In conventional transactions, written contracts usually memorialize the terms of the commercial exchange. For deals in which some of the goods being transferred and the forum for the trade are digitized — as in the case of cryptocurrencies — parties may use computer code rather than a written contract to record their terms. Such pieces of code are sometimes called "smart contracts" because they perform many of the same functions as contracts but are expressed in a computing language. Coded exchanges embody a potentially revolutionary contracting innovation. But they are difficult to assimilate into traditional contracting terminology, conceptual framing, and doctrine.

This Article begins by distilling the central legally and practically significant type of smart contracts — what we call "transactional scripts." It then develops an account of how these scripts, which operate on public blockchains, are created, the economic barriers to their adoption, and how they produce errors of legal significance. This account, in turn, allows us to more rigorously and accessibly situate transactional scripts in existing legal doctrine.

Commentators are enthusiastic about scripts in part because, the story goes, they are "self-executing" and require no third-party adjudicators. Yet we show that optimism to be unfounded by documenting how scripts, like ordinary contracts, can result in misunderstanding, frustrated intent, and failure.

When code misdelivers, disappointed parties will seek legal recourse. We argue that jurists should situate scripts within other legally operative statements and disclosures, or contract stacks. Precision about the relationship between script and stack sustains a novel framework, rooted in old doctrines of interpretation, parol evidence and equity, that will help jurists compile answers to the private law problems that digitized exchange entails.


This paper presents an overview of our efforts to characterize and better understand cloud-related changes in aerosol properties. These efforts primarily involved the statistical analysis of global or regional datasets of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aerosol and cloud observations. The results show that in oceanic regions, more than half of all aerosol measurements by passive satellite instruments come from near-cloud areas, where clouds and cloud-related processes may significantly modify aerosol optical depth and particle size. Aerosol optical depth is also shown to increase systematically with regional cloud amount throughout the Earth. In contrast, it is shown that effective particle size can either increase or decrease with increasing cloud cover. In bimodal aerosol populations, the sign of changes depends on whether coarse mode or small mode aerosols are most affected by clouds. The results also indicate that over large parts of Earth, undetected cloud particles are not the dominant reason for the satellite-observed changes with cloud amount, and that 3D radiative processes contribute about 30% of the observed near-cloud changes. The findings underline the need for improving our ability to accurately measure aerosols near clouds.


Two oat genes encoding hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA:hydroxyanthranilate N-hydroxycinnamoyltransferase (HHT) and S-adenosyl-L-methionine:trans-caffeoyl-CoA 3-O-methyltransferase (CCoAOMT), both of which are possibly involved in the biosynthesis of oat avenanthramide phytoalexins, were cloned and their expression profiles in response to biological stress were studied. Four distinct cDNAs of oat HHT (AsHHT1-4) were isolated with the degenerative polymerase chain reaction method. The enzymatic activity of AsHHT1 expressed in E. coli was found using hydroxyanthranilate and hydroxycinnamoyl-CoAs as cosubstrates. Cloned oat CCoAOMT (AsCCoAOMT) encoded a polypeptide of 130 amino acid residues with 77.7 to 80.8% identities to the CCoAOMT sequences from other plant species. The accumulation of AsHHT1 and AsCCoAOMT transcripts increased concomitantly with phytoalexin accumulation by the treatment of victorin, a specific elicitor in oat lines carrying the Pc-2/Vb gene. Pharmacological approaches indicated the involvement of Ca2+, NO, and protein kinases in the signaling pathways of AsHHT1 and AsCCoAOMT mRNA induction. When oat leaves were inoculated with Puccinia coronata, the mRNA expression of AsHHT1 and AsCCOAOMT increased in both incompatible and compatible interactions but more rapidly in incompatible interaction. Interestingly, however, significant phytoalexin accumulation was observed only in incompatible interaction during the experimental period, suggesting that phytoalexin accumulation may be inhibited in one or more posttranscriptional processes in the compatible interaction.


In the proceedings of an iPOPY seminar, some results of the research project were presented. First of all, Anne-Kristin Loes and Benjamin Nolting give an overview of the iPOPY project and its first results. This outline of the holistic research approach helps locate the challenges of the supply side of POPY, some crucial aspects of which are analyzed in the following papers. Political strategies are highly relevant for changing the "politicized market" of public food procurement. Thorkild Nielsen, Niels Heine Kristensen and Bent Egbert Mikkelsen reflect on whether and how organic food in schools and kindergartens can be described as a part of an ecological modernization strategy in Denmark. They discuss how it has merged with more economically and technically approach in public catering policy. Organic production has to be certified and labeled along the supply chain in order to maintain trust in organic premium products. Since January 1st 2009, organic certification in Europe is subject to the new Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007. This regulation specifically excludes so-called mass catering operations. It is up to EU member states to apply national rules or private standards insofar as these comply with community law. The paper of Carola Strassner presents the state of the art and upcoming changes of organic certification of out-of-home catering in Germany with regard to Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Italy. Finally, supply chains of organic school food have to be organised in a sustainable way in order to serve high quality food to pupils. Stefano Bocchi, Roberto Spigarolo, Marco Valerio Sarti, and Benjamin Nolting present a best practice case of controlled food chains (filiera controllata) from Italy, the European champion of organic school food. From the province and the city of Piacenza in the region of Emilia-Romagna, we can learn a lot about a short and certified organic food-chain, a wide range of regional and organic products provided through a shared logistic organisation among local partners, and specific tender procedures.


This thesis compares and contrasts Biblical images in Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) and Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (1949), seeking to illuminate their common participation in Judeo-Christian philosophy (referred to herein as the Jehovah Imperative) and in the tradition of Gothic fiction. Although both books center on a religious hero who defies an "irreligious" authority, and both are resolved when a major character is murdered by a legitimate legal agent, historical and feminist perspectives will show: (1) the ways in which Walpole's Otranto manipulated Biblical images in favor of eighteenth-century Protestant ambition and the furtherance of the father-son inheritance chain begun in the Bible, and (2) the formula by which O'Connor's Wise Blood reverses the Gothic/Biblical "realities" to expose that manipulation in a "grotesque" mirror-image. Examining those acts of brutality -specifically incest and blood sacrifice -long legitimized by Biblical texts, and tracing their historical sexual dynamics to an inter-testamentary economic paradigm, this thesis will look at how those biases were fixed in place by the first Gothic novel, and transferred through history by similarly biased lexicological and critical exegeses, invisibly maintaining the social, economic and political sovereignty of the white Protestant (Gothicized) male in the western world.


One of Germany's best-known New Testament scholars, Prof. Peter Stuhlmacher of Tubingen exegete and theologian, scholar and pastor offers here three outstanding essays on Jesus Christ, his death, and the Lord's Supper. Ever concerned with the relationship of history and theology, Stuhlmacher focuses intently on the correlation of facts and faith. Recognizing that the New Testament is concerned with both what happened in Jesus and what Jesus' person and work mean, Stuhlmacher sketches the dynamic trajectory from the concrete to the confessional.The first essay examines how 'the proclaimer' became 'the proclaimed.' The second essay recognizes the several levels of New Testament interpretation of Jesus' death, moving from the merely factual understanding to the thoroughly theological explanation. The third essay examines the elements of Jesus' ministry that are often related to the church's later celebration of the Lord's Supper, arguing that the practice looked back to Jesus' death and resurrection and gave concrete expression to the church's ongoing experience of the Risen Lord's presence and power until his eschatological return.Stuhlmacher's careful work is concerned to discover and demonstrate what from the Jesus of history, from the life of the early church, from the New Testament itself, and from historical Christian faith is 'incumbent upon us.' All persons concerned with Jesus, with faith in him as God's Christ, and with faithful discipleship to Jesus Christ as Lord will find this book instructive and inspiring. Marion L. Soards, Professor of New Testament Studies, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary


Cutaneous leishmaniasis is considered as health problem in many parts of Iran such as Torbat-e Heydarieh in Khorasan Razavi province. Identification of the Leishmaniaspecies is useful for the control of this disease. Microscopic examination and clinical findings aren't sufficient for the differentiation of the parasites. kDNA - PCR technique is a very reliable method to detect Leishmania species. The objective of this study the identification of leishmania species using PCR and compared to the routine microscopic examination in Torbat-e-Heydarieh. Slide smears obtained from skin lesions of 70 patients suspected to the leishmaniasis. Direct microscopy and an optimized PCR method were performed using specific kDNA primers. Data were analyzed with SPSS ver.16 software. Among 70 subjects with skin ulcers suspected to CL, 57(81%) were positive in direct microscopic smear examination. However, specific Leishmania PCR band were observed in 60(86%), in which 53 subjects had L. tropica and 7 has L. major. Although, gender and age distribution does not show any statistically significant differences, the seasonal occurrence of the infection in autumn was significant (P <0.05). The most common site of lesions was the face (37%) (P <0.05). Sensitivity of kPCR for diagnosis Lashmaniaspp was calculated 95% in this study. Optimized PCR method revealed that both genus of Lashmania are prevalent in the of Torbat-e Heydarieh in which L. tropica is the dominant causative species for cutaneous Leishmaniasis.


This paper discusses some fundamental difficulties faced by researchers attempting to model hierarchical settlement systems. Particular attention is paid to the problem of relating the effects of city size and of the regional location on growth prospects for a city. It is argued that the central issue here is a need to relate a multiregional specification of change to the hierarchical, overlapping regions that are typical of an urban system and reflect its city size distribution. A typology is provided of methods that convert interactions between arbitrarily defined regions into interactions between more meaningful functional, urban centered, regions. This is then used in an exercise that demonstrates how a conventional multiregional economic model may be restructured to allow use of a hierarchical set of functional regions, in such a way that regional economic theory may be used to ask questions about the effect of city size and regional location on urban phenomena.


In the research we considered the viability of the current student enrolment support system at the University of KwaZuku-Natal. The system relied on the coordination and integration of activities across campuses and reporting lines. Its success was dependent on the successful interactions between a variety of sub-systems and individuals. A soft systems approach was required for the investigation, which allowed us to deal with both the complexity of the system and the variety of perceptions participants brought into the situation. A theoretical framework for Soft Systems Thinking was provided in Chapter 2 with reference to General Systems Theory, Living Systems Theory and metaphors of organisation. In Chapter 3 different types of problem contexts were discussed, grouped and linked to preferred research methodologies. This framework assisted us to select Idealised Planning (IP) as research methodology. The boundaries and structure of the research process were described in Chapter 4. In this Chapter we also provided information on the selection and briefing of participants. IP philosophy supported participative planning; a seeking of consensus which generated learning and the striving towards an ideal. Our aim was to reach consensus on the transformations required within our system. Information on the application of IP in our situation and the learning generated during the process were recorded in Chapter 5. As much information as possible was collected and the transformations required for improvements were identified. We developed a mental construct of an ideal system and defined the properties such a system should have. An unconstrained design, not constrained by the current environment, was prepared as well as a constrained design in which our current limitations were recognized. The two designs were compared and the boundaries of the constrained design were pushed out as far as possible to incorporate as many of the ideal properties as possible. A detailed plan was developed for the implementation of the chosen design. In Chapter 6 we reflected on the suitability of IP in our problem context, the learning generated and the degree to which the research objectives were met. The project enabled us to consider our key processes and to prepare detailed procedures. We identified the problem areas in our system and the transformations to be introduced for the system to remain viable and able to cope with future demands.


SUMMARY This study employed the Ricardian approach to test the relative importance of climate normals (average long-term temperature and precipitation) in explaining net revenue from Nigerian rice agriculture under irrigation and dry land conditions. A survey was done by interviewing 1200 rice farmers from 20 rice producing states in Nigeria. The states covered all the six geopolitical zones in the country. The results showed that increase in temperature will reduce net revenue for dry land rice farms while net revenue rises with increase in temperature for irrigated rice farms. Precipitation had similar effects on rice net revenue. Increase in precipitation will cause reduction in revenue for dry land rice farms whereas it will cause increase in revenue for irrigated farms. The results clearly demonstrate irrigation as a significant techniques used by the farmers to adapt to the climate change. Other adaptation options include Keeping of livestock, engaging in off farm works and the use of different market channels.


Death is an inevitably disruptive event. When a famous artist or public figure dies, the fallout can be particularly complex and contentious. An artist's surviving family and close friends frequently seek privacy and solitude as they process a deeply personal loss, while millions of fans, by contrast, seek to widely share, rework, and celebrate the decedent's archive of work. When these very different mourning processes intersect, intellectual property laws play a pivotal role in deciding how an artist is mourned, commemorated, and remembered.
This Article reexamines the interests of an artist's families, friends, and other heirs ("IP estates") within the IP system. Previous scholarship has been nearly uniformly critical of IP estates: IP estates "jealously guard" their ancestor's legacy, "sit back and collect rent," and put a "stranglehold" on the public domain. This Article, by contrast, reveals a more diverse and sympathetic set of motivations. Although IP estates do often try to restrict fair use and free speech, they also seek to vindicate interests otherwise celebrated in our legal culture: remedying exploitation, protecting family privacy, and maintaining the dignity of the deceased. For the families and friends of individuals in creative fields, IP can serve as a valuable tool in managing the messy tasks of mourning and moving forward.
This Article excavates the role of IP in mediating the diverse interests of families and fans as they process the death of an artist. Even if the conduct of IP estates can be highly questionable from a social welfare perspective, recognizing the interests that animate their disputes nonetheless can lead to (1) greater common ground among the various stakeholders negotiating an artist's cultural legacy and (2) improved use of estate planning to reduce the likelihood of conflict.


Genital coinfections increase an individual's risk of becoming infected with HIV-1 by sexual contact. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain this, such as the presence of ulceration and bleeding caused by the coinfecting pathogen. Here we demonstrate that Langerhans cells (LCs) are involved in the increased susceptibility to HIV-1 in the presence of genital coinfections. Although LCs are a target for HIV-1 infection in genital tissues, we found that immature LCs did not efficiently mediate HIV-1 transmission in an ex vivo human skin explant model. However, the inflammatory stimuli TNF-α and Pam3CysSerLys4 (Pam3CSK4), the ligand for the TLR1/TLR2 heterodimer, strongly increased HIV-1 transmission by LCs through distinct mechanisms. TNF-α enhanced transmission by increasing HIV-1 replication in LCs, whereas Pam3CSK4 acted by increasing LC capture of HIV-1 and subsequent trans-infection of T cells. Genital infections such as Candida albicans and Neisseria gonorrhea not only triggered TLRs but also induced TNF-α production in vaginal and skin explants. Thus, during coinfection, LCs could be directly activated by pathogenic structures and indirectly activated by inflammatory factors, thereby increasing the risk of acquiring HIV-1. Our data demonstrate a decisive role for LCs in HIV-1 transmission during genital coinfections and suggest antiinflammatory therapies as potential strategies to prevent HIV-1 transmission.


ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND MELANOMA: IS THERE A LINK? Stephanie R. Douglas, Deepak Narayan. Section of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Cutaneous melanoma is the sixth most common cancer in the United States, and its incidence continues to rise steadily at a rate of 2-3% per year. Meanwhile nearly 11% of the general population is treated with antidepressant medication. Laboratory studies suggest a number of theoretical links between antidepressants and melanoma. Serotonin is a growth factor for melanocytes, and antidepressants upregulate components of the Wnt/beta-catenin, mTOR, and MAP kinase signaling pathways, all of which may be involved in melanoma transformation and carcinogenesis. To investigate the potential link between antidepressants and melanoma in vivo, localized tumors were induced in a conditional mouse model of Braf-induced, Pten-deficient melanoma. Citalopram hydrobromide in 0.1% saccharin was administered at a dose of 20 mg/kg/day orally via drinking water beginning at the time of melanoma induction. Control animals received 0.1% saccharin. At weekly intervals, the overall tumor volume was assessed so that the tumor growth rate could be calculated for each mouse. At day 75 following tumor induction, necropsy was performed to assess for the presence of metastases. Antidepressant administration appeared to have no effect on tumor volume at any of the time points measured (day 29, p=0.997; day 36, p=0.761; day 44, p=0.612; day 50, p=0.682; day 57, p=0.797; day 66, p=0.691; day 75, p=0.736), or on metastasis. Secondly, the charts of 1271 patients treated for melanoma at Yale Cancer Center between 1997 and 2013 were reviewed, taking particular note of medication history. A health history questionnaire eliciting information about melanoma risk factors as well as medication histories was administered to patients seen at an outpatient surgery clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital who had no history of melanoma. Age, sex, and group (cases or controls) were entered into a binary logistic regression model to calculate an adjusted odds ratio for antidepressant exposure as a function of group. Additionally, age, sex, and tumor stage were entered into a second model for the odds of antidepressant exposure as a function of tumor stage. Melanoma patients were less likely to have a history of antidepressant use relative to controls (OR 0.567, 95% CI 0.331-0.972, p=0.039). There was no association between antidepressants and melanoma stage at diagnosis. Further study is needed in order to clarify the nature of the association between antidepressants


Biotechnology is the use of microorganism to perform special industrial process, Therefore The aims of our study were to screen the bacteria that able to produce pectinase enzyme from locally marine by isolation technique. Pectinolytic activity, confirmed by the clear zones on the pectin medium plates. The highest pectinase was identified as Paenibacillus lactis NRC1 which produce 3.20 U/ml after 2 days of incubation at pH 7, 40°C, 5 g/L pectin and yeast extract 1 g/L. The purification fold of the enzyme was 98.718 with final recovery 3.844% using different chromatographic steps. The molecular weight of the purified pectinase determined by SDS-PAGE was 45 kD. The ideal pH was 7 and the enzyme safe up to 40 oC for 60 min. The Km and Vmax was 0.772 and 7.936 respectively.


Background: The self-efficacy of the woman during labor influences its perception and affects her satisfaction with the childbirth experience. Several studies have shown that childbirth preparation classes need to integrate and reinforce this concept. Objective: To assess the effectiveness of the Build Trust to Childbirth programme in the perception of labor self-efficacy of pregnant women. Methodology: Longitudinal, quasi-experimental study, with preand post-test with repeated measures. Conducted in an institution of northern Portugal. Sample of 66 pregnant women in the experimental group and 55 in the control group. The Childbirth Self-Efficacy Inventory was used. Results: The self-efficacy expectations increased very significantly over time in the experimental group (F(1.81; 118) = 37.26; p = 0.000). There were no statistically significant differences between the groups (F(1; 119) = 3.39; p = 0.068). Conclusion: The programme promoted a significant increase in labor self-efficacy of the pregnant woman, with no significant differences with the control group.


Seasonal climate prediction over Kenya poses a considerable challenge to the modeling community due to the intricate interactions among the atmospheric, oceanic and land surface processes. This paper assesses the performance of the Regional Spectral Model (RSM) in downscaling the European Centre-Hamburg (ECHam) global model outputs from 1970 to 1999 over Kenya with respect to rainfall and temperature prediction using standard verification techniques. The results show that the accuracy of simulating the annual cycle and spatial distribution of convection and precipitation over the country is still poor. The seasonal rainfall predictability over Kenya by the RSM is better during the October-December season (correlation coefficient [r] of 26%; proportion correct [PC] of 60%; Frequency Bias Index [FBI] of 111%) than in the March-May season (r of 8%; PC of 54%; FBI of 83%), but the prediction for temperature is better in the March-May season (r of 25%; PC of 53%; FBI of 124%) than the OND season (r of -11%; PC of 46%; FBI of 100%). The predictability for rainfall during the cool-dry June-August period is still low (r of -4%; PC of 49%; FBI of 52%) but that for temperature has better skill as compared to the March-May and October-December seasons (r of 49%; PC of 70%; FBI of 90%). There is need to improve the development of convective processes that govern tropical precipitating systems in the region through sensitivity analysis of cloud simulation modules in the RSM applied as well as address rare systems that episodically influence the weather over the country and the region.


Advances in both cognitive psychology and computing have affected the educational arena. The emergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a fast pace and affecting academia and professional practice in many ways. Technological advancements such as simulations, virtual reality, multi-agents systems and learning management systems have created both opportunities and areas of serious concerns. This volume addresses the challenges of research methods in elearning systems. Traditionally quantitative methods have been the base for research in several disciplines and fields. Qualitative methods have emerged as a credible alternative and have been sustained over the years. More recently there has been a convergence between the two research approaches: mixed-methods approaches have been considered as a viable way to perform research and provide cross validation of results. However, as innovative e-learning systems are rapidly changing, research methodologies struggle to keep up with these technological developments. Therefore, it is argued that adequate research methodologies are required to address these new challenges. The book addresses quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research approaches describing its main aspects and techniques for e-learning systems. It devotes a section to presenting significant case studies that illustrate how to design, assess, and analyze e-learning systems.


We address the problem of scene layout generation for diverse domains such as images, mobile applications, documents, and 3D objects. Most complex scenes, natural or human-designed, can be expressed as a meaningful arrangement of simpler compositional graphical primitives. Generating a new layout or extending an existing layout re- quires understanding the relationships between these primitives. To do this, we propose LayoutTransformer, a novel framework that leverages self-attention to learn contextual relationships between layout elements and generate novel layouts in a given domain. Our framework allows us to generate a new layout either from an empty set or from an initial seed set of primitives, and can easily scale to support an arbitrary of primitives per layout. Furthermore, our analyses show that the model is able to automatically capture the semantic properties of the primitives. We propose simple improvements in both representation of layout primitives, as well as training methods to demonstrate competitive performance in very diverse data domains such as object bounding boxes in natural images (COCO bounding box), documents (PubLayNet), mobile applications (RICO dataset) as well as 3D shapes (Part-Net). Code and other materials will be made available at https://kampta.github.io/layout.


A new modelling framework, called μic, has been developed to enable simulations of complex particulate growths, in particular the microstructural evolution of hydrating cement paste. μic has been developed using the vector approach, which preserves the multi-scale nature of the cement microstructure. Support libraries built into the framework enable fast simulation of systems containing millions of particles, allowing every single particle in a system to be modelled and all the interactions to be calculated. The modelling framework has been developed using object oriented programming and its extensible and flexible architecture, due to this microstructural development mechanisms and algorithms can be easily added. The framework facilitates the otherwise complex task of modelling new systems and phenomena. The microstructures generated by μic can be used to obtain important information that can in the future be used to model the evolution of mechanical properties and durability-related phenomena. The model can also be used to study the mechanisms of microstructural development of cement. Various models of cement hydration kinetics and the reaction mechanism were tested using μic. It was observed that while the traditional approach to the nucleation and growth mechanism could be used to explain the acceleration of reaction-rates during the early hydration of cement pastes, the subsequent deceleration could not be reproduced. If a diffusion controlled mechanism is used to explain the deceleration, changes larger than an order of magnitude in the transport properties of C-S-H have to be assumed. Furthermore, the rate of change of reaction rates shows a continuous linear evolution through the reaction peak and the thickness around different particle sizes would be very different at the onset of the supposed diffusion regime. It was found that it is possible to explain the hydration kinetics during the first 24 hours using a nucleation and growth mechanism when a loosely packed C-S-H with a lower bulk density is assumed to form. It is proposed that this loosely packed C-S-H fills a large fraction of the microstructure within a few hours of hydration and that its density continues to increase due to an internal growth process within the bulk of the product. It was found that an initial density of C-S-H between 0.1 g/cc and 0.2 g/cc was required in order to fit the observed experimental behaviour. While this density is much lower than the generally accepted range of 1.7 g/cc to 2.1 g/cc, this low packing density can explain the absence of water in large capillary pores observed in NMR measurements that study cement hydration on wet samples, and the fibrous or ribbon-like nanostructure of C-S-H observed in high-resolution TEM images. The current study demonstrates the versatility of μic and how the possibility of modelling different phenomena on a multi-scale three-dimensional model can prove to be an important tool to achieve better understanding of cement hydration. It was also shown that the use of mechanistic, rather than empirical, rules can improve the predictive power of the models.


This paper studies the effect of government-backed partial credit guarantees on firms' performance. These guarantees are automatically granted to firms without enough collateral in order to lift their credit constraints. We put together a panel, covering the period 1997-2007, that combines data from DANE's Annual Manufacturing Survey; DIAN's export and import information; and firm-level records from the National Guarantee Fund (NGF), the government agency in charge of implementing this policy. Using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences, we found that firms that gain access to credit backed by the NGF are able to grow in terms of both output and employment. However, we did not find any effect on productivity, wages, or investment. These results suggest that firms use the new funds as working capital to grow their businesses rather than for investment in new durable goods that increase their capital stock.


How can librarians teach information literacy in such a politicized atmosphere? In spring 2017, the library at Fresno State held a series of workshops that introduced first-year students to information literacy in a "gamification" setting, an escape room, to encourage community learning. The theme of the workshop focused on President Donald Trump. In this one-shot workshop, students were "locked" in the escape room in the library and had to solve a series of information-literacy puzzles and research tasks, including hacking into Donald Trump's Wikipedia page, fact-checking Trump's tweets, and comparing and analyzing fake news with online databases. The article presents this workshop as a case study on how librarians can creatively engage with students to collaborate, learn, and build information literacy skills using Trump as the teaching subject.


Antisemitism has been around since the existence of Jews. Recently, it has manifested itself worldwide in a contemporary form. New antisemitism refers to the use of double standards towards the State of Israel, demonizing its acts as well as questioning the country's raison d'etre. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, present in many aspects of everyday life from trade to academia, is widely regarded as the most obvious type of new antisemitism. While there are several studies focusing on the emergence of new antisemitism in the Western world, there is a lack of academic research regarding its existence and forms of manifestation in Central and Eastern Europe. There are even fewer reports examining the phenomenon from a regional perspective based on a uniform set of criteria. This research fills this gap by examining the different forms of anti-Semitism in the Visegrad countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), with a particular focus on new anti-Semitism. This report examines the phenomenon in country-specific case studies, considering the region's historical, legal, and political context in its comprehensive analysis.


[Abstract] Objective Ultrastructural changes in epithelial cells of livers, adrenal glands, and thyroid glands of human fetuses from a fluorosis-endemic area were observed to provide an experimental basis for investigating the mechanism by which fluoride causes cellular damage. Methods 10 human fetuses in a fluorosis-endemic area were collected, whose mothers all had dental fluorosis with urinary fluoride content of (4.37 ± 2.94) mg/L. 10 human fetuses in a non-fluorosis-endemic area were collected, whose mothers had no dental fluorosis with urinary fluoride content of (1.67 ± 0.82) mg/L. The fluoride electrode method was used to test the fluoride content in fetal bones. Tissues of livers, adrenal glands, and thyroid glands of the fetuses were taken for electron microscopic examinations. Results The fluoride content in bones of the fetuses in the endemic area was (2.77 ± 0.25) mg/kg; compared with the fluoride content in bones of fetuses in the non-endemic area of (2.50 ± 0.11) mg/kg, the differences are significant (P < 0.01). Electron microscopic examinations showed: the major changes of cell membranes were microvilli that were shortened, reduced in number or even vanished. Intercellular connections were loose and their structure was disordered. Myelin-like structures were formed in those with severe pathological changes. The major mitochondrial changes were: swollen mitochondria with increased volume, and even vanished and vacuolated cristae. The major pathological changes of endoplasmic reticulum were dilated and vesicular rough endoplasmic reticulum, and partially depleted nucleoproteins on the rough endoplasmic reticulum. The major pathological changes of cell nuclei were damaged and dilated, vesicular dual-layer structures of nuclear membranes. Huge inclusion bodies or particles with relatively high abnormal electron density appeared in some cytoplasm. Conclusions Fluoride damage to cell structures was multifaceted. Cell membranes, mitochondria, rough endoplasmic reticulum, and nuclear membranes could all be damaged at the time of fluorosis.


As a consequence of increasing literature on multiculturalism, cultural identity and cultural self-rule during the past four decades or so, the concept of nation-state and the realm of national government have been subject to dramatic changes. In a similar trend, due to the development of globalization, revising the classical functions of the state machinery looks more urgent than ever. Different accounts of national and cultural identity, widespread demands of recognizing cultural difference through arguing for the rights of cultural communities living within the boundaries of a country, and the changing nature of concepts like national security and interests, suggest that political theorists should look for a more adequate conception of national integrity which consists with such changes as variety of alternatives to the classical interpretation. Having John Rawls's overlapping consensus in mind, I shall offer a similar model among cultural communities in Iran by employing the historically situated and shared Iranian-religious identity and granting cultural autonomy.


1. Intravenous injections of pure angiotensin I and angiotensin II give similar blood pressure responses in the rat, rabbit and guinea-pig although angiotensin I is generally regarded to be the inactive precursor of angiotensin II. 2. The conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II and of phenylthiocarbamyl (PTC)-angiotensin I to PTC-angiotensin II in human blood and plasma was studied using the rat colon as the assay tissue. 3. The results suggest that the rate of conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II in blood and plasma is insufficient to explain the comparable activities of angiotensin I and angiotensin II in raising the blood pressure.


This article explores questions about "civility" in the 2012 election. Through an analysis of media discussions raising the term, four themes are constructed focusing on the limitations of civility discourse. While seeking to preserve the best that civil orientations afford, I argue that adding a deliberative approach to such discourse addresses moments when civil appeals appear to be most limited. This essay finds that working between civil and deliberative constructs provides an instructive perspective for understanding the workings of and possibilities for public discourse during situations when civility rhetoric is typically raised. Relative to civil communication—and associated concepts such as dialogue and advocacy—specific norms, benefits, examples, and implications of a deliberative rhetorical vision are charted for problem-solving, public policy contexts.


Cloud Computing is just like a large pool, in which various accessible and virtualized resources are available. These resources include hardware, development platforms and services. In Cloud Computing, it is possible to assemble very large, powerful systems; these systems may consist of many small and inexpensive commodity components. Cloud Computing is the emerging technology, that is used for providing various computing and storage services over the Internet. It generally incorporates infrastructure, platform, and software as services. Information security is a critical issue in Cloud Computing environments. Clouds have no borders; hence the data can be physically located anywhere in any data centre across the network geographically distributed. In this paper, I work on the Cloud Computing security wherein I use the RSA algorithm to encrypt the data and image sequencing password for authentication.


Time-series data draw extensive attention from many research domains, such as financial and biomedical engineering. Researchers often face the difficultly of visualizing multiple time-series data simultaneously. The predominant techniques suffer from visual clutter either due to over-plotting or an overwhelming number of small graphs that carries a high cognitive load. This research study proposes a Colored slope, a combination of Tufte's slope graph and time-series heatmap, to visualize multiple time-series data at once, balancing scalability and accuracy. Colored slope inherits the complementary advantages from each method, regarding visualizing temporal changes within a period and identifying precise values. The efficacy, effectiveness, and graphical perception of the Colored slope on visualizing multiple time-series data with publicly accessible stock data were evaluated and compared it to popular time-series visualizations, including line graphs, time-series heatmap, and small multiple spark area graphs. Analyzing the experimental data, this study concludes that Colored slope contributes to (1) allowing users to identify the extreme values (maximum and minimum), co-variability, the general trend of the data, and rate of change effectively for an optimally large number of visual marks(time-series data); (2) capable of display more instances of time-series data with a less visual clutter problem. Finally, several possible applications and limitations with the Colored slope are demonstrated.


Component Models and Systems for Grid Applications is the essential reference for the most current research on Grid technologies. This first volume of the CoreGRID series addresses such vital issues as the architecture of the Grid, the way software will influence the development of the Grid, and the practical applications of Grid technologies for individuals and businesses alike. Part I of the book, "Application-Oriented Designs", focuses on development methodology and how it may contribute to a more component-based use of the Grid. "Middleware Architecture", the second part, examines portable Grid engines, hierarchical infrastructures, interoperability, as well as workflow modeling environments. The final part of the book, "Communication Frameworks", looks at dynamic self-adaptation, collective operations, and higher-order components. With Component Models and Systems for Grid Applications, editors Vladimir Getov and Thilo Kielmann offer the computing professional and the computing researcher the most informative, up-to-date, and forward-looking thoughts on the fast-growing field of Grid studies.


Online learning and competitive analysis are two widely studied frameworks for online decision-making settings. Despite the frequent similarity of the problems they study, there are significant differences in their assumptions, goals, and techniques, hindering a unified analysis and richer interplay between the two. In this paper, we provide several contributions in this direction. We provide a single unified algorithm, which, by parameter tuning, interpolates between optimal regret for learning from experts (in online learning) and optimal competitive ratio for the metrical task systems problem (MTS) (in competitive analysis), improving upon previous results. The algorithm also allows us to obtain new regret bounds against "drifting" experts, which might be of independent interest. Moreover, our approach allows us to go beyond experts/MTS, obtaining similar unifying results for structured action sets and "combinatorial experts," whenever the setting has a certain matroid structure.


Social media are claimed to boost the development of populism and the use of populist rhetoric and communication styles by political parties. The technological affordances seem to be a perfect place to communicate using a more informal style, employing emotional arguments that are not always suitable for more traditional campaigning. In this research project we concentrate on posts (3500, random sample) by political parties on their Facebook profiles during 2014 EP election campaign. By applying the coding schema on different standard post features (e.g. topic, target, emotions) as well as populism codes (e.g. xenophobic language, uncivil behavior, attacking elites, popular representation, symbols) we demonstrate to what extent parties employed populist communication styles. We further cross reference our data with the data from the Chapel Hill expert study, European Social Survey to understand to what extent the ideological party positioning is correlated with the communication strategy employed by party.


Taxing multinational enterprises (MNEs) is inherently conflictual because national tax systems are not well designed to handle their international activities. The OECD has been instrumental in developing an international tax regime to govern the conflicts and interdependencies induced by national taxation of MNEs. The strength of this regime depends on the extent to which states adhere to the regime's norms and practices. We examine the OECD's Harmful Tax Competition initiative, arguing that tax havens have been as renegade states in the international tax regime. We explore how the OECD initiative developed and evaluate its impact on regime effectiveness.


This report (RE-369) presents an evaluation of the Bank's Country Program in Barbados over the period 2005-2009. The evaluation is organized in the following chapters: Chapter I provides an overview of the structure of the Barbadian economy, developments that took place over the period of review, and the development challenges faced by the country. Chapter II describes and evaluates the Bank's programming intent for the country based on two evaluative criteria: relevance and coherence. Chapter III reviews the delivery of the Bank's program; and Chapter IV examines the developmental effectiveness of the program in areas identified by the strategy. In conclusion, Chapter V presents the general findings of the evaluation, and recommendations for future Bank programming and action in the country.


Age is a risk factor for dementia, and also for most cancers. Surprisingly, rates of cancer appear to be lower in individuals with dementia and vice versa. Genetic mechanisms could underpin this inverse relationship and are outlined, but underdiagnosis must also be taken into account. Individuals with cancer and dementia pose unique challenges to healthcare professionals owing to the potential for impaired decision-making capacity, poor communication and difficulties following medication regimes. Mild cognitive impairment and 'chemo brain' should be differentiated from progressive neurodegeneration.


In most countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) with HIV testing became the only measure of HIV prevalence in general population. Significant non response rates were often cited to explain differences between DHS results and estimations from sentinel surveillance in antenatal clinics. The objective of this paper consists to predict with multivariate models the prevalence of non tested persons in order to estimate the effect of non response on national HIV prevalence measure. We used data from 9 DHS, conducted in sub‐Saharan Africa, where HIV results could be linked with data from household and individual questionnaires. Logistic regressions were performed for each country, separately for men and women 15‐49 years old, with a common set of predictor variables. For each group, adjusted prevalence was calculated by using observed prevalence for tested people and estimated probability to be HIV positive for non tested persons. The non response rates in these 9 studies vary from 7.9% to 39.3%. Estimated prevalence of non tested persons is usually higher than observed prevalence of tested persons (13 groups on 18) Nevertheless, ratios of adjusted prevalence to observed prevalence remain relatively close to 1 (from 0.970 to 1.109). Differences between adjusted and observed prevalence is less than 0.32. A significant negative correlation was found between non‐response rates and ratios of non‐tested to tested, but there is no correlation between ratios of adjusted to observed prevalence and proportions of non‐tested. The overall effect of non response biases on national HIV estimates tends to be small and remains inferior to sample variations. If adjustments need to be interpreted with caution due to the limited information available to predict the prevalence of non tested people, we can conclude that national population‐based surveys can provide quality and representative national HIV prevalence estimates.


The aim of the study is to evaluate influence of estrogen deficiency on lipid profile in women of different age. Material and Methods. 189 women with normal body weight: 44 women with premature menopause (aged <40 years), 69 women with early menopause (aged 40-45 years), and 76 women with natural menopause (aged 46-55 years) have been studied. In all women identification of clinical status has been performed during clinical examination. Results. It is shown that increasing age associated with increasing total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) (p<0.05). We have not observed a significant association between age and level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (p=0.117). According with increased age, atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) increases from initial -0.17±0.09 (M±o) to 0.09±0.47 (p<0.05) in women with premature menopause, and to 0.14±0.21 (p<0.05) in other women. Final level of AIP was similar between women aged 40-45 years and women aged 46-55 years (p=0.084). Conclusion. Lipid metabolism disorders were assessed in 73.5% of women with estrogen deficiency. According to the age factor the rate of women with normal lipid metabolism decreases (x2=10,165, p=0.026).


Linguistic usage patterns are not just coincidental phenomena on the textual surface but constitute a fundamental constructional principle of language. At the same time, however, linguistic patterns are highly idiosyncratic in the sense that they tend to be item-specific and unpredictable, thus defying all attempts at capturing them by general abstract rules. […] What all these approaches [that deal with constructions, collocations, patterns, etc. K.S.] share, in addition to their interest in recurrent patterns, is a strong commitment to the value of usage, be it in the wider sense of usage as an empirical basis for sound linguistic analysis and description or in the narrower sense of usage as constituting the basis for the emergence and consolidation of linguistic knowledge. (Herbst et al. 2014: 1)

In consequence of the feasibility of studying language data in new quantitative dimensions, the phraseology faces a paradigm shift. The traditional focus on strongly lexicalized, often idiomatic multi-word expressions (MWE) has led to an overestimation of their unique status in the mental lexicon. The majority of MWEs are typical lexical realisations of templates ('MW patterns') that emerged from repeated usage and can be instantiated with ever changing lexical elements. The – primarily functional – pattern restrictions cannot always be predicted with rules, but are the result of recurring context factors. In this article, at first, it has been shown the nature and the interrelations of MW patterns that are reconstructed with complex corpus-driven methods. Furthermore, a vision of a new phraseography of MW pattern that described their hierarchies and functions based on authentic corpus data like KWIC bundles, slot filler tables and collocation profiles has been discussed.


The project's objective is to analyse the factors involved in the feasibility study of a business
centre next to Barcelona's international airport offering a restaurant, gym, spa, and other
services.
The business idea has emerged to the possible need to find an office for all executives who
travel frequently and cannot find a place to do their jobs or meetings, creating offices in areas
not intended for such use.
Furthermore, the student believes there is a need to build a building with these services,
because it is possible that in Barcelona this business idea does not currently exist, and
instead, they have been located in other big business cities on United Kingdom and United
States of America.
Therefore, the objective of the business centre is to provide a temporary office including
restaurants, gym, spa, garage and big areas for development meetings or events, offering
these services to all people who look the comfort and speed in days working out of town.
To meet this objective, the feasibility study is structured as follows:
- A legal survey in which it has made visits to building site under study. Besides having
consulted all the information on it though El Catastro and "El Registro de la propiedad
de Barcelona".
- An urban survey, which was written by the Plan Parcial of Mas Blau Business Park.
This plan has provided all regulations that influenced in the construction of the
business centre.
- A market survey, analyzing the current situation of El Prat de Llobregat, the Business
Park and Europe. Besides the new ideas provided by the demand survey, the study
of the offer in Barcelona and interviews with potential customers.
- A SWOT analysis, with the sole purpose of finding those keys for the business idea.
- A strategic plan, looking for the aspects related to the target audience of the business
idea. A proposal for placement, analyzing how it will find the business center to hit the
market. And the marketing mix, drawing conclusions about the keys that influence the
real-state product.
- An economic survey, which made estimates of income and expenses that will
generate by the business idea, getting a product profitability.
- A financial survey, analyzing the cash inflows and outflows, and getting the latest
information to complete the feasibility study.
For all this, the feasibility study of a business center in El Prat de Llobregat, offering these
services and looking for potential customers, is acceptable and will be cost effective.
Along with all this, the student wants to prove that investments in real-state should not end
because the crisis, and that people with innovative ideas will be the only that will improve the
country.


This paper presents the design, modeling, calibration, and hysteresis compensation of a self-sensing precision stage used for active vibration isolation. The stage prototype is monolithically fabricated from the spring steel by wire electrical discharge machining process. Aiming to achieve an extremely compact structure, we design and fabricate a self-sensing actuator called smart piezo stack which is capable of not only generating high-resolution displacement but also monitoring the dynamic characteristics of the proposed stage. By means of the finite-element analysis and experimental measurements, we reveal and quantitatively analyze the crosstalk phenomenon in the smart piezo stack. After calibrating the sensitivity of the smart piezo stack experimentally, the dynamics model of the proposed stage is established. Furthermore, a nonlinear autoregressive moving average with exogenous inputs model based on backpropagation neural network is proposed to design a nonlinear controller based on adaptive inverse control. The intelligence of the developed controller allows the hysteresis in the stage which results from the embedded smart piezo stack to be directly compensated for without dynamics modeling in advance. Experimental validation of the adaptive inverse controller is conducted and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism and the developed control system.


University law clinics play an important role in training law graduates for the legal profession. Law clinics are traditionally understood to have two main objectives: Teaching law students the practice of law; and providing free legal services to indigent members of the community. However, they are now also focusing on introducing law graduates to the legal fraternity. They do so by recruiting candidate attorneys who are then allocated supervisors - clinicians who are lawyers within those law clinics - to train and prepare them for the practice of law. It is important that such candidate attorneys receive adequate supervision within these law clinics.


Abstract Although many advances have occurred in anaesthesia within the last 50 years, the movement of surgical procedures from a hospital setting to an ambulatory environment has had a major impact on general health care. Several factors have driven this process, including advances in anaesthesia and technology, the desire by payers to reduce healthcare costs, the demonstration of patient safety and the positive experience of patients undergoing same-day surgery. The safety of ambulatory anaesthesia and surgery is well established. Greater emphasis is placed on minor side-effects, quality of life and patient satisfaction. Advances in technologies, which continue to move procedures out of the operating room and into imaging suites and the office, are driving the future of ambulatory anaesthesia and surgery. The Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia's Clinical Outcomes Registry database was established to enhance the quality of ambulatory anaesthesia, develop benchmarks and establish best practice. The future and growth of ambulatory anaesthesia is secure with the ageing population and advances in technology.


Partner notification, or contact tracing, has long been a cornerstone of efforts to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and HIV. The partner notification process involves persons diagnosed with disease informing sexual partners (and drug injection partners, in the case of HIV) about their exposure to infection and the need for medical examination and treatment. Often this process begins when a public health worker counsels a patient about partner notification and elicits his or her partners who may have been exposed to the infection. Then the patient or public health worker attempts to notify partners and ensure their medical evaluation and treatment. Effective partner notification depends on complete and accurate data on partners. In this report, I review interviewing practices that relate to applied aspects of partner notification and make recommendations for disease control practice and research. I focus on seven areas of partner notification interviewing practice: interview context, interviewing modes, reinterviewing, interview periods, elicitation techniques, interviewer effects, and the reliability and validity of reported partner information.


Has the G20 achieved its goals in macroeconomic cooperation since 2008? The paper organises the G20's efforts under five themes: macroeconomic stimulus, fiscal consolidation, monetary policy, the global financial safety net and global imbalances. The G20 was initially successful in each of these areas, but this success was short‐lived. While the G20 met its goals on macroeconomic stimulus, it has been less successful in reducing deficits and debt. While it was successful in increasing its resources, the global financial safety net remains too small, too fragmented and institutional reform is incomplete. While the G20 succeeded in moving to more market‐determined exchange rates and avoiding competitive devaluations, it struggled to avoid negative spillovers. Despite years of effort, the G20 has made limited progress in reducing global imbalances. Current account imbalances are creeping back to pre‐crisis levels. Public debt remains high and most economies are moving in the wrong direction in correcting imbalances in household savings and debt. The paper concludes that the G20 has done better in some areas than others. But to suggest the G20 is a forum in decline ignores its shift from reactive crisis response to longer‐term structural challenges outside of the pressing need of an immediate crisis.