This paper adopts a game-theoretical approach to analyse the LIBOR fixing mechanism. Several non-zero-sum LIBOR Games are modelled and then solved using a standard Bayes Nash solution. It is shown that collusive behaviour between LIBOR panel banks, or between banks and money market brokers, can lead to LIBOR fixings that deviate from what could be regarded as the true funding costs of the banks. However, collusive behaviour is not a prerequisite for such outcomes. Assuming players (banks) are rational and act out of self-interest, their endowments (such as LIBOR-indexed derivatives portfolios), or the stigma attached by signalling a relatively high funding cost, can provide LIBOR panel banks with sufficient incentives to submit quotes deviating from their actual funding cost. The trimming process, widely regarded as a hurdle for outright and single-handed manipulation, is shown to be overwhelmingly ineffective. Moreover, binding rules or constraints introduced in order to enhance transparency provide disappointing results. In sum, it is argued that the LIBOR games are characterized by an inherent structure whereby banks have the means, opportunity and incentive to submit deceptive quotes, leading to outcomes (LIBOR fixings) that deviate from the true average of the banks funding cost. Banks are given the chance to influence the LIBOR in a direction that is beneficial to them - stemming from the exclusive privilege to be able to play this game, in other words to participate in the LIBOR fixing process.


According to the principles of embodied cognition, intelligent behavior must arise out of the coupled dynamics of an agent's brain, body, and environment. This suggests that the morphological complexity of a robot should scale in relation to the complexity of its task environment. This idea is supported by recent work, which demonstrated that when evolving robot morphologies in simple and complex task environments more complex robot morphologies do tend to evolve in more complex task environments. Here this idea is extended to examining the mechanical complexity of evolved robots. Counter to intuition it is found that the mechanical complexity decreases in more complex task environments.


Research has shown the potential of device-free WiFi sensing for human identification. Each and every human has a unique gait and prior works suggest WiFi devices are able to capture the unique signature of a person's gait. In this article, we show for the first time that the monitored gait could be inconsistent and have mirror-like perturbations when individuals walk through WiFi devices in different directions, provided that the WiFi antenna array is horizontal to the walking path. Such inconsistent mirrored patterns are to negatively affect the uniqueness of gait and accuracy of human identification. Therefore, we propose a system called Gate-ID for accurately identifying individuals' identities irrespective of different walking directions. Gate-ID employs theoretical communication model and real measurements to demonstrate that antenna array orientations and walking directions contribute to the mirror-like patterns in WiFi signals. A novel heuristic algorithm is proposed to infer individual's walking directions. A set of methods are employed to extract and augment the representative spatial–temporal features of gait and enable the system performing irrespective of walking directions. We further propose a novel attention-based deep learning model that fuses various weighted features and ignores ineffective noises to uniquely identify individuals. We implement Gate-ID on commercial off-the-shelf devices. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our system can uniquely identify people with average accuracy of 90.7%–75.7% from a group of 6–20 people, respectively, and improve the accuracy by 12.5%–43.5% compared with baselines.


The particle filter is a Bayesian estimation technique based on Monte Carlo simulation. It is ideal for non-linear, nonGaussian dynamical systems with applications in many areas, such as computer vision, robotics, and econometrics. Practical use has so far been limited, because of steep computational requirements. In this study, we investigate how to design a particle filter framework for complex estimation problems using many-core architectures. We develop a robotic arm application as a highly flexible estimation problem to push estimation rates and accuracy to new levels. By varying filtering and model parameters, we evaluate our particle filter extensively and derive rules of thumb for good configurations. Using our robotic arm application, we achieve a few hundred state estimations per second with one million particles. With our framework, we make a significant step towards a wider adoption of particle filters and enable studies into filtering setups for even larger estimation problems.


Last March, many cosmologists were disappointed when new measurements of the cosmic microwave background showed no signs of exotic physics such as previously undiscovered particles. Or did they? In separate papers, three groups of theorists now argue that last year's data, combined with measurements of how galaxy clusters are scattered through space, suggest that some of the universe's dark matter consists of a new particle called a sterile neutrino. Further studies now in progress may soon show whether the hypothesized hot, fast-moving particles are real. Meanwhile, physicists are savoring the possibility that the universe is more exciting than they had assumed.


As the world struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, health service demands have increased to a point where healthcare resources may prove inadequate to meet demand. Guidelines and tools on how to best allocate intensive care beds and ventilators developed during previous epidemics can assist clinicians and policy-makers to make consistent, objective and ethically sounds decisions about resource allocation when healthcare rationing is inevitable. This scoping review of 62 published guidelines, triage protocols, consensus statements and prognostic tools from crisis and non-crisis situations sought to identify a multiplicity of objective factors to inform healthcare rationing of critical care and ventilator care. It also took ethical considerations into account. Prognostic indicators and other decision tools presented here can be combined to create locally-relevant triage algorithms for clinical services and policy makers deciding about allocation of ICU beds and ventilators during a pandemic. Community awareness of the triage protocol is recommended to build trust and alleviate anxiety among the public. This review provides a unique resource and is intended as a discussion starter for clinical services and policy makers to consider formalising an objective triage consensus document that fits the local context.


Theoretical and experimental results are presented using the common path Mirau interference microscope and using the Linnik microscope with annular masks to increase the depth of field. The competence between the spatial and temporal coherence was investigated theoretically and confirmed experimentally. Phase imaging of onion epidermis cells was presented showing the possibility of obtaining profiles of the cells. Frequency domain OCT was shown to be possible using full field setup.


The sexual pain disorders included in different editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R 1987; DSM-IV-TR, 2000) are dyspareunia and vaginismus. Both these clinical entities have undergone intense scrutiny and international discussion in the more recent years (Basson et Al 2003; Binik 2005; Graziottin, 2005; Meana et Al, 1997; Pukall et Al, 2005, Reissing et Al, 2003, 2004). The key issues of current controversies will be summarized, to give the reader an updated perspective. At the same time, the focus of this paper will be on the pathophysiology of dyspareunia and vulvar vestibulitis (Friedrich, 1987), a subset of vulvodynia, which is one of the leading causes of sexual pain disorders in adolescents. Special attention will be devoted to current research on predictors of vulvodynia in this younger cohort (Bouchard et Al, 2002, Harlow et Al. 2001, Harlow & Stewart 2003). The aim is to discuss key practical issues relevant for the clinician, working with adolescents, in his/her daily practice.


An MMSE per channel fractionally spaced equalizer is developed for an OFDM/OQAM system with a time varying channel, under the assumption of perfect channel knowledge at the receiver. The equalizer is analyzed for an example with a doubly dispersive channel with Jakes Doppler spectrum and an exponential delay profile, and where the transmitter and receiver filters are square root of cosine rolloff. The performance is measured in terms of ergodic channel capacity, which will be an upper bound for the throughput of the system, assuming perfect channel estimation and ideal channel coding. The results show that the channel capacity may be significantly increased by using an equalizer of finite length, instead of a one-tap equalizer. The channel capacity is for instance increased by 60 % for Es/N0 = 20 dB in a channel with spreading factor 0.01.


The purpose of this article is to re-address the vision of human-computer symbiosis as originally expressed by J.C.R. Licklider nearly a half-century ago and to argue for the relevance of this vision to the field of cognitive informatics. We describe this vision, place it in some historical context relating to the evolution of human factors research, and observe that the field is now in the process of re-invigorating Licklider's vision. A central concept of this vision is that humans need to be incorporated into computer architectures. We briefly assess the state of the technology within the context of contemporary theory and practice, and we describe what we regard as this emerging field of neo-symbiosis. Examples of neo-symbiosis are provided, but these are nascent examples and the potential of neo-symbiosis is yet to be realized. We offer some initial thoughts on requirements to define functionality of neo-symbiotic systems and discuss research challenges associated with their development and evaluation. Methodologies and metrics for assessing neo-symbiosis are discussed.


The indications for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy for the prevention of sudden cardiac death in patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction have rapidly expanded over the last 10 years on the basis of the very satisfying results of the numerous randomized clinical trials that have provided the framework for guidelines. However, the analysis of clinical practice in the real world has highlighted some important criticisms in the complex process of selection-management of those patients candidates for ICD therapy: 1) approximately one fourth of all ICD implantations is not justified by clinical evidence, 2) approximately one half of patients with an indication for ICD therapy do not undergo implantation, 3) the benefits from ICD therapy do not apply uniformly to all patients, 4) the relationship between the lifesaving benefit and the potential for harm of ICD therapy is still scarcely known. The main reason for this clinical scenario can be ascribed to the guideline recommendations that are based only on few standard cut-off criteria and therefore too generic and insufficiently detailed. This does not help cardiologists in their decision-making process, and results in fear, uncertainty, and sometimes emotional choices. The aim of this consensus document is to discuss current guideline recommendations and to provide the Italian cardiologists with the most updated information to optimize the selection of patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction who should receive ICD therapy.


Patterns of damage by Cryptophlebia peltastica (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) on litchi fruits, Litchi chinensis Sonnerat, at varying stages of maturity were determined in four orchards in Mauritius during two consecutive litchi seasons. Damage was found to start at a very early stage in the season, when fruits were 3 mm in diameter. In three orchards there were no significant differences in damage incidence by C. peltastica during the fruiting season. In the fourth orchard, a significant increase in fruit damage was observed at the end of the season. Damage levels of up to 20 % on litchi fruits were observed when no control actions were implemented.


We propose an appearance-based proficiency evaluation methodology based on fine-motion analysis. We consider the effects of individual habit in evaluating proficiency and analyze the fine motion of guitar-picking. We first extract multiple features on a large number of dense trajectories of fine motion. To facilitate analysis, we then generate a histogram of motion features using a bag-of-words model and change the number of visual words as appropriate. To remove the effects of individual habit, we extract the common principal histogram elements corresponding to experts or beginners according to discrimination's contribution rates using random forests. We finally calculate the similarity of the histograms to evaluate the proficiency of a guitar-picking motion. By optimizing the number of visual words for proficiency evaluation, we demonstrate that our method distinguishes experts from beginners with an accuracy of about 86%. Moreover, we verify experimentally that our proposed methodology can evaluate proficiency while removing the effects of individual habit. key words: dense trajectories, proficiency evaluation, removing individual habit, random forests


This paper presents the improvement of robustness of the vision system for lane mark detection using the wide dynamic range vision sensor. The performance of the lane mark detection was evaluated by experiments for the road scenes such as a tunnel exit or bridge crossing road, in comparison with the vision system using a conventional TV camera. A conventional edge-based image recognition technique was used for lane mark detection. The experimental results have confirmed the robustness of the vision system with wide dynamic range vision sensor.


Using high-throughput screening coupled with state-of-the-art van der Waals density functional theory, we investigate the adsorption properties of four important molecules, H_2, CO_2, CH_4, and H_2O in MOF-74-M with M = Be, Mg, Al, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sr, Zr, Nb, Ru, Rh, Pd, La, W, Os, Ir, and Pt. We show that high-throughput techniques can aid in speeding up the development and refinement of effective materials for hydrogen storage, carbon capture, and gas separation. The exploration of the configurational adsorption space allows us to extract crucial information concerning, for example, the competition of water with CO_2 for the adsorption "pockets." We find that only a few noble metals---Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, and Pt---favor the adsorption of CO_2 and hence are potential candidates for effective carbon-capture materials. Our findings further reveal significant differences in the binding characteristics of H_2, CO_2, CH_4, and H_2O within the MOF structure, indicating that molecular blends can be successfully separated by these nano-porous materials.


Fibroblast Growth Factor receptor (FGFR) activity plays crucial roles in tumor growth and patient survival. However, FGF (Fibroblast Growth Factor) signaling as a target for cancer therapy has been under-investigated compared to other receptor tyrosine kinases. Here, we studied the effect of FGFR signaling inhibition on tumor growth, metastasis and lymphangiogenesis by expressing a dominant negative FGFR (FGFR-2DN) in an orthotopic mouse mammary 66c14 carcinoma model. We show that FGFR-2DN-expressing 66c14 cells proliferate in vitro slower than controls. 66c14 tumor outgrowth and lung metastatic foci are reduced in mice implanted with FGFR-2DN-expressing cells, which also exhibited better overall survival. We found 66c14 cells in the lumen of tumor lymphatic vessels and in lymph nodes. FGFR-2DN-expressing tumors exhibited a decrease in VEGFR-3 (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-3) or podoplanin-positive lymphatic vessels, an increase in isolated intratumoral lymphatic endothelial cells and a reduction in VEGF-C (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-C) mRNA expression. FGFs may act in an autocrine manner as the inhibition of FGFR signaling in tumor cells suppresses VEGF-C expression in a COX-2 (cyclooxygenase-2) or HIF1-α (hypoxia-inducible factor-1 α) independent manner. FGFs may also act in a paracrine manner on tumor lymphatics by inducing expression of pro-lymphangiogenic molecules such as VEGFR-3, integrin α9, prox1 and netrin-1. Finally, in vitro lymphangiogenesis is impeded in the presence of FGFR-2DN 66c14 cells. These data confirm that both FGF and VEGF signaling are necessary for the maintenance of vascular morphogenesis and provide evidence that targeting FGFR signaling may be an interesting approach to inhibit tumor lymphangiogenesis and metastatic spread.


The West Spitsbergen Current (WSC) cools and freshens as it flows northward along the western Svalbard shelf. The cooling takes place at the ocean surface through interaction with the atmosphere and also in subsurface. We present observations with high horizontal resolution (around 2 km) from a SeaExplorer glider deployed in July 2017 for 14 days in the WSC offshore Kongsfjorden around 79°N. They document small lenses (less than 10‐km diameter) of cold (less than 3.8 °C) and fresh (less than 35.2 g/kg) waters in the core of the WSC, coming from the shelf and contributing to its cooling and freshening. Data show that water from the shelf cascades to the bottom of the slope and then detaches on the offshore side of the WSC core where it is baroclinically unstable. The presence of these lenses from the shelf can be related to the wind regime. Strong southerly winds cause upwelling of the warm Atlantic Water onto the shelf in winter. Weak and/or northerly winds allow modified Atlantic Water formed by mixing with cold waters on the shelf to cascade down the slope, leading to lenses of colder and fresher water protruding into the WSC. If lenses are common in the WSC, they could be contributing significantly to its cooling and freshening especially in summer when the influence of the atmosphere on the cooling of the WSC is less important.


We demonstrate pulse laser operation of a Pr:LiYF(4) laser pumped by InGaN laser diodes (444 nm) using an acousto-optic modulator. We obtained a maximum laser peak power of 167 W (4 μJ/pulse) with a pulse width of 24 ns at an 11 kHz repetition rate for a 63 nm wavelength. Employing an 8 mm long lithium triborate nonlinear crystal in the laser cavity, we obtained a maximum peak power of 55 W (2.7 μJ/pulse) at 320 nm, which corresponds to a conversion efficiency of 69% with respect to the fundamental laser energy. The UV laser pulse width was 36 ns.


Background and objectives Different techniques of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) might have different effects on electrolyte and acid-base control. The aim of this study was to determine whether continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF) or continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH) achieve better control of serum sodium, potassium and bicarbonate concentrations. Design Retrospective controlled study. Setting Two tertiary intensive care units. Patients Critically ill patients with acute renal failure (ARF) treated with CVVHDF (n=49) or CVVH (n=50). Interventions Retrieval of daily morning sodium and potassium values and arterial bicarbonate levels from computerized biochemical records before and after the initiation of CRRT for up to 2 weeks of treatment. Statistical comparison of findings. Measurements and results Before treatment, abnormal (high or low) values were frequently observed for sodium (65.1% for CVVHDF vs. 80.0% for CVVH; NS), potassium (45.9% vs. 34.0%; NS), and bicarbonate (73.3% vs. 68.0%; NS). After treatment, however, CVVHDF was more likely to achieve serum sodium concentrations within the normal range (74.1% vs. 62.9%; p=0.0026). Both treatments decreased the mean serum potassium concentration over the first 48 h (p=0.0059 and p <0.0001, respectively), but there was no difference in terms of the normalization of serum potassium concentration during the entire treatment period (88.3% vs. 90.5%; NS). Both treatments increased the mean arterial bicarbonate concentration over the first 48 hours (p=0.011 and p <0.0001, respectively). However, CVVH was associated with a lower incidence of metabolic acidosis (13.8% for CVVH vs. 34.5% for CVVHDF; p <0.0001) and a higher incidence of metabolic alkalosis (38.9% vs. 1.1%; p <0.0001) during the entire treatment period. Conclusions CRRT strategies based on different techniques have a significantly different impact on sodium and bicarbonate control.


We present an application for accessing and creating socially constructed sets of information. Users store and retrieve information, such as bits of text, through the use of "keys" consisting of node names strung together using periods (e.g., "conferences.icwsm.dates") that point to user-added content ("May 23-26, 2010"). Furthermore, nodes can point to services on the web (e.g., "facebook.me.status" retrieves the user's current Facebook status). In short, Social Intellisense is a user interface mechanism for folksonomies that allows users to collaboratively "remap" web and user-added content via strings of their own creation. A study with our Social Intellisense-enabled email client showed that the paradigm is comparable or preferable to traditional web browser methods for retrieving certain information online. Issues and potential solutions to mismatches between a user's task at hand and collaboratively organized information are discussed.


Organizational charts of membership structures can be useful tools for monitoring member control when they accurately depict a concept of control grounded in context and theory. This paper develops the concept "member control" by placing it within cooperative principles and democratic theory. From this perspective, members control their organization when, through a democratic process of decision making, they are able to keep the cooperative a cooperative, a condition we call "containment." With this conceptual development, a containment method of member control charting is developed and illustrative examples given.


Survivable passive network architectures based on interconnecting a small number of arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs) have been described in prior work. Such networks are desirable for communication between a small number of users in environments that are susceptible to a high rate of failure and where providing power in the network core is difficult. In this paper, it is shown that these network designs can be improved if passive devices that have routing properties different from those of standard AWGs are considered. Devices with routing matrices represented by Latin squares and devices with more arbitrary routing patterns are considered here. This illustrates that developing the capability of manufacturing more general passive routing devices is a worthwhile goal.


Ahead of the 2020 elections in Burundi, this contribution reviews the tumultuous trajectory of power-sharing in the country. From the signing of the Arusha Accord in 2000, power-sharing remained the object of persistent contestation between political rivals, leading to continuous transformations in both the institutions and the practice of power-sharing in the country. This paper traces these power-struggles and institutional evolutions throughout three periods during which Burundian power-sharing was negotiated (1998-2005), contested (2005-2015), and reshaped (2015-2020). The conclusion highlights some implications of this year's elections for the future of power-sharing in Burundi. Burundi: Power-sharing (Dis)agreements | 2


X-Linked Protocadherin 19 Mutations Cause Female-Limited Epilepsy and Cognitive Impairment. Dibbens LM, Tarpey PS, Hynes K, Bayly MA, Scheffer IE, Smith R, Bomar J, Sutton E, Vandeleur L, Shoubridge C, Edkins S, Turner SJ, Stevens C, O'Meara S, Tofts C, Barthorpe S, Buck G, Cole J, Halliday K, Jones D, Lee R, Madison M, Mironenko T, Varian J, West S, Widaa S, Wray P, Teague J, Dicks E, Butler A, Menzies A, Jenkinson A, Shepherd R, Gusella JF, Afawi Z, Mazarib A, Neufeld MY, Kivity S, Lev D, Lerman-Sagie T, Korczyn AD, Derry CP, Sutherland GR, Friend K, Shaw M, Corbett M, Kim HG, Geschwind DH, Thomas P, Haan E, Ryan S, McKee S, Berkovic SF, Futreal PA, Stratton MR, Mulley JC, Gecz J. Nat Genetics 2008;40(6):776–781. Epilepsy and mental retardation limited to females (EFMR) is a disorder with an X-linked mode of inheritance and an unusual expression pattern. Disorders arising from mutations on the X chromosome are typically characterized by affected males and unaffected carrier females. In contrast, EFMR spares transmitting males and affects only carrier females. Aided by systematic resequencing of 737 X chromosome genes, we identified different protocadherin 19 (PCDH19) gene mutations in seven families with EFMR. Five mutations resulted in the introduction of a premature termination codon. Study of two of these demonstrated nonsense-mediated decay of PCDH19 mRNA. The two missense mutations were predicted to affect adhesiveness of PCDH19 through impaired calcium binding. PCDH19 is expressed in developing brains of human and mouse and is the first member of the cadherin superfamily to be directly implicated in epilepsy or mental retardation.


Previous studies have shown congruency effects between
specific speech articulations and manual grasping actions. For
example, uttering the syllable [kɑ] facilitates power grip
responses in terms of reaction time and response accuracy. A
similar association of the syllable [ti] with precision grip has
also been observed. As these congruency effects have been to
date shown only for Finnish native speakers, this study explored
whether the congruency effects generalize to native speakers of
another language. The original experiments were therefore
replicated with English participants (N=16). Several previous
findings were reproduced, namely the association of syllables
[kɑ] and [ke] with power grip and of [ti] and [te] with precision
grip. However, the association of vowels [ɑ] and [i] with power
and precision grip, respectively, previously found for Finnish
participants, was not significant for English speakers. This
difference could be related to ambiguities of English
orthography and pronunciation variations. It is possible that for
English speakers seeing a certain written vowel activates
several different phonological representations associated with
that letter. If the congruency effects are based on interactions
between specific phonological representations and grasp
actions, this ambiguity might lead to weakening of the effects
in the manner demonstrated here.


The function of the main anticoagulant mechanisms (antithrombin and protein C system) depends not only on the available amounts of these proteins, but also on the modulation of their activity by components located on vascular endothelial cells' membrane. Antithrombin is activated by the heparansulphate expressed on the endothelial cells, and impaired interaction between heparansulphate and the antithrombin molecule may occur in relation to an immune aggression (such as in heparin-induced thrombocytopenia) and/or to the enzymatic cleavage exerted by heparanase on heparansulphate. Heparanase has a prothrombotic effect through the downregulation of antithrombin anticoagulation and also through the induction of tissue factor and the dissociation of the tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) from the endothelial cells membrane. The protein C activation complex is represented by thrombin bound to endothelial thrombomodulin, which would act on protein C bound to a specific endothelial receptor, EPCR. Proinflammatory cytokines would exert deleterious effects on thrombomodulin and on EPCR, thereby impairing PC activation. The protein C bound to EPCR was reported to exert anti-inflammatory, cytoprotective and anti-apoptotic effects. Actually, by signaling through the same protease activated receptor (PAR-1), thrombin would elicit a proinflammatory response, while in the presence of either activated protein C (APC) or protein C bound to its specific endothelial receptor (EPCR), the signal transduced by this thrombin prototypic receptor would produce anti-inflammatory effects. The assessment of the circulating soluble forms of EPCR and thrombomodulin, as well as TFPI (dissociated from the cellular membrane by heparanase) could provide markers of endothelial damage.


In recent years, Kilimanjaro and its vanishing glaciers have become an 'icon' of global warming, attracting broad interest. In this paper, a synopsis of (a) field observations made by the authors and (b) climatic data as reported in the literature (proxy and long‐term instrumental data) is presented to develop a new concept for investigating the retreat of Kilimanjaro's glaciers, based on the physical understanding of glacier–climate interactions. The concept considers the peculiarities of the mountain and implies that climatological processes other than air temperature control the ice recession in a direct manner. A drastic drop in atmospheric moisture at the end of the 19th century and the ensuing drier climatic conditions are likely forcing glacier retreat on Kilimanjaro. Future investigations using the concept as a governing hypothesis will require research at different climatological scales. Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society


We propose a method to remove objects such as people and cars from multi-view urban image datasets, enabling free-viewpoint IBR in the edited scenes. Our method combines information from multi-view 3D reconstruction with image inpainting techniques, by formulating the problem as an optimization of a global patch-based objective function. We use Image-Based Rendering (IBR) techniques to reproject information from neighboring views, and 3D multi-view stereo reconstruction to perform multiview coherent initialization for inpainting of pixels not filled by reprojection. Our algorithm performs multi-view consistent inpainting for color and 3D by blending reprojections with patch-based image inpainting. We run our algorithm on casually captured datasets, and Google StreetViewdata, removing objects cars, people and pillars, showing that our approach produces results of sufficient quality for free-viewpoint IBR on "cleaned up" scenes, as well as IBR scene editing, such as limited motion of real objects.


Pulse radiolysis, utilizing short pulses of high-energy electrons from accelerators, is a powerful method for rapidly generating reduced or oxidized species and other free radicals in solution. Combined with fast time-resolved spectroscopic detection (typically in the ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared), it is invaluable for monitoring the reactivity of species subjected to radiolysis on timescales ranging from picoseconds to seconds. However, it is often difficult to identify the transient intermediates definitively due to a lack of structural information in the spectral bands. Time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy offers the structural specificity necessary for mechanistic investigations but has received only limited application in pulse radiolysis experiments. For example, time-resolved infrared (TRIR) spectroscopy has only been applied to a handful of gas-phase studies, limited mainly by several technical challenges. We have exploited recent developments in commercial external-cavity quantum cascade laser (EC-QCL) technology to construct a nanosecond TRIR apparatus that has allowed, for the first time, TRIR spectra to be recorded following pulse radiolysis of condensed-phase samples. Near single-shot sensitivity of ΔOD <1 × 10−3 has been achieved, with a response time of <20 ns. Using two continuous-wave EC-QCLs, the current apparatus covers a probe region from 1890–2084 cm−1, and TRIR spectra are acquired on a point-by-point basis by recording transient absorption decay traces at specific IR wavelengths and combining these to generate spectral time slices. The utility of the apparatus has been demonstrated by monitoring the formation and decay of the one-electron reduced form of the CO2 reduction catalyst, [Rei(bpy)(CO)3(CH3CN)]+, in acetonitrile with nanosecond time resolution following pulse radiolysis. Characteristic red-shifting of the ν(CO) IR bands confirmed that one-electron reduction of the complex took place. The availability of TRIR detection with high sensitivity opens up a wide range of mechanistic pulse radiolysis investigations that were previously difficult or impossible to perform with transient UV/visible detection.


Trajectory estimation during atmospheric reentry of ballistic objects such as space debris is a very complex problem due to high variations of their ballistic coefficients. In general, the characteristics of the tracked object are not accurately known and an assumption on the dynamics of the ballistic coefficient has to be made in the estimation model. The designed estimator must hence prove to be robust enough to such model uncertainties, and to bad initialization if no good prior information on the initial position, velocity, and the characteristics of the object is available. Robustness of a Moving Horizon Estimator (MHE) is studied in this paper and compared to several other filters: Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) and Regularized Particle Filter (RPF). The performances of the filters are analysed in terms of convergence percentage, accuracy, robustness to bad initialization, and computation time, via Monte Carlo simulations of trajectories of several space debris. Contrary to the classical tracking problem of supersonic ballistic objects for which RPF has been proven to be efficient in the literature, it is shown that its performance are overcome by MHE for the space debris tracking problem considered in this paper.


This article presents selected findings of an ongoing study of perceived public role of the alternative press in Australia. Interviews with journalists show an overwhelming perception that they are more inclined to provide context to news already covered in the mainstream press; they motivate readers to take political action or to engage in political discussion; and they provide a forum for minority groups overlooked by the mainstream media. These perceived roles fit neatly within the description of public journalism which represents a general commitment by journalists to foster critical political debate and revive public life.


Abstract:This article examines how the South Korean cinema has undergone a transformation from an 'antiquated cottage industry' in the 1980s into a thriving international cinema— albeit with a host of new challenges and tensions—in the 'post-boom' years of the 2000s right up to the present. Its analysis of film culture in the 1980s sets the stage for the Korean cinema's transnational development over the last decade, and points to a longer historical continuum involving the 're-emergence' in the 1980s of a 'cinema of quality' that was marked by widespread critical acclaim. Additionally, this article canvasses the key issues and concerns addressed in the thought-provoking pieces included in this special themed issue of Acta Koreana and how they elaborate on the dynamic and complex links between the Korean cinema's pioneering developments in the aesthetic, textual, industry, audience, critical, policy and historical fields, and their impact on the transformation of what we have come to call 'Planet Hallyuwood'.


Abstract. Both in situ measurements and satellite observations indicate evidence of mixing in the upper troposphere (UT) and the lower-stratosphere (LS). In this study, the measurements performed during the Pre-AVE and Costa-Rica AVE campaigns are analysed with diffusive back-trajectories to assess mixing properties in the tropical and the subtropical UT/LS. A description of cross-tropopause pathways and mixing time scales is provided. In the subtropics, Troposphere-Stratosphere mixing processes are found to differ in the vicinity of the tropopause and at higher altitudes. Below 350 K, a mixing line observed during Pre-AVE is shown to result from fast and local cross-tropopause irreversible exchange, involving two initially distant air masses with distinct chemical compositions. For measurements located above 350 K, mixing of the tropospheric air in the subtropical stratosphere occurs over a period of a month, the origins of the tropospheric source being localised in the tropical UT and the tropical boundary layer. In the tropics, quantitative reconstructions of CO and O3 profiles above 360 K are obtained for one month back-trajectories calculations, pointing out that long term mixing is essential to determine the chemical composition in the tropical ascent. In particular, the existence of two-way meridional irreversible exchanges between 360 and 450 K is found to export tropical air in the subtropical stratosphere and to entrain old stratospheric air in the tropical ascent. Mean age of air calculated with a Lagrangian model is shown to be in agreement with the CO2 observations.


After binding to ligands, almost all G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are rapidly phosphorylated--a modification with important functional consequences, such as desensitization and internalization. Many of the kinases involved in the phosphorylation of GPCRs are members of the family of GPCR kinases (GRKs). GPCRs are often phosphorylated at multiple sites and by more than one kinase, so the regulation of GPCRs by phosphorylation is quite complex. Torrecilla et al. have extended their previous studies by examining the role of casein kinase 2 (CK2) in the phosphorylation and regulation of the M3-muscarinic receptor. Both knockdown of CK2 with siRNA and blocking of its activity with specific inhibitors reduced the amount of phosphorylation of the M3-muscarinic receptor in CHO cells, as measured by immunoprecipitation assays. The use of mutant M3-muscarinic receptors showed that the sites phosphorylated by CK2 were in the third intracellular loop. This region is also targeted by GRK2 and GRK6, although further analysis showed that the specific sites phosphorylated by CK2 and GRK2 or -6 did not significantly overlap. Inhibitors of CK2 reduced the phosphorylation of the M3-muscarinic receptor in mouse cerebellar granule (CG) neurons. GRK-mediated phosphorylation causes internalization of the M3-muscarinic receptor, but CK2-mediated phosphorylation had no such effect. Whereas knockdown of CK2 did not change the ability of the M3-muscarinic receptor to activate extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2), activation of the c-Jun pathway was increased. Analysis of phosphopeptides from digested M3-muscarinic receptors from either CHO cells or CG neurons revealed different patterns of phosphorylation, implying that the phosphorylation of a given receptor is cell type-specific, potentially leading to different functional outcomes. I. Torrecilla, E. J. Spragg, B. Poulin, P. J. McWilliams, S. C. Mistry, A. Blaukat, A. B. Tobin, Phosphorylation and regulation of a G protein-coupled receptor by protein kinase CK2. J. Cell Biol. 177, 127-137 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]


by Abdelmaged Hafez Ibrahim Essawey This work presents a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of the conditions under which a fluid flow causes a microparticle to detach from a flat surface. The general approach was to conduct well-controlled experiments, to observe individual microparticle motion and to focus on the basic detachment mechanisms. Microparticles of different sizes, materials and shapes (mostly microspheres) were deposited as monolayers onto the substrates under controlled conditions. The microparticles attached to the substrate in a condition of static equilibrium due to contact adhesion and resided completely within the viscous sublayer. The flow was accelerated during a transient period up to a fixed, constant velocity. Smooth glass plates were used as substrates and scanned with an atomic force microscope to determine their roughness-height distributions. The study was confined to microparticles in the diameter range of approximately 10 μm to 100 μm. They were distributed on the surface as a monolayer in sparse/dense conditions, dry/humid and subjected to laminar or fully developed turbulent flows. Quantitative information on the increase of flow velocity at which 50 % of the microparticles detached (Uth) at different controlled conditions are presented. The variability in the Uth was found to be in the range of 10 % to 20 %. The techniques used to obtain such a low variability are described. The measured values then were compared to a model based on force/moment balance approach. The model accounts for the surface roughness effects and is applicable to dry/humid conditions and laminar or fully developed turbulent flows. The results of the model agreed with the measurements, to within the uncertainties, for the cases studied. The sensitivity of the Uth to five factors contained in the experiments and the Abdelmaged Hafez Ibrahim Essawey model is analyzed. The motion of microparticles after their detachment is considered. The microparticle velocities along the surface after detachment are measured using a strobed laserlight sheet and compared to the numerical solutions. Results indicate that the microparticles undergo pure rolling along the surface before possible entrainment, that the sweep part of a burst-sweep event plays a role in the detachment process and that the dissipative forces and moments are negligible.


The relationship between gambling behavior and emotion has been demonstrated in several studies. Takada & Yukawa revealed the relationship between positive emotion and reckless gambling. However, core affect theory of Russell and Feldman-Barrett insists that emotional state is consisted by 2 dimensions (pleasure ??displeasure, and arousal ??sleepiness). In this study, effects of arousal without positive emotion were experimentally investigated in healthy undergraduates. Participants (18 males and 16 females) performed a Game of Dice Task (GDT) that consisted of 18 gambling trials. Before they conduct the GDT, participants of experimental group tried the step exercise for about 2 minutes, in order for them to elicit their arousal unrelated to the GDT. On the other hand, participants of control group waited with nothing to do, for 2 minutes, before they conduct the GDT. Result indicated that participants of experimental group became significantly less recklessly on GDT than participants of control group. This result suggests that unrelated arousal without positive emotion might have not promoted but inhibited reckless gambling behavior. Further research is needed to understand the effects of emotional states on gambling behavior.


Trickle-down theories suggest that status symbols and fashion trends originate from the elites and move downward, but some high-end restaurants serve lowbrow food (e.g., potato chips, macaroni and cheese), and some high-status individuals wear downscale clothing (e.g., ripped jeans, duct-taped shoes). Why would high-status actors adopt items traditionally associated with low-status groups? Using a signaling perspective to explain this phenomenon, the authors suggest that elites sometimes adopt items associated with low-status groups as a costly signal to distinguish themselves from middle-status individuals. As a result, signals sometimes trickle round, moving directly from the lower to the upper class, before diffusing to the middle class. Furthermore, consistent with a signaling perspective, the presence of multiple signaling dimensions facilitates this effect, enabling the highs to mix and match high and low signals and differentiate themselves. These findings deepen the understanding of signaling dynamics, support a trickle-round theory of fashion, and shed light on alternative status symbols.


The intrinsic fluorescence of synthetic or natural porphyrins is regarded as an attractive characteristic exploited for assisting early cancer diagnosis and/or tumor localization. Single tumor cells circulating in the blood stream can be considered a major step in depicting dissemination of primary tumors, an event of clinical relevance for prognosis, staging or therapy monitoring of cancer. The third leading cause of cancer death in men is colorectal cancer and the hematogenous spreading of primary tumor cells is one of the main events in metastasis of this type of cancer. Hidden in the myriad of circulating blood cells, tumor cells need both a sensitive and affordable detection technique. 5- (3-methoxy)-4-methoxycarbonylphenyl)-10, 15, 20-tris-(4- methoxycarbonylphenyl) - 21, 23-H porphyne is a synthetic porphyrin with a noticeable preference of accumulation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from cancer patients as assessed by flow cytometry analysis. In addition, we found distinct accumulation of porphyrin depending on cancer type (cutaneous melanoma versus colorectal cancer). These data lead to the possibility of identifying circulating cells based on preferential accumulation of this new porphyrin in circulating tumor cells because, even accumulated in low percentage of cells the registered intensity of fluorescence was high. Selecting the genetic markers for circulating tumor cells is an option, but high costs and high level of know-how can be somewhat a hurdle for a rapid evaluation. Thus our approach with a new porphyrin can be developed in an accurate and innovative fast tracking method for circulating cancer cells, at least in colorectal cancer patients.


It has been debated whether the Hippocratic Oath's commitment referring to not administering poisonous/ deadly drugs prohibits: euthanasia, assisted suicide or murder. The first goal was to analyze if the prohibition of administering poisonous/deadly drugs was kept and how it changed in medical oaths of Hippocratic stemma of different time periods and religious orientations. The second aim was discern what is forbidden: euthanasia, assisted suicide or murder. Seventeen medical oaths: 4 Medieval, 2 Modern and 11 Contemporary oaths were studied and divided into those expressing the commitment like the original, those that may include it depending on the interpretation and those that do not mention it. Medieval and Modern oaths express it similarly to the Hippocratic Oath, possibly due to religious and Hippocratic/Galenic influences. What they forbid cannot be inferred. Contemporary oaths maintaining the commitment tend to include phrases regarding active euthanasia and assisted suicide. Other contemporary oaths may generalize it. . It would be advisable that medical oaths would contain clear and specific premises regarding this commitment depending on the country, school and the student body's idiosyncrasies.


Knowledge and information are among the biggest assets of enterprises and organizations. However, efficiently managing, maintaining, accessing, and reusing this intangible treasure is difficult. Information overload makes it difficult to focus on the information that really matters; the fact that much corporate knowledge only resides in employees heads seriously hampers reuse. The work described in this book is motivated by the need to increase the productivity of knowledge work. Based on results from the EU-funded ACTIVE project and complemented by recent related results from other researchers, the application of three approaches is presented: the synergy of Web 2.0 and semantic technology; context-based information delivery; and the use of technology to support informal user processes. The contributions are organized in five parts. Part I comprises a general introduction and a description of the opportunities and challenges faced by organizations in exploiting Web 2.0 capabilities. Part II looks at the technologies, and also some methodologies, developed in ACTIVE. Part III describes how these technologies have been evaluated in three case studies within the project. Part IV starts with a chapter describing the principal market trends for knowledge management solutions, and then includes a number of chapters describing work complementary to ACTIVE. Finally, Part V draws conclusions and indicates further areas for research. Overall, this book mainly aims at researchers in academia and industry looking for a state-of-the-art overview of the use of semantic and Web 2.0 technologies for knowledge management and personal productivity. Practitioners in industry will also benefit, in particular from the case studies which highlight cutting-edge applications in these fields.


Phytochemicals and biological activities of the leaves of Macaranga hosei and Macaranga constricta have been studied. Fractionation and purification of the extracts of M. hosei afforded two triterpenoids, lupenone (1) and β-sitostenone (2) and two flavonoids, 5-hydroxy-7,4'-dimethoxyflavone (3) and 5-hydroxy-6,7,4'-trimethoxyflavone (4). Three triterpenoids characterized as taraxerone (5), taraxerol (6) and β-amyrin (7) were isolated from M. constricta. The structures of these compounds were established by analysis of their spectroscopic data, as compared to that of reported compounds. Biological activities which include antibacterial, α-glucosidase inhibition and antioxidant were also carried out. The antibacterial activities have demonstrated that all extracts and isolated compounds exhibited weak inhibition against the tested bacterial strains with MIC value exceeded 500 μg/mL. Evaluation of α-glucosidase inhibition activity using ρ-nitrophenyl-ρ-D-glucopyranosidase on extracts exhibited α-glucosidase inhibitory potential. The most potent α-glucosidase activity was exhibited by the petroleum ether extract of M. hosei with inhibitory concentration at 50% (IC50) of 25.3 ppm compared with quercetin (4.5 ppm) and acarbose (12.6 ppm). The antioxidant activity was conducted through DPPH radical scavenging activity and total phenolic content. All the extracts displayed positive results and the methanol extract of M. hosei displayed the highest scavenging activity with scavenging concentration at 50% (SC50) value of 25.8 ppm. The methanol extract of M. hosei also gave the highest total phenol content with 347.7 mg GAE/g.


This paper considers a hierarchical caching system where a server connects with multiple mirror sites, each connecting with a distinct set of users, and both the mirror sites and users are equipped with caching memories. Although there already exist works studying this setup and proposing coded caching scheme to reduce transmission loads, two main problems are remained to address: 1) the optimal communication load under the uncoded placement for the first hop, denoted by $R_1$, is still unknown. 2) the previous schemes are based on Maddah-Ali and Niesen's data placement and delivery, which requires high subpacketization level. How to achieve the well tradeoff between transmission loads and subpacketization level for the hierarchical caching system is unclear. In this paper, we aim to address these two problems. We first propose a new combination structure named hierarchical placement delivery array (HPDA), which characterizes the data placement and delivery for any hierarchical caching system. Then we construct two classes of HPDAs, where the first class leads to a scheme achieving the optimal $R_1$ for some cases, and the second class requires a smaller subpacketization level at the cost of slightly increasing transmission loads.


This thesis deals with the combined utilisation of a reaction calorimeter, the RC1® commercialised by Mettler Toledo and equipped with a 2 L glass reactor, and the heat transfer dynamics modelling of industrial reactors. By doing so, the temperature evolution of the reaction medium of full scale equipment during a chemical process can be forecast already at laboratory scale. Thus, the selectivity, quality and safety issues arising during the transfer of a new process, respectively the optimisation of an existing one, from the laboratory to the production scale are earlier detected and more correctly apprehended. It follows that the proposed methodology is a process development tool aiming to accelerate the rate at which innovative processes can be introduced into the market, and for which the global safety can be guaranteed. Chapter 3 of the thesis devotes to the heat transfer dynamics modelling of industrial reactors. To this intention, heating/cooling experiments have been performed at plant scale. First, it consisted in filling up the industrial reactor with a measured quantity of a solvent with known physical and chemical properties (typically water or toluene). Second, after a stabilisation phase at low temperature, the setpoint of the liquid was modified to a temperature about 20 °C below its boiling point, followed by a stabilisation phase at high temperature. Then, the setpoint was changed to a value about 20 °C higher than the fusion point, again followed by a stabilisation phase at low temperature. During the experiment, the solvent and jacket temperatures are measured and registered. The stirrer revolution speed or the liquid amount are changed, and the whole measurement cycle repeated. Not only the heat transfer between the utility fluid and the reaction medium was modelled, but also the thermal dynamics of the jacket itself. Nine industrial reactors have been characterised, their sizes ranging from 40 L to 25 m3. Chapter 4 presents the developed methodology allowing to predict the thermal behaviour of full scale equipment during a chemical process. It is based on two on-line heat balances, namely one over the reaction calorimeter to determine the instantaneous heat release rate and the other over the industrial reactor dynamics to compute its hypothetical thermal evolution. The dynamic model of the industrial reactor is introduced in an Excel sheet. A Visual Basic window allows to establish the connection between the reaction calorimeter and the Excel sheet, meaning that the data from the various sensors of the RC1® can be sent at regular intervals of 10 s to the Excel sheet. By controlling its jacket temperature, the calorimeter is then forced to track the predicted temperature of the industrial reactor. The advantage of the proposed methodology is that the kinetics modelling of the reaction, often a time-consuming and expensive step, is here not mandatory. In chapter 5, the precision of the on-line heat balance over the RC1® was tested and validated with the help of an external voltage source controlling the power delivered by the calibration probe. In this way, the heat provided to the reaction medium was known with great accuracy. The error of the on-line heat balance on the heat release rate, qrx, lies in the generally acceptable 5 % range for bench scale calorimeters. Afterwards, the chosen test reaction, the hydrolysis of acetic anhydride, has permitted, at laboratory scale using the RC1®, to highlight that the thermal dynamics of industrial reactors has a great influence on the temperature evolution of the reaction medium and, hence, on process safety. Finally, the simulation of a polymerisation reaction with the help of a thickener permits to conclude that the "scale-down" methodology and the on-line heat balance over the reaction calorimeter are also applicable to reactions accompanied with large variations of the reaction medium viscosity. Chapter 6 compares the temperature evolution of the reaction medium predicted in the calorimeter with that actually recorded at plant scale. Three reactions are presented: a neutralisation, a three steps reaction and an alkene oxidation by a peroxycarboxylic acid. For the neutralisation, the results precisely tallied with a mean temperature difference lesser than 0.5 °C. Due to technical difficulties, the results of the three steps reaction slightly differ. For the oxidation reaction, the temperature predicted in the reaction calorimeter corresponds to that of full scale equipment to the nearest 0.5 °C. Moreover, the final compositions of the reaction medium are from the gas chromatography analyses also comparable. Moreover, this reaction being thermosensitive, a final selectivity decrease of 13 % is obtained at laboratory scale if this reaction took place in the 25 m3 reactor. This effect is due to its slower dynamics, smaller cooling capacity and more unfavourable heat transfer area to volume ratio compared with smaller reactors. The effect being highlighted already at laboratory scale, the elaborated tool results in a shorter process development time, a safer process and, hence, a shorter time-to-market. Finally, chapter 7 concludes with some outlooks concerning the continuation of the project. As this thesis did not deal with mixing issues, its logical continuation would be the scale-down of mixing effects. A few general guidelines are given for this field.


Abstract Interactions between membrane proteins and lipids are often crucial for structure and function yet difficult to define because of their dynamic and heterogeneous nature. Here, we use mass spectrometry to demonstrate that membrane protein oligomers ejected from nanodiscs in the gas phase retain large numbers of lipid interactions. The complex mass spectra that result from gas‐phase dissociation were assigned using a Bayesian deconvolution algorithm together with mass defect analysis, allowing us to count individual lipid molecules bound to membrane proteins. Comparison of the lipid distributions measured by mass spectrometry with molecular dynamics simulations reveals that the distributions correspond to distinct lipid shells that vary according to the type of protein–lipid interactions. Our results demonstrate that nanodiscs offer the potential for native mass spectrometry to probe interactions between membrane proteins and the wider lipid environment.


Food production is key to achieving food security in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa. Since agricultural productivity is limited, however, due to inherent agro-ecological constraints and land degradation, sustainable agricultural intensification has been widely discussed as an opportunity for improving food security and reducing vulnerability. Yet vulnerability determinants are distributed heterogeneously in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa and sustainable intensification cannot be achieved everywhere in cost-effective and efficient ways. To better understand the heterogeneity of farming systems' vulnerability in order to support decision making at regional scales, we present archetypes, i.e. socio-ecological patterns, of farming systems' vulnerability in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa and reveal their nestedness. We quantitatively indicated the most relevant farming systems' properties at a sub-national resolution. These factors included water availability, agro-ecological potential, erosion sensitivity, population pressure, urbanisation, remoteness, governance, income and undernourishment. Cluster analysis revealed eight broad archetypes of vulnerability across all drylands of sub-Saharan Africa. The broad archetype representing better governance and highest remoteness in extremely dry and resource-constrained regions encompassed the largest area share (19%), mainly indicated in western Africa. Moreover, six nested archetypes were identified within those regions with better agropotential and prevalent agricultural livelihoods. Among these patterns, the nested archetype depicting regions with highest erosion sensitivity, severe undernourishment and lower agropotential represented the largest population (30%) and area (28%) share, mainly found in the Sahel region. The nested archetype indicating medium undernourishment, better governance and lowest erosion sensitivity showed particular potential for sustainable agricultural intensification, mainly in western and some parts of southeastern and eastern Africa. Insights into the nestedness of archetypes allowed a more differentiated discussion of vulnerability and sustainable intensification opportunities, enhancing the evaluation of key interlinkages between land management and food security. The archetypes may support the transfer of successful intensification strategies based on similarities among the drylands in sub-Saharan Africa.


We consider a basic model for two-hop transmissions of two information flows which interfere with each other. In this model, two sources simultaneously transmit to two relays (in the first hop), which then simultaneously transmit to two destinations (in the second hop). While the transmission during the first hop is essentially the transmission over a classical interference channel, the transmission in the second hop enjoys an interesting advantage. Specifically, as a byproduct of the Han-Kobayashi transmission scheme applied to the first hop, each of the relays (in the second hop) has access to some of the data that is intended to the other destination, in addition to its own data. As recently observed by Simeone et al., this opens the door to cooperation between the relays. In this paper, we observe that the cooperation can take the form of distributed MIMO broadcast, thus greatly enhancing its effectiveness at high SNR. However, since each relay is only aware of part of the data beyond its own, full cooperation is not possible. We propose several approaches that combine MIMO broadcast strategies (including ldquodirty paperrdquo) with standard non-cooperative strategies for the interference channel. Numerical results are provided, which indicate that our approaches provide substantial benefits at high SNR.


Objectives: To evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of introducing universal human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination into the National Immunization Program (NIP) in Brazil. Methods: The Excel-based CERVIVAC decision support model was used to compare two strategies: (1) status quo (with current screening program) and (2) vaccination of a cohort of 11-year-old girls. National parameters for the epidemiology and costs of cervical cancer were estimated in depth. The estimates were based on data from the health information systems of the public health system, the PNAD 2008 national household survey, and relevant scientific literature on Brazil. Costs are expressed in 2008 United States dollars (US$), and a 5% discount rate is applied to both future costs and future health benefits. Results: Introducing the HPV vaccine would reduce the burden of disease. The model estimated there would be 229 deaths avoided and 6677 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted in the vaccinated cohort. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) per DALY averted from the perspectives of the government (US$ 7663), health system (US$ 7412), and society (US$ 7298) would be considered cost-effective, according to the parameters adopted by the World Health Organization. In the sensitivity analysis, the ICERs were most sensitive to variations in discount rate, disease burden, vaccine efficacy, and proportion of cervical cancer caused by types 16 and 18. However, universal HPV vaccination remained a cost-effective strategy in most variations of the key estimates. Conclusions: Vaccine introduction could contribute additional benefits in controlling cervical cancer, but it requires large investments by the NIP. Among the essential conditions for attaining the expected favorable results are immunization program sustainability, equity in a population perspective, improvement of the evelo screening program, and d


The goal of this work is to automatically learn a large number of British sign language (BSL) signs from TV broadcasts. We achieve this by using the supervisory information available from subtitles broadcast simultaneously with the signing. This supervision is both weak and noisy: it is weak due to the correspondence problem since temporal distance between sign and subtitle is unknown and signing does not follow the text order; it is noisy because subtitles can be signed in different ways, and because the occurrence of a subtitle word does not imply the presence of the corresponding sign. The contributions are: (i) we propose a distance function to match signing sequences which includes the trajectory of both hands, the hand shape and orientation, and properly models the case of hands touching; (ii) we show that by optimizing a scoring function based on multiple instance learning, we are able to extract the sign of interest from hours of signing footage, despite the very weak and noisy supervision. The method is automatic given the English target word of the sign to be learnt. Results are presented for 210 words including nouns, verbs and adjectives.


The main purpose of this study is to conduct a survey on the detailed Water Balance of Paulinia Refinery, focusing all process units so as to allow its use as data basis for the management of water resources that are consumed there in different forms (natural water, process water, for the fire prevention system, drinkable, demineralized, steam etc,). The main result shows that 61.5% of the total water collected by the refinery does not reach the effluents treatment station, that is, losses occur during the processes, mainly due to the evaporation in the cooling towers, an intrinsic process factor. Another important identified aspect refers to the relation between equipment maintenance and the consequent water waste. Once these problems are solved, it is estimated that the collection could be reduced by 6.4% and the effluents generation by 16.9%.


Abstract. The paper proposes a method able to describe, classify and organize information assets concerned with Architectural Heritage, through the use of integrated survey procedures, mainly based on Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS). The point clouds are then imported into the Building Information Modeling (BIM) software to start with the modeling phase. With regard to this issue, in the last period Building Information Modeling is emerging as the most reliable method to manage architectural design and building processes. Literature supplies both theoretical approaches and several practical applications. However, very little researches are devoted to BIM applied to historical architecture, even if some initial results indicate the actual HBIM (Historic/Heritage BIM) as a possible instrument for the design of an intervention aimed at the conservation of the Cultural Heritage. The focus of the research is the creation of parametric objects representing the preservation status of materials and building components: 3D modeling of decays in the BIM platform ensures to enrich the related database with graphic, geometric and alphanumeric data that can be effectively used to design and manage future interventions. The added value consists in its capability to associate new parameters that describe both the state of conservation of the materials and the detailed description of interventions needed to restore the building. The analyzed case study belongs to Ferrovie dello Stato (the main Italian Railways company) and it is part of the maintenance area, which was originally constituted by a roundhouse containing 51 sheltered railroad tracks and two big sheds.


BACKGROUND Nonprofessionals routinely perform high-risk home maintenance activities otherwise regulated by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration when professionals perform the same work. Reducing the risks taken by these "weekend warriors" has not been the focus of injury prevention efforts. This study describes injury patterns and outcomes for nonprofessionals attempting home roof and tree maintenance. METHODS We queried our trauma registry for all adult patients (age, ≥18 years) with injury codes for "fall-from-height" or "struck-by-tree" (2005–present) and reviewed charts to determine injuries sustained during home roof or tree work. Patients injured during occupational duties (indicated by Workman's Compensation) were excluded. Descriptive statistics were used to determine patient demographics, injury patterns, and outcomes. RESULTS A total of 129 patients were injured performing roof and tree maintenance during the study period. Of these patients, 90 (69.8%) were fall from height and 39 (30.2%) were struck by tree. Mean (SD) age was 45 (14) years. The majority were male (124, 96.1%) and white (116, 89.9%). Nearly half (59, 45.7%) were privately insured; a quarter (32, 24.8%) had no insurance. Mean (SD) Injury Severity Score was 12.7 (9.3). Injury distributions were as follows: head injury, 48.8%; facial fractures, 10.1%; cervical spine fractures, 3.9%; thoracic, lumbar, and sacral spine fractures, 28.1%; rib fractures, 27.3%; intrathoracic injuries, 22.5%; liver/spleen injuries, 6.2%; pelvic fractures, 15.6%; upper-extremity fractures, 27.3%; and lower-extremity fractures, 14.7%. Of the patients, 19 (14.7%) had one or more regions with Abbreviated Injury Scale score of higher than 3. Mean (SD) length of stay was 5.3 (7.6) days. Except for 2 deaths (1.6%), discharge dispositions were as follows: home, 64.2%; home with services, 10.1%; rehabilitation, 17.8%; and skilled nursing, 5.4%. CONCLUSION Weekend warriors performing home roof and tree maintenance sustain serious injuries with a potential for a long-term disability at young ages. Injury prevention efforts should educate the public about the hazards of high-risk home maintenance, possibly encouraging Occupational Health and Safety Administration–regulated protective measures or deferral to trained professionals. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Epidemiologic study, level III.


Junk science has no place in the legal system. But when a scientist says, "I'm not sure, but the data are suggestive," the scientist's words are not necessarily a tell-tale sign of junk science. On the contrary, they may be a sign that real science is occurring. The Supreme Court's Daubert trilogy appears to have allowed the continuation of junk science, while denying individuals their day in court when their proof includes real science at a state of incomplete knowledge. The solution, we believe, must lie in the legal system, judges and lawyers alike, recognizing what it means to be a gatekeeper with respect to scientific truth. And that, in turn, requires the legal system to come to understand just what it is that scientists do. Author's Note: I post this brief essay shortly after Margaret Berger's passing on November 18, 2010. She was a close friend and brilliant colleague, and I will always miss her. Because the ideas in this essay, at least in large part, grow out of a perspective that she developed over many years, I thought it important to make it more salient to the academic community at this time. LMS


This survey covers all major areas of health care in Britain and describes the activity of the private and voluntary sectors in each. The organisation of chapters aims to follow coherent market boundaries. In many cases, these coincide roughly with NHS administrative divisions. The congruence breaks down, however, in the case of long term nursing and residential care of elderly people. Here, the reality of a single market is acknowledged, despite the statutory distinction between 'nursing' and 'personal' care, and between facilities provided and regulated by health and local authorities. The total value of services supplied by the independent sector, in each of the major markets, is set out in Table 1.1. Overall, independent hospital based services (excluding local authority registered residential care of the elderly) amounted to £827 million in the UK in 1984, or 7 per cent of the total cost of NHS and independent sector hospital based services combined. Employment provides an alternative measure of relative size, giving much the same result. In December 1983 an estimated 25,700 whole-time-equivalent (WTE) nurses were employed in independent hospitals and nursing homes in England, accounting for 7 per cent of all WTE nursing staff employed in the NHS hospital service and the independent sector combined. The survey attempts, wherever possible, to take the analysis one stage further by partitioning services into the four possible combinations of private1 and public finance and supply. In doing so it systematically uses the format illustrated in Figure 1.1. Analysis into these four component parts is crucially important in understanding the private/public mix in health care and avoiding confusion in the debate on 'privatisation'. To do this, it is necessary to look at individual elements of health care. Since, however, markets do not fit neatly within NHS boundaries, the choice of elements must be selective and a pragmatic approach must be adopted, sometimes using value as the basis of the four way partition and sometimes using volume of activity or level of facilities, according to the data that are available. Services which are both publicly supplied and publicly financed cover the bulk of the NHS. Services which are publicly supplied but privately financed include, for example, NHS pay beds. They also include, in part, services for which NHS patients pay significant charges, such as prescription medicines. Privately supplied and publicly financed services include contractual bed arrangements and, much more important now, long term care financed by supplementary benefits. Finally, privately supplied and privately financed services include the bulk of treatment in independent hospitals. Among the different markets there is wide variation in the public/private mix (Table 1.2). Most of the data relate to 1984. Where they do not, earlier years' data remain valid at the date of publication, with the important exceptions of elective surgery and spectacle supply. The data source for elective surgery is a major survey carried out in 1981 by the Medical Care Research Unit at the University of Sheffield. But the medically insured population expanded by 18 per cent between 1981 and 1984. Moreover, medical insurance expenditure on benefits has expanded by 40 per cent over the same period (after deflation by the retail price index). Thus the percentage of elective surgery undertaken privately in independent hospitals and NHS paybeds is now certainly substantially greater than the figure of 13 per cent in 1981. In the case of spectacles, changes implemented in April 1985 limit NHS ophthalmic supply to certain categories of 'poor' clientele and it is envisaged that the NHS supply role will be completely phased out in time. The extent of private involvement in health care, whether on the supply or demand side, is critically dependent upon four factors - The limits that the NHS sets to its responsibilities. For example, health authorities and health professionals accept the principle of shared responsibility with local authorities and their private sector counterparts for long term care of elderly, mentally ill and mentally handicapped people. Thus 'free' institutional care is available for only a minority of this clientele. 'Alternative' medicine, for its part, is seen as a fringe activity which except for some homeopathic medicine1 is not available under the NHS. Nor has the health service adopted a wholehearted commitment to providing abortions or to offering sterilisation as a means of birth control. In some cases a distinction is drawn between what is medically necessary and what is cosmetically desirable and the NHS has, for example, restricted itself to functional but unaesthetic spectacles and hearing aids. The lack of any tradition in certain modes of health care delivery. Thus the NHS has not developed nursing homes on the private sector model, or along the lines adopted by some other countries' health services. Nearly all its long term geriatric facilities still consist of hospital wards. Nor has the NHS any tradition in specialised hospice type care for terminally ill people. This has been pioneered instead by the voluntary sector which cares for significant numbers of NHS patients. Medical insurance cover. For example, maternity is not covered by medical insurance and a very small proportion of women have their babies privately. The marginal cost of care outside the NHS. In the hospital and community health services, as in general medical practice, the marginal cost of opting out of the NHS is equal to the full cost of private care, with no allowance made for any financial contribution to the NHS through taxation. It is this high marginal cost of private medical care which places a limit on its growth. It is in those areas where the marginal cost of private treatment is relatively low, and where there is a significant supply constraint, that private sector demand and supply has flourished most, as in care of the elderly, abortion and sterilisation and the market for spectacles.


Objective. To compare the efficacy of abatacept and alternative biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and an inadequate response to methotrexate (MTX) in the United Kingdom. Methods. A systematic literature search identified 11 individual studies investigating the efficacy of abatacept, infliximab, adalimumab, etanercept, certolizumab pegol, and golimumab in adult patients with RA that did not respond to MTX. The clinical trials included in this analysis were similar in trial design, baseline patient characteristics, and background therapy (i.e., MTX). The key clinical endpoints of interest were the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) change from baseline (CFB) and the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) responses at 6 months (24–28 weeks). Results were analyzed using Bayesian network metaanalysis methods, and were expressed as differences in HAQ CFB and ACR20/50/70 relative risks, with 95% credible limits (CrL). Results. Analysis of HAQ CFB at 6 months showed that abatacept is more efficacious than placebo [mean difference in HAQ CFB: −0.30 (95% CrL −0.42; −0.16)] and comparable to all other biologic agents, in patients receiving MTX as background treatment. Abatacept is also expected to result in a higher proportion of ACR responders compared to placebo, with relative risks ranging from 1.90 (95% CrL 1.24; 2.57) for ACR20 to 3.72 (95% CrL 1.50; 10.52) for ACR70, and to result in comparable proportions of ACR responders as other biologic agents, at 6 months. Conclusion. Abatacept is expected to result in improvement in functional status comparable to other recommended biologic agents in patients with RA who are unresponsive to MTX in the UK.


The initial alignment is vital to the strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS). In this work,  an efficient initial alignment method for SINS based on a six-degree of freedom inertial measurements unit (IMU) is proposed. The three dimensional linear accelerations and angular rates are acquired from a data acquisition board which contains a low-cost IMU. Preprocess the gyro data and modeling the SINS error model for initial alignment. Analysis the observability of this SINS error model and then simplify the model based on the observability. A kalman filter is conducted to estimate the misalignment angle. The results show that the initial alignment method proposed in this paper is advisable for a SINS based on low-cost IMU on a stationary base.


This paper describes the VITE system, a spatial hypertext system that supports two-way mapping for projecting structured information to a two-dimensional workspace and updating the structured information based on user interactions in the workspace. VITE uses information visualization techniques to render structured information in the workspace and provides users an environment to interact with digital information in a spatial hypertext setting. The two-way mapping connects the objects in the workspace to the structured information and provides users direct access to the information. The spatial hypertext environment encourages users to engage more directly with the information related to their tasks. An evaluation of VITE was conducted to study how people adapt to two-way mappings and how two-way mappings can help in problem solving tasks. The results show that users could quickly design visual mappings to help their problem-solving tasks and developed more sophisticated strategies for visual problem-solving over time.


Fifty-three faecal samples from yellow-legged gulls (Larus cachinnans) at the Berlengas nature reserve in Portugal were cultured on Levine agar plates not supplemented with antimicrobial agents, and one Escherichia coli colony was isolated and identified from each sample. The percentages of resistant isolates for each of the drugs were ampicillin (43·4 per cent), tetracycline (39·6 per cent), nalidixic acid (34·0 per cent), streptomycin (32·1 per cent), trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole (SXT) (26·4 per cent), ciprofloxacin (18·9 per cent), chloramphenicol (18·9 per cent), gentamicin (7·5 per cent), tobramycin (7·5 per cent) amikacin (5·7 per cent) and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (1·9 per cent). All the isolates were susceptible to cefoxitin, ceftazidime, cefotaxime, aztreonam and imipenem. The following resistance genes were detected: blaTEM (17 of 23 ampicillin-resistant isolates), tet(A) and/or tet(B) (18 of 21 tetracycline-resistant isolates), aadA (12 of 17 streptomycin-resistant isolates), cmlA (all chloramphenicol-resistant isolates), aac(3)-II with or without aac(3)-IV (all four gentamicinresistant isolates), and sul1 and/or sul2 and/or sul3 (all 14 SXT-resistant isolates). The intI1 gene was detected in 10 of 14 SXT-resistant isolates, and three of them also contained class 2 integrons; four different gene cassette arrangements were identified among class 1 integrons (aadA, dfrA1+aadA1, dfrA12+orfF+aadA2 and sat+psp+aadA2) and one among the class 2 integrons (dfrA1+sat+aadA1). Ninety per cent of the isolates were included in the A or B1 phylogenetic groups.


Thin coatings applied to surfaces dramatically improve the properties of materials. Thus, they have found application in a broad variety of areas including biomedicine, nanotechnology, bioelectronics and optics, amongst others. Polymer brushes prepared via surface-initiated controlled radical polymerization (SI-CRP) techniques represent a versatile class of thin polymer coatings that provide manifold opportunities to engineer surface and interface properties. Densely grafted polymer brushes prepared via SI-CRP possess several attractive material properties such as low friction coefficients and the ability to prevent biofouling, which are related to the stretched conformation of the surface tethered polymer chains. Those distinctive characteristics of polymer brushes make them highly appealing to engineer the properties of functional interfaces. A first aim of this Thesis is to investigate the mechanochemistry of hydrophilic polymer brushes prepared via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) from silica substrates. The second aim of the Thesis is to explore poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) based polymer brushes as soft-tissue adhesives in wet tissue environment. This Thesis is divided into four chapters, which are briefly summarized below. Chapter 1 provides a summary of recent literature that has reported detachment or degrafting of densely grafted hydrophilic polymer brushes from substrates upon exposure to aqueous media. The collective results from these reports suggest that swelling-induced stretching of hydrophilic polymer brushes lead to mechanochemical activation of the bonds near the brush-substrate interface and subsequently facilitates hydrolytic chain cleavage. Chapter 2 aims to shed light on the influence of two fundamental structural polymer brush parameters on the degrafting of surface-tethered, densely grafted polymer chains, viz. (i) the chemical composition of the ATRP initiator that is used to grow the polymer brushes and (ii) the effect of surface curvature. To this end, a series of poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) (PPEGMA) and poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (PPEGMEMA) brushes were grafted from both flat silica substrates as well as silica nanoparticles. Subsequently, the degrafting of the surface-tethered polymer chains was investigated in cell culture medium and phosphate buffered saline (PBS) using various techniques. The aim of the final two Chapters of this Thesis is less on exploring the chain conformation of polymer chains grafted by SI-CRP, but more to use the ability of SI-CRP to prepare thin polymer films that present a high surface concentration of functional groups to mediate soft tissue adhesion. Chapter 3 describes the preparation of photo-active poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) brushes as soft tissue bioadhesives. Tissue adhesion in this Chapter is induced as UV-irradiation of PHEMA brushes converts the initially bio-inert side chain hydroxyl groups of these brushes into (putatively) aldehyde groups, which can react with amine groups present in the tissue. The prepared PHEMA brush coated substrates are biocompatible, which avoids fibrous capsule formation and presents functionalities that can be transformed, on-demand, from a non-reactive, non-adhesive state to a reactive, adhesive state in wet tissue environment. While the photoactivation of the PHEMA side chain functional groups is very efficient, it is not very well defined from a chemistry point of view. Chapter 4 therefore, explores an alternative photoactivation chemistry, which is based on the use of the diazirine motif. These diazirine motifs were incorporated in poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (P(HEMA-co-PEGMEMA)) copolymer brushes via post-polymerization modification. These diazirine modified brushes are attractive as they may not only be activated by UV-light but also by electrochemical means.


The diagnosis of acute T cell-mediated rejection (aTCMR) after kidney transplantation has considerable relevance for research purposes. Its definition is primarily based on tubulointerstitial inflammation and has changed little over time; aTCMR is therefore a suitable parameter for longitudinal data comparisons. In addition, because aTCMR is managed with antirejection therapies that carry additional risks, anxieties, and costs, it is a clinically meaningful endpoint for studies. This paper reviews the history and classifications of TCMR and characterizes its potential role in clinical trials: a role that largely depends on the nature of the biopsy taken (indication vs protocol), the level of inflammation observed (e.g., borderline changes vs full TCMR), concomitant chronic lesions (chronic active TCMR), and the therapeutic intervention planned. There is ongoing variability—and ambiguity—in clinical monitoring and management of TCMR. More research, to investigate the clinical relevance of borderline changes (especially in protocol biopsies) and effective therapeutic strategies that improve graft survival rates with minimal patient morbidity, is urgently required. The present paper was developed from documentation produced by the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) as part of a Broad Scientific Advice request that ESOT submitted to the European Medicines Agency for discussion in 2020. This paper proposes to move toward refined definitions of aTCMR and borderline changes to be included as primary endpoints in clinical trials of kidney transplantation.


This multi-methods, descriptive case study examines attitudes and practices of classroom-based iPad use. The
site is one inner-city, urban, publicly funded school, focused on two iPad-infused classrooms (Grade 2/3 and
Grade 4/5). Data were collected from 5 educators and 35 students to investigate two research questions: How
are iPads being utilized in student instruction? How do educators and students perceive the value of using
iPads in the classroom? For this study, we analyzed the transcript of a focus group with five educators, data
from 10 days of structured student observations, and the results from 35 student questionnaires. Five themes
emerged from the focus group; the strongest related to pedagogical practices. Data related to student perceptions indicated a positive attitude toward iPads. They enjoyed iPad use, were concerned about equity issues, had high self-ratings about related skills, felt they used it most often in Mathematics, and indicated various preferred applications. Overall, iPads were used in 31.7% of observed instructional time, 94.7% of
which was facilitated by classroom teachers. Of this iPad- based instructional time, 72.5% was for
individualized teaching, typically in language and/or mathematics instruction. Our analysis culminates in
recommendations for school leadership such as teaching prerequisite skills and providing ongoing technological supports


Performance appraisal of professional librarians in academic libraries is important because of the critical role these employees play. Professional librarians ensure that the library's resources and services are effective, relevant, and integrated within the parent institution. Performance appraisal and job feedback have been understudied in the library literature while, by comparison, these topics have generated great attention in other fields and in the corporate world. There have also been innovations in performance appraisal. Some large corporations have abandoned annual evaluations, substituting, for instance, quarterly performance snapshots and weekly check-ins with the supervisor. To investigate the current status of performance appraisal in academic libraries, we deployed a web-based survey in November 2013 to library directors in the United States. A national survey on this topic and with this population had not been conducted for 25 years. The results we report in this article relate to the following research objectives: The Snapshot research objective sought to identify the components of the performance appraisal systems currently being used. The Feedback research objective sought to identify who can give feedback during each performance appraisal event, the extent of peer-to-peer feedback, and whether there is sufficient feedback in library performance appraisal systems. We also report on programmatic effectiveness for libraries' annual evaluations as well as their overall performance appraisal system.


The design and minaturization of microwave circuits involves the analysis and optimization of a large varity of structures, which, in general, are based on arbritrary objects embedded in also arbritary media. The most common situation is found when optimizing terminal antennas, whose main constraint is the antenna's volume, which must be fitted into a specified space, which in general is the phone or laptop case. This kind of antennas can also include stratified media, oblique metallizations, dielectric objects, waveguide components, in their definition making their analysis more difficult from the numeric point of view. The complete treatment of this kind of problems has been performed traditionally using Finite Differences or Finite Elements software, while it is more rare to find Method of Moments implementations for the solution of this kind of general problems. The Method of Moments has a certain number of advantages as the inclusion of radiation conditions or stratified media in the Green's function of the problem. Due to this it is possible to mesh only the surfaces or boundary conditions that are not included in the Green's function definition, obtaining, for instance, a more natural radiation boundary condition compared to other fullwave methods. The other big concern is the optimization of this kind of structures. In general the structures we are dealing with in this work can have very irregular shapes, in order to fit within the required volume constraints. The traditional optimizations techniques based on the gradient or conjugated gradient are not efficient when optimizing functions containning multiple minima and a large search space, which is the case in the optimization of terminal antennas. When miniaturizing terminal antennas or just a simple microstrip filter, the number of unknowns can be very large, and the different optimization variables can vary within wide limits in the search space. In this situation the Genetic Algorithms are ideal for seeking the global optimum solution of our problem. This work covers the analysis and optimization of microwave circuits, including antennas and filters in microstrip and waveguide technologies, paying more attention to the implementation of the Method of Moments (MoM) in conjugation with the Mixed Potential Integral Equation (MPIE) and Electric/Magnetic Field Integral Equation (EFIE/MFIE). The work has been split into 3 main goals: The analysis of 3 dimensional structures in stratified media, including arbritary shaped dielectric bodies using the Method of Moments, (MPIE,EFIE,MFIE). The analysis of shielded environments and more precisely the analysis of retangular waveguide cavities with the Method of Moments. The implementation of several optimization techniques, emcompassed in the frame of genetic algorithms, for the design and miniaturization of terminal antennas and microstrip filters. Some relevant examples linked to the efficiency and accuracy of the different methods and techiques explained in this work are included in each chapter, yielding to practical results suitable to be used in real life design problems. The main contributions of this work can be summarized as follows: In Chapter 2 we have developed the interpolation of 3D Green's function to the general solution of dielectric objects embedded in multilayered media. The interpolation method itself is preceeded by a spectral extraction of the quasi-static terms. This technique, very often applied in complex images techniques, has been applied to our specific Green's function problem yielding very good results in terms of accuracy and Green's function computation time. Another contribution, also emcompassed in Chapter 2, is the integration of the static part of the field dyadic GEM, performed by splitting the field dyadic into TM and TE components, allowing then an analytical integration of the dyadic terms in stratified media. In the frame of shielded environments in Chapter 3, the most important contribution is the extension of Ewald's acceleration technique to full electric and magnetic problems, allowing the acceleration of the field dyadic GEM and thus permit the extension of the MoM to the simulation of arbritary metallic shapes coupled to apertures through Ewald's approach. In Chapter 4 the most important contribution is the implementation of a Bayesian optimiser based on the estimation of probability made by dependencies trees. The dependency tree based method found in [1] and later in [2] has been adapted to the terminal antenna miniaturization yielding to excellent results in optimisation time and quality of the solution provided by the optimiser. Our implementation of the dependency tree method was found to be better than the traditional method used in this kind of problems. Chapter 4 contains also an implementation of the growing cells method presented in [3] for the specific problem of optimising pseudo periodic structures, like microwave filters, yielding to a powerful interpolating method which accelerates the optimisation process of microwaves devices whose fitness response is very time consuming.


Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize Geert Hofstede's conceptualization of national culture and provide an alternative beyond purely constructivist conceptualizations of culture for cross-cultural management scholars and practitioners.

Design/methodology/approach

– Hofstede's conceptualization of national culture is discussed and criticized. Subsequently, alternatives are being discussed. Eventually, a more feasible alternative is suggested and the ways in which it can be applied are briefly mentioned.

Findings

– Several objections to Hofstede's idea and measurement of national culture are listed: it assumes people are cultural dopes, it ignores the influence of non-cultural factors, it reifies culture, it assumes internal coherence, it does not account for change, it arbitrarily uses the nation-state as the preferred locus of culture, and it has an in-built Western bias. Several authors have argued for a constructivist conceptualization of culture, which sees culture as a repertoire, from which ideas and possible actions can be selected. The downside, however, is that it has no practical value for managers. In an attempt to solve this, the paper explores the possibilities of using the concept of national habitus, which shows how dispositions are shaped on a national level and how these dispositions change under the influence of other, non-national social forces.

Practical implications

– The paper briefly explores how a national habitus-centered approach can help cross-cultural managers.

Originality/value

– The paper's added value lies in the use of a relatively recently extended sociological concept for cross-cultural management.