Because of advancements in computer technology, virtual reality has become a novel approach to enhancing the efficacy of medical therapeutic intervention. Its extensive application has gained popularity and scholarly interest because of its real-time generation of desirable environmental and perceptual stimuli. Cardiopulmonary rehabilitation has been regarded as an integral intervention in patients who survive cardiovascular diseases. However, the adherence to and optimal efficacy of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation are often hindered by negative attitudes of participants because of the tedious nature of endurance training. In this systemic review, we comprehensively retrieved and reviewed studies combining virtual reality and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation; we included a total of six clinical studies from the review for further analysis. We explored the underlying reasons for the lack of evidence in the application of virtual reality to cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. We also delineated the problem of developing virtual reality software that is specifically for use in rehabilitation medicine. We conclude that the complexity and cost inhibit the application of virtual reality in the general population. However, augmented virtual reality seems to be a promising candidate for the next generation of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation treatment with strong compliance.


Background: Disturbed calcium-phosphorus metabolism is associated with increased kidney angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) in experimental chronic renal insufficiency (CRI). However, information about the effects of phosphate binding and loading on vascular ACE is lacking. Methods: Fifteen weeks after 5/6 nephrectomy (NX), rats were placed on a phosphate-binding (NX+Ca, 3.0% Ca), phosphate-loading (NX+Pi, 1.5% Pi), or control diet for 12 weeks (NX and sham). Results: Aortic ACE, blood pressure, plasma phosphate, and parathyroid hormone were increased in the NX and NX+Pi groups, but were reduced with phosphate binding. Endothelium-mediated relaxations of isolated mesenteric conduit artery rings to acetylcholine were impaired in the NX and NX+Pi groups, but did not differ from sham in NX+Ca rats. Experiments with nitric oxide (NO) synthase inhibition in vitro suggested that the NO-mediated component of acetylcholine response was lower in the NX and NX+Pi groups, but did not differ from sham in NX+Ca rats. In all NX groups, aortic endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) was reduced, while plasma and urine concentrations of NO metabolites were increased. Aortic nitrated proteins and calcification were increased in the NX and NX+Pi groups when compared with the NX+Ca and sham groups. Conclusion: Hypertension in the NX model of CRI was associated with reduced vasorelaxation, decreased eNOS, and increased ACE and nitrated proteins in the aorta. Phosphate binding with calcium carbonate enhanced vasorelaxation via endogenous NO and suppressed elevation of ACE and nitrated proteins, suggesting reduced vascular oxidative stress. Our findings support the view that correction of the calcium-phosphorus balance prevents CRI-induced vascular pathophysiology.


Context: Evidence-based practice (EBP) has become a point of emphasis in athletic training education and clinical practice. One approach to EBP is utilizing clinical prediction models (CPM) to assist clinicians in the screening, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of injury. A number of isolated risk factors, which can be categorized as: (a) self-report outcome scores, (b) sport performance factors, or (c) functional performance measures (FPMs), have been identified and suggested to be causal with regard to upper-extremity (UE) sports related injury (SRI) in baseball athletes. Objective: to develop a preliminary CPM for UE SRI derived from multiple factors specific to self-reported outcome measures, sport performance risk factors, and FPMs. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I baseball program. Subjects: Thirty-six athletes who completed the preseason pre-participation examination, the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic overhead athlete shoulder and elbow score (KJOC-SES,) and the Targeted Enhanced Athletic Movement Screen (TEAM-S). Main Outcome Measures: Independent variables for this study included the self-reported outcome measures (KJOC-SES), sport performance risk factors, and FPMs (TEAM-S). The dependent variable for this study was self-reported history of UE SRI. Results: Univariate analyses identified nine predictor variables that differed between injured and non-injured athletes (p ≤ 0.10): KJOC-SES, playing position (pitcher), single leg squat stride foot, single leg squat balance foot, shoulder mobility test throwing arm, shoulder mobility test non-throwing arm, CKCUEST (TEAM-S score), and CKCUEST (absolute score). Forward step-wise logistic regression yielded a resultant two-factor clinical prediction model consisting of playing position and KJOC-SES. The two-factor CPM based on KJOC-SES scores ≤ 86 and playing position (pitcher) yielded diagnostic utility measures as follows: Sensitivity of 83% (95% CI: 0.55 to 95); Specificity of 95% (95% CI: 79 to 99); Positive likelihood ratio of 22.0 (95% CI: 2.88 to 138.5); and negative likelihood ratio of 0.17 (95% CI: 0.04 to 0.61). Conclusion: A preliminary two-factor CPM comprised of KJOC-SES (≤ 86) and playing position (pitcher) retrospectively predicted UE SRI in a cohort of baseball players with strong diagnostic utility.


We document four facts about the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide relevant for those studying the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on COVID-19 transmission. First: across all countries and U.S. states that we study, the growth rates of daily deaths from COVID-19 fell from a wide range of initially high levels to levels close to zero within 20-30 days after each region experienced 25 cumulative deaths. Second: after this initial period, growth rates of daily deaths have hovered around zero or below everywhere in the world. Third: the cross section standard deviation of growth rates of daily deaths across locations fell very rapidly in the first 10 days of the epidemic and has remained at a relatively low level since then. Fourth: when interpreted through a range of epidemiological models, these first three facts about the growth rate of COVID deaths imply that both the effective reproduction numbers and transmission rates of COVID-19 fell from widely dispersed initial levels and the effective reproduction number has hovered around one after the first 30 days of the epidemic virtually everywhere in the world. We argue that failing to account for these four stylized facts may result in overstating the importance of policy mandated NPIs for shaping the progression of this deadly pandemic.


Geochemical (major, trace and rare earth elements) and isotopic ( 143 Nd/ 144 Nd) compositions of lavas emplaced in the Esterel Massif (eastern Provence, France) at the end of the Permian allow to estimate the evolution of the continental lithosphere between the end of the Hercynian orogenesis and the beginning of the Tethyan rifting. Basalts from Agay basin and trachyte from Batterie des Lions belong to a transitional tholeiitic suite, characterized by negative Nb and Ta anomalies (relative to N-MORB) and homogeneous epsilon Nd (sub (T = 250 Ma)) ratios, close to the Bulk Earth. This suggests that the basalts from Agay basin and trachyte from Batterie des Lions derived from the partial melting of a mantle contaminated by lower continental crust. Maure Vieille trachytes differ from the differentiated rocks of the transitional suite by higher heavy rare earth abundances and epsilon Nd (sub (T = 250 Ma)) of +4/+5. These high epsilon Nd ratios suggest that the Maure Vieille trachytes could derive from the partial melting of a more depleted source, likely an asthenospheric mantle. The isotopic compositions of the Permian lavas from Esterel suggest the thinning (and perhaps the disappearance) of the lithospheric mantle which is associated at the surface with a NNW-SSE extension. The progressive change recorded in Agay basin from a stretching regime to a strike-slip regime may be related to the end of the lithospheric thinning and of the Permian magmatism.


One of humanities biggest problems at present are millions of preventable deaths in developing countries. Most of those deaths are caused by microoganisms, often from sewage contaminated drinking water. Hence, technology to remove such contaminants is a first step to solving the problem. One such technology is ultrafiltration (UF). UF is a membrane filtration process in which water is pushed through a physical filter with a transmembrane pressure supplied by a pump or gravity. The pore size of such membranes is such that bacteria and most viruses can be effectively retained. As a consequence, this process has the ability to disinfect water physically and hence prevent water related disease and death from microorganisms. In this paper the performance of existing UF membranes and systems will be reviewed in terms of pathogen removal, water productivity (system capacity and flux), specific energy consumption per volume of water produced, which affect cost. Specific needs of systems to be installed and operated in developing countries as well as opportunities for the global community will be outlined.


At present, there is a huge lag between the artificial and the biological information processing systems in terms of their capability to learn. This lag could be certainly reduced by gaining more insight into the higher functions of the brain like learning and memory. For instance, primate visual cortex is thought to provide the long-term memory for the visual objects acquired by experience. The visual cortex handles effortlessly arbitrary complex objects by decomposing them rapidly into constituent components of much lower complexity along hierarchically organized visual pathways. How this processing architecture self-organizes into a memory domain that employs such compositional object representation by learning from experience remains to a large extent a riddle. The study presented here approaches this question by proposing a functional model of a self-organizing hierarchical memory network. The model is based on hypothetical neuronal mechanisms involved in cortical processing and adaptation. The network architecture comprises two consecutive layers of distributed, recurrently interconnected modules. Each module is identified with a localized cortical cluster of fine-scale excitatory subnetworks. A single module performs competitive unsupervised learning on the incoming afferent signals to form a suitable representation of the locally accessible input space. The network employs an operating scheme where ongoing processing is made of discrete successive fragments termed decision cycles, presumably identifiable with the fast gamma rhythms observed in the cortex. The cycles are synchronized across the distributed modules that produce highly sparse activity within each cycle by instantiating a local winner-take-all-like operation. Equipped with adaptive mechanisms of bidirectional synaptic plasticity and homeostatic activity regulation, the network is exposed to natural face images of different persons. The images are presented incrementally one per cycle to the lower network layer as a set of Gabor filter responses extracted from local facial landmarks. The images are presented without any person identity labels. In the course of unsupervised learning, the network creates simultaneously vocabularies of reusable local face appearance elements, captures relations between the elements by linking associatively those parts that encode the same face identity, develops the higher-order identity symbols for the memorized compositions and projects this information back onto the vocabularies in generative manner. This learning corresponds to the simultaneous formation of bottom-up, lateral and top-down synaptic connectivity within and between the network layers. In the mature connectivity state, the network holds thus full compositional description of the experienced faces in form of sparse memory traces that reside in the feed-forward and recurrent connectivity. Due to the generative nature of the established representation, the network is able to recreate the full compositional description of a memorized face in terms of all its constituent parts given only its higher-order identity symbol or a subset of its parts. In the test phase, the network successfully proves its ability to recognize identity and gender of the persons from alternative face views not shown before. An intriguing feature of the emerging memory network is its ability to self-generate activity spontaneously in absence of the external stimuli. In this sleep-like off-line mode, the network shows a self-sustaining replay of the memory content formed during the previous learning. Remarkably, the recognition performance is tremendously boosted after this off-line memory reprocessing. The performance boost is articulated stronger on those face views that deviate more from the original view shown during the learning. This indicates that the off-line memory reprocessing during the sleep-like state specifically improves the generalization capability of the memory network. The positive effect turns out to be surprisingly independent of synapse-specific plasticity, relying completely on the synapseunspecific, homeostatic activity regulation across the memory network. The developed network demonstrates thus functionality not shown by any previous neuronal modeling approach. It forms and maintains a memory domain for compositional, generative object representation in unsupervised manner through experience with natural visual images, using both on("wake") and off-line ("sleep") learning regimes. This functionality offers a promising departure point for further studies, aiming for deeper insight into the learning mechanisms employed by the brain and their consequent implementation in the artificial adaptive systems for solving complex tasks not tractable so far.


Despite ample interest in the potential consequences of work engagement over the last two decades, the question of whether work engagement predicts proximal and more distal career-related outcomes has gained surprisingly little attention. Using Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and a sustainable careers framework, the aim of this study was to investigate whether work engagement predicts register-based outcomes of wages, moves in occupational rankings, unemployment, and disability pensions. We used nationally representative survey data (n = 4876; response rate 68.7%) on Finnish employees derived from the Quality of Work Life Survey (QWLS) and matched respondent data to the Finnish Longitudinal Employer–Employee Data (FLEED), which covered the period 2013–2015. We utilized ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variable (IV) estimations to strengthen causality in the analyses. Even after controlling for outcomes at baseline and several covariates, e.g., health, we found that work engagement positively predicted future wages and the probability of rising in occupational rankings, and negatively predicted future unemployment and disability pensions. This study extends the scope of the possible benefits of work engagement for employees, organizations, and society at large and contributes to career research by indicating the importance of work engagement for objectively measured indicators of sustainable careers.


Marine hydrokinetic (MHK) turbines extract renewable energy from oceanic environments. However, due to the harsh conditions that these turbines operate in, system performance naturally degrades over time. Thus, ensuring efficient condition-based maintenance is imperative towards guaranteeing reliable operation and reduced costs for hydroelectric power. This paper proposes a novel framework aimed at identifying and classifying the severity of rotor blade pitch imbalance faults experienced by marine current turbines (MCTs). In the framework, a Continuous Morlet Wavelet Transform (CMWT) is first utilized to acquire the wavelet coefficients encompassed within the 1P frequency range of the turbine's rotor shaft. From these coefficients, several statistical indices are tabulated into a six-dimensional feature space. Next, Principle Component Analysis (PCA) is employed on the resulting feature space for dimensionality reduction, followed by the application of a K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) machine learning algorithm for fault detection and severity classification. The framework's effectiveness is validated using a high-fidelity MCT numerical simulation platform, where results demonstrate that pitch imbalance faults can be accurately detected 100% of the time and classified based upon severity more than 97% of the time.


Today, there is a 38-year age gap between countries with the lowest and highest life expectancy rates. A child born in Sierra Leone can expect to live for 46 years while a child born in Japan may expect to live for 84 years. Most people in health care and health policy would agree that health equity is a desirable goal; but can it ever be achieved? Historically, there have been repeated efforts to define health equity with questions whether it means equity in the delivery of health services or equity in health status; the latter being a great deal becomes more difficult to measure and to attain. To guide actions at the policy and programmatic level, we first need to collect and analyze data on health equity. We used World Bank data to make cross-country comparisons of inequality using absolute and relative equity measurements (differences and ratios). We used aggregate indicators, such as infant mortality rate and life expectancy to illustrate trends in health and income, and regions of the world as equity stratifiers. We know that between and within countries, there is an inequitable distribution of power, money, and resources. We found that the measures of health we selected— infant mortality and life expectancy—, mirror these economic and political inequities. The evidence points to the existence of extensive (and widening) social inequities in health. This poses a public health challenge of the highest order.


Learning Trajectories, Violence and Empowerment amongst Adult Basic Skills Learners offers deep insights into the lives of marginalised communities and the link between learning, literacy and violence, not previously carried out in-depth in a small scale study. It breaks the negative stereo-types of adults who struggle to read and write, who are often labelled and stigmatised by dominant discourses, and in doing so exposes why and how Basic Skills Learners often find themselves in marginal positions. The structural inequalities many face from childhood to adulthood across the private and public domains of their lives are revealed and probed, thus challenging neo-liberalism claims of an apparently egalitarian social field. The learners' narratives expose the contradiction, complexities and ambivalences they experience in their daily lives, and how they try to make sense of them from their structural positioning as basic skills learners in a society based on inequality of opportunity and choice.

Applying a feminist, qualitative, longitudinal, ethnographic and participatory approach, the book offers a critical perspective, drawing on Bourdieu's work as the theoretical framework, as well as using a range of feminist, sociologists of education, literature on the ethics of care and critical literacy pedagogy, including the New Literacy Studies. The author's personal position as an 'insider' with 'insider knowledge' of marginalised communities is also woven throughout the chapters and offers insights into the struggles, conformity and resistance faced by the participants in the study.

The book contributes to the debate on the impact of violence on learning and its link to class, gender and basic skills as well opening up a discussion on the power of a critical curriculum to empower people across the domains of their lives. It will be valuable reading for trainee teachers, teachers, education and sociology students, postgraduate students, as well as literacy specialists, researchers, academics, policy makers and managers of public services.


Periodontitis is a complex disease that involves the loss of attachment around teeth resulting from action of microorganisms and the response of the host to these organisms. The basic treatment of chronic periodontitis is a mechanical debridement of periodontal pockets by Scaling and root planing (SRP) in combination with efficient plaque control. The effectiveness of mechanical debridement of plaque and repeated topical and systemic administration of antibacterial agents are limited due to the lack of accessibility to periodontopathic organisms in the periodontal pocket. The introduction of a slow release and subgingival delivery of tetracycline has changed the rationale from a mechanical treatment towards a combined therapy for full mouth/sites disinfection. Various antibiotics, antiseptics and resorbable carriers are now proposed as Local drug delivery systems with similar targets to arrest disease progression. The dosage forms include fibers, film, injectable systems, liposomal system, micro or nanoparticle based systems, some of which are degradable while others are not and need to be removed at the termination of the treatment. These products provide a long-term, effective treatment at the site of infection at much smaller doses. This article reviews the current status of controlled local delivery their usefulness, as well as the advancement of these systems in the treatment of periodontitis.

Key wors: Chlorhexidine, Doxycycline, Local drug delivery systems, Minocycline, Metronidazole, Tetracyclines.


Germination of purple sage [Salvia dorrii (Kellogg) Abrams] seed was evaluated under 21 temperature combinations (day temperatures from 5 to 30C and night temperatures from 5 to 30C) in two experiments: 1) cool-moist stratification; and 2) sandpaper scarification, leaching with water, or gibberellic acid (GA3). The quadratic responses of weighted germination percentage (WGP), a combined index of germination percentage and speed of germination, were significant (P ≤ 0.05) for all treatments. The interaction of day and night temperatures was significant (P ≤ 0.05) only for the 2-week stratification treatments and for the Expt. 2 control. Stratification increased WGP over the control. Optimal WGP for all stratification treatments ranged from 46% to 51%. Optimal WGP was the same for both GA3 treatments. Optimal WGP for 0.29 mmol GA3 occurred at 16C night temperature and 22C day temperature, and for the 1.44 mmol GA3 treatment at 18C night and at 30C day temperature.


Purpose: Mammographic density is one of the strongest risk factors for breast cancer. However, very little is known about how other breast cancer risk factors may modify the association between breast density and breast cancer. We investigated if associations of breast density and breast cancer differ according to the level of other known breast cancer risk factors. Methods: This study included 1,044 incident breast cancer cases diagnosed within the Nurses9 Health Study cohort and 1,794 matched controls. Percent breast density, absolute dense and non-dense areas were measured from digitized film images with computer-assisted methods. Information on breast cancer risk factors was obtained prospectively from biennial questionnaires completed before the date of the cancer diagnosis for cancer cases and their matched controls. We used multivariate logistic regression to describe the association between breast density measures and breast cancer risk. The risk estimates were presented as odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CIs). To assess if the association between breast density and breast cancer risk was significantly different according to the levels of known risk factors, we conducted statistical tests of interaction by using respective medians within each category of the variables that were continuous in nature (alcohol consumption, age at menarche, age at menopause BMI, physical activity, and density measures) to model interactions. To test interactions of parity/age at first child9s birth with density, parity/age at first child9s birth was treated as an ordinal variable. Interactions of parity and age at first child9s birth were also investigated separately in a secondary analysis restricted to parous women. Results: Percent breast density and absolute non-dense area were more strongly associated with breast cancer risk in current postmenopausal hormone users as compared to women with past or no hormone use history (percent density≥50% vs.10%: OR=5.34 [95% CI: 3.36-8.49], OR=2.69 [95% CI: 1.32-5.49], OR=2.57 [95% CI: 1.18-5.60], respectively, p for interaction=0.04; non-dense area 4th vs.1st quartile: OR=0.42 [95% CI: 0.30-0.61], OR=0.50 [95% CI: 0.28-0.92], OR=0.72 [95% CI: 0.41-1.29], respectively, p for interaction =0.04). Associations of percent density with breast cancer risk were stronger in parous women with younger age at first child9s birth, as compared to women with age at first child9s birth>25 years or nulliparous women (percent density ≥50% vs.10%: OR=4.11 [95% CI: 2.54-6.66], OR=3.29 [95% CI: 2.05-5.29], and OR=2.30 [95% CI: 0.61-8.73], respectively, p for interaction=0.02). However, when the analysis was restricted to parous women, there were no significant interactions of either parity or age at first child9s birth alone with percent density, absolute dense and non-dense area on the risk of breast cancer (p for interaction>0.05). The associations of density with breast cancer risk did not differ by the levels of body mass index, age at menarche, age at menopause, alcohol consumption, a family history of breast cancer, a personal history of benign breast disease, and physical activity. Conclusions: Women with dense breasts who currently use postmenopausal hormone therapy are at a particularly high risk of breast cancer. Citation Format: Lusine Yaghjyan, Graham Colditz, Bernard Rosner, Rulla Tamimi. Mammographic breast density and breast cancer risk: Interactions of percent density, absolute dense and non-dense areas with breast cancer risk factors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2014 Sep 27-Oct 1; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2015;8(10 Suppl): Abstract nr A51.


The study focuses on negative evaluative metapragmatic moves incorporated in the sequential structure of questions and answers in English, German and Russian parliamentary debates and political interviews, in which the questioner and the respondent reproach each other (and other political agents) for various communication errors and glitches. The aim is to analyse the linkages between meta-stimuli and meta-responses embedded in political dialogue. Three main patterns of such linkages are described: (1) balanced, in which the question and answer contain an approximately equal amount of criticism; (2) the escalating pattern, in which meta-moves incorporated in questions elicit escalating talk-about-talk in answers and (3) the attenuating pattern: a chain of meta-criticisms in the question is countered with one reproachful comment incorporated in the answer.


Introduction: The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) to outline a scientific research skills training program, (2) to evaluate the profile of participation of plastic surgery residents in articles, and (3) to analyze the impact of the implementation of the training program on quantitative bibliometric indexes. Methods: This was a bibliometric analysis of the participation of plastic surgery residents of a single institution in articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 2006 and 2014. The data collected were the number of authors, position of residents among authors, article titles, indexing databases and impact factor of the journals, study design, and levels of evidence. Two periods (January 2006 to January 2010 [A] and February 2010 to February 2014 [B]) were created to study the evolutionary profile of the impact of the implementation of the training program outlined in this study. Results: A significant predominance (p < 0.05) was observed among articles published in national journals in the Portuguese language and in the SciELO and LILACS databases, and articles without residents as corresponding author, without impact factor, without assumptions, and with a level of evidence III (retrospective studies). The inter-period comparative analysis revealed a significant increase (p < 0.05) in the numbers of published articles and residents with publications at the end of their residency, in the involvement of one or more residents, and in the articles published in English (period A < period B). Conclusion: The implementation of a scientific research skills training program led to an increase in research activity of (peer-reviewed articles) during the residency.


Ransomware is a particular form of cyber-attack in which a victim loses access to either his electronic device or files unless he pays a ransom to criminals. A criminal's ability to make money from ransomware critically depends on victims believing that the criminal will honour ransom payments. In this paper we explore the extent to which a criminal can build trust through reputation. We demonstrate that there are situations in which it is optimal for the criminal to always return the files and situations in which it is not. We argue that the ability to build reputation will depend on how victims distinguish between different ransomware strands. If ransomware is to survive as a long term revenue source for criminals then they need to find ways of building a good reputation.


Some risks have extremely high stakes. For example, a worldwide pandemic or asteroid impact could potentially kill more than a billion people. Comfortingly, scientific calcultions often put very low probabilities on the occurrence of such catastrophes. In this paper, we argue that there are important new methodological problems which arise when assessing global catastrophic risks and we focus on a problem regarding probability estimation. When an expert provides a calculation of the probability of an outcome, they are really providing the probability of the outcome occurring, given that their argument is watertight. However, their argument may fail for a number of reasons, such as a flaw in the underlying theory, a flaw in the modelling of the problem or a mistake in the calculations. If the probability estimate given by an argument is dwarfed by the chance that the argument itself is flawed, then the estimate is suspect. We develop this idea formally, explaining how it differs from the related distinction between model and parameter uncertainty. Using the risk estimates from the Large Hadron Collider as a test case, we show how serious the problem can be when it comes to catastrophic risks and how best to address it.


We have performed facial landmark detection of visible face images and studied the performance of Features from Accelerated Segment Test (FAST) Corner Detector technique on IRIS Face Database and newly created UGC-DDMC Face Database to justify the design approach of the face database. This paper describes detection of the facial landmarks of UGC-DDMC face database which includes left eye corners, right eye corners, left eyebrows, right eyebrows, lip corners, nostrils. It consists of two parts: In first part, a morphological opening operation is used to estimate the background. Then create a more uniform background by subtract the background image from original image. In the second part, the facial landmarks had been detected using Fast corner detector technique. The Fast corner detector works on the corner response function (CRF), which is computed as a minimum change of intensity over all possible direction. The Fast corner detector is significantly faster to compute than other algorithms. The experiment has been done over the UGC-DDMC Face Database of Tribes of, which is being developed by IT Department of Dasaratha Deb Memorial College, Khowai, Tripura. In our Experiment initially we used 108 Facial images with different pose from the UGC-DDMC Face Database and 110 images from IRIS Database. Performance results for ntIS database is 100% and UGC-DDMC Database is 74%. It has been seen that algorithmic performance is high with low threshold value and with higher values if shows good performance. Fiducial points obtained during this process will be useful for any feature based Face recognition process. Thus, we can justify the design process of the UGC-DDMC Face Database.


Composers have used formalized procedures to create music throughout history. With the advent of the computer, algorithmic composition allows composers not only to create and experiment with different formalisms, but to hear and evaluate results quickly. Often in algorithmic composition, the composer has only a vague idea how the output will sound, but because the input is highly automated, the composer can make adjustments to take advantage of happy accidents, program bugs, and other creative sources of sound. Algorithmic Composition: A Guide to Composing Music with Nyquist provides an overview of procedural approaches to music generation. It introduces programming concepts through many examples written using the Nyquist system for music composition and sound synthesis. Nyquist is freely available software, and over 100 program examples from this book are available in electronic form. Readers will be well equipped to develop their own algorithms for composition. Music students who are learning about computer music and electronic music will all be interested in this innovative book, as generative music becomes an important part of the future of the discipline. Students and scholars in computer science will also find much to interest them, in a straightforward and fun way.


Abstract. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a C4, perennial grass that is being developed as a bioenergy crop for the United States. While aboveground biomass production is well documented for switchgrass ecotypes (lowland, upland), little is known about the impact of plant belowground productivity on microbial communities down deep in the soil profiles. Microbial dynamics in deeper soils are likely to exert considerable control on ecosystem services, including C and nutrient cycles, due to their involvement in such processes as soil formation and ecosystem biogeochemistry. Differences in root biomass and rooting characteristics of switchgrass ecotypes could lead to distinct differences in belowground microbial biomass and microbial community composition. We quantified root abundance and root architecture and the associated microbial abundance, composition, and rhizodeposit C uptake for two switchgrass ecotypes using stable-isotope probing of microbial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) after 13CO2 pulse–chase labeling. Kanlow, a lowland ecotype with thicker roots, had greater plant biomass above- and belowground (g m−2), greater root mass density (mg cm−3), and lower specific root length (m g−1) compared to Summer, an upland ecotype with finer root architecture. The relative abundance of bacterial biomarkers dominated microbial PLFA profiles for soils under both Kanlow and Summer (55.4 and 53.5 %, respectively; P  =  0.0367), with differences attributable to a greater relative abundance of Gram-negative bacteria in soils under Kanlow (18.1 %) compared to soils under Summer (16.3 %; P  =  0.0455). The two ecotypes also had distinctly different microbial communities process rhizodeposit C: greater relative atom % 13C excess in Gram-negative bacteria (44.1 ± 2.3 %) under the thicker roots of Kanlow and greater relative atom % 13C excess in saprotrophic fungi under the thinner roots of Summer (48.5 ± 2.2 %). For bioenergy production systems, variation between switchgrass ecotypes could alter microbial communities and impact C sequestration and storage as well as potentially other belowground processes.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this research was to determine if the triglyceride (TG) to high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (TG/HDL) ratio has similar utility for discriminating insulin resistance in Caribbean-born black persons with and without Hispanic ethnicity.

METHODS
Serum lipids, glucose and insulin were determined and compared for 144 Hispanic blacks and 655 non-Hispanic blacks living in the US Virgin Islands. Area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) curve statistics were used to evaluate the ability of the TG/HDL ratio to discriminate insulin resistance in the two ethnic groups.

RESULTS
Hispanic blacks had significantly higher levels of triglycerides and insulin resistance and a lower level of HDL cholesterol than non-Hispanic blacks. The AUROC curve for the ability of the TG/HDL to discriminate insulin resistance was 0.71 (95% CI = 0.62, 0.79) for Hispanic blacks and 0.64 (95% CI = 0.59, 0.69) for non-Hispanic blacks.

CONCLUSIONS
Among Caribbean-born black persons living in the US Virgin Islands, the TG/HDL ratio is a useful screening measure for discriminating insulin resistance in those with Hispanic ethnicity but not in those without Hispanic ethnicity.


Team-based management is a popular contemporary method of redesigning jobs in order to more effectively utilize the human potential of employees. The use of such management techniques should result in increased satisfaction and team commitment; however, many research studies have failed to demonstrate increases in affective outcomes on the part of the employee. The research question examined in this study is, "What specific job dimensions and situational factors result in higher levels of satisfaction and team commitment?" The Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham, 1975) provided a basis for this study. The model was designed for individual contributors and has not been extensively used in team research. As expected it was found that within a team-based environment higher levels of the five core job dimensions of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and job feedback were associated with increased satisfaction and team commitment. Organization-based self-esteem was found to mediate the relationship between the five core job dimensions and the affective outcome variables. Contrary to expectations, however, it was found that consultative team members experienced higher levels of satisfaction and commitment than substantive team members. In addition, consultative team members reported higher levels of two core job dimensions, skill variety and task significance, and on the overall Job Diagnostic Survey than did substantive team members. These findings have significant implications for companies undergoing organizational redesign and questions whether those companies should implement advanced levels of employee involvement activities if the organizational goal is to increase satisfaction and commitment. The study employed a survey research design in which data was collected using a self-report questionnaire. A heterogeneous sample of 183 team members participating in either a consultative and substantive team from four different companies in nine locations provided the data for this field survey. Multivariate analyses, including hierarchial set regression, were used to test the hypotheses.


Quantum mechanics promises a much more powerful information-processing technology than is possible using classical physics. Photons offer one potentially important platform for encoding and manipulating information using the rules of quantum physics. In order to realize this potential, they must interact with each other, something that they are not normally inclined to do. However, as discussed in the Perspective by
 Walmsley and Raymer, it is possible using a combination of standard optical elements and detectors to synthesize an effective interaction provided all the photons used have identical properties. An important direction of current research is to develop sources of identical photons.


Initiation of graft copolymerisation of acrylamide (AAm) on Gum Arabic (GA, Acacia senegal) using diode laser (532 nm) was investigated. The results showed that the optimum conditions to achieve efficient graft copolymerisation were: 60 min laser irradiation time and 0.5 gm of GA, 0.142 gm of acrylamide (monomer). The percentage of graft efficiency and percentage of graft yield were 27.40% and 97.40%, respectively. The graft copolymers were characterised using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) which proved a successful production of GA-g-Acrylamide (GA-g-AAm). The results proved that copolymerisation by laser can be considered as a new, effective and clean method for producing GA-g-AAm.


We monitored the 22 GHz H2O maser emission toward W49N from December 1989 through May 1990. During this period we observed an outburst in a component at -66.25 km s-1. The flux density of the flaring component increased by a factor of ≳10 to a maximum of 4020 Jy over a period of 24 days and decreased over the following 34 days to 1400 Jy on the last day of monitoring. During the flux increase the line narrowed from about 1.1 to 0.8 km s-1; it subsequently rebroadened to 1.0 km s-1. Most interestingly, during the flaring behavior the line center shifted by approximately 0.5 km s-1 over the 58 day period. To explain the flare, particularly its shifting line center, we present a model of two interacting maser clouds. In the model, saturated maser radiation produced in a background cloud is amplified by an unsaturated, masing foreground cloud. Motion of the foreground cloud across the line of sight produces a flaring line, accompanied by line narrowing. We demonstrate that the observed flare in W49N may be explained by such a model where a rotating foreground cloud passes in front of a nonrotating background cloud. The differential amplification of the background cloud's radiation produces the observed increase in flux density, line narrowing, and systematic shift in center velocity.


Introduction: First-trimester uterine artery pulsatility index (PI) measurements form part of an algorithm used to assess the risk of developing pre-eclampsia. The objective of this study was to construct a population-specific reference range for both the lower and mean maternal uterine artery PI at 11-13+6 weeks' gestation and to assess measurement agreement. Materials and Methods: Reference ranges for mean and lower PI measurements were developed using polynomial regression models following prospective collection of maternal uterine artery PI measurements at 11-13+6 weeks' gestation. Measurement agreement studies were performed by two experienced operators. Results: Measurements from 298 women were included in the primary study. Polynomial regression indicated no change over gestational age for the lower PI (mean 1.44). There was an inverse relationship between the average PI and gestational age (mean [0.8960 + (2.9771 × CRL-1/2)]2). PI measurement agreement was good-strong (intraclass correlation (ICC) 0.50-0.79) between operators, and within-operator agreement was almost perfect (ICC 0.88-0.93). Conclusions: Reference ranges for both the average and lowest PI of the maternal uterine arteries were derived at 11-13+6 weeks' gestation. This will provide a basis for development of auditable standards for first-trimester uterine artery Doppler measurements. The PI measurements are reproducible and reliable.


By utilizing a vector network analyzer, the field distributions on the surface of a three-dimensional woodpile photonic crystal with a straight waveguide or a bend waveguide buried under the surface were measured in the microwave regime. The information of field profile and propagation characteristics of the guided modes can be successfully extracted from the surface near-field measurement. This work indicates that the near-field detection can become a promising means for experimental characterization of three-dimensional photonic crystal devices in supplement to the usual transmission spectrum measurement.


Mesoscale meteorological modelling is an important tool to help understand air pollution and heat island effects in urban areas. Accurate wind simulations are difficult to obtain in areas of weak synoptic forcing. Local factors have a dominant role in the circulation and include land surface parameters and their interaction with the atmosphere. This paper examines an episode during the MCMA-2003 field campaign held in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) in April of 2003. Because the episode has weak synoptic forcing, there is the potential for the surface heat budget to influence the local meteorology. High resolution satellite observations are used to specify the land use, vegetation fraction, albedo and surface temperature in the MM5 model. Making use of these readily available data leads to improved meteorological simulations in the MCMA, both for the wind circulation patterns and the urban heat island. Replacing values previously obtained from land-use tables with actual measurements removes the number of unknowns in the model and increases the accuracy of the energy budget. In addition to improving the understanding of local meteorology, this sets the stage for the use of advanced urban modules.


This paper concerns statistical inference for longitudinal data with ultrahigh dimensional covariates. We first study the problem of constructing confidence intervals and hypothesis tests for a low dimensional parameter of interest. The major challenge is how to construct a powerful test statistic in the presence of high-dimensional nuisance parameters and sophisticated within-subject correlation of longitudinal data. To deal with the challenge, we propose a new quadratic decorrelated inference function approach, which simultaneously removes the impact of nuisance parameters and incorporates the correlation to enhance the efficiency of the estimation procedure. When the parameter of interest is of fixed dimension, we prove that the proposed estimator is asymptotically normal and attains the semiparametric information bound, based on which we can construct an optimal Wald test statistic. We further extend this result and establish the limiting distribution of the estimator under the setting with the dimension of the parameter of interest growing with the sample size at a polynomial rate. Finally, we study how to control the false discovery rate (FDR) when a vector of high-dimensional regression parameters is of interest. We prove that applying the Storey (2002)'s procedure to the proposed test statistics for each regression parameter controls FDR asymptotically in longitudinal data. We conduct simulation studies to assess the finite sample performance of the proposed procedures. Our simulation results imply that the newly proposed procedure can control both Type I error for testing a low dimensional parameter of interest and the FDR in the multiple testing problem. We also apply the proposed procedure to a real data example.


On 4 May 2009, specimens of a whitefly were collected by the senior author on wild olive, Olea europeae subsp. africana, in the Western Cape at Vermont, Hermanus (34°25'S 19°10'E), and on 22 May 2009 a grower from Halfmanshof, Porterville (33°08'S 18°58'E) submitted leaf samples of pomegranate (Punica granatum) with a heavy whitefly infestation. Both samples were identified as Siphoninus phillyreae (Haliday), often known as the pomegranate or ash whitefly, which has not been previously recorded from South Africa.


The article discusses the involvement of parents in the process of pedagoging the environment through andragogical systems. Priority education accrues to the family as the overriding social institute, where people undergo the first and most important process of socialization. The other structures of socialization people usually experience a little later. Families are not an auxiliary institute, seeking to create and maintain the existing structures and relations in the country, but they are the main condition for realizing human potential. Family is an institution which has unique features, a significant impact on personality formation and social development.


Between 1987 and 2005, federal judges sentenced defendants pursuant to binding Sentencing Guidelines that severely curtailed their discretion. In United States v. Booker, the Supreme Court held the mandatory Guidelines sentencing scheme unconstitutional and rendered the Guidelines advisory. This Note offers a picture of white-collar sentencing in "shades of gray." It conducts an empirical analysis of sentencing decisions after Booker to assess the consequences of the return to judicial discretion. In particular, the Note examines major white-collar cases in the Southern District of New York, where many such cases of national and international significance are prosecuted. The Guidelines instruct judges in white-collar cases to calculate the amount of economic loss attributable to the defendant and apply a sentencing enhancement — often a sizable one — on the basis of that loss. The findings reveal that a significant majority of defendants in these cases receive sentences of imprisonment shorter than those recommended by the Guidelines. Moreover, when judges impose sentences below the Guidelines range, the resulting sentences are often dramatically shorter than those produced under the Guidelines. Based on these findings, this Note argues that the U.S. Sentencing Commission should revise its approach to white-collar cases in three ways. The Commission should amend the Guidelines to reduce the severity of the economic loss table; calculate economic "loss" differently; and add additional, though less severe, enhancements to punish pecuniary gain and intended loss. Absent such changes, judges will — and should — continue imposing sentences far below the Guidelines range. These proposed changes better capture the seriousness of the offense and the culpability of the offender, even if they do not resolve the fundamental tension between individualized sentencing and the rigid quantification that characterizes the Guidelines system.


Part I: THE RELEVANCE OF ECONOMICS IN HEALTH AND MEDICAL CARE. 1. U.S. Medical Care: Crisis or Conundrum. 2. Using Economics to Study Health Issues. 3. Analyzing Medical Care Markets. 4. Economic Evaluation in Health Care. Part II: DEMAND-SIDE CONSIDERATIONS. 5. Demand for Health and Medical Care. 6. The Market for Health Insurance. Part III: SUPPLY-SIDE CONSIDERATIONS. 7. Managed Care. 8. The Physicians' Services Market. 9. The Hospital Services Market. 10. The Market for Pharmaceuticals. 11. Confounding Factors. Part IV: PUBLIC POLICY IN MEDICAL CARE DELIVERY. 12. Policies that Enhance Access. 13. Policies to Contain Costs. 14. Medical Care Systems Worldwide. 15. Medical Care Reform in the United States. 16. Lessons for Public Policy.


In the present paper, the stress distribution is studied in an infinite elastic body, reinforced by an arbitrary number of non-intersecting co-phase locally spatially curved filler layers under bi-axial compression is studied. It is assumed that this system is loaded at infinity with uniformly distributed normal forces with intensity p1(p3) acting in the direction which is parallel to the layers? location planes. It is required to determine the self-equilibrated stresses within, caused by the spa?tially local curving of the layers. The corresponding boundary and contact value problem is formulated within the scope of geometrically non-linear exact 3-D equations of the theory of elasticity by utilizing of the piece-wise homogeneous body model. The solution the formulated problem is represented with the series form of the small parameter which characterizes the degree of the aforementioned local curving. The boundary-value problems for the zeroth and the first approximations of these series are determined with the use of the exponential double Fourier transform. The original of the sought values is determined numerically. Consequently, in the present investigation, the effect of the local curving on the considered interface stress distribution is taken into account within the framework of the geometrical non-linear statement. The numerical results related to the considered interface stress distribution and to the influence of the problem parameters on this distribution are given and discussed.


This title features a stunning array of the most ambitious examples of residential design in the tropics. From a small and elegant dwelling on a remote island to a luxurious holiday residence set in a spectacular landscape from Brazil to Florida, from Bali to Singapore "Tropical Houses" brings together a collection of exotic environments designed by wellknown architec- tural firms as well as interesting approaches by local architects. The houses featured in this volume embrace the tropical lifestyle with open-air rooms, shady courtyards, sunny patios, and cool stucco walls. Exotic local materials and eco-conscious features are a seamless response to the settings of many of the featured houses.


In this paper, we report on new experimental results on the effects of in-plane surface stretching on the friction of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) rubber with smooth rigid probes. Friction-induced displacement fields are measured at the surface of the PDMS substrate under steady-state sliding. Then, the corresponding contact pressure and frictional stress distributions are determined from an inversion procedure. Using this approach, we show that the local frictional stress τ is proportional to the local stretch ratio λ at the rubber surface. Additional data using a triangular flat punch indicate that τ(λ) relationship is independent on the contact geometry. From friction experiments using pre-stretched PDMS substrate, it is also found that the stretch-dependence of the frictional stress is isotropic, i.e. it does not depend on the angle between stretching and sliding directions. Potential physical explanations for this phenomenon are provided within the framework of Schallamach's friction model. Although the present experiments are dealing with smooth contact interfaces, the reported τ(λ) dependence is also relevant to the friction of statistically rough contact interfaces, while not accounted for in related contact mechanics models.


Agricultural producers face significant price risk. For some products, farmers may hedge this risk in well-functioning futures markets. For several products, however, no such risk management instrument is readily available. We suggest that farmers reduce price risk by organizing cooperatives where members diversify by creating "accounting" portfolios. The approach is illustrated with data from the Dutch flower market, and some practical problems connected to such cooperative risk pooling in agriculture are addressed.


Purpose: More accurate serum markers of pancreatic cancer could improve the early detection and prognosis of this deadly disease. We compared the diagnostic utility of a panel of candidate serum markers of pancreatic cancer. Experimental Design: We collected preoperative serum from 50 patients with resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma, as well as sera from 50 patients with chronic pancreatitis and 50 age/sex-matched healthy controls from our institution. Sera were analyzed for the following candidate markers of pancreatic cancer: CA19-9, macrophage inhibitory cytokine 1 (MIC-1), osteopontin, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1, and hepatocarcinoma-intestine-pancreas protein levels. Results: By logistic regression analysis, MIC-1 and CA19-9 were significant independent predictors of diagnosis. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that MIC-1 was significantly better than CA19-9 in differentiating patients with pancreatic cancer from healthy controls (area under the curve is 0.99 and 0.78, respectively; P = 0.003), but not in distinguishing pancreatic cancer from chronic pancreatitis (area under the curve of 0.81 and 0.74, respectively; P = 0.63). Hepatocarcinoma-intestine-pancreas/pancreatitis-associated protein, osteopontin, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1 serum levels did not provide additional diagnostic power. Conclusion: In the differentiation of patients with resectable pancreatic cancer from controls, serum MIC-1 outperforms other markers including CA19-9.


This practice-based research project explores how a choreographic view of a physically informed drawing practice can serve to articulate and generate new understandings of material relations between moving bodies and static, receptor surfaces. Using task-based studies and other systematic structures of working that activate the horizontal plane of the floor, the research reveals how different configurations of relations between bodies, surfaces, and materials such as charcoal and paper, can mediate and extend a reciprocal touch between body and surface. Rather than on the production of finished artwork, emphasis is placed on processual activity and the working conditions from which material and visual residues emerge as evidential remains of reciprocal touch.

The research is organised around the key terms intersect, surface, and body that operate as working concepts and facilitate a way of organising the observations and findings of the practical investigation into distinct areas of enquiry while recognising that these areas increasingly overlap and complicate one another. The thesis is extended through a critical engagement with ideas of non-human agency and materiality developed in the work of Harman (2013), Bennet (2010) and Barad (2013) and a reconsideration of horizontality through Steinberg's notion of the 'flatbed picture plane' (1972) which informs a choreographic view of drawing in relation to orientation and surface distribution. The thesis is further contextualised through a consideration of the choreographic conditions presenting in performance works of choreographers Trisha Brown, La Ribot and Janine Antoni that extend across choreography and visual art contexts.

The thesis aims to contribute to recent discourse in the field of choreography concerned with how a co-presence of human and non-human forces can be incorporated into choreographic processes and how drawing can present as choreographic knowledge through a consideration of material agency in approaches to performance-making.


College drinking has many implications for not only the student engaging in the drinking, but also for the college and public community as a whole. The purpose of this study was to examine two interventions conducted with students who had violated a campus alcohol policy for the first time. This study compared a single individual verbal therapy session with a single group music therapy session. Students' drinking levels were assessed prior to the session as well as six weeks after the intervention. For a portion of the subjects, the Office of Student Conduct was contacted six months following the intervention to ascertain whether the student had been reported for an additional violation. No significant differences between the verbal therapy and music therapy groups were found in number of drinking days per month, drinks per occasion, peak blood alcohol content (BAC), typical BAC, or receiving second violations; therefore, music therapy may be an effective way to treat college alcohol use. More research is needed.


While Nelson Mandela's greatness as a democratic leader in South Africa is unquestioned, his legacy in the realm of foreign policy is much more ambiguous. We have much to learn not only from South Africa's own democracy, but also from the country's "shortcomings" as a global democratic leader, including some underlying truths that its experience has revealed about how democracy can actually be fostered. Mandela's legacy teaches that social, civic, and economic pressures against tyranny alone will not suffice; political movements dedicated not just to democracy but also to governing when the opportunity arises are required.


Background  Population growth rates in many parts of northern Australia have slowed considerably in recent years. Governments are interested in identifying northern migration 'markets' as potential targets for a mix of marketing and policy-based approaches to improve population attraction and retention. In the Northern Territory (NT), German-born residents present an interesting case study. Many are long-term residents ('sticky'), highly educated, in professional jobs and say they are likely to stay. Aims  We profile and report on a study of German-born NT residents as one important international market for offsetting population losses. Understanding factors which have contributed to the attraction and retention of this group may help to inform policies and initiatives to improve the population position of the NT and northern Australia more broadly. Data and methods  Data for the paper is sourced from the 2016 ABS Census of Population and Housing (Census) and the 2017 German Territorian Survey (GTS) conducted by Charles Darwin University. Results  German-born residents are a relatively immobile ('sticky') and educated population group in the NT with a high ratio of females. Many of those surveyed, in particular those who had arrived as working holiday makers or tourists, exhibited little or no intention of leaving. Lifestyle factors, climate and job opportunities ranked highly in decisions to stay. Conclusions  The study of German-born Territorians holds promise for developing targetted niche migration initiatives to address skills and population deficits in the NT and northern Australia. Analysis of responses to the GTS highlighted opportunities for recruiting skilled women and the importance of tourism as a source for labour supply and population growth.


Significant improvements within Building and Construction projects are expected from the application of the Building Information Model, BIM. A major cause of failure costs is the use of invalid or wrong documents / models in the process. This means when BIM is the central data source in the project it should be up to date at any moment in time. Today the BIM model is often one huge single file, usually a merger of two or more files created by different disciplines, for example the model of the architect and the model of HVAC project partner. A BIM file is very often released as one object which indicates a bad controlled process because the Building Information Model is a collection of many objects each having its own life cycle. The use of the building information model BIM is still restricted to a few areas. A major application of the BIM model today is the use of its geometry model. This is used as a verification tool, e.g. interference checking. The Integrated Product Model (IPM®) concept places a well managed digital product model in the centre of the design and engineering process in which all engineers at different disciplines and locations are working together. Well managed means that there are appropriate release and change processes in place. The paper discusses an integrated design and engineering environment using the IPMconcept and applying modern configuration management concepts to assure actual and good documents or models all the time. An example is given how Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems are used to deliver good document / models to the BIM model. The paper concludes that BIM should be more integrated in the design and engineering process and eventually needs to be integrated in a PLM environment.


Behavioral level techniques are presently very popular tools for the nonlinear simulation of mobile communication circuits and systems. The use of Cann's (1980) model for modeling nonlinear circuits and systems is discussed in this paper. It is shown that this model has a nonphysical behavior for the small-signal regime in most cases (it cannot be expanded in a Taylor series) and gives incorrect predictions for nonlinear products. When nonlinearities are to be taken into account in the simulation (intermodulation, adjacent channel power, etc.), the use of Cann's model should be avoided or at least it should be used with extreme care.


The aim of this dissertation is to achieve an overview of the theory and practice
of disaster control planning with particular reference to tropical countries and
with special reference to the National Library of Malaysia (NLM).
The methodology includes a literature review analysis and a case study of a
library where a disaster control plan is prepared.
Disasters that strike libraries are of three kinds: natural, Man-made and those
which are caused by negligence. There is a need for a disaster plan and the
library management should play a positive role in disaster planning to ensure its
successful implementation.
NLM follows a preservation policy which includes planning the library
building, fIre detection/extinguishing systems, microillming of serials, disposal
of serials and conservation workshop. Protective measures are also undertaken
at NLM and they encompass preserving the holdings, security, housekeeping
and exhibition lending. Staff at NLM are trained and made aware of disasters
that might strike the library. Currently there is a disaster control plan for NLM.
A Disaster control plan compnses four key components: prevention,
preparedness, reaction and recovery.
Conclusions and recommendations are presented in general and for the NLM in
particular.


Background: The aim of lung-transplantation is the improvement of survival and quality of life. Both entities are reflected by return-to-work after transplantation. This study first investigated return to work in Germany. Aims and objectives: Epidemiology and factors influencing employment after lung-transplantation were studied. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in a single university center. 531 patients were included between September 2009 and March 2010 and all patients completed a 38 – item questionnaire including evaluation of physical and social status. Functional parameters and demographic data were included in the analysis additionally. Results: Of 531 patients that were included in the study, 38% were working at the time-point of study. We found a significant association between educational degree (HR 2.6; 95% CI 1.7 – 4, p = 0.0001), physical fitness (HR 2; 95% CI 1.3 – 3.2, p = 0.001), working less than 6 months before transplantation (HR 4; 95% CI 2 – 8) and family situation (HR 2.1; 95% CI 1.3 – 3.5, p = 0.002). Patients started median 11 months after transplantation re-employment; they had about 10 days absent from work per year because of illness. There were no differences in regard to chronic organ dysfunction or type of transplantation or underlying disease. Conclusion: Return-to-work in Germany is comparable to international data. As no health related risk but improved quality of life was found, patients should be encouraged to return-to-work.


One of the most important operating procedures after the installation of a superconducting gravimeter (SG) is its calibration. The calibration process can identify and evaluate possible time variability in the scale factor and in the hardware anti-aliasing filter response. The SG installed in Cantley, Canada is calibrated using two absolute gravimeters and the data are analysed in the time and frequency domains to estimate the SG scale factor. In the time domain, we use the weighted linear regression method whereas in the frequency domain we use the least squares response method. Rigorous statistical procedures are applied to define data disturbances, outliers, and realistic data noise levels. Using data from JILA-2 and FG5-236 separately, the scale factor is estimated in the time and frequency domains as μGal/V and μGal/V, respectively. The relative accuracy in the time domain is 0.015%. We cannot identify any significant periodicity in the scale factor. The hardware anti-aliasing filter response is tested by injecting known waves into the control electronics of the system. Results show that the anti-aliasing filter response is stable and conforms to the global geodynamics project standards.


Web caching is an important technique for reducing Internet access latency, network traffic, and server load. This paper investigates cache management strategies for the en-route web caching environment, where caches are associated with routing nodes in the network. We propose a novel caching scheme that integrates both object placement and replacement policies and which makes caching decisions on all candidate sites in a coordinated fashion. In our scheme, cache status information along the routing path of a request is used in dynamically determining where to cache the requested object and what to replace if there is not enough space. The object placement problem is formulated as an optimization problem and the optimal locations to cache the object are obtained using a low-cost dynamic programming algorithm. Extensive simulation experiments have been performed to evaluate the proposed scheme in terms of a wide range of performance metrics. The results show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms existing algorithms which consider either object placement or replacement at individual caches only.


With the growth in popularity of Parkour has come the rise of a competition circuit and organised efforts to see the discipline recognised as a sport, complete with coaching certifications and a move towards a nationally adopted accreditation. Whilst these competitions have gained mainstream media coverage and a very high level of corporate sponsorship, they've also been dogged by injuries and a noticeable lack of "fluidity of movement" – which is often described as the main aim of Parkour. If Parkour IS recognised as a sport, what impact will this have on those practitioners looking to engage with the form through an artistic practice? And how does the lure of competition effect the development of training models? In this article we'll argue that a sporting definition for Parkour would come with risks to its creative future; limiting innovation and artistic development. We'll draw on the history of vertical skateboarding to see what lessons can be learned there, and we'll examine the words of Parkour's co-creators – how do they define the discipline? Does the fact that none of them has entered competition point to a different route for the artistic development of "Performance-Parkour?" And how have our own experiences with the Urban Playground Team and Gravity Style defined our own training regime?


The article discusses the relation of gender and power in journalistic coverage of leading politicians. Looking in detail at the German chancellor Angela Merkel, a qualitative textual analysis of printed news media as well as glossies shows how politics are still designed as a male field while its constitutive outside is the female. Nevertheless a female actor becomes successful in it. The analysis shows that the almost normal presence of women in powerful political positions requires new modes of media analysis. The dichotomist distinction between male and female actors and a specific focus on forms of women's stereotyping does not lead to sufficient results. This analysis offers opportunities for deconstructing the gendered system of politics.


Forensic mental health assessment (FMHA) has grown into a specialization informed by research and professional guidelines. This series presents up-to-date information on the most important and frequently conducted forms of FMHA. The 19 topical volumes address best approaches to practice for particular types of evaluation in the criminal, civil, and juvenile/family areas. Each volume contains a thorough discussion of the relevant legal and psychological concepts, followed by a step-by-step description of the assessment process from preparing for the evaluation to writing the report and testifying in court. Volumes include the following helpful features: - Boxes that zero in on important information for use in evaluations - Tips for best practice and cautions against common pitfalls - Highlighting of relevant case law and statutes - Separate list of assessment tools for easy reference - Helpful glossary of key terms for the particular topic In making recommendations for best practice, authors consider empirical support, legal relevance, and consistency with ethical and professional standards. These volumes offer invaluable guidance for anyone involved in conducting or using forensic evaluations. This book considers those legal, ethical and assessment issues that arise when forensic mental health professionals are asked to evaluate an individual's capacity to waive his or her Miranda rights, and the subsequent validity of the confession.


In contradistinction to interpretations that have positioned Austen as theepitome of a fixed and finished style, in this chapter I position her as an authorwho was writing at a time of considerable linguistic and stylistic change. Inorder to do so, I take both a micro- and a macro-linguistic approach to herwriting. First, I focus on one specific grammatical feature that is highly salientto some modern readers, that of concordance with either, neither and none.Second, I examine the metalinguistic comments made by characters and narratorsin her novels and consider the extent to which these provide evidence forAusten's own attitudes. Finally, I explore whether or not it is true that Austen isunconcerned with nonstandard forms of language, comparing her practices tothose of her contemporaries. Overall I argue that Austen was writing at a timewhen both language attitudes and language practices were in flux, and that as anauthor her style was shaped by the changes in progress, while she in turn madeuse of changing language attitudes for purposes of characterisation.


Like synthetic V-doped TiO 2 , natural semiconducting V-bearing rutile (TiO 2 ) has potential capability for visible-light absorption. The traditional modification for the synthetic V-doped TiO 2 was to enhance the sample's visible-light absorption by increasing the doping concentration. This paper demonstrates that the visible-light absorption of natural rutile with low V doping concentration (1.0 mol%) is significantly enhanced simply through annealing under argon. In the visible-light region of 400–750 nm, the integral absorbance of rutile treated at 1173 K increased by around 63 % compared to untreated rutile. Electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements indicated that argon annealing induced a substantial increase of V 4+ as an active state of V doping ions for the visible-light absorption. This argon annealing can provide a simple modification method for enhancing the visible-light absorption of V-doped TiO 2 .


This paper presents a novel approach for estimating the rate of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation from pulse-coherent acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) measurements using the inertial dissipation method. Although the inertial dissipation technique is widely accepted and used in oceanographic and atmospheric research, its application to ADCP data is limited by the loss of directional information for high-wavenumber velocity fluctuations. However, measurements in the bottom boundary layer of a lake revealed astonishing agreement between dissipation rates estimated from temperature microstructure profiles and those estimated by applying the inertial dissipation method to data from two different brands of ADCPs.


The simplicity of MapReduce introduces unique subtleties that cause hard-to-detect bugs; in particular, the unfixed order of reduce function input is a source of nondeterminism that is harmful if the reduce function is not commutative and sensitive to input order. Our extensive study of production MapReduce programs reveals interesting findings on commutativity, nondeterminism, and correctness. Although non-commutative reduce functions lead to five bugs in our sample of well-tested production programs, we surprisingly have found that many non-commutative reduce functions are mostly harmless due to, for example, implicit data properties. These findings are instrumental in advancing our understanding of MapReduce program correctness.


In this paper, for integrating of data on car parts we model information of parts that PDM system manages. Ontology of car parts applies existing ontology mapping research to integrate into car ontology. We propose a method for semantic integration of PLM object of MEMPHIS based on the integrated ontology. Through our method, we introduce C# ontology model to apply existing C# applications with ontology. We also classify ontology integration into three through examples and explain them. While semantically integrating PLM objects based on the integrated ontology, we explain the need for change of PLM object type and describe the process of change for PLM object type by examples.


Small-type white clover, Trifolium repens L., plants predominate in most closely grazed pastures in the southeastern USA. The role of relative seed production in stand persistence of white clover types in pastures has not been quantified. This study compared the relative seed production of seven small-type naturalized populations with that of seven large-type white clover cultivars and germplasms in a pasture. All entries were space-planted into plots in a common bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] pasture at Mississippi State, MS, on a Savannah fine sandy loam (fine-loamy, siliceous, semiactive, thermic Typic Fragiudult) in fall 1995 and 1996, and grazed with cattle prior to flowering and seed production. All naturalized populations averaged about three times as many flowers and seed-bearing flowers as all cultivars other than Louisiana S-1' each year. Flower production differences were consistent throughout the study, though maximum flower production for naturalized populations was earlier in the season than cultivars. Seed production differences were similar to flower production, as cultivars averaged only 27 to 43% as much seed as naturalized populations. The low growth stature and excessive seed production of naturalized populations enable them to tolerate close continuous grazing and have a greater opportunity to reseed in pastures than common large-type cultivars. This reseeding potential probably contributes to the domination of small-type white clover in closely grazed pastures of the southeastern USA.


Global marketing has become an established fact of life for more and more businesses. Along with the large multinational corporations that have been operating on a global scale for decades, many middle market or even relatively small firms have already or will soon need to enter the global marketplace to enhance their long-term viability (Czinkota et al 1995). The growth of Internetbased e-commerce has accelerated this global trend. Marketing channels which provide the institutional structure that connects firms to the markets they serve have not escaped this global environment. In today's world, marketing channel structure and strategy must be formulated in the context of globalization. The six distribution channel paradigms discussed are characterized as 'classic' because they have all appeared in the scholarly literature associated with marketing channels and distribution systems for many years and in some cases many decades.


The sodium iodide symporter (NIS) is required for iodide uptake which facilitates thyroid hormone biosynthesis. NIS has been exploited for over 75 years in ablative radioiodine (RAI) treatment of thyroid cancer where its ability to transport radioisotopes depends on its localization to the plasma membrane. The advent of NIS-based in vivo imaging and theranostic strategies in other malignancies and disease modalities has recently increased the clinical importance of NIS. However, NIS trafficking remains ill-defined. Here, we employed tandem mass spectrometry followed by co-immunoprecipitation and proximity ligation assays to identify and validate two key nodes - ADP-ribosylation factor 4 (ARF4) and valosin-containing protein (VCP) - controlling NIS trafficking. Using cell surface biotinylation assays and highly inclined and laminated optical sheet microscopy we demonstrated that ARF4 enhanced NIS vesicular trafficking from the Golgi to the plasma membrane, whereas VCP - a principal component of ER-associated degradation - governed NIS proteolysis. Gene expression analysis indicated VCP expression was particularly induced in aggressive thyroid cancers and in patients who had poorer outcomes following RAI treatment. Two re-purposed Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved VCP inhibitors abrogated VCP-mediated repression of NIS function resulting in significantly increased NIS at the cell surface and markedly increased RAI uptake in mouse and human thyroid models. Collectively, these discoveries delineate NIS trafficking and highlight the new possibility of systemically enhancing RAI therapy in patients using FDA-approved drugs.


Room, R., Hellman, M., & Stenius, K. (2015). Addiction: The dance between concept and terms.  The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 4 (1), 27-35. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v4i1.199 The paper discusses the relation between a concept of addiction and the terminology used for its communication, drawing on and analyzing historical citations from the Oxford English Dictionary . The history of words used in English illustrates that terms for a concept change over time, often by an existing word being repurposed. "Addiction" as a term existed prior to the contemporary concept, but with a descriptive meaning that did not carry the explanatory power intrinsic in the modern variant. So its use as a word for the modern conception of the addiction phenomenon was delayed well beyond the emergence of the concept. The experience in English of interplay between concept and terms is discussed in the context of two frames: of influence in both directions between medical and popular concepts and terms, and of cross-cultural variations in the concept and of terms for it.


The thesis presented here is that the result of engineering is the design, construction, or operation of systems or their subsystems and components and that the teaching of systems must be central to engineering education. It is maintained that current undergraduate engineering curricula do not give the student adequate appreciation of this major intellectual element of their profession. Five proposals for approaches to correct this deficiency are offered: opportunities for clinical practice throughout all the undergraduate years; the use of distributed interactive simulation technology in semester-long projects; courses or course material on the phenomenology and behavior of systems; use of project management tools in engineering clinics; and encouraging engineering faculty to spend some part of their sabbaticals engaged in system design or operation. Issues of implementation are addressed, including the scaling of these ideas to universities that must meet the needs of large numbers of students.


Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. The involvement of liver the in the form of tubercular liver abscess is a very rare entity in immunocompetent or non-HIV infected individuals. Here we report a case of 32-year old previously healthy male who presented with easy fatigability, decreased appetite, abdominal pain and low-grade fever. Further examination and relevant investigations revealed diagnosis of tubercular liver abscess with pleural effusion and inferior vena cava (IVC) thrombosis. The patient was treated with anti-tubercular drugs and anti-coagulants; he improved symptomatically and recovered without any further complications. Although tubercular liver abscesswith IVC thrombosis is a relatively unusual manifestation, timely diagnosis is essential to prevent devastating complications.


Poet, essayist, chemist, geologist, educator, entrepreneur, publisher--Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864) was one of the virtuosi of the Early Republic and a founder of the American scientific community. This absorbing biography is not only a study of the youth and early career of a complex and remarkable man but also a window on his times. In lively and often moving detail, Chandos Michael Brown opens the broad context of Silliman's life in his native Connecticut. From Silliman's father's disastrous captivity among the British during the Revolution to the intensities of New England religious revivals, from the international celebrity of the Weston Meteor to the economic hazards of introducing artificial mineral waters to the New York market, here is an engaging portrayal of the growth of an American scientist within his rich cultural setting. Brown tells how the young Silliman confronted the declining fortunes of his distinguished family and how he strove to invent a new career worthy of his ambition and social standing. He describes Silliman's education at Yale College and in Philadelphia, his European tour, and his subsequent activities as a professor of chemistry and mineralogy, founder of the Yale Medical School, and editor of the American Journal of Science. Throughout this cultural biography, Silliman appears as the concerned member of an often troubled family--a man who nonetheless managed to achieve that elusive quality, greatly admired by his contemporaries, that of the representative American. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


The contemporary human rights debate is mostly concerned with the protection of people affected by change that is beyond their control. But what about those who make use of their basic economic rights to facilitate economic and social change? Do these agents of change need protection and, if so, how do their activities relate to the current debate on human rights?

In this book, the historical importance of innovative entrepreneurs as agents of change who indirectly contribute to a more humane world by enhancing access to basic human rights is illustrated. However, entrepreneurial rights tend to be neglected in economic and legal theory as well as in the global debate on human rights. Philipp Aerni argues that this neglect has its roots in the implicit assumption that entrepreneurs must surely know how to help themselves and therefore do not require special attention from a human rights perpective. The fact ist, however, that those most vulnerable to human rights offences, especially in the developing world, are those who have failed to obtain formal employment ard are therefore self-employed by default.


The escape mechanism of orbits in a star cluster rotating around its parent galaxy in a circular orbit is investigated. A three degrees of freedom model is used for describing the dynamical properties of the Hamiltonian system. The gravitational field of the star cluster is represented by a smooth and spherically symmetric Plummer potential. We distinguish between ordered and chaotic orbits as well as between trapped and escaping orbits, considering only unbounded motion for several energy levels. The Smaller Alignment Index (SALI) method is used for determining the regular or chaotic nature of the orbits. The basins of escape are located and they are also correlated with the corresponding escape time of the orbits. Areas of bounded regular or chaotic motion and basins of escape were found to coexist in the $(x,z)$ plane. The properties of the normally hyperbolic invariant manifolds (NHIMs), located in the vicinity of the index-1 Lagrange points $L_1$ and $L_2$, are also explored. These manifolds are of paramount importance as they control the flow of stars over the saddle points, while they also trigger the formation of tidal tails observed in star clusters. Bifurcation diagrams of the Lyapunov periodic orbits as well as restrictions of the Poincar\'e map to the NHIMs are deployed for elucidating the dynamics in the neighbourhood of the saddle points. The extended tidal tails, or tidal arms, formed by stars with low velocity which escape through the Lagrange points are monitored. The numerical results of this work are also compared with previous related work.


A review of atmospheric and oceanographic conditions in the northwest Atlantic during the 1980s and early 1990s is presented based upon standard station data and climate indices. Air temperatures over Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea were generally cold in contrast to warm conditions along the Middle Atlantic Bight. These are linked to the largescale atmospheric circulation patterns which produced strong northwest and southwest winds, respectively, over the two regions. The cold air masses and strong northwest winds in the northern regions resulted in more extensive sea ice coverage than normal. Extremely cold ocean temperatures were observed in the Grand Banks region and contrast with the warm temperatures in the deep waters in shelf regions further south. Ocean climate variability has been found to be influenced not only by local atmospheric forcing but also by the advection of water from upstream. Offshore exchange between the slope and shelf waters is a believed to be the primary mechanism for climate changes from the Laurentian Channel to the Middle Atlantic Bight.


Hydrogen is often viewed as an important energy carrier in a future decarbonized world. Currently, most hydrogen is produced by steam reforming of methane in natural gas ("gray hydrogen"), with high carbon dioxide emissions. Increasingly, many propose using carbon capture and storage to reduce these emissions, producing so‐called "blue hydrogen," frequently promoted as low emissions. We undertake the first effort in a peer‐reviewed paper to examine the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of blue hydrogen accounting for emissions of both carbon dioxide and unburned fugitive methane. Far from being low carbon, greenhouse gas emissions from the production of blue hydrogen are quite high, particularly due to the release of fugitive methane. For our default assumptions (3.5% emission rate of methane from natural gas and a 20‐year global warming potential), total carbon dioxide equivalent emissions for blue hydrogen are only 9%‐12% less than for gray hydrogen. While carbon dioxide emissions are lower, fugitive methane emissions for blue hydrogen are higher than for gray hydrogen because of an increased use of natural gas to power the carbon capture. Perhaps surprisingly, the greenhouse gas footprint of blue hydrogen is more than 20% greater than burning natural gas or coal for heat and some 60% greater than burning diesel oil for heat, again with our default assumptions. In a sensitivity analysis in which the methane emission rate from natural gas is reduced to a low value of 1.54%, greenhouse gas emissions from blue hydrogen are still greater than from simply burning natural gas, and are only 18%‐25% less than for gray hydrogen. Our analysis assumes that captured carbon dioxide can be stored indefinitely, an optimistic and unproven assumption. Even if true though, the use of blue hydrogen appears difficult to justify on climate grounds.


Previous studies that examined the role of empathy and nonverbal immediacy on business-to-business (B2B) salesperson performance is limited in scope and yielded inconclusive evidence. Grounded in Plank and Greene's (1996) framework of salesperson effectiveness, this paper aims to empirically investigate the mediating role of adaptive selling behavior through which empathy and nonverbal immediacy influence sales force performance and the form of empathy (cognitive or affective) that has the most beneficial role in improving relationship (versus outcome) salesperson performance.,Using cross-sectional data that were collected from 422 pharmaceutical sales representatives, this study used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized relationships.,Adaptive selling behavior mediates the effect of perspective taking empathy and empathic concern on relationship performance. However, the impact of empathy on outcome performance is not significant through adaptive selling behavior, but perspective taking empathy has a direct influence on outcome performance. Contrary to expectations, nonverbal immediacy is not mediated by adaptive selling behavior but has a direct and positive impact on relationship performance.,The results of this study have several implications for recruitment, training and assessment of salespeople in a B2B context. Based on the empirical evidence, it is highlighted that firms may use different forms of empathy and nonverbal cues to promote adaptive selling behavior that impact sales force performance (i.e. outcome or relationship).,To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study which simultaneously examines the mediating role of adaptive selling behavior in the relationship between three antecedent variables that relate to sales force empathy and nonverbal communication (i.e. perspective taking empathy, empathic concern and nonverbal immediacy) and two aspects of B2B sales performance (relationship and outcome).


Mobile navigation services are becoming more than merely digital maps; many of them include imagery from the street level. The user can benefit from enriching the 2D-map-based navigation with panoramic imagery from the citizen's perspective, hence gaining an authentic view of the frequent landmarks that urban environments include. In this paper we describe the user-centered design of a mobile street-imagery-based navigation service supporting navigation and exploration of unfamiliar cities. The service was evaluated with a field trial using tourists as participants. The participants used the service freely for the pedestrian navigation tasks that were relevant to them during the trial period. This approach shed light on issues that have not been raised by previous studies on image-based navigation, which have relied on more formal test tasks. The study confirmed that the images help with detecting the destination or assessing the atmosphere of a remote location but brought into focus the real world challenges related to downloading times and positioning accuracy.


This paper is concerned with two issues. One is a general problem for the evaluation of very poor health states and the other, while arising from the scaling of the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) instrument is a more general problem associated with the use of multiplicative multi-attribute instruments. These problems are: (i) the treatment of negative utility values; (ii) the utility score on a `life-death scale' of the `all worst' health state described by an instrument (in this particular paper in reference to the AQoL, although the issue is pertinent to all such instruments). The first problem arises from the fact that there is no lower limit to the negative utility scores implied by responses in a conventional time trade-off (TTO) interview. A respondent who indicates that they would not accept any time in a health state worse than death, even when this was followed by full health, implies a utility score of minus infinity for this health state. While not discussed in this paper, the same outcome is obtained from the standard gamble when a respondent refuses to contemplate a health state at any finite probability. A score of minus infinity or even a very large negative utility score has no meaning and such responses must be transformed into a lower, albeit negative, score. The second problem is that the disutility values generated by a multiplicative model - as used in the AQoL - vary from 0.00 to 1.00. These `model utilities' - utilities measured in `model space' - must be rescaled so that they represent utilities on a life-death scale where, following convention, a utility of 1.00 corresponds with `full' health, and a utility score of 0.00 corresponds with death. In principle it is easy to rescale the model scores. `Full health' has a common numerical value - 1.00 - on both the model and the life-death scales. The transformation then only requires information on the correspondence between one other point on the two scales. The simplest such point is the instrument `all worst' (the health state described when each item of the instrument is at its worst level). However scaling this point may require respondents to visualize a particularly complex and unusual state. For example, the AQoL `all worst' is a health state with 12 dimensions. However, the raison d'etre of the decomposed, multi-attribute approach to health state measurement is the avoidance of the need to carry out such a cognitively complex task. The likelihood of error is further increased when the instrument's all worst health state is used to establish the nexus, if - as with the AQoL - the all worst health state is close to death and respondents have never experienced a health state so bad that death was equally (un)desirable. Procedures adopted for the scaling of the AQoL are outlined and discussed. It is concluded that both of the above problems are quantitatively significant and have received too little discussion in the literature. Readers wishing to understand the scoring of the AQoL are referred to the companion paper, Utility Weights for the 'Assessment of Quality of Life' (AQoL) Instrument (Hawthorne, Richardson et al. 2001). Details can also be found in the AQoL user manual, Using the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) Instrument (Hawthorne, Richardson et al. 2000).