In collaborative filtering recommender systems, there is little room for users to get involved in the choice of their peer group. It leaves users defenseless against various spamming or ''shilling'' attacks. Other social Web-based systems, however, allow users to self-select peers and build a social network. We argue that users' self-defined social networks could be valuable to increase the quality of recommendation in CF systems. To prove the feasibility of this idea we examined how similar are interests of users connected by self-defined relationships in a collaborative tagging systems Citeulike. Interest similarity was measured by similarity of items and meta-data they share and tags they use. Our study shows that users connected by social networks exhibit significantly higher similarity on all explored levels (items, meta-data, and tags) than non-connected users. This similarity is the highest for directly connected users and decreases with the increase of distance between users. Among other interesting properties of information sharing is the finding that between-user similarity in social connections on the level of metadata and tags is much larger than similarity on the level of items. Overall, our findings support the feasibility of social network based recommender systems and offer some good hints to the prospective authors of these systems.


Markov Chain Process: Theory and Cases is designed for students of natural and formal sciences. It explains the fundamentals related to a stochastic process that satisfies the Markov property. It presents 10 structured chapters that provide a comprehensive insight into the complexity of this subject by presenting many examples and case studies that will help readers to deepen their acquired knowledge and relate learned theory to practice.

This book is divided into four parts. The first part thoroughly examines the definitions of probability, independent events, mutually (and not mutually) exclusive events, conditional probability, and Bayes' theorem, which are essential elements in Markov's theory. The second part examines the elements of probability vectors, stochastic matrices, regular stochastic matrices, and fixed points. The third part presents multiple cases in various disciplines: Predictive computational science, Urban complex systems, Computational finance, Computational biology, Complex systems theory, and Computational Science in Engineering. The last part introduces learners to Fortran 90 programs and Linux scripts.

To make the comprehension of Markov Chain concepts easier, all the examples, exercises, and case studies presented in this book are completely solved and given in a separate section.

This book serves as a textbook (either primary or auxiliary) for students required to understand Markov Chains in their courses, and as a reference book for researchers who want to learn about methods that involve Markov Processes.


Because of the growing potential of nanoparticles in biological and medical applications, tuning and directing their properties toward a high compatibility with the aqueous biological milieu is of remarkable relevance. Moreover, the capability to combine nanocrystals (NCs) with biomolecules, such as proteins, offers great opportunities to design hybrid systems for both nanobiotechnology and biomedical technology. Here we report on the application of the micelle-to-vesicle transition (MVT) method for incorporation of hydrophobic, red-emitting CdSe@ZnS NCs into the bilayer of liposomes. This method enabled the construction of a novel hybrid proteo-NC-liposome containing, as model membrane protein, the photosynthetic reaction center (RC) of Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Electron microscopy confirmed the insertion of NCs within the lipid bilayer without significantly altering the structure of the unilamellar vesicles. The resulting aqueous NC-liposome suspensions showed low turbidity and kept unaltered the wavelengths of absorbance and emission peaks of the native NCs. A relative NC fluorescence quantum yield up to 8% was preserved after their incorporation in liposomes. Interestingly, in proteo-NC-liposomes, RC is not denatured by Cd-based NCs, retaining its structural and functional integrity as shown by absorption spectra and flash-induced charge recombination kinetics. The outlined strategy can be extended in principle to any suitably sized hydrophobic NC with similar surface chemistry and to any integral protein complex. Furthermore, the proposed approach could be used in nanomedicine for the realization of theranostic systems and provides new, interesting perspectives for understanding the interactions between integral membrane proteins and nanoparticles, i.e., in nanotoxicology studies.


This paper sets forth some preliminary observations about the construct of cyberspace and begins to develop an analytical framework using concepts developed from the intersection of communication theory (broadly interpreted) and free speech doctrine. The purpose of this framework is not to advocate regulation or non-regulation of any particular online behavior but to identify the particular points of challenge to existing thought and doctrine posed by the new digital communication technologies collectively referred to as cyberspace. A central thesis of this paper is that the technical characteristics of a medium have significant impact on the effectiveness of communication to do, rather than just say, things. In particular, that certain technical characteristics of cyberspace lower the barriers to entry for amplification and that such amplification, together with certain other characteristics of networks discussed in Part V, change the quantitative and qualitative nature and effects of mediated speech. These amplified effects have the potential to significantly increase the potential for social harms resulting from such speech. This paper attempts to illustrate how these characteristics interact with legal doctrine and state interest in the context of free speech. Part I of this paper discusses the relationship between form and substance, and medium to message, as a prelude to understanding why technical characteristics of mediated systems are inseparable from their effect on meaning itself. Part II discusses cyberspace as a social construction and examines the use of metaphor in describing cyberspace and how substantive legal doctrine is affected by choice of metaphor. Part III examines the concept of software as the content of mediated digital communication and introduces speech-act theory as a potentially useful tool for understanding different types of online communication. Part IV provides an overview of certain free speech doctrines and underlying principles and looks at their relationship to specific concepts in communication theory. Part V highlights some of the particular characteristics of cyberspace - principally the effects of digital encoding - and how these interact with various social and legal interests. Part VI suggests the hyperlink as the primary unit of social construction in cyberspace and as the nexus between individual communication and social community. This section briefly reviews the emerging law and legal analysis relating to hyperlinks and proposes a semiotic approach to applying legal doctrine to linking. The paper concludes in Part VII by setting out some areas for further inquiry.


This report describes the theory of formula-based Line
of Balance and the two extrer,e Line of Balance methods which
can be used for scheduling housing projects. Of the two
compromise methods which are then introduced, the decision
rule method is the most im-l~ortant because it enables the
schedule to be chosen on economic grounds.
A computer llrogram called DARLOD is fully described,
and is used to process data for a housing project. This project
is used to illustrate the three most important Line of Balance
scheduling methods.
The unit house network has a great bearing on the fim:l
cost of the housing project, on the scheduling method chosen,
and on the final schedule. This report therefore shows how the
design and construction decisions which determine the network
shOUld be made so that a low cost, short duration schedule is
obtained.
Before scheduling a housing project it is necessary to
detennine which scheduling method should be used. This report
therefore relates JJine of Iialance to house building in Great
Britain, and concludes that full Line of Balance scheduling by
the methods described in this report is at present only
economic for largc, non-speculative projects consisting of
system or industrialized houses.


A large superfamily of enzymes uses S-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM) to generate high-energy carbon radicals as intermediates in a variety of metabolic and biosynthetic reactions. All radical SAM enzymes contain one or more iron-sulphur clusters, with SAM binding directly to an iron-sulphur cluster in a manner that facilitates reduction of SAM and generation of a highly reactive 5′-deoxyadenosyl radical intermediate. This potent intermediate typically initiates the subsequent radical transformations by abstracting a hydrogen atom from the substrate or from a nearby protein residue. Despite the diverse array of reactions catalysed, members of the Radical SAM superfamily share a similar structural topology that facilitates this interaction between SAM and an iron-sulphur cluster and allows restricted access of substrates to the site of radical generation.

Key Concepts:

The Radical SAM superfamily comprises a diverse array of enzymes that contain a common core structural fold and use S-adenosylmethionine to generate organic radicals.

Radical SAM enzymes contain one or more iron-sulphur clusters that are essential for catalysis.

S-Adenosylmethionine is reduced and cleaved at the sulfonium centre to generate a 5′-deoxyadenosyl radical.

Radical SAM enzymes typically use a 5′-deoxyadenosyl radical to abstract a hydrogen atom from the substrate.

Reaction types catalysed by radical SAM enzymes include oxidation, reduction, methylation, methylthiolation, sulfurylation and complex rearrangement reactions.

Radical SAM enzymes are use to introduce several posttranslational and posttranscriptional modifications into proteins and RNA.

Radical SAM enzymes are involved in thousands of uncharacterised bacterial natural product biosynthesis pathways.

Keywords:

adenosylmethionine;
iron-sulphur cluster;
enzyme mechanism;
protein structure;
radical


If one should buy something only because one loves it for its beauty or some other aspect of aesthetic or personal appeal, one can never really lose. Individuals who collect art and who share the growing interest in art as an investment question whether art is a good investment particularly when art is illiquid and the ability to convert an art investment into cash expeditiously is limited. Anything that can be said about art as an investment obviously applies only to genuine art and not fakes or forgeries. Investors need to be able to find out what is authentic and what is not. Art prices may be quite unpredictable, and investment horizons may run for decades and art often ends up as part of an estate. Past performance in art investing is no indicator of future results. At the same time statistics suggest that discerning investors might at least want to give some thought to adding art to their portfolios. The next issue is whether art serves any function in a portfolio. Sales at the major auction houses are setting record prices for art against the backdrop of major recession. Studies indicate that art values tend to hold up well during periods of economic difficulty and that art indices outperform major stock indices during times of war. Art could therefore be a balancing or stabilizing asset. This study considers whether investing in a fine art at the correct price could diversify a portfolio risk and stabilize the volatility of one's portfolio and position one's art collection for upside appreciation. Since investment in art is modeled with due regard to the peculiarities of artistic work and value created activities, it follows that the construction of earnings functions and models of career choice in this area will also need to account for the risk and return function. A successful entrepreneur sees business where others do not. The blessing of the capitalist system is that it rewards those that come with good new ideas and bring them to business.


Abstract New U–Pb ID-TIMS geochronological and whole-rock geochemical data from the Hurry Inlet Plutonic Terrane in Liverpool Land provide evidence of a Late Ordovician to Silurian magmatic arc in the East Greenland Caledonides. These voluminous granitoid rocks range from meladiorite to monzonite and granite, they are alkali-calcic to calc-alkaline and magnesian, and have characteristic arc granitoid trace element signatures. Zircon data give ages of 446 ± 2 and 438 ± 4 Ma for two phases of the Hurry Inlet Composite Pluton, 426 ± 1 Ma for a meladioritic xenolith in the anatectic Triaselv granite, and 424 ± 1 Ma for the Hodal-Storefjord Pluton. The Late Ordovician plutons can be correlated with similar plutons in the uppermost nappes of the Scandinavian Caledonides, likely representing the northern branch of magmatic arcs formed on the Laurentian margin. Magmatism appears to have continued sporadically until about 425 Ma when a major, short-lived, magmatic event formed the bulk of the batholith on Liverpool Land. This activity was likely mantle-driven and can be correlated with the Newer Granites in Scotland, for which a slab break-off mechanism has been proposed. The increased heat flow from this process can also explain the generation of the crustally derived, syntectonic, two-mica granites, which are the areally most important Caledonian suite in East Greenland.


Exit from a neighborhood of zero for weakly damped stochasticnonlinear SchrAodinger equations is studied. The small noise is either complexand of additive type or real and of multiplicative type. It is white in time andcolored in space. The neighborhood is either in L2 or in H1. The small noiseasymptotic of both the ¯rst exit times and the exit points are characterized.


Over the past thirty years, more than 2,900 U.S. banks have transformed from pure depository institutions into conglomerates involved in a broad range of business activities. What type of banks choose to become conglomerate organizations? In this post, we document that, from 1986 to 2018, such institutions had, on average, a higher return on equity in the three years prior to their decision to expand, as well as a lower level of risk overall. However, this superior pre-expansion performance diminishes over time, and all but disappears by the end of the 1990s.


Novelty detection is often used for analysis where there are insufficient examples of " abnormal " data to take a multi-class approach to classification. Models of normality are constructed from commonly-available examples of " normal " behaviour, and we then reason about the presence of abnormalities with respect to this normal model. Extreme value theory (EVT) is a branch of statistics that is concerned with modelling extremal events, and is therefore appealing for use with novelty detection. However, conventional existing EVT approaches are limited to the analysis of univariate or low-dimension data. This paper considers the peaks-over-threshold method of EVT, in which exceedances over a (typically univariate) threshold can be shown to tend towards the generalised Pareto distribution (GPD). We extend this method for use with high-dimensional data, allowing us to reason about the " extreme " data lying in the tails of the distributions of complex, real-world datasets, which are typically multivariate and multimodal. Illustrations are provided from the analysis of large clinical studies of hospital patient vital-sign data.


Due to the unattended operation nature, nodes in Unattended Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are susceptible to physical attacks. Once a sensor is compromised, the adversary will be able to learn all its secrets. While some previous works tried to address the node self-healing issue in UWSNs, little effort has been devoted to ensure the sustainability of node self-healing. In this paper, we present a novel sustainable node self-healing protocol for UWSNs. We generate unpredictable random data for key update and thus the node self-healing capability doesn't decrease when the number of attack rounds increases. We show both analytically and through simulation experiments that our protocol provides efficient and sustainable node self-healing capabilities with small overheads.


A small number of recent empirical studies for several countries has reported the intriguing finding that the 'advantage' previously enjoyed by men in respect of training incidence and reported in earlier work in the literature has been reversed. The present paper explores the sources of the gender differential in training incidence using Labour Force Survey data, updating previous U.K. studies and providing further insights into the above phenomenon. The results suggest that the greater part of the 'gap' typically relates to differences in characteristics, among which the most important relate to occupation, industry and sector (public/private).


In the last 10 years a consensus has developed that the symptoms of psychosis may be better understood by linking the steps between the phenomenological experiences and social, psychological and neurobiological levels of explanation. Cognitive models of psychosis are an important link in this chain. They provide a psychological description of the phenomena from which hypotheses concerning causal processes can be derived and tested; social, individual, and neurobiological factors can then be integrated via their impact on these cognitive processes. In this paper, we set out the cognitive processes that we think lead to the formation and maintenance of the positive symptoms of psychosis and we attempt to integrate into our model research in social factors. If this model proves useful, a fuller integration with the findings of biological research will be required (Frith, 1992).


Vitiligo is a skin depigmentation disorder and chronic asymptomatic due to the destruction of melanocytes. Patients with vitiligo in addition to physical disorders also affect the psychological state that disrupts the quality of life of the patients. This study aims to identify the factors that affect the quality of life of vitiligo patients. Analytic study was conducted using cross-sectional design with questionnaire Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) to vitiligo patients who went to the Dermato-Venereology Policlinic dr. Zainoel Abidin General Hospital, Banda Aceh. The results of this study found that visible location and long-suffering vitiligoless than one year affect the quality of life of patients (p<0.05) which the duration of suffering vitiligomore influence than vitiligo location.


Web navigation enables easy access to vast amounts of information and services. However, it also poses a major risk to users' privacy. Various eavesdroppers constantly attempt to violate users' privacy by tracking their navigation activities and inferring their interests and needs (profiles). Users who wish to keep their intentions secret forego useful services to avoid exposure. The computer security community has concentrated on improving users' privacy by concealing their identity on the Web. However, users may want or need to identify themselves over the Net to receive certain services but still retain their interests, needs, and intentions in private. PRAW—a PRivAcy model for the Web suggested in this paper—is aimed at hiding users' navigation tracks to prevent eavesdroppers from inferring their profiles but still allowing them to be identified. PRAW is based on continuous generation of fake transactions in various fields of interests to confuse eavesdroppers' automated programs, thus providing them false data. A privacy measure is defined that reflects the difference between users' actual profile and the profile that eavesdroppers might infer. A prototype system was developed to examine PRAW's feasibility and conduct experiments to test its effectiveness. Encouraging results and their analysis are presented, as well as possible attacks and known limitations. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The widespread view that Archaeopteryx was a primitive (basal) bird has been recently challenged by a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis that placed Archaeopteryx with deinonychosaurian theropods. The new phylogeny suggested that typical bird flight (powered by the front limbs only) either evolved at least twice, or was lost/modified in some deinonychosaurs. However, this parsimony-based result was acknowledged to be weakly supported. Maximum-likelihood and related Bayesian methods applied to the same dataset yield a different and more orthodox result: Archaeopteryx is restored as a basal bird with bootstrap frequency of 73 per cent and posterior probability of 1. These results are consistent with a single origin of typical (forelimb-powered) bird flight. The Archaeopteryx–deinonychosaur clade retrieved by parsimony is supported by more characters (which are on average more homoplasious), whereas the Archaeopteryx–bird clade retrieved by likelihood-based methods is supported by fewer characters (but on average less homoplasious). Both positions for Archaeopteryx remain plausible, highlighting the hazy boundary between birds and advanced theropods. These results also suggest that likelihood-based methods (in addition to parsimony) can be useful in morphological phylogenetics.


In their constantly shifting and mutable forms, Moran's characters are loosely threaded from a vast, personal collection of references that range from literary, cultural to the art historical. In Black Winter Morning, a title borrowed from Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde', Moran weaves wildly varying perspectives into a unified space, inspiring possible associations such as the Surrealist, Baroque and Orphic Cubism movements. Rendered from Moran's gestural iconography, the central protagonist in this piece becomes transmorphed and devolved into something irrational and fragmentary, a primal human condition that often marks her characters. Combined with the spatial tension that saturates her paintings, these primal forces allow for an emotive dimension to her work that migrates from the familiar to the abstract.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the research contribution of eleven University Departments of Rural Health (UDRH) which were established as a rural health workforce program in the late 1990s through analysis of peer-reviewed journal output.

DESIGN AND SETTINGS
Descriptive study based on validated publications from publication output reported in annual key performance indicator (KPI) reports to the Commonwealth Department of Health, Australia.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
In addition to counts and the type of publications, articles were examined to assess fields of research, evidence of research collaboration, and potential for influencing policy. Funding acknowledgement was examined to provide insight into funding sources and research consultancies.

RESULTS
Of the 182 peer-reviewed articles, UDRH staff members were the first and corresponding author for 45% (n = 82); most (69%, n = 126) were original research. Most publications examined included Australian data only (80%, n = 101). Over half (56%; n = 102) of the articles addressed rural health issues; Aboriginal health was the main subject in 14% (n = 26). Thirty-three articles (18%) discussed the policy implications of the research and only half (51%, n = 93) of the articles listed sources of funding. Number of authors per article ranged from 1-19, with a mean of 5 (SD = 3.2) authors per article, two-thirds of articles included authors from 2-5 universities/organisations but only 5% of articles included an author from more than one UDRH.

CONCLUSIONS
Staff from UDRHs are regularly publishing peer-reviewed articles, and research productivity demonstrated cooperation with external partners. Better collaboration between UDRH staff and others may help increase the quality and value of Australian rural health research.


As the Wall Street Journal recently put it, "America has a rap sheet." Today, between 70 and 100 million people in the United States have a criminal arrest or conviction record, and anyone — including employers, landlords, and data collection companies — can easily access these records on line. At the same time, collateral consequences of even the most minor offenses have increased exponentially, affecting employment, housing, parenting, and just about every other aspect of daily life. The convergence of mass criminalization, ubiquitous criminal records, and pervasive collateral consequences is a major factor in the criminal justice system's troubling racial and economic disparities. States are reacting to the criminal records crisis in different ways, with many focusing on expanding record sealing or expungement laws that currently range widely in the relief offered. The time has come for a well-tailored response to mass criminalization and collateral consequences in the information age. Sealing and expungement laws must be part of a multi-faceted approach to alleviating harmful consequences of a criminal record. The goal of limiting access to and use of relevant criminal records to those with a legitimate need to know is best advanced through focused legislative reform. This Article describes why well-crafted sealing and expungement laws matter, responds to the major moral and practical arguments against such laws, and situates sealing and expungement as part of a comprehensive scheme for relief from a criminal record. Reforms might include regulating data brokers to ensure that sealed or expunged records are removed from their databases, banning employers from asking about arrests not ending in conviction or expunged convictions in the absence of a statutory mandate to do so, and offering employers who comply with such rules immunity from certain negligent hiring lawsuits.


Purpose: Although the existence of cancer stem cells (CSC) in adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) has been proposed, lack of assays for their propagation and uncertainty about molecular markers prevented their characterization. Our objective was to isolate CSC from ACC and provide insight into signaling pathways that support their propagation. Experimental Design: To isolate CSC from ACC and characterize them, we used ROCK inhibitor-supplemented cell culture, immunomagnetic cell sorting, and in vitro/in vivo assays for CSC viability and tumorigenicity. Results: We identified in ACC CD133-positive CSC that expressed NOTCH1 and SOX10, formed spheroids, and initiated tumors in nude mice. CD133+ ACC cells produced activated NOTCH1 (N1ICD) and generated CD133− cells that expressed JAG1 as well as neural differentiation factors NR2F1, NR2F2, and p27Kip1. Knockdowns of NOTCH1, SOX10, and their common effector FABP7 had negative effects on each other, inhibited spheroidogenesis, and induced cell death pointing at their essential roles in CSC maintenance. Downstream effects of FABP7 knockdown included suppression of a broad spectrum of genes involved in proliferation, ribosome biogenesis, and metabolism. Among proliferation-linked NOTCH1/FABP7 targets, we identified SKP2 and its substrate p27Kip1. A γ-secretase inhibitor, DAPT, selectively depleted CD133+ cells, suppressed N1ICD and SKP2, induced p27Kip1, inhibited ACC growth in vivo, and sensitized CD133+ cells to radiation. Conclusions: These results establish in the majority of ACC the presence of a previously uncharacterized population of CD133+ cells with neural stem properties, which are driven by SOX10, NOTCH1, and FABP7. Sensitivity of these cells to Notch inhibition and their dependence on SKP2 offer new opportunities for targeted ACC therapies. Clin Cancer Res; 22(8); 2083–95. ©2016 AACR.


Background—Proinflammatory cytokines like tumor necrosis factor-&agr; and oxidative stress induce apoptotic cell death in endothelial cells (ECs). Systemic inflammation and increased oxidative stress in congestive heart failure (CHF) coincide with enhanced EC apoptosis and the development of endothelial dysfunction. Therefore, we investigated the effects of antioxidative vitamin C therapy on EC apoptosis in CHF patients. Methods and Results—Vitamin C dose dependently suppressed the induction of EC apoptosis by tumor necrosis factor-&agr; and angiotensin II in vitro as assessed by DNA fragmentation, DAPI nuclear staining, and MTT viability assay. The antiapoptotic effect of vitamin C was associated with reduced cytochrome C release from mitochondria and the inhibition of caspase-9 activity. To assess EC protection by vitamin C in CHF patients, we prospectively randomized CHF patients in a double-blind trial to vitamin C treatment versus placebo. Vitamin C administration to CHF patients markedly reduced plasma levels of circulating apoptotic microparticles to 32±8% of baseline levels, whereas placebo had no effect (87±14%, P <0.005). In addition, vitamin C administration suppressed the proapoptotic activity on EC of the serum of CHF patients (P <0.001). Conclusions—Administration of vitamin C to CHF patients suppresses EC apoptosis in vivo, which might contribute to the established functional benefit of vitamin C supplementation on endothelial function.


Two hundred sixteen barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars were selected to represent the diversity and history of European spring two-row barley breeding and to search for alleles controlling agronomic traits by association genetics. The germplasm was genotyped with 7864 gene-based single nucleotide polymorphism markers and corresponding field trial trait data relating to growth and straw strength were obtained at multiple European sites. Analysis of the marker data by statistical population genetics approaches revealed two important trends in the genetic diversity of European two-row spring barley, namely, i) directional selection for approximately 14% of total genetic variation of the population in the last approximately 50 yr and ii) highly uneven genomic distribution of genetic diversity. Association analysis of the phenotypic and genotypic data identified multiple loci affecting the traits investigated, some of which co-map with selected regions. Collectively, these data show that the genetic makeup of European two-row spring barley is evolving under breeder selection, with signs of extinction of diversity in some genomic regions, suggesting that "breeding the best with the best" is leading towards fixation of some breeder targets. Nevertheless, modern germplasm also retains many regions of high diversity, suggesting that site-specific genetic approaches for allele identification and crop improvement such as association genetics are likely to be successful.


The purpose of this paper is to present an Analytical Predict the Electromagnetic Field Density in surface mounted permanent magnet synchronous motors based on a subdomain field model. In this paper, which is one of a series of four, a 2-d analytical method for predicting field distribution in one SMPMSM is presented. In the presented method, Maxwell's equations have been solved in different regions in pseudo-Cartesian coordinates system taking into account the non-homogeneous boundary conditions. The domain of the magnetic field is divided into four subdomains, viz. magnets, air gap, stator core and outer region. The governing equations and the boundary conditions to the interfaces between these subdomains are formulated in polar coordinate. The analytical prediction is validated by corresponding finite-element method. In future articles, we intend to study the effect of eccentricity on the distribution of magnetic fields in all areas of the motor at one slot less permanent magnet motor.


Dr. Charles Butrick from the Urogynecology Center, Overland Park, KS moderated the topic "Overactive Bladder: Evaluation and Diagnosis" with Drs. Linda Cardozo from King's College Hospital and Peter Sand from the Evanston Continence Center, Chicago, IL. The discussion focused primarily on: The definition, prevalence, and symptoms of overactive bladder (OAB) syndrome; the risk factors for and comorbidities associated with OAB; the importance of the differential diagnosis of OAB; combined use of behavioral modification and medication or a combination of medications as first-line therapy; pharmacological treatment of OAB, focusing on antimuscarinic medications, and its outcomes; treatment of patients with mixed symptoms and/or nocturia; the importance of ensuring patient compliance; and second-line and emerging therapies for patients who fail to respond. Med Roundtable Gen Med Ed. 2014;1(3):212–221.


This first modern study of Henry the Young King, eldest son of Henry II but the least known Plantagenet monarch, explores the brief but eventful life of the only English ruler after the Norman Conquest to be created co-ruler in his father's lifetime. Crowned at fifteen to secure an undisputed succession, Henry played a central role in the politics of Henry II's great empire and was hailed as the embodiment of chivalry. Yet, consistently denied direct rule, the Young King was provoked first into heading a major rebellion against his father, then to waging a bitter war against his brother Richard for control of Aquitaine, dying before reaching the age of thirty having never assumed actual power. In this remarkable history, Matthew Strickland provides a richly colored portrait of an all-but-forgotten royal figure tutored by Thomas Becket, trained in arms by the great knight William Marshal, and incited to rebellion by his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, while using his career to explore the nature of kingship, succession, dynastic politics, and rebellion in twelfth-century England and France.


Abstract The late Albian (Early Cretaceous) lineage of Actinoceramus sulcatus (Parkinson 1819) is a remarkable example of macro- and microevolution within the Bivalvia. Immediately following cladogenesis from ancestral A. concentricus, the lineage displays a conspicuous, short-term excursion through morphospace followed by a return to the ancestral form. This excursion is marked by the acquisition, and subsequent loss, of large radial folds affecting some part or all of the shell. The pattern is noteworthy because of the gross scale and rate of morphological evolution, the relatively short life span of an "extreme" morphology, an apparent evolutionary reversal, the presence of phenotypic clines through time, the extent of phenotypic variation within populations and abundance of morphological intermediates between disparate end-member types, the wide geographic distributions of phenotypic clines and variants, and the subtle asymmetry of morphological transitions bounding the evolutionary excursion. From census and biometric analyses of stratigraphically constrained samples, we conclude that morphological change was not focused at speciation and the pattern of evolution does not conform to the classical paradigm of punctuated equilibrium. Instead, we infer that observed patterns are best explained by phyletic evolution, at widely varying rates, combined with ecophenotypic plasticity. Evolution targeted the potential to form radial folds; the expression of those in any individual was determined, in part at least, by environmental cues. Ecophenotypic plasticity in A. sulcatus was itself probably an evolutionary response favored by the presence of long-lived planktotrophic larvae and wide dispersal of the species. In A. sulcatus, there is a continuum of pattern between intrapopulational, ecophenotypic variation that can be observed on bedding planes, interregional variation, and phyletic change through time. We argue that this continuity of pattern is most easily explained by continuity of process: in the case of the visually striking radial folds in A. sulcatus, there is no reason to invoke distinct hierarchies of macro- and microevolution; instead, these seem to be parts of a continuum.


A 41-year-old man presented with a sudden onset severe occipital headache, vomiting, neck stiffness and photophobia. He had been previously well, aside from chronic mid and lower back pain. There was no focal neurological deficit and a plain CT head scan was normal. Subsequent lumbar puncture (LP) was heavily bloodstained with analysis showing sequential increase in red blood cell count (144 000×106/L first tube and 225 000×106/L third tube). It was not possible to undertake testing for xanthochromia as the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) supernatant was grossly haemolysed. We prescribed nimodipine for presumed intracranial subarachnoid haemorrhage. CT angiogram and a digital subtraction cerebral angiogram showed no intracranial vascular abnormality. His symptoms improved and we made a putative diagnosis of benign thunderclap headache. At this point, we attributed the bloodstained CSF to traumatic LP and he was discharged with analgesia and neurology follow-up.

Three weeks later he developed a 1-week history of new lumbar back pain, numbness of the sacrum and penis, shooting pains in the lower limbs, progressive constipation, involuntary flatus and urinary urgency. On readmission, he had lower limb weakness, brisk knee and ankle jerks and flexor plantar responses. He had a sensory level to pin prick at T12. His bladder was palpable with a postmicturition residual volume of 750 ml.

T2 weighted MRI spine showed oedema within the lower cord extending to the conus. There were multiple aberrant flow voids within the spinal canal, …


By using an approach other than usual, we derive an exact closed-form expression for the symbol error probability (SEP) for arbitrary rectangular M-QAM signaling over flat Rayleigh fading channels. This has never been achieved before as the best-known SER for QAM up to date is only the results obtained for the square M-QAM. Our rectangular M-QAM result can be readily extended to find the results for square M-QAM, M-PAM, and antipodal signaling over flat Rayleigh fading channels. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to verify the theoretical results.


Because of the effects of gravity acting on the melt region created during the laser sintering process, additively manufactured surfaces that are pointed upward have been shown to exhibit roughness characteristics different from those seen on surfaces that point downward. For this investigation, the roughness internal flow tunnel (RIFT) and computational fluid dynamics models were used to investigate flow in channels with different roughness on opposing walls of the channel. Three rough surfaces were employed for the investigation. Two of the surfaces were created using scaled, structured-light scans of the upskin and downskin surfaces of an Inconel 718 component which was created at a 45 deg angle to the printing surface and documented by Snyder et al. (2015). A third rough surface was created for the RIFT investigation using a structured-light scan of a surface similar to the Inconel 718 downskin surface, but a different scaling was used to provide larger roughness elements in the RIFT. The resulting roughness dimensions (Rq/Dh) of the three surfaces used were 0.0064, 0.0156, and 0.0405. The friction coefficients were measured over the range of 10,000 < ReDh < 70,000 for each surface opposed by a smooth wall and opposed by each of the other rough walls. At multiple ReDh values, x-array hot-film anemometry was used to characterize the velocity and turbulence profiles for each roughness combination. The friction factor variations for each rough wall opposed by a smooth wall approached complete turbulence. However, when rough surfaces were opposed, the surfaces did not reach complete turbulence over the Reynolds number range investigated. The results of inner variable analysis demonstrate that the roughness function (ΔU+) becomes independent of the roughness condition of the opposing wall providing evidence that Townsend's hypothesis holds for the relative roughness values expected for additively manufactured turbine blade cooling passages.


Aim: The aim of this thesis was to study the effect and the cost-effectiveness of two e-health interventions, of which one included replacement of usual care by e-health, on self-care in heart failure (HF) patients by conducting the e-Vita HF study. In addition, we evaluated the interpretation of the self-care results of the study and their generalizability. Finally, we described the worldwide use of one of the e-health tools studied. Methods: The e-Vita HF study was a three arm randomized controlled trial, with 12 months follow-up. Group 1 received usual care; group 2 usual care plus the heartfailurematters.org website, an information website on HF; and group 3 received the e-health adjusted care pathway with a platform for disease management, including telemonitoring facilities, which replaced routine consultations with HF nurses at the outpatient clinic. Patients were included if they had a confirmed diagnosis of HF for at least 3 months. The primary outcome was self-care as measured by the European Heart Failure Self-care Behavioural scale (EHFScB scale). Secondary outcomes were hospitalisation, mortality and cost-effectiveness. Results: In total, 450 patients participated from 9 Dutch HF outpatient clinics. The mean age was 66.8 (SD 11.0) years, 74.2% were male, and 78.8% classified as NYHA I or II at baseline. After 3 months follow-up, the mean score on the self-care scale was significantly higher in the groups using the website and the adjusted care pathway compared to usual care: 73.5 vs. 70.8 (difference 2.7, 95%CI 0.6 – 6.2), and 78.2 vs. 70.8 (difference 7.4, 95%CI 3.8 – 9.4), respectively. The effect attenuated during follow-up into no differences between the groups after one year. Hospitalisation and mortality did not clearly differ between the groups. Regarding cost-effectiveness, the mean health quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) (range 0-1) were 0.73, 0.74, 0.76 QALY for the usual care, website, and e-health adjusted care pathway group, respectively. The corresponding mean costs per patient were €5,741, €4,865, and €5,111. The comparison between participants and nonparticipants in the e-Vita HF study showed that participants were younger (mean age 66.7 vs 73.4 years, p< .001), more often male (75% vs. 58%, p< .001), and had in general fewer comorbidities. After adjustment, SES was significantly higher in participants compared to nonparticipants. The analysis on interpretation of the self-care results showed that a single threshold of 70 accurately discriminated between patients with adequate and inadequate self-care. Finally, worldwide the annual number of sessions to the e-health tool heartfailurematters.org increased from 416,345 in 2010 to 1,636,368 in 2015. Conclusions: Both the heartfailurematters.org website, and an e-health adjusted care pathway improved self-care in HF patients on the short-term (3 months). Implementing the heartfailurematters.org website in HF outpatient care results in a small increase in health effects while reducing costs. The e-health adjusted care pathway may provide an additional health effect at modest extra costs. The fact that participants of the trial were more healthy and wealthy than nonparticipants limits generalisation to all patients with HF. Finally, the heartfailurematters.org is widely used, with ever increasing visiting numbers.


Part Samurai history, part martial arts guide, this is THE book for anyone interested in Japan's fabled Samurai culture. Author Alexander Bennett is the ultimate insider-holding multiple black belts in Kendo and Naginata, as well as a Ph.D. in Japanese literature and history. In this book he shares his vast personal experience and knowledge with readers seeking to undertake their own personal quest in the Japanese martial arts. Bennett outlines the Japanese history of Bushido and the Samurai-from early times up until the present. Then, as only someone steeped in this world can, he surveys the contemporary martial arts scene and provides the essential knowledge young foreigners need to find a teacher and learn successfully. Unlike any other book on this subject, Japan The Ultimate Samurai Guide is written by a Japanese speaker who has studied and taught martial arts in Japan for many decades. Chapters include: The Real Samurai The Concept of Bushido Development of the Japanese Martial Arts Martial Arts Masters You Should Know About Budo in Japan Today Key Martial Arts Concepts Life in a Japanese Dojo A Japan Survival Guide Written in a down-to-earth and easy-to-read style, this book will captivate anyone interested in Japan, as well as martial arts teachers and practitioners around the world. With both history and humor, this vividly illustrated book has a more personal touch than many (for example, read up on "Fifteen Famous Japanese Cultural Indiosyncrasies" and Bennett's favorite martial arts movies). As Bennett says, "This book is supposed to be genuinely from the heart. Without the pretense...misconceptions or romantization that often accompanies martial arts."


Femtocells are primarily used to extend high-quality radio coverage in indoor environments. Dense femtocell access point (FAP) deployment however, can lead to severe interference on femtocell user equipment (FUE) from neighbouring FAP, when they operate on the same channel. The problem is compounded as FAP are deployed in an uncoordinated manner by the end-user, which means either avoiding or minimising interference is an essential prerequisite to achieve successful femtocell operation. This paper adopts a new strategy towards radio resource distribution and management by creating virtual clusters of femtocells which are managed by a logical entity called the Virtual Cluster Controller(VCC). Each VCC is situated between the FAPs and Radio Network Controller (RNC) and has a set of sub-channels which it can allocate amongst its members. A Virtual Cluster Formation (VCF) algorithm exploits location information to assign each FAP to a VCC so that the minimum distance between a FAP and the nearest FAP allocated to the same VCC is maximised, thereby ensuring minimal inter-FAP interference. Simulation results corroborate the significant performance improvement achieved by this virtual clustering model in terms of both interference minimisation and throughput for various FAP deployment scenarios.


The global financial crisis highlighted the impact on macroeconomic outcomes of recurrent events like business and financial cycles, highs and lows in volatility, and crashes and recessions. At the most basic level, such recurrent events can be summarized using binary indicators showing if the event will occur or not. These indicators are constructed either directly from data or indirectly through models. Because they are constructed, they have different properties than those arising in microeconometrics, and how one is to use them depends a lot on the method of construction. This book presents the econometric methods necessary for the successful modeling of recurrent events, providing valuable insights for policymakers, empirical researchers, and theorists. It explains why it is inherently difficult to forecast the onset of a recession in a way that provides useful guidance for active stabilization policy, with the consequence that policymakers should place more emphasis on making the economy robust to recessions. The book offers a range of econometric tools and techniques that researchers can use to measure recurrent events, summarize their properties, and evaluate how effectively economic and statistical models capture them. These methods also offer insights for developing models that are consistent with observed financial and real cycles. This book is an essential resource for students, academics, and researchers at central banks and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.


The theory of genetically determined racial differences in ability and behaviour espoused by University of Western Ontario psychology professor J.P. Rushton first gained wide media attention in January of 1989, with Rushton's debut on the "Geraldo" television program, his debate with David Suzuki, and discussion of his writings on the CBC radio program "Quirks and Quarks." Now he has assembled his ideas into a book that has been reviewed and publicized by The New York Times Book Review (Oct. 16, 1994) and The Globe and Mail (Oct. 29 and Nov. 19, 1994).


Programmers have long practiced the matter of mixed language procedure calls. This is particularly true for the programming languages C and Fortran. The use of the alternate language often results in efficient running time or the effective use of human or other resources.
 Prior to the Fortran 2003 standard there was silence about how the two languages interoperated. Before this release there existed a set of differing ad hoc methods for making the inter-language calls. These typically depended on the Fortran and C compilers. The newer Fortran standard provides an intrinsic module, iso_c_binding, that permits the languages to interoperate. There remain restrictions regarding interoperable data types.
 This paper illustrates several programs that contain core exercises likely to be encountered by programmers. The source code is available from the first author's web site. Included is an illustration of a "trap" based on use of the ad hoc methods: A call from a C to a Fortran 2003 routine that passes a character in C to a character variable in Fortran results in a run-time error.


Increasing wealth disparity, polarization of discourses, move into the Anthropocene epoch, people's migration, terrorism...are all pieces of evidence that our worldview ought to evolve quickly if we want our eco-system, our humanity to survive and to keep claiming we are the smartest species on earth. The elements of ancient Chinese wisdom like wu-wei, the power of de, and practicing meditation, echo many of the principles which have emerged in recent years, such as spiritual leadership, and are also expressed in organizational models such as Holocracy, Sociocracy, or Teal, and in economic concepts, such as enlightened capitalism, all seeking at making our world more sustainable. So, what can we learn from the school of thoughts of the Warring State period, 2,500 years old, and can this help us address the wicked problems we are facing both in the West and the East? In this article I will look specifically at Taoism through the lens of Clare Graves's human development model. Graves defined eight levels of human consciousness, six defined as needs-based systems and two as being systems. According to Graves's research, only when thinking at the latter two levels can we develop sustainable systems. When analyzing some key Taoists concepts through that lens, looking also through Ken Wilber's trans fallacy concept, it is hard not to conclude that the Taoist philosophy operates at Tier 2 level and offers many keys to develop a more functional eco-system. Yet, are these Taoists assumptions and concepts plausible and viable in today's world? Can they really support the development of a more sustainable society? To answer these questions I will look at the latest research in neuroscience and social science. Focusing on Taoism, I will look at three principles. First, the cycle of reversion, that is nothing should be taken to extremes or it will turn back to its original state, causing the opposite effect, a concept illustrated by the design of the Yin and Yang symbol. I will explore this principle through the work of Wegner on the ironic effect of conscious efforts and of Frankl on paradoxical intention therapy. Both showed that conscious pursuit of a goal often leads to missing that goal and it is what the Daodejing refers to as the quests of opposites. In any dyad, Laozi wants one to pursue the part one does not want: choose weakness rather than strength, darkness over brightness. I will then look at the research on downregulation of the prefrontal cortex to explore the validity of the state of wu-wei. The state that Laozi wants one to enter into is similar to what cognitive neuroscientist Arne Dietrich referred to as transient hypofrontality, that is, the downregulation of our prefrontal cortex. His work on the physiology of athletes being TAOISM: FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL ECO-SYSTEM 2 in the zone, that is, in wu-wei, showed that due to the intensity of the exercise the prefrontal cortex is literally shut down for a while, giving a sense of peacefulness, of living in the present, of flow, of oneness with nature and the universe. Reaching this state allows one to be more authentic, spontaneous. Next, I will look at the notion of categorical rigidity. Zhuangzi was very concerned by the risk presented by language. This categorical inflexibility hinders what is often referred to as divergent creativity. This human limitation has now been proven scientifically, for instance, by the work of Guilford on the development of unusual alternative task. I will finally present an environmental project showing how Taoists principles, based on system thinking, can enhance biodiversity. I will conclude that Ancient Chinese wisdom, Taoism in particular, provides very valuable elements to help humanity develop a more sustainable world.


Nanocomposites are novel materials which are yet to be explored and utilised to its complete potential. Nanocomposites can be tailored by the volume fraction of the matrix, fibre and also by the size and shape of the nanophase material in the composite. Preparing nanocomposite with a desired shape and size remains a challenge. In the present work nanocomposites of SnO–Fe2O3.are prepared by a sol gel route with Ferric chloride and Tin chloride as precursors. The prepared nanocomposites are characterised by X-ray Diffraction(XRD), Ultraviolet Visible Spectroscopy (UV),Scanning Electron microscopy(SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy(FTIR). The crystallite size obtained is approximately 60 nm, with a band gap of 3.55 eV. The band gap of the composite could further be tuned with nanosize.


As one of the preeminent scholars of southern literature, Noel Polk has delivered lectures, written journal articles and essays, and discussed the rich legacy of the South's literary heritage around the world for over three decades. His work on William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Walker Percy, and other writers is incisive and groundbreaking. His essays in Faulkner and Welty and the Southern Literary Tradition maintain an abiding interest in Polk's major area of literary study: the relationship between the smaller units of construction in a literary work and the work's larger themes. The analysis of this interplay between commas and dashes, curious occlusions, passages, and characters who have often gone unnoticed in the critical discourse--the bricks and mortar, as it were--and a work's grand design is a crucial aspect of Polk's scholarship. Faulkner and Welty and the Southern Literary Tradition collects Polk's essays from the late-1970s to 2005. Featuring an introduction that places Faulkner and Welty at the center of the South's literary heritage, the volume asks useful, probing questions about southern literature and provides insightful analysis. Noel Polk is professor of English at Mississippi State University and editor of the Mississippi Quarterly. From 1981 to 2006, he edited the Library of America's complete edition of William Faulkner's novels. He is the author of Outside the Southern Myth; Children of the Dark House: Text and Context in Faulkner; and Eudora Welty: A Bibliography of Her Work.


It is 1916. The Allies are struggling in the Great War. The Ottoman Sultan calls for a pan-Islamic jihad against all non-Muslims except Germans. But Sharif Husein, ruler of the holy city of Mecca, is smarting under Turkish rule, fomenting Arab nationalism and lobbying the British to support him. It seems to the British a good idea secretly to encourage an Arab revolt. "Setting the Desert on Fire" is a masterly account of this key moment made legendary by T. E. Lawrence, but here filled with a wide range of characters including the British Prime Minister Lloyd George, whose desire to capture 'Jerusalem by Christmas' had consequences that reverberate to this day.


In Dio's debate on constitutions, set in 29 B.C., the speech favouring democracy occupies chapters 2–13 of book 52, and the speech urging monarchy runs from 14–40: most of this speech, indeed the main content of the whole book, is a detailed set of proposals for the administration of the Roman Empire, written with a view to being applicable in the writer's own time, more than two hundred years after the dramatic date of the debate. the dramatic date of the debate. Millar calls these chapters 'a political pamphlet', and suggests that Dio abandoned an earlier plan to fit them in to book 52. There is evidence, though, that the book was planned in its present form, but for the lacuna between chapters 13 and 14, and that the relatively brief speech of Agrippa was composed not as part of what was intended to be a balanced debate (balanced in terms of length, with point answering point in the rival speeches), but as a brief preliminary piece in explicit and implicit contrast and opposition to the ideology of the speech which forms the main thesis of the book; in a coherently planned debate, Dio states first the case for democracy in order to provoke the reader to question whether it could have been put into action – whether it is realistic.


We develop a nonlocal-response generalization to the Green's function surface-integral method (GSIM), also known as the boundary-element method. This numerically efficient method can accurately describe the linear hydrodynamic nonlocal response of arbitrarily shaped plasmonic nanowires in arbitrary dielectric backgrounds. All previous general-purpose methods for nonlocal response are bulk methods. We also expand the possible geometries to which the usual local-response GSIM can be applied, by showing how to regularize singularities that occur in the surface integrals when the nanoparticles touch a dielectric substrate. The same regularization works for nonlocal response. Furthermore, an effective theory is developed to explain the numerically observed nonlocal effects. The nonlocal frequency blueshift of a cylindrical nanowire in an inhomogeneous background generally increases as the nanowire radius and the longitudinal wave number become smaller, or when the effective background permittivity or the mode inhomogeneity increase. The inhomogeneity can be expressed in terms of an effective angular momentum of the surface-plasmon mode. We compare local and nonlocal response of freestanding nanowires, and of nanowires close to and on top of planar dielectric substrates. Especially for the latter geometry, considerable differences in extinction cross sections are found for local as compared to nonlocal response, similar to what is found for plasmonic dimer structures.


In the first part of the article, we present the main approaches to analyze slurs' content and we investigate the interaction between an assertion containing a slur and a denial ('It's not true that P' / P is false') showing to what extent a "neutral counterpart account" works better than a "dual account". Additionally, the analysis offers the opportunity to discuss the usefulness of the notion of "at-issueness" for a debate on the lexical semantics of slurs. In the second part, we use our apparatus to analyze a real case of non-standard use of 'frocio' ('faggot'). Our conclusion is that even if a family resemblance conception of category membership could account for these uses, it cannot account for the related semantic normativity problem.


Thanks to the technological innovation, the world of aviation has grown considerably in the last years. Concerning the number of airports and the airlines there has been a considerable growth too. One of the effects of this growth is the rise of the offer of flight tickets, even in the same journey. In the last years, the role of the travel agency in the sale of tickets has been replaced by online flight search engines, taking advantage of the widespread use of internet. This project is included in the field of flights search through the network and is aimed at those people who are decided to travel and who want to visit many cities, but who also are flexible concerning the destination and the dates. The project proposes an innovative model of an online searcher that is more flexible than the conventional search engines because of the ability to choose a period of days to travel and its originality concerning the cities that are not fixed a priori. To achieve this goal we have designed a model based on weighted digraphs, in which we have applied a basic graph theory algorithm called Dijkstra. In this case, the digraph represents a network of European airports with data available and the weights represent the different travel prices between the airports, obtained through a data base. In this model, the user fixes a city of origin, a period of travelling days and the duration of the trip. Thus, the search result is a list of travel options. The travel price, the cities and the travel period appear in every option. The fact that the user can't set the destination is an innovative option and provides alternative optimized results in contrast to the existing multi- destination trips.


In 1988, Sandi and Larry Zobrest became agents in the struggle for disability rights when they sued a suburban Tucson, Arizona, school district to obtain public funding for the signed language interpreter their deaf son Jim needed in high school. Such funding would have been unproblematic under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (later retitled the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) if Jim went to a public high school, but they were intent on his attending a Roman Catholic school. The law was unclear on the legality of public money assisting students with disabilities to attend religiously affiliated schools, but it had long been a general principle of interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment in the U.S. Supreme Court that governments must be cautious about dispensing public resources to religious institutions. Their successful lawsuit represents a classic American clash of rights. This history of the Zobrests' lawsuit begins well before they went to court. The narrative extends back to Jim's birth in 1974, a pediatrician's diagnosis of deafness, and the efforts of his parents, who are not deaf, to seek resources for their son's education prior to high school. It analyzes their desire to mainstream Jim for preparation for life in the hearing world, not in the Deaf community, and the succession of choices they made to that end.


As explorers once opened up new trade passages, thus attracting hordes of both honest traders and dishonest pirates, so too has the Internet opened new lanes of commerce and attracted the modern versions of the same. One of the widest of these lanes undoubtedly runs through eBay, located at http://www.ebay.com . From its humble beginnings as a little-known auction site hawking PEZ candy dispensers, broken laser pointers and other garage-sale pickings, eBay has transformed itself into a reputable public sales powerhouse where a Gulfstream II jet, million-dollar sports artifacts, and Madonna's wedding tiara might easily change hands. 4


Physiotherapy is considered in pain medicine to be a key element in the management of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). This is the first paper to document and categorise all physiotherapy intervention methods used as well as evaluate the outcomes of a case series of 18 CRPS patients attending physiotherapy in a prospective, longitudinal study across a region. Outcomes were measured across the region of the South Island of New Zealand over 1 year through independent telephonic interviewing of the pain experience with the McGill Pain Questionnaire-short form, function with Foot Function Index for the lower limb or Disability of the Arm Shoulder and Hand for the upper limb, and quality of life with the World Health Organisation Disability Schedule. Clinical records were accessed for each CRPS participant following discharge from physiotherapy to categorise the intervention methods used. Seventeen participants received intervention for both functional restoration with pain modulation and only one participant received functional restoration with no pain modulation; 12 also received immobilisation with 10 receiving passive interventions. All outcome measures improved significantly by 6 months and were maintained at 1 year. Eighty five percent had their diagnosis of CRPS confirmed within 3 months of their injury; half had fracture as the precipitating injury for their onset of CRPS with a third following soft tissue injury and 11% following surgery. Physiotherapists showed a high variation with the intervention methods used and showed a greater proportion of intervention methods focusing on functional restoration followed by pain modulating interventions. Future research is necessary to define what physiotherapy interventions are efficacious in the management of CRPS.


The paper contains a description of a research conducted in collaboration with some Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program Romanian students, concerning the use and implementation of ICT (Information and Telecommunication Technology), especially in distance managing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The paper is a response to the nature of contemporary business management, with the constantly increasing amount of work, bureaucracy and the necessity to travel on business combined with the need to manage the company being away. In the research the students assumed the roles of the employees and entrepreneurs simultaneously, to gain the perspective from both points of view – supervised by the authors. The aim was to find and test the effectiveness of the available ICT remote management instruments in the context of SMEs. The aim was to create a study of implementation in real-life conditions, considering the advantages and disadvantages of the solutions tested, including possible future trends. The result was a set of recommendations for business people. Apart from the educational value of the research, the unique, dual perspective assumed by the students participating in it, provided them with a practical insight and skills to better understand and make a better use of the conditions of managing and being managed. The results described here both practical and academic value. The resulting recommendations may constitute the basis of positive changes and improvement in the use of advanced technology in business activities. It is worth noting with its international character the study focuses not only on selected Polish enterprises, but the resulting contents reflects the situation in SMEs in the EU as well, thus it may be a starting point for analyzing other regions worldwide.


It is a well known fact that the fundamental causes of most failures in composite structures are in the forms of incipient damages such as delaminations and cracks which usually remain undetected until they grow to levels large enough to cause failure. In this study, unidirectional carbon/epoxy composite plates with known defects are investigated. The known defects are generated by impacting the composite specimens simulating external collision. A pair of transmitter and receiver was used for generation of Lamb waves and reception of signals. The received signals were monitored by scanning the receiver toward internal defect or by scanning both transmitter and receiver with confined distance over the surface of the composite plates which have known defects lie beneath them. The proper selection of incident angle and frequency are also considered. The characteristics of received signals such as amplitude, energy and wave form are analyzed. The acquired information is used to locate and to measure the size of the impact damage. The suggested method is very effective if the internal damage is presented closed to surface of the plate where the conventional pulse-echo method has problems. The proposed technique can be used widely for the real time and online monitoring of composite structures.


Cooperative communication describes strategies to transfer the data from a source to a destination by employing relay nodes between them. It is considered as one of the most efficient techniques to overcome fading in wireless networks since it can achieve spatial diversity. Employing all the relays in the network to transfer the data, consumes high power and cost. Selection of one or more relays reduces the complexity, decreases the power consumption and reduces the interference. In this paper, with these goals in mind, a relay selection algorithm is proposed in a slow flat fading channel. The algorithm is based on evaluating the log-likelihood ratio of all relays and the relay which has the largest magnitude of log-likelihood ratio (LLR) is selected to help the source to transmit the data to the destination. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated by simulation and compared with other relay selection algorithms. The performance is measured in terms of bit error rate (BER) and outage probability. Both decode and forward and amplify and forward protocols are investigated. The performance is evaluated for known and estimated channel. The channel is estimated using least square algorithm. The performance of channel estimation algorithm is measured in terms of the mean square error. The results show that the LLR algorithm minimizes bit error probability (BEP) and BEP provided by LLR-based selection combining algorithm is lower than BEP provided by the conventional SNR-based selection combining schemes. Keywords—Cooperative communication, Wireless Systems, log-likelihood ratio, generalized selection combining , selection combining.


Title of Dissertation: ESSAYS ON THE WTO ACCESSION, HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA Ying Zhang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Directed By: Dr. David A. Crocker, Professor Madiha Afzal School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park In the course of integrating into the global market, especially since China's WTO accession, China has achieved remarkable GDP growth and has become the second largest economy in the world. These economic achievements have substantially increased Chinese incomes and have generated more government revenue for social progress. However, China's economic progress, in itself, is neither sufficient for achieving desirable development outcomes nor a guarantee for expanding peoples' capabilities. In fact, a narrow emphasis on GDP growth proves to be unsustainable, and may eventually harm the life quality of Chinese citizens. Without the right set of policies, a deepening tradeopenness policy in China may enlarge social disparities and some people may further be deprived of basic public services and opportunities. To address these concerns, this dissertation, a set of three essays in Chapters 2-4, examines the impact of China's WTO accession on income distribution, compares China's income and multidimensional poverty reduction and investigates the factors, including the WTO accession, that predict multidimensional poverty. By exploiting the exogenous variation in exposure to tariff changes across provinces and over time, Chapter 2 (Essay 1) estimates the causal effects of trade shocks and finds that China's WTO accession has led to an increase in average household income, but its impacts are not evenly distributed. Households in urban areas have benefited more significantly than those in rural areas. Households with members working in the private sector have benefited more significantly than those in the public sector. However, the WTO accession has contributed to reducing income inequality between higher and lower income groups. Chapter 3 (Essay 2) explains and applies the Alkire and Foster Method (AF Method), examines multidimensional poverty in China and compares it with income poverty. It finds that China's multidimensional poverty has declined dramatically during the period from 1989-2011. Reduction rates and patterns, however, vary by dimensions: multidimensional poverty reduction exhibits unbalanced regional progress as well as varies by province and between rural and urban areas. In comparison with income poverty, multidimensional poverty reduction does not always coincide with economic growth. Moreover, if one applies a single measure ─ either that of income or multidimensional poverty ─ a certain proportion of those who are poor remain unrecognized. By applying a logistic regression model, Chapter 4 (Essay 3) examines factors that predict multidimensional poverty and finds that the major factors predicting multidimensional poverty in China include household size, education level of the household head, health insurance coverage, geographic location, and the openness of the local economy. In order to alleviate multidimensional poverty, efforts should be targeted to (i) expand education opportunities for the household heads with low levels of education, (ii) develop appropriate geographic policies to narrow regional gaps and (iii) make macroeconomic policies work for the poor. ESSAYS ON THE WTO ACCESSION, HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA


Objective: To evaluate the differences and influences of early and late Parenteral Nutrition (PN) on preterm neonates.
Methods: Retrospective study, which includes preterm neonates who were born and admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), weighing under 2000 g and having received PN for more than 7 days. According to the timing of protein provision, divided into two groups-Early Parenteral Nutrition (EPN) and late parenteral nutrition (LPN). EPN is defined with a protein provision within 24 h of birth while LPN with a protein provision after 24 h of birth. The facts to examined include the day of weight gain (times to regain over birth weight), total days of PN, weight gain per day in grams (g), weights at discharge and days of hospitalization.
Results: Among a 25 preterm neonates, 10 neonates received EPN while 15 received LPN. No statistical significance is found between the basic data of EPN and LPN. After the multiple regression analysis and correction of basic data's between EPN and LPN, this study finds that the day of weight gain of EPN is earlier than that of LPN by about 0.41 day, weight gain per day in grams (g) and the weight at discharge of EPN are more than those of LPN by about 0.25 g and 0.27 g, respectively, and the total days of PN and the days of hospitalization in the NICU of EPN are more than those of LPN by about 0.15 day and 0.11 day respectively, however, none of the above is statistically significant.
Conclusion: The results of this study show that early PN may provide the benefits to preterm neonates. No evidence is noted in blood urea blood urea nitrogen and creatinine level.


THERE HAS BEEN A SUSTAINED INTEREST in recent years, both in academic circles and in mainstream readership, in non-Western narratives of trauma and conflict, evidenced in the popularity of novels such as The Kite Runner, Half of a Yellow Sun, Beasts of No Nation, What is the What, and A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, as well as non-fiction memoirs such as Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. The attention afforded to texts such as these, texts that describe the hardships that are too often a symptom of the postcolonial condition, can certainly indicate a trend in Western readership that is concerned with questions of social justice, human rights, and cross-cultural ethics. The mainstream Western reader and the scholarly Western critic seem united in a desire to bridge the ethical gap between the First and Third worlds, a desire that ultimately conceives of the reading of postcolonial literature as a vehicle for enacting cross-cultural ethics and the betterment of the world. It is no surprise, then, that Rawi Hage's De Niro's Game, a novel documenting the experiences of a Lebanese teenager in war-torn Beirut circa 1982, has attracted critical attention. What is significant about Hage's fiction--specifically De Niro's Game and his second novel, Cockroach--is the way in which its narratives challenge conventional representations of postcolonial trauma and expose the imbalances in the standard models of cross-cultural ethics. (1) Syrine Hout addresses this challenge in her book-length study Post-War Anglophone Lebanese Fiction, in which she contends that the postwar generation of Lebanese literature is distinctive as a genre, insofar as both Anglophone and Francophone writers are concerned primarily with "the debunking of two myths: the return to a golden age of a romanticized Lebanon and the slavish imitation of a supposedly superior Western lifestyle" (9). The protagonists in this genre, Hout suggests, "neither idealise their country of origin nor shed their past to embrace unquestioningly a Western mode of living" (9). As Hout argues, Hage's novels fall into a genre that is markedly diasporic, insofar as its subjects have no firm foundation in either the home country or the new host country, in the past or in the present, upon which to build a stable identity. As Salah D. Hassan suggests, Bassam, in De Niro's Game, "roguishly turns his back on history and embraces the figure of the refugee: he harbors no thought of return and no desire to settle" (1628). Similarly, Hout, in her analysis of Cockroach, describes that novel's unnamed narrator as a refugee or exile who "clearly has no interest in acclimatising to mainstream Canadian culture--but nor is he keen on flaunting his origins" (170). As well as offering a tangible manifestation of Hout's generic definition, however, I would argue that Hage's fiction goes further to consider how this diasporic state shines an interrogative light on the standard formulations of postcolonial ethics and ultimately proposes a much more complex but potentially enriching definition of postcolonial hospitality. The fundamental question of postcolonial ethics is deceptively simple: How might citizens of the First World relate, ethically and productively, to the diasporic subject, to the new immigrant, to the refugee? Rawi Hage's second novel Cockroach begins with just such a negotiation, as Genevieve, a Montreal therapist, attempts to connect with and heal the unnamed Lebanese refugee who narrates this text: Last week I confessed to her that I used to be more courageous, more carefree, and even, one might add, more violent. But here in this northern land no one gives you an excuse to hit, rob, or shoot, or even to shout from across the balcony, to curse your neighbours' mothers and threaten their kids. When I said that to the therapist, she told me that I have a lot of hidden anger. So when she left the room for a moment, I opened her purse and stole her lipstick, and when she returned I continued my tale of growing up somewhere else. …


Purpose: Multiple interventions have been developed to teach and improve internal medicine residents' end-of-life communication skills, but have not been easily adaptable to other institutions. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a program to enhance physicians' end-of-life communication with families of dying patients using a format that could be incorporated into an existing curriculum for first-year internal medicine residents. Methods: An end-of-life educational program was developed and evaluated in the context of educating first-year residents at an urban academic medical center during the 2008-2009 academic year. The program consisted of three sessions including an interactive workshop flanked by pre- and post-workshop evaluations in simulated encounter and clinical vignette formats. Simulated encounters were recorded on video and residents' performances were rated by two independent observers using a 23 point checklist. Results: Complete data were available for 24 (73%) of 33 residents who participated in the program. The residents' checklist scores increased significantly from a mean of 48.1 at baseline to 73.9 at follow-up. The increase in the scores on the clinical vignettes was also statistically significant, but of lesser magnitude. Conclusions: A short, focused intervention can have significant impact on residents' communication skills in the setting of an end-of-life objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).


The U.S. has approximately 1,600 cryptocurrencies. No cryptocurrency is qualified to be called money because none has been designated by the U.S. government as being legal tender. Cryptocurrencies are called virtual currencies because they possess a few of the qualities of money. In this article, three issues related to cryptocurrencies are analyzed. First, bitcoins are considered, because they are the principal cryptocurrency. Second, an assessment of the processes the Federal Reserve and the central bank of Sweden are going through to evaluate the possibility of issuing some not-yet-fully-defined new form of electronic currency. Third, an examination of the viability of blockchain, which was introduced as an internal component of bitcoin, as a successful stand-alone technology.


Critical accounts of African American literary history and U.S. radicalism of the 1940s have often viewed the decade as an apocalyptic turning point in the formation of a radical black politics. Books such as Wilson Record's The Negro and the Communist Party, Harvey Klehr's The Heyday of the Communist Party, and Harold Cruse's The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual have helped to create a dominant political narrative that views the end of the 1930s, typically punctuated by the Stalin-Hitler pact and the well-publicized disaffection with organized Communism of the preeminent 1930s black literary radical Richard Wright, as moments when African Americans realized the futility of working with organized radicals in their struggle for emancipation. This narrative is often buffered by restricted focus on individual moments in the 1940s of disaffiliation or dissent within and between the organized left and more specific African American political practices: Wright's and Ralph Ellison's break with the Communist Party; A. Philip Randolph's split with the National Negro Congress because of reputed Communist domination; the 1944 reorganization of the Communist Party into the Communist Political Association, a move frequently viewed as a "softpedaling" of racial issues by American Communists in an attempt to defend the Soviet Union; and the emergence during and after World War II of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and McCarthyism, whose dragnet allegedly silenced or destroyed many black and white radicals, such as Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and countless others.(1) Yet despite the perserverance of this view, many works have appeared in recent years to challenge it. Gerald Horne's Black and Red: W. E. B. Du Bois & the Afro-American Response to the Cold War, 1944-1963; Maurice Isserman's Which Side Were You On?; Robin D. G. Kelley's Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Depression; and most recently George Lipsitz's revised and updated study Rainbow at Midnight: Labor and Culture in the 1940s have each demonstrated numerous examples of successful affiliation between black and "left" radicals in the 1935-1950 period. These range from progressive collaborations of black sharecroppers and Alabama Communists in the '30s, to the continuation of Communist Popular Front politics in African American literary culture into the early 1940s, to the remarkable insurgency of black labor unionism and anti-fascist, pro-black organizing during the war years. Cumulatively, these works suggest a need for close re-reading of the political, cultural, and literary record of relationships between African Americans and the U.S. left in the post-Depression era. More importantly, they suggest that black and left are not mutually exclusive terms in this period, and that African Americans did much to construct and re-constitute central definitions of American "radicalism" up to and through the beginnings of the Cold War. This essay examines one heretofore ignored source which complicates, challenges, and adds to conventional wisdom about the plight of black and white radical writers and intellectuals of the 1940s. Negro Story magazine first appeared on the newsstands of Chicago in May of 1944. Sixty-three pages long, plainly adorned, the magazine announced itself as a bimonthly "magazine for all Americans" dedicated to the publication of short fiction about African American people. In "A Letter to Our Readers" in the inaugural issue, founding co-editors Alice C. Browning and Fern Gayden explained that in their own attempts to write short fiction, "the idea struck us that among thirteen million Negroes in America, there must be many who were eager to write creatively if they had a market" (1.1: 1). The editors also voiced a desire to use the short story as a tool of social uplift for black readers, and as a way to involve black literature in the national and international crises of the war: We believe good writing may be entertaining as well as socially enlightening. …


Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD), a serious complication following allogeneic HSCT (hematopoietic stem cell transplantation), is characterized by systemic fibrosis. The tissue renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is involved in the fibrotic pathogenesis, and an angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) antagonist can attenuate fibrosis. Tissue RAS is present in the lacrimal gland, lung, and liver, and is known to be involved in the fibrotic pathogenesis of the lung and liver. This study aimed to determine whether RAS is involved in fibrotic pathogenesis in the lacrimal gland and to assess the effect of an AT1R antagonist on preventing lacrimal gland, lung, and liver fibrosis in cGVHD model mice. We used the B10.D2→BALB/c (H-2d) MHC-compatible, multiple minor histocompatibility antigen-mismatched model, which reflects clinical and pathological symptoms of human cGVHD. First, we examined the localization and expression of RAS components in the lacrimal glands using immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Next, we administered an AT1R antagonist (valsartan; 10 mg/kg) or angiotensin II type 2 receptor (AT2R) antagonist (PD123319; 10 mg/kg) intraperitoneally into cGVHD model mice and assessed the fibrotic change in the lacrimal gland, lung, and liver. We demonstrated that fibroblasts expressed angiotensin II, AT1R, and AT2R, and that the mRNA expression of angiotensinogen was greater in the lacrimal glands of cGVHD model mice than in controls generated by syngeneic-HSCT. The inhibition experiment revealed that fibrosis of the lacrimal gland, lung, and liver was suppressed in mice treated with the AT1R antagonist, but not the AT2R antagonist. We conclude that RAS is involved in fibrotic pathogenesis in the lacrimal gland and that AT1R antagonist has a therapeutic effect on lacrimal gland, lung, and liver fibrosis in cGVHD model mice. Our findings point to AT1R antagonist as a possible target for therapeutic intervention in cGVHD.


Background: To explore the oral absorption of scorpion venom an ELISA were designed in this study. Scorpions and their venom were been used for centuries as medical treatments in traditional medicine. The oral administration of drug referred as the convenient way, as there was not any publication about gastro-intestinal absorption of scorpion venom; this experiment checked oral absorption of Mesobuthus eupeus scorpion venom in mice. Methods: Six groups of mice orally received 0, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 mg/kg of M. eupeus venom and their blood samples were tacked after 15, 30, 60 min and 2, 4, 6, 24, 48 h after that. The presence of venom the blood samples were detected with a houseantigen capture ELISA. Results: The venom was absorbed after its feeding to mice. The animals expressed no signs of envenomation and, the venom was detectable by AC-ELISA as soon as 15 min after its feed. Maximum serum levels were 2 h after its meal. Conclusion: The orally administrated venom was absorbed to the blood circulation without any clinically symptoms.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate long-term dentofacial stability after bimaxillary surgery in skeletal Class III open bite patients. Twenty-three Japanese adults (5 males, 18 females) were randomly selected as the experimental group from the files of Tohoku University Dental Hospital according to the following criteria: (1) skeletal Class III malocclusion with anterior open bite, (2) simultaneous Le Fort I and sagittal split ramus osteotomies, and (3) complete set of cephalograms taken at predetermined intervals until 5 years after debonding. Based on the manner of maxillary surgical repositioning, they were divided into the following 2 groups: (1) impaction group of 13 subjects (2 males, 11 females) who had maxillary superior repositioning without rotation of the palatal plane, and (2) rotation group of 10 subjects (3 males, 7 females) who had maxillary repositioning with clockwise rotation of the palatal plane. These patients were compared to a control group of 11 adults (1 male, 10 females) with skeletal Class III malocclusion without open bite who underwent bimaxillary surgery by the same techniques. Our data showed that overbite stability in the rotation group was better than that in the impaction group. This suggests that clockwise rotation of the palatal plane, which moves the anterior maxillary structures down, is an effective way to produce a reasonably stable correction of the anterior open bite. In contrast, superior repositioning of the maxilla that significantly rotates the mandible in the closing direction should be applied with caution.


The use of active filters for harmonic mitigation compensation is increasing together with the improvement of their control techniques. Depending on the situation, the use of one technique instead of the other makes the difference of achieving a better harmonic mitigation or not. In this paper, a review of control techniques related to harmonic filters for harmonic mitigation is presented, together with the advantages and disadvantages. From the literature review it was observed that new techniques are being used and classical ones are being improved.


This study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs) in tax collection in Tanzania. The study used both primary data and secondary data which were obtained from TRA's staff and registered VAT payers by using questionnaire and interview as well as review some TRA documents for the case of secondary data. The study setting was Arusha City Council. Both descriptive and exploratory designs were used. The study found that before introducing EFDs in Tanzania, revenue obtained from VAT registered taxpayers was growing. For that reason, the study accepted that there is the decrease of VAT-revenue collected following the introduction of EFDs. The reasons for adopting EFDs machine was found to be the following according to this order of priority the desire to reducing tax collection costs, integration of taxation system with other administrative system, create standardization among the tax payers as well as bringing automation and innovation in the tax collection system. It was said that EFDs has helped to make taxation services available and accessible to many tax payers. The devices were usable and reliable in the collection of tax. The major challenges facing full implementations of EFDs were high cost of purchasing the devices and lack of education on the side of taxpayers concerning the use of EFDs among others. The study concluded and recommended review of purchasing price and maintenance costs downwards, improvement on system or network breakdown, increase of education, awareness and motivation on use. However, there is the potential of having great advantage and/or improvement in tax revenue collection using EFDs if the challenges mentioned would be addressed.


Hydration gel (C-S-H) is major component in binding of concrete and refining of the C-S-H gel is difficult to be done by using micro based materials. For this research, inclusion of nano materials in UHPC is expected to overcome the problem by providing ultra filler effect. In this study, the utilisation of nano material in UHPC was done by using additive or replacement method for cement and UHPC mix and generated based on a series of trial modified mixes originally formulated by previous researchers. For this research, two types of nano materials were selected. Firstly, nano kaolin samples were prepared from kaolin using milling and then underwent calcination process to produce nano metakaolin. Secondly, nano clay was provided by Sigma (M) and underwent calcination process to convert to nano metaclay. Characterisation of cementitious materials were confirmed by its particle size, chemical composition and morphology properties and evaluated using Laser particle Analyser, X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). UHPC mixes were developed by incorporating nano materials with (addition) and without (replacement) addition of metakaolin. The inclusion of nano materials as an additive and cement replacement material (without metakaolin) based on percentage of increment from 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 %. For additive approach, addition of metakaolin was fixed to 10%. The utilisation of nano materials was assessed in terms of its cementitious, microstructures and chemical phases, strength and durability properties. In cementitious properties, cement paste were determined in terms of setting time and compressive strength. In fresh state, workability of UHPC was determined by using slump test. For strength properties compressive and flexural strength were tested. Finally, durability properties were assessed based on porosity and water absorption characteristics. UHPC specimens, containing nano materials were assessed its chemical phases and microstructure using XRD and SEM examination. Moreover, data from strength and durability properties was optimise by using Design Expert Software and mathematical equation generated. It was found that, particles of nano materials performed different morphology as compared to the OPC, kaolin and metakaolin. For cement paste, inclusion of nano materials as addition or replacement increase the water demand but also increase compressive strength as compared to the OPC and metakaolin pastes. Strength and durability properties of nano materials enhances the UHPC performance by refining microstructure, promoting pozzolanic reaction and creating nucleation process and proves from the result provided by XRD pattern and SEM micrograph analysis.


Humans have throughout their development been exposed to various environmental genotoxicants through food, air, water, and soil. Environmental exposure to genotoxic compounds may induce damage to human health and thereby increase risks of human cancers and other diseases. Environmental genotoxic chemicals have the ability to induce mutations. Such mutations can give rise to cancer in somatic cells. However, when germ cells are affected, the damage can also have an effect on the next and successive generations. Because of the potential health hazard represented by exposure to genotoxic chemicals, it is important that all chemicals for which there is possible human exposure be screened for genotoxic activity. If genotoxic hazard is detected, then the risks of exposure can be assessed and the use of the chemical controlled and when appropriate eliminated from the market and the environment. In this chapter, a general overview of the genotoxicity and the genotoxicity of some environmental genotoxicants are discussed. This is followed by a description of the genotoxic properties of some environmental genotoxicants such as bisphenols and mycotoxins, which are prominent environmental contaminates, and is believed to be genotoxic agents that contribute to the high incidence of carcinogenicity among populations.


OBJECTIVE
Due to an increased focus on erosive tooth wear (ETW), the European Federation of Conservative Dentistry (EFCD) considered ETW as a relevant topic for generating this consensus report.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This report is based on a compilation of the scientific literature, an expert conference, and the approval by the General Assembly of EFCD.

RESULTS
ETW is a chemical-mechanical process resulting in a cumulative loss of hard dental tissue not caused by bacteria, and it is characterized by loss of the natural surface morphology and contour of the teeth. A suitable index for classification of ETW is the basic erosive wear examination (BEWE). Regarding the etiology, patient-related factors include the predisposition to erosion, reflux, vomiting, drinking and eating habits, as well as medications and dietary supplements. Nutritional factors relate to the composition of foods and beverages, e.g., with low pH and high buffer capacity (major risk factors), and calcium concentration (major protective factor). Occupational factors are exposition of workers to acidic liquids or vapors. Preventive management of ETWaims at reducing or stopping the progression of the lesions. Restorative management aims at reducing symptoms of pain and dentine hypersensitivity, or to restore esthetic and function, but it should only be used in conjunction with preventive strategies.

CONCLUSIONS
Effective management of ETW includes screening for early signs of ETW and evaluating all etiological factors.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
ETW is a clinical condition, which calls for the increased attention of the dental community and is a challenge for the cooperation with other medical specialities.


Several partners jointly own an asset that may be traded among them. Each partner has a valuation for the asset; the valuations are known privately and drawn independently from a common probability distribution. We characterize the set of all incentive-compatible and interim-individually-rational trading mechanisms, and give a simple necessary and sufficient condition for such mechanisms to dissolve the partnership ex post efficiently. A bidding game is constructed that achieves such dissolution whenever it is possible. Despite incomplete information about the valuation of the asset, a partnership can be dissolved ex post efficiently provided no single partner owns too large a share; this contrasts with Myerson and Satterthwaite's result that ex post efficiency cannot be achieved when the asset is owned by a single party.