In the late 2000s far-right parties made significant gains in numerous countries of the European Union. Sharing the same agenda and discourse of discrimination, many of these parties collaborate today at the European level as well. Yet, it is unclear whether the contemporary European far-right is indeed homogenous in terms of ideology. This project in critical discourse analysis shows that the far-right in the EU is actually characterized by ideological diversity. The paper compares and contrasts how China, an emerging great power with a booming economy, has been portrayed in the early 2010s by far-right parties in the UK and Hungary. By identifying major references, metaphors, frames and argumentation schemes, the article concludes that despite belonging to the same party family, and being actual political allies, the British National Party (BNP) and the Jobbik party in Hungary construct fundamentally different images of the "Chinese Other". The far-right in the UK, a major Western power, presents China clearly in hostile terms, mainly as a "dangerous, threatening intruder" into the British market. Additionally, in the discourse of the British far-right China is primarily identified as a communist dictatorship and used as a metaphor of oppression in the domestic UK context. Meanwhile, in Hungary, a post-communist country in Eastern Europe and a relatively recent member of the European Union, an opposite picture of China is constructed by the far-right. Here, China serves as a tool to distance Hungary from the West. China is positioned by the Hungarian far-right as a state where communism has lost its significance. By stressing the Asian origin of Hungarians, brotherhood is claimed among Hungarians and Chinese and China is presented as a "role model country" which successfully resisted "Western dominance".


Air jet vortex generators were originally investigated by R.A. Wallis. Results showed that their effectiveness in delaying shock induced boundary layer separation was not as good as conventional vane type generators. Recent low speed wind tunnel tests carried out at City University indicated that the strength of the vortex could be increased considerably by using rectangular jet exits rather than round ones as used by Wallis. On this basis an investigation into air jet vortex generators was undertaken to find out whether similar improvements in vortex strength may be gained at transonic speeds and hence achieve a more effective method of controlling shock induced boundary layer separation. It was felt that in order to design air jet vortex generators it would be necessary to understand the mechanism by which an air jet forms a vortex, and to evaluate the effects of various jet parameters on vortex size, strength and position. The parameters investigated in this thesis were: (i) exit shape (ii) exit size (iii) jet direction (iv) jet inclination and (v) blowing pressure. The tests were conducted using a combination of high speed wind tunnel tests and flow visualisation in a water tunnel. The wind tunnel tests used the half aerofoil or 'bump technique' as used by Wallis. Bumps with thickness to chord ratios of 8%, 10% and 14% were tested. Increasing the thickness of the bumps resulted in higher local Mach numbers ahead of the shock and hence an increase in the severity of the shock induced separation. Vane vortex generators designed using the criteria laid down by H.H. Pearcey were used to establish a datum of control effectiveness. As a result of this investigation a method by which an air jet forms a vortex has been proposed together with a hypothesis on the influence of the various jet parameters. The results have shown that air jet vortex generators can be designed to be more effective than conventional vane type generators. Based on the work reported in this thesis a set of design guidelines has been proposed together with suggestions for further work.


As the profession of marriage and family therapy (MFT) as well as the emerging sub-discipline of medical family therapy (MedFT) continue to grow and evolve within the current mental health care system the arena of primary care presents an ideal environment for professionals who are relationally and systemically inclined. As such this context is seen as a potential home for MedFTs hoping to provide integrated and collaborative health care. In order to address the unique practice based and cultural needs that manifest in medical contexts the function of MedFTs in these sites must be apparent and accurately identified and described. Such a description is important not only to demonstrate the utility of MedFTs to potential stakeholders (e.g. physicians medical staff medical administration) but also to trainers who are charged with the preparation of future generations of MFTs and MedFTs for this type of work. The following dissertation seeks to address this issue from two interrelated venues: (a) to discuss how MedFT is connected to the profession of MFT in both conceptual and practical terms and (b) to discuss a framework for integrated primary care utilizing MedFTs that does not service a targeted population.


The aim of this study was to compare neuromuscular fatigue and discomfort following workday in groups of sales workers, who were working predominantly in standing or sitting position. Ten female sales workers (aged 21–66 yrs), who worked predominantly in standing position (ST) and 9 female sales workers (aged 20–54 yrs), who worked predominantly in sitting position (SI) participated in this study. Neuromuscular fatigue and discomfort after the workday immediately was subjectively evaluated by 10-point visual analogue scale (VAS) in neck, shoulder, low-back and leg regions. Visual-motor coordination was assessed by Grooved Pegboard test and hand grip strength for both arms was tested by hand dynamometer before and after the workday. The results indicated that after the workday, subjectively evaluated neuromuscular fatigue and discomfort in ST group was higher (p<0.05) in posterior calf region compared with SI group. SI group felt subjectively significantly higher (p<0.05) neuromuscular fatigue and discomfort in shoulder region after the workday as compared to ST group. Before the workday, the Grooved Pegboard test time was shorter (p<0.05) in SI group, whereas hand grip strength for right arm was higher (p<0.05) in ST group. No significant workrelated changes were found in Grooved Pegboard test time and hand grip strength in the measured groups. It was concluded that following the workday, subjectively evaluated neuromuscular fatigue and discomfort was more pronounced in ST group in posterior calf region and in SI group in shoulder muscles. No significant fatigue-induced changes in visual-motor coordination and in voluntary isometric forcegeneration capacity of hand muscles were established in female sales workers following the workday.


This comparative study of American state constitutions offers insightful overviews of the general and specific problems that have confronted America's constitution writers since the founding. Each chapter reflects the constitutional history and theory of a single state, encompassing each document's structure, content, and evolution. The text is grounded in the model presented by constitutional scholar Donald S. Lutz in ""The Origins of American Constitutionalism"" so that even when a state has a relatively stable constitutional history, Lutz's framework can be used to measure the evolving meaning of the document. With contributors drawn from state governments as well as academia, this is the first work to offer a framework by which state constitutions can be analyzed in relation to one another and to the federal Constitution. The volume begins with chapters on the New England, Mid-Atlantic, Border, and Southern states. While regional similarities within and between the New England and Mid-Atlantic states are noteworthy, the colonial aspect of their history laid the foundation for national constitution-making. And while North and South moved in distinct directions, the Border states wrestled with conflicting constitutional traditions in the same way that they wrestled with their place in the Union. Southern states that seceded are shown to have had a common set of problems in their constitutions, and the post - Civil War South emerged from that conflict with a constitutionalism that was defined for it by the war's victors. These chapters reveal that constitutional self-definition, while not evident in all of the former Confederate states, has redeveloped in the South in the intervening 140 years. Sections devoted to the Midwest, the Plains, the Mountain West, the Southwest, and the West reflect the special circumstances of states that arose from American expansion. Chapters describe how states of the Midwest, united by common roots in the Northwest Ordinance, wrote constitutions that were defined by that act's parameters while reflecting the unique cultural and political realities of each state. Meanwhile, the Plains states developed a constitutionalism that was historically rooted in progressivism and populism, sometimes in the clash between these two ideologies. Perhaps more than any other region, the Mountain West was defined by the physical landscape, and these chapters relate how those states were able to define their individual constitutional identities in spite of geography rather than because of it. And although western states borrowed heavily from those with much older constitutional traditions, the contributors reveal that they borrowed differently - and in different proportions - in order to craft constitutions that were uniquely adapted to their historical situation and peoples. This work demonstrates the diversity of our governmental arrangements and provides a virtual introduction to the political culture of each - many offering stories of constitutional foundings that are rich with meaning. Although these fifty documents are defined in a federal context, state constitutions are necessary to complete the constitutionalism of the United States.


Sediments beneath modern ice sheets exert a key control on their flow, but are largely inaccessible except through geophysics or boreholes. In contrast, palaeo-ice sheet beds are accessible, and typically characterised by numerous bedforms. However, the interaction between bedforms and ice flow is poorly constrained and it is not clear how bedform sizes might reflect ice flow conditions. To better understand this link we present a first exploration of a variety of statistical models to explain the size distribution of some common subglacial bedforms (i.e., drumlins, ribbed moraine, MSGL). By considering a range of models, constructed to reflect key aspects of the physical processes, it is possible to infer that the size distributions are most effectively explained when the dynamics of ice-water-sediment interaction associated with bedform growth is fundamentally random. A 'stochastic instability' (SI) model, which integrates random bedform growth and shrinking through time with exponential growth, is preferred and is consistent with other observations of palaeo-bedforms and geophysical surveys of active ice sheets. Furthermore, we give a proof-of-concept demonstration that our statistical approach can bridge the gap between geomorphological observations and physical models, directly linking measurable size-frequency parameters to properties of ice sheet flow (e.g., ice velocity). Moreover, statistically developing existing models as proposed allows quantitative predictions to be made about sizes, making the models testable; a first illustration of this is given for a hypothesised repeat geophysical survey of bedforms under active ice. Thus, we further demonstrate the potential of size-frequency distributions of subglacial bedforms to assist the elucidation of subglacial processes and better constrain ice sheet models.


Location check-ins contain both geographical and semantic information about the visited venues. Semantic information is usually represented by means of tags (e.g., "restaurant"). Such data can reveal some personal information about users beyond what they actually expect to disclose, hence their privacy is threatened. To mitigate such threats, several privacy protection techniques based on location generalization have been proposed. Although the privacy implications of such techniques have been extensively studied, the utility implications are mostly unknown. In this paper, we propose a predictive model for quantifying the effect of a privacy-preserving technique (i.e., generalization) on the perceived utility of check-ins. We first study the users' motivations behind their location check-ins, based on a study targeted at Foursquare users (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N = 77$ </tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="huguenin-ieq1-2741958.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>). We propose a machine-learning method for determining the motivation behind each check-in, and we design a motivation-based predictive model for the utility implications of generalization. Based on the survey data, our results show that the model accurately predicts the fine-grained motivation behind a check-in in [43%] of the cases and in [63%] of the cases for the coarse-grained motivation. It also predicts, with a mean error of [0.52] (on a scale from 1 to 5), the loss of utility caused by semantic and geographical generalization. This model makes it possible to design of utility-aware, privacy-enhancing mechanisms in location-based online social networks. It also enables service providers to implement location-sharing mechanisms that preserve both the utility and privacy for their users.


The Court of Appeals of Wisconsin has divided appellate courts into two categories, "error correcting" and "law declaring." (1) This difference appears to concern the jurisdiction of the two types of appellate courts. The "law declaring" court is the highest state court and its jurisdiction is limited to important questions of law. (2) In deciding cases within this limited jurisdiction, the "law declaring" court may correct errors, but its "error correcting" function is only incidental to its "law declaring" function. (3) The "error correcting" court hears appeals from trial courts and its decisions are final unless the issue before it was within the limited jurisdiction of the "law declaring" court above it in the judicial hierarchy. (4) Prior to the creation of the district courts of appeal, by constitutional amendment, in 1956, the Florida Supreme Court functioned both as a "law declaring" court and an "error correcting" court. (5) Since the supreme court heard appeals as a matter of right from Florida's principal trial courts--the circuit courts--it was an "error correcting" court. (6) However, because the supreme court had the final say as to the meaning of Florida law, especially Florida constitutional law, it also functioned as a "law declaring" court. (7) When the district courts of appeal set up shop in early 1957, the intent was that, with few exceptions, (8) the Florida Supreme Court would be a "law declaring" court only. (9) In most instances, the new district courts of appeal were to be the "error correcting" courts for the circuit courts (the state's principal trial courts). (10) The new, and very limited role for the Florida Supreme Court, was set out in the Florida Constitution: Appeals from trial courts may be taken directly to the supreme court, as a matter of right, only from judgments imposing the death penalty, from final judgments and decrees directly passing upon the validity of a state statute or a federal statute or treaty, or construing a controlling provision of the Florida or federal constitution, and from final judgments or decrees in proceedings for the validation of bonds and certificates of indebtedness. The supreme court may directly review by certiorari interlocutory orders or decrees passing upon chancery matters which upon a final decree would be directly appealable to the supreme court. In all direct appeals and interlocutory reviews by certiorari, the supreme court shall have jurisdiction as may be necessary to complete determination of the case on review. Appeals from district courts of appeal may be taken to the supreme court, as a matter of right, only from decisions initially passing upon the validity of a state statute or a federal statute or treaty, or initially construing a controlling provision of the Florida or federal constitution. The supreme court may review by certiorari any decision of a district court of appeal that affects a class of constitutional or state officers, or that passes upon a question certified by the district court of appeal to be of great public interest, or that is in direct conflict with a decision of another district court of appeal or of the supreme court on the same point of law.... (11) The Florida Supreme Court was quick to recognize the huge change in its status. In 1958, the supreme court "pointed out that under the constitutional plan the powers of this Court to review decisions of the district courts of appeal are limited and strictly prescribed." (12) At almost the same time, it began to lay the groundwork to undermine its new role. In Lake v. Lake, (13) the supreme court was, for the first time, (14) faced with a petition asking it to review a "per curiam affirmed" decision not supported by a written opinion. (15) The petitioner before the supreme court argued that the facts of Lake were "very similar" to the facts of an earlier supreme court case; however, here the decision of the district court of appeal apparently differed. …


This article situates contemporary landscape architecture in the United States and Canada as part of a long, rich tradition of landscape- making found throughout the Americas. This perspective calls for a wider scope and conceptual framework for renewed, vigorous, and sustained engagement with indigenous and Latin American landscapes. In this article, I pursue this by blending hemispheric studies with landscape architecture to study historical and contemporary sites, projects, practices, and theories of Latin American landscape within a broader hemispheric context. The piece begins by introducing the field of hemispheric studies and assembling methods suited to the undertaking. The second section addresses the question of origins and shows that pluralism and syncretism are critical to understanding American landscapes. I then draw from existing literature and my own fieldwork to survey contemporary conditions and develop four concepts for the study of American landscapes, before finishing with conclusions intended to serve as guideposts for future work.


Online reviews of tourism services provide valuable resources of knowledge not only for travelers but also for companies. Tourism operators are more and more aware that user related data should be seen as an important asset. This work-in-progress analyzes free text reviews as well as numerical ratings of group tours with the aim to characterize their relations. This is done with the help of statistical models. On the one hand, these models comprise textual attributes and sentiment scores of the reviews, based on text mining techniques and sentiment analysis respectively. On the other hand, non-textual attributes such as meta data about the tours and user related factors are included. First results imply a very moderate relationship between sentiment scores and ratings; the non-textual attributes appear to have a higher impact.


Ectopic pregnancy is of increasing concern to gynecologists since it is a major cause of maternal mortality and morbidity in reproductive age women. It occurs when the conceptus implants in an abnormal position other than the uterus. Although the incidence of ectopic pregnancy during the 20 years studied increased five-folds, the risk of death from ectopic pregnancy declined by 90%. This decline might be related to the increase awareness of this condition that accompanied improved diagnostic technology and thus improved management and care. However, ectopic pregnancy remains the leading cause of maternal mortality in first trimenster. This study was to evaluate the management of ectopic pregnancy in the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Bahrain in a time period from January I, 2000 to August 31, 2003. Statistical analysis showed high incidence of ectopic pregnancy with increase in age and abortion. Etiological factors including contraceptive usage, infertility treatment and previous ectopic pregnancy were shown to increases ectopic pregnancy rates. In the Kingdom of Bahrain, management of ectopic pregnancy was carried by surgical salpingectomy and Laparoctomy and to a lesser extend medical Methotrexate management was also carried on. While in the State of Qatar it was the opposite as Methotrexate was mainly used rather than the surgical treatment. It is recommended that further investigations are needed to enhance this data and to prove the benefits of medical management over the surgical management.


More than 4 million people in England with a long-term physical health condition also have mental health problems, and many of them experience significantly poorer health outcomes and reduced quality of life as a result. In terms of NHS spending, at least £1 in every £8 spent on long-term conditions is linked to poor mental health and well-being – between £8 billion and £13 billion in England each year. Long-term conditions and mental health: The cost of co-morbidities, published jointly by The King's Fund and the Centre for Mental Health, suggests that care for a large number of people with long-term conditions could be improved by: integrating mental health support with primary care and chronic disease management programmes improving the provision of liaison psychiatry services in acute hospitals providing health professionals of all kinds with basic mental health knowledge and skills removing policy barriers to integration, for example, through redesign of payment mechanisms. This paper suggests that developing more integrated support for people with mental and physical health problems could improve outcomes and play an important part in helping the NHS meet the quality, innovation, productivity and prevention challenge. The authors conclude that the prevailing approach to supporting people with long-term conditions is at risk of failing unless we recognise the role of emotional and mental health problems in reducing people's ability and motivation to manage their physical health.


In this paper, I explore how international legal scholarship about war, written at a time of war, ought to read. Can — and should — we demand doctrinal rigor and analytical clarity, while also expecting that scholarship makes us feel something, that it connects us to the author, that it captures the intimacy and emotion that human beings experience in relation to war?

I use two eras of international legal scholarship on war — namely, the Vietnam era and the War on Terror — to illustrate key moments in the field that were typified by very different kinds of writing and the corresponding differences in thinking and feeling. I argue, in part, that — in contradistinction to passion-filled Vietnam-era scholarship — a particularly influential strand of contemporary scholarship on the United States' War on Terror adopts a view that is aridly technical, acontextual, and ahistorical. In short, it lacks passion. (I use "passion" as a composite term in an attempt to capture diverse facets of a problem that I am attempting to diagnose.)

The Introduction situates this project within broader writing on law and emotions. Part I provides a list of characteristics of what I consider passionate scholarship, using the Vietnam era as an example of that approach. Part II provides a mirrored list of the characteristics of abstract and bloodless scholarship, using the latter part of the War on Terror (2009 onward). The observations compare how scholars of each period contend with the sense of crisis and urgency of their time, the understanding that they (we) were living — and writing — through moments that would be seen as history-changing and law-shifting in the future. Part III examines possible explanations for differences where we ought to see similarities, for absences of scholarly connection where they should be plentiful, and for a seismic shift in the general tone and mood of international legal scholarship on war in less than two generations. Part IV concludes by discussing why we — international lawyers, scholars who feel strongly about war and peace — ought to care about and seek to reverse this shift.


Magnetoelectric multiferroics combine ferromagnetism (a spontaneous magnetization that can be switched by a magnetic field) and ferroelectricity (a spontaneous electric polarization that can be switched by an electric field) in the same phase. They have tremendous potential for applications, not only because they possess the properties of both parent phenomena, but also because coupling between ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity can lead to additional novel effects. In their Perspective,
 Spaldin and Fiebig
 discuss the factors behind the recent resurgence of interest in magnetoelectric multiferroics, describe some exciting results emerging from the current research activities, and point to important challenges and directions for future work.


Biodiesel transesterification reactors resemble the heart of any biodiesel manufacturing plant. These reactors involve a highly complex set of chemical reactions and heat transfer characteristics. The high nonlinearity inherent in the dynamics of these reactors requires an efficient process control algorithm to handle the variation of operational process parameters and the effect of process disturbances efficiently. In this work, a multi-model adaptive control strategy is considered for achieving the goal mentioned above. In order to implement the adaptive controller, a rigorous mechanistic model of the biodiesel transesterification reactor was developed and validated with published experimental results. The validated model was analyzed for stability and nonlinearity. The analysis revealed that the system is stable. However, its high nonlinearity necessitates an advanced control strategy to be considered. The input-output relationship between the effective process variables was studied and the control system synthesis revealed a two-by-two control system. Two adaptive control loops were then designed and tuned to optimize the performance of the controller. Finally, a comparison with conventional controllers revealed the superiority of the new control system in terms of set-point tracking and disturbance rejection. The results of this work prove that an adequately designed adaptive control system can be used to improve the performance of the transesterification reactor.


Reduced BRCA1 gene expression is common in the sporadic form of ovarian carcinoma. The spread of this highly lethal cancer often begins when tumor cell clusters are shed into the fluid of the abdominopelvic cavity such that they can float freely before seeding distant sites on the peritoneal walls and organs. Thus, the microenvironment that tumor cells find themselves in changes dramatically during these early shedding and floating stages of transperitoneal metastasis. To mimic this microenvironmental change in vitro, we released premalignant human ovarian surface epithelial cells from the substratum and forced them to cluster in suspension. Under these conditions, steady state levels of BRCA1 mRNA and protein fell significantly and the transcriptional activation state of the BRCA1 promoter was suppressed. Analysis of the promoter indicated that the previously identified "CRE" element located within the "positive regulatory region" (PRR) contributed to this suppression. More specifically, we show that the suppression was mediated, at least in part, by a suspension culture–driven decrease in the levels of two members of the AP1 transcription factor complex, c-Jun and Fra2, that bind to the CRE element. Therefore, a microenvironmental change that is manifested during the initial stages of ovarian carcinoma dissemination may, potentially, help suppress BRCA1 expression in sporadic tumors and thus promote their progression. Mol Cancer Res; 11(3); 272–81. ©2013 AACR.


In this study, we demonstrate solid-state white light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) using an integrated plasmonic notch filter to tailor the electroluminescence (EL) spectrum of non-doped blue-green emissive material. The plasmonic notch filter is composed of randomly distributed silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) embedded in the anode contact of indium tin oxide (ITO). This plasmonic notch filter strongly absorbs green light due to local surface plasmon (LSP) resonance of the Ag-NPs embedded in ITO. Thus, the emission green light of the solid-state LEC is strongly suppressed, leaving the blue and red light output to generate a white EL emission. Moreover, the duration of white EL can be maintained for a longer time under operation, which overcomes the issues regarding the short lifetime of white EL generated by the microcavity effect. In addition, the Ag-NPs can be readily fabricated by the thermal annealing of Ag film, which is compatible with current fabrication technologies typically used in light-emitting diode (LED) industry. Therefore, solid-state white LECs using an integrated on-chip plasmonic notch filter have great potential for applications in solid-state lighting.


An inspirational intervention for teachers and students, and with support and knowledge exchange from our long term partner school in London, Thomas Tallis School. Helen exhibits a newly catalysed Limb Bud Dress from Primitive Streak and a small Field of Jeans from Catalytic Clothing as the starting point.

The project will be launched at Ipsley CE RSA Academy in Redditch and will engage all five schools in the RSA Family of Academies. The purpose is for teachers and students to explore environmental issues, climate change and our relationship with nature, to show how innovation, design and art can help us solve problems and find ways to communicate ideas differently in different disciplines.

From RSA website:

This June RSA are launching a new project working with the Helen Storey and Thomas Tallis School in London. Opening at Ipsley CE RSA Academy, the Field of Jeans and 'limb bud' dress will be revealed to students, teachers and parents as a surprising temporary installation by placing some extraordinary objects in places that are very familiar.

The Field of Jeans is part of the Catalytic Clothing collection and the 'limb bud' dress is from Primitive Streak, a collection representing the first 1000 hours of life. The installation is a fashion / science collaboration investigating how we could purify air. A catalyst has been washed into these clothes which helps reduce harmful car emissions affecting our health and environment. In the future simply washing our clothing could help purify the air we breathe.

RSA Academies' schools are using this inspiring concept as a catalyst for teaching and learning between Summer 2015 to early 2016 when the installation of the 'Field of Jeans' and the 'limb bud' dress tours to each school. Teachers from across all the RSA Academies are considering ways to engage students and colleagues in how they might teach differently. The purpose is for teachers and students to explore environmental issues, climate change and our relationship with nature, to show how innovation, design and art can help us solve problems and find ways to communicate ideas differently in different disciplines.

Thomas Tallis School, London kindly hosted a workshop for RSA Academies on May 12 where we heard from Jon Nichols, Director of Art, Creativity and Communications about the Thomas Tallis whole school approach to Helen Storey's work. We reflected on the habits for creativity that Thomas Tallis have adopted and were inspired to think what might be possible and relevant in our schools.

Catalytic Teaching and Learning launches on 18 June launch at Ipsley with students and teachers participating in a creative cross curriculum workshop led by Stephen Steinhaus, Ipsley and Whitley Academies, Helen Storey RDI and Jon Nichols, Thomas Tallis School.

Helen Storey became an RDI in 2014. This project is the first time RSA have worked across all the schools in the RSA Family of Academies with an RDI and this project forms part of a wider programme of work between RDIs and RSA Academies.


Aim The impact of initial severity of depression on the rate of remission has not been well studied. The hypothesis for this study was that increased depression severity would have an inverse relationship on clinical remission at six months while in collaborative care management. Participants The study cohort was 1128 primary care patients from a south-eastern Minnesota practice and was a longitudinal retrospective chart review analysis. Results Clinical remission at six months was less likely in the severe depression group at 29.6% compared with 36.9% in the moderately severe group and 45.6% in the moderate depression group (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis of a sub-group demonstrated that increased initial anxiety symptoms (odds ratio [OR] 0.9645, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.9345-0.9954, P = 0.0248) and an abnormal screening for bipolar disorder (OR 0.4856, 95% CI 0.2659-0.8868, P = 0.0187) predicted not achieving remission at six months. A patient with severe depression was significantly less likely to achieve remission at six months (OR 0.6040, 95% CI 0.3803-0.9592, P = 0.0327) compared with moderate depression, but not moderately severe depression (P = 0.2324). There was no statistical difference in the adjusted means of the PHQ-9 score for those patients who were in remission at six months. However, in the unremitted patients, the six-month PHQ-9 score was significantly increased by initial depression severity when controlling for all other variables. Conclusion Multivariate analysis in our study demonstrated that patients with severe depression have a decreased OR for remission at six months compared with moderate depression. Also, there was a significant increase in the six-month PHQ-9 score for those unremitted patients in the severe vs. moderate depression groups.


Exposure to airborne wood (hard and soft) dust can lead to a number of diseases, such as asthma, emphysema, bronchitis and upper respiratory tract cancers, lately even proven to be linked to elevated risks for chromosomal instability in cells of the aerodigestive tract. In this context, the paper investigated the particulate wood dust concentrations in a university environment near a timber mill using a data mining approach consisting of JRip, J48 algorithms and a multilayer perceptron (MLP). The data collected consists of particulate wood concentrations and related atmospheric conditions recorded over a few days at four different locations within the university situated next to the timber mill. The results reveal that ORICC is the location most exposed to high concentrations of wood dust (up to 1.57 MG/M3 at times). This exceeds the recommended exposure limit of 1 MG/M3 for humans if the dust particles were of hardwood hence, more tests are recommended to establish the airborne particulate wood dust composition from the factory.


Conservation of community forests is an important part for the survival of local populations. The survival of community forests not only provide with shade, shelter, clean air and water but also protect from natural disasters like floods, drought or any sort of anthropogenic disturbances. The present paper presents the current status of the floral diversity in Phayeng Community forests with their scientific name, local name, family and their uses. The study also records the fruit tree species growing inside the village home orchard. Out of the 95 total tree species recorded, 44 families were identified according to the tree diversity growing inside the forests. The highest number of tree density was found in Meliaceae, Moraceae, Rubiaceae and Lauraceae families followed by Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, and Fagaceae respectively. Likewise, 41 fruit tree species were recorded in the village home orchard. The identified fruit species were commonly used for their economic livelihood and quality of the community. Community forests play an important role in the conservation and sustainable use of available resources.


The aims of this research project were to identify and classify the binder-filler
interfaces formed in carbon electrodes and to determine the effects of the
interfacial quality on important electrode properties. The effects of raw
materials and some fabrication process variables on interfacial characteristics
and quality of laboratory produced test electrodes were also studied, and the
development of binder-filler interfaces during the carbonisation process
followed.
Electrode quality was assessed by measurement of density, electrical resistivity and tensile strength. Pore structural data were also obtained by using a computerised image analysis system allied to an optical microscope. Interface
quality data were obtained by examining etched surfaces in a scanning electron microscope and classifying the binder-filler interface observed into one of five categories. The category depending on the extent of contact between the binder and filler. Accordingly, test electrodes were produced from combinations of four filler
carbons, comprising three grades of calcined petroleum coke and an electro-calcined anthracite, and four coal-tar binder pitches which varied in the
type and quantity of insoluble matter content. Examination of these test
electrodes showed that the nature of the filler carbon used had a dominant
influence on the quality of the interface formed, as assessed by this technique. A combination of one filler carbon and one binder pitch was used to study the
effects of some fabrication process variables. These were pitch content and,
mixing time and temperature. Of these process variables, pitch content and mixing temperature were found to have the major effects on the binder-filler
interface and electrode quality.
Investigation of the development of the binder-filler interfaces during the
carbonisation process showed three distinct zones of interface development and
transformation. These zones were associated with three temperature dependent mechanisms; thermal stress relaxation between 200-350 degrees C, volatile gas evolution
from coal-tar pitch decompositionb etween3 50-600 degrees C and stresses induced by thermal contraction of the binder phase between 600-1000 degrees C.


Zimbabwe's target to achieve Universal Access to treatment for HIV and AIDS, was severely affected by a decade long economic recession that threatened to reverse all the country's social and economic indicators. Despite these challenges, by September 2010, 282,916 adults and children (47.7% of those in need of treatment) were on treatment at 509 sites countrywide since national scale up started. ART services are predominantly offered through the public sector, with the private sector being an untapped potential resource for ART services for the future. Challenges of skilled and adequately trained human resources have hindered progress towards service availability. Providing access to children in particular has been constrained by lack of clinical mentorship for health workers, weak systems for support supervision, and inadequate HIV diagnostic services especially for children under 18 months and challenges with follow up of the HIV-exposed infants. Though the country has not met its target of Universal Access by 2010, significant progress has been made with over a 30-fold increase in service availability.


The phase image generated by radionuclide angiocardiography illustrates the regional timing of ventricular wall motion. In this study the phase image was used to investigate the patterns of ventricular contraction in 103 subjects with either normal hearts or a conduction abnormality. In 38 normal subjects the right ventricle contracted on average 7 ms after the left, and the last region to contract was the right ventricular outflow tract. In 15 subjects with left bundle branch block the left ventricle contracted 69 ms after the right, contraction spreading from the septum to the lateral wall. In 12 subjects with right bundle branch block right ventricular contraction occurred 54 ms after the left. In 11 subjects with right bundle branch block and left anterior fascicular block both right and left ventricular contraction were delayed, the right more so than the left. In three of five subjects with the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and four with frequent ventricular extrasystoles areas of early contraction corresponded to areas of early depolarisation. It is concluded that ventricular contraction can be studied non-invasively and follows a pattern to be expected from the pattern of electrical depolarisation.


The COVID-19 pandemic has, with alarming speed, dealt a heavy blow to an already-weak global economy, which is expected to slide into its deepest recession since the second world war, despite unprecedented policy support. The global recession would be deeper if countries take longer to bring the pandemic under control, if financial stress triggers defaults, or if there are protracted effects on households and firms. Economic disruptions are likely to be more severe and protracted in emerging market and developing economies with larger domestic outbreaks and weaker medical care systems; greater exposure to international spillovers through trade, tourism, and commodity and financial markets; weaker macroeconomic frameworks; and more pervasive informality and poverty. Beyond the current steep economic contraction, the pandemic is likely to leave lasting scars on the global economy by undermining consumer and investor confidence, human capital, and global value chains. Being mostly a reflection of the recent plunge in global energy demand, low oil prices are unlikely to provide much of a boost to global growth in the near term. While policymakers' immediate priorities are to address the health crisis and moderate the short-term economic losses, the likely long-term consequences of the pandemic highlight the need to forcefully undertake comprehensive reform programs to improve the fundamental drivers of economic growth, once the crisis abates.


Female Circumcision (FC) is "the total or partial cutting away of the female external genital organs." There are 3 types of FC: 1) Sunna where the foreskin of the clitoris is removed; 2) excision which involved removal of a part or all of the clitoris with a part or all of the labia minora; and 3) infibulation or pharaonic circumcision (the most severe type) which includes excision and removal of the labia majora only leaving a small hole to allow the exit of urine and menstrual fluid. FC carries the high risk of HIV infection because it is often practiced without anesthesia and with either a razor blade or a knife. The damages go beyond the physical--they include long-term side effects on women's physical and psychological health. The international battle against FC includes a series of legislative and political acts: 1) In 1946 the British Colonial government made one of the earliest efforts of its kind by making pharaonic circumcision in Sudan a felony and punishable by imprisonment; 2) In 1959 Egypt passed a law making circumcision illegal; 3) In 1977 the Special Committee of Non- Governmental Organizations on Human Rights of the United Nations in collaboration with WHO and UNICEF organized a sub-committee to investigate the status of women in 20 African countries and published a report; 4) In 1979 WHO held a conference in Sudan entitled "The Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children" whose outcomes were published in a report; 5) In 1980 WHO forbade the practice of FC; 6) In 1984 a Pan-African seminar was held in Dakar, Senegal that established the Inter-African Committee Against Harmful Practices Affecting Women and Children (IAC); 7) In 1985 the UN Nairobi Conference on The Women's Decade passed resolutions against FC; 8) In 1988 the 39th Assembly of the WHO/Africa Region passed a resolution calling for the abolition of female sexual mutilation. Presidents of several African countries have condemned FC including Benin, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Senegal, Djibouti, Guinea Bissau and Mali.


Deep learning models have achieved expert-level performance in healthcare with an exclusive focus on training accurate models. However, in many clinical environments such as intensive care unit (ICU), real-time model serving is equally if not more important than accuracy, because in ICU patient care is simultaneously more urgent and more expensive. Clinical decisions and their timeliness, therefore, directly affect both the patient outcome and the cost of care. To make timely decisions, we argue the underlying serving system must be latency-aware. To compound the challenge, health analytic applications often require a combination of models instead of a single model, to better specialize individual models for different targets, multi-modal data, different prediction windows, and potentially personalized predictions. To address these challenges, we propose HOLMES---an online model ensemble serving framework for healthcare applications. HOLMES dynamically identifies the best performing set of models to ensemble for highest accuracy, while also satisfying sub-second latency constraints on end-to-end prediction. We demonstrate that HOLMES is able to navigate the accuracy/latency tradeoff efficiently, compose the ensemble, and serve the model ensemble pipeline, scaling to simultaneously streaming data from 100 patients, each producing waveform data at 250~Hz. HOLMES outperforms the conventional offline batch-processed inference for the same clinical task in terms of accuracy and latency (by order of magnitude). HOLMES is tested on risk prediction task on pediatric cardio ICU data with above 95% prediction accuracy and sub-second latency on 64-bed simulation.


Many different nations and multilateral organizations provide assistance to support family planning and reproductive health in countries around the globe. This report maps the geographic donor landscape of FP / RH assistance looking both at donor presence and magnitude of donor assistance. It is intended to serve as an easy-to-use information source and tool for policymakers and other stakeholders in both donor and recipient countries. The report finds that thirty-six different donors gave family planning and reproductive health assistance from 2009 to 2011 -- a number comparable to the number of donors who gave HIV assistance over the same period and significantly greater than the numbers of donors who provided assistance for malaria and tuberculosis. The United States was the largest donor providing 29 percent of total assistance. The top five donors -- the United States the United Nations Populations Fund the United Kingdom the Netherlands and the World Bank -- together accounted for nearly three-quarters of family planning and reproductive health assistance. This is the fourth and final report in a series of analyses examining the donor nations and multilateral organizations involved in addressing different global health challenges in recipient countries worldwide. The reports seek to provide perspective on the geographic presence of global health donors and to enable more effective coordination and delivery of services globally and within individual recipient nations.


In the past decade, Turkey has consistently imprisoned more journalists than any other country. Although Turkey's repression of free speech ought to be internationally newsworthy given its status as a democratic nation, the issue has been overshadowed by the country's more sensational human rights controversies involving Kurds, Greek Cypriots, and Armenians. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Despite the international media's tendency to focus on ethnic tensions, freedom of speech is essential to Turkey's acceptance of liberal so cietal values as it contin ues its bid to become a member of the European Union. Since Turkey's 1987 application to become an EU member, the country has made significant progress in respecting human rights. Yet restrictive monitoring of expression has continued, and without this basic right, the human rights situation in Turkey could deteriorate at a moment's notice. Free speech is now in a state reminiscent of the days before EU accession talks. Journalists or academics who speak out against state institutions are subject to prosecution under the aegis of loop hole laws. Such laws are especially objectionable because they lead to a culture in which other, more physically apparent rights abuses become prevalent. Violations of freedom of expression can escalate into other rights abuses, including torture, racism, and other forms of discrimination. Because free speech is suppressed, the stories of these abuses then go unreported in what becomes a vicious cycle. Luckily, the attention drawn to Turkey by its bid for EU membership sheds light on the otherwise inconspicuous suppression of speech. Turkey's close neighbors to the west, as well as removed trading partners such as the United States, keenly follow the human rights developments within the country. Pressure from foreign allies has caused Turkey to address some rights abuses, but there is more to be done. In the long run, more realistic EU accession negotiations and the international inclusion of Turkey could hasten the rise of an economically robust and democratically viable state that better protects free speech within its own borders. A History of Abuse Many of the Turkish government's reservations about freedom of speech have developed from insecurities regarding past conflicts. The government's most controversial legislation has roots in the age-old tensions between Turks and the ethnic Armenians and Kurds living within Turkey. Because it is in Turkey's interest to appear united and in control of its territory, Ankara has used the conflicts as pretexts for limiting free expression. The Armenian conflict has its roots in the 1890s, when Christian Armenians clamored for religious freedom under the Muslim rule of the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan retaliated by persecuting the Armenian population. Turkish rulers wanted a completely homogenous state, but ten percent of the region's occupants were Armenian. World War I provided the international distraction that allowed them to realize this aspiration. Armenians were rounded up and massacred, with women, children, and the elderly forced to march across the Syrian Desert to their death. To this day, Turkey's government rejects this history and actively prosecutes those who try to raise awareness of the events. The second and perhaps more lingering conflict has developed over the last century. Kurdish uprisings and calls for independence from Turkey, coupled with harsh government responses including martial law, marked the first seven decades of the twentieth century. In the 1970s, political instability gave rise to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which quickly established the goal of an independent, united, and socialist Kurdish state. The PKK attempted to achieve its objective through violent means for over twenty years. In 1993, a truce seemed imminent after ten years of negotiations between the PKK and the Turkish government. But the death of moderate Turkish President Turgut Ozal in 1993 allowed hardliners to come to power, ending hopes for a peaceful settlement. …


This Article argues that the United States Supreme Court should significantly alter its current categorical approach for discerning standards of judicial review in free-speech cases. The present system should become nondeterminative and be augmented with a modified version of Justice Stephen Breyer's long-preferred proportionality framework. Specifically, the Article's proposed tack fuses facets of today's policy, which largely pivots on distinguishing content-based laws from content-neutral laws and letting that categorization determine scrutiny, with a more nuanced, values-and-interests methodology. A values-and-interests formula would allow the Court to climb up or down the traditional ladder of scrutiny rungs – strict, intermediate or rational basis – depending on whether a statute jeopardizes a core rationale for safeguarding free expression and the degree to which that rationale is threatened. Given the frequent divide along partisan lines on today's Supreme Court over scrutiny in First Amendment speech cases, a two-tiered approach that blends aspects of a categorical strategy with a values-and-interests tack provides a path forward as the Court moves fully into the third decade of the twenty-first century.


Genetic-modification strategies are currently being developed to reduce the transmission of vector-borne diseases, including African trypanosomiasis. For tsetse, the vector of African trypanosomiasis, a paratransgenic strategy is being considered: this approach involves modification of the commensal symbiotic bacteria Sodalis to express trypanosome-resistance-conferring products. Modified Sodalis can then be driven into the tsetse population by cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) from Wolbachia bacteria. To evaluate the effectiveness of this paratransgenic strategy in controlling African trypanosomiasis, we developed a three-species mathematical model of trypanosomiasis transmission among tsetse, humans, and animal reservoir hosts. Using empirical estimates of CI parameters, we found that paratransgenic tsetse have the potential to eliminate trypanosomiasis, provided that any extra mortality caused by Wolbachia colonization is low, that the paratransgene is effective at protecting against trypanosome transmission, and that the target tsetse species comprises a large majority of the tsetse population in the release location.


The introduction of the template-assembled synthetic protein (TASP) concept for the de novo design of proteins has provided a very powerful new tool for the construction of artificial tertiary structures. TASPs are constructed by the covalent attachment of amphiphilic secondary structure blocks to a topological template, resulting in a non-linear chain architecture of the target molecules. A key feature of this approach is that the template serves to reinforce and direct the folding of the secondary structure elements into predetermined tertiary structures. Having used stepwise solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) in combination with linear oligopeptide templates in the initial stages of our research on TASPs we are now pursuing refined structural and synthetic approaches in the construction of the next generation of TASP molecules. These include the synthesis by SPPS of four-helix bundle TASPs using new cyclic templates (containing either S-S bridges or beta-turn mimetics) as well as conventional fragment condensation strategies using protected fragments. The conformational properties of these new TASPs are now under investigation, with special emphasis on the relationship between overall conformation and the nature of the topological template.


Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) are the most abundant leukocytes in the blood and constitute the first line of host defense against numerous infectious pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. Neutrophils are the first leukocytes to migrate from the blood to injured or infected sites for killing pathogens and removing cellular debris. Neutrophils migrate to sites of inflammation and infection where they recognize and phagocytose invading microorganisms, in order to kill them via different cytotoxic mechanisms. This process involves molecular mechanisms that coordinate cell polarization, delivery of receptors, and activation of integrins at the leading edge of neutrophils migrating toward chemoattractants. Once at sites of infection, neutrophils actively phagocytose microorganisms or form neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) to trap and kill pathogens. Association of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) reduced oxidase complex at the phagosomal membrane for the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and delivery of proteolytic enzymes into the phagosome initiate pathogen killing and removal.

In recent years, it has become evident that neutrophils not only have a fundamental role in the acute phase of inflammation when they actively eliminate pathogens, but also are capable of modifying the overall immune response. Neutrophils can do this by exchanging information with macrophages, dendritic cells, and other cells of the adaptive immune system through either soluble mediators or direct cell-cell contact.

To illuminate the complex role of neutrophils in infection, inflammation, and immunity, this special issue has gathered original and review articles that will help us expand our knowledge on neutrophil biology.

As stated before, any neutrophil response begins with migration of these leukocytes to the site of infection or inflammation. Chemotaxis, the directional movement of the cell guided by extracellular chemoattractant gradients, plays an essential role in the recruitment of neutrophils to sites of inflammation. Chemotaxis is mediated by G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling pathway. The article by X. Xu and T. Jin describes the novel functions of the PLC/PKC/PKD signaling axis in GPCR-mediated chemotaxis of neutrophils. Similarly, the review by J. Gamara et al. explains how the small monomeric GTPases of the Arf family and their guanine exchange factors (GEFs) and GTPase activating proteins (GAPs) participate in GPCR signaling cascades regulating several neutrophil functional responses. The various cell responses to different chemoattractants are highlighted by the studies of R. Vaivoda et al. and M. A. Hidalgo et al. R. Vaivoda et al. describe how the deficiency of CYP4F18, an enzyme that catalyzes hydroxylation of leukotriene B4 (LTB4), does not alter the chemotactic response to LTB4 but causes a twofold increase response to complement component C5a. M. A. Hidalgo et al. describe that although N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLF) and Platelet Activating Factor (PAF) induce similar intracellular signaling profiles, only fMLF induces interleukin-8 (IL-8) release and NADPH oxidase activity in neutrophils.

Several microbicidal functions of neutrophils involve the activation of the NADPH oxidase complex for production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) to mediate pathogen killing.

The interesting review by R. C. Allen describes the principles of particle physics and quantum mechanics to develop a fundamental explanation of neutrophil microbicidal metabolism based on ROS atomic properties. Myeloperoxidase, the most abundant neutrophil-granule protein, is known to have potent microbicidal properties. But, recently it has become apparent that myeloperoxidase also participates in regulating adaptive immune responses. The review by D. Odobasic et al. presents an overview on how this enzyme has key roles in various functions of neutrophils in innate and adaptive immunity. When neutrophils cannot kill microorganisms by the classical phagocytosis or degranulation mechanisms, they can also form neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) to kill microbes. NETs are fibers composed of chromatin and neutrophil-granule proteins and are induced by several pathogens and also some pharmacological stimuli. Antigen-antibody complexes can also induce NET formation. The paper by O. R. Aleman et al. explores direct stimulation of individual Fcγ receptors to induce NET formation and finds that only FcγRIIIb cross-linking induced NET formation in a NADPH oxidase-, PKC-, and ERK-dependent fashion. An intriguing observation on the microbicidal function of neutrophils of older women is reported by J. Bartholomeu-Neto et al. They find that phagocytic and oxidative activities of neutrophils of healthy older women that exercise regularly are higher than those of sedentary older women. The physical condition of each individual was a significant predictor of phagocytosis potential. Clearly, regular exercise contributes to a better innate immune system. However, no mechanism for this beneficial effect is known. This should be an interesting line of future neutrophil research.

Neutrophils are potent regulators of inflammation via the release of proinflammatory factors and several cytokines. The paper by M. R. Tardif et al. describes an alternative secretion pathway in neutrophils for the release of the S100A8/A9 (calprotectin) and S100A12, proinflammatory mediators. The secretion of these cytoplasmic proteins was dependent on the production of ROS and required K+ exchanges through ATP-sensitive K+ channels. Because neutrophils can also cause tissue damage, their downregulation at the inflammatory site is required for proper resolution of inflammation. The paper by M. A. Sugimoto et al. describes how Annexin A1, an endogenous glucocorticoid-regulated protein, inhibits neutrophil tissue accumulation by reducing leukocyte infiltration and activating neutrophil apoptosis. Annexin A1 also induced macrophage reprogramming toward a resolving phenotype, resulting in reduced production of proinflammatory cytokines and increased release of immunosuppressive and proresolving molecules. Similarly, the paper by M. Cohen-Mazor et al. describes how heparin binds to activated neutrophils and induces apoptosis. These results provide an explanation for the long-known anti-inflammatory effects of heparin.

Neutrophils seem to have dual roles in promoting and controlling inflammation. The mechanisms that control the final outcome are not completely described, but these opposite functions must be tightly balanced. During sepsis, neutrophils are responsible for both the release of cytokines and the phagocytosis of pathogens. But, in SIRS (systemic inflammatory response syndrome), neutrophils contribute to maintaining of a whole-body inflammatory state. In the review by H. Fang et al., the role of neutrophils in these two clinical conditions is described and the therapeutic effect of G-CSF in sepsis is discussed in relation to its function of regulating neutrophil blood levels. Moreover, because neutrophil-derived products can regulate the action of other immune cells and can contribute to the development and chronicity of inflammatory diseases, I. Naegelen et al. propose in their article an original strategy based on linear fitting, to analyze the link between cytokine release and degranulation time. This method could find correlations between granule proteins and cytokines secreted to the inflammatory site. The idea is to be able in the future to predict the type of inflammatory response that neutrophils could induce under certain conditions. In addition, C. F. M. Morris et al. describe in their review how two apparent opposite models of inflammation may be compatible in the outcome of inflammation. The two-hit model states that a first injury (i.e., hit) can serve as a priming event which sequential insults can build on, culminating in a disproportioned inflammatory response to injury. On the other hand, the ischemic preconditioning (IPC) model states that a mild ischemic event, either remote or local, can be protective and can actually attenuate the inflammatory response to the following insults. This article tries to reconcile both models and presents evidence that each of them brings its own unique perspective onto the biology of inflammation. Finally, the dual role of neutrophil function during inflammation is emphasized again in the review by E. Uribe-Querol et al., where the protumor or antitumor character of the tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) is revised. Recent findings on the mechanisms for neutrophil recruitment to the tumor, for neutrophils supporting tumor progression, and for neutrophil activation to enhance their antitumor functions are presented.

These articles together represent the fascinating flexible functions of neutrophils not only in fighting infections, but also in shaping the immune response and the consequences this may have to important health issues such as resolution of inflammation, autoimmunity, and cancer.

Carlos Rosales

Nicolas Demaurex

Clifford A. Lowell

Eileen Uribe-Querol


Refugee here I am, is a musical documentary based on the life of a Congolese Musician Enzo Ikah, a refugee and a renown reggae artist living in Istanbul. Making the first legal reggae album in Turkey, Enzo gives hundreds of concerts and appears in various media chanels throughout the country. Through his music, Enzo raises his voice and creates dialogue with various authorities. He creates awareness about those lives in hardship, coming from war torn countries and conflicted areas.
Despite his growing fame ,Enzo does not give up living in his small room in Tarlabasi which he shares with the newcoming Syrian neighbours. He composes all his songs, day dreaming in his room, with the determination to raise hope among the refugee youth. The documentary, explores a single man's extraordinary struggle, portraying his very creative way of reaching out to the public, as Enzo transforms his life shaken under opression and hardship into an enchanting life musical.With his film, Enzo intends to advocate that every person should be able to realize their potentials make use of their talents and realize their dreams, despite the borders


Research on code reviews has often focused on defect counts instead of defect types, which offers an imperfect view of code review benefits. In this paper, we classified the defects of nine industrial (C/C++) and 23 student (Java) code reviews, detecting 388 and 371 defects, respectively. First, we discovered that 75 percent of defects found during the review do not affect the visible functionality of the software. Instead, these defects improved software evolvability by making it easier to understand and modify. Second, we created a defect classification consisting of functional and evolvability defects. The evolvability defect classification is based on the defect types found in this study, but, for the functional defects, we studied and compared existing functional defect classifications. The classification can be useful for assigning code review roles, creating checklists, assessing software evolvability, and building software engineering tools. We conclude that, in addition to functional defects, code reviews find many evolvability defects and, thus, offer additional benefits over execution-based quality assurance methods that cannot detect evolvability defects. We suggest that code reviews may be most valuable for software products with long life cycles as the value of discovering evolvability defects in them is greater than for short life cycle systems.


Information security is a broader concept which refers to ensuring the integrity, confidentiality and availability of information. The dynamics of information technology to induce new risks to which organizations must implement new measures of control. Technological development has been accompanied by security solutions, equipment manufacturers and applications including technical methods of protection performance. However, while in information technology change is exponential, the human component remains unchanged. Information security can not be achieved solely by technical measures, is primarily a human problem. Most security incidents are caused by inadequate management and organization, rather than because of deficiencies in security mechanisms. This paper presents the use of firewall security systems.


Prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the foundation on which any healthy population should be based, and the last 30 years have shown us how important it is in reducing cardiovascular mortality, streamline health system and decreased medical costs. The last guide on Cardiovascular Prevention of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) advocates an approach to the entire population, based on the fact that "minor changes in risk factors performed consistently over an entire population will lead to their significant decreases in comparison with major changes addressed only to individuals with high risk". This approach has a general addressability, with an impact on the entire course of life, reducing inequalities in health in the long term. If we were to exemplify an average European country, we could say that reducing CVD risk in population by only 1% would result a dicrease by 25,000 cases and would save up to 40 million euros each year.


This article explores how a fresh approach to integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) in Ireland might be forged through the identification of a number of key innovative cross-sectoral professional initiatives and interdisciplinary academic thinking in this sector. It includes three interlinked research themes that assess existing cross-sectoral data management issues (to include an assessment of readiness for the INSPIRE and compliance with the Re-use of Public Sector Information European Union Directives), the degree of cross-pollination between the various sectors involved in managing the Irish Coastal Zone (to identify the need (or otherwise) for capacity- building to encourage cross-fertilization of ideas, skills, and knowledge exchange), and cross-professional competencies (to assess the desire/need (if any) for those working in coastal zone management to add to their existing competencies through continuous professional development or lifelong learning opportunities). Indeed, the specific competencies for coastal practitioners are identified here and these further illustrate the need for professional recognition of the role, responsibilities, and therefore the requirement for an appropriately qualified "Coastal Manager" professional, one that is seen not merely as a nicety but rather a necessity—a core enabler in any future innovative and integrative management approach.


1. The latencies of the visual evoked responses, indices of central nerve conduction, and peripheral nerve conduction were slowed in patients with primary hypothyroidism compared with controls. 2. In thyrotoxic patients, there was no change in the latencies of the visual evoked responses and peripheral nerve conduction compared with the control group. 3. The abnormalities seen in hypothyroidism were reversed by L-thyroxine therapy. 4. Warming untreated hypothyroid patients significantly improved both central and peripheral nerve conduction. 5. The conduction delay found in hypothyroidism is to a large extent dependent upon a subnormal body temperature.


This study examined environmental and socioeconomic outcomes of a water project in rural Bolivia, and sought insights on how and why its planning was so flawed. The project destroyed an ancient, sustainable irrigation system, and replaced it with one that provides insufficient and diminishing quantities of water to many fewer people, appears to be causing land degradation and groundwater depletion, and has fueled conflicts. The study shows that even relatively small, NGO-led projects can generate significant negative impacts, and raises questions about the pressures on development agencies to charge ahead with projects, despite obvious potential for such impacts.


With industrialization and continuously evolving climatic conditions, the urge to practice agriculture with the fusion of technology has become a necessity. In the era of Internet of Things where all eyes are witnessing the evolution of machine to machine interaction, there is also a lack of clarity in considering the type of protocol to be used in building a particular system like Green House. A green house is a regulated environment for agriculture where critical parameters like temperature, light, humidity, ph level of soil can be monitored with the help of sensor systems using Internet of Things protocols. Message Queue Telemetry Transfer protocol was chosen over Constrained Application Protocol and Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol in the experiment conducted in terms of its light weight transmission, resource consumption and effectively providing the different quality of services to detect the temperature and humidity as well as the gas leaks encountered in a greenhouse environment.


This thesis is on the relation between management accounting and customer focus and relates to discussions about how internal managing processes in organizations are interrelated with interorganizational relations, specifically constructions of customers. Both a normative and a descriptive perspective on the relation are taken within the different parts of the thesis, which consists of a licentiate thesis, three articles and a synthesizing text. The purpose is to understand the interaction between management accounting and customer focus on operative levels in industrial organizations, where focus on customer has a central place. The results are also discussed with respect to its possible importance in the development of managing processes of organizations. The thesis is based on three cases, which have been studied with mainly a qualitative approach.In the licentiate thesis, traditional accounting models, originally developed to provide information for analyzing products, are revisited under the assumption that customers and products are equally interesting to analyze. The three articles explore the role of management accounting in interpreting customers and the interface to customers. In the first article, strong customer accountability is found to override the intentions from managers, as communicated through the accounting system. Arguments of how management accounting can be perceived as inaccurate then have a central place in motivating how customers are prioritized in a way not favored by managers. Furthermore, in the second article, customers are experienced as both catalysts and frustrators to change processes and changes in management accounting are found in co-development with the different customer relations and how different customers prefer to communicate. The third article explores how coordination mechanisms operate in relation to each other in coordination of customer-supplier relationships. A strong market mechanism creates space for bureaucratic control and use of management accounting. However, the use of bureaucratic control in turn relies on social coordination between actors in order to function.These four parts are revisited and related to each other in a synthesizing part of the thesis. The relation between management accounting and customer focus is approached in two ways. Management accounting may construct customer focus, making it impossible to distinguish between the two. However, another interpretation of the relation is management accounting and customer focus as opposing logics, where management accounting represents hierarchical influence, homogeneous control processes and cost efficient operations, and customer focus represents customer influence; control processes adapted to the customer and customized operations.


Productivity of Concord vines infested with endemic populations of Eastern grape leafhopper, Erythroneura comes Say, was compared with that of uninfested vines in three field experiments from 1990 to 1995. Responses of vines to infestation levels ranging from 100 to 577 leafhopper days and peak leafhopper densities ranging from two to 14 leafhopper nymphs per leaf varied. Mean crop weight in vines not treated with insecticides was reduced by up to 4.9 kg/vine compared to sprayed vines. Effects on productivity sometimes carried over to subsequent crop years, but response of yield components to injury varied. In the season of injury, berry weight was the yield component most strongly affected. In subsequent years, leafhopper injury reduced bud fruitfulness, as measured by the number of berries per cluster and clusters per retained node. Soluble solids, adjusted for crop weight, were significantly affected in only one cropping cycle (out of 22). Yield reductions were only weakly correlated with infestation levels, as measured by leafhopper days and leaf injury ratings. Availability of adequate soil moisture and vine reserves is hypothesized to be an important determinant of the impact of leafhopper injury on Concord productivity in northeastern North America.


Applications for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and, specifically, Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV) are increasing. As is the case for all aircraft, propulsion plays a significant factor in overall vehicle performance. Most small UAV or MAV propellers are commercial, off-the-shelf products given their availability and low cost. Unfortunately, the off-the-shelf propellers are not tailored to a specific vehicle and/or mission. Only limited technical and performance data is available for the propellers. A number of modifications have been used on larger (manned) aircraft propellers and rotors in the past to improve performance. Examples of possible modifications include vortex generators, cut tips, and tip sails. An investigation was conducted with the following goals: 1. Experimentally measure the performance impact of various modifications on UAV/MAV-class propellers 2. Study the practical applications for such modifications to UAV/MAV's 3. Evaluate the utility of related propeller performance prediction tools Experimental and basic analytical investigations address these goals. Special emphasis was placed on studying simple, practical, and cost effective modifications. This investigation shows that after testing 24 modifications a number of practical modifications to improve propeller performance do exist. 2-Propeller, leading edge notches, and Gurney flap modifications all improve thrust while leading edge notches and Gurney flap modifications also improve cruise efficiency.


With
the increasing number of quantitative models available to forecast the volatility
of crude oil prices, the assessment of the relative performance of competing
models becomes a critical task. Our survey of the literature revealed that most
studies tend to use several performance criteria to evaluate the performance of
competing forecasting models; however, models are compared to each other using
a single criterion at a time, which often leads to different rankings for
different criteria—A situation where
one cannot make an informed decision as to which model performs best when
taking all criteria into account. In order to overcome this methodological
problem, Xu and Ouenniche [1] proposed a
multidimensional framework based on an input-oriented radial super-efficiency
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to rank order competing forecasting
models of crude oil prices' volatility. However, their approach suffers from a
number of issues. In this paper, we overcome such issues by proposing an
alternative framework.


We consider the effect of compactification of extra dimensions on the onset of classical chaotic mixmaster behavior during cosmic contraction. Assuming a universe that is well-approximated as a four-dimensional Friedmann-Robertson-Walker model (with negligible Kaluza-Klein excitations) when the contraction phase begins, we identify compactifications that allow a smooth contraction and delay the onset of chaos until arbitrarily close to the big crunch. These compactifications are defined by the de Rham cohomology (Betti numbers) and Killing vectors of the compactification manifold. We find compactifications that control chaos in vacuum Einstein gravity, as well as in string theories with N=1 supersymmetry and M-theory. In models where chaos is controlled in this way, the universe can remain homogeneous and flat until it enters the quantum gravity regime. At this point, the classical equations leading to chaotic behavior can no longer be trusted, and quantum effects may allow a smooth approach to the big crunch and transition into a subsequent expanding phase. Our results may be useful for constructing cosmological models with contracting phases, such as the ekpyrotic/cyclic and pre-big bang models.


The process of ethylene production from ethane dehydrogenation is one of the interesting processes in the field of conversion the petroleum light gases to the valuable products. In this process, the outlet gaseous product is a combination of ethylene, ethane and hydrogen. Effective separation techniques are required for separation of ethylene from unreacted ethane. Here a new adsorbent approach is introduced for separation of ethylene from ethane. The adsorbent is a kind of zeolite- like molecular sieve from silico-alumino-phosphate group (SAPO-34) which is previously synthesized and studied in the adsorption tests of ethane and ethylene. The equilibrium adsorption experiments are performed in a static batch adsorption apparatus at various moderate pressures and room temperature to evaluate the adsorption capacity and selectivity toward ethylene against ethane. A high tendency of SAPO-34 towards ethylene and the ethylene/ethane selectivity from 2 to 3 fold in the pressure range of 200 to 800 kPa is observed, confirming the potential application of SAPO-34 as an adsorbent in the adsorption process for separation of ethylene and ethane.


This research is rooted in my professional practice at the newly established
international Centre for Spiritual Life Development (CSLD) of The Salvation Army. It
is designed to develop a foundation which can shape and enhance the policy and provision of the CSLD. It seeks to answer two questions: How do Salvation Army officers sustain and develop their personal spiritual life in the context of an activist, missional organisation? In what ways can the Centre for Spiritual life Development facilitate and support this process? The research methodology is qualitative, bringing responses to a written questionnaire and semi-structured interviews into mutual critical dialogue with the conceptual framework, which is drawn from the theology and history of evangelicalism and evangelical spirituality, and the theory of theological and vocational education. This has generated a rich description of spiritual life development in Salvation Army officers in the 21st century, leading to new understanding. The empirical research focused upon a particular constituency, delegates to the
International College for Officers, thus facilitating understanding of the difference
encountered in an organisation that has both global and local influences. It confirmed
an expected diversity of understanding and practice in three major areas; definitions
of, and practices leading to, spiritual life development; the means used by officers
develop their spiritual lives; and the relationship between practice and the spiritual life. The work contributes to academic knowledge about The Salvation Army by locating the organisation, and Salvationist spirituality, within the framework of evangelicalism. A proposal to encourage a holistic understanding of spiritual life development using a process of reflection based upon the integration of, and interrelationships between, 'knowing, being and doing', offers a way forward that is applicable in a range of contexts. The evolution of my professional practice during the period of the research demonstrates that the foundations of new policy and practices are taking shape. It therefore contributes to the field of practical theology, as the integration and mutual critique of practice, spirituality and educational theory have led to new understanding and new practice.


The development and acceptance of any scientific discipline requires an ever-expanding and maturing empirical base. Yet despite vast scientific progress in allied domains of professional psychology, the field of sport psychology has remained fairly stagnant in its research progress and has overlooked major advances that could aid in the advancement of the discipline. This article discusses important issues related to the lack of efficacy of the traditional and long assumed "gold-standard" interventions for the enhancement of athletic performance, and compares the field's empirical base to sister disciplines in psychology. Further, the lack of empirical studies examining rate of change, moderators of change, and mediators (mechanisms) of change is discussed, and suggestions are provided for a new research agenda in sport psychology that could expand its professional credibility and enhance its overall scientific development.


The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of deaths and devastated communities across the globe. Vaccines will play a key role in bringing the pandemic under control, with successful clinical trials, authorizations and roll-out having now occurred in several countries. However, large-scale manufacturing of such vaccines remains a bottleneck to delivering doses to billions of people at risk of infection, as well as producing new versions of the vaccines that target variants. Here we discuss the current status of manufacturing, focusing on the adenovirus-vectored vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and how the process for manufacturing it was developed.


Extracted from text ... SA Pharmaceutical Journal - May 2006 8
CLINICAL
Blood pressure measurement
Standardising blood pressure measurement is
clearly outlined in this guideline. Of utmost
importance are the recommendations for
validated blood pressure devices. Only upperarm
devices are recommended and
pharmacists should only stock devices that are
validated by the SA Hypertension Society. A
comprehensive list of validated devices is
available at www.dableducational.com. SAPJ
will soon publish a comprehensive list of
validated devices that are available in South
AFrica. Moreover, pharmacists should check
the devices in their clinics, have them
calibrated and communicate new guidelines to
clinic sisters.
Lifestyle changes
No longer ..


Fewer orphans are enrolled in school than other children but the extent of disadvantage-after allowing for their older average age- is small in most countries. Cross-country analyses show variation in the size and strength of associations between orphanhood and education according to the form of parental loss experienced. However maternal death is usually more detrimental to children's education chances than paternal death and double orphans are typically the least likely to be in school. These differences are not fully accounted for by differences in household socio-economic circumstances. In a case study in Manicaland Zimbabwe we found that children who had lost their mothers at an early age were less likely to have completed primary school than other children but that the reverse was true for paternal orphans. These results remained valid even after controlling for other factors that influence primary school completion including child's sex and age economic status of household and characteristics of household head. In an in-depth study of the extended family system in Manicaland we identified factors that support the education of paternal orphans and reduce the school chances of maternal orphans. The former include the increased role and greater motivation of surviving mothers and more extensive involvement of relatives. The latter include low priority given by surviving fathers and step-mothers to the child's education and more frequent residence with more distant relatives. The extended family and Government and NGO programmes are less likely to provide support when the natural father is still alive. The extended family system provides the most conducive and sustainable context for orphans' upbringing but is becoming seriously fragmented. Care is needed to ensure that initiatives intended to assist orphans support and build upon rather than undermine extended family arrangements. (authors)


The social function of recording devices provides the subject of my thesis, and
takes form in an installation titled Leisure Time for Everyone. The art work consists of
four projected videos and one non-projected work shown on a vintage television set. Each
of the works addresses the role and influence of media in the formation of filmic
representation and socially accepted behavior. The chronological assimilation of the
camera into American culture from the 1950's to the present provides the framework for
my exploration. Feminist theory and the implication of surveillance provide further
contexts for my investigation.
The works aim to expose the power structures of Hollywood cinema latent in my
family's amateur film collection, and the extension of those structures into the
contemporary social role of the camera. Two of the projected works consist of digitally
manipulated vintage films, and the other projected works consist of footage I shot with a
digital camera. These works address the shift from private to public spaces, also reflected
in technological advancements of recording devices. The television set plays an audio
recording paired with blurry found photographs, which speaks to the personal impact of technology and representation on memory. Organized chronologically, both the
exhibition of the works as well as this paper explore the history of representation and its
formation of social norms.
The approaches I employ in exposing the role of the camera include digital
manipulations of film or video that analyze the function of narrative. Humor and
innuendo also provide methods for addressing the role of narrative and representation.
The suspension of diegetic function within the works also likens them to the history of
experimental film and still photography. This paper will further examine the social role of
the recording device and the influence of media and surveillance on representation within
the private space of the home as well as in the public space.


Offers of free services abound on the Internet. But the focus on the price rather than on the cost of free services has led consumers into a position of vulnerability. For example, even though internet users typically exchange personal information for the opportunity to use these purportedly free services, one court has found that users of free services are not consumers for purposes of California consumer protection law. This holding reflects the common misconception that the costs of free online transactions are negligible — when in fact true costs may be quite significant. To elucidate the true costs of these allegedly free services, we apply a transaction cost economics (TCE) approach. Unlike orthodox economic theory, TCE provides a framework for analyzing exchanges in which the price of the product seems to be zero. Under a TCE analysis, we argue that information-intensive companies misuse the term "free" to promote products and services that involve numerous nonpecuniary costs. In so doing, firms generate contractual hazards for consumers, ignore consumer preferences for privacy, and mislead consumers by creating the impression that a given transaction will be free.While psychological research and behavioral economics may support an outright ban of free offers because of their biasing effects, TCE suggests reforming governance structures to place the business risks associated with free transactions more firmly in the hands of businesses. We suggest alterations to governance structures — such as the Federal Trade Commission's Guide Concerning Use of the Word "Free" (FTC Guide) — to curb the incentives of firms to raise transaction costs for consumers. The FTC Guide provides support for two of the consumer protection measures we propose: first, a requirement that free service providers clearly disclose that such providers seek users' personal information in exchange for those services, and, second, the establishment of a regular price before providers can market a service as free. We further argue that the recognition of users of free services as consumers for purposes of consumer protection law would better align incentives and ensure users access to legal redress against some of the most popular services on the Internet. Lastly, we suggest the adoption of alternative governance structures designed to reduce the cost of transacting by curbing the collection of personal information from consumers of free services and by enhancing the rights of consumers to govern the dispersal of personal information from free online services to third parties.


While there has been much literature on the Iraqi constitution of both the scholarly and popular media variety, attention to contemporary Iraqi judicial decisions, and in particular those of the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court, has been far less pronounced. In fact, my own search has not led me to a single published law review article on the subject. There is some irony to this – it is, after all, rather difficult to address the concept of constitutionalism in any state without reference to constitutional praxis, and the judiciary is, at the very least, an integral participant in that praxis. I have sought to address this omission with my own review of Iraqi judicial practice over the past half decade. My thesis upon completing such a review is that Iraq's judiciary is generally (though not entirely) independent of overweening executive influence, its rulings are generally (though not entirely) heeded within the political classes and the broader polity, and as such its emerging practice does not differ from contemporary scholarly accounts of the history of the United States Supreme Court, or, perhaps better stated, the differences are of degree rather than quality. This Article proceeds in three parts. The first part addresses the independence of the Iraqi judiciary from direct executive interference, and provides limitations on the thesis that the judiciary is able to work largely without threat of reprisal from the executive. The second part addresses the legitimacy of the Court's decisionmaking and the broad (though by no means unlimited) extent to which its rulings are heeded by other political institutions and by the broader public. The third part acknowledges that which will be made clear in the first two sections – namely, that the Iraqi courts, particularly at the higher level, while being generally independent and legitimate, perceive themselves as constrained enough to proceed cautiously and carefully, anxious not to issue rulings that will be broadly rejected by the political classes, or enter the courts into divisive disputes that will only lead to a loss of the prestige of the judicial institution. However, far from being some sort of anomalous example of judicial failing, in fact, the judiciary is conducting itself precisely as any judiciary would, including that of the United States, at least according to contemporary scholarly accounts, and in particular that of Barry Friedman in his most recent work, The Will of the People.


We present the first documented case of an ectopic intramedullary hematopoietic niche within a cervical zygapophyseal joint intra-articular meniscoid. The meniscoid was identified in the cervical spine of an 81-year-old male cadaver, located at the dorsal aspect of the right C4-5 zygapophyseal joint, and was noted to be larger and more dense than other meniscoids during disarticulation and dissection of the joint. Histologically, the meniscoid contained hematopoietic cells surrounded by lamellar bone, and was lined with articular cartilage on the surface protruding into the joint cavity. Radiologically, the structure was hypointense on both T1- and T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging sequences. The potential mechanisms underpinning development of this novel finding and the possible clinical implications are discussed in this report.


Herman Charles Bosman's Oom Schalk stories have made him one of the most popular writers in South Africa, and the rural Marico District in which the stories are set a popular tourist destination. This popularity is largely due to the storytelling figure of Oom Schalk, the likeable old boer raconteur, who tells the stories and ironically pokes fun at his Marico community. This image of Oom Schalk and the Oom Schalk stories is one which was created and nurtured by Lionel Abrahams who was almost single-handedly responsible for the collection and republication of many of these stories after Bosman's death. The image of Schalk, and therefore the intention ofBosman in creating this fictional narrator, as a benign figure has been contested by some literary critics and defended by others. The debate has revolved around the extent to which Bosman' s use of irony in the stories addresses the explicitly racist attitudes ofSchalk and the Marico community. Unfortunately the debates around irony have been hampered by a lack of attention to the nature and functioning of irony. In my introduction I look at the problems that many critics have in trying to define the diverse body of writing that Bosman produced and the way in which this has defined a particular critical approach to Bosman. In Chapter 1 I discuss how the history ofpublication ofBosman's Oom Schalk stories and literary criticism has defined an approach to these stories which is often inappropriate. I also discuss some of the literary critical implications of the recent recollection and republication of Bosman's work in The Anniversary Edition. In Chapter 2 I address the issue of irony in the Oom Schalk stories. I deal with the way in which irony is constructed in the Oom Schalk stories. This discussion includes an analysis of the narrative structure of the short stories and the way in which the figure of Oom Schalk is used to create different levels of irony. In Chapter 3 I examine some of the Oom Schalk stories in detail in order to demonstrate the way in which Bosman's deployment of irony produces an identifiable pattern which establishes a basis for a discussion ofBosman's ironic intent in writing these stories.


MDR 1000. RMC Shoulder Orthopedic Surgery. 2-4 Credit Hours. This is a 2 or 4 week elective intended to expose the senior medical student to a comprehensive experience in orthopedic shoulder surgery. During the 2 or 4 week rotation, the student will spend approximately 50% of the time in an office clinical setting evaluating patients with shoulder disorders and 50% of the time in the operating room gaining surgical experience and insight. The surgical experience will be 60% arthroscopic shoulder surgery and 40% open shoulder surgery. The elective will be spent under the direction of one surgeon. There will be on-call responsibilities though not burdensome. For those students interested in a 4 week elective, there will be clinical outcomes research opportunities, and the opportunity to work with other orthopedic specialists within the group. Components: MOD. Grading: GRD.