Objective: Dental wastes are material that has been utilized in dental clinics, which are no longer wanted for use and therefore discarded. Improper disposal of these dental wastes can cause harm to the dentist, the people in immediate vicinity of the dentist, waste handlers and general public and the environment through production of toxins or as by products of the destruction process. This study aims to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practice on management of dental wastes among dental practitioners in Nairobi, Kenya. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study of 70 dental practitioners practicing in Nairobi, Kenya. Results: A total of 50 dental practitioners were included in the study. Majority had graduated between 1991-1995. 47.5% had only a bachelors degree, 25% had masters 7.5% had PhD and 12.5% had postgraduate diploma. Forty five percent of the respondents indicated they have attended training on management of dental waste while 89.5% had been attending continuous dental education. Forty-two percent of the respondents worked in public institution while the rest were in private practice. Only 48.7% of the practitioners were aware of the existence of waste management guidelines. Only 64% felt it was important to follow the set guidelines, 5% thought it was tedious, 2% said they were not practical and the rest were not interested in the guidelines. Eighty-two percent of the respondents said that amalgam was toxic if disposed improperly with only 10.7% indicating pollution to be a consequence of improper disposal of amalgam. Seventyseven percent of the respondents did not know the hazardous effects of improper disposal of amalgam. Only half of the respondents stored waste amalgam under water, 25% said they did not know how to dispose amalgam. All (100%) knew about occurrence of cross-infection with improper disposal of bloody waste but only 56.1% said they incinerated bloody body waste while 24.4% disposed off bloody waste with general waste 35.7% of the respondents indicated that sharps were hazardous if improperly disposed. Only 52.4% incinerated their pathological wasted. On expired drugs, 7.3% disposed them off as part of general wastes. Conclusion: There is need for continuous professional development on waste management among dentists in Kenya. Key words : Access, Oral health, HIV, Physician, Dental waste.


Objectives We have investigated the extent of contamination with wheat, barley, rye or a mixture of these cereals in a large number of grains and commercial oats. We have also attempted to identify the type of cereal contaminant. Methods Sandwich R5 ELISA (using either gliadins or hordeins as standards), western blot, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometric and quantitative real-time PCR (Q-PCR) techniques have been used to analyze a total of 134 oats, comprising grains and commercial oat products collected from Europe, the United States and Canada. Results Twenty-five of the 134 pure, uncontaminated oat varieties were found to have undetectable levels of gluten, whereas most of the 109 grains and commercial oat products were mainly contaminated with mixtures of wheat, barley and rye, barley being the predominant contaminant. The percentages of these cereals in the oat samples have been calculated by specific wheat, barley and rye Q-PCR systems. The oat samples were grouped according to the avenin spectra determined by the mass spectrometric technique. The data confirmed that contaminated oat foods, based on the same variety, could have different levels of wheat, barley and rye contamination. Conclusion This study has verified that contamination with wheat gliadins or barley hordeins in oat samples can be measured by the Sandwich R5 ELISA, using either gliadins or hordeins as standards, and also the importance of using confirmatory techniques (such as western blot, Q-PCR and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry) to confirm that most oats are contaminated with mixtures of wheat, barley and rye.


The importance of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in the modulation functions of the central nervous system has been extensively investigated during the last few years. In particular, accumulated evidence has implicated ECS in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), that is a progressive, degenerative, and irreversible disorder characterized by the accumulation in the brain of beta-amyloid fragments forming insoluble plaques, and of intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NTFs) associated with synaptic and neuronal loss. In all the processes involved in the formation of both plaques and NFTs, the key-role played by the ECS has been documented. Here, we review current knowledge and future directions of ECS modulation both in animal models of AD and in human tissues, underlying the role of endocannabinoid signaling in the development of AD hallmarks. Overall, the available data suggest that next generation therapeutics might target distinct ECS elements, for instance CB2 receptor or fatty acid amide hydrolase, as a promising approach to halt or at least to slow down disease progression.


An online colour-naming experiment was designed and developed to determine a broad set of colour words in wide cultural use with their corresponding colour ranges in sRCB and Munsell specifications. The quality of the English dataset was analysed in terms of colour centroids, frequency of names, consistency and response time. The importance of basic colour terms was confirmed while it was also revealed that in free colour naming tasks, the majority of the observers preferred to use non-basic colour terms. The validation of the web-based experimental methodology with previous studies conducted in controlled viewing conditions produced satisfactory results, while a comparison of the 27 most frequent chromatic colour words with a previous web-based experiment showed a remarkable agreement.


For many years, both academia and industry have been interested in increasing the efficiency of idea- generation meetings. Alex Osborne's (1953) rules for brainstorming are an early attempt to do so, and have extensively been used in engineering design, however their effectiveness has been questioned with recent research, and a need for fundamental research to establish which practices are useful arises. This study is an attempt in investigating linguistic abstraction in idea-generation meetings, in order to establish whether any best practices can be distilled from the language used. Engineering design group meetings were recorded and transcribed, and was analysed using a coding framework which was developed for analysing linguistic categories as well as the ideas that were generated during those meetings. More particularly, the study investigates the average abstractness/concreteness of speech throughout the duration of the meetings, as well as the switching between abstract and concrete language and vice versa while comparing idea-related discourse and non-idea related discourse switching. The coding framework proposed is considered robust enough to carry out further work.


This study aimed to explore and influence how Australian public primary school teachers evolve literacy understandings and perspectives, in relation to rapidly changing twenty--‐first century communication. Acknowledging a variety of theoretical commentary and research literature, the study argues that Australian literacy teaching and learning is currently oriented towards standardised and print--‐focused approaches, inscribed on teachers' pedagogies through transmissive professional learning and print--‐oriented curriculum reform. As an alternative, the present research drew on a theoretical framework incorporating multiliteracies theory, community of practice theory and critical perspectives on professional learning, to explore how discourses of multiliteracies can be fostered in a teacher book club involving multimodal texts.

A qualitative case study explored a small group of seven public primary school teachers' voiced perspectives about literacy and professional learning, and how they participated in facilitated multiliteracies knowledge processes, during five monthly book club meetings. To interpret teachers' evolving perspectives and knowledge/s and changing social participation in the book club, critical discourse analysis was applied to chronological transcripts of discursive data. The analysis highlighted how these seven teachers identified constraints on multiliteracies pedagogy in the wider educational context, and engaged in recursive and collaborative negotiation of multiliteracies discourse. In particular, analysis showcased four teachers' emerging orientation to self--‐sourced digital texts and shifts to peer--‐led collaborative inquiry. During final reflective discussion, three teachers associated responsive opportunities in the book club with their expanded conception of literacy and interest--‐ driven professional learning. Findings of this study support theorised relationships between multiliteracies and community of practice processes. Additionally, interpretive discussion elaborates how these teachers shaped book club experiences around peer--‐relevant needs and interests, by recruiting intercontextual resources. Together, results indicate that the book club format fosters teachers' participatory professional learning for multiliteracies.


This thesis seeks to investigate the relationship between shareholder value and acquisitions with a environmental-friendly ("Green") perspective. By examining the shareholders reaction to the announcement of Green acquisitions, we investigate whether there are significant abnormalities in the security stock prices. We believe that the increasing focus towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental social governance (ESG) during the last decade makes the investigation of shareholders reaction to Green acquisitions an interesting topic to study. To the best of our knowledge, little research within the field of Green M&As have been conducted, and we believe that the ongoing shift and increasing focus towards CSR and ESG encourages research within this field. By performing an event study and a crosssectional analysis, we aim to contribute to research by investigating differences between Cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) for shareholders observing a Green acquisition and for shareholders observing a non-Green acquisition. We perform this study by analyzing a total of 40 Green deals from US and UK during the last decade, as well as a corresponding matched sample with 40 Non-Green deals. Our results suggests that the acquisition of a Green target company does not create significant value for the acquiring shareholders. When comparing our Green sample to the Non-Green sample, we find that without controlling for firm and deal-specific characteristics, the Green sample yield a higher, significant mean in CAR. However, when adding firm and deal-specific characteristics as explanatory variables through our cross-sectional analysis, we find that the differences in CAR instead is explained by dealand firm-specific characteristics. Put differently, our results suggest that investors do not value Green acquisitions higher than Non-Green acquisitions in terms of equity valuations. We also observe that the acquisition of a company in another sector destroys shareholder value during our event window. Lastly, our study supports previous research by showing that acquiring shareholders, on average, does not experience significant value creation through acquisitions.


Spain, as other south-Mediterranean countries, is characterized for the predominance of split work schedules. Split work schedules typically consist of 5 hours of work in the morning (typically from 9 am to 2 pm), followed by a 2 hour break and another 3 hours of work in the afternoon/evening (typically from 4 pm to 7 pm). Because of the evening work hours, split work schedules are contributing to work-family conflicts in the midst of significantly higher female labor force participation. Our purpose is to examine who has a split work schedule and why. We focus on full-time working women with full-time working partners, for whom the need to reconcile work and family responsibilities is likely to be more pressing. We first find that women with partners with a split work schedule or without children (less than 20 percent our sample) are more likely to have a split work schedule. Yet, despite the revealed preference for a continuous work schedule of the remaining women in our sample, we fail to find evidence of a compensating wage differential for having a split work schedule. We thus examine why and find that younger and less educated women more likely to be constrained in their job choices are more likely to work in the private sector, where split work schedules are primarily found.


Against the backdrop of the current economic expansion entering its ninth year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago invited economists from business, academia, and government to attend an Economist Workshop on February 5, 1999, focusing on the outlook for the Midwest economy in 1999 and beyond.1 This Chicago Fed Letter summarizes the workshop presentations on the economic outlook for the Midwest region and its states in 1999.


We report the fabrication and characterization of laterally continuous silver layers alternated with glassy amorphous polycarbonate films with the thickness of each layer much less than the wavelength. Such films exhibit physical phenomena associated with the coupled plasmon resonances. We have characterized light propagation through the resulting metal-dielectric (MD) periodic structures using collection mode Near Field Scanning Optical Microscopy (NSOM). In agreement with published theoretical models, our experiments provide evidence that diffraction can be inhibited for light propagating through metallodielectric nanolaminate.


Universities have widely deployed assorted information technologies, which positions students' laptop as a key pedagogical tool outside and inside the classroom. Viewed critically, the value imparted by laptops in the classroom is determined through the complex interplay of intended and unintended computer use behaviors and is, therefore, suspect. In response, universities may implement classroom control systems that impose either comparatively restricted or unrestricted access levels. We distinguish between two kinds of use behaviors-applicable behaviors and extraneous behaviors. We address two research questions. Are amounts of applicable and extraneous behaviors associated with different access levels? Are learning outcomes associated with amounts of applicable and extraneous behaviors? Using a cross-sectional, quasi-experimental design and data on 71 subjects, we conclude that a restricted access level is associated with significantly higher levels of applicable behavior vis-à-vis the unrestricted access level, and that time spent on extraneous behavior is negatively associated with learning performance.


1 Gallese, V. (2014). Bodily selves in relation: embodied simulation as second-person perspective on intersubjectivity. Philos.Trans.R.Soc.Lond B Biol.Sci., 369, 20130177. Notes: This article addresses basic aspects of social cognition focusing on the pivotal role played by the lived body in the constitution of our experience of others. It is suggested that before studying intersubjectivity we should better qualify the notion of the self. A minimal notion of the self, the bodily self, defined in terms of its motor potentialities, is proposed. The discovery of mirror mechanisms for action, emotions and sensations led to the proposal of an embodied approach to intersubjectivity-embodied simulation (ES) theory. ES and the related notion of neural reuse provide a new empirically based perspective on intersubjectivity, viewed first and foremost as intercorporeality. ES challenges the notion that folk psychology is the sole account of interpersonal understanding. ES is discussed within a second-person perspective on mindreading


One key component of executive function is self-monitoring. While a number of studies have implied that self-monitoring deficits may exist in autism (e.g. Russell and Jarrold, 1998), direct tests of this explanation have failed to reveal an autism-specific deficit (Russell and Hill, 2001). In order to assess further whether a self-monitoring deficit is present in autism, three groups of children (20 children with autism, 20 with moderate learning difficulties and 20 typically developing children, all matched for verbal mental age) participated in an action memory task. First, the participant and experimenter took turns to produce actions with pairs of objects. Second, participants were presented with an unexpected recall task in which they were required to (i) make a familiarity judgement, (ii) produce an event memory and (iii) produce a source attribution (self/other) concerning the actions performed on these pairs of objects. Broadly speaking, no performance differences were seen between the three participant groups, although there was a small but significant difference in source attributions for the accurately performing children with autism and the less accurately performing children with moderate learning difficulties. We discuss the findings in relation to the literature concerning self-monitoring in autism.


This research aims to determine yield ability and fat content of some sorghum varieties with treated by some doses phosphorus fertilizer. This research was conducted from March to August 2014 at the Plant breeding experimental station Faculty of Agriculture Riau University. The experiment has conducted using randomized complete block design (RBD) 3 replications The first factor was the variety type which consist of Kawali, Numbu, Pahat, Mandau. The second factor was Phosphorus fertilizer dose which consists of 3 levels: 45 kg of SP-36/ ha, S2 = 90 kg of SP-36 /ha, S3 = 135 kg of SP-36/ha). Parameters those observed were days to flowering (day), crop age (day), panicle length (cm), seed weight per panicle (g), 1000 seed weight (g), seed weight per m2 and fat content. The mean separation of analysis of variance was tested using Duncan's multiple range test at 5%. The result indicates that of Phosphorus fertilizer 90 kg/ha showed the best result at Kawali varieties (8,1 ton/ha), Pahat (8,5 ton/ha) and Mandau (8,7 ton/ha), treated of Phosphorus fertilizer 90 kg/ha showed the best fat content at Numbu varieties (3,35 %) and Pahat (3,18 %).


Summer drought is a feature of the semi-arid region of central Oregon, USA, where vegetation naturally develops into ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa var. Laws) forest. Forest management consists of clearcut harvest and natural regeneration. Soil microbial activity is interconnected with forest processes because substrate quality and availability can be important driving variables. Stand development influences the soil water regime, and water availability may also limit microbial activity. We determined factors limiting litter and mineral soil carbon (C) mineralisation rates in undisturbed old growth and regenerating (hereafter, young) ponderosa pine stands under a semi-arid climate. Mass of litter and dead fine roots did not differ significantly between the stands, but litter substrate quality was different. Young stand litter had significantly higher concentrations of total nitrogen (N), extractable organic N, extractable C, and microbial C and N than that from the old stand, probably because of litter fall from the broadleaved shrub understorey, including the N-fixing species Purshia tridentata (Pursch) DC, that comprised 40% of the young stand's leaf area. The old stand contained no understorey. For litter samples from the two stands, wetted to 60% of water-holding capacity (WHC), net mineral-N and CO2–C mineralisation rates were similar despite the substrate quality differences. Mineral soil properties at 0–0.1 m depth were similar in the two stands, except for lower CO2–C production in samples from the young stand; at 0.1–0.5 m depth, total C and N and microbial N concentrations were higher in the young stand. Net mineral-N production in field-moist soil, sampled during a typical summer drought and incubated at 25 8C for 56 days, was generally 3–6 mg kg 1 soil at both sites, but increased up to 29 mg kg 1 upon wetting to 60% of water-holding capacity. Over 56-day-long incubations, wetting also increased litter and soil microbial respiration rates by factors of about 500 and 3, respectively. The incubations yielded a proportionality between respiration rate and water content that was supported by in situ measurements of soil respiration in the young stand, before and after irrigation. A hypothetically wet year without soil water deficit caused a 2.5-fold increase in a modelled estimate of the young stand's annual soil respiration rate. Litter and soil C mineralisation rates in these ponderosa pine forests thus appeared to be limited much more by the availability of water than by a lack of available C or N substrates. # 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Importance
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with increased risk for dementia. Less is known, however, about other stress-related disorders and their associations with neurodegenerative diseases.

Objective
To examine the association between stress-related disorders and risk for neurodegenerative diseases.

Design, Setting, and Participants
This population-matched and sibling cohort study was conducted in Sweden using data from nationwide health registers, including the Swedish National Patient Register. Individuals who received their first diagnosis of stress-related disorders between January 1, 1987, and December 31, 2008, were identified. Individuals who had a history of neurodegenerative diseases, had conflicting or missing information, had no data on family links, or were aged 40 years or younger at the end of the study were excluded. Individuals with stress-related disorders were compared with the general population in a matched cohort design; they were also compared with their siblings in a sibling cohort. Follow-up commenced from the age of 40 years or 5 years after the diagnosis of stress-related disorders, whichever came later, until the first diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disease, death, emigration, or the end of follow-up (December 31, 2013), whichever occurred first. Data analyses were performed from November 2018 to April 2019.

Exposures
Diagnosis of stress-related disorders (PTSD, acute stress reaction, adjustment disorder, and other stress reactions).

Main Outcomes and Measurements
Neurodegenerative diseases were identified through the National Patient Register and classified as primary or vascular. Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were evaluated separately. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs after controlling for multiple confounders.

Results
The population-matched cohort included 61 748 exposed individuals and 595 335 matched unexposed individuals. A total of 44 839 exposed individuals and their 78 482 unaffected full siblings were included in the sibling cohort analysis. The median (interquartile range) age at the start of follow-up was 47 (41-56) years, and 24 323 (39.4%) of the exposed individuals were male. The median (interquartile range) follow-up was 4.7 (2.1-9.8) years. Compared with unexposed individuals, individuals with a stress-related disorder were at an increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases (HR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.43-1.73). The risk increase was greater for vascular neurodegenerative diseases (HR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.40-2.31) than for primary neurodegenerative diseases (HR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.15-1.48). A statistically significant association was found for Alzheimer disease (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.12-1.67) but not Parkinson disease (HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 0.98-1.47) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 0.74-1.96). Results from the sibling cohort corroborated results from the population-matched cohort.

Conclusions and Relevance
This study showed an association between stress-related disorders and an increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases. The relative strength of this association for vascular neurodegenerative diseases suggests a potential cerebrovascular pathway.


The clinical exploitation of physiological biomarkers could yield considerableimprovements in diagnosis and treatment providing their measurement can be conducted peedily and preferably at the point of care. The project has sought to investigate the development of new methods that could allow such measurements to be made. The various biomarkers that could be exploited as the basis of a general "index" of physiological wellbeing have been identified and their potential clinical merit critically appraised. Anti-oxidant sulphur compounds (cysteine, glutathione, sulphite) were selected as potential targets on the basis of their physiological role in protecting the body from damage by free radicals. The variation in their concentration within biofluids is widely acknowledged as a useful diagnostic gauge as to the degree of oxidative stress that an individual may be experiencing. The main problem, from a clinical perspective, is the lack of a suitable procedure for monitoring their concentration speedily at, or by, the patient. A brief assessment of the various electroanalytical options (encompassing voltammetric, amperometric and potentiometric methodologies) available for the detection of the sulphur anti-oxidants has been conducted. A potentiometric detection strategy was found to offer numerous advantages and a novel indicator family based on quinone interaction adopted and forms the foundation of the work presented herein. The reaction mechanism has been elucidated and the analytical applicability of the system investigated using a variety of techniques – covering both chromatographic, spectroscopic and electrochemical methodologies.


Fertigation is the application of soluble fertilizers through micro-irrigation systems, has been used in citrus production since the 1960s. Originally, fertigation was used in arid regions to improve solubility of fertilizers in the root zone and increase uptake efficiently by fruit trees. Without rainfall or irrigation, dry fertilizers often remained on the soil surface and nutrients were lost due to leaching or volatilization. Currently fertigation is being used in many citrus growing regions including Israel, the Mediterranean region, South Africa, and the United States. Nevertheless, many regions in our country still use dry fertilizers due to tradition, lack of fertigation equipment, technique, uneven topography or poor quality irrigation water. The objective of this popular article is to discuss fertigation, advantages and disadvantages of fertigation, methods of fertigation, fertigation in citrus production based on research and observations from citrus growing regions in India.


The World's First Sustainable Racing Car was a life-size fully functioning Formula 3 Racing Car made primarily from sustainable and renewable resources. Academics from the University of Warwick's Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (Kirwan K, Maggs S, Meredith J) created the idea and organised a consortium of material developer's, academics and Industry to produce the required parts. It was produced during a cross-discipline AHRC project developing natural fibre and eco-composite materials at Ulster. This 3D woven near-net shaped bargeboard component was produced as a static demonstrator to show the potential for aerodynamic parts to be produced using flax reinforced composites.The shape profile, fixing brackets and resin penetration through the flax weave were a particular challenge, but overall, the car has been a phenomenal success. Global publicity in print and media, high profile appearances at International racing events and academic presentations have helped make this project a resounding success.


The lift and power requirements for hovering insect flight are estimated by combining the morphological and kinematic data from papers II and III with the aerodynamic analyses of papers IV and V. The lift calculations are used to evaluate the importance in hovering of two distinct types of aerodynamic mechanisms: (i) the usual quasi-steady mechanism, where the circulation for lift is primarily determined by translation of the wing, and (ii) rotational mechanisms, where the circulation is largely governed by wing rotation at either end of the wingbeat. Power estimates are compared with the available measurements of metabolic rate during hovering to investigate the role of elastic energy storage, the maximum mechanical power output of the flight muscles, and the muscle efficiency. The quasi-steady mechanism proves inadequate for the lift requirements of hover-flies using an inclined stroke plane, and for a ladybird beetle and a crane-fly hovering with a horizontal stroke plane. Observed angles of attack rule out lift enhancement by unsteady modifications to the quasi-steady mechanism, such as delayed stall, but the rotational lift mechanisms proposed in paper IV seem consistent with the kinematics. The rotational mechanisms rely on concentrated vortex shedding from the leading edge during rotation, with attachment of that vorticity as a leading edge separation bubble during the subsequent half-stroke. Strong leading edge vortex shedding should result from delayed pronation for the hover-fly, a near fling and partial fling for the ladybird, and profile flexion for the crane-fly (the flex mechanism). The kinematics for the other insects hovering with a horizontal stroke plane are basically the same as for the anomalous crane-fly, and the quasi-steady mechanism cannot be accepted for them while rejecting it for the crane-fly. All of these insects flex their wings in a similar manner during rotation, and could use the flex mechanism for lift generation. The implication is that most, if not all, hovering animals do not rely on quasi-steady aerodynamics, but use rotational lift mechanisms instead. It is not possible to reconcile the power estimates with the commonly accepted values of both the mechanochemical efficiency of insect flight muscle (about 25%) and its maximum mechanical power output (about 20 W N $^{-1}$ of muscle). Maximum efficiencies of 12-29% could be obtained only if there is no elastic storage of the kinetic energy of the flapping wings, but this would require more than twice the accepted value for maximum mechanical power output. The available evidence suggests that substantial elastic storage does occur, and that the maximum mechanical power output is close to the accepted value. If so, then the efficiency of both fibrillar and non-fibrillar flight muscle is likely to be only 5-9%.


CONTEXT
Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is a common cause of toxicological morbidity and mortality. Myocardial injury is a frequent consequence of moderate to severe CO poisoning. While the in-hospital mortality for these patients is low, the long-term outcome of myocardial injury in this setting is unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the association between myocardial injury and long-term mortality in patients following moderate to severe CO poisoning.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Prospective cohort study of 230 consecutive adult patients treated for moderate to severe CO poisoning with hyperbaric oxygen and admitted to the Hennepin County Medical Center, a regional center for treatment of CO poisoning, between January 1, 1994, and January 1, 2002. Follow-up was through November 11, 2005.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
All-cause mortality.

RESULTS
Myocardial injury (cardiac troponin I level > or =0.7 ng/mL or creatine kinase-MB level > or =5.0 ng/mL and/or diagnostic electrocardiogram changes) occurred in 85 (37%) of 230 patients. At a median follow-up of 7.6 years (range: in-hospital only to 11.8 years), there were 54 deaths (24%). Twelve of those deaths (5%) occurred in the hospital as a result of a combination of burn injury and anoxic brain injury (n = 8) or cardiac arrest and anoxic brain injury (n = 4). Among the 85 patients who sustained myocardial injury from CO poisoning, 32 (38%) eventually died compared with 22 (15%) of 145 patients who did not sustain myocardial injury (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-3.7; P = .009).

CONCLUSION
Myocardial injury occurs frequently in patients hospitalized for moderate to severe CO poisoning and is a significant predictor of mortality.


Freshwater environments and their fishes are particularly vulnerable to climate change because the persistence and quality of aquatic habitat depend heavily on climatic and hydrologic regimes. In Australia, projections indicate that the rate and magnitude of climate change will vary across the continent. We review the likely effects of these changes on Australian freshwater fishes across geographic regions encompassing a diversity of habitats and climatic variability. Commonalities in the predicted implications of climate change on fish included habitat loss and fragmentation, surpassing of physiological tolerances and spread of alien species. Existing anthropogenic stressors in more developed regions are likely to compound these impacts because of the already reduced resilience of fish assemblages. Many Australian freshwater fish species are adapted to variable or unpredictable flow conditions and, in some cases, this evolutionary history may confer resistance or resilience to the impacts of climate change. However, the rate and magnitude of projected change will outpace the adaptive capacities of many species. Climate change therefore seriously threatens the persistence of many of Australia's freshwater fish species, especially of those with limited ranges or specific habitat requirements, or of those that are already occurring close to physiological tolerance limits. Human responses to climate change should be proactive and focus on maintaining population resilience through the protection of habitat, mitigation of current anthropogenic stressors, adequate planning and provisioning of environmental flows and the consideration of more interventionist options such as managed translocations.


Food acquisition in early phases of the development of human being is essentially based on predation. Scavenging, hunting, fishing and gathering are characteristic for these periods. Problem of estimation of vegetal food is evoked. The use of isotopie analysis may be a good help in this approach. For the faunal remains, some considerations are made about the difficulties of quantification methods, definition of an archaeological occupation, partial recovery, etc. The study of scavenging, hunting and gathering are yet today controversial and testify of our feeble knowledge in this area.


INTRODUCTION The last several years have witnessed a markedly high number of corporate bankruptcy proceedings, including many high profile petitioners such as Enron, Adelphia Communications, WorldCom and Global Crossing. (1) Record numbers of public corporate bankruptcies were set in 2001 and again in 2002; during this time, 191 such companies filed for bankruptcy protection. (2) The bankruptcy process often involves the sale of corporate assets to raise money for creditors of the business, and the Bankruptcy Code (3) offers two means by which a debtor or trustee may sell business assets: sections 363(b) and (f), (4) which govern sales prior to approval of a reorganization plan, and sections 1123(a)(5)(D) (5) and 1141(c), (6) which govern sales made pursuant to a reorganization plan. Debtors and trustees most often prefer a pre-plan sale under [section] 363 because in comparison to sales pursuant to a reorganization plan, pre-plan sales impose the Bankruptcy Code's minimum notice and hearing requirements and, accordingly, are usually quicker and less expensive. (7) Section 363(f) of the Bankruptcy Code provides a mechanism by which a debtor's assets may be sold "free and clear of any interest in such property." (8) Such a "free and clear" pre-plan sale under [section] 363(f) not only saves time and money in terms of decreased notice and hearing requirements when compared to a sale pursuant to a reorganization plan, (9) but it also provides a valuable means to raise funds for the debtor because a purchaser of bankruptcy assets will pay more for the assets when they are sold without the risk of successor liability. (10) Accordingly, the purchaser, debtor, creditors, and general public are beneficiaries of the "free and clear" sale process under [section] 363(f). There has been ample debate, however, with respect to what constitutes an "interest" within the meaning of [section] 363(f). (11) It has been argued that bankruptcy courts and other courts have adopted a far too expansive view of what falls within the definition of an "interest" and have thereby impermissibly extinguished certain claims that might otherwise be rightfully pursued against the purchaser of the bankruptcy assets. (12) In contrast, others have argued that successor liability in the context of [section] 363(f) amounts to a regulatory taking in violation of the Takings Clause of the Constitution and that "interest" should be construed broadly. (13) Case law has provided little guidance as to whether the narrow or expansive interpretation of "interest" is more compelling. (14) A proponent of either side of the argument has little difficulty in marshaling decisions supporting his particular view of what interpretation is proper, and there is currently a marked split in the bankruptcy courts and courts reviewing their decisions. (15) The importance of determining whether an item falls within the definition of "interest" according to [section] 363(f) cannot be overemphasized. A specific court's interpretation of what constitutes an "interest" can mean the difference between the termination of a plaintiffs claim against a successor purchaser and unbounded successor liability for the purchaser of the bankruptcy assets. As sales pursuant to [section] 363(f) become more widespread as a means to liquidate debtors' assets quickly and efficiently without having to satisfy the extensive requirements of developing and implementing a reorganization plan under other provisions of the Bankruptcy Code, (16) the importance of resolving the uncertainty will grow increasingly acute. Some courts have found certain liabilities to be categorically unseverable from purchased assets. (17) Other courts have allowed all liabilities to be severed from the debtor's assets, regardless of character. (18) Still other courts have permitted successor liability in some circumstances while disallowing it in others by finding subtle distinctions between facially similar cases. …


This volume offers an in-depth treatment of the Targumic Toseftot to Ezekiel by presenting the critical text, translation, and comprehensive commentary. The study further provides new insights into their Aramaic dialect, date and provenance, as well as their historical and social setting.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the clinical management of recurrent shoulder instability in a professional hockey player by using chiropractic management and rehabilitation exercises.

CLINICAL FEATURES
A 23-year-old professional hockey player with recurrent left shoulder pain and instability. He had two previous unsuccessful shoulder operations to correct the instability. He reported that the shoulder "slips out" in positions of abduction and external rotation or when the left arm is moved suddenly above shoulder height. The patient was still playing hockey professionally at the time of the initial visit and did not want to have to take time off for another surgery, so he chose to attempt a conservative approach.

INTERVENTION AND OUTCOME
The patient had undergone strength training for rehabilitation after each of the previous two shoulder operations and had very strong rotator cuff and scapular musculature. Proprioceptive testing revealed a poor response in the left shoulder compared with the right shoulder. Two subjective outcome measures were used to determine the effectiveness of the treatment protocol in reducing the symptoms of recurrent shoulder instability. Much of the treatment focused on proprioceptive training, soft tissue mobilization, and improving joint function.

CONCLUSION
This case demonstrates the potential benefit of chiropractic management and proprioceptive exercises to decrease the symptoms of recurrent shoulder instability.


The dissertation is structured in three parts. The first part compares US and EU agricultural policies since the end of WWII. There is not enough evidence for claiming that agricultural support has a negative impact on obesity trends. I discuss the possibility of an exchange in best practices to fight obesity. There are relevant economic, societal and legal differences between the US and the EU. However, partnerships against obesity are welcomed. The second part presents a socio-ecological model of the determinants of obesity. I employ an interdisciplinary model because it captures the simultaneous influence of several variables. Obesity is an interaction of pre-birth, primary and secondary socialization factors. To test the significance of each factor, I use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. I compare the average body mass index across different populations. Differences in means are statistically significant. In the last part I use the National Survey of Children Health. I analyze the effect that family characteristics, built environment, cultural norms and individual factors have on the body mass index (BMI). I use Ordered Probit models and I calculate the marginal effects. I use State and ethnicity fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity. I find that southern US States tend have on average a higher probability of being obese. On the ethnicity side, White Americans have a lower BMI respect to Black Americans, Hispanics and American Indians Native Islanders; being Asian is associated with a lower probability of being obese. In neighborhoods where trust level and safety perception are higher, children are less overweight and obese. Similar results are shown for higher level of parental income and education. Breastfeeding has a negative impact. Higher values of measures of behavioral disorders have a positive and significant impact on obesity, as predicted by the theory.


The relationships among mitochondrial O2 availability, O2 delivery, and lactate formation in exercising skeletal muscle remain unclear. Some data suggest that muscle O2 provision is sufficient at maximal O2 consumption (VO2max) to challenge the concept of a mitochondrial O2 limitation at VO2max. The relationships among VO2, mitochondrial O2 availability, and net lactate production were studied over a wide range of exercise intensities. Using near-infrared spectroscopy, the oxidation-reduction state of cytochrome a,a3 was monitored in the canine gracilis in vivo. Twenty adult dogs were anesthetized with alpha-chloralose, intubated, and mechanically ventilated on room air. Five-minute stimulation periods at rates of 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, or 12 stimuli/s were performed. VO2max generally was achieved at a stimulation rate of 8 stimuli/s; mean VO2max was 0.12 +/- 0.09 (SE) ml.min-1 x g-1. The concentration of oxidized mitochondrial cytochrome a,a3 decreased at all work loads relative to resting state and demonstrated a near-linear relationship with muscle VO2 (r2 = 0.99). Muscle lactate efflux and the lactate-pyruvate ratio also were correlated positively with cytochrome a,a3 reduction, suggesting a common regulatory mechanism coupling the processes of aerobic glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation. At VO2max, the corresponding cytochrome oxidation was not significantly different from that observed at death. Thus, in the gracilis maximal exercise leads to near-complete reduction of cytochrome a,a3 secondary to deficient O2 provision. We conclude that VO2max is limited primarily by O2 delivery to this muscle and not by other factors limiting mitochondrial ATP production or substrate oxidation.


Smart materials with changeable properties responding to environmental changes are studied in architecture. Shape Memory Polymer (SMP) is preferred among available thermo-responsive smart materials for architectural applications because of its advantages of reaction temperatures, deformation patterns, shape-changing behaviors, opportunity for various forms and manufacturing processing, in addition to the shape memory effect. Of various façade elements, this study focuses on designing and validating the SMP components as prototypes for shading devices for the Climate Adaptive Building Skin (CABS), to approach design decisions of optimal activation temperature, size, arrangements, and operating scenarios using digital models and simulation tools following the presented research framework in conjunction with design-to-fabrication studies in parallel. Prior to performance evaluations, the operating principles of SMP shading devices and interpretation of temperature data in relation to the urban conditions are prescribed. This research is based on a sustainability assessment of state-of-the-art responsive façade design integrating SMP elements combining active and passive measures to support a sustainable architectural design that provides less heat gain and better daylight comfort while demonstrating the simplified performance analysis method of SMP prototype designs. Following the simulation and comparative analysis of the results, drawbacks, and cautions inherent in the simulation methods, the potential meaning is briefly discussed.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Large granular lymphocytes derive from two major lineages: one expressing the CD3 surface antigen (T-lymphocytes), and the other lacking this marker (NK-cells). Although developmental overlaps between natural killer cells and T-cells have been described, malignancies derived from these two cell types are considered as distinct lymphoid disorders.

DESIGN AND METHODS
We report the case of a 30-year old man affected by a lymphoma/leukemia syndrome presenting with hepatosplenic lymphoma which rapidly transformed into aggressive NK-leukemia. Extensive flow cytometry studies and molecular analysis were repeated during the course of the disease, and showed an unexpected changing pattern.

RESULTS
At diagnosis, flow cytometry analysis showed the co-existence of two cell populations, one CD56(+), CD3(+), TcRgd(+), and the other CD56(+), CD3(-) and TcRgd(-). Molecular analysis showed that the TcR genes had the same clonally rearranged pattern involving b, g and d genes in both populations. At disease relapse and during the terminal refractory phase, only CD3(-) cells were present.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
This is an unusual case of CD56(+) aggressive lymphoma/leukemia characterized by the clonal expansion of two phenotypically different cell populations, variably balanced during the course of the disease. The presence of the same TcR genomic rearrangement suggests the origin from a common progenitor able to differentiate along both T- and NK-pathways.


Summary
Certain poisonous fishes have developed spines for stinging or laceration, and in connection with these stings have developed glands secreting poisons. These are comparable to the fangs and poison glands of venomous snakes, and like them function as protective devices. Probably, also, these glands, like those of the snakes, have by a perversion of metabolism been developed out of what would normally have been perfectly harmless organs. Such fishes poison men only when they sting them. Comparable is the poisoning which comes from the injection of the blood serum of a fish into the blood stream of a mammal and, by inference, of a man. As indicated above this is an experimental operation, and does not concern us here.
Finally there is the fish poisoning by ingestion of the muscular or other tissues of the fish, the Ciguatera of the West Indies. Here we have undoubtedly two forms of poisoning—that by ptomaines formed in the partially decomposed tissues of the fish, and that by toxins secreted in various organs but particularly in the ovaries and less notably in the testes at the breeding season. In the literature, as in ordinary medical practice, the two kinds of poisoning are almost hopelessly entangled.
From what has been said, it is clear that in the disease called Ciguatera there is an interesting, and, so far as the West Indies are concerned, an almost virgin field for investigations by modern clinical and chemical procedure for the differentiation of these two kinds of poisoning and for putting the treatment on a sound scientific basis.
The only region where any biochemical study of these toxins has been made is in Japan. In this great fish-eating country poisonous fishes of the family Tetrodontidae abound in harbors and bays having on them fisheries stations and universities with trained men and with laboratory facilities at hand for making such highly technical studies. In the whole of the West Indies there is but one such laboratory known to me. In Havana, Cuba, whose harbor abounds in fishes accused of causing Ciguatera, is the Laboratorio Finlay. Dr. W. H. Hoffmann, one of the workers in this, has interested himself in this disease and, on the basis of the data he has collected, has published two short papers. A series of such studies is necessary clearly to differentiate the two forms of poisoning from eating tropical fishes—that caused by ptomaines (products of bacterial decomposition), and that caused by the secretion of toxins (presumably toxalbumins) in the tissues, especially of the reproductive organs, at certain seasons of the year.


One source extensively used by Melville for this information in Moby Dick was Thomas Beale's The Natural History of the Sperm Whale.The role of Beale's work in Melville's novel appears limited to scientific information, but Beale's text was used to enhance thematic elements as well. By examining how Melville uses Beale's information in specific sections, such as Chapter 32, "Cetology," and in other areas focused on thematic metaphors such as Chapter 80, "The Nut," it becomes clear Melville relied on Beale for more than scientific research. In addition to research, Melville also presented information structured in a way similar to Beale's. Melville took information Beale identified as myth and used it to increase the physical, philosophical, and spiritual magnitude of whales and Moby Dick. However, he also used the scientific information to identify the limits of science. Through Ishmael, he portrays the preference of wondering about the unknown to the objective answers given by science. Recognizing the importance of Melville's use of Beale's Natural History enhances the meaning of the frequently overlooked cetology chapters in Moby Dick.


Background Analysis of potentially different impact of Lopinavir/Ritonavir (LPV/r) on non-B subtypes is confounded by dissimilarities in the conditions existing in different countries. We retrospectively compared its impact on populations infected with subtypes B and C in Israel, where patients infected with different subtypes receive the same treatment. Methods Clinical and demographic data were reported by physicians. Resistance was tested after treatment failure. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS. Results 607 LPV/r treated patients (365 male) were included. 139 had HIV subtype B, 391 C, and 77 other subtypes. At study end 429 (71%) were receiving LPV/r. No significant differences in PI treatment history and in median viral-load (VL) at treatment initiation and termination existed between subtypes. MSM discontinued LPV/r more often than others even when the virologic outcome was good (p = 0.001). VL was below detection level in 81% of patients for whom LPV/r was first PI and in 67% when it was second (P = 0.001). Median VL decrease from baseline was 1.9±0.1 logs and was not significantly associated with subtype. Median CD4 increase was: 162 and 92cells/µl, respectively, for patients receiving LPV/r as first and second PI (P = 0.001), and 175 and 98, respectively, for subtypes B and C (P<0.001). Only 52 (22%) of 237 patients genotyped while under LPV/r were fully resistant to the drug; 12(5%) were partially resistant. In48%, population sequencing did not reveal resistance to any drug notwithstanding the virologic failure. No difference was found in the rates of resistance development between B and C (p = 0.16). Conclusions Treatment with LPV/r appeared efficient and tolerable in both subtypes, B and C, but CD4 recovery was significantly better in virologically suppressed subtype-B patients. In both subtypes, LPV/r was more beneficial when given as first PI. Mostly, reasons other than resistance development caused discontinuation of treatment.


This case shows that using a rapid palatal expander (RPE) and then a pendulum appliance anchored to palatal miniscrews is an option for improving treatment management in a noncompliant patient requiring maxillary expansion and molar distalization in the late mixed dentition. First, an RPE was used to expand the maxillary arch. Then, a modified pendulum appliance was used to distalize the maxillary first permanent molars. Optimal positioning of two palatal miniscrews enabled both appliances to be supported by skeletal anchorage. Treatment was finished using multibracket fixed appliances, and after 2 years, skeletal Class I as well as dental Class I canine and molar relationships were achieved.


The focus of this thesis is the life and death of adult retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). RGCs are neurons that convey visual information from the retina to higher centers in the brain. If the optic nerve is transected (ONT), adult RGCs die by a form of cell death called apoptosis, and a general hypothesis is that neurotrophic factors can support the survival of injured neurons.With the intention to gain knowledge about systems that can be used to decrease RGC death after ONT, we have studied growth factor receptors belonging to the tyrosine kinase family of receptors (RTK), known to mediate important cell survival signals. We found that the RTK Ret and its coreceptor GFRα1 were expressed by RGCs, and to test the above-mentioned hypothesis, we intraocularly administered glial cell-line derived factor, which activates a Ret-GFRα1 complex, and found transiently mediated RGC survival after ONT.To identify new, potential neurotrophic factor receptors expressed by RGCs, with the aim to improve RGC survival after ONT, we developed a method for the molecular analysis of acutely isolated RGCs. The method involves retrograde neuronal tracing, mechanical retinal layer-separation, and isolation of individual RGCs under UV-light for RT-PCR analysis. Using this method, in combination with degenerate PCR directed towards the tyrosine kinase domain, several RTKs were identified. Axl, Sky, VEGFR-2, VEGFR-3, CSF-1R, and PDGF-βR are expressed by adult RGCs, and considered to be receptors with potential neurotrophic activity. Other results have shown that RGCs may require depolarization or increase in intracellular cAMP levels in order to fully respond to exogenously added trophic factors. We found that melanocortin receptors (MCRs) were expressed by RGCs, and MCRs can mediate elevation of intracellular AMP. We observed that α-MSH induced neurite outgrowth from embryonic retinal cells, indicating that MCR ligands have direct effects on retinal cells. RTKs and their ligands may be involved in endogenous systems for neuronal repair within the visual system. BDNF, NT-3, FGF2, and HGFR all increased in the retina after ONT and may be a part of an activated system for neuronal repair locally within the retina.Adult axotomized RGCs die by apoptosis, therefore we examined the regulation of apoptotic genes after ONT. Bim and Bax increased in the retina after ONT, and may promote death of axotomized RGCs, whereas the increase in Bcl-2 may contribute to limit RGC apoptosis after ONT.All in all, this thesis provides insights into the expression and regulation of molecules involved in the death and survival of RGCs. The results have revealed a number of potential neurotrophic receptors expressed by RGCs, and both identified RTKs and MCRs will serve as new targets in therapeutic approaches aiming at counteraction of RGC death after injury.


This paper questions the context and meaning of space or the 'spatial' within the current architectural and urban rhetoric as suggested by Vidler (2011) in his essay Transparency and Utopia: Constructing the void from Pascal to Foucault. As a case in point this paper further introduces the context of 'non-space' as supposedly introduced by Le Corbusier in his Potato Building typology studies conducted during the early 1960s. In both the above instances the concept of 'enlightment space' or a geometrical, rational gridded and above all transparent space is contrived and skewed to accommodate alternate determinates – space in this instance, according to Vidler; no longer operates as an instrument of monumental construction but rather as an agent of monumental dissolution. Given the above definition, the paper critically evaluates the role of computational design within this spatial decomposition.


Since 2005, several cost benefit analyses have been performed for the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) in The Netherlands. These analyses had in common that they were meant to support the decision-making process by informing policy makers and making the trade-offs as transparent as possible. The analyses also anticipate questions from the Dutch Parliament. Nevertheless, each time the analyses were slightly different, depending on the situation and (political) questions that had to be answered. This article presents the background and the highlights of the various analyses, describes their differences and similarities and tries to find a common thread in the results. Even though the results are barely comparable for a number of reasons, they seem to indicate that such a line exists and that economic analyses have played a role in the decision-making process by making tradeoffs more explicit. This has offered the opportunity for an iterative dialogue with the Dutch Parliament, which contributed to a decision-making process which resulted in a socially accepted programme of measures that is economically sound and transparent.


Live streaming has enabled eSports to become more accessible, ranging from professionally organized tournaments to individuals hosting from their bedroom. While different aspects of eSports have been investigated in separate contexts, in this article, we report findings of two survey studies to explore eSports as a holistic media ecosystem that includes playing, streaming, viewing, and spending. Study 1 looks at cross-platform patterns between playing and spending within the game as well as between viewing, streaming, and spending on live streaming platforms in the context of Fortnite. Study 2 examines the relationships between viewing and spending patterns on live streaming platforms. Results indicate that playing, viewing, and in-game spending are strongly related. Yet none of these behavioral metrics explain why people spend money on live streaming platforms to support streamers. Rather, psychological factors such as emotional attachment to the streamer and appreciation of the streamers' talents are what drive streamer support.


How does an ethnographer write about violence? How can he make sense of violent acts, for himself and for his readers, without compromising its sheer excess and its meaning-defying core? How can he remain a scholarly observer when the country of his birth is engulfed by terror? These are some of the questions that in this exploration of life and death in contemporary Sri Lanka. In 1983 Daniel "walked into the ashes and mortal residue" of the violence that had occurred in his homeland. His planned project - the study of women's folk songs as ethnohistory - was immediately displaced by the responsibility that he felt had been given to him, by surviving family members and friends of victims, to recount beyond Sri Lanka what he had seen and heard there. Trained to do fieldwork by staying in one place and educated to look for coherence and meaning in human behaviour, what does an anthropologist do when he is forced by circumstances to keep moving, searching for reasons he never finds? How does he write an ethnography (or an anthropography, to use the author's term) without transforming it into a pornography of violence? In avoiding fattening the anthropography into prurience, how does h


Due to its situation of "Europe's water reservoir", Switzerland has a particular responsibility towards downstream countries. It must ensure an optimal quality of its surface waters, following thus the example of the EU members which have to reach by 2015 the good status for surface water set by the Water Frame Directive. In order to achieve that goal, there is a need to localize sources of pollution to reduce emissions to water. In this study, an investigation was conduct along the "Venoge" River to localize potential sources of PCBs pollution contaminating it. A simple, rapid and easy method using passive samplers of Low-density polyethylene (LDPE), known to adsorb PCBs, has been established. It is therefore an accessible technology and requires no power source or specialized equipment in situ. The passive samplers were placed over 2 iron bars at each measurement site. They were fully immersed during the duration of the experiment, typically 4 to 6 weeks. Once out, PCBs from the LDPE samplers were extracted using dichloromethane, purified by adsorption chromatography and analysed by gas chromatography (GC-ECD). Results show the great interest of LDPE passive samplers in the localization of sources of contamination in rivers. One industrial site, a former landfill and a wastewater treatment plant receiving waters from an industrial zone were pointed out as sources of PCBs. On-going experiments are carried out to compare LDPE with silicone in the "Venoge" River in order to determine the most appropriate polymer for point sources localization. For both polymers, the uptake kinetics of PCBs present in the river and the release kinetics of PRCs spiked on the samplers before exposure are studied.


Previous research suggests that the sexual double standard still exists today, and that women face greater social repercussions for engaging in casual sex than men. This study investigates the effects of religious priming on attitudes toward a hypothetic female target, who is portrayed as either having a single or multiple romantic partners in the past year. In addition, we examined how participants preexisting levels of religiosity, sexual conservatism, and moral concerns might further affect attitudes toward this target. Consistent with our original hypothesis, self reported levels of religiosity, religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism are associated with more conservative attitudes toward sexuality. Interestingly, this relationship did not influence how our hypothetical character was evaluated. The multiple-partner Amber was rated more negatively than her single-partner counterpart, regardless of participants preexisting levels of religiosity and sexual conservatism. What did appear to be driving this effect were participant's gender and relative moral concerns, specifically females and those who reported more purity/sanctity concerns. A consistent main effect was found for Amber's number of partners and for the gender of the participant. For some variables, gender of participant and Amber condition interacted, such that women tended to reward her more than men when she had a single partner. Understanding how people evaluate others based solely on their perceived sexual activity is important, and could shed light on some critical issues, including women's interpersonal relations and assault investigations.


Massive galaxy-scale outflows of gas are one of the most commonly invoked mechanisms to regulate the growth and evolution of galaxies throughout the universe. While the gas in outflows spans a large range of temperatures and densities, the cold molecular phase is of particular interest because molecular outflows may be capable of suppressing star formation in galaxies by removing the star-forming gas. We have conducted the first survey of molecular outflows at z > 4, targeting 11 strongly lensed dusty, star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) with high-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of OH 119 μm absorption as an outflow tracer. In this first paper, we give an overview of the survey, focusing on the detection rate and structure of molecular outflows. We find unambiguous evidence for outflows in 8/11 galaxies (73%), more than tripling the number known at z > 4. This implies that molecular winds in z > 4 DSFGs must have both a near-unity occurrence rate and large opening angles to be detectable in absorption. Lensing reconstructions reveal that 500 pc scale clumpy structures in the outflows are common. The individual clumps are not directly resolved, but from optical depth arguments we expect that future observations will require 50–200 pc spatial resolution to resolve them. We do not detect high-velocity [C ii] wings in any of the sources with clear OH outflows, indicating that [C ii] is not a reliable tracer of molecular outflows. Our results represent a first step toward characterizing molecular outflows at z > 4 at the population level, demonstrating that large-scale outflows are ubiquitous among early massive, dusty galaxies.


The NIRSA Championship Series (Series) is a significant component of NIRSA: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation (NIRSA). Demonstrated, in part, by the fact that many campus recreational professionals contend the events directly relate to both their institution and the association's mission. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how NIRSA professionals perceive the value of volunteer experiences at Series events. The research team conducted semistructured interviews with thirteen campus recreation directors. The participants had a median of 28 years in the profession, (SD = 7.4), and represented all six NIRSA regions. In describing the benefits of volunteerism at Series events, the directors identified three broad themes, each with numerous subthemes: Personal Experience (Lifelong learner, Mentors, and Networking), Professional Development (Teamwork, Leadership, Communication, and Training), and Ideal Job Characteristics (Attitude and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors). The themes, subthemes, and implications for Series events are discussed. In addition, the authors present suggestions for future research.


ABSTRACT Based on analysis of 23 interviews, this paper examines how social media and online content is implicated in the collective, resistant and transnational media experiences of Black women in Britain. It contributes to scholarship concerning race and the virtual marketplace by examining tensions between the countercultural, communal and commercial qualities of Black women's online experiences. Drawing upon theorising of the oppositional spectator gaze of Black women, and narratives of technology consumption, we unpack how Black women's digital activity can enable them to navigate the hegemony of US content, their marginalisation in British mass-media, and situate them within a Black experience that transcends Britain's borders. Our work illustrates how Black women's online encounters can be a source of resistance, Black digital commentary and community, as well as being subject to corporate co-optation. We conceptualise such online experiences as being shaped by transnational dimensions of the relationship between race, media and markets.


Almost all cancer cells are aneuploid showing the wrong chromosome number and often with structural aberrations. The degree of aneuploidy correlates with an increase of the severity of the disease and tumour cells with chromosomal instability are more prone to acquire resistance to chemotherapy than other cells. Aneuploidy can arise from mitotic aberrations induced by chemical compounds or genetic defects. The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of aneuploidy by investigating mitotic aberrations in mammalian cells.Carbaryl is a chemical compound used worldwide as a pesticide substituting DDT. In this study, mammalian cells were cultured and treated with carbaryl or its metabolite 1-naphthol and the resulting aberrant mitotic appearance with cells elongating and cleaving despite displaced and unsegregated choromsomes, were studied. The phosphatase inhibitor 1-naphthyl phosphate was isolated from treated cells and the mitotic pattern caused by carbaryl and 1-napthol was shown to be mimicked by the tyrosine kinase inhibitor tyrphostin. A mechanism for the mitotic pattern is suggested here, involving tyrosine kinase phosphorylation.There are repair systems in mammalian cells that repair DNA damage and hence protect cells from aneuploidy. One of these repair pathways is homologous recombination. It has been shown that proteins involved in homologous recombination are defective in cancer cells. Here, mitotic aberrations in cells defect in the recombination repair proteins Rad51C (RAD51L2), XRCC2 and XRCC3 were investigated. For functioning in homologous repair, the XRCC2 and XRCC3 proteins form complexes with RAD51C. Here it was shown that RAD51C deficient cells have aberrant numbers of centrosomes in mitosis, and that cells deficient in XRCC3 have a hampered cytokinesis resulting in binucleated cells.There are genetic variations of the XRCC3 protein in humans. The XRCC3 T241M variant has been correlated to increased risk for some cancers. This thesis shows that XRCC3 T241M variant has a mitotic defect resulting in binucleated cells. Furthermore, it is suggested here that despite a functional homologous recombination, the XRCC3 T241M variant is correlated to an increased susceptibility to cancer due to a reduced ability for the cells to enter apoptosis.In conclusion, this thesis suggests that mitotic disturbances following treatment with carbaryl is due to interfere with protein phosphorylation. Also, a defect of the Rad51C protein is shown to induce mitotic aberration due to increased centrosome number. The thesis further suggests that the XRCC3 T241M variant may link mitotic aberrations in humans with increased risk for cancer.


This research lays a foundation for automated acquisition of volatile data by presenting a prototype device which carries out the deeds of a forensic investigator, essentially making it a "forensic investigator on a stick". The Teensy 3.0 device is programmed to interact with an external USB device for storage purposes. All interaction with a live target system must be documented thoroughly according to forensic best practices. Therefore quantitative measurements of system contamination related to the device actions are presented. The device is conclusively able to perform a memory dump and provide a warning of the existence of Truecrypt encrypted containers.


We theoretically investigate a widely-used plasmonic structure composed of a nano-slit aperture surrounded by surface corrugations. A systematical semi-analytical theory in form of two nested coupled-mode models is developed to provide intuitive physical pictures. Based on the theory, figures of merit (FoMs) of the structures designed for normal and for oblique incidence/beaming are defined for the first time to incorporate the interlinks among key structural parameters, making global optimization simple and efficient. Both the theory and the FoMs are quantitatively validated with exhaustive calculations and shown to be highly accurate on performance prediction and structural optimization. With the theory and the FoMs, an efficient, effective and standard recipe is introduced for optimal structure design. We believe this work will help to understand the mechanisms of and to facilitate the design of such a structure in various configurations used in various applications.


The formation pattern of haloacetic acids (HAAs) was investigated using phenol as a model precursor of HMs, and the oxidation by-products formed from phenol ozonation, such as hydroquinone, catechol, glyoxal, glyoxylic acid and oxalic acid, were also chlorinated to measure the HAAs formation potential (HAAFP). Of these, phenol showed the highest reactivity with chlorine, yielding the most HAAFP. Even though HAAFP of the tested by-products was lower than that of phenol, it was confirmed that all by-products can act as the precursor of HAAs. Regarding the ozonation of phenol-containing water, the efficiency of ozone in controlling HAAs can be reduced by the formation of oxidation by-products. When comparing conditions for pH 7 and 3, the ozonation for pH 7 was more effective in removing the overall HAA precursors than the ozonation for pH 3. This result was attributed to complete oxidation by the production of the secondary oxidant, such as the OH radical (OH-) from ozone decay, and ionization of phenol.


This paper describes the Gridworld Search and Rescue simulator: freely available educational software that allows students to develop an intelligent agent for a search and rescue application in a partially observable gridworld. It permits students to focus on high-level AI issues for solving the problem rather than low-level robotic navigation. The complexity of the search and rescue problem supports a wide variety of solutions and AI techniques, including search, logical reasoning, planning, and machine learning, while the high-level GSAR simulator makes the complex problem manageable. The simulator represents a 2D disaster-stricken building for multiple rescue agents to explore and rescue autonomous injured victims. It was successfully used as the semester project for CMSC 471 (Artificial Intelligence) in Fall 2007 at UMBC.


Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) accounts for over 50% of a typical home's energy usage. A thermostat generally controls HVAC usage in a home to ensure user comfort. In this paper, we focus on making existing "dumb" programmable thermostats smart by applying energy analytics on smart meter data to infer home occupancy patterns and compute an optimized thermostat schedule. Utilities with smart meter deployments are capable of immediately applying our approach, called iProgram, to homes across their customer base. iProgram addresses new challenges in inferring home occupancy from smart meter data where i) training data is not available and ii) the thermostat schedule may be misaligned with occupancy, frequently resulting in high power usage during unoccupied periods. iProgram translates occupancy patterns inferred from opaque smart meter data into a custom schedule for existing types of programmable thermostats, e.g., 1-day, 7-day, etc. We implement iProgram as a web service and show that it reduces the mismatch time between the occupancy pattern and the thermostat schedule by a median value of 44.28 minutes (out of 100 homes) when compared to a default 8am-6pm weekday schedule, with a median deviation of 30.76 minutes off the optimal schedule. Further, iProgram yields a daily energy saving of 0.42kWh on average across the 100 homes. Utilities may use iProgram to recommend thermostat schedules to customers and provide them estimates of potential energy savings in their energy bills.


The difficulty students have seeing the color associated with microbial growth in a traditional Winogradsky column can be overcome by substituting diatomaceous earth (DE) for sediment. Microbial growth in a DE column is visible from the early stages of ecological succession and the colors produced appear more vibrant. A flat-sided tissue culture flask can be used as a column container to provide a large surface area for observation. The enhanced visual experience provided by a DE column increases student engagement and learning. Editor's Note: The ASM advocates that students must successfully demonstrate the ability to explain and practice safe laboratory techniques. For more information, read the laboratory safety section of the ASM Curriculum Recommendations: Introductory Course in Microbiology and the Guidelines for Biosafety in Teaching Laboratories, available at www.asm.org. The Editors of JMBE recommend that adopters of the protocols included in this article follow a minimum of Biosafety Level 2 practices.


Since 2018, the UK government, the European Commission, and several European national governments have advanced bold proposals for a new "digital services tax" (DST), with the aim of capturing profits earned by multinationals that reflect value contributed by users of digital platforms. I offer a novel set of arguments in support of the DST, which appeal to both efficiency and fairness considerations. In particular, the DST would allow location-specific rent (LSR) earned by digital platforms to be captured by the countries in which such rent arises. I argue that platform LSR is often hidden from view under the traditional international income taxation paradigm, due to that paradigm's focus on physical presence, source of payment, and profit allocation among related entities. Moreover, that paradigm ignores a basic intuition about how rent accruing to mobile intangible assets should be assigned: when the deployment of a technology is non-rival with respect to multiple locations, it is both efficient and fair to assign any rent earned from the technology's deployment with respect to a given location to that location.

The principle of taxing platform rent where it arises is both distinct from and superior to the principle of allocating profit to "destination" (i.e. buyer or consumer) jurisdictions. Platform rent can arise in origin, destination, or residence jurisdictions, and the location of "user value creation" is not reducible to consumer location. Moreover, claims to taxing rights based on the location of rent inherently appeals to equity considerations, whereas destination-based apportionment generally ignores equity issues in allocation. I discuss misunderstandings of DST proposals, and reject certain common assertions about the DST's likely effects, including that DST costs will simply be passed on domestic consumers or producers, and that a revenue-based tax is inherently flawed. Finally, I suggest that the potential of the DST to reduce excessive entry in platform markets also deserves further consideration.


Phytoextraction is a process in which plants are used to remove trace metal contaminants from soils. This approach for cleaning soils appears very attractive, but essentially it is still at the development stage. Assisted phytoextraction , also called enhanced phytoextraction , seeks to improve metal extraction rates by manipulating the growing conditions of the plants. However, major technical challenges remain to be resolved.


Electric power markets are being deregulated nationwide with different impacts depending upon current policies and historical circumstances from region to region. The Pacific Northwest, with its historic abundance of low-cost hydropower and dependence on public power, with experience deregulation and conditioned by this legacy. This analysis focuses on the economic impacts of deregulation on the State of Washington. A 31-sector computable general equilibrium model is used to evaluate the impacts of Washington's economy. In a most likely scenario, electricity exports expand to high-priced regions. The impact on the state economy is a reduction in gross state product as a result of high electricity prices. Returns to capital increase, but returns to private capital and to labor decrease because much of the financial gain accrues to public power.


The structure of cellulose from bamboo fiber before and after treatment in formic acid was investigated in comparison with microcrystalline-cellulose by solid state NMR, FTIR, and X-ray diffraction diagrams. Differences of molecular structures among two kinds of celluloses were validated and expatiated. Results from the experiments indicated notable differences in the crystalline or amorphous region of microcrystalline-cellulose and bamboo fiber. CP-MAS 13C-NMR, and FTIR spectroscopy revealed the presence of Iα and Iβ forms in all of the samples. The effect of acid solution was achieved simultaneously both in the crystalline region and the amorphous region, but there was a more intensive effect on the crystalline region for bamboo fiber. All of the cellulose samples revealed the same chain conformation but a different hydrogen bonding pattern. The absorbency of hydrogen bonds shifted to a high wave number and gradually decreased during treatment. The intermolecular hydrogen bond of 6-OH…O-3′ decreased first, and then increased gradually, which indicated that the cellulose bundled together during hydrolysis.


Abstract Objective Allostatic load (AL) represents multisystem physiological "wear-and-tear" reflecting emerging chronic disease risk. We assessed AL during the first year postpartum in a diverse community sample with known health disparities. Study Design The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Community Child Health Network enrolled 2,448 predominantly low-income African-American, Latina, and White women immediately after delivery of liveborn infants at ≥20 weeks' gestation, following them over time with interviews, clinical measures, and biomarkers. AL at 6 and 12 months postpartum was measured by body mass index, waist:hip ratio, blood pressure, pulse, hemoglobin A1c, high-sensitive C-reactive protein, total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein, and diurnal cortisol slope. Results Adverse AL health-risk profiles were significantly more prevalent among African-American women compared with non-Hispanic Whites, with Latinas intermediate. Breastfeeding was protective, particularly for White women. Complications of pregnancy were associated with higher AL, and disparities persisted or worsened through the first year postpartum. Conclusion Adverse AL profiles occurred in a substantial proportion of postpartum women, and disparities did not improve from birth to 1 year. Breastfeeding was protective for the mother.


Sidewalk vendors are becoming a more common presence in cities in Latin America and the United States. Vendor demand for the best sidewalk vending spots increasingly exceeds supply, making necessary a system to allocate space in what is essentially an open access commons. This paper presents an empirical study of two very different systems of allocation that have been adopted in the city of Los Angeles, California, a formal one imposed by the city on legal vendors when they were unable to come up with one on their own, and a second that was embraced by illegal vendors across the street on an informal basis. The fact that illegal vendors were able to adopt any system at all, while a handful of legal vendors were unable to when given the same opportunity, is not what would have been predicted by social norms scholarship. Nor can it be attributed to the activities of local street gangs. Instead the respective success and failure of these two groups of vendors are best explained by Robert Sugden's game theory of spontaneous order. Turning to their relative merit, the illegal vendors' system of space allocation is superior, enjoying as it does a number of efficiencies. By contrast, the city's formal system suffers from a number of costs. It seems intent less on benefiting the community as a whole than on protecting storefront merchants from legitimate competition.


Abstract : The views expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. Authors of Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) publications enjoy full academic freedom, provided they do not disclose classified information, jeopardize operations security, or misrepresent official U.S. policy. Such academic freedom empowers them to offer new and sometimes controversial perspectives in the interest of furthering debate on key issues. This report is cleared for public release; distribution is unlimited.


We investigated the electrophysiological response to matched two-formant vowels and two-note musical intervals, with the goal of examining whether music is processed differently from language in early cortical responses. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we compared the mismatch-response (MMN/MMF, an early, pre-attentive difference-detector occurring approximately 200 ms post-onset) to musical intervals and vowels composed of matched frequencies. Participants heard blocks of two stimuli in a passive oddball paradigm in one of three conditions: sine waves, piano tones and vowels. In each condition, participants heard two-formant vowels or musical intervals whose frequencies were 11, 12, or 24 semitones apart. In music, 12 semitones and 24 semitones are perceived as highly similar intervals (one and two octaves, respectively), while in speech 12 semitones and 11 semitones formant separations are perceived as highly similar (both variants of the vowel in 'cut'). Our results indicate that the MMN response mirrors the perceptual one: larger MMNs were elicited for the 12–11 pairing in the music conditions than in the language condition; conversely, larger MMNs were elicited to the 12–24 pairing in the language condition that in the music conditions, suggesting that within 250 ms of hearing complex auditory stimuli, the neural computation of similarity, just as the behavioral one, differs significantly depending on whether the context is music or speech.


Savage Girls and Wild Boys traces the compelling history of extraordinary children, brought up in the wilderness, or locked up for long years in solitary confinement. In a poignant and beautifully written account, Michael Newton explores both the lives of these children and of the adults who 'rescued', educated or abused them. 'Thoughtful and crisply written ...Newton tells the stories confidently, clearly and with great humanity.' Independent on Sunday 'The stories Newton has to tell are spellbinding.' Mail on Sunday 'A collection of six, extraordinary individual histories, beautifully navigated.' Evening Standard


Get a comprehensive and detailed insight into the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) with this clear, concise and authoritative guide - a fully updated second edition that covers the latest standards and industry developments KEY FEATURES The only book to describe and explain the entire EPC including architecture, features and protocols, giving you the knowledge and insight to see the potential in EPC, develop EPC products and deploy LTE/EPC mobile broadband Networks The Second Edition includes 150+ new pages and numerous new illustrations. The content has also been focused towards the mainstream deployment scenarios Written by established experts in the 3GPP standardization process, with extensive, in-depth experience of its goals, development and future direction Case studies of deployment scenarios show how the functions described within EPC are placed within a live network context Forewords written by Dr. Kalyani Bogineni and Dr. Ulf Nilsson DESCRIPTION The latest additions to the Evolved Packet System (EPS) including e.g. Positioning, User Data Management, eMBMS, SRVCC, VoLTE, CSFB A detailed description of the nuts and bolts of EPC that are required to really get services up and running on a variety of operator networks An in-depth overview of the EPC architecture and its connections to the wide variety of network accesses, including LTE, LTE-Advanced, WCDMA/HSPA, GSM, WiFi, etc. The most common operator scenarios of EPS and the common issues faced in their design The reasoning behind many of the design decisions taken in EPC, in order to understand the full details and background of the all-IP core NEW CONTENT TO THIS EDITION 150+ New pages, new illustrations and call flows Covers 3GPP Release 9, 10 and 11 in addition to release 8 Expanded coverage on Diameter protocol, interface and messages Architecture overview Positioning User Data Management eMBMS (LTE Broadcasting) H(e)NodeB/Femto Cells LIPA/SIPTO/Breakout architectures Deployment Scenarios WiFi interworking VoLTE/MMTel, CS fallback and SRVCC SAE is the core network that supports LTE, the next key stage in development of the UMTS network to provide mobile broadband. It aims to provide an efficient, cost-effective solution for the ever-increasing number of mobile broadband subscribersThere is no other book on the market that covers the entire SAE network architecture; this book summarizes the important parts of the standards, but goes beyond mere description and offers real insight and explanation of the technologyFully updated with the latest developments since the first edition published, and now including additional material and insights on industry trends and views regarding future potential applications of SAE


Adam Smith proposed two contradictory theories of the British Empire in the "Wealth of Nations" and hinted at a third. The first view holds that the empire was created for merchants eager to establish monopolies on the colonial trade. Smith concludes that "Great Britain derives nothing but loss" from the colonies. In the second view, Smith celebrates the European discovery of the new world, opening up non-incremental increases in division of labor, specialization and exchange. The empire thus fostered the economic growth of both sides of the British Atlantic, net of the costs of monopoly. Smith's third argument is the least developed. It holds that many mercantile restrictions had a direct purpose in improving Britain's security given its more than century-long military conflict with France.

How do we reconcile the incompatibility of Smith's three views of the British Empire? Smith provides too little guidance.

I argue that, to understand the British Empire, we must view it from the perspective of a long-term military rivalry with France. Many of the navigation regulations were designed to advantage Britain vis-a-vis France. Smith argues, for example, that the harm to France from prohibiting trade in military stores more than compensated for the loss in wealth due to the restrictions. I demonstrate the logic of these claims using tools from modern political science.


Abstract Not Available – First paragraph follows:
The coastal community of Morro Bay, like many other cities in California, is upgrading its sewage treatment plant. As elsewhere, these plant improvements are financed to a large extent with federal and state funds, and a string is attached: Consideration must be given to possible reuse of the treated wastewater or effluent. Morro Bay now disposes of its effluent into the ocean but has the possible alternative of beneficial reuse by piping it inland 1 to 5 miles for irrigation of field and forage crops, under conditions that meet Public Health Department regulations.


OBJECTIVES
Policymakers, researchers, and citizens are beginning to recognize the need to limit minors' access to tobacco by restricting the sale of cigarettes through vending machines. One policy alternative that has been proposed by the tobacco industry is a requirement that vending machines be fitted with electronic locking devices. This study evaluates such a policy as enacted in St. Paul, Minn.

METHODS
A random sample of vending machine locations was selected for cigarette purchase attempts conducted before implementation and at 3 and 12 months postimplementation.

RESULTS
The rate of noncompliance by merchants was 34% after 3 months and 30% after 1 year. The effect of the law was to reduce the ability of a minor to purchase cigarettes from locations originally selling cigarettes through vending machines from 86% at baseline to 36% at 3 months. The purchase rate at these locations rose to 48% at 1 year.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that cigarette vending machine locking devices may not be as effective as vending machine bans and require additional enforcement to ensure compliance with the law.


Some ecosystem management plans established by state and federal agencies have begun to shift their focus away from single-species conservation to a broader goal of protecting a wide range of flora and fauna, including species whose numbers are scarce or about which there is little scientific understanding. To date, these efforts have proved extremely costly and complex to implement. Are there alternative approaches to protecting rare or little-known species that can be more effective and less burdensome than current efforts?"Conservation of Rare or Little-Known Species" represents the first comprehensive scientific evaluation of approaches and management options for protecting rare or little-known terrestrial species. The book brings together leading ecologists, biologists, botanists, economists, and sociologists to classify approaches, summarize their theoretical and conceptual foundations, evaluate their efficacy, and review how each has been used.Contributors consider combinations of species and systems approaches for overall effectiveness in meeting conservation and ecosystem sustainability goals. They discuss the biological, legal, sociological, political, administrative, and economic dimensions by which conservation strategies can be gauged, in an effort to help managers determine which strategy or combination of strategies is most likely to meet their needs. Contributors also discuss practical considerations of implementing various strategies."Conservation of Rare or Little-Known Species" gives land managers access to a diverse literature and provides them with the basic information they need to select approaches that best suit their conservation objectives and ecological context. It is an important new work for anyone involved with developing land management or conservation plans.


This research examined the influence of gamification on the learning outcomes and engagement of English Language Pupils in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria. It adopted the two (2) group pre-test post-test quasi-experimental research design. The sample comprised forty-four (44) primary three pupils. Twenty (20) for the experimental group and twenty-four (24) for the control group. Two (2) sets of instruments were employed to gather data from the sample namely: English Language Achievement Test (ELAT), and Gamification Questionnaire (GQ) which had two (2) sections: Demographic data of pupils, and games engagement. Three objectives, three research questions, and two hypotheses were used for the study. Mean and standard deviation were employed to answer the research questions. Hypothesis one was tested using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), while hypothesis two was tested using independent sample t-test. Kuder-Richardson (KR20) was employed to test the ELAT and a reliability coefficient of .857 was obtained. Cronbach Alpha was used for the GQ with a reliability coefficient of.689. The findings revealed that learners taught with games had a higher mean score than those taught without games but the difference was not statistically significant; and their engagement level was high. Recommendation was therefore made that gamification be used in classrooms because it has a positive influence on learners' learning outcomes.


This paper analyses the feasibility of a monetary union within the Mercosur, focusing on cycle synchronicity. Three questions are addressed, concerning respectively the features of shocks hitting each member, the impact of exchange rate regime differences on countries' responses and the share of common and idiosyncratic components in shocks and policy responses. Shocks are identified through identical country-VARs. This paper concludes that there exists a weak cycle synchronization, due to asymmetric shocks and divergences in policy responses. The endogenous approach in OCA theory can advise the adoption of a common nominal anchor, in order to speed up convergence


This study assesses the mobile phone in the diffusion of knowledge for better governance in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2000-2012. For this purpose we employ Generalised Method of Moments with forward orthogonal deviations. The empirical evidence is based on three complementary knowledge diffusion variables (innovation, internet penetration and educational quality) and ten governance indicators that are bundled and unbundled. The following are the main findings. First, there is an unconditional positive effect of mobile phone penetration on good governance. Second, the net effects on political, economic and institutional governances that are associated with the interaction of the mobile phone with knowledge diffusion variables are positive for the most part. Third, countries with low levels of governance are catching-up their counterparts with higher levels of governance. The above findings are broadly consistent with theoretical underpinnings on the relevance of mobile phones in mitigating bad governance in Africa. The evidence of some insignificant net effects and decreasing marginal impacts may be an indication that the mobile phone could also be employed to decrease government quality. Overall, this study has established net positive effects for the most part. Five rationales could elicit the positive net effects on good governance from the interaction between mobile phones and knowledge diffusion, among others, the knowledge variables enhance: reach, access, adoption, cost-effectiveness and interaction. In a nut shell, the positive net effects are apparent because the knowledge diffusion variables complement mobile phones in reducing information asymmetry and monopoly that create conducive conditions for bad governance. The contribution of the