Tourism attractions and destinations has been facing tourists' outflow for lots of years worldwide. Because of that, it is crucial to start fighting against this negative phenomenon, as this niche market segment is dependent on incoming clients. In this thesis, the focus is on wellness tourism with a case study aimed at spa industry in author's residential country, Czech Republic. Thesis strives not to use standard marketing or management processes, but rather propose out of box solution, which allows gaining full spa experience. Since well-being is seen as one of actual drivers of consumer demand, an authentic spa concept called 'destination spa' is brought forward for solving current, local spa inability to be profitable. Key elements are nutrition, physical activity and mental balance. These are further examined and their real contribution is discussed. Within the case study, mix of these arguments is specifically applied to Darkov Spa, Karvina. In addition to that, data gathered from questionnaire enabled to use quantitative research methods to find out if proposed changes are favoured according to local taste. The results showed that suggested solution has a positive impact on local clientele, which will contribute towards increased visit rate. Due to this fact, research's proposed idea is a convenient incentive for re-opening Darkov Spa.


Distributed generation (DG) may play a key role in a modern energy system because it can improve energy efficiency. Reductions in the energy bill, and therefore DG attractiveness, depend on the electricity tariff structure; a system created before widespread adoption of distributed generation. Tariffs have been designed to recover costs equitably amongst customers with similar consumption patterns. Recently, electric utilities began to question the equity of this electricity pricing structure for standby service. In particular, the utilities do not feel that DG customers are paying their fair share of transmission and distribution costs - traditionally recovered through a volumetric ($/kWh) mechanism - under existing tariff structures. In response, new tariff structures with higher fixed costs for DG have been implemented in New York and in California. This work analyzes the effects of different electricity tariff structures on DG adoption. First, the effects of the new standby tariffs in New York are analyzed in different regions. Next generalized tariffs are constructed, and the sensitivity to varying levels of the volumetric and the demand ($/kW, i.e. maximum rate) charge component are analyzed on New York s standard and standby tariff as well as California's standby tariff. As expected, DG profitability is reduced with standby tariffs, but often marginally. The new standby structures tend to promote smaller base load systems. The amount of time-of-day variability of volumetric pricing seems to have little effect on DG economics.


Excessive borrowing, no less than insufficient savings, might be a product of bounded rationality. Identifiable psychological mechanisms are likely to contribute to excessive borrowing; these include myopia, procrastination, optimism bias, "miswanting," and what might be called cumulative cost neglect. Suppose that excessive borrowing is a significant problem for some or many; if so, how might the law respond? The first option involves weak paternalism, through debiasing and other strategies that leave people free to choose as they wish. Another option is strong paternalism, which forecloses choice. Because of private heterogeneity and the risk of government error, regulators should have a firm presumption against strong paternalism, and hence the initial line of defense against excessive borrowing consists of information campaigns, debiasing, and default rules. On imaginable empirical findings, however, there may be a plausible argument for strong paternalism in the form of restrictions on various practices, perhaps including "teaser rates" and late fees. The two larger themes, applicable in many contexts, involve the importance of an ex post perspective on the consequences of consumer choices and the virtues and limits of weak forms of paternalism, including debiasing and libertarian paternalism.


A Republic In Time: Temporality and Social Imagination in Nineteenth-Century America By Thomas M. Alien Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. 292 pp. Notes, bibliography, index, and illustrations. $59.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8078-3179-3, $22.95 (paper), ISBN: 978-0-8078-5865-3.The author argues that time, rather than geographic space, defines American expansion. Accordingly, to understand the evolving debate over the nature of the nation, it is imperative to understand the various ways in which Americans have viewed time and the various types of time that have come into play during America's history. The author's particular emphasis is on the antebellum era.Time is an arbitrary construct of a human mind seeking order in a disordered world. Historically humanity has tied time to planetary and stellar cycles less as an absolute than as a tool of convenience. Time has meant different things to different people at different times, as it always has and probably always will. The author's focus is on development through time rather than through space. The nation being an equally artificial human construct, national time requires a defense, particularly against Fernand Braudel and the Annalists, who find history relevant only in spans of time that transcend nations, that find history in the continuities on which nations are merely an overlay.Despite Braudel, time mattered to Americans in the early 19th century, as did the nation. But time was not unitary, with a single meaning for all. Standardization through railroad time was an event of late in the century. Before then, the meaning and measure of time was an individual matter.There were, however, constituencies for various types of time, constituencies that influenced the national time. Alien's argument is that the United States from the founders, Thomas Jefferson in particular, was a work in progress, a growing phenomenon defined by its possibilities m the future rather than the continent on which it stood.The discussion of time has two elements, the philosophical and the material. Ideas receive treatment in chapters on the ideas of Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others of the founders and thinkers of the era. The more tangible material expressions of time are the subject of the interesting and well-illustrated chapters on clock styles and clocks in literature and art. Rather than showing a historical progression, these chapters approach the mystical as the author reads closely such things as the type of clock in a painting of home life and where in the work the artist elects to place it. Alien also finds deep significance m the elements of the clock, the hiding or revealing of the works, the presence or absence of a second or minute hand, the inclusion of national symbols, the direction m which Washington or other icon casts his eyes. This is material time.Deep time, the geological measurement of the earth's age, became widespread at the time, creating all sorts of differences beyond its upsetting unseating of the traditional Biblical time frame. Deep time records the rising and falling of mountains, the age of rocks, and it measures on a scale far greater than the decades, centuries, even millennia that Americans and Europeans of the time took as the ultimate measure. …


Background: Cases with a family history are enriched for genetic risk variants, and the power of association studies can be improved by selecting cases with a family history of disease. However, in recent genome-wide association scans utilizing familial sampling, the excess relative risk for familial cases is less than predicted when compared with unselected cases. This can be explained by incomplete linkage disequilibrium between the tested marker and the underlying causal variant. Methods: We show that the allele frequency and effect size of the underlying causal variant can be estimated by combining marker data from studies that ascertain cases based on different family histories. This allows us to learn about the genetic architecture of a complex trait, without having identified any causal variants. We consider several validated common marker alleles for breast cancer, using our own study of high risk, predominantly bilateral cases, cases preferentially selected to have at least two affected first- or second-degree relatives, and published estimates of relative risk from standard case–control studies. Results: To obtain realistic estimates and to accommodate some prior beliefs, we use Bayesian estimation to infer that the causal variants are probably common, with minor allele frequency >5%, and have small effects, with relative risk around 1.2. Conclusion: These results strongly support the common disease common variant hypothesis for these specific loci associated with breast cancer. Impact: Our results agree with recent assertions that synthetic associations of rare variants are unlikely to account for most associations seen in genome-wide studies. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 21(2); 262–72. ©2011 AACR.


In order to improve and to be competitive, enterprises should know how to get opportunities coming from data provided from the Web. The strategic vision implies a high level of communication sharing and the integration of practices across every business level. This not means that enterprises need a disruptive change in informative systems, but the conversion of them, reusing existent business data and integrating new data. However, data is heterogeneous, and so to maximise the value of the data it is necessary to extract meaning from it considering the context in which they evolve. The proliferation of new linguistic data linked to the growth of textual resources on the Web generate an inadequacy in the analysis and integration phases of data in the enterprise. Thus, the use of Semantic Technologies based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications is required in advance. This study arises as a first approach to the development of a document-driven Decision Support System (DSS) based on NLP technology within the theoretical framework of Lexicon-Grammar by Maurice Gross. Our research project has two main objectives: the first is to recognize and codify the innovative language with which the companies express and describe their business, in order to standardize it and make it actionable by machine. The second one aims to use information resulting from the text analysis to support strategic decisions, considering that through Text Mining analysis we can capture the hidden meaning in business documents. In the first chapter we examine the concept, characteristics and different types of DSS (with particular reference to document-driven analysis) and changes that these systems have experienced with web development and consequently of information systems within companies. In the second chapter, we proceed with a brief review of Computational Linguistics, paying particular attention to goals, resources and applications. In the third chapter, we provide a state-of-the-art of Semantic Technology Enterprises (STEs) and their process of integration in the innovation market, analysing the diffusion, the types of technologies and main sectors in which they operate. In the fourth chapter, we propose a model of linguistic support and analysis, according with Lexicon-Grammar, in order to create an enriched solution for document-driven decision systems: we provide specific features of business language, resulted from experimental research work in the startup ecosystem. Finally, we recognize that the formalization of all linguistic phenomena is extremely complex, but the results of analysis make us hopeful to continue with this line of research. Applying linguistic support to the business technological environment provides results that are more efficient and in constantly updated innovating even in strong resistance to change conditions.


Background: A large proportion of resources allocated to the Community-Based Nutrition Programme (CBNP) of the Department of Health in the Western Cape is spent on creche-feeding schemes. To date, little evaluation of the CBNP has been undertaken. Aim: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the nutritional adequacy of meals provided, and facilities available, at state-funded creches in the Cape Metropole. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to managers of 43 conveniently sampled creches in two districts of Cape Town. Twenty-two of the creches were randomly selected for nutrient assessment of a duplicate meal, and a typical meal sample was weighed and analysed for this purpose. Anthropometric measurements for a random sample of 10% of the children (N = 275) attending these 22 creches were obtained. Results: Only one creche did not have food preparation and storage facilities (due to theft). Toilet facilities were inadequate at some creches. The ratio of children to toilets was 23.7 (± 16.6):1, ranging from 6.5:1 to 91:1. None of the meals provided met one-third of the age-related Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for energy, calcium, iron or phosphorus. With regard to protein, 86.4% of the meals sampled did meet one-third of the RDA for 1 - 3-year-olds and 68.2% for 4 - 6-year-olds. At creches where the meals provided ≥ 15% of the RDA for energy for 4 - 6- year-olds, it was reported that a mean of R1.18 (± R0.48)/child/day was spent on food, compared with a mean of R0.89 (± R0.20) /child/day in creches at which the meals provided < 15% of the RDA for energy (P = 0.14). According to the World Health Organisation classification of moderate undernutrition, in the age group ≤ 60 months (N = 170) there was found to be a low prevalence of stunting (7%), a moderate prevalence of underweight (16%) and a very high prevalence of wasting (11.8%). In children older than 60 months (N = 105) there was found to be a low prevalence of stunting (12.4%), underweight (8.7%) and wasting (2.9%). Conclusion: The nutritional content of meals provided at state-funded creches in two areas of the Western Cape is largely inadequate, and is positively associated with the amount of daily spending per meal. These findings suggest that more attention should be directed towards improved training of creche staff with regard to menu planning and food budgeting.


Throughout the twentieth century, public universities were established across the United States at a dizzying pace, transforming the scope and purpose of American higher education. Leading the way was California, with its internationally renowned network of public colleges and universities. This book is the first comprehensive history of California's pioneering efforts to create an expansive and high-quality system of public higher education. The author traces the social, political, and economic forces that established and funded an innovative, uniquely tiered, and geographically dispersed network of public campuses in California. This influential model for higher education, "The California Idea," created an organizational structure that combined the promise of broad access to public higher education with a desire to develop institutions of high academic quality. Following the story from early statehood through to the politics and economic forces that eventually resulted in the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education, The California Idea and American Higher Education offers a carefully crafted history of public higher education.


Management practices in the landscape matrix can have significant effects on the spatial distribution of animals within adjacent protected areas. This has been well established in agricultural and forested areas, but less is known about how management of the suburban matrix affects adjacent reserves. We argue that it is critically important to understand the impact of suburban management on reserves, as flawed planning decisions can have negative conservation outcomes and waste limited resources.


In the first papers in this series, it was shown that eponyms were often bestowed on physicians and surgeons who were already famous, had made many discoveries never honoured with eponyms, and were often the leading doctors of their day. Only occasionally was the eponym suggested by a friend or colleague; more usually it was a doctor abroad who wanted to show respect to a great man but the choice of the particular syndrome or discovery was a random one. Eponyms may have had their uses. They were usually much shorter than a detailed description of a medical syndrome or anatomical feature and may sometimes have been used as euphemisms in much the same way as, until recently, bedside teachers protected the patients by speaking of 'mitotic lesions' or 'neoplasms', 'Hansen's Disease' or 'acid-fast bacilli'. The conferring and use of eponyms appears to be lessening but, as shown in this final paper, they are still used and possibly useful, and can tell us things of interest about the recipient and the proposer.


The impacts of change in the Grell convective scheme and biosphereatmosphere transfer scheme (BATS) in RegCM3 are described. Three numerical experiments (RegZhang, RegClaris and RegArain) are conducted to reduce the RegCM3-Grell rainfall underestimation over tropical South America. The simulation referred to as RegZhang follows modifications made by Zhang et al. (2008) in the BATS. The RegClaris combines the RegZhang BATS parameters with a reduction of water drainage at the bottom of the subsoil layer in the regions covered by the trop- ical rain forest and a shorter convective time period for the Grell scheme. The RegArain considers this same modification in the Grell scheme, but uses a deeper total soil column and a deeper root system in the BATS. After the first year of simulation, the soil water content in RegZhang is pro- gressively drained out of the soil column resulting in a deficit of rainfall in the Amazon. The RegClaris and RegArain, on the other hand, simulate a similar rainfall annual cycle in the Amazon, showing substantial improvement not only in phase but also in intensity. This improvement is par- tially related to an increase in evapotranspiration due to a larger availability of water in the soil column. A remote effect is also noted over the La Plata Basin region, where the larger summer rainfall rate may be related to the increase in moisture transport from the Amazon. Wind- and rain- fall-based indices are applied to identify South American monsoon (SAM) timing. The RegClaris rainfall rates are adequate to identify the onset and the demise of SAM according to the observed data, whereas the rainfall deficit in RegZhang is associated with a delay in the onset and an early demise of the SAM.


The utility of combined 16S rRNA (rrs) gene restriction fragment length polymorphism and plasmid profiles to differentiate between and within Campylobacter upsaliensis of human and canine origin was examined. Fourteen distinct rrs gene restriction fragment length polymorphs consisting of bands sized between 1.9 and 4.8 kb were observed. The copy number of the 16S rRNA gene was three in most strains of C. upsaliensis. Plasmids were found in almost 60% of the strains; ranging in size from 1.5 to 100 kb, they gave 15 distinct plasmid profiles. All isolates from humans contained one or more plasmids, as did strains isolated from dogs with sporadic diarrhea. The two commonest 16S ribotypes were divided into eight and nine subgroups by plasmid profiling. The genotyping of canine isolates from three veterinary surveys detected both multiple infections and reinfection of dogs. Except for one, each of the isolates from humans constituted a single and unique 16S ribotype, and these more frequently carried plasmids than did canine strains. Ribotypes of human strains were not found among canine isolates. These results suggest that host-specific genotypic differences may exist among strains of C. upsaliensis, for example, intraspecific clones or clone complexes pathogenic for humans.


We develop a method of predicting field-wide gas (or oil)
production from unconventional reservoirs, using the Barnett shale as an
illustration. Our method has six steps. First, divide a field of interest (here
Barnett) into geographic/depositional regions, where -- upon statistical
testing -- gas and/or oil production are statistically uniform. Second, in each region i, fit a generalized extreme value distribution to every cohort of
gas/oil wells with 1,2,…,ni years on production. Third, obtain accurate
estimates of uncertainties in the distribution parameters for each regional well
cohort. As a result, obtain ni points for the stable mean
(P50) well prototypes for each region i, and the corresponding high/low (P10/P90)
bounds on well production. Fourth, by
adjusting the producible gas/oil in place and pressure interference times
between the adjacent hydrofractures, fit each statistical P50 well
prototype with a physics-based scaling curve that also accounts for late-time external
gas inflow. The physics-scaled well
prototypes now extend 10-20 years into the future. Fifth, for each region, time-shift the
dimensional, scaled well prototype and multiply it by the number of well
completions during each year of field production. Add the production from all regions to match
the past field production and predict
decline of all wells up to current time. These well productivity estimates are
more accurate and better quantified than anything a production decline curve analysis might yield. Sixth, by assuming
different future drilling programs in each region, predict field production
futures. We hope that the US Securities and Exchange Commission will adopt our
robust, transparent approach as a new standard for booking gas (and oil)
reserves in shale wells.


The Web of Data, which is one of the dimensions of the Semantic Web (SW), represents a tremendous source of information, which motivates the increasing attention to the formalization and application of machine learning methods for solving tasks such as concept learning, link prediction, inductive instance retrieval in this context. However, the Web of Data is also characterized by various forms of uncertainty, owing to its inherent incompleteness (missing information, uneven data distributions) and noise, which may affect open and distributed architectures. In this paper, we focus on the inductive instance retrieval task regarded as a classification problem. The proposed solution is a framework for learning Terminological Decision Trees from examples described in an ontological knowledge base, to be used for performing instance classifications. For the purpose, suitable pruning strategies and a new prediction procedure are proposed. Furthermore, in order to tackle the class-imbalance distribution problem, the framework is extended to ensembles of Terminological Decision Trees called Terminological Random Forest s. The proposed framework has been evaluated, in comparative experiments, with the main state of the art solutions grounded on a similar approach, showing that: 1) the employment of the formalized pruning strategies can improve the model predictiveness; 2) Terminological Random Forest s outperform the usage of a single Terminological Decision Tree , particularly when the knowledge base is endowed with a large number of concepts and roles; 3) the framework can be exploited for solving related problems, such as predicting the values of given properties with finite ranges.


The advent of superior connectivity and integration technologies is paving the way for flexible electronic partnering options. Such flexibility is essential if a company wants to attract a large number of partners (with varying connectivity needs and preferences) to its supply chain network. This article conceptualizes twelve electronic partnering options. It then discusses the various types of sensemaking and conversion challenges that companies encounter in developing this critical electronic business (e-business) capability and proposes a multi-pronged approach to effectively deal with them. This approach involves four distinct but synergistic campaigns of digitization—strategic congruency, organizational design, technology infrastructure, and relational campaigns. The utility of this approach is illustrated by examples of successful business-to-business (B2B) digitization initiatives.


Abstract A centrally important feminist debate, known as the sex wars, took place in the United States and United Kingdom and centred around sexuality issues. A similar debate occurred in Italy. Among the topics debated was sadomasochism (SM): does consensual SM perpetuates male dominance in societies or serve as an instrument of empowerment? Despite the either/or positions within the debate, data from the fieldwork and the interviews I conducted suggest that an in-between position is more appropriate to describe the Italian SM scene for two reasons. Firstly, the notion of consent and the challenge or reproduction of the status quo in SM are concerns positioned along a continuum of experiences. Secondly, the epistemological overcoming of both deterministic approaches, in which society limits the social actor, or the liberal discourse, in which the social actor is free from social constraints, leads to a more nuanced view of the relationship between social actors and society. I discuss some peculiarities of the Italian context in relation to the SM scene and provide some examples on how consent and negotiation are discussed and enacted by SM practitioners. Keywords: Feminism, BDSM, Italy, United States, United Kingdom, sex wars ----- Bibl iography: Zambelli, Laura: Feminism and BDSM: empirical findings and theoretical debates in the US, UK and Italy, INSEP, Vol. 4, Issue 2-2016, pp. 37-57. https://doi.org/10.3224/insep.v4i2.05


The incidence of cutaneous melanoma continues to rise rapidly. Problems are faced throughout its management and this thesis addresses them as follows: secondary prevention, prediction of prognosis and early detection of metastatic disease. Secondary prevention has been shown to be an effective strategy for improving survival in other cancers. A study of the rapid access, early detection, pigmented lesion clinic at Mount Vernon Hospital demonstrates for the first time that such an approach improves outcome in melanoma. Refining current prognostic capability in melanoma is essential for improving disease management. Tissue microarray was used to investigate 480 specimens from 120 primary melanomas for novel prognostic markers. Several markers were identified, including MCAM, CD44v3, Nm23 and P-cadherin, which showed a significant bearing on melanoma patient outcome. Their identification reveals valuable markers for predicting outcome and potential targets for therapeutic manipulation. Immunoscintigraphy is the use of radiolabeled tumour-specific antibodies to detect disease. Previously the whole monoclonal antibody LHM2, directed against the high molecular weight melanoma-associated antigen was studied. Whilst being highly melanoma-specific, its use in melanoma detection is limited. Its large size (150 kDa) results in background accumulation in normal organs, reducing image quality and hindering metastasis detection. The single chain Fv fragment (scFv) is the smallest part of the whole monoclonal antibody that maintains full antigen- binding capability. Its potential superiority over whole monoclonal antibodies has been demonstrated however it requires further refinement before routine use in patients. Two methods of improving tumour targeting with scFvs were investigated: use of a cocktail of scFvs binding different epitopes and use of scFv multimers. The use of a scFv cocktail improved tumour targeting in the spleen and muscle. Dimeric scFvs were shown to improve tumour retention whilst maintaining rapid blood clearance, leading to overall improved tumour targeting compared with monomers.


Based on the fiber macrobending and the refractive index matching technologies, a novel scheme of nonintrusive light injection, namely, the light signal is injected into the fiber core from the fiber cladding without any destruction, is proposed in plastic optical fibers (POFs). Using the ray-tracing method, a 3-D theoretical model is established to characterize the performance of the light injection. The influences of the fiber bending radius, the light source placement, and the surrounding medium refractive index on the light injection efficiency are investigated and assessed. Meanwhile, correlative experiments have also been conducted to contrast theoretical simulations. The experiment results fit theoretical ones well. This nonintrusive light injection technology in POFs might have many potential applications such as the optical signal uploading and downloading, the optical coupling, and the local area networks.


A urinary flowmeter has been designed, using a quickly rotating disc and a balance principle. The flowmeter has a fast and accurate response to changing flows. The time delay of the flowmeter is less than about 0.25 s. The improved accuracy in recording urinary flow using the presented flowmeter should make it possible to extract more information from the detrusor pressure and urinary flow relations, relevant for assessing lower urinary tract function.


BACKGROUND
The organization of elective surgical services has changed in recent years, with increasing use of day surgery, reduced hospital stay and preoperative assessment (POA) performed in an outpatient clinic rather than by a doctor in a hospital ward after admission. Nurse specialists often lead these clinic-based POA services and have responsibility for assessing a patient's fitness for anaesthesia and surgery and organizing any necessary investigations or referrals. These changes offer many potential benefits for patients, but it is important to demonstrate that standards of patient care are maintained as nurses take on these responsibilities.

OBJECTIVES
We wished to examine whether a nurse-led service rather than a doctor-led service affects the quality and outcome of preoperative assessment (POA) for elective surgical participants of all ages requiring regional or general anaesthesia. We considered the evidence that POA led by nurses is equivalent to that led by doctors for the following outcomes: cancellation of the operation for clinical reasons; cancellation of the operation by the participant; participant satisfaction with the POA; gain in participant knowledge or information; perioperative complications within 28 days of surgery, including mortality; and costs of POA. We planned to investigate whether there are differences in quality and outcome depending on the age of the participant, the training of staff or the type of surgery or anaesthesia provided.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE and two trial registers on 13 February 2013, and performed reference checking and citation searching to identify additional studies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of participants (adults or children) scheduled for elective surgery requiring general, spinal or epidural anaesthesia that compared POA, including assessment of physical status and anaesthetic risk, undertaken or led by nursing staff with that undertaken or led by doctors. This assessment could have taken place in any setting, such as on a ward or in a clinic. We included studies in which the comparison assessment had taken place in a different setting. Because of the variation in service provision, we included two separate comparison groups: specialist doctors, such as anaesthetists; and non-specialist doctors, such as interns.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We used standard methodological approaches as expected by The Cochrane Collaboration, including independent review of titles, data extraction and risk of bias assessment by two review authors.

MAIN RESULTS
We identified two eligible studies, both comparing nurse-led POA with POA led by non-specialist doctors, with a total of 2469 participants. One study was randomized and the other quasi-randomized. Blinding of staff and participants to allocation was not possible. In both studies, all participants were additionally assessed by a specialist doctor (anaesthetist in training), who acted as the reference standard. In neither study did participants proceed from assessment by nurse or junior doctor to surgery. Neither study reported on cancellations of surgery, gain in participant information or knowledge or perioperative complications. Reported outcomes focused on the accuracy of the assessment. One study undertook qualitative assessment of participant satisfaction with the two forms of POA in a small number of non-randomly selected participants (42 participant interviews), and both groups of participants expressed high levels of satisfaction with the care received. This study also examined economic modelling of costs of the POA as performed by the nurse and by the non-specialist doctor based on the completeness of the assessment as noted in the study and found no difference in cost.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Currently, no evidence is available from RCTs to allow assessment of whether nurse-led POA leads to an increase or a decrease in cancellations or perioperative complications or in knowledge or satisfaction among surgical participants. One study, which was set in the UK, reported equivalent costs from economic models. Nurse-led POA is now widespread, and it is not clear whether future RCTs of this POA strategy are feasible. A diagnostic test accuracy review may provide useful information.


Financial exchanges are typically built out of two trusted components: a trade matching and a trade settlement system. With the advent of decentralized ledgers, that perform transactions without a trusted intermediary, so called decentralized exchanges (DEX) emerged. Some DEXs propose to off-load trade order matching to a centralized system outside the blockchain to scale, but settle each trade trustlessly as an expensive on-chain transaction. While DEX are non-custodial, their order books remains trusted, a malicious exchange operator or miner could front-run trades — i.e. alter trade order execution for financial gain. The scalability limitations of the settlement layer (e.g. Proof of Work (PoW) blockchains) moreover hinders the practical growth of such DEX architectures. We propose TEX, a front-running resilient, non-custodial centralized exchange. Our matching system enforces the trade order sequence provided by traders, i.e. is resilient against trade sequence alteration by the exchange operator. As such the matching system can operate in conjunction with a blockchain based settlement layer (as proposed in the following), or make custodian exchanges provably accountable for their matching process. Our layer-two settlement system executes a trade without holding the assets, and allows to reach similar scales as traditional exchanges (trading volume in USD, number of trades/second), despite a slow underlying ledger. TEX might become a point of availability-failure, but we show how the settlement system's security properties would not compromise the trader's assets, even if the centralized operator is compromised and/or colludes with all other traders. We provide an evaluation on a PoW blockchain.


Teacher development, whether in pre-service teacher education or in in-service coaching, is a complex and context-dependent enterprise. As schools recognise the need to provide embedded and extended professional learning opportunities for novice and veteran teachers, the role of coaches has expanded. This study explores how coaching differs depending on the role of the feedback-giver, as well as what holds consistent across roles. The context is a large urban middle school in which the same coach supported teacher development in the area of English as a second language instruction through varied roles. Following Meyer-Mork (2010), we employed self-study as a methodology uniquely suited to offer insights into the interactions that took place in coaching conversations carried out by Marcus (Author 1). Laura (Author 2), supported Marcus by serving as a critical friend and offering commentary on the self-study in an effort to examine Marcus's coaching from different perspectives. We were able to reflect on the various ways these roles are designed to support novice teachers. Our findings indicate that the role of the coach subtly shifts based on the relationship with the teacher being coached, and more understanding is needed within the coaching literature to better parse the overlaps and differences based on role relationships.


Purpose: To estimate the cumulative risk of retinal detachment (RD) after routine cataract surgery by phacoemulsification. Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark Methods: Retrospective cohort study based on 12.222 consecutive cataract surgeries in 7.856 patients using phacoemulsification over a 6 year period from 2000 to 2005. Cases with a diagnosis of RD were identified through the procedure-coding database at the Medical Registry of Aarhus University Hospital, which is based on Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) and used to report to the Danish Patients Registry (LPR). For each case the age of the patient, gender, axial length, surgical complications, postoperative Nd:YAG capsulotomy and time interval between cataract surgery and RD were recorded. Results: The mean follow-up time was 64.8 months (range 26.2–97.6 months). Forty-eight (48) cases of RD were identified making an overall cumulative risk of 0.39%. As compared to the normal incidence of RD reported in the Scandinavian literature, the relative risk of RD following cataract surgery was about 2.3 times that of the natural incidence. As compared to the average cataract group, the group of RD following cataract surgery was characterized by a younger mean age (60.5 vs. 73.7 years), male gender (58.3% vs 34.8%), longer axial lengths (24.56 vs 23.25 mm) and a higher frequency of surgical complications (10.4% vs 1.8%) (p<0.001) but not a higher frequency of Nd:YAG capsulotomy (p>0.05), Conclusions: The cumulative risk of RD after lens surgery was about 2.3 times the natural incidence but seems to be lower than that of older reports. Synopsis: Retinal detachment following cataract surgery is associated with young age, male gender, long axial lengths and surgical complications. The cumulative risk of RD after lens surgery was about 2.3 times the natural.


In 1987, Charles Lawrence articulated an inherent flaw of the discriminatory intent requirement in equal protection jurisprudence by leveraging social science research to demonstrate that the behavior that produces racial discrimination is influenced by unconscious racial motivation. Twenty years later, the debate continues with increasing social science literature to support his position. Furthermore, other scholars and social scientists have demonstrated how unconscious bias may fuel discriminatory acts against others on the basis of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Appropriately, most of the unconscious bias research focuses on how such biases operate within the majority to oppress a minority group. They often analyze how white bias serves to stereotype or marginalize people of color or how male bias serves to stereotype or marginalize women. However, rarely does the literature explore how marginalized groups may engage in unconscious (and conscious) bias against one another, which this article argues blocks social justice efforts to combine resources and resource-coalescing coalitions that challenge oppression. This Article does not seek to explore unconscious bias to conclude that all people in society discriminate, nor to offer some solitude to well-meaning whites (or other members of majority groups) seeking to assuage their guilt. Instead, this Article explores biases within and among subordinated groups in an attempt to offer some clarity on how subordinated groups may build coalitions and uncover how their subordinations are interrelated and dependent upon one another to uphold the power and privilege. This Article turns to social science literature to explore how an appreciation of the operation of unconscious bias among and within subordinated groups, often driven by self-interest and group preservation, presents an opportunity to unify subordinated groups by identifying how such groups interests converge with one another. This Article will briefly use an example to demonstrate how outsider interests may converge by delineating how people of color, women, and LGBTs (and those at the intersections) have a common interest in challenging the legal construction of the concept of family under welfare legislation - legislation that serves to deny life-sustaining benefits to those who fail to conform to what is perceived to be a predominately white, heterosexual, middle-class family construction.


For a sophisticated humanoid that explores and learns its environment and interacts with humans, anthropomorphic physical behavior is much desired. The human vision system orients each eye with three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) in the directions of horizontal, vertical and torsional axes. Thus, in order to accurately replicate human vision system, it is imperative to have a simulator with 3-DOF end-effector. We present a 3-DOF anthropomorphic oculomotor system that reproduces realistic human eye movements for human-sized humanoid applications. The parallel link architecture of the oculomotor system is sized and designed to match the performance capabilities of the human vision. In this paper, a biologically-inspired mechanical design and the structural kinematics of the prototype are described in detail. The motility of the prototype in each axis of rotation was replicated through computer simulation, while performance tests comparable to human eye movements were recorded.


Michael S. Shull and David E. Wilt. Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945. McFarland, 2004. 246 pages; $38.50. Parody's Importance Back in 1996-after years of combing through dozens of references books, sifting hundreds of newspaper reviews, probing untold magazines and journals articles, and privately viewing scores of moving pictures-two popular culture historians, Michael Shull and David Wilt, finally published their monumental World War II propaganda study, Hollywood War Films, 1937-1945, a tome so detailed and exhaustive that by any standards it still remains the best reference tool of its kind. Here, in this 482-page survey is the finite examination of flag-waving photodramas that fostered a nation's morale, glorified the American fighting man, and-as expected-fired off numerous potshots at the Axis scourge. But this was not the only time these two authors had culled through the second World War's cinematic history. In 1987, their first book, Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, took a serious look at the approximately 1,000 Hollywood cartoons that appeared during this global conflict and their effect on stateside audiences proving, once again, parody's importance as a viable propaganda format. Why wouldn't it? Everyone went to the movies during the War and these cartoons simply became an extension of the persuasion machine. If John Wayne and Randolph Scott could rout America's foes, why not Donald Duck or Popeye the Sailor Man? In exploring this topic-the use of animation as wartime propaganda-Wilt and Shull examined these 1,000 cartoons produced by the seven major production companies and found that twenty-five percent referred to the global conflict. Such well-known featured characters as Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Barney Bear, Goofy, Elmer Fudd, Woody Woodpecker, Porky Pig, even Superman fought America's enemies in gems such as Confusion of a Nutzy Spy, You're a Sap, Mr. Jap, For Better or Nurse, and Carmen's Veranda and hammered away at the Axis nemesis while reminding audiences that in the end, the Red-White-and-Blue would emerge victorious. Clearly Doing Their Bit, as Classic Images exclaimed was "invaluable." Now, seventeen years later, an updated second editioncontaining an enlarged filmography, some revised statistics, new photographs, and a chapter about the Private Snafu series, a collection of photodramas shown only to servicemen-adds more information about America's attitudes toward World War II and the Hollywood response to such feelings. …


GABA(A) receptors are found on the somatodendritic compartment and on the axon initial segment of many principal neurons. The function of axonal receptors remains obscure, although it is widely assumed that axonal receptors must have a strong effect on excitability. We found that activation of GABA(A) receptors on the dentate granule neuron axon initial segment altered excitability by depolarizing the voltage threshold for action potential initiation under conditions that minimally affected overall cell input resistance. In contrast, activation of somatic GABA(A) receptors strongly depressed the input resistance of granule neurons without affecting the voltage threshold of action potential initiation. Although these effects were observed over a range of intracellular chloride concentrations, average voltage threshold was unaffected when E(Cl) rendered GABA(A) axon initial segment responses explicitly excitatory. A compartment model of a granule neuron confirmed these experimental observations. Low ambient agonist concentrations designed to activate granule neuron tonic currents did not stimulate axonal receptors sufficiently to raise voltage threshold. Using excitatory postsynaptic current (EPSC)-like depolarizations, we show physiological consequences of axonal versus somatic GABA(A) receptor activation. With axonal inhibition, individual excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) largely retained their amplitude and time course, but EPSPs that were suprathreshold under basal conditions failed to reach threshold with GABA(A) activation. By contrast, somatic inhibition depressed individual EPSPs because of strong shunting. Our results suggest that axonal GABA(A) receptors have a privileged effect on voltage threshold and that two major measures of neuronal excitability, voltage threshold and rheobase, are differentially affected by axonal and somatic GABA(A) receptor activation.


Research background: Despite the growing social recognition of the positive role played by organic farming in the conservation of natural resources and the reduction or elimination of the negative externalities of modern agriculture, the economic competitiveness of organic versus conventional agriculture is a contentious issue. Studies on scale efficiency in the agricultural economics literature, in general, did not address the differences in production practices such as organic and conventional production. Purpose of the article: We estimated scale efficiency of organic and conventional production, tested for differences between organic and conventional agriculture scale efficiency, and explored the sources of inefficiencies. Methods: This was accomplished using cross-sectional data on 658 organic and conventional cocoa farmers, for the 2012/13 production season in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The analysis accounted for selection bias and recognised the fractional property of the scale efficiency measure. Findings & Value added: Organic agriculture is less scale efficient than conventional agriculture. Whilst we recommend that both producer groups improve scale efficiency, organic producers require greater work to do to make up for the almost 50% scale inefficiency. We also found farmer-based organisations to significantly influence scale efficiency. This calls for the need to strengthen farmer-based organisations to increase participation, among other reasons. We departed from the existing scale efficiency literature in a three of ways. We accounted for selection-bias using propensity score matching in the organic and conventional samples in analysing scale efficiency, modelled scale inefficiency using fractional regression and empirically selected the appropriate link function using a battery of tests. Finally, we accounted for an important policy variable; farmer-based organisation. We employed propensity score matching that accounted from observable biases. Further research may consider other methods that account for both observed and unobserved variations.


This article discusses the resistance to the Digital Revolution and the emergence of a social movement "resisting the resistance." Mass empowerment has political implications that may provoke reactionary counteractions. Ultimately — as I have discussed elsewhere — resistance to the Digital Revolution can be seen as a response to Baudrillard's call to a return to prodigality beyond the structural scarcity of the capitalistic market economy. In Baudrillard's terms, by increasingly commodifying knowledge and expanding copyright protection, we are taming limitless power with artificial scarcity to keep in place a dialectic of penury and unlimited need. In this paper, I will focus on certain global movements that do resist copyright expansion, such as creative commons, the open access movement, the Pirate Party, the A2K movement and cultural environmentalism. A nuanced discussion of these campaigns must account for the irrelevance of copyright in the public mind, the emergence of new economics of digital content distribution in the Internet, the idea of the death of copyright, and the demise of traditional gatekeepers. Scholarly and market alternatives to traditional copyright merit consideration here, as well. I will conclude my review of this movement "resisting the resistance" to the Digital Revolution by sketching out a roadmap for copyright reform that builds upon its vision.


In 1797 Jeremy Bentham prepared a map of poverty in Britain, which he called 'Pauperland.' More than two hundred years later, poverty and social deprivation remain widespread in Britain. Yet despite the investigations into poverty by Mayhew, Booth, and in the 20th century, Townsend, it remains largely unknown to, or often hidden from, those who are not poor. Pauperland is Jeremy Seabrook's account of the mutations of poverty over time, historical attitudes to the poor, and the lives of the impoverished themselves, from early Poor Laws till today. He explains how in the medieval world, wealth was regarded as the greatest moral danger to society, yet by the industrial era, poverty was the most significant threat to social order. How did this change come about, and how did the poor, rather than the rich, find themselves blamed for much of what is wrong with Britain, including such familiar - and an- cient - scourges as crime, family breakdown and addictions? How did it become the fate of the poor to be condemned to perpetual punishment and public opprobrium, the useful scapegoat of politicians and the media? Pauperland charts how such attitudes were shaped by ill- conceived and ill-executed private and state intervention, and how these are likely to frame ongoing discussions of and responses to poverty in Britain.


A light duty downsized engine, named as "z-engine", was developed, built and tested on the experimental rig. This engine is a two-stroke diesel with a split compression process and poppet valve for the gas exchange. The split compression process provides sufficient time for the longer exhaust process (over 180 CA degrees). The first stage of fresh air compression takes place in a turbocharger, the second part of the compression takes place in the mechanically driven piston compressor with PR of about 4.5 - 5.5. A very brief induction period, which lasts for about 10-22 CA degrees, is followed by a short final compression in the cylinder in which mixing occurs. The external piston compressor which provides all cylinders with a fresh charge, has relatively cold walls and its outlet is connected to an intercooler, so the total compression work is reduced and the fresh charge has a considerably lower temperature in comparison with a conventional diesel engine. Due to the absence of the scavenging process and a large dead volume which is present during the induction process, there is an increased EGR in the z-engine at all operating modes. The increased internal EGR and low temperature at TDC result in low NOx emissions even for normal air/diesel mixture formation and combustion. The total fuel efficiency of the z-engine is approximately same, if not higher, than that of a conventional diesel engine. Due to the specific working process of the z-engine, the HCCI process may be realized even at the full torque (BMEP∼30 bar) and maximum power modes. To achieve this the injection should be carried out at the end of the exhaust and should be terminated prior to the intake starts, when there is no fresh air, and there is a low pressure and high temperature in the cylinder. All these factors result in the rapid evaporation. An intensive intake process disintegrates the remaining of fuel sprays, resulting in formation of homogenous or near homogenous charge and decreases the in-cylinder temperature, which slows down pre-ignition reactions. The increased EGR and low temperature at the final compression stages prolong the ignition delay period and presence of the highly turbulent flow results in in-cylinder homogeneous conditions. A pilot injection or electrical spark initiates ignition of the homogeneous mixture at the optimal moment.

To reduce the fuel spray tip penetration in low pressure conditions in the cylinder a pintle-type injector is used for the main fuel injection process. CFD modelling using ANSYS/FLUENT software was performed to produce recommendations for preventing the fuel impingement onto the walls. The thermodynamic analysis using GT-Power software was performed to optimize the piston compressor ports timing. The mixture formation process and combustion were simulated and optimized with deployment of DIESEL-RK software. The detailed chemistry of pre-ignition reactions was simulated to predict the ignition delay period. The obtained computational results were verified using published experimental data.


No previous generation has ever travelled so energetically or so obsessively as ours, nor has travel writing ever been so much in fashion as it is now. But behind the self-conscious literary artistry of today's narratives there lies a rich and fascinating history of travel writing, stretching back over several thousand years. Travel writing has emerged from migration, war, exploration, trade, conquest, pilgrimage, science, and poetic longing. But when they recorded their travels, the military commanders of Greece and Rome, the navigators of the Age of Discovery, the diplomats and missionaries of the seventeenth century, the dilettantes who set out on the Grand Tour, the romantic travellers and the scientists of the nineteenth century all had one thing in common: they were re-imagining the world, re-interpreting it in their own minds and for their readers. This is the first general survey of the entire history of travel literature, with illustrations reproduced from manuscripts and books in the Bodleian Library's collections. Writers covered include Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, Thomas Coryate, Captain Cook, T.E. Lawrence, and Christopher Columbus as well as Boswell and Johnson, Byron, Ruskin, Defoe, Conrad, and James. This book highlights over a hundred texts, showing how one motive for travelling has been succeeded by another, and how travel writing has often inhabited a strange borderland between truth and imagination, fact and fiction. It demonstrates how travel writers have slowly outgrown their traditional stance of superiority to all things 'foreign', and have moved towards a deeper sensitivity to other lands and other cultures.


Link prediction is addressed as an output kernel learning task through semi-supervised Output Kernel Regression. Working in the framework of RKHS theory with vector-valued functions, we establish a new representer theorem devoted to semi-supervised least square regression. We then apply it to get a new model (POKR: Penalized Output Kernel Regression) and show its relevance using numerical experiments on artificial networks and two real applications using a very low percentage of labeled data in a transductive setting.


We present a new method, suitable for food quality management by wirelessly monitoring pH level changes in food with a flexible pH sensor embedded in a batteryless radio-frequency (RF) transponder. The wireless sensor tag includes a flexible pH sensor based on miniature iridium oxide (IrOx) and silver chloride (AgCl) sensing electrodes integrated on a deformable substrate, and batteryless wireless communication circuitry. The sensor tag and reader system is designed to achieve convenient, long-term, and on-demand wireless in situ monitoring of food quality, especially for large-quantity applications and continuous monitoring from place of production to retail stores. Low-cost IrOx sol-gel fabrication process was applied on polymeric substrates to form the flexible sensing films, and a sensitivity of -49.7 mV/pH was achieved. Inducting coupling provides electromagnetic energy from the reader to drive the transponder circuits that retransmit the sensor-data modulated signals back to the reader. The electrochemical potential created by the IrOx/AgCl sensing electrodes is converted to a modulated frequency and the system achieves a sensitivity of 633 Hz/pH. The wireless pH sensing system was tested for in situ monitoring of the spoilage processes in fish meats continuously for over 18 h. The feasibility of wirelessly monitoring pH values in fish meats that could be used to identify spoilage remotely has been demonstrated.


This thesis studies three controversies of the time and place, namely the
settler's petition of 1819 and the subsequent questioning of the legal status of
emancipists, the Dinnerist Crisis of 1825, and the Sudds-Thompson Case in 1826
— 1827.
In background to the study stands a statement by Michael Roe, 'As
settlement spread, the relative importance of the gaols declined and the penal
method of government became inadequate. What new form of power was to take
its place concerned all interests in the colonies' . 1 Although Roe was discussing the
period 1835 to 1851 this concern with future power had long been present in the
colony. In the period of this thesis that concern was expressed as a desire for the
granting of constitutional reforms, particularly trial by jury and some form of
representative government. When these demands were discussed the colony was
troubled by a question, should the emancipated convicts be allowed to participate
in these boons if they were granted? While following these political concerns, the
individuals placed in the foreground of this study are examined and an attempt is
made to delineate the personal within their public actions. Some of the familiar
building blocks of colonial history are re-examined, and the claims are made that
there were no 'exclusives', William Wentworth was not the author of a book
which appeared over his name, and Laurence Hynes Halloran caused the SuddsThompson
Case.
The three clashes studied in this thesis occurred under the administration
of different governors, Macquarie, Brisbane and Darling. They took place
without, and with, a free press. Not all the same protagonists were involved in
each dispute. The first two incidents appear to have common political aims, while
the third protested against a parade ground ceremony and the death of a soldier.
The law courts, public dinners, and iron collars served as occasions for colonial
conflict and political manoeuvring. Each event was political, and personal.
In 1819 an elite, a blended group of emancipated convicts and free
emigrants, organized a widely supported settler petition. At the head of a wish list
of commercial reforms they placed a plea for the introduction of trial by jury —
whether the emancipated convicts were to take part was not clearly represented.
Shortly afterwards, and as Commissioner Bigge was conducting his Inquiry for the
Colonial Office, the legal rights of the freed convicts were disturbed as the
implications of a London trial, Bullock v. Dodd, spread to the colony.
The `dinnerist crisis' of 1825 occurred around the trivial matter of
Governor Brisbane's departure from Sydney. A dinner organized to farewell him
developed into a confrontation between factions. Then, at the end of 1826, the
Darling government became enmeshed in the disastrous Sudds-Thompson Case.
The thesis is largely drawn from an examination of primary sources, and
suggests different perspectives and parameters for the study of colonial society.
Throughout, it is argued that much of the accepted historiography is inaccurate,
partial, and often based on confused chronology. Attention is particularly drawn
to the increasing role of the newspapers, and their powers of choosing matters to
dispute, their ability to sustain and direct argumentation, and their questionable
legacy as historical sources. Also, two men, Edward Eagar and Laurence
Halloran, are brought forward and examined for their contributions to the
confrontations which marked the period 1819— 1827. As its title suggests, 'The
Politics of Grievance' highlights the personal resentments which underpinned the
public face of progressive colonial politicking.


In this paper, the 3GPP downlink eigenbeamformer scheme is investigated. The eigenbeamformer scheme performs an eigendecomposition (EVD) of the spatial longterm covariance matrix to obtain beamforming weights. Diversity gains are obtained due to switching between socalled eigenbeams. Since the EVD is carried out by the mobile station, computationally efficient algorithms are required. We show that the computational efforts can be drastically reduced by exploiting the quasi-stationarity of the long-term spatial covariance. For a given feedback rate, the performance of closed-loop schemes drop at high velocities due to delay introduced by feedback of side information. To cope with this problem, an efficient spatiotemporal prediction scheme is proposed. Our simulations, in which realistic coding, feedback delay, channel estimation and quantization of eigenbeams are considered, show that for a given target block error rate, the operational range, i.e. the maximally allowed speed of the mobile station, can then be significantly increased.


Background/Context In most judicial and social science debates about school desegregation, it is usually assumed that educational and social benefits, if significant, help establish a compelling purpose for school desegregation plans. Less thought has been given to whether the degree of benefits should factor into whether a plan is narrowly tailored according to Supreme Court standards. Hence, many were surprised when Justice Kennedy argued in the Seattle case that school desegregation meets the compelling purpose requirement but that desegregation plans that classified and assigned all students on the basis of race violated the narrow tailoring requirement. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of the Study The essay offers a social science rationale for Justice Kennedy's views about narrow tailoring issues and suggests several approaches to desegregation plans that may meet narrow tailoring requirements in the future. Setting For illustrative purposes, the study uses student achievement data from Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, between 2001 and 2006. The data were obtained from the North Carolina Education Research Data Center at Duke University. Population/Participants/Subjects From a larger North Carolina data set, a cohort was drawn consisting of about 4,050 Black students from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district who began third grade in 2000–2001 and completed the eighth grade in 2005–2006. Research Design This essay is primarily an analytic essay with a brief quantitative analysis of student achievement data. Data Collection and Analysis The quantitative analysis of achievement data utilized longitudinal methods, tracking socioeconomic-status-adjusted achievement trends for Black students over time. Findings/Results A modest relationship between school desegregation and Black student achievement (0.2 standard deviations over 5 years) masks a substantial overlap in test scores for individual students in desegregated versus segregated schools. That is, many Black students in segregated schools score higher than the typical desegregated Black student, and vice versa. Conclusions/Recommendations Using evidence from within social science, the authors find that the current design of most mandatory desegregation plans does not fit within the current Court's (especially Justice Kennedy's) view of narrowly tailored plans. However, there are several ways in which school boards and other policy makers can promote school desegregation: considering race when drawing attendance zones, building new schools, closing schools, and locating magnet schools in strategic areas. Further, magnet schools might meet narrow tailoring requirements if race is only one of several factors considered during the application and administration process.


We have exploited angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) to study the electronic structure of single crystal samples of high Tc material Bi2Sr2CaCu208^ and of the antiferromagnetic insulator Sr2Cu02Cl2. As one moves away from optimal doping into underdoped region (Tc as low as 30K), the large Fermi surface sheet centered around the (it,ic) point evolves into a small pocket centered around (;t/2,7t/2), and the saddle-point van Hove singularity is lost. This evolution can be extrapolated to Sr2Cu02Cl2, which is apparently well described by the mean field spin-density wave calculation. We have performed angle resolved photoemission (ARPES) study of electronic structure of the underdoped superconducting BSCCO-2212 (TC~60K, TC~30K) and insulating Sr2Cu02Cl2 single crystals. The materials involved represent three steps in evolution from an antiferromagnetic insulator to an optimally doped superconductor, and therefore, this study reveals some points of the evolution process of the electronic band structure with doping. ABSTRACT The magneto-optical technique was used to study the edge barrier in type I superconducting strips. We measured the flux-free zones in the sample edges and its dependence on the field magnitude and temperature. Standard I-V measurements allowed us to study the critical current originated by the edge barrier in these pinning-free samples. Our results show the predominant role of the geometrical edge barrier. Highly oriented (Bi0 8Pbo.2)2Sr2Ca2Cu3Oio+j thin films were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering on (100) MgO, SrTi03 and LaA103 substrates. Deposited films were post-annealed at the same temperature for different annealing times. The influence of the substrate type and annealing duration on Tc and Jc, structure and surface morphology is reported. Four contact R(T) measurements have been performed for various multi-probe aluminium nanostructures. For several samples (combinations of probes) the resistance at the top of superconducting transition can increase the corresponding normal state value. The effect is not fully reproducible, being dependent upon cooling history and particular arrangement of voltage and current probes. While the resistive transition, the inevitably formed normal superconducting boundary is considered to be responsible for the observed anomaly due to additional voltage step at the N/S interface. The absence of full reproducibility of experimental results is attributed to the dramatic sensitivity of mesoscopic-size samples transport properties on the variation of boundary (scattering) conditions. state Wo present measurements of high resolution directional Compton profile performed on a single crystal of Snu.8lno.2 • We have determined the Fermi momentum kp- in the [100] direction We compare the result with those obtained by positron 2D-ACAR and neutron diffraction Kohn anomaly measurements. We report a study of the lateral band bending at the Ge-GaSe interface. Spectromicroscopy measurements with synchrotron radiation were performed at the ESCA microscopy line of ELETTRA in Ge patterned films on GaSe substrates. Preliminary results of lateral band bending, chemical reactions and the beam stimulated Ge surface migration are presented. These studies allowed us to seek on the microscopical equivalent of the semiconductor Debye length and to probe the capabilities of scanning-focused spectromicroscopical systems. We present a spectromicroscopical study of the lateral band bending at the near-edge region of a patterned Ge films on GaSe substrates. Nowadays, as semiconductor devices become smaller, the new sized devices are controlled by strong size-related effects: the boundaries coupling of contacts, interfaces and surfaces. Particularly important for devices are the lateral potential variations. Space charge layers are almost always associated with interfaces.fi] Normally, it is assumed that these space charge layers have abrupt edges, but transport processes do not allow a step-like lateral profile of the carrier concentration and the space charge is usually spread over the semiconductor Debye length. Pulsed corona discharges are used in electrostatic precipitators with pulsed or intermittent energization. We consider the classical ESP configuration of thin round high voltage electrodes between plane grounded collecting plates. The time dependent solutions for the current and ion distributions are presented. We treat three cases in which the duration of the corona pulse is longer than, comparable to or shorter than the ion transit time from the high voltage electrode to the collecting plate. The computations show that the radial extension of the traveling annular ion cloud decreases during transit. At atmospheric pressure the active corona region around a high voltage electrode is extremely thin. In this region the electric field surpasses the ionisation limit and positive ions are generated together with free electrons. The positive ions travel only a short distance to the negative high voltage electrode. The electrons rapidly attach to electronegative molecules and form negative ions that have to travel all the distance to the grounded collecting plates. It is this passive ion region that occupies most of the space in an electrostatic precipitator and that is responsible for particle charging and particle transport. The ions follow the electric field lines from the high voltage electrode to the collecting plates. Their velocity is proportional to the local value of the electric field. The properties of such a unipolar ion drift region can be described by the following set of equations: The number of trapped cesium atoms as function of cooling laser detuning and magnetic field gradient has been measured for the vapor-cell Zeeman optical trap and is represented by a contour map. The measured contours are compared with the predictions of a one-dimensional theoretical model of the capture process that includes the spatially varying magnetic field and was proposed by Lindquist [1]. The theoretical model tends to overestimate the detuning dependence of the number of trapped atoms. A semi-discrete model system with 14 phase space dimensions approximately simulating a Lorenzian water wheel has been used to investigate the influence of stochastic noise on the lifetimes of chaotic transients. In this study we focus on transitions from chaos to a steady state with indifferent stability. For the first time, a significant shortening by a factor of 3 of mean transition times at a critical noise amplitude could be detected with a nonlinear dynamical system. Surprisingly, the model system can find the delicate steady state much quicker when a stochastic torque noise is added. The effect results from a noise induced modification of the attraction basin of the steady state rather than from affecting the chaotic orbits before the chaos-order transitions occur. Based on ideas of Prandtl, Hinze proposed to describe turbulence properties - e.g. the Reynold's shear stress - as those of a visco-elastic fluid, including a description of memory behaviour. For the time-averaged quantities of a quasi-stationary flow an analogous non-local approach can be formulated. From this, by assuming a perfect coherence over a well defined distance, the difference-quotient turbulence model has been obtained. The difference-quotient turbulence model, describing the Reynold's shear stress of an axi-symmetric jet, has now been modified to relate to the normal stress in the main flow direction. The simple analytical results show, that in an experiment self-preservation has not been achieved completely. A proposition of the theory states, that a relative turbulence intensity is just equal to the square root of the spreading parameter of the jet. This result is confirmed by experimental data. Modern irradiation techniques (e.g. proton therapy) allow for the applied radiation dose to be tailored to the three dimensional shape of the tumor. In these techniques it is assumed that the tumor position remains constant over the treatment time. However, many tumors move, especially in the chest and abdomen region. A method has been developed, which can detect the position of a magnetic dipole (miniaturized coil) in real time, which has been previously implanted or inserted at the tumor. The results of this position determination can be used to interrupt the treatment or adjust the beam position, if the tumor is not within the target area. dose tumor Matter flowing away from the solar surface becomes highly ionized in the corona (T « 2 • 106A' by collisions with electrons. Due to the decreasing electron density with increasing distance from the solar surface, the charge state distributions freeze and remain unaltered throughout the interplanetary medium. This is why charge spectra measured at 1 AU are a valuable diagnostic tool for temperature and density variations in the inner solar corona. Preliminary results of iron charge spectra obtained from the SOHO CELIAS CTOF mass spectrometer indicate a patchy structure of the corona at scales of ss 104 km.


We analyze the impact of the private label production channel on innovation. A retailer may either choose to integrate backward with a small firm (insourcing) or rely on a national brand manufacturer (outsourcing) to produce its private label. The trade-off between insourcing and outsourcing strategies is a choice between too much or too little innovation (i.e., quality investment) on the private label. When insourcing, an outside-option effect leads the retailer to overinvest to increase its buyer power. When outsourcing, a hold-up effect leads to underinvestment. In addition, selecting the national brand manufacturer may create economies of scale that spur innovation.


This paper aims to identify trade trends for primary products from the South African agricultural, forestry and fisheries sector for 2008. Annual trade data was received from the South African Revenue Service (SARS). The postal code information were used to identify from which province exports were sent or for which province the imports were destined. The postal code provided is that of the exporter or importer, and thus does not necessarily reflect the final destination in South Africa of imports or the origin (province) of our exports. Traded goods are classified using the Harmonised System (HS) that is used internationally. Results indicate that in South Africa, the value of total imports are more than total exports, but in the agricultural sector of South Africa exports still dominate, i.e. South Africa is still a net exporter of agricultural products. The main importing countries for South Africa include Germany and China while the main exporting countries are United Kingdom followed by the United States of America. The top five agriculture, forestry and fisheries imports and exports for South Africa revealed that seed corn is imported most whilst citrus fruit is exported most. Provincial reviews also took a closer look at each province's agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector. Nominal values are reported.


Survey practitioners are challenged with the dilemma of whether or not to utilize the SAGEOID 2010 model in topographical surveys because they are unsure of the height accuracy attainable from its application. This paper presents an evaluation of the accuracy of the SAGEOID 2010 model in two case study areas in Cape Town. In order to achieve this, the objective was to investigate and compare a relative and absolute verification in terms of height of SAGEOID 2010 model and to clarify the achievable accuracy thereof. The main purpose of this article is to discuss the accuracy of the SAGEOID 2010 model using GNSS positioning techniques. The SAGEOID 2010 model was used in two study areas in Cape Town within a Virtual Reference Station (VRS) network cluster. The model was verified in both the absolute and relative sense. The results suggest that in the absolute sense, the accuracy improves with shorter baseline lengths from the Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS). The results showed a mean of 0.004m and RMS of 0.021m in Rondebosch compared to a mean of 0.023m and RMS of 0.029m in Parow. The two types of verifications confirmed the published accuracy of the SAGEOID 2010. There has been very little published work on the SAGEOID 2010 and this study is intended to contribute towards the geodetic body of research.


Marine pollution resulting from oil spillage has received much attention mostly due to the damaging effects it has on fisheries and aquacultures. One component of oil that is widely studied due to its toxic and carcinogenic properties is the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The physical and chemical properties of these compounds control their distribution into the various phases of the environment. The rates of elimination of these compounds from impacted organisms were investigated in laboratory and field experiments using selected marine organisms (Mytilus edulis and Salmo salar). The elimination of individual PAH compounds followed first order kinetics. Elimination rate varied among compounds and generally decreased with increase in molecular weight and degree of alkylation. Elimination rate constants (k2) and biological half-lives (t1/2) evaluated from chronically exposed mussels (collected from Aberdeen harbour) in separate laboratory and field studies were comparable but differed from those evaluated from acutely exposed mussels. Shorter t1/2 were obtained from acutely exposed mussels. The t1/2 ranged between 0.5- 22 d (acute exposure) and 3.8- 31.5 d (chronic exposure).The longer apparent t1/2 calculated for the chronically impacted mussels was attributed to the retention of the compounds in a stable compartment due to long period of exposure that limited exchange with the surrounding water. Contrary to expectation, t1/2 for similar compounds was higher in salmon than in mussels. The reason for this was unknown but attributed to the route of elimination. A good correlation (r2 > 0.72) was found between PAHs tissue concentration and taint intensity in salmon. Comparison of the results from this study with literature data showed that tank water replacement time and exposure duration affects rate of PAHs elimination. The data generated in this study and some of the reviewed studies will find application in different oil spill scenarios. The usefulness and limitations of the n-alkanes profile, PAH distribution and concentration ratios, and specific biomarker ratios from organisms in oil spill source identification was also demonstrated.


An Academic-Community Model to Prepare Nurses for the Future "One does not discover new lands without consenting lose sight of the shore for a very long time." ANDRE GIDE FACULTY AND PRACTITIONERS, responding to changes in the health care system, must be willing to explore new opportunities and experiment with different teaching and practice modalities. In other words, they must be willing "to reach outside the box." * As cornerstones of the future health care system, interdisciplinary primary care education and community-campus partnerships provide avenues for the successful integration of teaching, practice, and research, essential components of contemporary health professions education (1-5). Creativity in health care delivery is also needed. The time is ripe for population-focused service delivery entailing grassroots community empowerment and what can be described as "curbside" delivery of health services (5). * Student Nurses in Action (SNIA) is a transdisciplinary, academic-service-research partnership model that responds to community needs by bringing care to residents of urban, suburban, and rural communities. SNIA links clinical settings with diverse research projects and funding sources. Ideas for partnerships and campus-community programs are replicated across economically and culturally diverse populations. * Evaluation of SNIA is based on data from fiscal estimates, questionnaires, and interviews from a purposive sample of students, clients, and preceptors. Evaluations conducted to date support the continuation and expansion of the program. Background and Goals Responding to an increased demand for grassroots community health and social services, the author worked with civic leaders to develop Student Nurses in Action in 1994. This effort was a natural response by an academic institution to calls in the early 1990s for community-based education (4,6). Partnership goals, roles, and resources were clearly delineated in the early days of the program and revisited throughout the process. Core public health measures serve as the framework for education outcomes and skills of SNIA nurses. These measures are community assessment, partnership development, grant writing, epidemiology and research, negotiation skills, health promotion and education, quality assurance, data collection and surveillance, and public policy development. SNIA has six primary goals: * To improve the public's access to health services, information, screenings, and education. * To provide undergraduate and graduate nursing students with population-based clinical management and health policy experiences. * To facilitate program and agency service missions, research activities, needs assessments, marketing projects, and staff development. * To empower at-risk communities to attain United States Healthy People 2010 objectives. * To promote faculty, student, and preceptor research-practice ventures. * To facilitate community networking and partnerships between a college of nursing and health science and nonprofit agencies of a county government-based community action program. A pilot project for one academic year involved one community nursing faculty member and 30 RN-to-baccalaureate degree students. The partners during the pilot were delegate agencies of a county community action department. Based on the success of the pilot, SNIA has been established for second degree and traditional senior nursing students and has been replicated at a suburban university nursing program. Graduate health and nursing students at both the master's and doctoral levels are also involved, as participants in appropriate research, policy, and clinical projects. For the original partners, designated staff members have served as SNIA liaisons, collaborating with community health nursing faculty to maintain and evaluate the model. The more recent suburban partnership functions differently. …


In previous research (Yus 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012), a distinction was made, in a general classification of jokes, between those that are based on the speaker's manipulation of the audience's interpretive steps leading to an interpretation of the joke, and those whose main source of humor lies in the reinforcement or invalidation of commonly assumed social and cultural stereotypes. However, interpretive strategies for obtaining interpretations work in parallel to the processing of cultural information and also of mental frames, schemas and scripts that are retrieved by the hearer in order to make sense of the text of the joke. In this chapter, a more comprehensive picture of joke interpretation (the Intersecting Circles Model) is proposed to account for how some or all of these interpretive procedures may be manipulated for producing humorous effects.


Food taboo is one of nutrition problem in Indonesia. Solution to overcome this problem is therefore needed. Objectives of this study are to identify taboo foods and to reduce community food taboo beleive through conducting training on basic nutrition knowledge. Study was conducted in Jeneponto South Sulawesi from December 1995 to November 2006. A sample of size 45 households was drawn randomly from household population of size 226. The households population is household farmer who are beneficiary of Special Program for Food Secutity, Food and Acgriculture Organization. Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively and presented in one way table. Results show that groups which had a large number of food taboo were pregnant women group. There are 20 taboo foods for pregnant women and 7 taboo food for lactating mother. Some taboo foods for pregnant women are squid, pari fish, toka-toka fish, papaya, pineapple, etc. Some taboo foods for lactating mother are chicken, chili, shrimp, pari fish, etc. After attending trainning, the knowledge on basic nutrition knowledge of the farmers increase significantly, therefore it is hoped that their knowledge can reduce their belive of the food taboo.


Objective: We studied the influence of bile duct obstruction (BDO) after 28 days on bone metabolism status and their modification by resveratrol in male Wistar rats. Methods: The rats were divided into 3 groups: Sham group with laparotomy and vehiculum application, group BDO—bile duct obstruction and vehiculum application, and group RBDO—bile duct obstruction and resveratrol application (10 mg/kg dose of resveratrol orally once daily). The bone mineral density (BMD; g/cm2) and body composition were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. The physiccal strenght of femur was examined by controlled break biomechanical testing. The osteocalcin, procollagen type I N-terminal propeptide (PINP) and carboxy-terminal collagen crosslinks (CTX) were analysed by EIA in the bone tissue homogenate. Results: The total BMD was lower in group BDO (0.176 ± 0.005; p = 0.01) and R-BDO (0.181 ± 0.004; p = 0.052) vs Sham (0.209 ± 0.003). BMD of femur diaphysis in BDO group decreased significantly (p = 0.01) but not in R-BDO animals (p = 0.052). Body fat (g, median) was lower in BDO (19.0) and R-BDO (26.0) than in Sham (35.0). The force needed for fracture of femurs (N) significantly decreased in BDO (154 ± 6) and R-BDO (151 ± 13) vs Sham group (208 ± 7). The force needed for neck fracture decreased in BDO (105 ± 3) and R-BDO (115 ± 8) vs Sham (135 ± 9). The osteocalcin decrease in group R-BDO (2.9 ± 0.1) vs Sham (3.7 ± 0.4). Higher PINP/CTX were in BDO (20 ± 5/0.49 ± 0.08) and R-BDO (30 ± 4/0.55 ± 0.07) vs Sham (16 ± 4/0.48 ± 0.11). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that subchronic bile duct obstruction decreased body fat quantity and BMD with decrease of bone rigidity. Resveratrol showed protective effect on liver injury and consequently positive influence on bone tissue.


The semantic congruity effect refers to the facilitation of judgements (i) when the direction of the comparison of two items coincides with the relative position of the items along the dimension comparison or (ii) when the relative size of a standard and a target stimulus coincides. For example, people are faster in judging 'which is bigger?' for two large items, than judging 'which is smaller?' for two large items (selection paradigm). Also, people are faster in judging a target stimulus as smaller when compared to a small standard, than when compared to a large standard, and vice versa (classification paradigm). We use the Drift Diffusion Model (DDM) to explain the time course of a semantic congruity effect in a classification paradigm. Formal modelling of semantic congruity allows the time course of the decision process to be described, using an established model of decision making. Moreover, although there have been attempts to explain the semantic congruity effect within evidence accumulation models, two possible accounts for the congruity effect have been proposed but their specific predictions have not been compared directly, using a model that could quantitatively account for both; a shift in the starting point of evidence accumulation or a change in the rate at which evidence is accumulated. With our computational investigation we provide evidence for the latter, while controlling for other possible explanations such as a variation in non-decision time or boundary separation, that have not been taken into account in the explanation of this phenomenon.


The objective of this is to investigate African immigrant women's perceptions of female genital mutilation (FGM) within the Canadian Criminal Code. Ten African immigrant women resident in Windsor, Canada were selected using snowball sampling for interviews. These women were of four African nationalities, namely Nigeria, Ghana, Somalia and Sudan. Semi-structured interview protocol with open answer possibilities guided the interviews. Most of the participants (70%) had undergone FGM, 25% had not and 5% were unable to confirm their FGM status. Participants' perceptions of sexuality remained inconclusive, and were linked to their ethnicity and religion. The participants noted that the association between FGM and infertility in western societies was questionable and Eurocentric. Despite the prevalence of FGM, African nations have high fertility, averaging six or more children. Participants reported the need to provide a prevention protocol that is not based on ethnocentric values but gives adult women the choice to be circumcised or not. Although recent literature in developed countries continue to highlight the negative outcomes of FGM, participants in this study are starting to question the criminalization of FGM based on protecting the rights of women and children because of the 'restructuring and reconstruction of the vagina' in developed countries.

 Key words: Female genital mutilation (FGM), fertility/infertility, African immigrant women.


Categorically organized knowledge is the main vehicle in high-level cognitive processes. The previous empirical and theoretical studies on categorization paid almost exclusive attention to how individuals learn categorical knowledge. In the real world, however, people acquire knowledge not only through individual learning, but also through interacting with others. In the present study, using computational modeling, we explored how social interactions would produce unique dynamics of knowledge acquisition that cannot be examined by studies on micro level processes. The results of simulation studies showed that when there were several clusters of individuals in a society where individuals held different beliefs about what constitutes "good" knowledge, then the society as a whole formed Pareto-optimal knowledge. That is, there was no cluster of knowledge that was simultaneously worse in two important aspects of knowledge (i.e., accuracy and simplicity) as compared with those of other clusters in a mature society.


The development field needs to be more serious about gender inequities and women's empowerment. By ignoring gender inequities, many development projects fail to achieve their objective. And when development organizations do not focus on women's empowerment, they neglect the fact that empowered women have the potential to transform their societies. I also review the Gates Foundation's record on gender and propose some approaches to improve it.


The purpose of this study is to Identify the training needs for multicultural education of pre-school teachers In Singapore. There are two tasks involved in this study. The first task Is to Investigate the concepts and issues related to multicultural education and pre-school teacher education In the context of Singapore. The second task is to use the results of the investigation in the first task as input for the design of a framework for a multicultural component to be conducted In the teacher-training program for preschool teachers in Singapore. While a review of related local and international literature was done to meet the first task, a survey was conducted to meet the second task. The survey was aimed at answering the overall research question, that is, What do pre-schoolteachers in Singapore already know or understand about multicultural education? The overall research question was further broken down into sub-research questions from which items for the questionnaire were drawn. A sample of about 60 pre-school teachers was selected and asked to complete the questionnaire to ascertain their level of understanding of and experience in multicultural education and its importance in early childhood, as well as their views on what they thought were the training needs In multicultural education for pre-school teachers. The data collected were analyzed using the Information gathered from the review of related local and International literature. The data showed that while most teachers believe that multicultural education is important and should be taught in the early years, they have a simplistic, narrow or superficial understanding of multiculturalism and multicultural education. The data also showed that while some teachers have a positive experience in multicultural environments and with multicultural people, their knowledge and experience was superficial and limited. Finally, the data also showed that the teachers agreed that a multicultural component be incorporated in the pre-schoolteachers-training program. These findings are Important in identifying the needs of pre-school teachers in Singapore as well as to develop a framework to meet their needs. This framework would then provide the basis for designing the multicultural component in the pre-school teacher-training program. This study could lead to further research on meeting the needs of pre-school teachers in other areas of teacher-training, as well as meeting the needs of preschool teachers in other teacher-training institutes in or outside Singapore. It could also lead to a new research on the effectiveness of the component on multicultural education for pre-school teachers.


The cerebellum has a well-established role in locomotion control, but how the cerebellar network regulates locomotion behaviour is still not well understood. We therefore characterized the activity of cerebellar neurons in awake mice engaged in a locomotion task, using high-density silicon electrode arrays. We characterized the activity of over 300 neurons in response to locomotion, finding tuning to speed of locomotion, turning, and phase of the step cycle. We found that the cerebellar neurons we recorded mainly encoded information about future locomotor activity. We were able to decode the speed of locomotion with a simple linear algorithm, needing relatively few well-chosen cells to provide an accurate estimate of locomotion speed. Our observation that cerebellar neuronal activity predicts locomotion in the near future, and encodes the required kinematic variables, points to this activity underlying the efference copy signal for vertebrate locomotion.


Erosion by high stress abrasion of convergent margins from horsts and grabens on the subducting plate is not shown in seismic images. In a proposed model, the frontal sediment prism is a dynamic mass that elevates pore-fluid pressure. Overpressured fluid invades fractures in the upper plate and separates fragments that are dragged into a subduction channel along the plate interface. Removed fragments are smaller than surface ship seismic techniques have resolved and beyond the reach of past scientific ocean drilling; however, current drill capability and downhole geophysics can test the model.


This completely revised and expanded edition of English Prepositions Explained (EPE) , originally published in 1998, covers approximately 100 simple, compound, and phrasal English prepositions of space and time – with the focus being on short prepositions such as at, by, in, and on. Its target readership includes teachers of ESOL, pre-service translators and interpreters, undergraduates in English linguistics programs, studious advanced learners and users of English, and anyone who is inquisitive about the English language. The overall aim is to explain how and why meaning changes when one preposition is swapped for another in the same context. While retaining most of the structure of the original, this edition says more about more prepositions. It includes many more figures – virtually all new. The exposition draws on recent research, and is substantially founded on evidence from digitalized corpora, including frequency data. EPE gives information and insights that will not be found in dictionaries and grammar handbooks.


The effect of Brownian noise on Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS)-based circuits has been calculated for MEMS-based circuits (phase shifters, delay circuits). The calculations are done for capacitive shunt MEMS switches and metal-to-metal contact series MEMS switches. The phase noise due to Brownian motion is negligible for MEMS switches with k ¿ 10 N/m, g0 > 2 ¿m, Q > 0.5, and f0 ¿ 50 kHz. It is also found that metal-to-metal contact series switches result in much less phase noise than standard capacitive shunt switches. The phase noise increases rapidly for low spring-constant bridges (k =0.2-4 N/m), low-height bridges, and for bridges with a large mechanical damping (Q < 0.3). Also, varactor-based designs result in 30-40 dB more phase noise than switch-based circuits. The paper proves that microwave passive circuits built using MEMS switches (with a proper mechanical design) can be used in most commercial and military applications without any phase noise penalty.