OBJECTIVE Although some studies have suggested a direct action of troglitazone on vascular cells, its effects on diabetic vascular diseases have not been reported. We therefore investigated the effect of troglitazone on microalbuminuria in patients with incipient diabetic nephropathy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 30 patients with type 2 diabetes associated with microalbuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio [ACR] [milligrams per gram creatinine] ranging from 30 to 300 mg/g creatinine) were studied. They were randomly divided into two groups: patients treated with metformin (500 mg/day, n = 13) or with troglitazone (400 mg/day, n = 17) for 12 weeks. ACR, lipid profile, blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin, and plasma glucose during meal-load tests were measured every 4 weeks. RESULTS Anthropometric indices (BMI and percent fat), lipid profile, and blood pressure did not change with either treatment. Fasting and postmeal glucose levels decreased similarly in the two groups. Decrements in glycated hemoglobin were greater in the metformin group at 4 and 8 weeks after the initiation of treatment (P < 0.05). Troglitazone reduced ACR (median [25–75th percentiles]) from 70 (49–195) to 40 (31–90) mg/g creatinine at 4 weeks (P = 0.021) and maintained these reduced levels throughout the treatment period (8 weeks: 35 [26–68], P = 0.007; 12 weeks: 43 [26–103], P = 0.047). Metformin did not change ACR throughout the 12 weeks. CONCLUSIONS Troglitazone ameliorated microalbuminuria in diabetic nephropathy. Furthermore, our findings suggest that troglitazone has some effects on vascular cells other than lowering plasma glucose levels. Troglitazone might be useful for diabetic angiopathy, including nephropathy and coronary artery disease.


Children with and without dyslexia differ in their behavioural responses to visual information, particularly when required to pool dynamic signals over space and time. Importantly, multiple processes contribute to behavioural responses. Here we investigated which processing stages are affected in children with dyslexia when performing visual motion processing tasks, by combining two methods that are sensitive to the dynamic processes leading to responses. We used a diffusion model which decomposes response time and accuracy into distinct cognitive constructs, and high-density EEG. 50 children with dyslexia and 50 typically developing children aged 6 to 14 years judged the direction of motion as quickly and accurately as possible in two global motion tasks, which varied in their requirements for segregating signal-from-noise. Following our pre-registered analyses, we fitted hierarchical Bayesian diffusion models to the data, blinded to group membership. Unblinding revealed reduced evidence accumulation in children with dyslexia compared to typical children for both tasks. We also identified a response-locked EEG component which was maximal over centro-parietal electrodes which indicated a neural correlate of reduced drift-rate in dyslexia, thereby linking brain and behaviour. We suggest that children with dyslexia are slower to extract sensory evidence from global motion displays, regardless of whether they are required to segregate signal-from-noise, thus furthering our understanding of atypical perceptual decision-making processes in dyslexia.


Projected increases in wildfire and other climate-driven disturbances will affect populations and communities worldwide, including host-parasite relationships. Research in temperate forests has shown that wildfire can negatively affect amphibians, but this research has occurred primarily outside of managed landscapes where interactions with human disturbances could result in additive or synergistic effects. Furthermore, parasites represent a large component of biodiversity and can affect host fitness and population dynamics, yet they are rarely included in studies of how vertebrate hosts respond to disturbance. To determine how wildfire affects amphibians and their parasites, and whether effects differ between protected and managed landscapes, we compared abundance of two amphibians and two nematodes relative to wildfire extent and severity around wetlands in neighboring protected and managed forests (Montana, USA). Population sizes of adult, male long-toed salamanders (Ambystoma macrodactylum) decreased with increased burn severity, with stronger negative effects on isolated populations and in managed forests. In contrast, breeding population sizes of Columbia spotted frogs (Rana luteiventris) increased with burn extent in both protected and managed protected forests. Path analysis showed that the effects of wildfire on the two species of nematodes were consistent with differences in their life history and transmission strategies and the responses of their hosts. Burn severity indirectly reduced abundance of soil-transmitted Cosmocercoides variabilis through reductions in salamander abundance. Burn severity also directly reduced C. variabilis abundance, possibly though changes in soil conditions. For the aquatically transmitted nematode Gyrinicola batrachiensis, the positive effect of burn extent on density of Columbia spotted frog larvae indirectly increased parasite abundance. Our results show that effects of wildfire on amphibians depend upon burn extent and severity, isolation, and prior land use. Through subsequent effects on the parasites, our results also reveal how changes in disturbance regimes can affect communities across trophic levels.


Visualizing the Holocaust: The Perceived Benefits and Concerns of Including Holocaust Atrocity Images in Museum Exhibits ! Mark Mulder ! Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Wilson O'Donnell, Associate Director Museology ! The Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO) is an organization of 150 members in the United States spread over 37 states and the District of Columbia. With this proliferation of Holocaust organizations, came an important question: How should the Holocaust be represented on the walls and galleries of such organizations? There was a large body of research about Holocaust history and education, as well as Holocaust atrocity photography, Holocaust representation, and the role of imagery in collective memory. However, there appeared to be little consensus about the issue of Holocaust representation in museums, and in particular, the use of graphic or violent Holocaust atrocity images. This qualitative study examined the practices and opinions toward the exhibition of Holocaust atrocity images by professionals who worked in Holocaust institutions in the U.S. and Canada. The study found that professionals working in the field largely believed that the use of Holocaust atrocity images was important to the teaching of the Holocaust. However, the research also showed that there were big concerns about who would see these images, how often, and the effects Holocaust atrocity images had on visitors. This study provided important factors for exhibit designers and developers to consider when deciding to exhibit or not exhibit Holocaust atrocity images.! !


Abstract. Fire is an important global ecological process that influences the distribution of biomes, with consequences for carbon, water, and energy budgets. Therefore it is impossible to appropriately model the history and future of the terrestrial ecosystems and the climate system without including fire. This study incorporates the process-based prognostic fire module SPITFIRE into the global vegetation model ORCHIDEE, which was then used to simulate burned area over the 20th century. Special attention was paid to the evaluation of other fire regime indicators such as seasonality, fire size and fire length, next to burned area. For 2001–2006, the simulated global spatial extent of fire agrees well with that given by satellite-derived burned area data sets (L3JRC, GLOBCARBON, GFED3.1), and 76–92% of the global burned area is simulated as collocated between the model and observation, depending on which data set is used for comparison. The simulated global mean annual burned area is 346 Mha yr−1, which falls within the range of 287–384 Mha yr−1 as given by the three observation data sets; and is close to the 344 Mha yr−1 by the GFED3.1 data when crop fires are excluded. The simulated long-term trend and variation of burned area agree best with the observation data in regions where fire is mainly driven by climate variation, such as boreal Russia (1930–2009), along with Canada and US Alaska (1950–2009). At the global scale, the simulated decadal fire variation over the 20th century is only in moderate agreement with the historical reconstruction, possibly because of the uncertainties of past estimates, and because land-use change fires and fire suppression are not explicitly included in the model. Over the globe, the size of large fires (the 95th quantile fire size) is underestimated by the model for the regions of high fire frequency, compared with fire patch data as reconstructed from MODIS 500 m burned area data. Two case studies of fire size distribution in Canada and US Alaska, and southern Africa indicate that both number and size of large fires are underestimated, which could be related with short fire patch length and low daily fire size. Future efforts should be directed towards building consistent spatial observation data sets for key parameters of the model in order to constrain the model error at each key step of the fire modelling.


Recently, distributed computing infrastructures such as grid computing, have witnessed huge developments which have a very important impact on computationally intensive scientific, industrial and engineering problems. Collaborative computing, resources access and sharing facilitated by grid computing systems amplifies concerns about cyber attacks and misbehaviors of grid resources (resources provider). In many cases, an organization may send out jobs for remote execution on untrustworthy machines. Since resource sharing and cooperation among different administrative domains are among the central goals of grid computing, it is necessary to guarantee that, among the shared resources, there are no malicious resources interested in invalidating or corrupting the job results. In order to guarantee reliable jobs execution in grid systems, we have developed a new approach for malicious grid resources tolerance using reputation to improve the efficiency of majority voting mechanisms. The grid broker service investigates the trustworthiness of the grid resources used in the voting procedure; this investigation is based on distributed and hierarchical reputation management system which maintains a reputation value for each grid resource based on its historical behavior. The validation of the result is then decided based on the grid resources reputation level.


Contrast 3D echocardiography (C3DE) enhances the visual quality of ultrasound images in comparison with conventional 3D echocardiography (3DE). Though the image quality in C3DE is perceived to be improved for visual analysis, but it actually deteriorates for the purpose of automatic or semi-automatic analysis due to high speckle noise and intensity in homogeneity. Therefore, the left ventricle (LV) endocardial feature extraction and segmentation from C3DE images remains a challenging problem. To overcome this challenge, this work proposes a simple adaptive method to invert the appearance of C3DE image. In this inverted appearance, the LV cavity appears dark while the myocardium appears bright similar to 3DE image. Moreover, the resulting inverted image has high contrast and low noise appearance, yielding strong LV endocardium boundary and facilitating feature extraction for segmentation. The proposed method inverts the C3DE image by using a threshold that is determined automatically through image histogram analysis. Subsequently, the inverted image information is utilized in an edge-driven LV feature extraction and segmentation method. The segmentation results of LV boundary delineation are compared to manual LV boundary delineation and a good match is observed.


Source term estimation (STE) of hazardous material (HAZMAT) releases is critical for emergency response. Such problem is usually solved with the aid of atmospheric dispersion modelling and inversion algorithms accompanied with a variety of uncertainty, including uncertainty in atmospheric dispersion models, uncertainty in meteorological data, uncertainty in measurement process and uncertainty in inversion algorithms. Bayesian inference methods provide a unified framework for solving STE problem and quantifying the uncertainty at the same time. In this paper, three stochastic methods for STE, namely Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) and ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), are compared in accuracy, time consumption as well as the quantification of uncertainty, based on which a kind of flip ambiguity phenomenon caused by various uncertainty in STE problems is pointed out. The advantage of non-Gaussian estimation methods like SMC is emphasized.


Primary Healthcare including family health, as one of the first contact services
has basic role in health attainment. Quality of care remains one of the most significant challenges
facing the health systems. In quality management, service users have critical roles in identifying their
own needs and preferences. The objective of this study was assessing the consumers' perceptions and
expectations of family health Services at selected cities in West Azerbaijan province heath posts.
Materials & Methods: A sample of 390 regular female health care consumers participated in this cross
sectional descriptive study which was done in 2011. A questionnaire based on the SERVQUAL
instrument was used for data collection. For statistical analysis, descriptive statistics and X2, Friedman
and Wilcoxon tests were applied.
Results: The findings of this study indicated that of 390 individuals receiving services, 51% in Urmia,
28% in Khoy, and 21% were living in Bukan. The findings showed that expectations of 91.1%
respondents were not met. Comparison of Quintet dimensions showed the smallest gap was in Impathy
dimension and the largest in responsiveness respectively. City of residence had significant correlation
with quality gap (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Current status of the family health Services expectations were far from consumers
expectations and thus quality improvement initiatives were required in all dimensions specially in
responsiveness.


Cedefop's European skills index (ESI) is a composite indicator that measures the performance of a country's skills system. For the first time it is possible to gauge the relative performance of EU Member State skills systems and, in doing so, contribute to the policy discourse on skills, employment, and growth. Countries need to equip their workforce with the appropriate skills for their labour markets; to do so, they need the right policies. The ESI helps understand which policies work, highlighting trends shaping skills systems across the EU. It allows analysis of a skills system in three different areas: skills development, skills activation and skills matching. Skills development assesses the effectiveness of compulsory and post-compulsory education. Skills activation examines the transition from education to work. Skills matching shows to what extent skills are matched with an appropriate job. The report presents findings from the 2018 ESI update and provides in-depth analysis including individual Member State performances.


Aromatic and medicinal plants, widely used as folk medicine are, beyond fruits, vegetables grains and spices, the principal source of antioxidant compounds. Several studies demonstrated that antioxidants have also antifungal activity (Jayashree & Subramanyam, 2000; Rasooli & Abyaneh, 2004). More and more, humanity try to replace synthetic metabolites by natural metabolites. Therefore, studies in aromatic and medicinal plants with the capacity to produce a different range of secondary metabolites extremely increase in late years. On the other hand, chemical products, like pesticides, fungicides or bactericides are widely used in agriculture. However, they have disadvantages to the environment, due to contamination of the soils, the final consumers or the producers. Still, the indiscriminate and recurrent use of synthetic fungicides has been found to induce resistance in several fungi, the residual toxicity of these compounds result in human health hazards and requires caution in their use for plant disease control (Singh et al., 2009). Thus, some aromatic and medicinal plants, with antifungal capacity (Soliman & Badeaa, 2002; Goun et al. 2003; Sucharita & Padma, 2010), like genus Thymus, Mentha, Calendula and Catharanthus were micropropagated for antifungal activity evaluation.


Purpose - In line with the ongoing global and domestic reforms in agriculture and allied sectors, the Indian Government is reducing its direct market intervention and encouraging private participation based on market forces. This has led to increased exposure of agricultural produce to price and other market risks, which consequently emphasize the importance of futures markets for price discovery and price risk management. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of agricultural commodity markets by assessing the relationships between futures prices and spot market prices of major agricultural commodities in India. Design/methodology/approach - The efficiency of the futures market for 12 agricultural commodities, traded at one of the largest commodity exchanges of India, i.e. National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd, has been explored by using Johansen's cointegration analysis and Granger causality tests. Unit root test procedures such as Augmented Dickey-Fuller and non-parametric Phillips-Perron were initially applied to examine whether futures and spot prices are stationary or not. The hypothesis, that futures prices are unbiased predictors of spot prices has been tested using econometric software package. Findings - Results show that cointegration exists significantly in futures and spot prices for all the selected agricultural commodities except for wheat and rice. This suggest that there is a long-term relationship between futures and spot prices for most of the agricultural commodities like maize, chickpea, black lentil, pepper, castor seed, soybean and sugar. The causality test further distinguishes and categorizes the commodities based on direction of relationship between futures and spot prices. The analysis of short-term relationship by causality test indicates that futures markets have stronger ability to predict subsequent spot prices for chickpea, castor seed, soybean and sugar as compared to maize, black lentil and pepper, where bi-directional relationships exist in the short run. Practical implications - The results of this study are useful for various stakeholders active in agricultural commodities markets such as producers, traders, commission agents, commodity exchange participants, regulators and policy makers. Originality/value - There are very few studies that have explored the efficiency of the commodity futures market in India in a detailed manner, especially at individual commodity level.


High dimensional nearest neighbor search is a fundamental problem and has found applications in many domains. Although many hashing based approaches have been proposed for approximate nearest neighbor search in high dimensional space, one main drawback is that they often return many false positives that need to be filtered out by a post procedure. We propose a novel method to address this limitation in this paper. The key idea is to introduce a filtering procedure within the search algorithm, based on the compressed sensing theory, that effectively removes the false positive answers. We first obtain a sparse representation for each data point by the landmark based approach, after which we solve the nearly duplicate search that the difference between the query and its nearest neighbors forms a sparse vector living in a small ℓp ball, where p ≤ 1. Our empirical study on real-world datasets demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach compared to thestate-of-the-art hashing methods.


This paper proposes time-frequency analysis of EEG spectrum and wavelet analysis in EEG de-noising. In this paper, the basic idea is to use the characteristics of multi-scale multi-resolution, using four different thresholds to wipe off interference and noise after decomposition of the EEG signals. By analyzing the results, understanding the effects of four different methods, it comes to a conclusion that the wavelet de-noising and soft threshold is a better conclusion.


A common objective of remote sensing is the mapping of land cover. Traditionally, this has been achieved using hard classifiers such as the maximum likelihood classifier. In these circumstances, accuracy is readily assessed using the confusion matrix or contingency table. Based on this matrix the overall user's and producer's accuracies can be estimated as can the same accuracies per class. Further, Kappa statistics can be estimated that allow for randomness in the matrix. During the last 10 years or so, researchers have increasingly applied fuzzy classifiers, such as the fuzzy c-means classifier and the mixture model that estimates the membership of a pixel, to each class. Clearly, where a pixel represents a mixture of land cover classes (for example, 20 percent cereals, 50 percent heathland, and 30 percent forest) fuzzy classifiers provide the opportunity for greater accuracy, and for this reason, fuzzy classification has become a fundamentally important approach in remote sensing. There is no accepted standard method for assessing the accuracy of a fuzzy classification. A scatterplot between the observed values and the estimated values provides a useful graphical representation of the accuracy of the estimates; however, quantitative summary of the information in the scatterplot has proved elusive and researchers have often used ad-hoc combinations of statistics, such as the mean error, root mean square (RMS) error, and correlation coefficient. The RMS error is insufficient because it is insensitive to the variance per class and the overall number of classes. For example, a class that has small membership x in all pixels (say 0%stlgxstlg10%) may be estimated with small RMS error by setting all pixels to the mean membership for that class (say 5 percent) even though the correlation between observed and estimated memberships is zero. The likelihood of having small memberships per class increases with the number of classes c. The correlation coefficient is insufficient because it is insensitive to bias such that r may be large when the scatterplot lies away from the 1:1 line. A particular problem arises for classes whose memberships are bimodal (i.e., little mixing as is often the case for "water" classes where pixels are either close to 0 percent or 100 percent water but rarely lie between). Then r can be large when the correlation within each "cluster" is zero. Several statistics were evaluated that address these issues including schemes for standardising the RMS error and weighting schemes for estimating overall precision and bias. First, the above issues were explored using fuzzy maps of land cover obtained for four different sites representing different biomes (New Forest, U.K.; Cukurova Deltas, Turkey; BOREAS site, Canada; HAPEX-Sahel site, Niger). These fuzzy maps were obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Advanced Very-High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery (trained on classified fine spatial resolution imagery) using a standard feed-forward back-propagation artificial neural network. Second, the proposed statistics were evaluated using simulated data involving classes with different distributions of memberships and different numbers of these classes.


Electronic markets theory leads to the prediction that the "interconnection effects" of information technology will lower coordination costs in market transactions, prompting a move from hierarchical to market arrangements. This prediction was apparently validated by the proliferation of B2B e-marketplaces in the mid-1990s. But the subsequent abrupt consolidation of public, independent e-marketplaces raises questions about what it takes for e-marketplaces to succeed. Experience with actual e-marketplaces suggests that electronic interconnection effects alone may not explain e-marketplace success. The strategic management literature provides a complementary view, emphasizing the fit between an e-marketplace's value proposition, its product-market focus, and its value activities. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore the degree to which the strategic positioning perspective contributes to the explanation of e-marketplace success. We analyzed a pair of e-marketplaces sharing the same competitive space, one successful and the other less so. We found that the number and types of interconnection benefits alone did not make a good explanation of e-marketplace success. However, the additional concepts provided by strategic positioning theory - particularly the holistic fit between benefits types offered (value proposition), product-market focus, and value activities - do appear to explain well the observed differences in e-marketplace performance. Future research should extend our exploratory investigation of e-marketplace success.


In this dissertation, I study how consumers influence each other in the adoption and engagement of digital goods.
In the first essay, I study peer influence in mobile game adoption. Although peer effects are expected to influence consumer decisions, they are difficult to identify in observational studies due selection bias: Friends share common characteristics and behave in similar ways even without peer effects. I use a novel approach to estimate unobserved characteristics which endogenously drive tie formation and use the estimates to control for selection, without need for instruments. This is the first paper to use latent space to reduce bias in peer influence estimates. I find that peers account for 27% of mobile game adoptions, and that ignoring latent homophily would bias the estimates by 40%, in line with previous studies. In some samples, ignoring latent homophily can result in overestimation of social effects by over 100%.
In the second essay, I examine the effect of zero rating on consumer behavior in a social network. I use Facebook data on millions of users to quantify direct, peer, and long-term effects of zero rating, a campaign where consumers can access digital media over mobile networks for free, on social network activities. I find that zero rating does not have the same effect on all social network activities. While the direct impact of zero rating is positive on all activities, users with more friends on zero rating create less, consume more, and give more feedback on content. In addition, zero rating does not have a uniform effect across consumers. Some consumers benefit more from zero rating than others, and I show that network characteristics can help identify those consumers whose network benefits the most from zero rating.


This book makes learning Old English easy. It contains a simplified grammar, a minimum of phonology, well-chosen selections from Old English prose, and rich selections from Old English poetry. The texts are in regularized spelling, based on Early West Saxon, so that beginners will not have to wrestle with a shifting orthography. All texts come with facing-page literal translations. The prose selections include: "The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan"; "The Story of King Cynewulf of Wessex"; "The Wars of King Alfred against the Vikings"; and King Alfred's Preface to Cura Pastoralis. The poetry includes: Caedmon's "Hymn" from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People; The Battle of Brunanburg; The Battle of Maldon; The Dream of Rood from the Vercelli Book; The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife's Lament, The Storm Riddles, The Panther, and The Whale from The Exeter Book.


The mutual fund is a superb concept, a vehicle for investors to pool their savings in a diversified portfolio and thus acquire experienced management, as well as economies of scale in fees and expenses. Mutual funds offer, too, remarkable flexibility, the ability to withdraw at will even modest sums, at the underlying asset value. Being a favored child of the law, investors receive detailed disclosures, a safe harbor from double taxation, and SEC oversight. Markets fluctuate, but a mutual fund's diversity and presumably skilled management allow the investor to take a longer view, freeing him from the concern that Stock A or B will report lower earnings next week. Clearly, those thrifty Scots had a brilliant idea, and equity mutual funds alone now have $4 trillion in assets, up from a mere $250 billion as recently as 1990. What follows is a speech I gave in December 2005 before the NY Society of Security Analysts. It was billed as a celebration of Graham-and-Dodd style value investing, and indeed the invitation had been a consequence of an article I wrote earlier that year, in which I explored a dramatically successful group of patient investors ("Searching for Rational Investors in a Perfect Storm"). I used the occasion to take a broader look at mutual funds, and in particular to study large cap growth funds, which it developed play the performance game, turning over their portfolios at stunning rates with disheartening results for investors, though not for the managers. An update of my earlier study provided a useful benchmark.


Abstract. The uppermost Cretaceous to early Palaeogene is a period of major deformations of the western part of the Eurasian plate with prominent basin inversions starting from the Coniacian onwards. These deformations occur in a complex geodynamic setting within both the context of the Africa–Eurasia convergence and the North Atlantic opening. While Mesozoic graben inversions have been extensively studied, particularly in Eastern Europe and the North Sea, more gentle deformations that affect thicker crust areas (intracratonic basins and emerged lands) are not as well documented. The objective of this study is to constrain the exact timing, type, and magnitude of the early Palaeogene deformations affecting the intracratonic Paris Basin and to integrate them at the western European scale. Low-amplitude deformations are attempted through a high-resolution reconstitution of its stratigraphic record based on well-dated outcrops and well-dated wells, and a high number of well-logs that are correlated using the "stacking pattern" sequence stratigraphic technique. Two orders of sequences are identified (third and fourth order) and correlated throughout the basin. Basin geometric and palaeogeographic reconstitutions are based on sediment thickness and facies analysis. Two-dimensional accommodation space measurements were taken in order to quantify the magnitude of the deformations. Three phases of deformation were recognized. 1. An intra-Maastrichtian–pre-Thanetian (59 Ma) deformation, with major uplift and erosion of the Cretaceous strata with two sub-periods of deformation: Maastrichtian–pre-middle-Danian and Upper Danian–pre-Thanetian long-wavelength deformations. This period of major deformation is coeval with Upper Cretaceous/pre-Danian compressive deformations linked to the Africa–Eurasia convergence in southern France and with volcanic activity from the North Atlantic to Massif Central and the Rhenish Shield during the Palaeocene. 2. An early Ypresian (55.1–54.3 Ma) medium-wavelength deformation ( ×  10 km), here reported to be a stress rearrangement related to the onset of the North Atlantic opening. 3. An uppermost Ypresian (49.8 Ma) long-wavelength deformation ( ×  100 km), contemporaneous with flexural compressive deformations in the Aquitaine Basin (Pyrenean deformation), and related to the Iberia–Eurasia convergence.


Abstract The visualization of heart rhythm disturbance and atrial fibrillation therapy allows the optimization of new cardiac catheter ablations. With the simulation software CST (Computer Simulation Technology, Darmstadt) electromagnetic and thermal simulations can be carried out to analyze and optimize different heart rhythm disturbance and cardiac catheters for pulmonary vein isolation. Another form of visualization is provided by haptic, three-dimensional print models. These models can be produced using an additive manufacturing method, such as a 3d printer. The aim of the study was to produce a 3d print of the Offenburg heart rhythm model with a representation of an atrial fibrillation ablation procedure to improve the visualization of simulation of cardiac catheter ablation. The basis of 3d printing was the Offenburg heart rhythm model and the associated simulation of cryoablation of the pulmonary vein. The thermal simulation shows the pulmonary vein isolation of the left inferior pulmonary vein with the cryoballoon catheter Arctic Front AdvanceTM from Medtronic. After running through the simulation, the thermal propagation during the procedure was shown in the form of different colors. The three-dimensional print models were constructed on the base of the described simulation in a CAD program. Four different 3d printers are available for this purpose in a rapid prototyping laboratory at the University of Applied Science Offenburg. Two different printing processes were used and a final print model with additional representation of the esophagus and internal esophagus catheter was also prepared for printing. With the help of the thermal simulation results and the subsequent evaluation, it was possible to draw a conclusion about the propagation of the cold emanating from the catheter in the myocardium and the surrounding tissue. It was measured that just 3 mm from the balloon surface into the myocardium the temperature dropped to 25 °C. The simulation model was printed using two 3d printing methods. Both methods, as well as the different printing materials offer different advantages and disadvantages. All relevant parts, especially the balloon catheter and the conduction, are realistically represented. Only the thermal propagation in the form of different colors is not shown on this model. Three-dimensional heart rhythm models as well as virtual simulations allow very clear visualization of complex cardiac rhythm therapy and atrial fibrillation treatment methods. The printed models can be used for optimization and demonstration of cryoballoon catheter ablation in patients with atrial fibrillation.


Information broadcasting is an effective method to deliver popular files to a large number of users in wireless and satellite networks. In a previous work, we used a dynamic optimization approach to address the problem of broadcast scheduling for a pull system with equal file sizes. In this paper, we address that problem in a more general setting where the file sizes are not equal and have geometric size distributions with possibly different means. The dynamic optimization approach allows us to find a near-optimal scheduling policy, which we use as a benchmark to evaluate a number of other heuristic policies. Also, we modify the resulting policy and apply it to the case with fixed (unequal) file sizes and compare the results with some other well known, as well as new, heuristic policies. Finally, we introduce a low-complexity heuristic policy to be used for practical implementations. The results show that the performance of the new policy is very close to that of the original policy.


We develop a one-step scheme for generating multiparticle entangled states between two cold atomic clouds in distant cavities coupled by an optical fiber. We show that, through suitably choosing the intensities and detunings of the fields and precisely tuning the time evolution of the system, multiparticle entanglement between the separated atomic clouds can be engineered deterministically, in which quantum manipulations are insensitive to the states of the cavity and losses of the fiber. The experimental feasibility of this scheme is analyzed based on recent experimental advances in the realization of strong coupling between cold 87Rb clouds and fiber-based cavity. This scheme may open up promising perspectives for implementing quantum communication and networking with coupled cavities connected by optical fibers.


Control of hypertension, labile or fixed, systolic or diastolic, at any age, in either sex appears to be central to prevention of atherothrombotic brain infarction (ABI). Prospectively, hypertension proved the most common and potent precursor of ABI's. Its contribution was direct and could not be attributed to factors related both to stroke and hypertension. Asymptomatic, causal "hypertension" was associated with a risk of ABI about four times that of normotensives. The probability of occurrence of an ABI was predicted no better with both blood pressure measurements or the mean arterial pressure than with systolic alone. Since there was no diminishing impact of systolic pressure with advancing age, the concept that systolic elevations are, even in the aged, innocuous is premature. Comparing normotensives and hypertensives in each sex, women did not tolerate hypertension better than men.


This paper describes a novel extraction
procedure for the intrinsic small-signal model parameters
of state-of-the-art 200 GHz SiGe HBTs. Analytical
expressions, augmented by a least-square error
minimization based optimization, are used to achieve, for
the first time, a broadband, small-signal SiGe HBT model
that is accurate up to 80 GHz. The intrinsic components for
a T-equivalent circuit are determined from open-collector,
reverse-bias and forward-bias measurements using proper
de-embedding schemes. A bias-independent capacitance i s
added in parallel with the intrinsic bias-independent base
resistance to model the raised extrinsic base device
structure used to achieve the very high fT and fmax found in
these advanced SiGe HBTs. The intrinsic components for
the physical model are extracted directly from the
analytical expressions. The model parameters, extracted
from measurements up to 40 GHz, give an accurate
representation of the small-signal SiGe HBT
characteristics up to 80 GHz.
Index Terms — Broadband, small-signal model, SiGe
HBTs, parameter extraction, physical model.


The phase-angle-jump is defined in this paper as another single-event characteristic of voltage dips, besides residual or characteristic voltage and duration. This paper proposes and compares six methods to calculate the phase-angle-jump for measured voltage dips in a three-phase system. This paper also studies the details of the calculation: correcting frequency and transition segments. The six proposed methods have been applied to 235 sets of measured voltage dips and a statistical comparison has been made. It is recommended that two of the methods be included in IEEE Standard 1564 and IEC 61000-4-30.


In the UK, most mammographic interpretation training needs to be undertaken where there is a mammo-alternator or other suitable light box; consequently limiting the time and places where training can take place. However, the gradual introduction of digital mammography is opening up new opportunities of providing such training without the restriction of current viewing devices. Whilst high-resolution monitors in appropriate viewing environments are de rigour for actual reporting; advantages of the digital image over film are in the flexibility of training opportunity afforded, e.g. training whenever, wherever suits the individual. A previous study indicated the possible potential for reporting mammographic cases utilising handheld devices with suitable interaction techniques. In a pilot study, a group of mammographers (n=4) were questioned in semi-structured interviews in order to help establish current UK film-readers' training profile. On the basis of the pilot study data, 109 Breast Screening Units (601 film readers) were approached to complete a structured questionnaire in order to establish the potential role of smaller computer devices in mammographic interpretation training (given the use of digital mammography). Subsequently, a study of radiologists' visual search behaviour in digital screening has begun. This has highlighted different image manipulations than found in structured experiments in this area and poses new challenges for visualising the inspection process. Overall the results indicate that using different display sizes for training is possible but is also a challenging task requiring novel interaction approaches. .


The purpose of this study was to determine how isokinetic eccentric and concentric peak torque/body weight ratios and time to peak torque values relate to drop vertical jump heights in 30 healthy subjects (12 men and 18 women, age = 22.7±2.2 yr, ht =169.6±8.0 cm, wt =67.2f11.9 kg). Drop vertical jumps were performed from a box 50 cm high. Subjects were tested isokinetically on each leg for the motions of knee extension and ankle plantar flexion. Eccentric and concentric peak torque (PT)/body weight ratios along with time (s) to eccentric and concentric peak torque were extracted from the Kin Com II computer. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between the eight predictor variables and drop vertical jump height. Knee extension concentric PT/body weight ratio was the most significant predictor of drop vertical jump height, accounting for 23% of-the variance. This finding suggests that the stretch-shortening cycle can be simulated using isokinetic strength measurements and that drop vertical jump height can be attributed in part to concentric knee extension strength.


Based on reconstruction-equivalent-chirp (REC) technique, a novel solution for fabricating low-cost long fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) with desired properties is proposed and initially studied. A proof-of-concept experiment is demonstrated with two conventional uniform phase masks and a submicron-precision translation stage, successfully. It is shown that the original phase shift (OPS) caused by phase mismatch of the two phase masks can be compensated by the equivalent phase shift (EPS) at the ±1st channels of sampled FBGs, separately. Furthermore, as an example, a π phase-shifted FBG of about 90 mm is fabricated by using these two 50mm-long uniform phase masks based on the presented method.


We examined seasonality, intensity, and level of epibiont infection by the green alga Korshikoviella gracilipes on the zooplankton community over 2 yr in the high mountain Rio Seco lake. Daphnia pulicaria was the preferred substrate for the epibiont, whose life cycle was exclusively completed on this taxon. The density of epibiont dispersal stage and the epibiont prevalence and burden on crustacean zooplankton were directly related to D. pulicaria density in both years. Laboratory experiments showed that attached epibionts had a negative effect on Daphnia by increasing the weight and sinking rates of infected animals and a positive effect by increasing its reproductive rates, with a neutral effect on survivorship. On the other hand, the epibiont dispersal stage was actively and intensively grazed by Daphnia, which implies a benefit for Daphnia and a cost for K. gracilipes. Thus, both species derived benefits and costs from this relationship. Our results indicate a positive cost‐benefit balance for both epibiont and host in such a way that a mutualistic relationship can be suggested. This epibiont‐host interaction may play an important role in population and community regulation in Rio Seco lake.


SUMMARY ERP applications have evolved into enterprise-wide applications, which are generally acknowledged today as a critical component in an organisation's information strategy. When implementing an ERP application, the control and governance of all IT processes are critical to ensure that value is delivered, risks are managed and that the investment in IT (ERP) delivers a reasonable return. It should, therefore, be important to focus on mitigating IT process risks that have an impact on the ERP environment, so that the level of residual risk is acceptable and aligned with the business objectives. This assignment focuses on using the generally accepted IT framework, COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and related Technology), as governance and control model. The criticality of each COBIT control objective (IT process) is evaluated by applying the COBIT control objectives in an ERP environment. Specific reference is also made to Qmuzik as an ERP application. By applying COBIT in an ERP environment, the most critical IT processes applicable to ERP are identified, in order to ensure that the minimum process controls for these IT processes are designed and implemented.


We compared four root water uptake (RWU) models of different complexity that are all embedded in greater soil water flow models. The soil models used were SWAP (one‐dimensional), FUSSIM2 (two‐dimensional), and RSWMS (three‐dimensional). Within SWAP, two RWU functions were utilized (SWAP‐macro and SWAP‐micro). The complexity of the processes considered in RWU increases from SWAP‐macro, to SWAP‐micro, to FUSSIM2, to RSWMS. The objective of our study was to determine to what extent the RWU models differed when tested under extreme conditions: low root length density, high transpiration rate, and low water content. Comparison 1 looked at the results of the models for a scenario of transpiration and uptake and Comparison 2 studied compensation mechanisms of water uptake. The uptake scenario pertained to a long dry period with constant transpiration and a single rainfall event. As could be expected, the models yielded different results in Comparison 1, but the differences in cumulative transpiration were modest due to various feedback mechanisms. In Comparison 2, the cumulative effect of different feedback processes were studied. Redistribution of water due to soil pressure head gradients generated by water uptake led to an increase in cumulative transpiration of 32%, and the inclusion of compensation in uptake by the roots resulted in a further increase of 10%. Going from one‐ to three‐dimensional modeling, the horizontal gradients in the soil and root system increased, which reduced the actual transpiration. The analysis showed that both soil physical and root physiological factors are important for proper deterministic modeling of RWU.


Territorial behaviour is thought to play a role in limiting population density. Consequently the factors that affect territory size would also influence population density. I examined the relationship between visibility and territory size in young-of-the year (YOY) rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) to test the hypothesis that increasing habitat heterogeneity results in a reduction in territory size and consequently in higher population density. As predicted, the territory size decreased with decreasing visibility. However, the decrease in territory size did not produce an increase in density, perhaps because few individuals defended territories or because the experiment was too short for population density to reach an equilibrium. The optimal size of a contiguous territory is predicted (1) to remain unchanged at low food abundance levels and (2) to decrease only when food abundance is high enough to reduce territory size below the contiguous optimum. I manipulated food abundance to test this model, using YOY steelhead trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ). Increasing competition resulted in increasing mortality, higher propensity to emigrate, higher variance in body mass, lower growth, lower population density, lower biomass and lower percent habitat saturation. Territory size did not change with food abundance. Increasing levels of intraspecific competition in stream-dwelling salmonid populations often lead to density dependent mortality and emigration. However, density dependent growth is less frequently detected. I examined the relationship between average fork length and density of YOY Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ), to investigate (1) whether there is evidence for density dependent growth, (2) the shape of the relationship, and (3) the effect of spatial and temporal scale on the ability to detect density dependent growth. There was a negative relationship, described by a power curve, between the average body size and density of YOY Atlantic salmon. Most of the variation in body size was explained by YOY density, with year, location and older salmon density accounting for a minor proportion of the variation. Density dependent growth was equally well detected within and across years. Spatial scale did not affect the ability to detect density dependent growth. My analysis suggested that YOY Atlantic salmon populations are regulated by two different mechanisms: density dependent growth at low densities and density dependent mortality at high densities.


Xenotransplantation - the transfer of living tissue between species - has long been heralded as a potential solution to the severe organ shortage crisis experienced by the United Kingdom and other 'developed' nations. However, the significant risks which accompany this biotechnology led the United Kingdom to adopt a cautious approach to its regulation, with the establishment of a non-departmental public body - UKXIRA - to oversee the development of this technology on a national basis. In December 2006 UKXIRA was quietly disbanded and replaced with revised guidance, which entrusts the regulation of xenotransplantation largely to research ethics committees. In this article we seek to problematize this new regulatory framework, arguing that specialist expertise and national oversight are necessary components of an adequate regulatory framework for a biotechnology which poses new orders of risk, challenges the adequacy of traditional understandings of autonomy and consent, and raises significant animal welfare concerns. We argue for a more considered and holistic approach, based on adequate consultation, to regulating biotechnological developments in the United Kingdom.


This paper focuses on a review of the state of the art of future power grids, where new and modern technologies will be integrated into the power distribution grid, and will become the future key players for electricity generation, transmission, and distribution. The current power grids are undergoing an unprecedented transformation from the original design, changing the way how energy has been produced, delivered, and consumed over the past century. This new energy era includes the integration of renewable sources such as wind and solar, supported by the distributed or community energy storage, to power distribution grids through innovative high-frequency magnetic links and power-electronic converters. The use of emission free transportation, such as electric vehicles, and energy efficient technologies, such as superconducting generators and storage systems, are also rapidly emerging and will be integrated into the power grids in the foreseeable future. However, it is necessary to reconsider the current paradigms of system analysis and plan with a focus on how to achieve the most flexible, efficient, and reliable power grid for the future––the one that enables operation in a domain which is very different than the current one to deliver the services to consumers at an affordable cost.


A theoretical investigation was conducted to predict the fundamental behavior of nondiffusive, viscous flow to a sink located at the bottom of a density-stratified reservoir. The governing partial differential equation was transformed into an ordinary differential equation by utilizing a similarity technique. Numerical and series solutions were obtained and predict a flow field characterized by a withdrawal layer near the reservoir bottom moving toward the sink bounded above by a narrower reverse flow with a much smaller volumetric discharge. The theoretical development further indicates that normalized profiles of horizontal velocity, vertical velocity, and horizontal shear are similar, i.e., have shapes that are independent of the fluid and flow parameters. Mathematical expressions were developed for various aspects of the fluid motion such as horizontal and vertical velocity, horizontal shear, withdrawal layer thickness, and the distribution of flow within the withdrawal layer.


This dissertation focuses on aspects of behavior and public policy related to vulnerable populations. The first essay, coauthored with Christian Gregory and David C. Ribar, reviews recent theory and empirical evidence regarding the effect of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation on food insecurity and replicates the modelling strategies used in the empirical literature. We find that recent evidence suggesting the ameliorative effect of SNAP on food insecurity may not be robust to specification choice or data. Most specifications mirror the existing literature in finding a positive association of food insecurity with SNAP participation. Two-stage least squares and control function methods do show that SNAP reduces food insecurity, but effects are not consistent across sub-populations and are not always statistically significant. In the second essay, I examine the relationship between SNAP participation and food insecurity using data from the 2001-2008 Current Population Survey (CPS-FSS). A behavioral Rasch selection model is proposed and estimated using four subsamples of low-income households: unmarried parent households, married parent households, all-elderly households, and other adult-only households. The behavioral Rasch selection model assumes responses to multiple food hardship questions may be modelled as indicators of a single underlying index of food hardships, and concurrently, controls for the endogeneity of program participation. Simultaneously modelling the outcomes this way leads to more efficient estimation. The models are identified using exogenous changes in state-level polices related to SNAP. The results suggest that SNAP has a strong ameliorative effect on food insecurity for married parent households, all-elderly households, and other adult-only households, while SNAP continues to be associated with greater food hardships for unmarried parent households. Participating in SNAP reduces the probability of food insecurity by 22.4% for other adult-only households, 18% for all-elderly households, and 17% for married parent households. The third and final essay examines the relationship between underage college drinking and the initial occupational choices of male college graduates using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97). Focusing on recent college graduates and their initial occupational choices allows me to address important timing issues not considered by the existing literature. For the multivariate analyses, I estimate multinomial logistic models of occupational choice, where the occupational choice set is specified as employed full-time in white collar occupations, other occupations, enrolled in school, and neither in school nor employed full-time. In addition, I estimate multinomial logistic selection models that control for the potential endogeneity of underage drinking. The results suggest underage college drinking is not associated with young men's initial occupational choices, with the exception of the decision to be enrolled in school. Young men with any underage college days where they drank two or more drinks are 28.9% less likely to be enrolled in school after completing a bachelor's degree.


Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) malaria is an increasingly recognized cause of malaria in Mandya, a rural pocket of the southern part of India. There is a paucity of detailed clinical studies of naturally acquired infections like malaria from these places. 345 subjects were recruited for the study. Smears positive for falciparum malaria were considered diagnostic. Detailed history, physical examination and required investigations were done in all cases. Three major treatment categories were designated as those who received chloroquine with primaquine, artesunate with mefloquine and quinine with doxycycline. Majority subjects were in the age group of 26 – 35 years, 32% subjects used personal protective measures like mosquito nets. 56% of the subjects belong to the middle socio-economic status. Most subjects sought medical care within 1 to 5 days of onset of symptoms. Fever was the commonest symptom followed by headache, nausea with vomiting, myalgia, cough, altered sensorium, abdominal pain, jaundice. The triad of malaria, fever, pallor and splenomegaly were noted in the study group. Subsets uncomplicated cases (282) of P. falciparum malaria patients responded to chloroquine treatment (12.8%), quinine treatment (10.6%) and to artesunate treatment (76.6%). Some uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria patients (62) received artesunate as second line of treatment and responded well. Those with complicated malaria (125) were treated with artesunate (60) and quinine (65). 4% mortality was observed in this study, i.e. 14 among the complicated P. falciparum malaria group.


This paper describes the use of two different risk assessment strategies during the design and development of a complex authentic task-based e-learning program developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The first strategy involved the use of expert reviewers and the second strategy employed the engagement of a risk assessment expert facilitator. This approach enabled the WHO design team to identify risks in advance and employ control and mitigation strategies to eliminate or reduce the risks that were revealed by the two risk assessments.


Abstract Coase's (1960) contractual single-exchange framework is challenged by Arruñada (2017) as a framework that cannot be used to understand the complex nature of property law and related institutions. Arruñada proposes the sequential exchange model as an alternative framework. Differences between the two approaches are considered and some applications in land and natural resources are used to evaluate his critique. These cases support Arruñada's critique of the simple contracting approach to property, showing that for many natural resources private contracting has not been the solution and that a mix of property institutions govern. Contrary to Arruñada, however, I argue that the limits of the single-exchange framework arise not because of sequential exchange, but because assets (parcels of land) are complex and physically connected.


: this article offers an analysis of three judgements concerning the relationship between the Court of Justice of the EU and three EU national Constitutional Courts. The judgments, from the Danish Supreme Court and the German and Italian Constitutional Courts, where occasions where the latter Courts have threatened to oppose to distinctive elements of the EU constitutional legal order. These elements can ultimately lead to the theorisation of an EU constitutional identity. In particular, this article analyses the Dansk Industri judgment of the Danish Supreme Court, where the Danish court decided not to apply a preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice declaring the horizontal direct effect of the principle of non discrimination on the ground of age; the OMT judgment of the German Constitutional Court, where the German Court, after having threatened to declare the ECB OMT programme as ultra vires decided to accept the functional interpretation of the principle of conferred powers at the conditions established by the Court of Justice in the Gauweiler judgment; and the request for a preliminary ruling made by the Italian Constitutional Court in the Taricco II(M.A.S. and MB) judgment, where the Court of Justice has ruled on the balance between the primacy of EU law and the constitutional principle of legality.


Title of Document: Design and Characterization of p-i-n Devices for Betavoltaic Microbatteries on Gallium Nitride Muhammad Raziuddin A. Khan, Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering 2015 Directed By: Dr. Agis Iliadis, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Betavoltaic microbatteries convert nuclear energy released as beta particles directly into electrical energy. These batteries are well suited for electrical applications such as micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), implantable medical devices and sensors. Such devices are often located in hard to access places where long life, micro-size and lightweight are required. The working principle of a betavoltaic device is similar to a photovoltaic device; they differ only in that the electron hole pairs (EHPs) are generated in the device by electrons instead of photons. In this study, the performance of a betavoltaic device fabricated from gallium nitride (GaN) is investigated for beta particle energies equivalent to Tritium (H) and Nickel-63 (N) beta sources. GaN is an attractive choice for fabricating betavoltaic devices due to its wide band gap and radiation resistance. Another advantage GaN has is that it can be alloyed with aluminum (Al) to further increase the bandgap, resulting in a higher output power and increased efficiency. Betavoltaic devices were fabricated on p-i-n GaN structures grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The devices were characterized using current voltage (IV) measurements without illumination (light or beta), using a laser driven light source, and under an electron beam. Dark IV measurements showed a turn on-voltage of ~ 3.4 V, specific-on-resistance of 15.1 m Ω-cm, and a leakage current of 0.5 mA at – 10 V. A clear photo-response was observed when IV curves were measured for these devices under a light source at a wavelength of 310 nm (4.0 eV). These devices were tested under an electron beam in order to evaluate their behavior as betavoltaic microbatteries without using radioactive materials. Output power of 70 nW and 640 nW with overall efficiencies of 1.2% and 4.0% were determined at the average energy emission of H (5.6 keV) and N (17 keV) respectively. DESIGN AND CHARACTERIZATION OF P-I-N DEVICES FOR BETAVOLTAIC MICROBATTERIES ON GALLIUM NITRIDE


Zimbabwe is implementing a Result Based Financing program since 2011, which was designed to improve utilization of maternal and child health services offered by public health facilities. Four years after the program inception, reports of low vitamin A coverage and, high home deliveries are common. The study sought to understand why there is still low uptake of maternal and child health services. Using cases of Mazowe district health facility catchments, community dialogues were employed to explore underlying causalities to low maternal and childhood health services uptake. Qualitative data analysis methods of transcribing, organizing, categorizing, and coding were used to sift themes and emerging issues. Out of 135 community leaders who participated in this study, we found poor accessibility of health facilities (high transport cost, poor road network, long walking distance and unavailability of outreach services), limited health service promotion, and socio-cultural beliefs (clients linked early attendance for antenatal care with abortion from bewitchment) as major barriers to health service utilization in the study community. We also found dialoguing a good method to inform, educate and stimulate collective responsibility towards improving health services uptake in our study communities. We suggest that health programs in Zimbabwe should consider improving accessibility of health facilities, promotion of health services and increase dialoguing with communities on cultural barriers in order to increase the impact of Results Based Health Financing Programs.


Vipava valley in southwest Slovenia is a representative hot-spot for complex mixtures of different aerosol types of both anthropogenic and natural origin in mountainous terrain. An investigation of aerosol properties throughout the troposphere in different atmospheric conditions was made possible by a deployment of a two-wavelength polarization Raman lidar system combining with in-situ measurements in the valley (in the town of Ajdovscina) from September 2017. Using its aerosol identification capabilities, which are based on particle depolarization ratio and lidar ratio measurements, it was possible to identify predominant aerosol types in the observed atmospheric structures, for example in different atmospheric layers in the case of stratified atmosphere. Primary anthropogenic aerosols within the valley were found to be mainly emitted from two sources: individual domestic heating systems, which mostly use biomass fuel, and from traffic. A considerable fraction of natural aerosols (for example mineral dust and sea salt), transported over large distances, were observed both above and entering into the planetary boundary layer. According to the properties of different aerosol types, backscatter contribution of each aerosol type was evaluated and the corresponding extinction contribution was derived from lidar observations. Statistical analysis of the presence of different aerosol types was performed on the entire available dataset from 2017 and 2018.


The Nordic welfare states generally support and facilitate the formation of civil society organisations and they provide relatively good opportunities for participation and interest mediation. The Nordic welfare states are also recognised for their efforts to limit social inequality and for seeking to provide acceptable living conditions even for the most vulnerable and excluded groups. This article focuses on the opportunities for the participation for drug users, which is one of the most marginalised groups in society. Taking the cases of Denmark and Sweden, it explores the extent to which it has been possible for people who currently use drugs to organise and gain recognition as legitimate spokesmen for drug users – even when they favour strategies that are not part of the official welfare state policy. The article shows that opportunities for the autonomous organisation of drug users have been better in Denmark than in Sweden. It argues that this can be explained by different approaches to addiction and state intervention. The article thus highlights some ideological differences between the two Nordic welfare states. The article also argues that drug policies in the Nordic countries appear to be converging.


Semiotics, Media Studies and Communication Studies are three closely interlinked fields. Briefly stated, Semiotics, the science of signs, looks at how humans search for and construct meaning; Communication Studies is concerned with how meaning is conveyed; and Media Studies considers the ways in which messages are transmitted and received. This dictionary is designed to help students and general readers unlock the significance of the terminology and jargon commonly used in these fields. Being interdisciplinary in nature, Semiotics, Media, and Communication Studies are cluttered with notions derived from other disciplines. Hence, this dictionary also encompasses basic concepts from the fields of anthropology, archaeology, psychology, psychoanalysis, linguistics, philosophy, artificial intelligence, computer science, and biology. Collected here are the terms, concepts, personages, schools of thought, and historical movements that appear frequently in the relevant literature. The basis of each entry is a simple definition, which often includes the term's origin. Illustrations are provided where necessary, along with historical sketches of movements or schools of thought. The commentary on personages consists of brief statements about their contribution and relevance. Thus, the dictionary not only defines what a term means, but often goes into its history, applications, and broad implications. Terms are cross-referenced and their etymology is given where possible. This is a compact, practical research manual that will relieve much tension for students in semiotics and related fields. Because of its interdisciplinary approach, it will also provide a range of scholars with a handy reference to disciplines distinct from but related to their own.


Religion has become a charged token in a politics of division. In disputes about faith-based social services, public money for religious schools, the Pledge of Allegiance, Ten Commandments monuments, the theory of evolution, and many other topics, angry contestation threatens to displace America's historic commitment to religious freedom. Part of the problem, the authors argue, is that constitutional analysis of religious freedom has been hobbled by the idea of "a wall of separation" between church and state. That metaphor has been understood to demand that religion be treated far better than other concerns in some contexts, and far worse in others. Sometimes it seems to insist on both contrary forms of treatment simultaneously. Missing has been concern for the fair and equal treatment of religion. In response, the authors offer an understanding of religious freedom called Equal Liberty. Equal Liberty is guided by two principles. First, no one within the reach of the Constitution ought to be devalued on account of the spiritual foundation of their commitments. Second, all persons should enjoy broad rights of free speech, personal autonomy, associative freedom, and private property. Together, these principles are generous and fair to a wide range of religious beliefs and practices. With Equal Liberty as their guide, the authors offer practical, moderate, and appealing terms for the settlement of many hot-button issues that have plunged religious freedom into controversy. Their book calls Americans back to the project of finding fair terms of cooperation for a religiously diverse people, and it offers a valuable set of tools for working toward that end.


Although forgiveness has been studied for centuries, it is a relatively new area of study in organizational behavior. Organizational climate has a history of influencing individual behaviors. This dissertation considers how a climate of forgiveness may foster a willingness to forgive in individuals. A measure of forgiveness climate is developed and empirically examined. The results of this study support the hypothesis that a cohesive/supportive climate and a trustworthy/integrity climate relate to a climate of forgiveness. Furthermore, this study examines the effects of climate on willingness to forgive. A scenario-based scale to measure willingness to forgive workplace offenses is developed. Willingness to forgive is found to be positively related to job satisfaction and OCB. On the other hand, willingness to forgive was found to be negatively related to job stress and performance. Two individual differences, psychological collectivism and narcissism, were examined as moderators. However, their moderating effect was not supported by the analyses.


Global concern over increasing CO 2 emissions, and the resultant CO 2 driven temperature rises and changes in seawater chemistry, necessitates the advancement of understanding into how these changes will affect marine life now and in the future. Here we report on an experimental investigation into the effects of increased CO 2 concentration and elevated temperature on sedimentary meiofaunal communities. Cohesive (muddy) and non-cohesive (sandy) sediments were collected from the Eden Estuary in St. Andrews, Scotland, UK, placed within a flume setup and exposed to 2 levels of CO 2 concentration (380 and 750 ppmv, current at the time of the experiment, and predicted CO 2 concentration by 2100, respectively) and 2 temperature levels (12 °C and 16 °C, current in-situ and predicted temperature by 2100, respectively). We investigated the metazoan meiofauna and nematode communities before and after 28 days of exposure under these experimental conditions. The most determinative factor for abundance, diversity and community structure of meiofauna and nematodes was sediment type: on all levels, communities were significantly different between sand and mud sediments which agrees with what is generally known about the influence of sediment structure on meiofaunal organisms. Few CO 2 and temperature effects were observed, suggesting that meiofauna and nematodes are generally much less responsive than, for instance, microbial communities and macrofauna to these environmental changes in estuarine environments, where organisms are naturally exposed to a fluctuating environment. This was corroborated by the observed effects related to the different seasons in which the samples were taken from the field to run the experiment. After 28 days, meiofauna and nematode communities in muddy sediments showed a greater response to increased CO 2 concentration and temperature rise than in sandy sediments. However, further study is needed to investigate the underlying mechanisms and meiofauna species-specific resilience and responses to ocean acidification and warming, and their interactions with other biota, to understand what such changes may mean for meiofauna communities and the ecosystem processes and functions they contribute to.


Study of language games has widely spread based on the teachers' experience in facing students' difficulties in speaking English. Colorless speaking activities, fear of making mistakes, and inadequate of mastering vocabularies are some of the causes. Be a creative and innovative teacher is needed to encourage the students to be more active, confident, and enjoy in the class. Game is believed as one of shortcut that used by the teachers which can attract students' attention. Wellchosen game is invaluable to help the teacher in speaking class. This study aims to describe the steps and the implementation of adapted game. Also, investigate the students' perception of adapted game in the EFL speaking classroom. This single descriptive case study was conducted at one of English private courses in Sidoarjo where eighteen Senior High School students in Intermediate level participated as subjects. Interview and class observation were done to eighteen Intermediate students to know their responses regarding to the new adapted game. The finding demonstrated that chess-like game has a great potential to encourage the students' willingness to speak. The students started to talk, feel relax and provoke a lot likewise all along speaking class had alive atmosphere. This study is not only able to illustrate the positive impacts of using adapted game but also add teacher references in adapting various kinds of passive game in their daily live to active game for speaking.


Research on caste-based inequalities in India has generally focused on differences between large categories such as the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, and the remainder of the population. We contribute to the literature on horizontal inequalities in India by looking within these groupings, and studying differences between the individual jatis that comprise these categories. Using census data, we find evidence of persistent inequalities in educational outcomes between the jatis, suggesting that socio-economic hierarchies have proved to be stable throughout the post-Independence period. Indeed, the evidence points to divergence: communities with more education in 1961 also had higher educational attainment in 2001. Also, while numerically larger Scheduled Caste communities witnessed greater improvements in educational levels compared to smaller ones, this was not true for the Scheduled Tribes. This may be the result of their greater political mobilization.


In this thesis, we study the gravitational collapse of generalized Vaidya spacetimes which describe a combination of lightlike and timelike matter fields, commonly known as Type I and Type II fields, respectively, in the context of the cosmic censorship conjecture. This conjecture suggests that singularities forming in gravitational collapse should always be covered by event horizons of gravity. Many studies have been made to establish this conjecture in a rigorous mathematical framework but it still remains an open problem. We develop a general mathematical framework to study the conditions on the mass function of generalized Vaidya spacetimes so that future directed nonspacelike geodesics can terminate at the singularity in the past. Our result generalizes earlier works on gravitational collapse. There exist classes of generalized Vaidya mass functions for which the collapse terminates with a locally naked central singularity. We calculate the strength of these singularities, to show that they are strong curvature singularities, and there can be no extension of spacetime through them. We then extend this analysis to higher dimensions and present sufficient conditions on the generalized Vaidya mass functions that will generate a locally naked singular end state. With specific examples, we show the existence of classes of mass functions that lead to a naked singularity in four dimensions, which gets covered on transition to higher dimensions. Hence for these classes of mass functions, cosmic censorship gets restored in higher dimensions, and the transition to higher dimensions restricts the set of initial data that results in a naked singularity.


Objective To describe the profile and outcomes of elderly patients undergoing medialization laryngoplasty for vocal cord paralysis. Study Design Case series with retrospective review. Setting Tertiary care hospital. Subjects and Methods Patients were included in the study if they were >65 years old at the time of medialization laryngoplasty between 2008 and 2015. Patient comorbidities, anticoagulation status, disease etiology, and physical examination findings were recorded with postoperative length of stay, complications, pre- and posttreatment voice outcomes with the Voice Handicap Index (at 6 weeks, 4 months, 8 months, and 1 year), and postprocedural interventions (revision injections, surgery, therapy). Results A total of 112 patients met the eligibility criteria. Iatrogenic injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve (50%) was the most common etiology, followed by idiopathic (31%) causes. Sixty percent of patients were receiving long-term antiplatelet and/or anticoagulation therapy. All but 14 patients on aspirin therapy stopped their antiplatelet/anticoagulation therapy prior to surgery. Most patients were discharged on the day of surgery. Postprocedure Voice Handicap Index scores significantly improved (P < .001) by 47%, 53%, 64%, and 57% at each of the 4 measured postprocedure dates, respectively. Two patients had major nonsurgical complications postoperatively requiring inpatient hospitalization. Chi-square analysis revealed no differences between intraoperative aspirin use, sex, or comorbidities and the incidence of complications (P > .05). Conclusion The clinical profile and outcomes of our patients undergoing medialization laryngoplasty are comparable to those seen in younger cohorts. Medialization laryngoplasty is a safe and successful option for elderly patients with vocal cord paralysis and vocal handicap.


Introduction : The Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP) is a widely used assessment tool that identifies and measures the inappropriateness variables of hospital healthcare related to unjustified admission and/or length of stay, however it does not apply specifically to gynaecology or obstetrics wards. Objectives of the study: The main objectives of the present study were to develop a new tool for the evaluation of the appropriateness of admission and hospital stay in obstetric settings; as well as to analyze the main determinants of inappropriate admission and days of hospital stay within all the units of the Pediatric Hospital "Regina Margherita" and the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Teaching Hospital "S.Anna" in Turin. Methods : A multidisciplinary team of reviewers, composed of gynaecologists, paediatricians and obstetricians, was established and the appropriateness evaluation criteria, the operational handbook and the plan were all defined. Data were collected during the period between September and December 2005 and then put in an ad hoc database. Data analysis and evaluation were performed by univariate analysis (chisquare test) and multivariate analysis using a multiple logistic regression model. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. Results : Out of 734 clinical records, 598 were considered for the study. The prevalence of inappropriateness of admission was 3.34%. The total number of examined days was 2888, 801 of which (27.74%) were considered to be inappropriate. The variables "place of residence" (÷²=6.272; p=0.0435) and "type of admission" (÷²=14.223; p<0.001) were significantly associated with the inappropriateness of the admission. Between the 2nd and the 8th day of hospital stay the percentage of inappropriate days exponentially increased (up to 56%). With regards to the quality of the clinical records almost all of them were characterized by the presence of anamnesis, objective exams, discharge letters, clinical diary entries and the signature of the responsible healthcare professional. Objective examination was often incomplete or partially complete or absent. Conclusions : The proposed Obstetric AEP was demonstrated to be useful for the evaluation of the appropriateness of obstetric admissions and hospital stays, as well as the determinants for when these were inappropriate. This specific tool, in the future, could be used to monitor hospital usage and the allocation of resources related to this health care area.


The statistical problem of estimating the effective dimension-reduction (EDR) subspace in the multi-index regression model with deterministic design and additive noise is considered. A new procedure for recovering the directions of the EDR subspace is proposed. Many methods for estimating the EDR subspace perform principal component analysis on a family of vectors, say β1,...,βL, nearly lying in the EDR subspace. This is in particular the case for the structure-adaptive approach proposed by Hristache et al. (2001a). In the present work, we propose to estimate the projector onto the EDR subspace by the solution to the optimization problem

minimize maxl=1,...,L βlT (I-A)βl    subject to A ∈ Am

where Am is the set of all symmetric matrices with eigenvalues in [0,1] and trace less than or equal to m, with m being the true structural dimension. Under mild assumptions, √n-consistency of the proposed procedure is proved (up to a logarithmic factor) in the case when the structural dimension is not larger than 4. Moreover, the stochastic error of the estimator of the projector onto the EDR subspace is shown to depend on L logarithmically. This enables us to use a large number of vectors βl for estimating the EDR subspace. The empirical behavior of the algorithm is studied through numerical simulations.


Inverse problems in imaging are extensively studied, with a variety of strategies, tools, and theory that have been accumulated over the years. Recently, this field has been immensely influenced by the emergence of deep-learning techniques. One such contribution, which is the focus of this paper, is the Deep Image Prior (DIP) work by Ulyanov, Vedaldi, and Lempitsky (2018). DIP offers a new approach towards the regularization of inverse problems, obtained by forcing the recovered image to be synthesized from a given deep architecture. While DIP has been shown to be quite an effective unsupervised approach, its results still fall short when compared to state-of-the-art alternatives.
In this work, we aim to boost DIP by adding an explicit prior, which enriches the overall regularization effect in order to lead to better-recovered images. More specifically, we propose to bring-in the concept of Regularization by Denoising (RED), which leverages existing denoisers for regularizing inverse problems. Our work shows how the two (DIP and RED) can be merged into a highly effective unsupervised recovery process while avoiding the need to differentiate the chosen denoiser, and leading to very effective results, demonstrated for several tested problems.


Background Pharmaceutical care might help optimise antibiotic use. However, assessing the influence of pharmacy interventions in the management of antimicrobials is not easy, and results from different studies reveal somewhat contradictory results. Purpose To evaluate the impact of pharmacist interventions on antibiotic use and their economic impact in medical patients of a tertiary teaching institution. Materials and methods Inclusion criteria: patients over 18 years old admitted to the internal medicine unit who had a course of antibiotics during their admission. Timeframe: June–July 2013. During the ward round in this area, on a daily basis, prescriptions were validated by the pharmacist, following antimicrobial institutional guidelines. Issues were discussed with the prescriber and the microbiologist, if necessary. Pharmacist's interventions were divided into: (1) inappropriate or non-approved indication, (2) higher or lower dose, (3) inappropriate dosing interval, (4) longer courses in the absence of continuing infection, and (5) timely conversion from intravenous to oral therapy, whenever possible. Results Demographics: 257 patients included, mean age = 73.4 years-old,%female = 41%. Overall interventions: 25 out of 257 (9.72%), sorted as follow: (1): 7 interventions (carbapenem and linezolid not indicated in 6 and 1 cases, respectively), (2): 6 overdoses in renal patients, (3): 0, (4): 4, and (5): 7 interventions. Acceptance rate: 84%. Total cost saving: 2,966 €. Conclusions Pharmacist interventions, interacting directly with the physicians at ward level, could play an important role in optimising antibiotic use. Approximately one out of ten antimicrobial prescriptions needed changing. On average, Pharmacy interventions on antimicrobials generated savings close to €1,500 per month. De-escalation or switching from a carbapenem (prescribed in a non-permitted indication) to other non-restricted antibiotics, overdose in renal patients, and switching from intravenous to oral therapy were the most common among patients of our institution. No conflict of interest.


Ultrafast dynamics of the transient velocity overshoot in GaAs and Si have been studied through the use of measurements of radiated and guided terahertz pulses whose time-domain waveforms are proportional to the acceleration and the velocity of carriers, respectively. These measurements have been compared with each other and also with a Monte Carlo simulation. The field-dependent free-space and guided waveforms are qualitatively consistent with Monte Carlo calculations. By correlation of the calculated velocities with a sampling gate function the observed ratio of peak-to-steady-state velocities is found to be in reasonable quantitative agreement. Also, by detecting the free-space radiation from a Si p-i-n structure, we have made the first, to our knowledge, direct experimental observation of transient velocity overshoot in Si.


This article discusses three articles on the development of school guidance and counseling in an international context. The development of school guidance work as well as issues that arose in two Asian countries, Japan and South Korea, are presented by Yagi (2008) and Lee and Yang (2008) whereas Gysbers (2008) presents the rationale, practice, and results of the implementation of individual student planning in the United States. An overview of the articles suggests that there is continuous development in the positive, strength-based approach to school counseling in place of the traditional deficit and remedial approach. The issue of resources which include human resources, financial resources, and political resources (Gysbers & Henderson, 2006) is also discussed because of its importance and relevance to the development of school guidance and counseling in recent decades.


Syria has long presented a difficult problem for American policymakers. Actively supportive of groups such as Hezbollah, it has occupied Lebanon for more than 20 years. Damascus remains intransigent on Israel's complete withdrawal from the disputed Golan Heights as the sine qua non for peace with that state. It is often mentioned in the same breath as members of the infamous "axis of evil." Syria occupies an important strategic position in the Middle East --one made even more significant as America considers long-term involvement in the reconstruction of Iraq. As the policy challenges posed by Syria's problematic behavior have grown more pressing in the recent security environment, the United States has had difficulty formulating a coherent and effective policy toward Damascus. The death of long-time dictator Hafiz al Assad has forced renewed debate on its place in the region. The transition from Assad to his son Bashar has thrown Western consensus on how to deal with the Syrian leadership further into doubt. Inheriting Syria fills this void with a detailed analytic portrait of the Syrian regime under Bashar's leadership. It draws implications for U.S. policy, offering a bold new strategy for achieving American objectives, largely via a strategy of "coordinated engagement" employing both sticks and carrots. This strategy would be independent of the Arab-Israeli peace process, thus a historical departure for the United States. The author's long service in the foreign policy establishment has uniquely positioned him to provide valuable insights into this mysterious yet important country. This book will be of high interest to those concerned about the Middle East, the war on terror, and the future of American foreign policy. Written for a general audience as well as the policymaking and academic communities, Inheriting Syria is is an important resource for all who seek deeper understanding of this enigmatic nation and its leadership.


The fraction of the incoming solar energy scattered by Earth back to space is referred to as the planetary albedo. This reflected energy is a fundamental component of the Earth's energy balance, and the processes that govern its magnitude, distribution, and variability shape Earth's climate and climate change. We review our understanding of Earth's albedo as it has progressed to the current time and provide a global perspective of our understanding of the processes that define it. Joint analyses of surface solar flux data that are a complicated mix of measurements and model calculations with top‐of‐atmosphere (TOA) flux measurements from current orbiting satellites yield a number of surprising results including (i) the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (NH, SH) reflect the same amount of sunlight within ~ 0.2 W m−2. This symmetry is achieved by increased reflection from SH clouds offsetting precisely the greater reflection from the NH land masses. (ii) The albedo of Earth appears to be highly buffered on hemispheric and global scales as highlighted by both the hemispheric symmetry and a remarkably small interannual variability of reflected solar flux (~0.2% of the annual mean flux). We show how clouds provide the necessary degrees of freedom to modulate the Earth's albedo setting the hemispheric symmetry. We also show that current climate models lack this same degree of hemispheric symmetry and regulation by clouds. The relevance of this hemispheric symmetry to the heat transport across the equator is discussed.


In the last few years the close association of hydrops fetalis, congenital anemia of the newborn, icterus gravis neonatorum, and erythroblastosis fetalis has been stressed because of the occurrence of these pathological processes in various combinations in individual children and on some occasions in several of the offspring of one family. The opportunity for observing individually the children of a family thus afflicted has not often presented itself. The object of the present paper is to report the case histories of four siblings delivered in the New Haven Hospital, the first-born of whom had gross congenital anomalies; the second, icterus gravis neonatorum and kernicterus; and the third and fourth, icterus gravis, congenital anemia, and erythroblastosis fetalis. The case studies that have been previously reported in the literature have been adequately summarized in 1932 by Diamond, Blackfan and Baty,1 who added one of their own, and more recently by Hawksley and Lightwood in 1934.2 Pasachoff and Wilson,4 and Netter8 in this country have subsequently published additional familial case studies. The parents of the siblings in the present report were in normal health and were not blood relatives. Both had negative Kahn tests on blood serum. The mother had scarlet fever and diphtheria in childhood; her menstrual history revealed nothing unusual. She was twenty-eight years old when she married and was pregnant thirteen months later. Abstracts of the case histories of the children are as follows, and are given in the order of their births. No other pregnancies are known to have occurred.


Abstract The previously unknown crystal structure of mckinstryite, originally described as Ag1.18Cu0.82S or (Ag,Cu)2S, was solved and refined using single-crystal X-ray diffractometer data collected from a sample from the Clara mine, Black Forest (Mo-Kα radiation, CCD area detector, R1(F) = 3.85%). Mckinstryite has the refined formula Ag4.92Cu3.08S4 or Ag1.23Cu0.77S (idealized Ag5Cu3S4 or Ag1.25Cu0.75S) and crystallizes in space group Pnma (no. 62), with a = 14.047(3) Å, b = 7.805(2) Å, c = 15.691(3) Å, V = 1720.3(7) Å3, Z = 8. The structure contains five Ag, six Cu and eight S sites in the asymmetric unit. One of the Ag sites shows minor Cu-for-Ag substitution. The topology is based on flat, interrupted (010) layers of Cu and S atoms (all atoms on y = 0.25), in which the Cu atoms show triangular or two-coordination to S (interrupted {6,3} tiling). These layers alternate with uneven layers consisting of Ag atoms showing irregular three- to two-coordination to S. Some fairly short Ag-Cu contact distances (2.781-2.884 Å) strongly indicate that metal-metal interaction plays an important role in mckinstryite. The topology is related to that of stromeyerite (~AgCuS) which contains complete flat layers of Cu atoms triangularly coordinated to S atoms, alternating with layers of loosely packed Ag atoms. A critical evaluation of literature data on the chemical composition and unit-cell parameters of mckinstryite confirms the presence of a small compositional range of mckinstryite which extends approximately from Ag1.18Cu0.82S to Ag1.25Cu0.75S, with the presently studied sample being fairly Ag-rich. The accurate limits of this range at ambient temperature are still to be determined.


Accurate estimation of quality of online services is both an important and difficult problem, since a service has many interdependent quality attributes influenced by several contextual factors. It is even more challenging as quality ratings come from sources with unknown reliability,each source may rate a service on different quality aspects.Although several solutions have been proposed, there is little work addressing all these issues thoroughly. In this paper, we show that domain knowledge on service structure and related constraints, such as causal dependencies among quality attributes and contextual factors, while widely available, can be exploited to effectively address the above issues in a theoretically-sound framework. Theoretical analysis shows that computational cost of the approach is acceptable, and accurate evaluation of service quality requires a reasonable number of user feedback, provided services have a small number of quality attributes and contextual factors.


Hornblende–biotite– (?)pyroxene dacite from Cerro Morrón de Mateo, Sierra de Gata, SE Spain has two types of zircon grains, a major, younger group with a weighted average ion microprobe U–Pb zircon age of 11.69 ± 0.15(2σ) Ma and a minor, older one of 13.58 ± 0.31(2σ) Ma. The younger crystals have mostly euhedral habit and zoning, and vary in size from c. 50 to 650 μm; a few show signs of late stage resorbtion in the form of glass filled embayments. The older crystals have anhedral zoning and irregular, corroded outlines. Considering its eruption age of 10.70 ± 0.15(2σ) Ma (40Ar/39Ar biotite plateau ages), these two zircon generations suggest a gestation period of at least 1 (–3) Ma for the Morrón de Mateo magma. Like zircon, quartz, plagioclase, biotite and hornblende, major phenocryst phases, also show variable resorbtion effects. That suggests that the erupted dacitic magma body consisted of several batches with somewhat different history, which were brought together some time before extrusion.


Animal assisted therapy (AAT) involves the integration of an animal (usually a dog or horse) in a clinical setting as part of treatment for a broad range of presenting problems involving emotional distress, trauma, and stress related issues. The use of ATT by therapists is on the rise. Our analogue study was designed to explore the impact a counselor's purported use of ATT had on how they were perceived as measured by the Counselor Rating Form–Short Version (CRF-S). That is, would subjects who examined a brochure about counseling services provided by a factitious therapist rate the therapist more positively when it was stated, "Dr. Smith" provided animal assisted therapy and was accompanied by a picture of the therapy dog present in his/her office. To explore these hypotheses, two therapy brochures were developed one with and without the mention of the therapist's integration of ATT and accompanying therapy dog. The results from our analogue brochure study found that a therapist described as utilizing AAT (which was punctuated by having a picture of the therapy dog in the office) was perceived as significantly more attractive and trustworthy, but not different in terms of being more expert-like. Therapists need to pay special attention to how clients may experience the therapist-therapy dog dyad over the course of treatment. There may be a potential halo effect that is bestowed on either the therapy dog or therapist, and/or on the team consisting of the therapeutic dyad. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.