It is widely assumed that banking markets have become progressively more concentrated over time. Statements to that effect appear frequently in the financial press and in testimony regarding prospective changes in banking laws. For states in the Seventh District, however, the evidence does not appear to support such an assertion. In part, this reflects the fact that the federal bank regulatory agencies, acting under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 and the Bank Merger Act of 1960, have refused to approve acquisitions that would result in substantial increases in concentration. Since the revisions of these acts in 1966, the competitive standards have essentially been those of sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act and section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act. This article reviews the changes in banking concentration in Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) and non-SMSA counties in Seventh District states during the period 1965-79.


We build a framework to simulate stress dynamics in the UK corporate bond market. This quantifies how the behaviours and interactions of major market participants, including open-ended funds, dealers, and institutional investors, can amplify different types of shocks to corporate bond prices. We model market participants' incentives to buy or sell corporate bonds in response to initial price falls, the constraints under which they operate (including those arising due to regulation), and how the resulting behaviour may amplify initial falls in price and impact market functioning. We find that the magnitude of amplification depends on the cause of the initial reduction in price and is larger in the case of shocks to credit risk or risk-free interest rates, than in the case of a perceived deterioration in corporate bond market liquidity. Amplification also depends on agents' proximity to their regulatory constraints. We further find that long-term institutional investors (eg pension funds) only partially mitigate the amplification due to their slower-moving nature. Finally, we find that shocks to corporate bond spreads, similar in magnitude to the largest weekly moves observed in the past, could trigger asset sales that may test the capacity of dealers to absorb them.


Despite the growing recognition of corpora-induced benefits for translation quality, the use of corpus technology remains an exception in a professional setting. This article describes the results of a pilot study aimed at integrating corpus-based tools into the work environment of legal/financial translators. In particular, the paper examines resistance and success factors with a view to encouraging the progressive integration of corpus technology into translators' toolboxes.


Leaders and academics can improve the quality of higher education teaching, and thereby the quality of their graduates, by reflecting on institution-wide practices. This book explores the interplay between actors within institutions, organisational structure, commitment of senior leadership, involvement of faculty and students, and evaluation instruments.
Based on an OECD review of 46 quality teaching initiatives in 20 countries, the report highlights the significant impact of the institutions' environment, trends in the quality of academia, teaching methods and learning conditions. The sample represents 29 higher education institutions, from technological and vocational institutions to business and economic schools, from small undergraduate institutions to multidisciplinary postgraduate universities.
The book illustrates the following factors with examples from around the world:
the aims of institutions when fostering quality teaching, their options and the guiding philosophy behind a quality approach;
concrete ways to apply quality teaching initiatives, challenges to implementing them, and key actors in their dissemination;
evaluation systems and the impacts of institutional support on teaching, research and quality culture;
how institution-wide approaches can be combined to enhance quality teaching in a sustainable way.
The book also analyses the effects of quality teaching on institutional leaders, faculty members, quality units and students.


A new sensitivity controllable pixel structure is proposed for CMOS active-pixel image sensor. The proposed pixel structure has a sensitivity control gate overlaid on the photodiode. The sensitivity of the pixel is controlled by the bias voltage of the control gate that forms a variable accumulation-mode MOS capacitor. The prototype sensor is fabricated with a 0.35-mum CMOS process and consists of 60 times 240 pixels with 5.6-mum pixel pitch. Measurement results show that the sensitivity of the photodiode can be controlled by a factor of 4.


The Conservative Peoples' Party of Estonia (EKRE) presents a unique case in the study of far-right parties for two reasons. First, the 'others' to which they juxtapose Estonians are the Russian-speaking minority, who are white, Christian, and to a large extent, share many of the socially conservative values of the EKRE. Second, there has been a trend for European far-right parties to look towards the Russian Federation for ideological support due to shared socially conservative ideological positions, and an opposition to the EU and NATO. EKRE takes a different stance towards the Russian Federation than many other far-right parties in Europe. Interviews were conducted with members of EKRE, as well as members of other political parties in Estonia, primarily focusing on the post-migrant crisis relationship between EKRE and the Russian-speaking population in Estonia, as well as other core issues related to EKRE. The aim of this article is twofold: first, it serves as an introductory piece, introducing EKRE to the broader literature on populist, radical right parties. Secondly, this article asks the questions "is the presence, or the possibility of the presence of a foreign, racially and religiously different 'other' enough to attract a significant portion of a national minority to vote for and become members of a PRR party?" and "is the presence, or the possibility of the presence of a foreign, racially and religiously different 'other' enough to entice a PRR party to cooperate with a national minority which was previously their target?" This article argues that EKRE is open to Russianspeakers becoming members within the party, but will not extend their reach to them as Russian speakers. Rather, they would welcome Russian-speakers as party members provided they are Estonian nationalists who adhere to the party constitution and see Estonia as a sovereign nation which they seek to protect.


Community involvement is arguably a key component behind sustainable heritage management. Under strict government control, however, local community-led initiatives are difficult to find in China. Nonetheless, through remittances and philanthropic contributions to their respective communities, the Chinese diaspora have long been seen as an important source of foreign capital and a driving force behind homeland development. A transregional study (mainland China, Hong Kong and Canada) was carried out to explore the relationship between local communities in China and the diaspora, how each party was involved (or not) and the factors that affect their engagement in a government-initiated clanship heritage project in post-reform China. Investigating how different 'associated people' perceive, construct and even manipulate heritage, this study found that participation is not only related to wealth, success or status, but also to residential orientations, self-perceptions of the motherland and notions of authentic and/or symbolic roots. The study offers insight into the nature and politics of heritage management in contemporary China. Furthermore, it contributes to our understanding of how multiple homes can affect diasporic interpretations of, and connections with, the homeland.


We used morphological characters to explore the phylogeny of mammal-associated psoroptidian mites. In both maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses, the clades uniting Psoroptoidea and Analgoidea–Sarcoptoidea (higher Psoroptidia) were strongly supported, and monophyly of most sarcoptoid families was confirmed. However, the relationships among families of the higher Psoroptidia (Analgoidea and Sarcoptoidea) remained poorly resolved. Two most parsimonious trees were obtained after successive weighting. In these trees, higher Psoroptidia split into two main clusters with Sarcoptoidea in the traditional sense shown as diphyletic. Cluster I consists of two superfamilies: Analgoidea, including Dermationidae, and Psoroptoidea, stat. res.: Psoroptoidinae (Turbinoptidae–Paracoroptinae); (Pandalurinae (Pyroglyphidae–Lobalgidae); Paralgopsidae, stat. nov.–Ptyssalgidae (Epidermoptidae–Psoroptidae). Cluster II consists of the superfamily Sarcoptoidea represented by two lineages: Listropsoralgidae, stat. nov. (Myocoptidae (Rhyncoptidae–Sarcoptidae)) and Dromiciocoptidae, stat. nov. ((Listrophoridae–Atopomelidae) (Chirodiscidae (Gastronyssidae (Pneumocoptidae–Lemurnyssidae)))). We hypothesised that mites of the superfamilies Pterolichoidea, Analgoidea and Psoroptoidea have independently colonised birds with subsequent ancestral shifts of the families Lobalgidae and Psoroptidae and subfamily Paracoroptinae from birds to mammals. Mites of the superfamily Sarcoptoidea switched from nidicoly to parasitism on ancestors of therian mammals and evolved exclusively on this host group.


In the last decade the available labor force has expanded in Germany—despite the decline in the working-age population. The reason: labor market participation has increased, for women in particular and older people in general. Also noticeable was a rise in qualification level because well-educated people have a particularly high propensity to participate in the labor market. Most recently, Germany's potential labor force has grown as a consequence of many factors, including migration—from other EU member states in particular. The immigrants from EU countries now exhibits higher labor market participation than that of Germans. This is due to the favorable age structure of the migrants from the EU. The situation is different overall for migrants from non-member states: their participation is relatively low. This may have to do with lack of access to the job market. However, another factor is that the participation of women from non-member states is far below the average. In the future, Germany will be more or less reliant on migration. This is the finding of various model calculations showing the effects of demographic influences and participation behavior on Germany's future labor supply. Even if Germany's level of labor market participation rises to Switzerland's current level by 2040, the finding still applies. The Swiss example shows that policy makers were successful at attracting persons with higher labor market participation from abroad. In Switzerland, the labor market participation of older people is also much higher than in Germany. Policy makers in Germany should take that into account and ensure that skill potential is not prematurely lost to early retirement. Granting tax and social contribution privileges to the semiretired is counterproductive.


A growing concern with advertisement libraries on Android is their ability to exfiltrate personal information from their host applications. While previous work has looked at the libraries' abilities to extract private information from the system, advertising libraries also include APIs through which a host application can deliberately leak private information about the user. This study, considering a corpus of 114,000 apps, is the first to focus on those APIs. We reconstruct the APIs for 103 ad libraries used in the corpus, and study how the privacy leaking APIs from the top 20 ad libraries are used by the 64,000 applications in which they are included. Notably, we have found that app popularity correlates with privacy leakage; the marginal increase in advertising revenue, multiplied over a larger user base, seems to incentivize these app vendors to violate their users' privacy.


We report the first one-dimensional tubular metal-organic framework (MOF) [Ni(Cu-H6TPPA)]∙2DMA (H8TPPA = 5,10,15,20-tetrakis[p-phenylphosphonic acid] porphyrin) in the literature. The structure of this MOF, known as GTUB4, was solved using single crystal X-ray diffraction and its surface area was calculated to be 1102 m2/g, making it the phosphonate MOF with the highest reported surface area. GTUB4 also possesses a narrow indirect band gap of 1.9 eV and a direct band gap of 2.16 eV, making it a semiconducting MOF. Thermogravimetric analysis of GTUB4 suggests that it is thermally stable up to 400°C. Owing to its high surface area, low band gap, and thermal stability, GTUB4 could find applications as electrodes in supercapacitors.


Walking in the Sacred Manner is an exploration of the myths and culture of the Plains Indians, for whom the everyday and the spiritual are intertwined and women play a strong and important role in the spiritual and religious life of the community. Based on extensive first-person interviews by an established expert on Plains Indian women, Walking in the Sacred Manner is a singular and authentic record of the participation of women in the sacred traditions of Northern Plains tribes, including Lakota, Cheyenne, Crow, and Assiniboine. Through interviews with holy women and the families of women healers, Mark St. Pierre and Tilda Long Soldier paint a rich and varied portrait of a society and its traditions. Stereotypical images of the Native American drop away as the voices, dreams, and experiences of these women (both healers and healed) present insight into a culture about which little is known. It is a journey into the past, an exploration of the present, and a view full of hope for the future.


Norm emergence is a process where agents in a multi-agent system establish self-enforcing conformity through repeated interactions. When such interactions are confined to a social topology, several self-reinforcing substructures (SRS) may emerge within the population. This prevents a formation of a global norm. We propose incremental social instruments (ISI) to dissolve these SRSs by creating ties between agents. Establishing ties requires some effort and cost. Hence, it is worth to design methods that build a small number of ties yet dissolve the SRSs. By using the notion of information entropy, we propose an indicator called the BA-ratio that measures the current SRSs. We find that by building ties with minimal BA-ratio, our ISI is effective in facilitating the global norm emergence. We explain this through our experiments and theoretical results. Furthermore, we propose the small-degree principle in minimising the BA-ratio that helps us to design efficient ISI algorithms for finding the optimal ties. Experiments on both synthetic and real-world network topologies demonstrate that our adaptive ISI is efficient at dissolving SRS.


From the Publisher:

Non-theoretical explanations of practical numerical algorithms
Algorithms in action with animated, interactive graphical Java programs and applets
Computational errors and how to remove them from your code

Understand "computer math" and get the numbers you expect, reliably.

In Java Number Cruncher, author Ronald Mak explains how to spot-and how to avoid-the subtle programming miscues that can cause vexing calculation errors in your applications. An authority on mapping pure math to computer math, he explains how to use the often-overlooked computational features of Java, and does so in a clear, non-theoretical style.

Without getting lost in mathematical detail, you'll learn practical numerical algorithms for safely summing numbers, finding roots of equations, interpolation and approximation, numerical integration, solving differential equations, matrix operations, and solving sets of simultaneous equations. You'll also enjoy intriguing topics such as searching for patterns in prime numbers, generating random numbers, computing thousands of digits of pi, and creating intricately beautiful fractal images.

Java Number Cruncher includes:

Practical information all Java programmers should know
Popular computational algorithms in Java-without excessive mathematical theory
Interactive graphical programs that bring the algorithms to life on the computer screen
Rounding errors, the pitfalls of integer arithmetic, Java's implementation of the IEEE 754 floating-point standard, and more

This book is useful to all Java programmers, especially for those who want to learabout numerical computation, and for developers of scientific, financial, and data analysis applications.


"Elements of Neutron Interaction Theory" is a first-year textbook for graduate students in nuclear engineering, dealing with the interactions of neutrons, photons, and charged particles with nuclei, atoms, and electrons. The aim of the book is to present, as simply as possible, those aspects of neutron interaction theory which follow directly from conservation laws and elementary quantum mechanics. It is intended to be understood by anyone who has obtained the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in physics, chemistry, or one of the engineering disciplines. No mathematical background beyond differential equations and elementary vector analysis and no physics background beyond elementary modern physics is assumed.


Introduction to Genre and Women's Life Writing in Early Modern England. By taking account of the ways in which early modern women made use of formal and generic structures to constitute themselves in writing, the essays collected here interrogate the discursive contours of gendered identity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. The contributors explore how generic choice, mixture, and revision influence narrative constructions of the female self in early modern England. Collectively they situate women's life writings within the broader textual culture of early modern England while maintaining a focus on the particular rhetorical devices and narrative structures that comprise individual texts. Reconsidering women's life writing in light of recent critical trends - most notably historical formalism - this volume produces both new readings of early modern texts (such as Margaret Cavendish's autobiography and the diary of Anne Clifford) and a new understanding of the complex relationships between literary forms and early modern women's 'selves'. This volume engages with new critical methods to make innovative connections between canonical and non-canonical writing; in so doing, it helps to shape the future of scholarship on early modern women.


This paper deals with the effects of entry into motherhood on women's employment dynamics. Our analysis is based on the complete lifetime workingand income histories of a 1% sample of all persons born between 1934 and 1971 and employed in West Germany sometime between 1975 and 1995. We use the records of women who were employed before the birth of their first child. We apply a semi-parametric hierarchical Bayesian modeling approach simultaneously including several time scales and further covariates whose effects we estimate by MCMC techniques. We investigate short-term consequences of entry into motherhood and their changes over different birth cohorts and thereby take into account the employment histories before the birth of the first child. We conduct two models differentiating between the simple return to the labor market and the return for at least a certain period in order to measure subsequent employment stability. Our results indicate that a higher extent of employment experience, a stronger attachment to the labor market and an employment in white collar jobs reduces the employment penalty for mothers after the birth of their first child.


Are food deserts related to unhealthy diets, and is this effect explained by, or dependent on, other factors? To answer this question, I devise several new measures of supermarket access which incorporate household knowledge and account for differences in transportation. Using these measures to predict food purchases of low income households, I compare the impact of access with the impacts of several previously neglected factors, including food insecurity, stress, taste preferences, and proximity to unhealthy food stores. I also examine the interaction between access and these factors, to see if the effect of access depends on other household characteristics. I find that food insecurity and taste preferences are strongly associated with less healthy market baskets and lower fruit and vegetable consumption. Additionally, lack of access to supermarkets is associated with lower produce intake. However, this association is not large or entirely robust, and evidence of interaction between access and other factors is weak at best. The effects of stress and proximity to unhealthy food stores are also mixed. In general, demand for healthy food appears to be distance inelastic. Based on these results, I cannot rule out food deserts as having an impact on diet, but it appears that any effect they do have is small.


Depressive disorder in Tunisian women: Screening and prevalence of depression in a family planning service of a maternal and child protection center of Tunisia: It is a cross-sectional epidemiological investigation among 138 Tunisian women aged between 18 and 49 years. They were consulting in a maternal and child protection center, which is a preventive and social medicine service of the Children Hospital of the Tunisian Capital. We aimed to study the prevalence of depressive disorders among women using the BDI-II translated in Arabic. This epidemiological study helped us to screen depressive persons and offer to them the adequate psychological and clinical care in time. Our sample has an average age of 31, 54% of them had a secondary school level. Most of the participants are married (98%) and housewives (69%). 31% are pregnant. Our study revealed that mild depression is predominant (46%), 26% had a moderate depression, 6% severe depression (13% suicidal thoughts and 3% suicide attempt). We also investigated their medical background and family history and socio-economic conditions to determine the factors risk. We found that: 29 % had a bad marital relationship, 35% had a bad economic situation, 24% had a predisposition to depression and 23% had no social/familial support. This study let us discover the prevalence of depressive disorder and offer the psychological support and care to the women diagnosed withmild, moderate and severe depression to help them improving their lifestyle to prevent depression. We also carried out a group sensitization to these women for a better mindfulness of depressive symptomatology and explained the importance to ask help with health/mental health providers to ensure a mental health wellbeing. longer term 'chosen values'.


This paper proposes SC++lite, a sequentially consistent system that relaxes memory order speculatively to bridge the performance gap among memory consistency models. Prior proposals to speculatively relax memory order require large custom on-chip storage to maintain a history of speculative processor and memory state while memory order is relaxed. SC++lite uses the memory hierarchy to store the speculative history, providing a scalable path for speculative SC systems across a wide range of applications and system latencies. We use cycle-accurate simulation of shared-memory multiprocessors to show that SC++lite can fully relax memory order while virtually obviating the need for custom on-chip storage. Moreover while demand for storage increases significantly with larger memory latencies, SC++lite's ability to relax memory order remains insensitive to memory latency. An SC++lite system can improve performance over a base SC system by 28% with only 2 KB of custom storage in a system with 16 processors. In contrast, speculative SC systems with custom storage require 51 KB of storage to improve performance by 31% over a base SC system.


Rateless Codes are effective in reducing the costs of retransmissions over erasure channels. Some rateless codes have systematic leading parts which have been shown in the literature to enhance their performance. The systematic part allows a node to start transmitting packets as soon as they are received without waiting for the entire multi-packet message to be decoded. This will naturally reduce the end-to-end delay which is critical for streaming applications. Using systematic rateless codes, this paper proposes a network routing algorithm to reduce streaming delays. The algorithm is easy to analyze and implement. Its performance is studied and compared against the existing algorithms through simulations in network scenarios where the nodes use systematic rateless codes for communication.


Superconducting resonators with high quality factors are of great interest in many areas. However, the quality factor of the resonator can be weakened by many dissipation channels including trapped magnetic flux vortices and nonequilibrium quasiparticles which can significantly impact the performance of superconducting microwave resonant circuits and qubits at millikelvin temperatures. Quasiparticles result in excess loss, reducing resonator quality factors and qubit lifetimes. Vortices trapped near regions of large microwave currents also contribute excess loss. However, vortices located in current-free areas in the resonator or in the ground plane of a device can actually trap quasiparticles and lead to a reduction in the quasiparticle loss. In this thesis, we will describe experiments involving the controlled trapping of vortices for reducing quasiparticle density in the superconducting resonators. We provide a model for the simulation of reduction of nonequilibrium quasiparticles by vortices. In our experiments, quasiparticles are generated either by stray pair-breaking radiation or by direct injection using normalinsulator-superconductor (NIS)-tunnel junctions. Vortices and Quasiparticles in Superconducting Microwave Resonators


The accessory nerve is traditionally described as having both spinal and cranial roots, with the spinal root originating from the upper cervical segments of the spinal cord and the cranial root originating from the dorsolateral surface of the medulla oblongata. The spinal rootlets and cranial rootlets converge either before entering the jugular foramen or within it. In a recent report, this conventional view has been challenged by finding no cranial contribution to the accessory nerve. The present study was undertaken to re-examine the accessory and vagus nerves within the cranium and jugular foramen, with particular emphasis on the components of the accessory nerve. These nerves were traced from their rootlets attaching to the spinal cord and the medulla and then through the jugular foramen. The jugular foramen was exposed by removing the dural covering and surrounding bone. A surgical dissecting microscope was used to trace the roots of the glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX), vagus nerve (CN X) and accessory nerve (CN XI) before they entered the jugular foramen and during their travel through it. The present study demonstrates that the accessory nerve exists in two forms within the cranial cavity. In the majority of cases (11 of 12), CN XI originated from the spinal cord with no distinct contribution from the medulla. However, in one of 12 cases, a small but distinct connection was seen between the vagus and the spinal accessory nerves within the jugular foramen.


In a nutshell, the following are the key points in family medicine and primary health care with regard to hypertension: Blood pressure should be recorded accurately. Most patients with hypertension have neither signs nor symptoms. Approximately 20% of patients who by all other criteria have essential hypertension have suppressed plasma renin activity. Investigations include: urinalysis - protein, glucose and blood, urea and electrolytes, creatinine, random blood glucose, electrocardiogram: there may be changes consistent with left ventricular hypertrophy secondary to hypertension. in the ECG SVlsubg1l/subg + RVlsubg5l/subg or RVlsubg6l/subg (whichever is tallest) > 35 mm (Sokolow Lyon criterion), random total cholesterol level. There are 3 important antihypertensive agents for the management of persons without compelling indications: diuretics (thiazide-like and thiazide), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I) and calcium-channel blockers (CCBs). For a full discussion of antihypertensive treatment see the recent South African Hypertension Society Guideline 2006.


It has been over a hundred years since George Bernard Shaw wrote that "All professions are a conspiracy against the laity." Since then the number of occupations and the percentage of workers subject to occupational licensing has exploded; nearly one third of the U.S. workforce is now licensed, up from five percent in the 1950s. Through occupational licensing boards, states endow cosmetologists, veterinary doctors, medical doctors, or florists, with the authority to decide who may practice their art. It can't surprise when licensing boards comprised of competitors exclude competition and regulate in ways that raise their profit. The result for consumers is higher prices and less choice, as licensing raises wages by 18% and bars competition from unlicensed workers. For African-style hair braiders, the result is either an illicit business or thousands of hours of irrelevant training imposed by a cosmetology board. For lawyers, the result is less competition from tax accountants, paralegals and out of state lawyers.The great accomplishment of the Sherman Act has been to make cartels per se illegal and relatively scarce. Unless the cartel is managed by a professional licensing board. Most jurisdictions consider such boards, as creations of states, to be exempted from antitrust scrutiny by the state action doctrine, leaving would-be competitors and consumers no recourse against their cartel activity.We contend that the state action doctrine should not prevent antitrust suits against state licensing boards that are composed of private competitors deputized to regulate their own competition and to outright exclude those who compete with them, often with the threat of criminal sanction. At most, state action should immunize licensing boards from the per se rule and require plaintiffs to prove their case under the rule of reason. We argue that the Fourth Circuit's recent case upholding an FTC antitrust suit against a licensing board — creating a circuit split and becoming the only circuit to deny state action immunity to a licensing board — is a step in the right direction but not far enough. The Supreme Court should take the split as an opportunity to clarify that when competitors hold the reins to their own competition, they must answer to Senator Sherman.


BACKGROUND
The randomized trials that evaluate the timing and intensity of initial chemotherapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have, in general, been too small to provide separately reliable results. We compared the effects on survival of the following: a) immediate versus deferred chemotherapy for early-stage CLL and b) combination chemotherapy (e.g., cyclophosphamide and vincristine plus prednisone/prednisolone [COP] or COP plus doxorubicin [CHOP]) versus single-agent chlorambucil as first-line treatment for more advanced disease.

METHODS
All relevant randomized trials, whether published or not, were sought for a collaborative meta-analysis involving centralized review of the data for each patient.

RESULTS
There were 2048 patients with early disease in six trials of immediate versus deferred chemotherapy (chlorambucil or chlorambucil plus prednisone/prednisolone). The 10-year survival was slightly worse (but not statistically significantly so) with immediate chemotherapy (44% versus 47% survival; difference = -3%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = -10% to 4%). There were another 2022 patients in 10 trials of combination chemotherapy versus chlorambucil, with or without prednisone/prednisolone. The 5-year survival was 48 % in both cases (difference = 0%; 95% CI = -6% to 5%). A subgroup of six of these 10 trials involved an anthracycline-containing regimen but again overall survival appeared no better than with chlorambucil (anthracycline-based regimen: 325 deaths among 627 patients; chlorambucil: 306 deaths among 636 patients; death rate ratio = 1.07; 95% CI = 0.91-1.25; not statistically significant).

CONCLUSIONS
In terms of survival, these trials support a conservative treatment strategy for CLL, i.e., no chemotherapy for most patients with early-stage disease, and single-agent chlorambucil as the first line of treatment for most patients with advanced disease, with no evidence of benefit from early inclusion of an anthracycline. This strategy will, however, need to be reconsidered as mature results become available from trials of other agents.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the clinical benefit of dextrose prolotherapy (injection of growth factors or growth factor stimulators) in osteoarthritic finger joints.

DESIGN
Prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

SETTINGS/LOCATION
Outpatient physical medicine clinic.

SUBJECTS
Six months of pain history was required in each joint studied as well as one of the following: grade 2 or 3 osteophyte, grade 2 or 3 joint narrowing, or grade 1 osteophyte plus grade 1 joint narrowing. Distal interphalangeal (DIP), proximal interphalangeal (PIP), and trapeziometacarpal (thumb CMC) joints were eligible. Thirteen patients (with seventy-four symptomatic osteoarthitic joints) received active treatment, and fourteen patients (with seventy-six symptomatic osteoarthritic joints) served as controls.

INTERVENTION
One half milliliter (0.5 mL) of either 10% dextrose and 0.075% xylocaine in bacteriostatic water (active solution) or 0.075% xylocaine in bacteriostatic water (control solution) was injected on medial and lateral aspects of each affected joint. This was done at 0, 2, and 4 months with assessment at 6 months after first injection.

OUTCOME MEASURES
One-hundred millimeter (100 mm) Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain at rest, pain with joint movement and pain with grip, and goniometrically-measured joint flexion.

RESULTS
Pain at rest and with grip improved more in the dextrose group but not significantly. Improvement in pain with movement of fingers improved significantly more in the dextrose group (42% versus 15% with a p value of .027). Flexion range of motion improved more in the dextrose group (p = .003). Side effects were minimal.

CONCLUSION
Dextrose prolotherapy was clinically effective and safe in the treatment of pain with joint movement and range limitation in osteoarthritic finger joints.


A process has been developed whereby libraries of compounds for lead optimization can be synthesized and screened with greater efficiency using computational tools. In this method, analogues of a lead chemical structure are considered in the form of a virtual library. Less than 1/3 of the library is selected as a training set by clustering the compounds and choosing the centroid of each cluster. This training set is then used to generate a model using PLS regression upon the experimental values from that assay using 1D/2D descriptors. The model is applied to the remaining compounds (the test set) for which assay values are predicted and a rank ordering established. An example of this was a set of 169 PDE4 inhibitors. A predictive model was achieved using a training set of 52 compounds. When applied to the remaining 117 compounds this model allowed a rank ordering of these compounds for synthesis and testing. Selecting the top 33 compounds of the test set gives 78% of the compounds with the desired activity (hits) by synthesizing only 50% of the library, including the training set. Selecting the top 59 of the test set gives 97% of the hits from only 67% of the library. This process succeeds by avoiding two principal weaknesses of 2D descriptors: lack of interpretation and lack of extrapolation. Two principal assumptions of QSAR are shown to be unnecessary; removing descriptor redundancy does not improve fit and a predictive r2 greater than 0.5 is not necessary if rank-ordering is desired.


Being a cost-effective researcher is not necessarily just about the legal research resources available where an attorney practices. Budgetary concerns are prevalent across all legal markets, from solos and public interest to large law firms. As the legal field struggles with clients who want greater efficiencies from their attorneys and alternative fee arrangements, many of which state that attorneys will not bill clients for legal research database fees, it is becoming more important than ever to teach law students and attorneys how to use alternative resources effectively and efficiently.


Ionomer glasses are one of the components to produce glass ionomer cements or glass polyalkenoate cements, a popular type of white dental fillings. A typical glass composition for this application is 20-36% wt.% SiO\(_2\), 15-40% Al\(_2\)O\(_3\), 0-35% CaO, 0-10% AlPO\(_4\), 0-40% CaF\(_2\), 0-5% Na\(_3\)AlF\(_6\) and 0-6% AlF\(_3\). These glasses can be made by mixing the appropriate oxides followed by fusion of ingredients in the temperature range of 1200 ˚C to 1590 ˚C. The glass composition used in this study is 4.5SiO\(_2\)-3Al\(_2\)O\(_3\)-1.5P\(_2\)O\(_5\)-3CaO-2CaF\(_2\). A series of new glasses were produced by Mg substitutions for Ca. Magnesium replaced calcium, by 25 (LG26 25%Mg), 50 (LG26 50%Mg), 75 (LG26 75%Mg) and 100 molar % (LG26 100%Mg). The new glasses were characterised by Helium Pycnometer, FTIR, DSC and XRD. The optimum nucleation temperatures and activation energies were calculated by DSC, the crystal size was measured using the Sherrer equation from the XRD patterns and finally the chemical structure was analysed by FTIR. The glass density and the oxygen density were calculated in order to understand how magnesium substitutions can affect the glass network. In this study was showed that the density of glasses and glass ceramics decreased whereas the oxygen density increased slightly with Mg substitution. Furthermore in FTIR spectra there are four absorption regions of Mg containing aluminosilicate glasses which were associated with stretching and bending vibrations. In FTIR was also observed some shift towards higher wavenumbers with Mg substitution. On the other hand, DSC analysis showed that the glass transition temperature (Tg), Tp1 and 9 Tp2 did not undergo significant changes with Mg substitution comparing all Mg substituted glasses but a significant change was observed between the Tp1 and Tp2 values of LG26 and Mg substituted glasses. A decrease in optimum nucleation temperature (Tn) with Mg substitution in all Mg substituted glasses except of LG26(100%)Mg was also observed. The LG26(100%)Mg glass did not exhibit an optimum nucleation temperature indicating that the glass undergoes spontaneous crystallisation. Furthermore, XRD analysis showed that the substitution of Mg for Ca resulted in the formation of Wagnerite (Mg\(_2\)PO4F), Ca-FAP and Mullite (Al\(_6\)Si\(_2\)O\(_{13}\)) in the case of LG26(25%)Mg and LG26(50%)Mg containing glass ceramics and Wagnerite (Mg\(_2\)PO\(_4\)F) and Mullite (Al\(_6\)Si\(_2\)O\(_{13}\)) in the case of LG26(75%)Mg and LG26(100%)Mg glass ceramics. The crystal size and the activation energy of Ca- FAP/Wagnerite were calculated. The activation energy increased for all glass compositions with the exception of LG26(75%)Mg.


The core of the text combines the theory and practice of brain death determination, history, and the development of clinical criteria of what brain death is. With incredible clarity, the author describes in the first five chapters the complex neurological evaluations and all the pitfalls that can be experienced: cultural beliefs, bioethical problems, discussions with family members, and many of the issues associated with organ procurement.


The central concern of this paper is the relationship between research-driven "state-of-the-art" knowledge, and knowledge claims made in practice, in planning for sustainability. The paper approaches this topic from a critical realist perspective, which is used to provide criteria for positing "state-of-the-art" knowledge validity, and assessing the quality of situated knowledge claims in planning practice. In this way the paper contributes to debates about an ontological turn in planning knowledge. By reviewing key planning documents in three Scandinavian city regions, the paper shows that the knowledge claims about travel behavioral impacts of proposed land use and transport infrastructure presented in the documents are, to varying extents, in accordance with "state-of-the-art" academic knowledge on these topics. Some long-standing "planning myths" are encountered in the investigated planning documents. In one of the cities, residential and workplace location close to suburban public transport stops is highlighted as a traffic-reducing measure, rather than proximity to inner-city concentrations of jobs and other facilities, and density is discussed at a neighborhood scale rather than at a city scale. In all three cities, planning documents depict road capacity increases as having no traffic-generating effect. These latter claims are used in support of more decentralized land-use patterns and considerable road development. Since the likelihood of achieving sustainability goals relies heavily on whether the measures chosen are productive or counter-productive, knowledge obviously matters. A stronger focus on how well suited proposed strategies for spatial development are to produce their purported outcomes should be welcomed in planning research and practice.


If we wish to advance modelling practices beyond its current state of play, we need to reconsider the very foundation models are based on. Models should be useful and easy to grasp for the human mind. This instrumental character of models implies that model quality must be ultimately grounded in our innate predispositions for acting. I have proposed that such faculties can be comprehended as activity modalities: objectivation, contextualization, spatialization, temporalization, stabilization, and transition (Taxen, 2009). The activity modalities can be seen as the brain's way of integrating sensations arriving in various sensory modalities into a coordinated and purposeful action percept.


What was Saint-Simon's relation to the fairy tale? It is difficult to imagine him immersed in a book of tales. However, the Saint-Simon household inherited from the duchesse de Berry such works as Les contes des fées by Madame d'Aulnoy, La tyrannie des fées détruites, by the comtesse d'Auneuil, Histoires sublimes et allégoriques by Madame de Murat, as well as collections of oriental tales. Although most of these works do not appear in later inventories of Saint-Simon's library, his memoirs nevertheless suggest that Saint-Simon borrowed from the literary or cultural fashion of fairies in his depictions of aristocratic society in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.


To obtain the expected results in the academic environment, various mechanisms for presenting the information in a form as much as attractive were made. This thing implied the development of complex means which involves the usage of technical and software support as varied as possible. Another important component related to learning validation is the assessment component. In this moment, a variety of assessment mechanisms exists, from the classical ones which use detailed requirements and answers to those which use templates with simple or more complex questions and answers. In the assessment process it is important to use tests with the same content for all the students, in order to obtain a correct hierarchy of them. However, for a better security regarding the answers given by the student, it is useful to elaborate more test variants with the same questions, but with answers numbered in a different way. The generator presented in this paper uses a probabilistic algorithm for solving this request. The generator accomplishes two roles: firstly, it does the generation of a random permutation of the answers choices and, secondly, it generates a random permutation of the questions which forms the test. A specified number of tests will be generated using these permutations. The application which uses the generator contains three files: the first one with the question statements, the second one with the answers choices and the third with the right answer. Using the generator for the permutations of answers choices and of questions, variants of the same test are obtained.


A significant amount of alcohol-related harm afflicts others than the drinker. The negative effects from drinking puts children and families at particular risk. In order to tackle the effects from drinking we must determine how alcohol affects others and what areas of society are affected. The publication "The ripple effect of alcohol – Consequences beyond the drinker" provides perspectives on how drinking affects us as individuals and as a society.In order to strengthen research projects and collaboration focusing on alcohol's harm to others, the Nordic Centre for Welfare and Social Issues established a Nordic research network, H20 Nordic, in 2013. The project has generated a number of Nordic comparative studies and publications."The ripple effect of alcohol – Consequences beyond the drinker" outlines the key findings of the research network. What kind of harms do Nordic people experience from the drinking of family, friends and co-workers? To what extent do Nordic people experience harm from strangers' drinking? When is parents' alcohol use in the presence of children acceptable and what makes it less so?


Glucocorticoids (GCs) are known to alter neuronal plasticity, impair learning and memory and play important roles in the generation and progression of Alzheimer's disease. There are no effective drug options for preventing neuronal injury induced by chronic GC exposure. Ginsenoside Rg1 (Rg1) is a steroidal saponin found in ginseng. The present study investigated the neuroprotective effect of Rg1 on neuroinflammation damage induced by chronic dexamethasone (5 mg/kg for 28 days) exposure in male mice. Our results showed that Rg1 (2 and 4 mg/kg) treatment increased spontaneous motor activity and exploratory behavior in an open field test, and increased the number of entries into the new object zone in a novel object recognition test. Moreover, Rg1 (2 and 4 mg/kg) treatment significantly alleviated neuronal degeneration and increased MAP2 expression in the frontal cortex and hippocampus. Additionally, inhibition of NLRP-1 inflammasomes was also involved in the mechanisms underlying the effect of Rg1 on GC-induced neuronal injury. We found that Rg1 (2 and 4 mg/kg) treatment increased the expression of glucocorticosteroid receptor and decreased the expression of NLRP-1, ASC, caspase-1, caspase-5, IL-1β and IL-18 in the hippocampus in male mice. The present study indicates that Rg1 may have protective effects on neuroinflammation and neuronal injury induced by chronic GC exposure.


A hybrid modeling system (coupled physical and numerical models) was developed to assess velocity and sediment impacts associated with channel expansion. Physical model tides and velocities were verified to limited field data sets. The physical model examined three-dimensional changes associated with the project and provided boundary forcing conditions for the numerical hydrodynamic model. The numerical model was verified to an expanded physical model data set. The numerical hydrodynamic model provided velocity and water level information to the sediment model. The sediment model was verified to predeepened channel shoaling history. Subtle velocity impacts were identified comparing the predeepened base condition to the deepened plan channel condition. The plan channel increased the maintained channel area by approximately 70 percent (depth, width, and extension). Numerical sediment model predictions indicated a 150 percent increase in yearly maintenance requirements for the enlarged channel.


Microbial effects on phosphorus release were studied for the sediments of Tianjin source water by controlling DO and pH. The results show that: (1) In sterilised water, phosphorus began to release when pH = 9.1 and the stable release rate was 9.51 mg/(d.m2). It indicates that microorganisms may utilise anaerobic iron respiration to release Fe-P. (2) With unsterilised water, phosphorus release rate is 2.14 mg/(d.m2) when pH = 6.5, 8.60 mg/(d.m2) when pH is uncontrolled, and gets to 8.51 mg/(d.m2) when pH = 9.1. This indicates that microorganisms can dissolve insoluble phosphates to accelerate the ion exchange of OH(-) and PO4(3-), which are derived from iron-bound ortho-P and aluminium-bound ortho-P.


This book is the first to develop a unified gauge theory of condensed matter systems dominated by vortices or defects and their long-range interactions. Gauge fields provide the only means of describing these interactions in terms of local fields, rendering them accessible to standard field theoretic techniques. Two particularly important examples, superfluid systems and crystals, are treated in great detail. The theory is developed in close contact with physical phenomena and evolves naturally from conventional descriptions of the systems. In addition to gauge fields, the book introduces the important new concept of disorder fields for ensembles of line-like defects. The combined field theory allows for a new understanding of the important phase transitions superfluid 'normal and solid' liquid. Apart from the above, the book presents the general differential geometry of defects in spaces with curvature and torsion and establishes contact with the modern theory of gravity with torsion. This book is written for condensed matter physicists and field theorists. It can be used as a textbook for a second-year graduate course or as supplementary reading for courses in the areas of condensed matter and solid state physics, statistical mechanics, and field theory.


The move to living more of our lives on our screens presents us with charitable opportunities online. Helping others through microfinance may be an effective way to bring about positive transformation in the lives of others, but sometimes aspects of online lending programs that are invisible to us, such as high interest rates, negatively affect borrowers. In this essay I provide a brief overview of microfinance and discuss why responsible lending is essential, using two online microfinance institutions as examples. I conclude by proposing a guide for lending intelligently and responsibly online.


The question asked in the heading was answered in this article in four steps. In the first step, an attempt was made to find an accurate account of biblical prophecy by means of a critical discussion of certain influential interpretations of it. In the second step, the extent to which biblical prophecy could serve as a model for contemporary Christians was discussed and an acceptable Christian model of prophetic witness was formulated by drawing on the views of different authors. In the third step, the impact of democracy on the prophetic witness of the church was discussed. The Dutch theologian, Gerrit de Kruijf's view that the public prophetic witness of the church is not appropriate in democratic societies was criticised and the legitimacy of certain forms of prophetic witness in such societies defended. In the final step, a number of examples of the prophetic witness that is needed in the present democratic South Africa were provided.


We examine enterprise social network usage data obtained from a community of store managers in a leading Australian retail organization, over a period of fifteen months. Our interest in examining this data is in spatial preferences by the network users, that is, to ascertain who is communicating with whom and where. We offer several contrasting theoretical perspectives for spatial preference patterns and examine these against data collected from over 12,000 messages exchanged between 530 managers in 897 stores. Our findings show that interactions can generally be characterized by individual preferences for local communication but also that two different user communities exist – locals and globals. We develop empirical profiles for these social network user communities and outline implications for theories on spatial influences on communication behaviours on enterprise social networks.


In this work, the effect of the alkali-treatment and its variables viz., time and concentration of alkali, on the creep properties of jute fibre were studied. It was demonstrated that this kind of treatment leads to several changes in fine structure, such as voids creation and fibre fibrillation. The creep behaviour was measured for the alkali treated as well as the dewaxed fibres. Creep value was much higher in the 17.5% NaOH treated fibres compared to the dewaxed fibres. In the 8 hrs treated fibres, the creep was slightly more than the 20 mins treated fibres. XRD study revealed that experimental alkali treatment conditions resulted in closer packing of cellulose chains or rather increased crystallinity. Hence closer arrangement of the molecular chains (higher crystallinity) will reduce the creep extension, as expected.


Gestational choriocarcinoma (CC) represents the most aggressive form of gestational tumours. In Europe and North America, gestational CC occurs in approximately 1/50 000 deliveries.1 We report the detection, in a gestational CC developed in a female partner of a patient with Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) (MIM #151623), of the germline TP53 mutation initially detected in this LFS patient. In the French LFS series, we identified 78 fathers who were carriers of a germline TP53 mutation. Among the 213 corresponding pregnancies, we found two other cases of gestational CC in their partners. We estimate that gestational CC occurs in approximately 1% of the deliveries in female partners of TP53 mutation carriers.

Gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD), which can occur after either abnormal or normal fertilisation, is characterised by the uncontrolled proliferation of trophoblastic cells normally producing the placenta. GTD includes premalignant (complete and partial hydatidiform moles) and malignant (invasive mole, gestational CC, placental-site trophoblastic and epithelioid trophoblastic tumours) lesions.1 We considered the diagnosis of LFS, a remarkable cancer predisposition characterised by the extent of tumour spectrum,2 in the family described in figure 1. The male index case had developed a cholangiocarcinoma at 37 years of age, …


Real estate value reflects a factor of risk. Community risk inherently is captured in real estate value and is a composition of such elements as employment, income, and population growth (Carr, et al., 2003). These elements provide tenants to rent space and customers to buy products thereby increasing property value. The inverse, then, is true that the decline of employment, income, or population will negatively impact value. Employment and population growth are accelerated with anchors. The term "anchor" in real estate denotes a use that provides stability and attraction that ultimately lowers risk and increases value. While there are commercial anchors such as large private corporations or retail centers, key community anchors come in the form of public or non-profit entities whose interest is in the long-term viability of the community. Anchors include schools, libraries, public halls, hospitals, and religious institutions. They provide important services to the community such as employment, interaction, communication, education, governance, health services, counseling, and moral teachings.


In this paper we aim at defining conceptual foundations for context-aware applications. We argue that the concepts of entity and context should be separated in conceptual models for context-aware applications. Further, we propose a novel approach that characterizes context as either intrinsic or relational. The concepts we propose in this paper have been inspired by and aligned with conceptual theories from the fields of philosophy and cognitive sciences. Since we concentrate on conceptual modeling, understandability and clarity are given precedence over properties such as efficiency and tractability.


During the last decade, Latin American countries have brought about important reforms in infrastructure services based both on private sector participation for enhancing internal efficiency and competition for increasing consumer welfare. Infrastructure services have evolved from monopoly and public ownership setting lacking specific regulations, toward scenarios where private participation prevails, with competition and regulation playing complementary roles. However, even though competition is a pivotal feature in all public service reform processes, a high degree of vertical and horizontal concentration pervades the industrial structure of many countries in the region. Furthermore, mergers and acquisitions taking place in the context of an increasingly global economy, without the appropriate legislation geared at promoting competition and restraining market control, have often led to reduced levels of competition. Competition Policy in Regulated Industries identifies competition problems in infrastructure sectors, discusses legal and structural solutions to them, and provides conceptual and practical approaches for emerging economies.


Section 23(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 guarantees a fundamental right in respect of labour relations by providing that "everyone has the right to fair labour practices". The Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (hereinafter "the LRA") gives effect to the right to fair labour practices in that employees have the right not to be unfairly dismissed or subjected to unfair labour practices. Section 193 of the LRA provides for remedies when an employee is unfairly dismissed. Reinstatement or re-employment is the primary remedy in cases of unfair dismissal except where the provisions of section 192(3) of the LRA apply, in which case reinstatement cannot be ordered by the labour court or an arbitrator. When an employee wishes not to be reinstated or re-employed, or the circumstances surrounding the dismissal would make the continued employment relationship intolerable, or it is not reasonably practicable to reinstate or re-employ the employee or the reason for dismissal is that it is only procedurally unfair, compensation would be the most appropriate remedy (s 193(2) LRA).


Guided by the dialogic communication framework, stakeholder theory, and research on implicit framing, this study examines how stakeholder engagement reflects organizations' dialogic social media use in the form of stakeholder targeting and message framing. Analysis of survey data from 156 humanitarian organizations and semantic network analysis of their messages on Facebook and Twitter reveal that organizations with higher levels of dialogic social media use target relatively distinctive stakeholders. More dialogic organizations explore more diverse concepts in their posts, but the themes of discussion on Twitter and Facebook both diverge and converge regardless of levels of dialogic social media use. Moreover, the semantic differences among the organizations in the low- and high-dialogic groups are more salient on Twitter than on Facebook. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are drawn from the findings.


Heart failure (HF) is a progressive disorder associated with impaired quality of life, high morbidity, mortality and frequent hospitalization and affects millions of people from all around the world. Despite further improvements in HF therapy, mortality and morbidity remains to be very high. The life-long treatment, frequent hospitalization, and sophisticated and very expensive device therapies for HF also leads a substantial economic burden on the health care system. Therefore, implementation of evidence-based guideline-recommended therapy is very important to overcome its worse clinical outcomes. However, HF therapy is a long process that has many drawbacks and sometimes HF guidelines cannot answers to every question which rises in everyday clinical practice. In this paper, commonly encountered questions, overlooked points, controversial issues, management strategies in grey zone and problems arising during follow up of a HF patient in real life clinical practice have been addressed in the form of expert opinions based on the available data in the literature.


Policies to devolve responsibility for natural resource management to local bodies have become widespread in the past 20 years. Although the theoretical advantages of user management have been convincing and the impetus for devolution policies strong, the actual outcomes of devolution programs in various sectors and countries have been mixed. This paper summarizes key research findings on factors that contribute to effective devolution programs in the forestry, fisheries, irrigation, and rangelands sectors, which were presented and discussed at an international Policy Workshop on Property Rights, Collective Action and Devolution of Natural Resource Management, June 21-25, 1999, in Puerto Azul, the Philippines. We begin by addressing the language of devolution in an effort to clarify concepts and terminology that enable a more productive discussion of the issues. This is followed by some of the key arguments made by the workshop participants for devolving rights to resources to local users. Policies and factors that have the potential to strengthen or constrain devolution are addressed at a broad level before looking specifically at how property rights and collective action institutions can shape devolution outcomes. Whereas some factors cut across resource sectors and regions, others are more specific to their contexts. In all cases, proponents of devolution of rights to resource users struggle to understand better what elements facilitate collective action and what factors hinder its creation and sustainability. Finally, a set of recommended frameworks formulated by the workshop participants highlight the potential for fostering a devolution process that leads to the simultaneous improvement of natural resource management and the livelihoods of the poor.


It's the year of High Definition video, and Final Cut Express is ready with a brand-new HD version chockfull of advanced titling and soundtrack creation tools. Here to ensure that users start taking advantage of Final Cut Express HD's real-time HD editing capabilities immediately is a thoroughly updated task-based guide to the program from best-selling author and digital video expert Lisa Brenneis. Users who are eager to make effective, compelling videos but don't want to invest heavily in training or equipment will welcome Lisa's simple step-by-step instructions, strong visual approach, and sound professional advice. In short order, they'll find themselves editing video; applying special effects and transitions; mastering the program's compositing, titling, and audio tools; and outputting their finished work. Readers will also learn about all that's new in this major upgrade: LiveType for creating HD-quality animated text and graphics, Soundtrack for producing custom musical scores, direct timeline file placement from Motion, Digital Cinema Desktop, direct import of iMovie projects, and much more.


As civil litigation becomes more prevalent and more complex, the need for effective case management becomes paramount. A court's pretrial procedures can have a dramatic impact on its ability to manage cases and on the course of litigation. Effective pretrial procedures prevent unnecessary delay, encourage settlement, decrease litigants' cost, and facilitate the effective use of judicial resources. Ineffective pretrial management can lead to delays and court congestion that practically amount to a denial of justice. Although pretrial management is critical, there is no single pretrial model that would be effective in every jurisdiction. Nevertheless, when a country scrutinizes its own pretrial rules, comparing them with the systems used by courts in other countries, the analysis can lead to the adoption of more effective pretrial procedures that fit that country's judicial system.I The lesson to learn is that the principle of pretrial management is correct; however, each country must adapt that principle to meet its needs and legal culture. At the 1997 Conference of Chief Justices of Asia and the Pacific,2 I made a presentation on case management, including pretrial proceedings.3 Because of the conference participants' interest in pretrial procedures, I requested that each country at the Conference send me its statutes) or rule(s) dealing with the subject matter.4 Nineteen jurisdictions responded,5 and this Article contains a comparative analysis of those countries' pretrial rules, in the context of what most commentators believe to be the most significant parts of pretrial procedure. This Article identifies the role pretrial procedures play in civil litigation as a whole, addresses the goals of effective pretrial procedure, and examines the various methods countries use to reach these goals. As jurisdictions, both in the Asia/Pacific region and beyond, appraise and adapt their own pretrial systems in light of other countries' processes, the quality of pretrial procedures will increase, as will the quality, cost effectiveness, and efficiency of civil litigation. I. THE PURPOSE OF PRETRIAL PRECEDURES IN CIVIL LITIGATION To evaluate the efficacy of pretrial procedures, it is essential to set forth initially what they should accomplish. The overarching goal of the civil judicial system is to bring about the just resolution of civil disputes in a timely and efficient manner.6 Pretrial procedures, therefore, must be geared to support this goal. They must facilitate the speedy resolution of disputes because delayed justice may effectively be a denial of justice.7 They must use resources efficiently because the court's business is done at public expense. On the other hand, the procedures must not sacrifice the achievement of a just result for the sake of reaching a speedy and efficient solution. How is the balance between justice and efficiency achieved? The starting point is to understand that the full-blown trial process, even if sure to reach a just resolution of disputes, is not necessarily the most cost effective and efficient means to resolve disputes. Settlement by the parties prior to trial is the most efficient, and the most common, method of resolving disagreements.8 This is followed by the use of other more formal alternative means of dispute resolution without trial.9 If a trial is necessary, speed and efficiency are maximized by effective case preparation. Pretrial procedures, thus, should require the parties to bring forth their arguments and evidence early in the process, create a climate that encourages settlement and the use of alternative means of dispute resolution (ADR), identify and focus on resolving the core issues, prevent wasteful pretrial activities, and narrow the issues in the case for trial.10 II. PRETRIAL GOALS AND METHODS Courts have adopted various means of meeting the goals to be accomplished prior to trial. Some pretrial rules are structured more formally, while others give great discretion to the trial judge. …


Research in social psychology reveals that discrimination as a stressor is linked to adverse physical and psychological effects on those targeted, through the effects of cumulative, recurring and often ambiguous incidents. Stress that results from the impact of subtle forms of exclusion and discrimination can give rise to increased illness, loss of productivity and escalating health costs. This article explores how minority and female faculty and staff facing subtle behavioral and organizational barriers to inclusion in the higher education workplace can develop effective coping strategies to deal with these obstacles and how human resource professionals can help those affected by discrimination.


Over the past decade, carbon trading has emerged as the industrialized world's primary policy response to global climate change despite considerable controversy. With carbon markets worth $144 billion in 2009, carbon trading represents the largest manifestation of the trend toward market-based environmental governance. In Carbon Coalitions, Jonas Meckling presents the first comprehensive study on the rise of carbon trading and the role business played in making this policy instrument a central pillar of global climate governance.Meckling explains how a transnational coalition of firms and a few market-oriented environmental groups actively promoted international emissions trading as a compromise policy solution in a situation of political stalemate. The coalition sidelined not only environmental groups that favored taxation and command-and-control regulation but also business interests that rejected any emissions controls. Considering the sources of business influence, Meckling emphasizes the importance of political opportunities (policy crises and norms), coalition resources (funding and legitimacy,) and political strategy (mobilizing state allies and multilevel advocacy).Meckling presents three case studies that represent milestones in the rise of carbon trading: the internationalization of emissions trading in the Kyoto Protocol (1989--2000); the creation of the EU Emissions Trading System (1998--2008); and the reemergence of emissions trading on the U. S. policy agenda (2001--2009). These cases and the theoretical framework that Meckling develops for understanding the influence of transnational business coalitions offer critical insights into the role of business in the emergence of market-based global environmental governance.


A new method is presented in this article to visualize two different sources in the uncertainty of attenuation regression relations. The method utilizes the residuals from regression equations, defined as the log of the ratio of observed to predicted ground-motion parameters, from stations that have recorded more than one earthquake. The earthquake-to-earthquake variance is first calculated. Then the residuals are corrected with the mean residual of the corresponding earthquake. The corrected residual from one event is plotted versus the corrected residual from another event for every station that has more than one record. If site effects are perfectly represented in the regression, the resulting scatter plot will show statistically uncorrelated points, while extension along the diagonal and a positive correlation coefficient is the result of a contribution from site effects. This simple strategy allows us to visualize the uncertainty caused by the earthquake source and path in regression relations and indicates quantitatively how much we can improve the prediction by adding additional site information. The results obtained from this method are very similar to those that are calculated directly from the method proposed by Joyner (personal comm., 1997). In southern California, we find that source and path effects dominate the uncertainties at high frequency, while at low frequency, the regression can be still improved more significantly by correcting for the site effects.


We study the online restless bandit problem, where the state of each arm evolves according to a Markov chain, and the reward of pulling an arm depends on both the pulled arm and the current state of the corresponding Markov chain. In this paper, we propose Restless-UCB, a learning policy that follows the explore-then-commit framework. In Restless-UCB, we present a novel method to construct offline instances, which only requires $O(N)$ time-complexity ($N$ is the number of arms) and is exponentially better than the complexity of existing learning policy. We also prove that Restless-UCB achieves a regret upper bound of $\tilde{O}((N+M^3)T^{2\over 3})$, where $M$ is the Markov chain state space size and $T$ is the time horizon. Compared to existing algorithms, our result eliminates the exponential factor (in $M,N$) in the regret upper bound, due to a novel exploitation of the sparsity in transitions in general restless bandit problems. As a result, our analysis technique can also be adopted to tighten the regret bounds of existing algorithms. Finally, we conduct experiments based on real-world dataset, to compare the Restless-UCB policy with state-of-the-art benchmarks. Our results show that Restless-UCB outperforms existing algorithms in regret, and significantly reduces the running time.


The aim of this study is to empirically identify and present different kinds of practice-based improvement ideas developed in health care services. The focus is on individual placement needs, problems/issues, and the ability to organize work on the development, implementation, and institutionalization of ideas for the health care sector. This study is based on a Swedish county council improvement program. Health care departments and primary health care centers in the Kalmar County Council were invited to apply for money to accomplish improvement projects. A qualitative content analysis was done of 183 proposed applications from various health care departments and primary health care centers. The following 5 types of improvement projects were identified: organizational process, evidence and quality, competence development, process technology, and proactive patient work. This illustrates the range of strategies that encourage letting individual units define their own improvement needs. These projects point to the various problems and experiences health care professionals encounter in their day-to-day work. To generalize beyond this improvement program and to validate the typology, we applied it to all articles found when searching for quality improvement projects in the journal Quality Management in Health Care during the last 2 years and found that all of them could be fitted into at least 1 of those 5 categories. This article provides valuable insights into the current state of improvement work in Swedish health care, and will serve as a foundation for further investigations in this quality improvement program.


The purpose of the study was to compare the televised depictions and portrayals of male and female athletes who partook in the so-called 'masculine' events of the marathon, shot-put and discus at the 5th World Athletics Championships in 1995. Both commentary and modes of production were analyzed in order to ascertain if women were treated equally in terms of the above modes of presentation when participating in physically challenging events that defy traditional and stereotypical notions of femininity. Based upon the results, not only were the men's events given greater air time, but the quality of the commentary and modes of production also favored the men's events when compared with their female counterparts. Thus, commentators frequently framed the female athletes' accomplishments in terms of traditional notions of femininity, through the use of negative, condescending and ambivalent descriptors and a gendered hierarchy of naming.


The genus Phemeranthus: Montiaceae; fameflowers, rockpinks, sunbrights) comprises ca. 25 species of succulent, terete-leaved herbaceous perennials, mostly found in xeric rock outcrops and sand barrens. Phemeranthus' center of diversity is in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, but several species occur in glade and flat-rock ecosystems in the midwestern and southeastern United States. DNA sequences of chloroplast and low-copy nuclear regions were used to infer the phylogenetic relationships of Phemeranthus species. Phemeranthus: excluding P. aurantiacus) is monophyletic and likely sister to the remainder of Montiaceae. The genus contains two geographically structured and morphologically distinguishable clades: a southern clade centered in Mexico and a northern clade distributed primarily in the United States. Dramatic range disjunctions within each clade suggest broad-scale movements early in the genus' diversification, while the current distribution indicates an origin in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico followed by northward and eastward expansion. Discordance between the chloroplast phylogeny and morphological species boundaries and between chloroplast and nuclear gene trees was further explored using multi-locus species-tree reconstruction methods. The results indicate that hybridization has played an important role in the evolution of this xerophytic genus. Finally, in a greenhouse-based experiment, seeds of the widespread species P. parviflorus collected from natural populations along a latitudinal gradient were chilled for varying periods prior to germination. The differential responses of seed germination to chilling duration for the sampled populations suggest the presence of local adaptation or at least of adaptive phenotypic plasticity, an important consideration for the use of this species in ecological restoration and green-roof projects.


This report presents the findings and outcomes of the three joint UNESCO/WB missions to Guyana Jamaica and St. Lucia and elaborates on next steps identified for action at both national and regional levels. The report also sets these findings and next steps within the broader context of the Caribbean plan for action and presents in its appendices sample resources to guide the development of a comprehensive response to HIV & AIDS by the education sector.


This article presents a new family of scalable arithmetic units (ScAUs) targeting resource-constrained, embedded devices. We, first, study the performance, power, area and scalability properties of general adders. Next, suitable error-detection schemes for low-power embedded systems are discussed. As a result, our ScAUs are enhanced with a suitable error-detection scheme, resulting in a Parity-Checked ScAU (PCScAU) design. The PCScAU strikes a flexible trade-off between space and time redundancy, offering dependability similar to high-end techniques for the area and power cost of low-end approaches. An alternative design, the Precision-Scalable Arithmetic Unit (PScAU) maintains throughput with degraded precision in case of hardware failures. The PScAU is targeting dependable applications where latency rather than numerical accuracy is more important. The PScAU's downscaled mode is also interesting for runtime thermal management due to its advantageous power consumption. We implemented and synthesized the PCScAU, PScAU and a few important reference designs (double-, triple- and quadruple-modular-redundancy adders with/without input gating) in 90-nm UMC technology. Overall, the PC-ScAU ranks first in 9 out of 10 power-delay-area (PDA)-product variants. It exhibits 16% area savings and 12% performance speedup for 7% increase in total power consumption, compared to the cheapest form of conventional hardware replication with the same fault coverage. The PDA product of the PCScAU is, thus, reduced by 21%. It is interesting that, while total power slightly increases, the PCScAU static power in fact decreases by 14%. Therefore, for newer technology nodes where the static power component is significant, the PCScAU can also achieve—next to performance and area -- significant power improvements.


Scientific Workflow is a composition of both coarse-grained and fine-grained computational tasks displaying varying execution requirements. Large-scale data transfer is involved in scientific workflows, so efficient techniques are required to reduce the makespan of the workflow. Task clustering is an efficient technique used in such a scenario that involves combining multiple tasks with shorter execution time into a single cluster to be executed on a resource. This leads to a reduction of scheduling overheads in scientific workflows and thus improvement of performance. However available task clustering methods involve clustering the tasks horizontally without the consideration of the structure of tasks in a workflow. We propose hybrid balanced task clustering algorithm that uses the parameter of impact factor of workflows along with the structure of workflow. According to this technique, tasks can be considered for clustering either vertically or horizontally based on the value of the impact factor. This minimizes the system overheads and the makespan for execution of a workflow. A simulation based evaluation is performed on real workflows that shows the proposed algorithm is efficient in recommending clusters. It shows improvement of 5-10\% in makespan time of workflow depending on the type of workflow used.


Young Achievement Australia (YAA) provides several forms of enterprisestyled
education programs. One program is the Venture program for
adolescents. It could be argued that participants in the Venture program act
as entrepreneurs, creating and operating a new small business, using goods
and services they have designed or adapted. The new business operates in
the real business world.
The relationship between the Venture program and participants' attitudes to
enterprise form the core of this research. Thus an evaluation of this program
was undertaken in 1993. The evaluation was divided into four components: a
demographic survey, an attitude test, participant observations and a
telephone survey. Data were obtained from three perspectives, while the
demographic survey provided sample details.
All (118) Tasmanian Venture participants were offered the demographic and
attitude surveys, the latter on a pre-post basis. All (26) participants of Group
1 were observed by the researcher for six months. Ten participants from
Group 1 were surveyed by telephone on completion of the program.
The attitude test was based on the Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation
(EAO) instrument, which was used by Robinson et al. (1991) to distinguish
entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs on the basis of attitudinal differences.
The four attitude subscales which were studied related to affective, cognitive
and conative aspects concerned with . achievement in business, self esteem in
business, personal control in business and innovation in business. Seven of the twelve subscale components of the modified EA0 instrument
were found to have acceptable internal consistency reliability. Of these seven
subscale components, five showed significant differences between the pre-and post-test scores. One subscale component, self-esteem conation, showed a
significant positive change in attitudes for the grouped Venture participants.
The remaining four subscale components recorded negative attitude changes.
The telephone survey provided insight into the attitude systems of individual
Venture participants. Both negative and positive entrepreneurial behavioural
intentions were evident in the attitude systems.
Whole group attitude changes were thus detected in five of the twelve
subscale components of the attitude test and individual attitude changes
were detected by the telephone survey. From participant observation,
limited evidence of true entrepreneurial behaviour was found. As far as
attitudes are concerned, it was found that entrepreneurial qualities such as
innovation may be actually stifled by the program. The program, however, is
related to positive changes in participants self-esteem in relation to
entrepreneurial behaviour. Venture also impacts on career options of
participants.


PURPOSE
he purpose of this study is to evaluate and implement a digital IMRT quality assurance (QA) procedure for patient-specific volumetric dose using commercially available products. Dose distributions generated from a treatment planning system (TPS) were delivered and analyzed with dose-volume-histogram (DVH) analysis software.

METHODS
The MapCheck2 device along with 3DVH (Sun Nuclear, Melbourne, FL) software was studied for IMRT QA capabilities. All manufacturer specifications were followed in order to properly set up the diode array device for accurate absolute dose measurements. Planar dose maps were generated by the Pinnacle3 TPS (Philips Medical Systems, Andover, MA) for field-by-field IMRT QA analysis. Also exported from patient plans were RT dose, RT plan, RT structure, and CT data DICOM files. Dose delivery was done using a step-and-shoot, en-face technique onto the MapCheck2 device. After measured-vs-calculated planar dose analysis for each beam, a planned-dose-perturbation (PDP™) file was generated. This PDP file allows the software to manipulate the TPS-calculated dose distributions to include actual measured dose differences from a phantom onto a patient CT-dataset. These dose perturbations are then able to be observed through differences of a TPS-calculated DVH and a measured-DVH within the 3DVH software. Simple tests were performed to assess MapCheck2 performance and 3DVH sensitivity to errors.

RESULTS
All planar dose measurements in this study have met the clinical tolerance of 3% absolute dose/3mm gamma analysis. For volumetric analysis, the 3D results comparing planned-vs-delivered matching doses (gamma criterion of 3%/3mm) were 99.3% and 98.2% for a rectum and prostate plan, respectively. Measurements with introduction of intentional errors produced reasonable results when analyzing dose to critical structures with DVHs.

CONCLUSION
The implementation of a digital QA procedure will facilitate a more efficient workflow for physicists with the added benefit of a patient-specific volumetric dose analysis for physicians.


CASP will integrate the various regional stratigraphies to achieve a unified circum-Antarctic seismic stratigraphic model that in turn can be linked to available rock sample record to determine ages, lithostratigraphies and paleoenvironments. The goal is to derive a well-resolved paleobathymetric grid. This project will also help define potential future drill sites for IODP and other platforms at key locations around the Antarctic margin. Through unified interpretation of geophysical data sets collected around Antarctica CASP addresses basic questions relating to the behaviour of Antarctic ice sheets and the geological evolution of the Antarctic margin including: How extensive were past advances of Antarctic ice sheets across the margin and how did they relate to changes in the overall ice volume? How does the Antarctic continental crust respond to ice volume changes during glacial to interglacial cycles? How has the growth of the Southern Ocean affected global circulation and paleoclimate evolution? What feedback controls exist between tectonics, landscape and climate?Activities in last 15 months: Eastern Antarctic margin (CASP) workshop: Granada, SP, June 2008. Cross-checking different interpretation and possible correlation among Australia, Italian, Russian and the rest of SDLS data sets Circum-Antarctic Stratigraphy and Paleobathymetry (CASP) Workshop: SCAR-IASC IPY Open Science Conference, 9 July 2008 Eastern Ross Sea Working group established common database and map projection Funding for ROSSMAP in New Zealand was secured in August as part of IPY project Funding for ROSSMAP in USA Funding for was secured in Germany for data integration of data from the Weddell Sea and Bellingshausen/Amundsen Sea/E Ross Sea sectors as part of IPY PLATES & GATES.Upcoming activities: Reprocessing on key USGS lines in Victoria Land Basin to establish connection from ANDRILL (AND-1 and AND-2) and CRP sites in McMurdo Sound to the proposed ANDRILL Coulman High site (ROSSMAP). Compilation of existing seismic data from the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Sea. Establishing links to eastern Ross Sea with planned profiles from RV Polarstern in early 2010 (AWI, Germany). Linkage of stratigraphy of the existing Weddell Sea seismic grid with that of eastern Dronning Maud Land and Enderby Land margins (AWI, Germany, and VNIIGeologia, Russia). Jan/Feb 2009: Russian seismic survey in Eastern Antarctica Detailed geodynamic modelling and lithospheric loading/subsidence processes of the Southern Ocean and backstripping techniques for paleobathymetric and paleotopographic reconstructions. The aim is to calculate paleocurrent simulations for relevant time slices and regions, in particular the two major gateways. Ongoing results and preliminary comparison among different regions will be presented at the ACE symposium of Granada (Spain) Sept. 2009 IODP Ross Sea Proposal


The field of Cloud Computing is relatively new branch of Information Technology
in which various services are devolved from a centralised local location to a de-centralized remote Intranet/Internet environment. It has recently experienced rapid
growth and acceptance with academia and industry, presenting new challenges
worthy of fundamental research. Some of the largest challenges today revolve around
achieving higher levels of sustainability and infrastructure performance.
This work investigates an optimised and novel approach to an Autonomous Virtual
Server Management System in a 'Cloud Computing' environment through designing
and building an Autonomous Management Distributed System (AMDS). The AMDS
helps reduce hardware power consumption through autonomously moving virtual
servers around a network to balance out hardware loads, as well as being easily
configurable and extendable, made possible by its software infrastructure. Through
use of an internally configured Cloud Computing test -bed rig, the AMDS makes use of
several physically and logically defined networks to communicate with all devices
that are a part of the cloud infrastructure. Once connected, the AMDS monitors these
devices and issues optimisation commands accordingly. Experimental results show
an overall power consumption reduction of up to 8%, which in a typical datacentre of
several thousand servers translates into a significant cost reduction.
This work also presents an initial design, along with proof-of-concept
implementation as an AMDS module, of a Botnet heuristic detection algorithm.
Experimental results show an overall malicious data packet detection rate of 52%, a
significant figure for only 5000 data samples analysed by the module. Another
strength is that this design allows an abstract software model to be constructed,
which can then be implemented using a multitude of programming languages.
This research shows how the carbon footprint of a Cloud Computing datacentre
can be reduced and reveals a significant impact on issues of sustainability with
respect to both energy efficiency and economic viability. It also shows how datacentre
security can be enhanced by detecting Botnet activity and preventing the disruption
of day-to-day operations through a highly scalable, flexible, and autonomous software
implementation.


New analytical extraction procedure is developed for determining independently the parasitic inductances of high frequency on-wafer coplanar Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor. It takes into account the influence of inductive effect due to other device parameters which can not be neglected for these transistors and it does not require any numerical optimizations or special test structures. In particular the analytical expressions demonstrate that base resistance and intrinsic and extrinsic base-collector capacitances have a significant effect on the accurate determination of the HBT parasitic inductances. Our theoretical investigations are validated using two types of transistors: A on-wafer coplanar GalnP/GaAs HBT and a microstrip mounted GalnP/GaAs which have a unity current gain cutoff frequency of 80 GHz respectively.


The fair and equitable treatment (FET) standard has long been considered an indispensable part of international investment protection agreements and is often invoked in investor-state arbitration (ISA). Particularly after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect in 1994, the standard went through a transformation from a little-known clause to being subject to ever expanding interpretations by arbitral tribunals. Although states have taken steps to rein in the use of the FET standard, these efforts have come undone in arbitral tribunals. The result of this situation has been some controversial awards in which both supporters and critics of ISA see a problematic development. Just as NAFTA propelled the FET standard to new heights, NAFTA parties can also send an important message to the arbitral community by removing it from this watershed agreement. Removing the FET clause from NAFTA reconciles the text with the intent of the parties. This proposal is radical in the sense that it goes to the root of the problem regarding the interpretation of the FET clause. The main problem with the FET standard is that it lacks core meaning, leading tribunals to expand investment protection to levels never imagined by states. In the NAFTA context, the states parties, through the Free Trade Commission (FTC) established under NAFTA, issued a Note of Interpretation (the FTC note) to clarify what they meant by the FET clause, but arbitral tribunals have slowly eroded its meaning. This paper argues that once the FTC limited the scope of the FET clause to no more than what customary international law required, it made this concept redundant and a source of conflicting interpretations. The FTC note was not enough to eliminate the confusion caused by the reference to the FET standard in NAFTA. The most important consequence of keeping the reference to the FET standard was the expansion, in application and interpretation, of the nebulous concept of legitimate expectations, which is not part of customary international law. Eliminating the reference to the FET standard in NAFTA should have no further consequence than giving full force to the FTC note and removing a source of confusion.


Using brand-level retail data, the firm size distribution in carbonated soft drinks is shown to be an outcome of the degree to which firms have placed brands effectively (store coverage) across vertical (flavour, packaging, diet attributes) segments of the market. Regularity of the firm size distribution is not disturbed by the nature of short-run brand competition (turbulence in brand market share) within segments. Remarkably, product differentiation resulting from firms acquiring various portfolios of product attributes and stores in market evolution determines the limiting firm size distribution.


To stabilize the phase-shifting Fizeau-type interferometer against environmental disturbances (namely, vibration and temperature variations), the feedback scheme that uses the current-induced frequency modulation of a laser diode (lambda = 633 nm) and the two-frequency optical heterodyne method has been investigated, with particular attention to improvement of the achievable stabilization. It is demonstrated that introduction of the proportional-integral control into the feedback system improves stabilization against the proportional control case; e.g., stabilization is improved 5 times for 100-nm(p-p) vibration at the frequency range at 30 Hz. The surface profile measurement for a sample mirror was conducted with a reproducibility of 6.8 nm in the root mean square under the subwavelength-amplitude vibration at 100 Hz.


Although sea-level highstands are typically associated with sediment-starved continental shelves, high sea level does not hinder major river floods. Turbidity currents generated by plunging of sediment-laden rivers at the fluvial-marine interface, known as hyperpycnal flows, allow for cross-shelf transport of suspended sand beyond the coastline. Hyperpycnal flows in southern California have deposited six subaqueous fans on the shelf of the northern Santa Barbara Channel in the Holocene. Using eight cores and nine grab samples, we describe the deposits, age, and stratigraphic architecture of two fans in the Santa Barbara Channel. Fan lobes have up to 3 m of relief and are composed of multiple hyperpycnite beds ∼5 cm to 40 cm thick. Deposit architecture and geometry suggest the hyperpycnal flows became positively buoyant and lifted off the seabed, resulting in well-sorted, structureless, elongate sand lobes. Contrary to conventional sequence stratigraphic models, the presence of these features on the continental shelf suggests that active-margin shelves may locally develop high-quality reservoir sand bodies during sea-level highstands, and that such shelves need not be solely the site of sediment bypass. These deposits may provide a Quaternary analogue to many well-sorted sand bodies in the rock record that are interpreted as turbidites but lack typical Bouma-type features.


Risk management literature mainly refers to large companies. When it focuses on SMEs, risk management seems to be unstructured, reactive and solely in the hands of owner-managers. Further investigation is necessary, especially in Italy where SMEs are the backbone of the country. This research aims to identify the most important risks, SMEs' risk management organization, process and approach, as well as drivers, obstacles and benefits of a holistic risk management implementation.
Ten case studies indicate that Italian SMEs are aware of the benefits of implementing holistic risk management practices, but constraints seem to be stronger than drivers. Companies are particularly concerned with financial risks, IT breakdown and exogenous events. Risk managers are never appointed and risk management processes are usually not formalized. Half of the companies behave fatalistically, others have introduced holistic risk management practices, and few cases show to be even more advanced