Background: The use of automated dispensing systems has been lauded for improving patient safety within the processes of healthcare. Adverse drug events, for example, are a common manifestation of faults in the service delivery of a pharmacy department that endanger patient safety. Even though automation may reduce the occurrence of such errors, concerns have been raised about the efficiency and safety of the automated systems since a large number of patients still suffer medication associated injuries. Though the use of these systems is common in some developed countries, there is paucity of safety and efficacy data from the Arab nations. We therefore report our experience using automated dispensing systems in all our units at the KAUH following a successful pilot run of this technology. Materials and methods: We installed the automated dispensing system and monitored the number of controlled and uncontrolled medications used before and after the automation, the incidence of wrong bin opening and the number of IV medication preparations after the installation of the system. Results: The number of controlled and uncontrolled medications dispensed in KAUH generally reduced. The decrease in the number of uncontrolled medication was statistically significant, p value 0.004. We also observed an increase in the number of IV medication preparations consequent to reduced workload and improvement in staff utilization. After installation of the automated dispensing system there was a high incidence of wrong bin opening, which reduced gradually after the first two months. Conclusion: The process of automating the services of a pharmacy department using ADS technology increases the efficiency at which medications are controlled, improves accuracy of patient drug profiling, minimizes inappropriate dispensing and distribution and provides better utilization of human resource at the ever busy pharmacy department. However, the process of switching into an automated system may have multiple challenges all of which should be addressed through training of the personnel. Key words: Automated Dispensing Cabinet (ADC), Hospital Pharmacy, Medication distribution, Automated Dispensing System (ADS), Hospital Information System (HIS), Information Technology (IT).


The experiment was conducted during March, 2016 to March, 2017 in a baroj of experimental farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka. Thirteen betel vine cultivars designated as PB 001 through PB 013 were collected from different locations of Bangladesh and found remarkable variations in vegetative growth, morphological features, yield and yield attributes. The betel vine cultivars varied in vine elongation (37.46 – 50.34 cm per month), increase in internode length (6.75 – 10.08 cm per month) and vine girth (0.445 0.747 cm per year). The leaf length (17.13-27.35 cm), leaf breadth (8.33 16.20 cm), petiole length (4.83 -11.45 cm) and petiole breadth (0.47 0.28 cm) remarkably varied among the cultivars. Fresh weight of 100-petiole, 100-leaves, and dry matter content were 50.07 165.74 g, 289.38 565.25 g and 12.57 14.49%, respectively in different cultivars. Leaf number per meter vine (9.46 15.38) and leaf number per plant per year (50.16 78.44) were also varied among the cultivars. The highest annual per hectare yield was obtained from BARI Pan-1 (23.82 t) and PB 006 (23.46 t). Variations were also existed among the cultivars in vine colour, leaf colour, leaf shape, leaf tip, leaf softness and pungency of leaf of cultivars. No pungency of leaf was found in cultivars PB 006 (Misti pan). So, PB 006 (Misti pan) was seemed to be a better cultivar/ germplasm in respect of yield and quality of betel leaf.


Abstract Previous studies have demonstrated that a multitude of options can lead to choice overload, reducing decision quality. Through controlled experiments, we examine sequential choice architectures that enable the choice set to remain large while potentially reducing the effect of choice overload. A specific tournament-style architecture achieves this goal. An alternate architecture in which subjects compare each subset of options to the most preferred option encountered thus far fails to improve performance due to the status quo bias. Subject preferences over different choice architectures are negatively correlated with performance, suggesting that providing choice over architectures might reduce the quality of decisions.


In 2012, Lord Justice Toulson observed that the practical application of open justice 'may need reconsideration from time to time to take account of changes in the way society and the courts work'. In this article, we undertake such a reconsideration in light of the declining role that institutional media organisations play in promoting and protecting the principle of open justice, focusing on courts in England and Australia. We argue that due to changes in the communications landscape, the media no longer have the resources or sufficient inclination to adequately safeguard the public interest in transparency in the courts. In order to place the media's declining role into context, we also briefly explore three further categories of contemporary challenges facing the open justice principle: changes to judicial attitudes to open justice in response to new communication technologies; shifts in the priority given in law to competing interests in national security and privacy; and, finally, new and emerging changes to court processes and procedures that potentially limit open justice, including virtual courts. We then consider mechanisms that would offer enhanced protection of open justice. Most boldly, we examine a novel model in which an open justice advocate (OJA) intervenes in appropriate circumstances, with the overall objective of ensuring maximum transparency of court proceedings. We also suggest additional mechanisms for greater transparency and accountability regarding the state of open justice in the courts – namely, a statutory duty on courts to give written public reasons for all decisions regarding open justice, a public register of all reporting restrictions (and similar orders) granted by the courts, and annual open justice reporting requirements.


This article investigates how participants accomplish interculturality (Nishizaka 1995, 1999; Mori 2003) when they engage in talk about Korean cultural practices involving labels and descriptions which construct one another's national/ethnic identity. Within the framework of Membership Categorization Analysis (Sacks 1972, 1979, 1992), three segments of conversation were analyzed between Korean users of Japanese attending a Japanese university and their Japanese work colleagues or college friends. The analysis challenges key assumptions about intercultural conversation in several ways: 1) by demonstrating that interculturality is not always achieved in talk among speakers from different nations who have different first languages; 2) through illustrating how cultural expertise is often claimed by 'non-members' of the culture; and 3) by showing how presumed cultural experts do not always enact their cultural memberships, even in the face of cultural critique. The study reveals that the various membership categorizations that occur are contingent on how the participants respond to the assessment of various cultural practices. The findings of this study provide further awareness of how cross-cultural identity construction and interculturality are accomplished in talk.


This study investigated the clinical feasibility of combining the electromechanical gait trainer Lokomat with functional electrical therapy (LokoFET), stimulating the common peroneal nerve during the swing phase of the gait cycle to correct foot drop as an integrated part of gait therapy. Five patients with different acquired brain injuries trained with LokoFET 2-3 times a week for 3-4 weeks. Pre- and post-intervention evaluations were performed to quantify neurophysiological changes related to the patients' foot drop impairment during the swing phase of the gait cycle. A semi-structured interview was used to investigate the therapists' acceptance of LokoFET in clinical practice. The patients showed a significant increase in the level of activation of the tibialis anterior muscle and the maximal dorsiflexion during the swing phase, when comparing the pre- and post-intervention evaluations. This showed an improvement of function related to the foot drop impairment. The interview revealed that the therapists perceived the combined system as a useful tool in the rehabilitation of gait. However, lack of muscle selectivity relating to the FES element of LokoFET was assessed to be critical for acceptance in clinical practice.


To describe three cases of corneal infection due to Acanthamoeba sp in which was possible to detect Acanthamoeba sp cysts by the corneal impression cytology technique. Three patients referred to the External Eye Disease Laboratory in 2004 with superficial corneal alterations were submitted to corneal specimen collection by impression cytology filter paper to investigate the presence of Acanthamoeba sp cysts. Two impression cytology samples were obtained from each patient and were stained by PAS, hematoxylin and Papanicolaou. Routine microbiological investigation and culture were also performed using corneal scraping. Positive culture and impression cytology for Acanthamoeba sp was observed in all patients while smears with Giemsa stain were positive in two. Impression cytology Acanthamoeba sp cysts were observed among sheets of corneal epithelial cells and as isolated cells. Cysts were also found in the superficial epithelium in one of these patients after treatment while corneal scraping did not reveal any cyst. Histopathology revealed cysts in the epithelium and stroma in a transplanted cornea in one of these patients. The first description of impression cytology as a diagnostic method for Acanthamoeba keratitis occurred recently. In this study corneal impression cytology detected Acanthamoeba sp cysts successfully in these patients with only superficial involvement. Impression cytology as a non invasive technique can be used to facilitate early recognition of Acanthamoeba infection playing a useful role in the follow-up of the disease.


Despite the scholarly neglect of Marxism's 'communicative crisis', it was a topic of concern that was addressed, debated and negotiated over by party leaders, intellectuals and activists on a continuous basis throughout the 20th century. These concerns revolved around three areas: first, the primary means of print communication, the party paper; second, the specialization of production, particularly around the role of writers and journalists; and third, the search for a popular rhetoric and writing style, which would appeal to the general public. This paper maps out the 'communicative crisis' of Marxism in the 20th century through an examination of key intersections of disputes over the correct
approach to its practices of print communication, as a starting point for an historical analysis of the failures and successes of Marxist political praxis.


In this paper, the recognition of the visual focus of attention (VFOA) of meeting participants (as defined by their eye gaze direction) from their head pose is addressed. To this end, the head pose observations are modeled using an hidden Markov model (HMM) whose hidden states corresponds to the VFOA. The novelties are threefold. First, contrary to previous studies on the topic, in our set-up, the potential VFOA of a person is not restricted to other participants only, but includes environmental targets (a table and a projection screen), which increases the complexity of the task, with more VFOA targets spread in the pan and tilt (as well) gaze space. Second, the HMM parameters are set by exploiting results from the cognitive science on saccadic eye motion, which allows to predict what the head pose should be given an actual gaze target. Third, an unsupervised parameter adaptation step is proposed which accounts for the specific gazing behaviour of each participant. Using a publicly available corpus of 8 meetings featuring 4 persons, we analyze the above methods by evaluating, through objective performance measures, the recognition of the VFOA from head pose information obtained either using a magnetic sensor device or a vision based tracking system.


The clockwise bend at 99 Ma (mid-Cretaceous) in linear volcanic chains in the tropical Pacific coincides with a change from pre-99 Ma head-on Chilean-type subduction of the Pacific plate beneath eastern Gondwana to 99–43 Ma sinistral oblique Mariana-type subduction and strike-slip breakup by simple sea-floor spreading between Australia and Antarctica and by backarc spreading in the southwest Pacific. The 99 Ma breakup of Australia from Antarctica is documented by a mid-Cretaceous unconformity. This tectono-stratigraphic change founded modern Australia, with a mountain chain along an upper plate margin in the east and lowlands on the lower plate margin in the south. The counterclockwise bend at 43 Ma (mid-Eocene)—the Emperor-Hawaiian bend—coincides with the onset of structure in the Challenger Rift of New Zealand, the Eromanga-Cooper basin of central Australia, and the oil-shale grabens of coastal Queensland.


Considerable numbers of small public transport vehicles providing fixed-route services in urban and rural areas in developing and transition countries are designed and operated in an inaccessible manner. The result is that millions of persons with disabilities in parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America are denied access to work, education, health care and other activities. Due to the lower cost of ownership, small capacity vehicles tend to drive out more regulated larger buses in cities throughout the developing world, thus further decreasing the potential for safe and accessible public transport. Yet many access features serving disabled passengers using vans, mini-buses, and other small vehicles are low cost and could easily be implemented. Vans, as well as some small buses which have lower floors than larger conventional sized buses, could lend themselves to lower-cost access by passengers using wheelchairs. This paper reports on the results of a study of "micros" in the Mexico City metropolitan area, focusing on positive steps which have already been taken as well as areas where additional work is recommended to address concerns raised by disability advocates concerning the design and operation of public transport vehicles in one of the world's largest cities.


The Princeton Project on the Decline of Fertility in Europe (or European Fertility Project, hereafter EFP) was carried out at Princeton University's Office of Population Research in the 1960s and 1970s. This project aimed to characterize the decline of fertility that took place in Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The project's summary statements argued that social and economic forces played little role in bringing about the fertility transition. The statement stresses instead a process of innovation and diffusion. A central feature of the EFP argument is a series of statistical exercises that purport to show that changes in economic and social conditions exerted little influence on fertility. Two recent papers on Germany for this period have used similar data and methods to draw different conclusions. These findings echo those of researchers working in other contexts, who increasingly find that economic and social factors play a strong role in fertility. We show that one reason for the new findings is some general statistical problems in the Princeton methodology. These are reason to temper acceptance of the Princeton project's larger message.


Metabolic networks in the cell break down food and resources to create useful energy and components. At the same time they use those same components and energy in the process, thus making autocatalysis an unavoidable part of core metabolism. The simplest and most widely studied autocatalytic network is the glycolytic pathway. It is common to every cell of living organisms, from bacteria to humans. Its special autocatalytic structure, like the structure of many similar autocatalytic networks, makes the pathway hard to control and can lead to instabilities.

In this thesis, we study autocatalytic metabolic networks, specifically glycolysis, to investigate fundamental performance tradeoffs in these network topologies. We hypothesize that instabilities in glycolysis are a result of performance tradeoffs that stem from the structure of the pathways and a conservation law, mathematically described by a special form of the Bode Sensitivity Integral. We show that pathway size and intermediate metabolite consumption adversely affect the performance of the pathway, while reversibility of chemical reactions improves performance. We establish tight bounds for the feedback control gains that guarantee stability of pathways of arbitrary size and arbitrary parameter values for the intermediate reactions.

In addition, we investigate effects of perturbations in metabolite concentrations through the estimation of invariant subsets of the region of attraction around nominal operating conditions. To this end we use a numerical procedure composed of system theoretic characterizations and optimization-based formulations. For large, computationally intractable systems we employ a different technique based on the underlying biological structure, which offers a natural decomposition of the system into a feedback interconnection of two input-output subsystems. This decomposition simplifies the analysis and leads to analytical construction of Lyapunov functions for a large family of autocatalytic pathways.

The results of our analysis reveal fundamental tradeoffs between performance and robustness, energy efficiency, pathway evolvability and computational complexity in these networks.


Grid connected applications require an accurate estimate of the grid angle to feed power synchronously to the grid. This is achieved using a software phase locked loop (PLL). This application report discusses different challenges in the design of software phase locked loops and presents a methodology to design phase locked loops using C2000 controllers for single phase grid connection applications.


Each new print copy includes Navigate 2 Advantage Access that unlocks a complete eBook, Study Center, homework and Assessment Center, and a dashboard that reports actionable data. Written with both the graduate and undergraduate student in mind, Sport Facility and Event Management focuses on the major components of both facility and event management planning, financing, marketing, implementation, and evaluation. It integrates timely theoretical foundations with real world practicality and application to provide the reader with a strong foundation in facility and event management. The authors focus on a broad range of facilities and events to demonstrate the diversity of the industry, which encompasses recreation, leisure, health and fitness, in addition to the more commonly discussed sport facilities and events. The texts robust pedagogy includes chapter learning objectives, industry expert spotlights, vignettes, case studies, discussion questions, and tip points, as well as actual examples from the industries incorporated throughout the book. With Navigate 2, technology and content combine to expand the reach of your classroom. Whether you teach an online, hybrid, or traditional classroom-based course, Navigate 2 delivers unbeatable value. Experience Navigate 2 today at www.jblnavigate.com/2.


In the context of the US automobile market, past comparisons of automakers' supplier management practices show Japanese assemblers besting American counterparts along a number of dimensions despite American automakers' efforts to emulate Japanese practices. But recent studies suggest emergent American practices differ from traditional Japanese vertical keiretsu practices. Such a departure could affect American-allied Japanese automakers in Thailand, a major global automotive export hub. This exploratory study of 383 automobile part and component suppliers in Thailand finds suppliers to Japanese assemblers distinguishable by higher priorities placed on delivery and flexibility, but on an equal basis with suppliers to American assemblers in terms of cost and quality priorities.


The efficiencies of two ytterbium (Yb) fiber lasers for metastability-exchange optical pumping are compared with that of an arc-lamp-pumped neodymium-doped lanthanum magnesium hexaluminate laser. Specifically, we report a careful comparison of the 3He nuclear polarizations and polarization rates obtained with each laser, which were carried out for three sealed glass cells filled with low-pressure 3He or 3He–4He mixtures. The two Yb systems are (1) a 1083-nm diode oscillator coupled to a Yb-doped fiber amplifier and (2) an all-fiber system consisting of a Yb-doped fiber oscillator followed by a Yb-doped fiber amplifier. Essentially no difference was observed between the efficiency of the neodymium-doped lanthanum magnesium hexaluminate laser and the diode/fiber system. In comparison, the all-fiber laser produced a 0%–5% lower polarization and a 0%–35% lower polarization rate than the other two lasers, depending upon the specific experimental conditions. Absorption and spectral line-shape measurements suggest that this difference can be attributed to the spectral linewidth of the particular all-fiber laser that was tested.


The effective preparation of garments for display is essential for exhibitions of contemporary and historical dress. Costumes not only need to be visually appealing but also fully supported and historically accurate. This book provides a comprehensive guide to mounting costumes from the eighteenth century to the present day. It includes methods for adapting and shaping figures to create historical silhouettes, constructing underpinnings and making replicas and toiles using inexpensive and simple techniques. A Practical Guide to Costume Mounting is an invaluable resource for conservators, historians and all those working with clothing in museums, private collections and throughout the fashion and theatre industries.
 Trained as a historical costume maker, author Lara Flecker is the textile display specialist at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. She has worked extensively with the museum's world-class costume collection, preparing garments for display. Her simple mounting methods are clearly explained and can be used by people with a wide range of experience, including those with few sewing skills.


Cooperative diversity or virtual antenna arrays (VAA) enables transmission range extension and provides robustness enhancements in wireless multi-hop relay networks, when compared with relaying non-cooperative diversity-based schemes. Moreover redundant spare nodes willing to cooperate when used in a virtual multiple input multiple output (VMIMO) scheme allow better dependability and lead to a more efficient transmission that is of particular interest in mobile environment. This talk addresses a model-based probabilistic approach for dependability assessment of a VMIMO link. More precisely, we show how through Markov models, we can evaluate availability and survivability measures of a VMIMO link. We show through extensive numerical computations how instantaneous availability (A(t)) decreases for different failure rates and how the steady state availability (As) behaves with respect to the number of redundant spare nodes. Also we illustrate how node failure rates affect VMIMO link survivability metrics, i.e., excess loss due to failure (ELF) and excess delay due to failure (EDF). Finally we highlight reliability metrics related to VMIMO link [i.e., reliability (R(t)), mean time to failure (MTTF) and mean time to repair (MTTR)] and we show how they behave with respect to node failure and repair rates.


The study of public administration in developing countries needs to look beyond the Weberian model as the only ideal-type of bureaucracy. When we assume that there exists only one gold standard of public administration, all other organizational forms that do not conform to the Weberian ideal are written off as corruption or failures. Drawing on neo-institutional economics, I introduce an alternative ideal-type of bureaucracy found in China. Termed bureau-franchising, this model combines the hierarchical structure of bureaucracy with the high-powered incentives of franchising. In this system, public agencies can rightfully claim a share of income earned to finance and reward themselves, like entrepreneurial franchisees. Yet distinguished from lawless corruption, this self-financing (or prebendal) behavior is sanctioned and even deliberately incentivized by state rules. Although such a model violates several Weberian tenets of "good" bureaucracy, it harnesses and regulates the high-powered incentives of prebendalism to ameliorate budgetary and capacity constraints common to developing countries like China.


This chapter introduces the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries, showing how it fills a gap between theoretical work on the nature and origin of collective social imaginations and empirical work on the politics of science and technology. Emphasizing the role of both practices and performance in constituting imaginaries, the chapter distinguishes sociotechnical imaginaries from other related analytic concepts, such as frames, and addresses problems such as the relationship between individual and collective imaginations, the relative significance of state and non-state actors, the durability of imaginaries, and the potential for resistance to dominant imaginaries.


We propose a scheme for mitigating Rayleigh backscattering noise and demodulating differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) signals in wavelength-division-multiplexed passive optical networks (WDM-PONs) with injection-locked Fabry-Perot laser diodes (FP-LDs). Signal demodulation and wavelength conversion are simultaneously realized on the basis of the frequency deviation and red shift of longitude modes in the FP-LDs. Experimental results demonstrate that the demodulation and wavelength conversion of 2.5-Gb/s DPSK signals are achieved. A power penalty of about 1.6 dB at a bit error rate of 10-9 is measured after transmission over 25-km single mode fiber.


The Notch signaling pathway is a highly conserved mode of intercellular communication used extensively in metazoan development to direct cell fate decisions. Originally identified in Drosophila, which contains a single receptor, mammals contain four Notch receptors (Notch1-4). Of these, Notch1 shares the greatest homology with Drosophila Notch. Notch1 is essential for embryonic development and formation of the vascular and hematopoietic systems. Critical Notch1 functions in the hematopoietic system include generating the first hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and instructing multipotent hematopoietic progenitors to become T cells. Activating Notch1 mutations occur in multiple human cancers, including acute T cell lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). While Notch1 is required to generate the earliest embryonic HSCs, additional physiologic functions for Notch in embryonic HSC biology have not been described as constitutive pan-Notch deletion in early embryogenesis leads to lethality by E10.5. Ex vivo approaches suggest that Notch signaling can expand HSCs raising the question of whether this is a physiologic Notch function. To address this question, we generated mice that express a hypomorphic Notch1 allele. Unlike Notch1-deficient mice, mice lacking the conserved Notch1 transcriptional activation domain (TAD) show attenuated Notch1 function in vivo and survive until late gestation, succumbing to multiple cardiac abnormalities. Notch1 TAD-deficient HSCs emerge from aorta-gonad-mesonephros region and are capable of migrating to the fetal liver, but are present at a decreased frequency and impaired in their ability to provide hematopoietic reconstitution to transplant recipients. This finding was confirmed using an independent system where Notch signaling was conditionally ablated in fetal hematopoietic cells. In vitro analysis of Notch1 TAD-deficient cells shows that the Notch1 TAD is important for the proper assembly of the Notch transcriptional activation complex. Consistent with this, the TAD is also required to promote optimal transcription of known Notch target genes in vitro. Together, these studies reveal an essential role for the Notch1 TAD in fetal development and fetal HSC homeostasis, and identify a novel requirement for Notch1 signaling in HSC function. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Immunology First Advisor Warren S. Pear


This paper combines the idea of a hierarchical distributed genetic algorithm with different inter-agent partnering strategies. Cascading clusters of sub-populations are built from bottom up, with higher-level sub-populations optimising larger parts of the problem. Hence, higher-level sub-populations search a larger search space with a lower resolution whilst lower-level sub-populations search a smaller search space with a higher resolution. The effects of different partner selection schemes amongst the agents on solution quality are examined for two multiple-choice optimisation problems. It is shown that partnering strategies that exploit problem-specific knowledge are superior and can counter inappropriate (sub-) fitness measurements.


Overall the project has been a learning experience for all involved and now at the end, the company has a heart health product for launch, a gut health product prototype, an immune function product concept and a stronger scientific literature base to underpin future work on these three product categories. In general terms, the aim of the project set out at the beginning has remained the same, however, the major progress made by the company in the area of "satiety" between the time of project submission and the commencement of the project required the "functional" area of primary interest to be changed to "heart health" and the other areas for work to be specified as "gut health" and "immune function" rather than left unspecified. This FUSION Project therefore involved the development of novel (and potentially inventive) functional spring water product concepts in areas of heart health, gut health, and immune function. In the first quarter of the project, scientific literature around "heart health", "gut health" and "immune function", was reviewed, and a range of product concepts were generated. The second quarter of the project increased market understanding for spring waters in these three health categories in GB multiples and the US convenience stores, and produced the prototype products for the "heart health" and "gut health" categories. The third quarter saw commercialisation plans for the "heart health" product produced, and the "immune function" product concept created. At 10 months into the project, the Graduate left the company with the Company Supervisor, and the latter provided consultancy support to ensure the knowledge gained was embedded in the company. It was agreed to end and write up the project after 10 months, two months before the original planned end point.


In 2015, a language based fundamentally on substructural typing–Rust–hit its 1.0 release, and less than a year later it has been put into production use in a number of tech companies, including some household names. The language has started a trend, with several other mainstream languages, including C++ and Swift, in the early stages of incorporating ideas about ownership. How did this come about? Rust's core focus is safe systems programming. It does not require a runtime system or garbage collector, but guarantees memory safety. It does not stipulate any particular style of concurrent programming, but instead provides the tools needed to guarantee data race freedom even when doing low-level shared-state concurrency. It allows you to build up high-level abstractions without paying a tax; its compilation model ensures that the abstractions boil away. These benefits derive from two core aspects of Rust: its ownership system (based on substructural typing) and its trait system (a descendant of Haskell's typeclasses). The talk will cover these two pillars of Rust design, with particular attention to the key innovations that make the language usable at scale. It will highlight the implications for concurrency, where Rust provides a unique perspective. It will also touch on aspects of Rust's development that tend to get less attention within the POPL community: Rust's governance and open development process, and design considerations around language and library evolution. Finally, it will mention a few of the myriad open research questions around Rust.


This report describes the maturity concept and its application on three case studies on actual construction projects. The three were all paving projects in the state of Washington, one a complete rebuild of a section of I-5 in downtown Seattle, and the other two panel replacements, one on I-5 in Bellingham and the other on I-205 in Vancouver. The study found that maturity is a useful tool for determining the strength of the pavement and allowing early opening of the roadway to traffic. The use of all of the principles of the maturity concept such as the development of the calibration curve, the use of the verification method to assure compliance of the mix with the original mix, and systematic record keeping and reporting were not evenly applied on each case study. As a result of the uneven application, additional case studies with strict compliance to all principles of the maturity concept are recommended prior to the full implementation of this tool on future accelerated paving projects.


Background Despite historical evidence of blinding trachoma, there have been no widespread contemporary surveys of trachoma prevalence in the northern states of Sudan. We aimed to conduct district-level surveys in this vast region in order to map the extent of the problem and estimate the need for trachoma control interventions to eliminate blinding trachoma. Methods and Findings Separate, population based cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 88 localities (districts) in 12 northern states of Sudan between 2006 and 2010. Two-stage cluster random sampling with probability proportional to size was used to select the sample. Trachoma grading was done using the WHO simplified grading system. Key prevalence indicators were trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) in children aged 1–9 years and trachomatous trichiasis (TT) in adults aged 15 years and above. The sample comprised 1,260 clusters from which 25,624 households were surveyed. A total of 106,697 participants (81.6% response rate) were examined for trachoma signs. TF prevalence was above 10% in three districts and between 5% and 9% in 11 districts. TT prevalence among adults was above 1% in 20 districts (which included the three districts with TF prevalence >10%). The overall number of people with TT in the population was estimated to be 31,072 (lower and upper bounds = 26,125–36,955). Conclusion Trachoma mapping is complete in the northern states of Sudan except for the Darfur States. The survey findings will facilitate programme planning and inform deployment of resources for elimination of trachoma from the northern states of Sudan by 2015, in accordance with the Sudan Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) objectives.


Historically, research examining the influence of individual personality factors on decision processing has been sparse. In this paper we investigate how one important individual aspect, self-esteem, influences imposition and subsequent processing of ambiguously, negatively or positively framed decision tasks. We hypothesized that low self-esteem individuals would impose a negative frame onto ambiguous decision problems and would be especially sensitive to negatively framed decision tasks. In Study 1 we utilized a self-framing procedure and demonstrated that HSE participants were evenly divided in the hedonic valence they self-imposed whereas LSE participants were more likely to self-impose a negative frame. When these differences were accounted for, HSE and LSE participants were equivalent in risk seeking/avoiding choices. Study 2 used a risky-choice framing task and found that LSE individuals were especially sensitive to the negative frame. Study 3, provided converging evidence and generalization of these findings to a reflection tasks involving money.


This volume includes 3 papers based on presentations at a workshop on communicating assessment information to particular audiences, held at Educational Testing Service (ETS) on November 4th, 2010, to explore some issues that influence score reports and new advances that contribute to the effectiveness of these reports. Jessica Hullman, Rebecca Rhodes, Fernando Rodriguez, and Priti Shah present the results of recent research on graph comprehension and data interpretation, especially the role of presentation format, the impact of prior quantitative literacy and domain knowledge, the trade-off between reducing cognitive load and increasing active processing of data, and the affective influence of graphical displays. Rebecca Zwick and Jeffrey Sklar present the results of the Instructional Tools in Educational Measurement and Statistics for School Personnel (ITEMS) project, funded by the National Science Foundation and conducted at the University of California, Santa Barbara to develop and evaluate 3 web-based instructional modules intended to help educators interpret test scores. Zwick and Sklar discuss the modules and the procedures used to evaluate their effectiveness. Diego Zapata-Rivera presents a new framework for designing and evaluating score reports, based on work on designing and evaluating score reports for particular audiences in the context of the CBAL (Cognitively Based Assessment of, for, and as Learning) project (Bennett & Gitomer, 2009), which has been applied in the development and evaluation of reports for various audiences including teachers, administrators and students.


Papillomaviruses, members of a group of dsDNA viruses associated with epithelial growths and tumors, have compact capsids assembled from 72 pentamers of the protein L1. We have determined the structure of bovine papillomavirus by electron cryomicrosopy (cryoEM), at ∼3.6 A resolution. The density map, obtained from single-particle analysis of ∼4,000 particle images, shows the trace of the L1 polypeptide chain and reveals how the N- and C-terminal "arms" of a subunit (extensions from its β-jelly-roll core) associate with a neighboring pentamer. Critical contacts come from the C-terminal arm, which loops out from the core of the subunit, forms contacts (including a disulfide) with two subunits in a neighboring pentamer, and reinserts into the pentamer from which it emanates. This trace corrects one feature of an earlier model. We discuss implications of the structure for virion assembly and for pathways of infectious viral entry. We suggest that it should be possible to obtain image reconstructions of comparable resolution from cryoEM images of asymmetric particles. From the work on papillomavirus described here, we estimate that such a reconstruction will require about 1.5 million images to achieve the same number of averaged asymmetric units; structural variability will increase this number substantially.Data descriptionLinked at right is a stack (16 GB) of 5,546 images (MRC/CCP4 format) of bovine papillomavirus (BPV [1]) collected at 300 kV and a calibrated magnification of 56,588, giving a pixel size on the specimen of 1.237 A. Alignment parameters determined by Frealign for each particle in the stack can also be found below, as well as a reconstruction of BPV (also MRC/CCP4 format). Ewald sphere and beamtilt correction were performed. The atomic coordinates contain the coordinates from one subunit (3IYJ.pdb) and the five surrounding subunits to enable exploration of inter-subunit contacts.


This book adopts a holistic, integrated and pragmatic approach to exploring the myths, concepts, policies, key conditions and tools for enhancing creative knowledge cities, as well as expounding potentially negative impacts of knowledge based city policies.


From the late 19 to the late 20 century, the cities and industries of the world became increasingly reliant on fireproof materials made from asbestos. As asbestos was used more and more in building materials and household appliances, its harmful effect on human health, such as asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, became apparent. The dangers surrounding the mineral led to the collapse of the industry in the 1980s. While the market demand and medical rejection of asbestos were international, they were also experienced in the mining and processing communities at the core of the global industry. In the town of Asbestos, Quebec, home of the largest chrysotile asbestos mine in the world, we can see how this process of market boom and bust shaped a fierce local cultural identity. This dissertation examines the global asbestos industry from a local perspective, showing how the people of Asbestos, Quebec had international reach through the work they did and the industry they continue to support today. This thesis explores how the boundaries between humans and the environment were blurred in Asbestos as a strong cultural identity was created through the interaction between people and the natural world. This work advances our understanding of the interdependence of the local-global relationship between resource industries and international trade networks, illustrating the ways it shapes communities and how communities shape it. Bringing bodies of land, human bodies, and the body politic of Asbestos, Quebec into the history of the global asbestos trade helps demonstrate how this local cultural identity grew to influence national policy and global debates on commodity flows, occupational health, and environmental justice.


In this provocative book, one of our most eminent political scientists poses the question, "Why should Americans uphold their constitution?" The vast majority of Americans venerate the Constitution and the democratic principles it embodies, but many also worry that the United States has fallen behind other nations on crucial issues, including economic equality, racial integration, and women's rights. Robert Dahl explores this vital tension between the Americans' belief in the legitimacy of their constitution and their belief in the principles of democracy. Dahl starts with the assumption that the legitimacy of the American Constitution derives solely fromits utility as an instrument of democratic governance. Dahl demonstrates that, due to the context in which it was conceived, our constitution came to incorporate significant antidemocratic elements. Because the Framers of the Constitution had no relevant example of a democratic political system on which to model the American government, many defining aspects of our political system were implemented as a result of short-sightedness or last-minute compromise. Dahl highlights those elements of the American system that are most unusual and potentially antidemocratic: the federal system, the bicameral legislature, judicial review, presidentialism, and the electoral college system. The political system that emerged from the world's first great democratic experiment is unique-no other well-established democracy has copied it. How does the American constitutional system function in comparison to other democratic systems? How could our political system be altered to achieve more democratic ends? To what extent did the Framers of the Constitution build features into our political system that militate against significant democratic reform? Refusing to accept the status of the American Constitution as a sacred text, Dahl challenges us all to think critically about the origins of our political system and to consider the opportunities for creating a more democratic society.


There have been two distinct chapters
in the history of converting cellulosic
biomass to fuels and commodity chemicals
in South Africa. The first chapter, fromthe
late 1970s to the early 1990s, involved some of
the most active research and development
efforts of their kind anywhere in the world.
Thereafter, during the second chapter, there
has been very little activity in the field in
South Africa while there has been an unprecedented
awakening to the potential of biomass
conversion elsewhere. This paper considers
the rationale and possible benefits of a
potential third chapter based on a revitalized
effort on biomass conversion in South Africa.
Such an enterprise would build on the country's
large biomass production potential,
strong technical capability in yeast biotechnology,
a well-developed research and development
infrastructure in biological processing,
and expertise derived from the largest
non-petroleum hydrocarbon processing
industry in the world. Substantial societal
benefits could be realized that address critically
important national needs, including the
utilization of sustainable resources, industrial
development, and improved balance of payments.
Moreover, establishing a modern biomass
processing industry in South Africa
appears to represent one of the largest potential
sources of rural employment identified to
date.We propose steps to realizing these benefits.


Enlightenment's Frontier is the first book to investigate the environmental roots of the Scottish Enlightenment. What was the place of the natural world in Adam Smith's famous defense of free trade? Fredrik Albritton Jonsson recovers the forgotten networks of improvers and natural historians that sought to transform the soil, plants, and climate of Scotland in the eighteenth century. The Highlands offered a vast outdoor laboratory for rival liberal and conservative views of nature and society. But when the improvement schemes foundered toward the end of the century, northern Scotland instead became a crucible for anxieties about overpopulation, resource exhaustion, and the physical limits to economic growth. In this way, the rise and fall of the Enlightenment in the Highlands sheds new light on the origins of environmentalism.


Background: Self-management (SM) is an essential component of heart failure (HF) management. The mechanisms to improve SM behaviors are unclear. Objective: The objective of this study is to examine whether patient activation mediates the effect of self-efficacy on SM behaviors in rural HF patients. Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted using data collected from a randomized controlled trial aimed to improve SM behaviors. The main variables included were SM knowledge, self-efficacy, patient activation, and SM behaviors. Results: Mediation analysis showed patient activation mediated the effect of self-efficacy on SM. Both self-efficacy and patient activation were significantly related to SM behaviors, respectively (r = 0.46, P < .001; &bgr; = .48, P = .001). However, self-efficacy was no longer directly related to SM behaviors when patient activation was entered into the final model (&bgr; = .17, P = .248). Self-management knowledge and support were significant moderators. In patients with high levels of SM knowledge, patient activation did not mediate the effect of self-efficacy on SM behaviors (&bgr; = .15, P = .47). When SM support was entered in the path model, patient activation was not a significant mediator between self-efficacy and SM behavior at high (&bgr; = .27, P = .27) or low (&bgr; = .27, P = .25) levels of SM support. Conclusions: Study findings suggest that targeted SM support for high-risk HF patients with low SM knowledge and support may be useful. In addition, strategies to increase patient activation may improve HF patients' SM confidence.


This paper aims to obtain empirical information about the behavior of an Evolutionary Product-Unit Neural Network (EPUNN) in different scenarios. To achieve this, an extensive evaluation was conducted on 21 data sets for the classification task. Then, we evaluated EPUNN on eleven noisy data sets, on sixteen imbalanced data sets, and on ten missing values data sets. As a result of this evaluation process, we conclude that there does not exist a significant difference between EPUNN and the four algorithms assessed; the accuracy of EPUNN rapidly worsen in the presence of noise, so we do not recommend its utilization in noisy environments; we found a tendency to robustness in EPUNN while the imbalance ratio grows; finally, we can state that it is able to handle missing data, but in this kind of data, a significant performance deterioration was manifested. For future work, we recommend to assess the impact of irrelevant attributes on EPUNN performance. In addition, an extension of noisy data set evaluation would be opportune.


There is still considerable dispute about the magnitude of labor supply elasticities. While differences in estimates especially between micro and macro models are recently attributed to frictions and adjustment costs, we show that the variation in elasticities derived from structural labor supply models can also be explained by modeling assumptions. Specifically, we estimate 3,456 different models on the same data each representing a plausible combination of frequently made choices. While many modeling assumptions do not systematically affect labor supply elasticities, our controlled meta-analysis shows that results are very sensitive to the treatment of hourly wages in the estimation. For example, different (sensible) choices concerning the modeling of the underlying wage distribution and especially the imputation of (missing) wages lead to point estimates of elasticities between 0.2 and 0.65. We hence conclude that researchers should pay more attention to the robustness of their estimations with respect to the wage treatment.


The cloud reinforces existing challenges to digital evidence-gathering in criminal investigation, requiring not only swift action due to the vulnerability of data loss but also powers for remote data access. A particular challenge is that such remote evidence-gathering quickly extends beyond national borders. Since mutual legal assistance, despite many efforts to streamline procedures, is often still inadequate, the question is under what conditions cross-border investigations are allowed. This question is not new, but the challenges of cyber-investigation have so far not induced states to put strict interpretations of sovereignty aside. This report aims to advance the debate on cross-border cyber-investigation by combining the fields of cyber-investigation. The central question is what limits and what possibilities exist within international law for cross-border cyber-investigations by law enforcement authorities, such as remote searches and directly contacting foreign service providers to request data. We focus particularly on questions of the legality of cross-border access to data under international law under the core principles of territorial integrity and non-interference. The dominant interpretation of international law implies that accessing data stored on a foreign server without the prior foreign state's consent breaches the territorial integrity of that state. The wrongfulness is not mitigated by the fact that the location of data may be unclear or unknown. The only lawful situation is where the affected state has given prior consent, on an ad-hoc basis or via a treaty (e.g., Article 32(b) Cybercrime Convention). Negotiating these limits of international law and creating new possibilities will require much effort, patience, and care. We argue that solutions require substantial preliminary work to create a shared basis of common understanding. First, cyber-investigations challenges need to be formally recognised at the international level by state representatives. Second, problems need to be conceptualised carefully, using appropriate metaphors. Framing cyberspace as (more abstract) 'space' rather than as (physical) 'place' can make a difference in terms of thinking about solutions, as does conceiving of cross-border searches as sending and receiving messages rather than as 'going to' a server. Defining legal authority in terms of effective control rather than controlling territory within national boundaries may also help to understand jurisdiction in relation to 'space' rather than 'place'. Third, the cyber-investigation and international law communities must familiarise themselves with each other's language, concepts, and assumptions. After such preliminary work, states can move forward in a two-prong approach. Long-term efforts should seek to develop a new international or widely shared multilateral legal instrument that allows narrowly defined and strongly safeguarded forms of cross-border cyber-investigations. This will take much time and effort, as the issue is simply too complex and sensitive for easy consensus. Meanwhile, in the shorter term, some states — early adopters — could start creating and enhancing the legitimacy of unilateral actions that are narrowly defined, transparently conducted, and strongly safeguarded, by advancing an alternative account of sovereignty in cyberspace. Using arguments similar to those that led to the principle of open skies in the context of remote sensing in the 1980s, these states could start suggesting a new principle of 'open cyberspace' in the context of cross-border access to data. Neither short-term nor long-term efforts will be easy to address the problems of cyber-investigation in the cloud era, but both are necessary if law enforcement is to move along in the 21st century.


More than ever, efficiency and quality are key words in modern industry. This situation enhances the importance of quality control and creates a great demand for cheap and reliable automatic inspection systems. Taking into account these facts and the demand for systems able to inspect the final shape ofmachined parts, we decided to investigate the viability of automatic model-based inspection of mechanical parts using the dense range data produced by laser stripers. Given a part to be inspected and a corresponding model of the part stored in the model data base, the first step of inspecting the part is the acquisition of data corresponding to the part, in our case this means the acquisition of a range image of it. In order to be able to compare the part image and its stored model, it is necessary to align the model with the range image of the part. This process, called registration, corresponds to finding the rigid transformation that superposes model and image. After the image and model are registered, the actual inspection uses the range image to verify if all the features predicted in the model are present and have the right pose and dimensions. Therefore, besides the acquisition of range images, the inspection of machined parts involves three main issues: modelling, registration and inspection diagnosis. The application, for inspection purposes, of the main representational schemes for modelling solid objects is discussed and it is suggested the use of EDT models (see [Zeid 91]). A particular implementation of EDT models is presented. A novel approach for the verification of tolerances during the inspection is proposed. The approach allows not only the inspection of the most common tolerances described in the tolerancing standards, but also the inspection of tolerances defined according to Requicha's theory of tolerancing (see [Requicha 83]). A model of the sensitivity and reliability of the inspection process based on the modelling of the errors during the inspection process is also proposed. The importance of the accuracy of the registration in different inspections tasks is discussed. A modified version of the ICP algorithm (see [Besl &; McKay 92]) for the registration of sculptured surfaces is proposed. The maximum accuracy of the ICP algorithm, as a function of the sensor errors and the number of matched points, is determined. A novel method for the measurement and reconstruction of waviness errors on sculp¬ tured surfaces is proposed. The method makes use of the 2D Discrete Fourier Transform for the detection and reconstruction of the waviness error. A model of the sensitivity and reliability of the method is proposed. The application of the methods proposed is illustrated using synthetic and real range images.


Few-mode fiber (FMF) compatible optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) is indispensable for the future flexible high-speed mode-division multiplexed (MDM) optical networks. In this paper, we demonstrate a proof of concept of FMF compatible OADM which enables add/drop functionality for MDM superchannels. The OADM consists of two cascaded free-space thin-film filters with 5° incident angle. We demonstrate the rerouting of 3 × 318 Gb/s MDM CO-OFDM superchannels via the proposed OADM. The experimental results show 2.6, 2.4, and 0.7 dB OSNR penalties for add, drop, and through ports, respectively. Additionally, we demonstrate a heterodyne receiver configuration which can handle multiband detection without incurring penalty of spectral efficiency.


This Visualizing Health Policy infographic provides details on cancer spending and outcomes in the United States. The US cancer mortality rate, 203 deaths per 100 000 population, was slightly lower than in comparable countries in 2010. Among cancers, lung cancer is the largest contributor to disease burden for both men and women. The United States spent $124 billion to treat cancer in 2012, which accounted for about 7% of the nation's disease-based health expenditures. However, growth in cancer spending contributed slightly more than 6% to the nation's medical services expenditure growth between 2000 and 2012, while the top 3 diseases contributed 36%. During that time, per-capita spending on cancer increased 5%, which was slightly lower than the average for all diseases. Cancer medications were among the top 3 for specialty drug spending in 2015, behind medications for inflammatory conditions and multiple sclerosis.


The work focuses on the potential of structural and chemical examinations by scanning electron microscopy based methods for archaeometric studies on ceramics. Achieved by a single preparation technique (polished block sections), the feasibility and benefits of electron backscatter diffraction are demonstrated as case studies using polychrome examples of pre-Columbian pottery (Wari, Moche and Cajamarca). Elemental and phase maps allow for separate consideration of clay and temper. Identification of mineral phases and intergrowths of temper particles provide information for clarifying clay procurement and firing techniques with respect to local versus non-local pottery to enlighten trade relations, technological transfer and shared heritage of pre-Columbian cultures.


AN INVESTIGATION OF CO-RUMINATION ON STRESS LEVELS AND MOOD By Anthony T. Holguin A recently defined type of social support known as co-rumination, the process of sharing negative thoughts, feelings, or ideas with a supporter that triggers the supporter to share similar thoughts and feelings of negativity, is believed to generate both a sense of bonding and an exacerbated stress response. The present study examined the impact of co-rumination on stress levels and mood states in men and women. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions (a control condition, a stress condition without a coruminator, or a stress condition with a co-ruminator), which depended on both the timeslot for which a participant signed up and the availability of researchers during the day. Stress was evaluated by examining salivary free cortisol levels derived from the difference between pre-stress baseline levels and post-stress peak levels. Mood was measured using the Brunel Mood Scale containing subscales that measured anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, tension, and vigor. Results from this study were that participants in both the stress and co-rumination conditions produced elevated levels of cortisol in comparison to participants in the control condition. In addition, participants in both the stress and the co-rumination conditions differed from participants in the control condition on the fatigue dimension of the Brunel Mood Scale. The results of this study suggest that certain types of social support are not universally beneficial and are actually hazardous to the mental health of individuals.


This study aims to test the predictive power of gene expression data derived from NIH's database dbEST, which collects gene expression results from a large number and variety of DNA array experiments. The motivation of this study is to make comparable experimental studies, which are usually performed only for one or a few tissues or organs, with a wide variety of other tissues. Confirmation of a good predictive power of dbEST would put a number of interesting and partially surprising recent findings, solely based on data mining, on a more solid basis than available so far. The expression of nine genes (eIF4E, DDX6, HAT1, USP28, HSP90(beta, PKM2, PLK1, COX2 and OPN) plus two calibration genes in paired normal and cancer colon tissues of eight individual patients was investigated by quantitative RT-PCR and compared with the predictions made by the data-base. GUS and beta-actin reveal only little variation among different patients, making them good internal calibration standards. In normal colon tissue, data mining correctly predicts the expression of all nine genes, which covers two orders of magnitude. In cancer, dbEST is somewhat less precise, but still valuable for the comparison with clinical results.


A common difficulty in diagnosing failures within Pratt & Whitney's F100-PW-100/200 gas turbine engine occurs when a fault in one part of a system -- comprising an engine, an airframe, a test cell, and automated ground engine test set (AGETS) equipment -- is manifested as an out-of-bound parameter elsewhere in the system. In such cases, the normal procedure is to run AGETS self-diagnostics on the abnormal parameter. However, because the self-diagnostics only test the specified local parameter, it will pass, leaving only the operators' experience and traditional fault-isolation manuals to locate the source of the problem in another part of the system. This article describes a diagnostic tool (that is, AGETS MBR), designed to overcome this problem by isolating failures using an overall system troubleshooting approach. AGETS MBR was developed jointly by personnel at Pratt & Whitney and United Technologies Research Center using an AI tool called the qualitative reasoning system (QRS).


iOS Recipes begins with a tour of UIKit. Former Apple Evangelist Matt Drance and expert graphical-systems programmer Paul Warren show you how to write splash screens and embedded web browsers that are easily dropped into any project. You'll explore techniques for building complex table views without losing yourself in a sea of code, and see how to add some unique visual touches to any table--even the ones you've already built. Next you'll explore Quartz and Core Animation, and you'll walk through a number of fills, transforms, and animations that will breathe life into any app or game. You'll also learn about gestures, transitions, and custom controls to take your user interactions to the next level. You'll tackle networking with a few basic techniques to prevent unnecessary repetition in your codebases, and address some more complex problems like uploading large files to a web server. Finally, you'll see some simple disciplines and ideas that will make architecting, debugging, maintaining, and ultimately shipping your application easier every single time. By the end of this book, you'll have expanded your iPhone and iPad development knowledge and be well on your way to building elegant solutions that are ready for whatever project you take on next.


This Article examines corporate law from the perspective of personal investment and discusses the economic realities of modern investments in order to understand the role of shareholders within the agency paradigm. Corporate law, its scholars, and suggested reforms traditionally focus on the internal organization of the corporation. For example, agency principles inform corporate law by acknowledging a potential conflict of interest between the managers and shareholders of a corporation. Reforms such as increased shareholder voting rights and proxy access, which seek to give shareholders a more direct means to make their interests known to managers, illustrate corporate law's focus on the internal organization of corporations. These reforms also highlight debates about the nature of corporate law that assume a traditional identity for the shareholder — someone who invests directly in a company and who would be able to exercise these increased rights. That identity, however, does not directly include, and therefore is limited in how it can serve, the interests of the majority of individuals invested in the market through mutual funds. While mutual fund investors are represented by mutual fund managers, there is reason to be skeptical about the efficacy of such representation. As it stands today, scholarly commentary on corporate law appears to be stuck in debates that rely on an out-dated model of investment behavior that excludes a majority of modern investors. Publically available investment data paints a more thorough picture of modern investment — its terms, conditions, and purposes — and in doing so reveals a new economic reality where over 50% of Americans are invested in the market, primarily through employer-sponsored 401(k) or other defined contribution plans. The pervasiveness of corporate investment through mutual funds as a part of defined retirement plans highlight the limitations of the traditional agency paradigm in aligning management and shareholder interests. This Article concludes that the traditional notion of a direct-owning shareholder is divorced from current economic realities. Instead, we should reconceptualize the shareholder identity within the agency paradigm to include the citizen shareholder — a term intended to capture the unique interests of this class of investors. When asked if shareholder interests are served by corporate action, the analysis should include the interests of the citizen shareholders — those who don't have a direct voice in governance, but who are intimately affected by it. Citizen shareholder, as a term, also recognizes the relationship between economic interests in corporate actions and social and political interests of investors as members/citizens of society. These secondary rights tied to shareholder status become more important as the scope of corporations increases and as corporations perform increasingly public functions. The ubiquity of corporations (as measured by both size and function) is evident by the number of investors, the purposes for which and circumstances under which individuals invest, as well as the intra-connectedness of corporations. Issues raised in this Article have been discussed in corporate law over the last several decades; however, this Article grounds that discussion in current economic data to convey to readers the dominance of a new economic reality that must be accounted for within the traditional agency law paradigm. Articulating the gaps between theory and practice of the shareholder identity is a first step in modernizing the agency paradigm; subsequent works will discuss the implementation and consequences of an expanded shareholder identity.


This paper is synthesizing world policies regarding the adoption of software in the public sector. The point of interest is represented by policies from the EU and how they evolved in time, but there will be presented a few cases of policy making from other countries because they represented milestones and best practices regarding policy making. The public sector is a huge consumer for the software and hardware industry, thus policy making regarding software adoption has to be at the best level possible to ensure that the best decision in economical terms is being taken.


A MANET (Mobile Ad hoc Network) which ensures wireless connections between cars/vehicles is called Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET). Though geographic routing in VANETs was recently the cynosure, developing multi-hop communication in such networks is challenging due to changing topology and network disconnections resulting in failures/inefficiency in traditional MANET routing protocols. As GPS (Global Position System) use increases, progress on self-configuring localization mechanisms and VANETs geographic routing provides message delivery solutions. The need to study VANETs routing protocols is linked to data exchange expansion in vehicles which aims to provide dedicated applications for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). This paper proposes the use of Particle swarm Optimization (PSO) to improve Geographical Routing Protocol (GRP) efficiency. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed modified GRP using PSO, effectively improves the packet delivery ratio, and reduces the end to end delay. [A. Tamizhselvi, Dr. R.S.D., Wahida Banu. Enhancing Geographical Routing Protocol Using Swarm Intelligence. Life Sci J 2013; 10(7s): 476-481] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com.


The study was conducted to determine the effect of pollarding on the survival rate and branch development (as to the quantity, length and diameter) of one-year old Beltik ( Syzygium sub-caudatum (Merr.) Merr.) and Dael ( Cippadessa baccifera (Roth) Miq.) seedlings. The results are important input in developing management practices to optimize foliage production of the species which are used as tea and medicine locally. The survival rates of Beltik seedlings were not significantly affected by the applied pollarding treatments while that of the Dael seedlings were significantly affected. The seedlings pollarded to retain only 10% of their main stems registered the lowest survival rates in both species. In branch development, the quantity of formed branches is significantly affected but their length and diameter were not significantly affected by the pollarding treatments in Beltik seedlings. In Dael seedlings, it was the average basal branch diameters that were significantly affected. These results indicate that pollarding near the main stem base or severe pruning can be tolerated by the species but results to higher mortalities, and pollarding or pruning technique that can maintain good growth and form of the species can be developed.


A quality analysis including footprint modelling has revealed spatial and temporal structures in the quality of Eddy Covariance measurements for two highland sites located on the Tibetan plateau. Fetch analysis has shown, that up to 1/3 of the measurements do not fulfill assumptions necessary for a physically correct data processing. Despite this fact, measurements of latent heat-, CO2- and momentum flux in general fulfill the quality test criteria to an extend that the results can be regarded as suitable for fundamental research, whereby usually certain wind sectors have been found violating basic assumptions. Measurements of the sensible heat flux allow for the usage in continuously running measurement, while still few indications of the quality assessment can not be explained due to local topography, but indicate organized structures and lead to the hypothesis of mesoscale flow patterns in the boundary layer.


An attenuation curve for the local magnitude scale, ML, of eastern North American (ENA) earthquakes was empirically determined using synthetic Wood-Anderson seismograms derived from newly available broadband recordings from the U.S. National Seismographic Network (USNSN) and from additional stations of comparable quality. Wood-Anderson peak amplitudes measured on approximately 210 three-component, broadband digital records from 38 earthquakes in the distance range of 50 to 800 km were inverted for the attenuation curve and magnitude of each event. The earthquakes ranged from ML = 2.2 to 4.6 and were recorded at about 20 stations in the region. Separate attenuation curves were determined for the N-S, E-W, and vertical components, as well as for the mean of the two horizontal components. All curves had similar slopes indicating that ML can be determined from any one of the three components available. The Wood-Anderson peak amplitude phases were predominantly Lg waves arriving with a mean group velocity of 3.40 ± 0.23 km/sec and a mean period of 0.50 ± 0.26 sec. ML for earthquakes in ENA can be obtained from the horizontal-component Wood-Anderson peak amplitude in millimeters, A(Δ), using the formula ML = log10A(Δ) (in mm) + 1.55 log10 Δ (in km) − 0.22 + C, for distances 100 to 800 km and 2.2 ≦ ML ≦ 4.6 and where C = station magnitude correction. The ML is tied to Richter's (1935) ML scale for southern California. A similar formula is given to determine ML from the vertical-component synthetic Wood-Anderson seismograms. ML is related to Nuttli's mb(Lg) by ML = 0.976 mb(Lg) − 0.05 for earthquakes with 2.2 ≦ ML ≦ 4.6 in ENA. Analysis of six additional large earthquakes with ML ≧ 5 indicates that ML ≈ mb(Lg) − 0.15 in a wide magnitude range of 2 ≦ ML ≦ 6.5 in ENA.


The European Train Control System (ETCS) is a control system for the interoperability of the railways across Europe. In this paper, we report on the activities of the EuRailCheck project, promoted by the European Railway Agency, for the development of a methodology and tools for the formalization and validation of the ETCS specifications. Within the project, we achieved three main results. First, we developed a methodology for the formalization and validation of the ETCS specifications. The methodology is based on a three-phases approach that goes from the informal analysis of the requirements, to their formalization and validation. Second, we developed a set of support tools, covering the various phases of the methodology. Third, we formalized a realistic subset of the specification in an industrial setting. The results of the project were positively evaluated by domain experts from different manufacturing and railway companies.


Biomedical literature is growing at a rate that outpaces our ability to harness the knowledge contained therein. In order to mine valuable inferences from the large volume of literature, many researchers have turned to information extraction algorithms to harvest information in biomedical texts. Information extraction is usually accomplished via a combination of manual expert curation and computational methods. Advances in computational methods usually depends on the generation of gold standards by a limited number of expert curators. This process can be time consuming and represents an area of biomedical research that is ripe for exploration with citizen science. Citizen scientists have been previously found to be willing and capable of performing named entity recognition of disease mentions in biomedical abstracts, but it was uncertain whether or not the same could be said of relationship extraction. Relationship extraction requires training on identifying named entities as well as a deeper understanding of how different entity types can relate to one another. Here, we used the web-based application Mark2Cure (https://mark2cure.org) to demonstrate that citizen scientists can perform relationship extraction and confirm the importance of accurate named entity recognition on this task. We also discuss opportunities for future improvement of this system, as well as the potential synergies between citizen science, manual biocuration, and natural language processing.


Biotechnology is a discipline which explains the use of living organisms and systems to construct a product, or we can define it as an application or technology developed to use biological systems and organisms processes for a specific use. Particularly, it includes cells and its components use for new technologies and inventions. The tools developed can be further used in diverse fields such as agriculture, industry, research and hospitals etc. The 21st century has seen a drastic development and advancement in biotechnology in India. Significant increase in Government of India's outlays for biotechnology over the past decade has been observed. A sectoral break up of biotechnology-based companies in India shows that most of the companies are agriculture-based companies having interests ranging from tissue culture to biopesticides. Major attention has been given by the companies in health related activities and in environmental biotechnology. The biopharmaceutical, which comprises of vaccines, diagnostic, and recombinant products is the most reliable and largest segment of the Indian Biotech industry. India has developed its vaccine markets and supplies them to various countries. Then there are the bio-services, which mainly comprise of contract researches and manufacturing services. India has made noticeable developments in the field of bio industries including manufacturing of enzymes, biofuels and biopolymers. Biotechnology is also playing a crucial and significant role in the field of agriculture. Traditional methods have been replaced by new technologies that mainly focus on GM crops, marker assisted technologies and the use of biotechnological tools to improve the quality of fertilizers and soil. It may only be a small contributor but has shown to have huge potential for growth. Bioinformatics is a computational method which helps to store, manage, arrange and design tools to interpret the extensive data gathered through experimental trials, making it important in the design of drugs. Keywords—Biotechnology, advancement, agriculture, bioservices, bio-industries, bio-pharmaceuticals.


Strongyloidiasis is caused by infestation with Strongyloides stercoralis, a free living tropical and semitropical soil helminth that has a larval form that penetrates intact skin. Clinical manifestations may be varied from an asymptomatic infection in immunocompetent hosts to a diffuse and fatal form in immunocompromised hosts. We report a 56-year-old man from Dezful (south-west of Iran) with a 6-month history of nausea, vomiting and significant weight loss (greater than 10%). Abdom- inal ultrasonography had no significant findings. Upper gastrointestinal series and abdominal CT were performed. Dilated bowel loops especially in the jejunum, with decreased mucosal folds were seen. A biopsy specimen from the third part of duo- denum showed strongyloides larvae, thus albendazole 400 mg twice a day for 3 days was initiated. He responded well to this treatment regimen.


The outgoing radiation at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) determines the net radiative heating of the earth's surface and atmosphere system. Variabilities of the TOA outgoing radiation depend on features of the earth's surface and atmosphere. The fundamental goal of the present study is to quantify the sensitivity of the outgoing radiation to those features in a sophisticated radiation model used in the National Center of Environment Prediction (NCEP) medium range forecasting system. The technique of adjoint sensitivity analysis is employed. The results obtained show that the TOA outgoing radiation is highly sensitive to spatial structures and temporal variations of water vapor, atmospheric and earth's temperature, and cloud cover. The outgoing short wave radiation variabilities are much more sensitive to the water vapor in the middle troposphere at high latitudes in the summertime hemisphere than at the tropical and subtropical areas. The outgoing long wave radiation variabilities are one order of magnitude more sensitive to speci c humidity in the upper troposphere at midand lower altitudes than to that in other areas. In the tropics, more than 80% of a perturbation increase in the earth's surface emission is trapped by the clear sky column atmosphere, while only about 60 to 70% is trapped at middle and high latitudes; a rapid decrease band of trapping is found within the subtropics. For the outgoing short wave radiation, the lower clouds are more sensitive than the middle and high clouds. The most sensitive lower clouds tend to be located at mid-latitudes rather than in the tropical regions. Deep clouds and thin clouds display di erent impacts. For the outgoing long wave radiation, as expected, the high clouds are the most sensitive, but do not di er signi cantly from the middle clouds in the deep cloud case. The net radiation ( shortwave and longwave radiation) is most sensitive to lower clouds at mid-latitudes in the summertime hemisphere with a cooling e ect on the atmosphere. Implications of the obtained results for understanding supper green house e ect over tropical oceans and the in uence of cloud feedback on the climate change are explored. Our analyses reveal some de ciencies in the model when the calculated results are compared with relevant observations. 2


Reports of chronic food shortages, malnutrition and famines in many Developing Countries are frequent. Food production is very low, in fact so low that these countries have come to be referred as international basket cases - implying that they are recipients of massive international food aid. The problem therefore is how to provide enough food to the starving and underfed millions of humanity inhabiting poor countries. Food aid is inadequate and cannot be relied upon indefinitely as it contains numerous political strings which reduce the dignity and self-reliance of the recipient country. Food productivity has to increase within the Developing Countries themselves.
For a time, the Green Revolution which started in the countries of South East Asia was believed by many to be the long awaited messiah of poor countries especially in view of its 'miracle' seeds which in some areas boosted productivity by at least a hundred fold. Disillusionment with the Green Revolution has largely come about because of its failure to boost productivity of the majority of the poorest rural farmers and its tendency to increase the affluence of the already affluent. Why has this been so? Are there any lessons for Africa and if there are, how do they affect the chances of an African Green Revolution?


Abstract This paper offers an increasing returns model of the evolution of exchange institutions building on Smith's dictum that 'the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market'. Exchange institutions are characterized by a tradeoff between fixed and marginal costs: the effort necessary to execute an exchange may be economized by up-front 'investment' in strategies to facilitate the publication and accounting of trading histories. Increases in the size of the exchange network select for higher-fixed-cost exchange institutions, beginning with autarky, through various intermediate stages, and finally to mass monetary exchange. By identifying the relevant fixed costs of money and its institutional substitutes across time, the paper both accounts for the persistence of pre-monetary exchange institutions, despite the 'inevitability' of monetary exchange that seems to be a feature of traditional models of the origin of money, and illuminates the forces driving the transition from one to another.


The ILPC has historically witnessed many debates about the value of discourse, with post-structuralists continually berating 'orthodox' labour process theory for its unwillingness or inability to appreciate the virtues of the cultural or discursive turn. Too much 'emphasis on discourse and deconstruction rather than political economy and the material conditions of production' (Thompson 2003: 372) has been a typical response. Debates between realists and idealists are largely irreconcilable due to differences about ontology and epistemology, which is one reason for the split between ILPC and CMS. But that is no reason for the former to leave analysis of discourse to the latter. From a critical realist perspective, discourse, like any other empirical phenomena, is real if it makes a difference to non-discursive and (other) discourses –in other words if it acts a generative mechanism with performative potential (Reed 2000: 528-9). What needs to be added to this general insight are more detailed conceptual frameworks that facilitate more concrete, grounded analyses of actual discourses and their potential causal powers. Drawing from critical discourse analysis (CDA) and cultural political economy (CPE), Norman Fairclough (2005) and Bob Jessop (2004) have made a useful start in this direction by seeking to specify the (sequential) conditions – emergence, hegemony, re-contextualisation and operationalisation – under which 'master narratives' emerge and develop. Our paper critically evaluates the attempt by these authors to apply this framework to the supposed emergence of the knowledge economy as a 'hegemonic discourse' in recent years. We argue that a realist analysis reveals whilst hegemonic as discourse, the knowledge economy was not dominant in most spheres of the economy. In contrast, we seek to show that though frequently flying 'under the radar as discourse, shareholder value has been much more significant in shaping socio-economic outcomes in recent decades. We develop an argument to explain and move beyond this discourse/extra-discursive mismatch, paying close attention to key contemporary economic and political dynamics. Research on the potential causal powers of discourse needs to pay less attention to inter-textuality and more to actors and institutions, and to extra-discursive conditions and constraints. The purpose of this paper is not to provide a middle or Third Way between post-structuralists and materialists, but a conceptual contribution to the latter's tools for understanding discourse, as well as an addition to the growing number of empirical considerations of the nature of financialized capitalism from a radical political economy perspective. References Fairclough, N. (2005) 'Discourse Analysis in Organization Studies: The Case for Critical Realism', Organization Studies, 26, 6, pp. 915-39. Jessop, B. (2004) 'Critical Semiotic Analysis and Cultural Political Economy', Critical Discourse Studies 1.2: 159-74. Reed, M. (2000) 'The Limits of Discourse Analysis in Organisational Analysis', Organization, 7: 524-30. Thompson, P. (2003) 'Disconnected Capitalism: or Why Employers Can't Keep Their Side of the Bargain', Work Employment and Society, 17, 2, pp. 359-78.


This article focuses on a set of problems involving a controversial portion of the HHA (lines 156––64) that describes the performance of the Delian chorus in a rare instance of early performance criticism. First, the two variants for a key noun in line 162, bambaliastus and krembaliastus , are discussed. Skepticism is expressed about the applicability to this scene of the first variant (favored by numerous scholars). On the contrary, krembaliastus ——the suitability of which has not been discussed in detail, even by scholars who seem to have favored it——can make good sense. Literary and iconographic evidence makes it plausible that krembaliastus denotes the act of generating through percussion devices called krembala (similar or identical to krotala ) rhythmic patterns meant to govern stylized movement, what the Greeks called scheemata . The marked term krembaliastus was probably employed to evoke a characteristic trait of the highly skilled Deliades. Furthermore, as vocal and kinetic activities were inextricably linked in choral practices, they are ultimately conceptualized as part of the same unified expressive mechanism (here denoted as φθέγγeσθαι 164). The author also questions the conventional interpretation of mimeisthai (163) as ""mimicking,"" instead reading it as ""representation,"" involving the evocation of the essence of an entity but not necessarily exact reproduction of its formal details. Finally the essay argues that the Delian chorus9 art of ""knowing how to represent the voices and the rhythmic patterns of all people"" designates the perfection of choral performance, as an all-inclusive enactment that forms a powerful trans-local bond.


The "Context Principle", as the author understands it in this paper, is the claim that sub-sentential linguistic expressions (roughly speaking, words) have meaning only in the context of complete meaningful sentences. The author reconstructs the version of the Context Principle that Wittgenstein holds in the Tractatus , shows that it has intuitive plausibility and can be defended against alleged counterexamples, and develops an argument for its truth that can be found in the Tractatus . In short, the author argues that the "fit" between the meanings of sentences and the meanings of the expressions they contain can only be adequately explained if one acknowledges that for a sub-sentential expression to have meaning is for it to make a contribution to the meaning of a sentence.


The following articles are being highlighted as part of Circulation's Topic Review series. This series will summarize the most important manuscripts, as selected by the editors, published in Circulation and the Circulation subspecialty journals. The studies included in this article represent the articles related to valvular heart disease that were published in Circulation and the Circulation subspecialty journals in 2010 and 2011.


Examples of scientific visualization techniques used for the interactive exploration of very large data sets from supercomputer simulations of fluid flow are presented. Interactive rendering of images from simulations of grids of 2 million or more computational zones are required to drive high-end graphics workstations to their limits with 2-D data. The author presents one such image and discusses interactive steering of 2-D flow simulations, a phenomenon now possible with grids of half a million computational zones. He uses a simulation of compressible turbulence on a grid of 134 million computational zones to set the scale for discussing interactive 3-D visualization techniques. A concept for a gigapixel-per-second video wall, or gigawall, which could be built with present technology to meet the demands of interactive visualization of the data sets that will be produced by the next generation of supercomputers, is discussed.<<ETX>>


Policies and programmes that tackle neighbourhood deprivation have long been a feature of urban policy in the UK and elsewhere. Large-scale urban regeneration and neighbourhood renewal programmes have been deployed as the primary vehicle to improve the health and life chances of residents of deprived neighbourhoods. Often these areas have a long history of efforts at regeneration and redevelopment and, over time, have become labelled as 'problem areas' in need of constant intervention. The bid for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games was successful partly due to its promise to deliver a lasting health and social legacy by using the Games as a driver of regeneration in East London. Despite limited evidence for the effectiveness of such an approach, regeneration schemes tied to sporting events have emerged as popular strategies through which cities strive to enhance their urban fabric. Running through the core of the London 2012 bid was a discourse of East London as a 'problem' in need of a regeneration 'solution' that the Olympics uniquely could deliver. As a result, a wider narrative of East London was generated: as unhealthy; mired in poverty; desperate for jobs; with an inadequate and outdated built environment. The Olympic legacy was thus positioned as a unique once-in-a-lifetime solution 'accelerating' regeneration in East London, and delivering substantive change that either might not have happened, or would otherwise have taken decades. Through documentary analysis of published Government policy documents for the period 2002-2011, we demonstrate how the 'problem' of East London was used as political justification for London 2012. We argue that the Olympic legacy was deliberately positioned in neoliberal terms in order to justify substantial economic investment by the UK government and suit the needs of the International Olympic Committee. Finally, whilst acknowledging that regeneration may indeed result, we also speculate on the potential legacy and possible challenges for the people in East London left by this neoliberal and entrepreneurial strategy.


We report the development of instrumentation and methodology for fabricating large area semi-transparent organo-lead-halide perovskite films. In our method, the growth of perovskite films relies on the control of CH3NH3I flow and vapor pressure inside a vacuum chamber. Solar cell devices based on the prepared semi-transparent perovskite films as thin as ∼135 nm achieved an efficiency of 9.9% and a high open circuit voltage of 1.09 V.


Cardiac surgery leads to significant improvements in symptoms of cardiac disease and quality of life, but is still associated with a substantial risk of adverse events and postoperative disability. The perioperative systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) likely plays a role in the development of several of these adverse outcomes. In order to prevent a SIRS, high-dose corticosteroids ('steroids') have been routinely used during cardiac surgery for several decades. However, as demonstrated in the systematic review in this thesis, good clinical studies on the effect of steroids on important clinical outcomes were lacking. We therefore performed a clinical trial, the DExamethasone for Cardiac Surgery (DECS) study, in which 4494 cardiac surgical patients were randomised to receive either intraoperative high-dose dexamethasone or placebo. In this study, no statistically significant effect of dexamethasone could be demonstrated on major adverse events at 30 days, although a trend towards benefit was present (relative risk (RR) 0.83; 0.67-1.01). Moreover, multiple effects were found on several important secondary endpoints, of which the overall pulmonary benefit of dexamethasone was probably the most marked effect. This effect was demonstrable as a reduced incidence of respiratory failure, a shorter duration of mechanical ventilation, a reduced ICU and hospital length of stay, and a reduced risk of pneumonia. However, dexamethasone also increased the risk of other adverse outcomes, such as surgical re-interventions for (late) tamponade (RR 1.84; 1.30-2.61). Also, steroid treatment induced marked hyperglycaemia. Furthermore, the often-claimed benefit of dexamethasone of increased postoperative haemodynamic stability could not be demonstrated in a sub study of blood pressure variability in the early post-cardiopulmonary bypass period. In the analysis of the outcomes at 1 year, no effects of dexamethasone past its effects in the immediate postoperative period were demonstrable. However, the early effects of dexamethasone on pulmonary outcomes and length of stay contributed to a € 1,084 per patient cost benefit.
In an analysis of age subgroups, younger patients (up to 75 years) had most benefit from dexamethasone treatment, with a reduced incidence of both the primary endpoint and 30 day mortality. However, in patients aged >80 years there was a possible harmful effect. Similar age effects were observed in a recent large study of methylprednisolone in cardiac surgery. We hypothesized that the phenotype of the perioperative inflammatory response may be different between these age groups, which could have resulted in differential effects of steroid treatment. This hypothesis was confirmed in two additional studies into the association between age and the postoperative inflammatory response. In one study in 985 DECS study patients, increasing patient age was associated with a reduced early CRP response, and also with a lower risk of developing a high early CRP response. In a second study in a separate cohort of 25,095 cardiac surgical patients, a strong association was demonstrated between increasing age and a lower incidence of postoperative clinical SIRS.
Given the apparent phenotype variability, prediction of an individual's risk of a deregulated inflammatory response is a crucially important next step towards developing more precise SIRS prophylaxis strategies.


This is a comparative study investigating the effects of the controller design method, "frequency frame" on a DC motor example. Both fractional order proportional integral and proportional derivative controllers are designed for mentioned example which is a first order plus time delay model. The two controllers are in different structures in that they can show different behaviors. The "frequency frame" approach is a frequency domain method which intends to provide the objective system improved stability and robustness by shaping the Bode curves. In contrary to existing similar methods, shaping is done by a graphical point of view, not by complicated mathematical operations. The reason why a fractional order controller is selected comes from the necessity of a common constant. The study in the paper aims to show the effectiveness of the frequency frame by providing desired frequency specifications with different controllers. Both controllers are calculated for a DC motor transfer function and the comparative results are given.


Design, fabrication, and characterization of monolithically integrated widely tunable all-optical wavelength converters in InP is reported. The devices are based on the SGDBR laser integrated with different MZI-SOA wavelength converters. Error-free wavelength conversion at 2.5 Gbps was demonstrated over 50 nm input and 22 nm output wavelength range. Static operation, extinction ratio enhancement, signal reamplification, dynamic range, and chirp properties were characterized as well.


The objective of the study was to establish the effect of corporate governance practices on earnings management of companies listed at the Nairobi Security Exchange (NSE). The target population consisted of the 49 companies that had been continuously and actively trading at the NSE between January 2010 and December 2012. Secondary data was used covering the period 2010 to 2012 and analyzed using linear regression to test the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The study found that earnings management is negatively related to ownership concentration, board size and board independence but positively related to board activity and CEO duality. The study recommended the need for effective corporate governance practices in listed companies in Kenya to contribute to reduced earnings management and avert possible collapse of listed companies in Kenya.