work on the scheme would get it. However, analysis of data from India's National Sample Survey for 2009/10 reveals considerable un-met demand for work in all states. The authors confirm expectations that poorer families tend to have more demand for work on the scheme, and that (despite the un-met demand) the self-targeting mechanism allows it to reach relatively poor families and backward castes. The extent of the un-met demand is greater in the poorest states -- ironically where the scheme is needed most. Labor-market responses to the scheme are likely to be weak. The scheme is attracting poor women into the workforce, although the local-level rationing processes favor men.


We investigated electrophysiological correlates of fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to explore motor excitability in three groups of subjects: MS patients with fatigue (MS-F), MS patients without fatigue (MS-NF) and healthy control subjects. All participants had to perform a fatiguing hand-grip exercise. TMS was performed prior to and after the exercise. Prior to the motor task, MS-F patients had less inhibition in the primary motor cortex compared to both other groups. Postexercise, intracortical inhibition was still reduced in the MS-F patients compared to the MS-NF patients. In MS-F patients the postexercise time interval for normalization of the motor threshold was correlated with the fatigue severity. We conclude that MS patients with fatigue have an impairment of inhibitory circuits in their primary motor cortex. The results also indicate that fatigue severity is associated with an exercise-induced reduction of membrane excitability.


The effective utilisation of thermal energy is crucial to a world aiming at sustainable development goals. The sensitised thermal cell (STC) is a new thermal energy conversion technology, which was reported in 2017, for generating electricity via the redox reactions of electrolyte ions with thermally excited carriers in semiconductors. STC is attracting attention as a technology that could affect oil prices globally. Here, we report the successful construction of STC, which discharges and recovers well at room temperature, by studying the interelectrode and ion diffusion distances. The fabricated STC is thinner than 0.5 mm and can be rendered flexible. Further, STCs, which possess a power generation capacity of 0.1 mA, 100 mV per 1 mm2 area, and shall be installed "in" internet-of-things (IoT) devices, drainage pipes, and walls in the future.


ABSTRACT This study seeks to understand participation levels in sport across socio-demographic groups, specifically for the period 2008–14, in the context of austerity measures taken by central government resulting in local authority income and expenditure reductions. Participation levels over time were analysed using data from the Active People Survey (APS), which was the preferred method for measuring participation by Sport England until its replacement in 2015. Budgetary constraints in local authorities have subsequently resulted in an expenditure decrease for non-discretionary services including 'sport development and community recreation'. This area of expenditure forms one component of sport-related services and primarily focuses on raising participation in 'hard-to-reach' groups. The study found that policy goals associated with raising and widening participation were not met to any significant degree between 2008 and 2014 as participation levels have changed little for lower income 'hard-to-reach' groups. It is claimed that this outcome is in part due to austerity measures impacting on local authority expenditure. This study has implications for policymakers and practitioners as it illustrates both the challenges faced in setting and delivering policy aimed at raising participation levels in 'hard-to-reach' groups, particularly in the context of austerity, and the difficulties associated with measuring participation.


Abstract China's economy has been growing at a high rate for the past three decades. However, the current process of rebalancing from an investment- and manufacturing-led growth model toward a consumption- and service-led model is associated with decreasing growth rates. We show that China's current state of structural change in terms of sectoral employment share is similar to the historical developments in Japan and South Korea. We derive plausible scenarios for future growth rates in China and (by isolating the allocation effect, i.e. the pure effect of structural change) look at the effects of tertiarization on economic growth in China for the period 2014−2030 by applying a simple simulation study.


A pilot project is presented, aimed at creation of an educational network of astronomical observations performed by middle-school, high-school and university students at different geographical latitudes. Project participants are supposed to do their research studies in close link via Internet, to computer-process and compare their observational results contributing to the joint database, to exchange experience and ideas. In the observations, full time t is measured of the solar disc passage through the line of horizon at sunset. From the value of t, geographical latitude φ of the point of observation may be calculated. Observations need no equipment except for the timers measuring seconds, wrist watches will do. That allows to involve unlimited groups of students (middle or high school and university level) and to obtain a big array of experimental data in one observation. Then, statistical procession is performed, mean value of t is determined, observational errors estimated. Computer simulation and animational explanation of the Sun motion seen from the Earth are planned to be performed. Project homepage will be created and updated regularly. Links with the existing educational Internet sites will be established.


This paper presents two methods for on-line computation of dynamic fault location in HV transmission lines using three means; resistance, reactance and impedance. These methods can be used for dynamic distance protection of the transmission line. The Gilchrist method and McInnes method are presented. The proposed methods use digital set of short circuit current and voltage measurements for estimating fault location. A practical case study is presented in this work to evaluate the proposed methods. A study is done to evaluate the best mean to locate the fault. A comparison of these two methods is presented. MATLAB-Simulink software was used to do all the tests. Results are reported and conclusions are drawn.  This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


Summary
Development buzzwords shelter diverse and often divergent strands of meaning and practice, lending an air of credibility and currency to the policies of the agencies that espouse them. Tracing the trajectory of one of these buzzwords, 'participation', in Swedish development cooperation, this paper seeks to unpack some of those diverse meanings and lend form to some of those divergent practices. It weaves together institutional ethnography with oral history and textual analysis, fortified by insights from a unique action research initiative on participation. This innovative process brought together desk officers from across the institution in a participatory learning group that met for the best part of a year to explore the challenge of institutionalising participation in Sida.

The paper tells the tale of efforts to promote and negotiate participation in a changing external and institutional environment. It begins in a time when the term had not yet gained currency but in which the practice of Swedish development cooperation resonated with many of the ideals that were associated with popular participation. It goes on to chart the rise of 'popular participation' (folkligt deltagende) and other variants, community participation, beneficiary participation, stakeholder participation and civil society participation, as Swedish development cooperation came to be influenced by the discourses and practices of bilateral and multilateral development institutions. Pursuing the trajectory of participation into an era in which other buzzwords – harmonisation, ownership and account-ability – have taken precedence, it reflects on the paradoxes of efforts to institutionalise ideals within development bureaucracies as they grapple with the opportunities, challenges and contradictions of the Paris Agenda and the reconfiguration of the business of aid.


Hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry is an important method for protein structure-function analysis. The bottom-up approach uses protein digestion to localize deuteration to higher resolution, and the essential measurement involves centroid mass determinations on a very large set of peptides. In the course of evaluating systems for various projects, we established two (HDX-MS) platforms that consisted of a FT-MS and a high-resolution QTOF mass spectrometer, each with matched front-end fluidic systems. Digests of proteins spanning a 20–110 kDa range were deuterated to equilibrium, and figures-of-merit for a typical bottom-up (HDX-MS) experiment were compared for each platform. The Orbitrap Velos identified 64% more peptides than the 5600 QTOF, with a 42% overlap between the two systems, independent of protein size. Precision in deuterium measurements using the Orbitrap marginally exceeded that of the QTOF, depending on the Orbitrap resolution setting. However, the unique nature of FT-MS data generates situations where deuteration measurements can be inaccurate, because of destructive interference arising from mismatches in elemental mass defects. This is shown through the analysis of the peptides common to both platforms, where deuteration values can be as low as 35% of the expected values, depending on FT-MS resolution, peptide length and charge state. These findings are supported by simulations of Orbitrap transients, and highlight that caution should be exercised in deriving centroid mass values from FT transients that do not support baseline separation of the full isotopic composition.


Consistent negative polarization differences (i.e. differences between the vertical and the horizontal brightness temperature) are observed when looking at precipitating systems by ground-based radiometers at slant angles. These signatures can be partially explained by one-dimensional radiative transfer computations that include oriented non-spherical raindrops. However some cases are characterized by polarization values that exceed differences expected from one-dimensional radiative transfer. A three-dimensional fully polarized Monte Carlo model has been used to evaluate the impact of the horizontal finiteness of rain shafts with different rain rates at 10, 19, and 30 GHz. The results show that because of the reduced slant optical thickness in finite clouds, the polarization signal can strongly differ from its one-dimensional counterpart. At the higher frequencies and when the radiometer is positioned underneath the cloud, significantly higher negative values for the polarization are found which are also consistent with some observations. When the observation point is located outside of the precipitating cloud, typical polarization patterns (with troughs and peaks) as a function of the observation angle are predicted. An approximate 1-D slant path radiative transfer model is considered as well and results are compared with the full 3-D simulations to investigate whether or not three-dimensional effects can be explained by geometry effects alone. The study has strong relevance for low-frequency passive microwave polarimetric studies.


This study examine the effects of heavy metal pollutants to aquatic ecosystems and the environment by considering the role of urban, municipal, agricultural, industrial and other anthropogenic processes as sources of heavy metal pollution in surface water sources of Kaduna metropolis. Samples of the polluted water were collected from River Kaduna and along the Kakuri – Makera drains. The X – Ray florescence (XRF) was used as an analytical technique for the detection of heavy metals (Lead {Pb}, Arsenic {As}, Iron {Fe}, Chromium {Cr}, Copper {Cu} and Zinc {Zn}). The results shows the concentration of most of the heavy metals were higher than WHO (1997) acceptable limits. It is concluded that the water from the river is polluted and may cause serious ecological and health hazards. It is recommended among other things that there should be proper monitoring of effluents into receiving water as an integral part of water management in the river to enable verification of whether or not imposed standards and regulations are met. Keywords : Heavy Metal, Pollutant, World Health Organization (W.H.O) Standards, X – Ray florescence (XRF), Surface Water and Kaduna


The phytochemical study on Glycosmis crassifolia (limau hutan) and G.
chlorosperma (Rutaceae) involves extraction and separation by using various
chromatographic methods, structural determination by spectroscopic techniques
such as IR, NMR including 2D-NMR and MS. The structure of the compounds
were elucidated by comparison with the previous works. Isolation work on roots
of G. crassifolia yielded maculocidine (44). From the leaves, two more
compounds were isolated and the structure elucidated. One of them was identified
as a new alkaloid, glycofuranoxine (45) and the other one was stigmata-3,5,22-trien-3-01 (46). Further study on the twigs of the same plant afforded two known
compounds including ergosta-4,6-dien-3-01 (47) and stigmata-5-en-3-01 (48).
Detail study on the leaves extract of Glycosmis chlorosperma yielded two
compounds. One of them was identified as a new compound, 5-hydroxy-7,4'dimethoxy-
8-(-3"-methylbut-2"-enyl)f1avanone (49) and the other one was known
as dambullin (50).
Crude extract from various plant were screened for antifungal activity
using poison food method against Sclerotium rolfsii. However, the petroleumether,
chloroform and methanol extract of the roots, leaves and twigs of the plant
failed to show any activity in inhibition of mycelial growth and sclerotial
germination.


Shareholder voting has become an increasingly important focus of corporate governance, and mutual funds control a substantial percentage of shareholder voting power. The manner in which mutual funds exercise that power, however, is poorly understood. In particular, because neither mutual funds nor their advisors are beneficial owners of their portfolio holdings, there is concern that mutual fund voting may be uninformed or tainted by conflicts of interest. These concerns, if true, hamper the potential effectiveness of regulatory reforms such as proxy access and say on pay. This article analyzes mutual fund voting decisions in uncontested director elections. We find that mutual funds use a variety of strategies to economize on the costs of making voting decisions, including having funds in the same fund family vote in lockstep, voting virtually always in accordance with management recommendations, and voting virtually always in accordance with recommendations of ISS. Smaller fund families employ these strategies to a greater extent than larger families. We further adduce evidence on how ISS recommendations affect fund voting. Funds that account for less than 10% of the assets in our sample exhibit a strong tendency to follow ISS recommendations, a much smaller percentage than funds that virtually always follow management recommendations (approximately 25% of assets). A much larger percentage (36% of the assets) votes in accordance with ISS withhold recommendations in approximately 50% of the cases. We conclude that the influence of ISS is due more to funds' measured evaluation of the ISS recommendations rather than to funds blindly following these recommendations. We find no evidence that funds in families that are affiliated with commercial banks, investment banks, or insurance companies have a stronger proclivity than independent funds to vote in accordance with management recommendations or to shield their votes from criticism in order to maintain good business relations or generate new business for their affiliates. The largest fund families - Vanguard, Fidelity, and American Funds, each of which individually accounts for roughly 11% of total mutual fund assets - vote substantially differently both from each other and from ISS recommendations. This is strong evidence of heterogeneity in the voting behavior of mutual funds in director elections. Finally, we examine the factors associated with high (in excess of 30%) withhold votes in director elections. An ISS withhold recommendation, in conjunction with at least one of four factors - a withhold vote by Fidelity, the director missing 25% of board meetings, the company having ignored a shareholder resolution that received majority support, and a Vanguard withhold vote on outside directors with business ties to the company - is associated with a 49% probability of receiving a high withhold vote. Directors in these groups account for 48% of all directors who received high withhold votes. By contrast, an ISS withhold recommendation that is not combined with one of these factors is associated with only a 21% probability of a high withhold vote, and the general probability of a high withhold vote is a mere 2%. These findings suggest steps that companies and directors should take to try to avoid high withhold votes. They are also evidence that not all ISS recommendations have the same impact on voting outcomes.


Abstract This paper introduces the regression diagnostic methods for the Liu estimator under the general linear regression model with the autocorrelated error structure which is modeled by first-order autoregressive process. To identify the leverage observations, quasi-projection matrix is used, and to identify the influential observations DFFITS and Cook's D statistics which are single case deletion methods are used for the Liu estimator. For a special model with two explanatory variables, the leverage attitudes of the first observation are examined theoretically according to the autocorrelation coefficient and the Liu parameter. The proposed diagnostic methods are investigated through a numerical example.


INTRODUCTION
End-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) requiring dialysis affects the quality of life sometimes more severely than other chronic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, heart failure, coronary artery disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, exerting a negative effect on the energy and vitality levels, limiting social interactions, and hindering psychic health.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the quality of life of patients with CKD on hemodialysis in a public Brazilian Amazonian hospital.

METHODS
Data were collected through interview based on the Brazilian version of the SF-36 questionnaire. The study was conducted on 50 patients (mean age, 48 ± 16 years; mean hemodialysis time, 3 ± 2.9 years).

RESULTS
The most affected domain was role limitations due to physical health, with a mean score of 36 ± 36, and 58% of the patients in the lowest quartile, while mental health and social functioning were relatively preserved, with most patients in the highest quartile. Men obtained poorer scores than women did for role limitations due to physical health and vitality. Age correlated negatively with physical functioning. Patients on hemodialysis for more than one year had better scores in the social functioning domain, with a positive correlation between dialysis time and physical functioning.

CONCLUSIONS
The domains assessed were globally impaired in the population studied, especially regarding role limitations due to physical health, suggesting that chronic disease with prolonged treatment has a negative influence on those domains.


Aeroacoustics has been introduced since the momentum equations of fluid were transformed into the equations of sound transmission by Lighthill. Although the transmission from a sound source can be analyzed, little attention has been paid to a source with unsteady motion. An insect (Bumblebee: Bombus terrestris) was used as a sound source, and the mechanism caused by vibrating wings was analyzed. The sound produced by flying insects consists of a fundamental frequency, which corresponds to the wing beat itself, and many harmonics, which are caused by the physical characteristics of the wings and their motion through the air. Measuring the distribution of the acoustic radiation, an attempt was made to decompose the sound into noises by wing thickness, pressure fluctua‐ tion, and vortex motion. The result showed that the insect fluttering noise was mainly based on the pressure fluctuation on the wing surface.


Abstract. Aircraft contrails develop into contrail cirrus by depositional growth and sedimentation of ice particles and horizontal spreading due to wind shear. Factors controlling this development include temperature, ice supersaturation, thickness of ice-supersaturated layers, and vertical gradients in the horizontal wind field. An analytical microphysical cloud model is presented and validated that captures these processes. Many individual contrail cirrus are simulated that develop differently owing to the variability in the controlling factors, resulting in large samples of cloud properties that are statistically analyzed. Contrail cirrus development is studied over the first four hours past formation, similar to the ages of line-shaped contrails that were tracked in satellite imagery on regional scales. On these time scales, contrail cirrus optical depth and microphysical variables exhibit a marked variability, expressed in terms of broad and skewed probability distribution functions. Simulated mean optical depths at a wavelength of 0.55 μ m range from 0.05-0.5 and a substantial fraction 20-50% of contrail cirrus stay subvisible (optical depth A detailed analysis based on an observational case study over the continental USA suggests that previous satellite measurements of line-shaped persistent contrails have missed about 89%, 50%, and 11% of contrails with optical depths 0-0.05, 0.05-0.1, and 0.1-0.2, respectively, amounting to 65% of contrail coverage of all optical depths. When comparing observations with simulations and when estimating the contrail cirrus climate impact, not only mean values but also the variability in optical depth and microphysical properties need to be considered.


New York Philharmonic Performance History Search. New York Philharmonic, 2009. http://history.nyphil.org (Accessed December 2009). [Requires a Web browser and an Internet connection]. Since the 1980s, the New York Philharmonic archivists and staff have been building and maintaining an internal database that documents the organization's more than 150 years of performances. The database also serves as an internal catalog of the orchestra library's staggering holdings of scores and parts. In 2009, the New York Philharmonic (NYP) delighted its concert-goers, reception historians, and others by making its archive available to the public. The Performance History Search database, representing the "largest single performance history in the world," is available freely as a Web site with no subscription or login required. Answers to questions were cheerfully provided by archives staff via e-mail and telephone in a timely fashion. Contact information is provided on the "About Search" page of the Web site. The NYP Performance History Search provides information about each concert the orchestra has given since their very first performance on 7 December 1842. Those familiar with the ensemble's long history will note that details from the New York Symphony Society--which merged with the Philharmonic in 1928--are included in the database, along with information about the NYP's performances. The activities of various chamber ensembles composed of members of both the Symphony Society and the Philharmonic are also included in the database. The search function promises to deliver information "up to last night's concert," which has mostly proven to be the case. Search results provide users with specific information about each performance, including the date, the repertoire, soloists, conductors, durations, concert venue, and other information if it is available. The Search homepage displays four tabs. The initial "About. Search" tab contains a detailed description of the three various search options--by Composer/Work, by Artist, or by Program--that arc also represented by tabs. When using the Composer/ Work option, one is faced with two boxes: one for Composer, and one for Work. For example, if one wished to see how many-times the NYP has performed Debussy's La mer, one would input "Debussy" and "La Mer" in the respective boxes. The search yields 109 instances in which the work has been performed by the NYP, starting with the most recent date. One may click on a hyperlinked date to see information specific to the program for that performance, including the repertoire for the entire concert. However, if the Work box is left blank and only a composer's name is searched, the results shown include a list of all works by a composer that the NYP has performed. Thus, if one enters "Debussy" and leaves the Work box blank, what results is a list of sixty-seven Debussy compositions--arranged alphabetically by title--that the NYP has performed. Navigating lists of results becomes a little trickier when searching for works that exist in different arrangements, editions, and versions. For example, a search combining "Stravinsky" and "Firebird" does not immediately yield a chronological list of dates on which the work was performed. Instead, a list of several different versions appears that includes the ballet whole, followed by versions of the suite written in 1911, the 1919, and 1945. One must first click on the desired version in order to receive a list of performances, with the most recent date performed appearing first. Searching by work format is also complicated. If one performs a Composer/Work search for "Mozart" and "Violin Concerto," "Violin Concertos," or "Concertos, Violin," there are zero results. One does get results if one searches for "Concerto, Violin." The NYP archives staff members recommend that users who wish to locate instrumental concerti should input the instrument in the Work box, and "whittle down" from there. …


Abstract. Coseismic avalanches and rockfalls, as well as their simultaneous air blast and muddy flow, which were induced by the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal, destroyed the village of Langtang. In order to reveal volume and structure of the deposit covering the village, as well as sequence of the multiple events, we conducted an intensive in situ observation in October 2015. Multitemporal digital elevation models created from photographs taken by helicopter and unmanned aerial vehicles reveal that the deposit volumes of the primary and succeeding events were 6.81 ± 1.54  ×  106 and 0.84 ± 0.92  ×  106 m3, respectively. Visual investigations of the deposit and witness statements of villagers suggest that the primary event was an avalanche composed mostly of snow, while the collapsed glacier ice could not be dominant source for the total mass. Succeeding events were multiple rockfalls which may have been triggered by aftershocks. From the initial deposit volume and the area of the upper catchment, we estimate an average snow depth of 1.82 ± 0.46 m in the source area. This is consistent with anomalously large snow depths (1.28–1.52 m) observed at a neighboring glacier (4800–5100 m a.s.l.), which accumulated over the course of four major snowfall events between October 2014 and the earthquake on 25 April 2015. Considering long-term observational data, probability density functions, and elevation gradients of precipitation, we conclude that this anomalous winter snow was an extreme event with a return interval of at least 100 years. The anomalous winter snowfall may have amplified the disastrous effects induced by the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal.


This paper aims to study the process of intergenerational income mobility in some Latin American economies (Panama and Brazil), which have been much neglected in the existing literature. Like other countries in the area, also Brazil and Panama have a stagnant economy coupled with high income inequality. Our rich and detailed dataset, the IPUMS survey data bank allows us to provide the most reliable and robust estimates of intergenerational transfer, after controlling for a number of additional control variables which were unavailable in previous studies, such as family size, literacy level of fathers, and location in rural versus urban areas. We provide estimates broken down for different genders, age, location, education of fathers in each country. Our results are robust to different specifications and suggest that previous studies significantly overrated the extent of the intergenerational transfer in the countries considered. However, our figures are still compatible with an extremely low degree of social mobility.


Abstract : One of the most significant changes in the paradigm of modern business management is that individual businesses no longer compete as solely autonomous entities, but rather as supply chains. In this emerging competitive environment, the ultimate success of the business will depend on management's ability to integrate the company's intricate network of business relationships. Effective supply chain management (SCM) has become a potentially valuable way of securing competitive advantage and improving organizational performance since competition is no longer between organizations, but among supply chains. This research conceptualizes and develops three dimensions of SCM practice (supplier relationship management, manufacturing flow management, and product development and commercialization) and tests the relationships between these SCM practices, competitive advantage, and organizational performance. Data for the study was collected from prominent organizations and the relationships proposed in the framework were tested using rigorous statistical techniques. The results indicate that higher levels of SCM practice can lead to enhanced competitive advantage and improved organizational performance.


A mass mortality of the sea scallop Placopecten magellanicus occurred between 2004 and 2005 in the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area (NLCA), a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Great South Channel, USA. On a broad scale (3951 km 2 ), scallop density (ind. m -2 ) in the MPA declined by 35%. On a fine scale (504 km 2 ), in the northeast corner of the MPA where most scallops occur, density declined by 50%. The scallops that perished were large and probably old; 80% had shell heights >130 mm (H ∞ = 155 mm). Only 6% of the decline in the northeast corner was explained by fishing mortality. The mass mortality equaled approximately 6484 metric tons of harvestable scal- lop meat (equivalent to US $100 million ex-vessel). Closing the NLCA to fishing in 1994 removed fish- ing mortality, increasing scallop survival rates. Scallops that recruited in 1994 reached 10 yr of age in 2004. Individuals of this age may suffer the effects of senescence, including parasitism by shell bor- ers and prokaryotic infection, which likely caused the mass mortality. If MPAs are used to manage fisheries, surveys with the accuracy and precision to resolve population dynamics on the spatial scale of the MPA are required or the benefits may be offset by increases in natural mortality.


Resonant Switch (RS) model of twin peak high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (HF QPOs) assumes switch of twin oscillations at a resonant point where frequencies of the upper and lower oscillationsU andL become commensurable and the twin oscillations change from one pair of the oscillating modes (corresponding to a specific model of H F QPOs) to some other pair due to non-linear resonant phenomena. The RS model is used to determine range of allowed values of spin a and mass M of the neutron star located at the atoll source 4U 1636−53 where two resonant points are observed at frequency ratiosU : �L = 3 : 2, 5 : 4. We consider the standard specific models of the twin oscillations based on the orbital and epicyclic geodetical frequencies. The resonant points are determined by the energy switch effect exhibited by the vanishing of the amplitude difference of the upper and lower oscillations. The predicted ranges of the neutron star parameters are strongly dependent on the twin modes applied in the RS model. We demon- strate that for some of the oscillatory modes used in the RS model the predicted parameters of the neutron star are unacceptable. Among acceptable RS models the most promising are those combining the Relativistic Precession and the Total Precession frequency relations or their mod- ifications.


The Southern Urals in Russia was contaminated by radioactive discharges into the Techa River (1949-1956), the Kyshtym accident (1957), and the current releases and discharges from the Mayak Nuclear Materials Production Complex. In this paper, the consequences of radioactive contamination of the Ural region are analyzed. The current content of 90Sr in the components of food chains is as follows (Bq kg(-1) wet weight): potatoes, 0.2-6.7; grain, 0.5-12.6; milk, 0.2-6.3; beef, 0.2-1.7; lake water, 0.12-1.0; river water, 0.2-8.5; fish, 7-480; mushrooms, 400-1,100; and berries, 700-16,000. The content of 137Cs is as follows: potatoes, 0.5-3.8; grain, 0.3-2.9; milk, 0.2-4.5; beef, 0.3-2.6; lake and river water, 0.002-0.019; fish, 2-32; mushrooms, 110-1,600; and berries, 150. A major fraction of the dose to humans comes from the consumption of local food products, including natural ones, which have higher contamination levels than agricultural products. The average annual dose rates in contaminated areas are (0.5-4) x 10(-4) Sv y(-1), which is lower by a factor of 10(2)-10(4) than in the periods of "acute" exposure (1950-1951 and 1957-1958). Natural organisms received very high doses up to 200-800 Gy resulting from radioactive discharges into the Techa River and the radiation accident in 1957. In all cases, including the "acute" exposure followed by the chronic irradiation, the doses to biota were by a factor of 10-10(3) higher than those to humans.


Alcohol, with its impact on both communicable and non-communicable diseases, is considered as the third global public health priority. Alcohol ranked third among causes of ill health and premature death, and ranked second in terms of cost among all the substances of abuse, after tobacco, even though nearly half the world�s population drinks alcohol. In most countries, where alcohol is considered as legal; governments facing the dilemma of dealing with alcohol, as they play the roles of the regulator, the wholesaler, and the retailer. In these countries, a broad unity of purpose and action has been emerged within the alcohol problems perspective, against diverse cultural, social and economic situations and experiences with alcohol at national level. The scientific basis for that perspective enrooted in a sustained global research effort. Many common features of these policies include monitoring of public health and safety impacts of policies, increased prevention programming (with a focus on children and youth and on modifying risky drinking behaviors), rigorous monitoring and enforcement of laws, enhancement of the addiction treatment and rehabilitation system, evaluation of prevention policies and programs and involvement of public health experts in the planning of future changes to alcohol policy. Many success stories has raised in reducing the alcohol problem in different countries, however, many challenges still exist. In this presentation policies of different countries on alcohol problem prevention were reviewed to provide a wealth of evidences to address the issues that policy makers are facing in terms of alcohol prevention program in Iran.


This study is concerned with the problems of low-income
housing in Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea. In
considering Korean housing policy it focusses on the role of
the public sector and the attempts that are currently being
made to supply state-developed housing for urban low-income
groups in Seoul. The overall aim is to highlight the major
factors governing the formulation of a housing policy for
the achievement of a high level of public satisfaction, socioeconomic
fulfilment and environmental quality.
With the over-concentration of wealth and emplovment
opportunities in the capital in recent years, the housing
shortage has grown increasingly acute. A massive growth in
illegal housing and squatter settlements has been the predictable
result. The consequence of limited public investment
in the housing sector is that it is practically impossible
to allocate sufficient resources for the housing needs of
the low-income group, and without a clear understanding of the needs of the recipient population. Paradoxically, it was
found that state-developed housing in Seoul tended to aid the
middle or upper income groups. These groups often consume a
vastly disproportionate share of housing resources. whatever
funds and resources are available should in effect be rationed
to meet the most urgent needs for shelter.
In order to achieve the objectives of this study and to
widen the range of information available to establish a firm
basis for the analysis of the current housing situation, it
was necessary to collect data about existing state-developed
housing, both in terms of the machinery of provision and the
dwellings constructed. General information was collected about
housing institutions, about finance, and about laws and regulations
affecting state-developed housing. Information about
particular housing Danchis(estates) of varying types was collected
in Seoul to form the starting point for a household
survey designed to build up a more detailed picture of the
physical character of dwellings, dwelling control, environmental
locus, relative locus, housing mobility and the burden
of financing. The resulting analysis, and discussions based
on the field survey and investigations, made possible an examination
of a wide range of information which is closely
related to the residential and social functions of housing
development.
The thesis concludes with recommendations, and with an
alternative policy strategy drawn from the various strands of
the research, which might be used as a basis for a rational,
equitable housing policy both in the medium and long term.


Herbal medicine is one of the oldest valuable bestowal that was given to mankind. Many plants and herbs hold their prestigious position in the field of medicine among which Ficus religiosa belonging to the family Moraceae is the vital one. It is commonly named as "sacred fig", "Bo tree" "Peepal" or "Ashwattha" in Sanskrit. It is found all over India, as it is one of the sacred tree worshipped by Hindus. The different parts of the F. religiosa species tree namely bark, fruits, leaves, seeds and latex are used as chief indigenous medicines to cure various ailments. Recent studies have reported that F. religiosa is used in the traditional medicine to relieve about 50 types of disorders including diabetes, diarrhea, epilepsy inflammatory disorders, and gastric problems, sexual and infectious disorders. Green synthesis of Nano Particles (NPs) plays significant roles in medicines, clinical applications and in vitro diagnostic applications. This has also attracted the use of F. religiosa in the process of green synthesis of NPs where specific targeted treatment and theranostics are made easier. The applications of the green nanotechnology using F. religiosa has shown that the phytochemical investigation of plant extracts exhibits the presence of flavonoids, tannins, phenoids, alkaloids, saponins and terpenoids. The studies also prove that the extracts express pharmacological activities like anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, hypoglycemic, hypo-lipidemic, wound-healing, anti-helmintic, immune-modulatory, anti-convulsant and anti-ulcer in Humans. The present study is an attempt to compile and provide a brief review on the phytochemical investigations and pharmacological applications of F. religiosa.


The aeolian deposits of the barrier coastlines of Louisiana to the west of the active delta of the Mississippi have been studied intensively for almost 20 years. The dunes, dune terraces and transient wind blown accumulations on upper beach slopes and washover surfaces are in the main defence regional coastal erosion and inundation especially during storms and hurricanes. These dune-forms are rarely more that 1.5m high and have a short lifespan, normally less than a decade but their growth and stabilisation are rapid due to propitious climatic and biotic factors. Four modes of deposition have been recognised: edge dune, washover rim dune, foredune and pioneer/embryo dune. Special reference is also made to the unique high transverse dune ridges of the north Chandeleur Islands. All those dune forms are part of a single transgressive geomorphological system which is based on a rapid interchange between beach processes, washover deposition and some type of aeolian landform.