MAURITIUS: FIGHT AGAINST TOBACCO MANUFACTURING PLANT After ratifying the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2004, Mauritius put in place effective tobacco control measures, supported by strong political will. Legislation was adopted to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and smoking in most public places, and the first pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs in Africa were introduced in 2008. More than 70% of the retail price of the most popular tobacco products is tax, although they are still easily affordable to the average-income smoker. In 2007, British American Tobacco closed its manufacturing plant on the island. In 2012 it stopped the purchase of tobacco leaves from tobacco growers in Mauritius, bringing an abrupt end to domestic cultivation. Data compiled from the customs office indicate that the import of cigarettes is going down. However, the shadow of big tobacco is looming again in the Mauritian landscape. An undisclosed international tobacco company based in Dubai is seeking authorisation from the government to set up a tobacco manufacturing plant for products to be exported to other African countries. Although officially the company will be manufacturing cigarettes, information indicates that the company will also be producing chewing tobacco. According to the existing law in Mauritius, the company will be allowed to sell up to 50% of its production on the local market. The proposal has been strongly opposed by VISA, a Mauritian tobacco control NGO, on the basis that it violates the WHO FCTC as well as the United Nations Political Declaration of the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NonCommunicable Diseases. The proposed manufacturing plant will support the tobacco industry to increase consumption in Africa, leading to further tobacco-related suffering and deaths in a continent already faced with the double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. VISA and other organisations argue that Mauritius has a moral responsibility not to allow the tobacco industry to use its territory to manufacture a deadly product which will harm the populations of other African countries. According to the World Customs Organization, the free zones in the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai, are known sources of considerable counterfeit cigarette production which targets predominantly West African markets. There is concern that the Dubai-based tobacco manufacturing plant may use the free port of Mauritius to engage in illicit trade of tobacco products. Action led by VISA to dissuade the government of Mauritius from authorising the tobacco plant, including official protests to the prime minister and other key government ministers, and advocacy by international organisations such as the Framework Convention Alliance and African Tobacco Control Alliance appears to have fallen on deaf ears. The official response received from the Ministry of Agro-Industry is that the "cigarette is a legal product worldwide and smokers will purchase the product whether manufactured in Mauritius or in any other country". This stance ignores the health, social, economic and environmental consequences of tobacco use and the normalising effect of welcoming a manufacturing plant, thereby signalling societal approval of its products. Mauritius is regarded as a model and leader in tobacco control by the WHO and other international bodies. Establishing a tobacco manufacturing plant risks tarnishing this image, as it indicates a lack of regional and global responsibility in the face of the harms caused by the tobacco epidemic. The issue is a reminder that the tobacco industry is always looking for opportunities to expand its commercial activities, even (and perhaps especially) in countries that have put in place strong tobacco control measures. The national and international response by non-government organisations and other agencies shows that civil society remains a major force to counteract the power and influence of the tobacco industry.


This work explores the performance of Zr-SBA-15 as a support for the conversion of methyl esters into green diesel. Thereby, a series of SBA-15 samples incorporating different amounts of Zr into the walls have been synthesized and impregnated with Ni and Co as hydrogenating species. All materials have been characterized, pelletized and tested in the hydrotreating of methyl esters using a fixed-bed tubular reactor at 300 °C, 30 bar of H2 and a continuous flow of 0.1 mL/min for 6 h. Co and Ni phases are present both over the surface and within the pores of the support. Interactions between the metals and the Zr species are more pronounced for Co-containing samples, leading to smaller Co particles at low Si/Zr ratios. Materials having higher Zr contents resulted in more methyl ester conversion, although an adequate metal-support combination was required to promote the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) route. Co/Zr-SBA-15 materials exhibited more conversion (>90%) and higher yields of C11-C20 hydrocarbons (>60%) than their Ni-based counterpart catalysts. Specifically, Co/Zr-SBA-15(17) sample showed remarkable behavior, favoring the HDO pathway (n-C18/(n-C18 + n-C17) > 0.5), while keeping the methyl esters' conversion close to 100% along the time on stream. These results evidence a synergistic effect between Co and Zr.


Mononuclear cells from 15 patients with hairy cell leukemia were studied before and during therapy with interferon alfa‐2b (IFN) by regular peripheral blood differential counts and flow cytometry, using a panel of monoclonal antibodies (Moab). Seven leukemic phase patients (Group 1) had a mean leukocyte count of 48,870/μl at entry with a mean absolute hairy cell (HC) count of 40,100/μl. After 3 months on IFN, both parameters decreased significantly (WBC 3,500/μl; HC count 130/μl). In eight patients with a cytopenic form of the disease (Group 2) the mean leukocyte count rose from 2950/μl to 3890/μl while the mean absolute HC count decreased from 300/μl to 120/μl. The morphologic shifts correlated well with changes in the Moab reaction pattern. In Group 1 the activity of all Moab decreased significantly. In Group 2, only cells expressing Leu 3a and Leu 11a (a marker of natural killer cells) showed a significant shift, the latter increasing from 170/μl to 360/μl. This increase in natural killer cell antigen expression was not obvious based on routine morphologic observations alone. We show that flow cytometry may be a useful adjunct in monitoring the response of HCL to therapy. Changes in populations of cells that may be difficult to discriminate on morphologic grounds alone may be observed.


In a bold policy effort, Mexico recently moved away from subsidies to transport fuels, increased tax rates on these fuels and introduced a carbon tax. This paper analyses these reforms using a broad set of criteria that consider the main practical dimensions of environmental policy design: environmental effectiveness, equity and distributional impacts, broader tax system impacts, macroeconomic effects, compliance and administration, policy process and consistency. The reforms significantly improve the extent to which the external costs of energy use are reflected in prices and increase government revenues, but, as price deregulation progresses further, more attention may need to be devoted to analysing and addressing the policies' distributive effects. The analysis also highlights that ease of administration and collection are an important and desirable property of carbon taxes, especially in emerging market contexts.


Research demonstrates the positive impact of parental involvement on students, families and schools. Studies also indicate a close connection between effective school-home communication and increased parental involvement and engagement in learning. Effective selection and use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) invites more effective school-home communication, increasing parental involvement and improving student outcomes. However, ICT adoption rates are heterogeneous, influenced by cultural, socioeconomic and other factors. Also, gaps may exist between parent/school communication preferences. Our multi-case study investigates principals and parents from three different public elementary schools (suburban/high wealth; urban/low wealth; urban magnet/mixed income) to understand the impact of misalignment in ICT adoption and use on school-home communication. We find misperceptions by parents and principals regarding their ICT adoption beliefs and actual use. Our results also indicate alignment between parent and principal ICT preferences and expectations improves parent satisfaction with the principal and the school, while misalignment has the opposite effect.


Objective To characterize the phenotypic spectrum, molecular genetic findings, and functional consequences of pathogenic variants in early-onset KCNT1 epilepsy. Methods We identified a cohort of 31 patients with epilepsy of infancy with migrating focal seizures (EIMFS) and screened for variants in KCNT1 using direct Sanger sequencing, a multiple-gene next-generation sequencing panel, and whole-exome sequencing. Additional patients with non-EIMFS early-onset epilepsy in whom we identified KCNT1 variants on local diagnostic multiple gene panel testing were also included. When possible, we performed homology modeling to predict the putative effects of variants on protein structure and function. We undertook electrophysiologic assessment of mutant KCNT1 channels in a xenopus oocyte model system. Results We identified pathogenic variants in KCNT1 in 12 patients, 4 of which are novel. Most variants occurred de novo. Ten patients had a clinical diagnosis of EIMFS, and the other 2 presented with early-onset severe nocturnal frontal lobe seizures. Three patients had a trial of quinidine with good clinical response in 1 patient. Computational modeling analysis implicates abnormal pore function (F346L) and impaired tetramer formation (F502V) as putative disease mechanisms. All evaluated KCNT1 variants resulted in marked gain of function with significantly increased channel amplitude and variable blockade by quinidine. Conclusions Gain-of-function KCNT1 pathogenic variants cause a spectrum of severe focal epilepsies with onset in early infancy. Currently, genotype-phenotype correlations are unclear, although clinical outcome is poor for the majority of cases. Further elucidation of disease mechanisms may facilitate the development of targeted treatments, much needed for this pharmacoresistant genetic epilepsy.


The variable biocatalyst density in a microbial fuel cell (MFC) anode biofilm is a unique feature of MFCs relative to other electrochemical systems, yet performance characterizations of MFCs typically involve analyses at electrochemically relevant time scales that are insufficient to account for these variable biocatalyst effects. This study investigated the electrochemical performance and the development of anode biofilm architecture under different external loadings, with duplicate acetate-fed single-chamber MFCs stabilized at each resistance for microbially relevant time scales. Power density curves from these steady-state reactors generally showed comparable profiles despite the fact that anode biofilm architectures and communities varied considerably, showing that steady-state biofilm differences had little influence on electrochemical performance until the steady-state external loading was much larger than the reactor internal resistance. Filamentous bacteria were dominant on the anodes under high external resistances (1000 and 5000 Ω), while more diverse rod-shaped cells formed dense biofilms under lower resistances (10, 50, and 265 Ω). Anode charge transfer resistance decreased with decreasing fixed external resistances, but was consistently 2 orders of magnitude higher than the resistance at the cathode. Cell counting showed an inverse exponential correlation between cell numbers and external resistances. This direct link of MFC anode biofilm evolution with external resistance and electricity production offers several operational strategies for system optimization.


A production task and a cross-modal priming experiment were used to investigate the influences of accented pronunciation and linguistic experience on recognition of non-native spoken words. A masked face prime image was also shown to determine if seeing a face that matched the ethnicity and gender of the speaker of the auditory prime would facilitate accented word recognition. Chinese and Iranian learners of English heard words containing either an /s/ or a /t/ substitution for the interdental fricative /θ/. A mixed-effects model analysis of the response time data showed that participant groups differed markedly depending on the prime condition and the speaker. Chinese participants showed significant facilitation for /s/ primes spoken by the Chinese speaker, inhibition for /s/ primes spoken by the Iranian speaker, and no priming effects for the /t/ substitution. The Iranian participants, on the other hand, appear not to have been affected by the substitutions for /θ/ but rather by the accent itself, showing a marginally significant facilitation for both /s/ and /t/ variants when they were spoken by the Iranian speaker. This study provides empirical evidence that participants with different L1s do not necessarily process accented words produced by speakers with different L1s in the same way: segmental substitution may weigh more heavily for some groups, while others may be affected by phonetic detail of the accent as a whole.


Abstract Accurate depiction of the land and water is critical for the production of land surface parameters from remote sensing data products. Certain parameters, including the land surface temperature, active fires and surface reflectance, can be processed differently when the underlying surface is water as compared with land. Substantial errors in the underlying water mask can then pervade into these products and any products created from them. Historically many global databases have been created to depict global surface water. These databases still fall short of the current needs of the terrestrial remote sensing community working at 250 m spatial resolution. The most recent attempt to address the problem uses the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data set to create the SRTM Water Body Data set (SWBD 2005). The SWBD represents a good first step but still requires additional work to expand the spatial coverage to include the whole globe and to address some erroneous discontinuities in major river networks. To address this issue a new water mask product has been created using the SWBD in combination with MODIS 250 m data to create a complete global map of surface water at 250 m spatial resolution. This effort is automated and intended to produce a dataset for use in processing of raster data (MODIS and future instruments) and for masking out water in final terrestrial raster data products. This new global dataset is produced from remotely sensed data and provided to the public in digital format, free of charge. The data set can be found on the Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) website at http://landcover.org. This dataset is expected to be a base set of information to describe the surface of Earth as either land or water which is a fundamental distinction upon which other descriptions can be made.


The re-launch of the Lisbon strategy in March 2005 was meant to inject a new momentum into what is now known as the Partnership for Growth and Jobs, and to highlight the challenges that Europe faces in responding to globalisation. More than two years on, it has become clear that most member states fully understand the need to adapt their economies and have shown a growing willingness to embrace economic reform. However, countries continue to differ markedly in their enthusiasm for reform and it is far from clear that 'Lisbon' can take much credit for the recent economic upturn. This report offers an assessment of the progress of the Partnership for Growth and Jobs during the 2006-07 cycle. It shows that in some respects real advances have been made, and concludes that the strategy has become more coherent and effective than in the five years after 2000. Nevertheless, the governance of economic reform remains problematic and the report highlights a range of shortcomings that warrant attention. Discussions have already started on how to revise the 'Lisbon' Integrated Guidelines for the next phase, from 2008-11, and this report aims to nourish the debate.


Implementing unfamiliar functionalities in smartphone applications can be a difficult and a tedious task. Owing to the fact that the API do not have a formal way of representing the sequence of events may be one reason. This thesis describes the development process of various Arctis building blocks based on Android's API of Wi-Fi Direct. The objective of these blocks was to simplify the implementation of Wi-Fi Direct by confining a predictable sequence of events. An Android application was developed in order to test the functionalities, and to validate the prospects of portability for the various building blocks. The work resulted in a construction of three main building blocks, where each of them is responsible for a Wi-Fi Direct related function. Developers will be able to seamlessly utilize the Wi-Fi Direct functionality by combining and implementing these building blocks into their own applications.


Cystine-knot proteins play an evolutionarily conserved dual function in nerve development and immunity to staphylococcal infection. Several evolutionarily conserved components of staphylococcal immunity have been identified using Drosophila as a model organism. However, no vertebrate ortholog has been identified for the Toll ligand Spaetzle, which plays a key role in controlling Gram-positive infection in flies. Hepburn et al. identified NGF-β as a functional equivalent to Spaetzle in vertebrates. Nerve growth factor β (NGF-β) acts as a paracrine "alarmin" orchestrating macrophage and neutrophil responses to Staphylococcus aureus infection. People with deleterious mutations in genes encoding NGF-β or its high-affinity receptor TRKA are predisposed to recurrent and severe staph infections. S. aureus proteins selectively trigger macrophage production of NGF-β, which enhances uptake and superoxide-dependent killing of S. aureus, stimulates proinflammatory cytokine production, and promotes neutrophil recruitment. Moreover, TrkA silencing in vivo increases susceptibility to S. aureus. Thus, the NGF-β–TRKA pathway is a critical, evolutionarily conserved component of vertebrate immunity to S. aureus infection. L. Hepburn, T. K. Prajsnar, C. Klapholz, P. Moreno, C. A. Loynes, N. V. Ogryzko, K. Brown, M. Schiebler, K. Hegyi, R. Antrobus, K. L. Hammond, J. Connolly, B. Ochoa, C. Bryant, M. Otto, B. Surewaard, S. L. Seneviratne, D. M. Grogono, J. Cachat, T. Ny, A. Kaser, M. E. Török, S. J. Peacock, M. Holden, T. Blundell, L. Wang, P. Ligoxygakis, L. Minichiello, C. G. Woods, S. J. Foster, S. A. Renshaw, R. A. Floto, A Spaetzle-like role for nerve growth factor β in vertebrate immunity to Staphylococcus aureus. Science 346, 641–646 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text]


We present sketch-rnn, a recurrent neural network (RNN) able to construct stroke-based drawings of common objects. The model is trained on thousands of crude human-drawn images representing hundreds of classes. We outline a framework for conditional and unconditional sketch generation, and describe new robust training methods for generating coherent sketch drawings in a vector format.


It has become something of a cliche that there is not much evidence for madness in Homer. Hershkowitz's study has revealed that even the little there is should be carefully distinguished from madness as conceived in later Roman epic. And yet, an examination of madness in the Iliad and Odyssey, since they constitute perhaps our earliest texts, is an essential precursor to any synthetic treatment of the topic in later Greek literature.
This paper will attempt a limited investigation into madness in these two poems by focusing on just one linguistic term, the verb mainomai and its derivatives. What I shall suggest is that careful scrutiny of the contexts in which this verb is employed, encourages a need to reconsider our standard assumptions as to the semasiology of this verb. While I am in broad agreement with Hershkowitz's point of view on this subject, my own conclusions differ from hers in some respects.


Social spam produces a great amount of noise on social media services such as Twitter, which reduces the signal-to-noise ratio that both end users and data mining applications observe. Existing techniques on social spam detection have focused primarily on the identification of spam accounts by using extensive historical and network-based data. In this paper we focus on the detection of spam tweets, which optimises the amount of data that needs to be gathered by relying only on tweet-inherent features. This enables the application of the spam detection system to a large set of tweets in a timely fashion, potentially applicable in a real-time or near real-time setting. Using two large hand-labelled datasets of tweets containing spam, we study the suitability of five classification algorithms and four different feature sets to the social spam detection task. Our results show that, by using the limited set of features readily available in a tweet, we can achieve encouraging results which are competitive when compared against existing spammer detection systems that make use of additional, costly user features. Our study is the first that attempts at generalising conclusions on the optimal classifiers and sets of features for social spam detection over different datasets.


The objectives of this research are first, to prove that in the graduate education specially in accounting education, accounting curriculum is adequate in providing the students with other competences as well as cognitive skill. Second, to prove the influence of accounting education on emotional quotient (EQ) and the oral communication capability on the gender perspective. The special emphasis on the issue of gender in this study, with the consideration that there has been increasing recognition number of women accountant. Women role in the accounting history proved that in their household, women were responsible for the house financial. Thus, women have been practicing accounting and increasing their role within feminism as an accountant in their professional works and in education.This research employed new students and students who are finishing their accounting education. Hypotheses test used univariate and multivariate n-Way Anova. The results indicated, first, that there was no difference between women and men on the basis of their EQ and oral communication skill. It is proved that women are no less skilled than men, women have the same capability with men. Second, it indicated that there was a difference between new students' EQ and oral communication skill and the finishing students. It is proved that curriculum of accounting education has significant impact on students' skill.


Recent increases in elk (Cervus elaphus L.) herbivory and changes in hydrology towards drier conditions have contributed to declines in willow (Salix spp. L.) communities in the winter ranges for elk in Rocky Mountain National Park. In 1994, we constructed 12 large elk exclosures in 2 watersheds of the winter range for elk in the park, and conducted field experiments from 1995 to 1999 to investigate the effects of herbivory and proximity to surface water on the dynamics of C and N. Litterfall biomass averaged 65.6 and 33.0 g m(-2) inside and outside the exclosures, respectively. Elk herbivory increased (P < 0.05) N concentration of willow litter from 1.25 to 1.49%, but there were no differences in losses of C and N from litterbags placed in grazed and ungrazed plots in any of the growing seasons. Carbon losses from litterbags were higher in lower landscape positions (P = 0.001), in comparison to upper landscape positions. Shoot biomass of willow plants fertilized with N averaged 27.3 g and was higher (P < 0.05) than that of unfertilized plants, which averaged 20.2 g, indicating that N availability limits plant growth in our study sites. Elk herbivory had no effect on soil inorganic N availability, even though we estimated that the return of N to the soil in grazed plots could be as much as 265% of the N return in exclosed plots. In the long-term, greater return of N to the soil combined with increased litter quality in the grazed plots could contribute to increases in N cycling rates and availability, and these changes could affect ecosystem structure and function in the winter range for elk in Rocky Mountain National Park. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v54i4_menezes


The Regional Earthquake Likelihood Models experiment in California tested the performance of earthquake likelihood models over a five‐year period. First‐order analysis showed a smoothed‐seismicity model by Helmstetter et al. (2007) to be the best model. We construct optimal multiplicative hybrids involving the best individual model as a baseline and one or more conjugate models. Conjugate models are transformed using an order‐preserving function. Two parameters for each conjugate model and an overall normalizing constant are fitted to optimize the hybrid model. Many two‐model hybrids have an appreciable information gain (log probability gain) per earthquake relative to the best individual model. For the whole of California, the Bird and Liu (2007) Neokinema and Holliday et al. (2007) pattern informatics (PI) models both give gains close to 0.25. For southern California, the Shen et al. (2007) geodetic model gives a gain of more than 0.5, and several others give gains of about 0.2. The best three‐model hybrid for the whole region has the Neokinema and PI models as conjugates. The best three‐model hybrid for southern California has the Shen et al. (2007) and PI models as conjugates. The information gains of the best multiplicative hybrids are greater than those of additive hybrids constructed from the same set of models. The gains tend to be larger when the contributing models involve markedly different concepts or data. These results need to be confirmed by further prospective tests. Multiplicative hybrids will be useful for assimilating other earthquake‐related observations into forecasting models and for combining forecasting models at all timescales.


The number of people with dementia (PwD) is increasing dramatically. PwD exhibit impairments of reasoning, memory, and thought that require some form of self‐management intervention to support the completion of everyday activities while maintaining a level of independence. To address this need, efforts have been directed to the development of assistive technology solutions, which may provide an opportunity to alleviate the burden faced by the PwD and their carers. Nevertheless, uptake of such solutions has been limited. It is therefore necessary to use classifiers to discriminate between adopters and nonadopters of these technologies in order to avoid cost overruns and potential negative effects on quality of life. As multiple classification algorithms have been developed, choosing the most suitable classifier has become a critical step in technology adoption. To select the most appropriate classifier, a set of criteria from various domains need to be taken into account by decision makers. In addition, it is crucial to define the most appropriate multicriteria decision‐making approach for the modelling of technology adoption. Considering the above‐mentioned aspects, this paper presents the integration of a five‐phase methodology based on the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution to determine the most suitable classifier for supporting assistive technology adoption studies. Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process is used to determine the relative weights of criteria and subcriteria under uncertainty and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution is applied to rank the classifier alternatives. A case study considering a mobile‐based self‐management and reminding solution for PwD is described to validate the proposed approach. The results revealed that the best classifier was k‐nearest‐ neighbour with a closeness coefficient of 0.804, and the most important criterion when selecting classifiers is scalability. The paper also discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm that should be addressed in future research.


This article reviews the current state of web scale discovery (WSD) services and their effectiveness in providing a viable interface for initiating literature searches.  Some of the shortcomings are discussed, as well as developments that are under way or necessary in order to improve the concept of single searching. Aspects discussed include indexing, relevance ranking, publication finders, linking mechanisms, and personalization of searches. The relationship between publishers and WSD providers is all-important in improving the end-user experience.


The article aims at investigating the nexus between the land-locked condition and the energy security needs of a hydrocarbons-exporting country. Addressing the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia, the article looks at the dynamics of dependence naturally unfolding between a land-locked country and its main transit one. Introducing the elements which may provide the land-locked country with a sounder bargaining power vis a vis its transit country, the article will focus on the tools exploited by Baku in order to reduce the asymmetry of power ensured to Georgia by its role of 'window to the West' for Azerbaijani national hydrocarbons. Findings suggest that the Oil & Gas sector provides land-locked country with effective tools enabling it to downgrade the vulnerability vis a vis transit country and to foster functional interdependence with the latter.


ABSTRACT The need for more efficient air conditioning systems requires an in depth understanding about the performance of its components. One of the key components in the air conditioning plant is the fin-and-tube cooling coil, which is investigated here. The main focus of the work is concerned with the analysis of fin-and-tube cooling coils having two classes of passive enhancement techniques known as corrugated and turbulated fins with particular reference of developing flow region. Initially, two-dimensional modelling was done to establish the scope of later three-dimensional modelling in terms of dominant variables, meshing strategies and convergence criteria. The results gave key insights into required modelling strategies needed for the more complex three-dimensional problem of the composite fin-and-tube cooling coil. Three-dimensional CFD modelling of fin-and-tube cooling coils having turbulated, corrugated and flat-fin geometries have been investigated with particular reference to the dry-hot arid climate. Five modelling approaches have been considered based on an isothermal fin-and-tube, periodic boundaries, conjugate heat transfer, tube-row temperature gradient and the effect of manufacturing defects. The last three approaches are novel contributions to this field of research. The influences of the key design parameters of fin pitch, fin material, and fin thickness have also been investigated parametrically for all fin types. To provide confidence in these models, experimental studies on these cooling coils were carried out to acquire data for comparison between the predicted and measured values of heat transfer and friction, and to investigate the effect of range of design conditions on the cooling coils performance. The detailed results of this work can be used to optimise the air-conditioning coil designs. The turbulated fin coil was found to give the highest values of Nusselt number at given friction factor followed by the corrugated fin coil. At a given pressure drop (dP = 52 N/m2 corresponding to 14, = 2.3 m/s), the heat transfer coefficient of the corrugated and turbulated fin coils was higher than that of flat fin by 16 % and 36 % respectively. For typical operating conditions, the corrugated and turbulated fin coils required core volumes of 19 % and 40 % less than that of flat fin coil respectively for the same performance. The cooling coils employing corrugated and turbulated fin geometries contribute significantly to the energy conservation and volume reduction of the air conditioning plant.


Covering: January to December 2013. Previous review, Nat. Prod. Rep., 2013, 30, 1346-1356. This review covers the isolation and chemistry of diterpenoids from terrestrial as opposed to marine sources and includes labdanes, clerodanes, abietanes, pimaranes, kauranes, cembranes and their cyclization products. There are 179 references.


Objectives: To describe the UK and Ireland experience of the Haemodialysis Reliable Outflow graft in complex vascular access. Design: Observational, multi-centre case series. Methods: Data from any patient undergoing Haemodialysis Reliable Outflow graft were collected from eight UK and one Irish centre. Any Haemodialysis Reliable Outflow procedure between July 2013 and May 2016 was included. Demographics, primary and secondary patency rates, and complications were analysed. Results: A total of 52 patients underwent Haemodialysis Reliable Outflow graft insertion. Median age was 55 (20–86) years, 24 (46%) were male and 66% were Caucasian. Median follow-up was 290 (10–966) days and patient survival was 41/52 (79%). In total, 48 procedures were in the upper limb with 39 using the brachial artery as inflow (75%). The internal jugular vein and subclavian vein were most frequently used as access for outflow insertion. Primary patency rates at 6, 12, and 24 months were 51.2% (95% confidence interval, 38.8%–67.4%), 40.9% (95% confidence interval, 28.7%–58.2%), and 33.4% (95% confidence interval, 21.3%–52.5%), respectively. Secondary patency rates at 6, 12, and 24 months were 84.8% (95% confidence interval, 75%–95.9%), 76.5% (95% confidence interval, 64.5%–90.6%), and 70.6% (95% confidence interval, 56%–88.9%), respectively. There were 65 surgical and 49 radiological interventions resulting in 2.30 interventions per year to retain patency. Complications included four infections and two episodes of steal syndrome. Conclusion: The Haemodialysis Reliable Outflow graft provides acceptable 12-month secondary patency rates and acceptable complication rates in a UK and Ireland multi-centre series of complex access patients. Haemodialysis Reliable Outflow should be considered in patients with central pathology as a potential alternative to lower limb grafts and long-term central venous catheters.


In nearly all videogames, creating smart and complex artificial agents helps ensure an enjoyable and challenging player experience. Using a dodgeball-inspired simulation, we attempt to train a population of robots to develop effective individual strategies against hard-coded opponents. Every evolving robot is controlled by a feedforward artificial neural network, and has a fitness function based on its hits and deaths. We evolved the robots using both standard and real-time NEAT against several teams. We hypothesized that interesting strategies would develop using both evolutionary algorithms, and fitness would increase in each trial. Initial experiments using rtNEAT did not increase fitness substantially, and after several thousand time steps the robots still exhibited mostly random movement. One exception was a defensive strategy against randomly moving enemies where individuals would specifically avoid the area near the center line. Subsequent experiments using the NEAT algorithm were more successful both visually and quantitatively: average fitness improved, and complex tactics appeared to develop in some trials, such as hiding behind the obstacle. Further research could improve our rtNEAT algorithm to match the relative effectiveness of NEAT, or use competitive coevolution to remove the need for hard-coded opponents.


Transition probabilities and oscillator strengths for electric dipole radiation in triply ionized praseodymium are reported for the first time in this paper. They were computed using a semi-empirical relativistic Hartree–Fock approach including core-polarization effects. Due to the lack of experimental data in the Pr IV spectrum, the accuracy of our results is estimated and discussed on the basis of comparisons between calculations performed with a similar physical model and laboratory measurements previously published for the isoelectronic ion Ce2+. In view of their great interest in optical materials and nanophotonics, radiative rates for forbidden lines within the 4f2 ground-state configuration of Pr3+ were also calculated in our work.


Science curriculum and pedagogy are at the centre of a centuries-long debate concerning the appropriate relationship of faith and science. The difficulties that science educators face seem to be based in misinformation about the historical roots of this conflict. To address that conflict, the goals of this research were to separate myth from reality and to provide a necessary context to the current tensions that are disrupting science pedagogy and curriculum content within American public schools. Working within a theoretical framework of historical literacy, this qualitative, historical analysis was a comprehensiveexamination of the relationship of faith and science from ancient times through the Renascence to the emergence and development of Darwinism. The historical approach methodology was utilise as a means to document the systematic examination of past events, in order to illuminate and interpret the meaning of those events. The historical record revealed that science and religion are not necessarily incompatible and that the early Christian religion provided a fertile environment in which modern science could emerge. Also noted were many instances where the record was inconsistent with what educators have commonly taught as historical fact. Finally, the complex sources of tension between modern fundamentalist Christianity and Darwinism, which has appeared as a flashpoint in public discourse within science education, were examined in depth. Based on this analysis, the study includes recommendations for educators in their approach to addressing these challenges and teaching science. This analysis can produce positive social change for educators and their students, as this information is advanced asa means to enhance historical literacy among educators and their students.


Understanding the influence of parasites on the community ecology of free–living organisms is an emerging theme in ecology. The cockle Austrovenus stutchburyi is an abundant mollusc inhabiting the sheltered shores of New Zealand. This species, which lives just few centimetres under the surface, plays a key role for many benthic invertebrate species, because in these habitats the cockle shell is the only available hard surface where invertebrates can establish. However, the behaviour of this cockle can be altered locally by a parasite, the trematode Curtuteria australis. Indeed, heavily infected cockles are unable to bury perfectly and typically lie entirely exposed at the surface of the mud. In this study, we investigated the ecological consequences of this behavioural alteration for two invertebrates species commonly associated with cockles, the anemone Anthopleura aureoradiata and the limpet Notoacmea helmsi. A field study first demonstrated that in both infected and non–infected populations of cockles, there was a negative relationship between the number of anemones and limpets found on cockles. In the laboratory, we showed that predation of limpets by anemones is possible when they share the same cockle shell. In a heavily infected population of cockles, limpets were significantly more frequent and more abundant on cockles manipulated by C. australis than on cockles with a normal behaviour. A colonization test conducted in natural conditions demonstrated that the predominance of limpets on manipulated cockles results from a direct habitat preference. Conversely, anemones were significantly less frequent and less abundant on manipulated cockles than on cockles manipulated by C. australis. A desiccation test revealed that, relative to limpets, they had a lower resistance to this physical stress. We discuss our results in relation to current ideas on ecosystem engineering by organisms.


Purpose
The purpose of this study was to assess the diversity-related professional development needs of pre-service teachers in our college. According to a report released in 2017 by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), minorities accounted for 20 per cent of all public elementary and secondary school teachers in the United States during the 2015-2016 school year. The same report noted that 51 per cent of all public elementary and secondary school students in the USA were nonwhite during the same school year. Schools will continue to become increasingly more diverse as it relates to the student population. Students of color are expected to make up 56 per cent of the student population by 2024 (Digest of Education Statistics, 2013). With the changing demographics of US schools, pre-service teachers must be prepared to teach, interact and support students and families whose cultures, beliefs and lifestyles may differ from their own. Cultural competence is having an awareness of one's own cultural identity perceptions and views about difference, and the ability to learn and build on the varying cultural and community norms of students and their families (Muñoz and Graybill, 2015). The mere presence of diverse communities on college campuses is not sufficient in promoting positive educational outcomes related to diversity (Museus, 2008).

Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative survey research was used to assess diversity related professional development needs of pre-service teachers. Students were asked an open-ended question: 'Please list topics of diversity training that should be offered to students in the college' After the question, a text box was provided to allow respondents to provide a unique answer. This approach, as opposed to providing a list of predetermined responses to select from gave respondents the freedom to say exactly what they felt should be offered.

Findings
After analyzing the 163 open-ended responses provided by students six themes emerged. The themes were offering diversity-related professional development in the areas of disability/mental illness, cultural competence/awareness, LGBTQAI+/gender, facilitating conversations about diversity, discrimination and race/ethnicity.

Research limitations/implications
The sample came from one university; therefore, the results may not be generalizable to other predominantly white universities. Future research should collect data at other universities or the schools within the university system to determine the needs for other campuses. The results of such a study will always be limited in scope but they do describe the needs at the targeted University. The response rate was low, 24 per cent. The reasons for the low response rate are unclear. Other survey techniques, such as mail surveys or face-to-face meetings, may be more successful in obtaining a higher response rate.

Practical implications
Teacher preparation programs should assess students' perceptions, knowledge and experiences as it relates to diversity, and survey pre-service teachers to determine gaps in the diversity training currently being offered. Diversity training must be intentional to prepare pre-service teachers to meet the demands of the diverse classroom.

Social implications
Future research should aim to assess pre-service teachers' beliefs about diversity throughout the entirety of teacher preparation programs by assessing pre-service teachers in multiple classes and participants who attend independent diversity training opportunities. To address the rapid increase in cultural and ethnic diversity in education worldwide, pre-service programs should target and challenge pre-service teachers' beliefs to assure equitable education to diverse students.

Originality/value
The paper that has been submitted is an original research that was conducted by the first author. The first and second authors used manual coding for data analysis.


Recently, research in the area of shear thickening fluids (STFs) has increased due to the potential for commercial application. They are considered possible candidate materials for liquid body armour and sporting protective clothing and other applications because of their unique properties. Here the state of the art of shear thickening mechanisms, ingredient materials, fabrication methods, rheological properties, and factors influencing shear thickening behaviour have been reviewed. Basic models used to describe shear thickening behavior are also discussed. Relevant patent applications, particularly in the area of body armour, as well as other industrial applications, such as smart structures, and devices with adaptive stiffness and damping, are also summarized. Recent advances, including the effects of particle surface properties, relationship to carrier fluids and electric or magnetic fields applied on the transition of STFs are included in the review.


Adults are often said to perceive non-native speech input through the "filter" of their native language (Sapir, 1921). Indeed, a multitude of studies examine the challenges adults face when listening to a language that is not their L1. The pervasive difficulties adults encounter in perceiving non-native speech contrasts are made only more striking by the relative ease with which infants perceive such contrasts. Regardless of the language community in which an infant is born, for the first several months of her life she will discriminate contrasts that her parents cannot. For example, an infant born in Japan can discriminate English /r/ and /l/, a contrast with which Japanese-speaking adults notoriously struggle (Goto, 1971; Miyawaki et al., 1981). However, an infant's amazing perceptual acuity diminishes during the first year of life, as she becomes specialized in perceiving the contrasts of her native language (Aslin, Pisoni, & Jusczyk, 1983; Jusczyk, 1993, 1994; Kuhl, 1991, 1993; Werker & Tees, 1984a, 1884b).


A Chip Multiprocessor for a Large-scale Neural SimulatorEustace PainkrasA thesis submitted to The University of Manchesterfor the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 17 December 2012The modelling and simulation of large-scale spiking neural networks in biologicalreal-time places very high demands on computational processing capabilities andcommunications infrastructure. These demands are difficult to satisfy even with powerfulgeneral-purpose high-performance computers. Taking advantage of the remarkableprogress in semiconductor technologies it is now possible to design and buildan application-driven platform to support large-scale spiking neural network simulations.This research investigates the design and implementation of a power-efficientchip multiprocessor (CMP) which constitutes the basic building block of a spikingneural network modelling and simulation platform. The neural modelling requirementsof many processing elements, high-fanout communications and local memoryare addressed in the design and implementation of the low-level modules in the designhierarchy as well as in the CMP. By focusing on a power-efficient design, the energyconsumption and related cost of SpiNNaker, the massively-parallel computation engine,are kept low compared with other state-of-the-art hardware neural simulators.The SpiNNaker CMP is composed of many simple power-efficient processors withsmall local memories, asynchronous networks-on-chip and numerous bespoke modulesspecifically designed to serve the demands of neural computation with a globallyasynchronous, locally synchronous (GALS) architecture.The SpiNNaker CMP, realised as part of this research, fulfills the demands of neuralsimulation in a power-efficient and scalable manner, with added fault-tolerancefeatures. The CMPs have, to date, been incorporated into three versions of SpiNNakersystem PCBs with up to 48 chips onboard. All chips on the PCBs are performing successfully, during both functional testing and their targeted role of neural simulation.


Abstract. Fire insurance maps produced by the American firm the Sanborn Map Company have long served as cartographic guides to understanding the history of urban America. Primarily used by cultural and historical geographers, historians, historic preservationists, and environmental consultants; historians of cartography have little explored the history of this company. While this scholarship has addressed various facets of Sanborn's history (Ristow, 1968), no scholarly piece has explored the lived experience of being a Sanborn surveyor. This lack of scholarship comes not from any significant oversight but rather from the fact that the contributions of most Sanborn surveyors were anonymous and little recorded on the maps themselves. Moreover, the company itself has done little to save its own history, thus little is known of their individual stories and experiences. The exception to this is perhaps the most famous Sanborn surveyor of all: Daniel Carter Beard.Over the course of his nine-decade life, Daniel Carter Beard held several prominent positions including the co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America and the lead illustrator for many of Mark Twain's novels. However, he got his start as a surveyor for the Sanborn Map Company in the 1870s, just a few years after its founding. His papers, housed at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, includes a variety of ephemera from his time with the Sanborn Map Company.Trained in civil engineering, Beard got his start as a surveyor for the Cincinnati (Ohio) Office of Platting Commission, creating the first official plat map for the city. He was hired by Sanborn in 1874 and served as a surveyor until 1878, traveling extensively over the eastern half of the United States, parlaying his skills into creating fire insurance maps for Sanborn. Thus, this paper speaks to two main themes. The first theme traces the route of Beard during his early years with the company across the eastern half of the United States, documenting both the places he visited and the challenges he faced as a Sanborn surveyor. The second theme, interwoven through the paper, is an analysis of the innerworkings of Sanborn's administrative structure and its relationship with the larger fire insurance market during the 1870s. Altogether, these documents present unique insight into the organization of the Sanborn Map Company and how it produced its maps during the second-half of the 19th century.


The use of controlled electrical shock as a therapy to manage cardiac arrhythmia is a practice commonly used today. High intensity electrical fields are generated near the shock electrodes, and if the electrodes are placed directly on or inside the heart as is often the case, tissue injury and dysfunction may result if the shock intensity is too high. Many factors influence the degree of dysfunction, including the intensity of the shock poise, duration of the pulse, waveform shape, size and position of the electrodes, and physiological state of the heart. One of the most immediate indications of aberrant cardiac function is an abnormality in the electrocardiogram, which results from field-induced changes in cellular electrophysiology. This article reviews results obtained primarily from animal experiments which delineate the intensities of electrical field that produce electrical dysfunction at various structural levels of the heart. Possible mechanisms underlying the detrimental effects of electrical fields are presented with the main focus on electroporation of the cell membrane. Other mechanisms that are described include formation of oxygen-derived free radicals, conformational damage to ionic pumps/channels, barotrauma, and hyperthermia. Differences between cathodal and anodal shock effects, as well as factors which may ameliorate electrical field-induced cardiac dysfunction, are also discussed.


ABSTRACT With the advent of the First World War, H. H. Munro (1870–1916), eagerly enlisting at 43, attempted to patriotically simplify his selves, conscripting his authorial persona, Saki – whose fiction usually shimmers with metamorphosis and surprise – for jingoistic exhortations and denunciations of unmanly non-soldiers in 'An Old Love' (in the Morning Post) and four pieces for the 22nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers' Fortnightly Gazette, April to June 1915. Yet this reductively pro-Empire, pro-military stance turned into a self-distancing retreat from the front lines after Lance-Sergeant Munro arrived in Northern France in late 1915. In the radically self-reflexive and self-reflective story 'For the Duration of the War', Saki parodies the poem from which his pseudonym-persona had sprung, pokes fun at his fiction's dominant themes – especially Fate and savage nature – and even questions the point of literature at a time of war. And in his final two works, set near the front, Munro and/or Saki muddies the genre, removes himself far more from events (as if anticipating his death), and questions the artifice of writing itself amid his species' ravaging of the natural landscape. In 'The Square Egg', Munro/Saki offers one-part essay and one-part story, with the former written at a marked remove and the latter told by an unidentified 'Acquaintance'. In 'Birds of the Western Front', Munro/Saki relates a detached study of bird-life in and around the trenches, the 'one' of the narrative-voice no unitary, pro-England spokesman but a barely human observer of winged wild creatures. These final writings by Munro and/or Saki are both radical and transcendent, looking beyond the soldier-self and the author-self at the non-human world to offer a pointed, poignant selflessness at a time of mass European self-annihilation. There is a profound generosity through self-effacement that is not seen in any of the works by the major English writers of the war.


Global maps of land cover and leaf area index (LAI) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) reflectance data are an important resource in studies of global change, but errors in these must be characterized and well understood. Product validation requires careful scaling from ground and related measurements to a grain commensurate with MODIS products. We present an updated BigFoot project protocol for developing 25-m validation data layers over 49-km2  study areas. Results from comparisons of MODIS and BigFoot land cover and LAI products at nine contrasting sites are reported. In terms of proportional coverage, MODIS and BigFoot land cover were in close agreement at six sites. The largest differences were at low tree cover evergreen needleleaf sites and at an Arctic tundra site where the MODIS product overestimated woody cover proportions. At low leaf biomass sites there was reasonable agreement between MODIS and BigFoot LAI products, but there was not a particular MODIS LAI algorithm pathway that consistently compared most favorably. At high leaf biomass sites, MODIS LAI was generally overpredicted by a significant amount. For evergreen needleleaf sites, LAI seasonality was exaggerated by MODIS. Our results suggest incremental improvement from Collection 3 to Collection 4 MODIS products, with some remaining problems that need to be addressed


We present a novel approach to modern car control utilizing a combination of Deep Convolutional Neural Networks and Long Short-Term Memory Systems: Both of which are a subsection of Hierarchical Representations Learning, more commonly known as Deep Learning. Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks and Long Short-Term Memory Systems (DCNN/LSTM), we propose an end-to-end approach to accurately predict steering angles and throttle values. We use this algorithm on our latest robot, El Toro Grande 1 (ETG) which is equipped with a variety of sensors in order to localize itself in its environment. Using previous training data and the data that it collects during circuit and drag races, it predicts throttle and steering angles in order to stay on path and avoid colliding into other robots. This allows ETG to theoretically race on any track with sufficient training data.


Abstract. Ozone profiles retrieved from limb scattering measurements of the SCIAMACHY instrument based on the satellite ENVISAT are compared to ground-based low altitude resolution remote sensors. All profiles are retrieved using optimal estimation. Following the work of Rodgers and Connor (2003) the retrievals of the ground-based instruments are simulated using the SCIAMACHY retrieval. The SCIAMACHY results and the results of the ground-based microwave radiometer in Bremen and Ny Alesund agree within the expected covariance of the intercomparison.


Interpretation of polarimetric optical time domain reflectometry (POTDR) data can be time consuming due to the complicated dependence of the state of polarization evolution on the optical fiber parameters. In this paper, a fully automatic matrix-based analysis method is presented which can extract the linear birefringence and external twist rate from relative backscattered state of polarization data, without error propagation. Practical measurements on fiber samples demonstrate the capability of the technique.


Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) are a widely distributed pinniped species that mate underwater. Similar to other aquatically mating pinnipeds, male harbor seals produce vocalizations during the breeding season that function in male-male interactions and possibly as an attractant for females. I investigated multiple aspects of these reproductive advertisement displays in a population of harbor seals in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. First, I looked at vocal production as a function of environmental variables, including season, daylight, and tidal state. Vocalizations were highly seasonal and detection of these vocalizations peaked in June and July, which correspond with the estimated time of breeding. Vocalizations also varied with light, with the lowest probability of detection during the day and the highest probability of detection at night. The high probability of detection corresponded to when females are known to forage. These results are similar to the vocal behavior of previously studied populations. However, unlike previously studied populations, the detection of harbor seal breeding vocalizations did not vary with tidal state. This is likely due to the location of the hydrophone, as it was not near the haul out and depth was therefore not significantly influenced by changes in tidal height. I also investigated the source levels and call parameters of vocalizations, as well as call rate and territoriality. The average source level of harbor seal breeding vocalizations was 144 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m and measurements ranged from 129 to 149 dB re 1 μPa. Analysis of call parameters indicated that vocalizations of harbor seals in Glacier Bay were similar in duration to other populations, but were much lower in frequency. During the breeding season, there were two discrete calling areas that likely represent two individual males; the average call rate in these display areas was approximately 1 call per minute. The harbor seal breeding season also overlaps with peak tourism in Glacier Bay, and the majority of tourists visit the park on a motorized vessel. Because of this overlap, I investigated the impacts of vessel noise on the vocal behavior of individual males. In the presence of vessel noise, male harbor seals increase the amplitude of their vocalizations, decrease the duration, and increase the minimum frequency. These vocal shifts are similar to studies of noise impacts on other species across taxa, but it is unknown how this could impact the reproductive success of male harbor seals. Finally, I looked at the role of female preference for male vocalizations. Using playbacks of male vocalizations to captive female harbor seals, I found that females have a higher response to vocalizations that correspond to dominant males. Females were less responsive to subordinate male vocalizations, which had a shorter duration and a higher frequency. Given that male harbor seals decrease the duration and increase the frequency of vocalizations in the presence of noise, it is possible that these vocalizations become less attractive in noise. HARBOR SEAL (PHOCA VITULINA) REPRODUCTIVE ADVERTISEMENT BEHAVIOR AND THE EFFECTS OF VESSEL NOISE


Multiprotocol BGP (MP-BGP) specifies that the set of usable next-hop
address families is determined by the Address Family Identifier (AFI)
and the Subsequent Address Family Identifier (SAFI). The current
AFI/SAFI definitions for the IPv4 address family only have provisions
for advertising a Next Hop address that belongs to the IPv4 protocol
when advertising IPv4 Network Layer Reachability Information (NLRI) or
VPN-IPv4 NLRI. This document specifies the extensions necessary to
allow advertising IPv4 NLRI or VPN-IPv4 NLRI with a Next Hop address
that belongs to the IPv6 protocol. This comprises an extension of the
AFI/SAFI definitions to allow the address of the Next Hop for IPv4
NLRI or VPN-IPv4 NLRI to also belong to the IPv6 protocol, the
encoding of the Next Hop to determine which of the protocols the
address actually belongs to, and a new BGP Capability allowing MP-BGP
Peers to dynamically discover whether they can exchange IPv4 NLRI and
VPN-IPv4 NLRI with an IPv6 Next Hop.


Will Chamberlain moved from Switzerland to Ireland in the late 1990s, when he took up his current role as director of Belfast Community Circus School. Prior to this, he was a professional clown and community circus teacher for twelve years. He also worked as a more general arts practitioner and advocate for community arts, serving for three years as chair of the Community Arts Forum (CAF). CAF had been founded at a meeting of community arts activists in Belfast in 1993. The forum has since ceased operation due to cuts in Arts Council funding. The conversation below took place across from CAF's former headquarters, in the middle of Writer's Square, in July 2013.
For three decades, Belfast Community Circus has operated as a forum for fostering the personal development of young people from some of the most disadvantaged communities in Northern Ireland. In the early 1980s, Donal McKendry and Mike Moloney had responded to diverse Northern Irish young people's pressing needs for positive shared experiences by introducing community circus in Northern Ireland. With the help of McKendry and Moloney, Belfast Community Circus was established in 1985. Since then, the initiative has become 'one of the most prolific arts organizations in Northern Ireland and a leading light in the international world of social circus' ('History'), winning such honours as the final Guardian Jerwood Award for Excellence in The Community (1999).
The school itself is located on Gordon Street and offers a range of youth circus programmes for children and young people from different communities, training for professional performers and circus arts teachers, and a venue for hosting local, national and international circus productions. In 2012, for example, Belfast Community Circus School provided training for Karen Anderson, Emily Aoibheann and Elaine McCague, the trio who had formed in 2011 PaperDolls, a Dublin-based performance group specializing in contemporary circus in addition to multidisciplinary, live, immersive and experimental art. In addition, the activities of the school featured prominently in the 2013 RTE four-part documentary series, John Lonergan's Circus, offering – with the facilitation of Lonergan, former governor of Mountjoy Prison – circus training for young people from disadvantaged regions of Dublin city as a way of boosting creativity, self-esteem, teamwork and discipline. In 2004, Belfast Community Circus launched its annual international street arts festival, the Festival of Fools. The festival has been growing from strength to strength, receiving in 2006 an Arts and Business award for work in the community undertaken with the Laganside Corporation.
The ultimate mission of Belfast Community Circus is to: 'Transform lives and communities through the power of circus arts and street theatre' ('Ethos and Mission'). In Chamberlain's view, the democratic leanings of genres such as community arts and street theatre can bridge social and cultural divides by fostering a sense of togetherness in the moment for performers and audiences alike, as well as helping to overcome perceptions of the arts as the special provenance of cultural elites. He sees the potential of the arts to have an important impact on everyday lives and lived experiences, on people's relationships with space and place, and even on commerce – although he remains steadfast in promoting the ideal of arts as an experience rather than just a commodity. In his 2004 essay, 'Access, Authorship, Participation and Ownership,' Chamberlain writes in detail about misconceptions concerning, and insufficient funding for, community arts. Based on this interview conducted more than a decade later, it appears that the ways in which community arts are funded and valued still need to improve. Yet, Chamberlain remains determined to fulfill a range of goals in the arts that he believes can foster positive social change.


The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has commissioned a working group, with delegations from many industrialized and developing nations, to reform and update the UNCITRAL Model Law on Procurement of Goods, Construction and Services. The working group is currently reviewing reforms on a number of fronts. This essay focuses on three areas of reform in particular - electronic communications, electronic reverse auctions, and unrealistically low bidding - to gauge whether lessons from the UNCITRAL debate may be useful for reform in the U.S. procurement system. As the essay reflects, the international debate surrounding UNCITRAL reform does in fact yield many lessons for U.S. policymakers. Indeed, the analysis suggests that the U.S. system may be at a point where it would be irresponsible not to consider comparative lessons from reforms abroad, to ensure that U.S. procurement policy draws thoughtfully upon lessons learned from other procurement systems around the world.


The scientist–practitioner gap in personnel selection is large. Thus, it is important to gain a better understanding of the reasons that make organizations use or not use certain selection procedures. Based on institutional theory, we predicted that six variables should determine the use of selection procedures: the procedures' diffusion in the field, legal problems associated with the procedures, applicant reactions to the procedures, their usefulness for organizational self-promotion, their predictive validity, and the costs involved. To test these predictions, 506 HR professionals from the German-speaking part of Switzerland filled out an online survey on the selection procedures used in their organizations. Respondents also evaluated five procedures (semi-structured interviews, ability tests, personality tests, assessment centers, and graphology) on the six predictor variables. Multilevel logistic regression was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that the highest odd ratios belonged to the factors applicant reactions, costs, and diffusion. Lower (but significant) odds ratios belonged to the factors predictive validity, organizational self-promotion, and perceived legality.


There is a growing literature by political scientists and increasingly economists on the institutional determinants of public policy, in particular broad constitutional parameters such as presidential versus parliamentary regimes and different electoral systems. However, given the fact that resource allocation is at the heart of the political process, surprisingly little work supports a theoretically rigorous assessment of the cross-national distribution of parliamentary power over budget policy. This thesis presents an explicitly comparative analytical framework for assessing legislative budgeting and applies this framework to a sample of contemporary democracies. The focus is on how institutional arrangements determine both the extent of legislative control as well as budget outcomes. The thesis uses a unique dataset on legislative budget institutions in 36 industrialised, developing and transition countries, along with case study evidence. The historical evolution of legislative budgeting underscores the importance of institutions in achieving democratic control. One way of enabling rigorous cross-national comparison is to focus on a set of essential institutional prerequisites for legislative control of public finance. These variables are operationalised in the form of an index of legislative budget institutions, which demonstrates substantial variation in the budgetary role of legislatures across liberal democracies. Former UK colonies have particularly poorly developed legislative capacity for financial control, whereas the opposite typically holds for countries with protracted periods of minority government. While a number of institutional arrangements determine the extent of legislative control, the empirical evidence supports the theoretical prediction that few variables unambiguously affect fiscal outcomes, notably the nature of legislative powers to amend the budget tabled by the executive. Legislatures that self-impose constraints to support fiscally prudent choices, such as the Swedish Parliament, can nonetheless remain powerful budgetary actors, as long as they retain control over the design of the process itself. In taking the institutionalist agenda in political science further, this thesis demonstrates the benefits of complementing research on broad constitutional differences with more nuanced studies of the institutional setting in particular policy areas.


We present a 16-year-old male patient with hypoplastic left heart syndrome who developed protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) and plastic bronchitis (PB) after a Fontan operation. He received medical therapies, including albumin infusion, unfractionated heparin, and high-dose anti-aldosterone therapy but could not obtain clinical relief. Biphasic cuirass ventilation (BCV) led to expectoration of bronchial casts and prompt resolution of PB. Notably, clinical symptoms related to PLE were dramatically improved after starting BCV. A brief period of BCV increased stroke volume from 26±1.4 to 39±4.0 mL. This case suggests that BCV could be an effective treatment for PLE in patients with failing Fontan circulation.


Earth, Empire and Sacred Text seeks to construct a Muslim-Christian theological discourse on creation and humanity that could help adherents of both faiths work together to preserve our planet, bring justice to its most needy inhabitants and contribute to peacebuilding in areas of conflict. Drawing on theology, philosophy, ethics, hermeneutics, critical theory and the social sciences, its premise is that theology is always developed in particular situations. The book explores the global context of postmodernity (the post-Cold War world dominated by a neoliberal capitalist system) and the influential turn away from the modern Cartesian view of the autonomous, disembodied self, to a self defined in discourse, community and culture (postmodernism). It traces the "career" of Q. 2:30 (Adam's God-mandated trusteeship), first in Islamic commentaries in the classical period and then in the writings of Muslim scholars in the modern and postmodern periods. The concept of human trusteeship under God is also studied over time in Christian and Jewish writers. Building on this data, the author draws together the essential elements for a Muslim-Christian theology of human trusteeship.


There appears to be a disconnect between the actual events of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming and the scholarly work devoted to the play—while each of the main characters are morally problematic, it is only the play's sole female character, Ruth, whose morality is questioned. This schism in which Ruth is questioned but others are not stems primarily from the time in which most of this criticism occurred: before poststructuralist understandings of gender undermined our presuppositions about the sexes. The Homecoming was written on the cusp of second-wave feminism, the movement focusing mainly on the legal and social equality of women, and it seems as though Pinter sensed a shift in paradigm in which feminist theorists called into question the phallogocentric language with which they were attempting to describe their subjects. A post-structuralist feminist reading of the play recognizes the problematic ways in which men are considered to have essential qualities, too. Pinter's The Homecoming encourages its audience to reconsider their conditioned perception of gender in society because the play induces the audience, in our real-life roles as conditioned observers, to misread the play; through undermining the false binary of humor and tragedy, Pinter asks the audience to reassess the supposed binary of male/female as it occurs in the play.


Mammalian gestation and pregnancy are fast evolving processes that involve the interaction of the fetal, maternal and paternal genomes. Version 1.0 of the GEneSTATION database (http://genestation.org) integrates diverse types of omics data across mammals to advance understanding of the genetic basis of gestation and pregnancy-associated phenotypes and to accelerate the translation of discoveries from model organisms to humans. GEneSTATION is built using tools from the Generic Model Organism Database project, including the biology-aware database CHADO, new tools for rapid data integration, and algorithms that streamline synthesis and user access. GEneSTATION contains curated life history information on pregnancy and reproduction from 23 high-quality mammalian genomes. For every human gene, GEneSTATION contains diverse evolutionary (e.g. gene age, population genetic and molecular evolutionary statistics), organismal (e.g. tissue-specific gene and protein expression, differential gene expression, disease phenotype), and molecular data types (e.g. Gene Ontology Annotation, protein interactions), as well as links to many general (e.g. Entrez, PubMed) and pregnancy disease-specific (e.g. PTBgene, dbPTB) databases. By facilitating the synthesis of diverse functional and evolutionary data in pregnancy-associated tissues and phenotypes and enabling their quick, intuitive, accurate and customized meta-analysis, GEneSTATION provides a novel platform for comprehensive investigation of the function and evolution of mammalian pregnancy.


Morphology and function of the nervous system is maintained via well-coordinated processes both in central and peripheral nervous tissues, which govern the homeostasis of organs/tissues. Impairments of the nervous system induce neuronal disorders such as peripheral neuropathy or cardiac arrhythmia. Although further investigation is warranted to reveal the molecular mechanisms of progression in such diseases, appropriate model systems mimicking the patient-specific communication between neurons and organs are not established yet. In this study, we reconstructed the neuronal network in vitro either between neurons of the human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell derived peripheral nervous system (PNS) and central nervous system (CNS), or between PNS neurons and cardiac cells in a morphologically and functionally compartmentalized manner. Networks were constructed in photolithographically microfabricated devices with two culture compartments connected by 20 microtunnels. We confirmed that PNS and CNS neurons connected via synapses and formed a network. Additionally, calcium-imaging experiments showed that the bundles originating from the PNS neurons were functionally active and responded reproducibly to external stimuli. Next, we confirmed that CNS neurons showed an increase in calcium activity during electrical stimulation of networked bundles from PNS neurons in order to demonstrate the formation of functional cell-cell interactions. We also confirmed the formation of synapses between PNS neurons and mature cardiac cells. These results indicate that compartmentalized culture devices are promising tools for reconstructing network-wide connections between PNS neurons and various organs, and might help to understand patient-specific molecular and functional mechanisms under normal and pathological conditions.


Abstract. Recent work has quantified the delay times in measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) caused by the partitioning between the gas phase and the surfaces of the inlet tubing and instrument itself. In this study we quantify wall partitioning effects on time responses and transmission of multi-functional, semivolatile and intermediate-volatility organic compounds (S/IVOCs) with saturation concentrations (C*) between 100 and 104 µg m−3. The instrument delays of several chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CIMS) instruments increase with decreasing C*, ranging from seconds to tens of minutes, except for the NO3−-CIMS where it is always on the order of seconds. Six different tubing materials were tested. Teflon, including PFA, FEP, and conductive PFA, performs better than metals and Nafion in terms of both delay time and transmission efficiency. Analogous to instrument responses, tubing delays increase as C* decreases, from less than a minute to > 100 min. The delays caused by Teflon tubing vs. C* can be modeled using the simple chromatography model of Pagonis et al. (2017). The model can be used to estimate the equivalent absorbing mass concentration (Cw) of each material, and to estimate delays under different flow rates and tubing dimensions. We also include time delay measurements from a series of small polar organic and inorganic analytes in PFA tubing measured by CIMS. Small polar molecules behave differently than larger organic ones, with their delays being predicted by their Henry's law constants instead of their C*, suggesting the dominance of partitioning to small amounts of water on sampling surfaces as a result of their polarity and acidity properties. PFA tubing has the best performance for gas-only sampling, while conductive PFA appears very promising for sampling S/IVOCs and particles simultaneously. The observed delays and low transmission both affect the quality of gas quantification, especially when no direct calibration is available. Improvements in sampling and instrument response are needed for fast atmospheric measurements of a wide range of S/IVOCs (e.g., by aircraft or for eddy covariance). These methods and results are also useful for more general characterization of surface/gas interactions.


Abstract. Bioavailable organic carbon in aquifer recharge waters and sediments can fuel microbial reactions with implications for groundwater quality. A previous incubation experiment showed that sedimentary organic carbon (SOC) mobilized off sandy sediment collected from an arsenic-contaminated and methanogenic aquifer in Bangladesh was bioavailable; it was transformed into methane. We used high-resolution mass spectrometry to molecularly characterize this mobilized SOC, reference its composition against dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in surface recharge water, track compositional changes during incubation, and advance understanding of microbial processing of organic carbon in anaerobic environments. Organic carbon mobilized off aquifer sediment was more diverse, proportionately larger, more aromatic, and more oxidized than DOC in surface recharge. Mobilized SOC was predominately composed of terrestrially derived organic matter and had characteristics signifying that it evaded microbial processing within the aquifer. Approximately 50 % of identified compounds in mobilized SOC and in DOC from surface recharge water contained sulfur. During incubation, after mobilized SOC was converted into methane, new organosulfur compounds with high S-to-C ratios and a high nominal oxidation state of carbon (NOSC) were detected. We reason that these detected compounds formed abiotically following microbial reduction of sulfate to sulfide, which could have occurred during incubation but was not directly measured or that they were microbially synthesized. Most notably, microbes transformed all carbon types during incubation, including those currently considered thermodynamically unviable for microbes to degrade in anaerobic conditions (i.e., those with a low NOSC). In anaerobic environments, energy yields from redox reactions are small and the amount of energy required to remove electrons from highly reduced carbon substrates during oxidation decreases the thermodynamic favorability of degrading compounds with a low NOSC. While all compound types were eventually degraded during incubation, NOSC and compound size controlled the rates of carbon transformation. Large, more thermodynamically favorable compounds (e.g., aromatics with a high NOSC) were targeted first, while small, less thermodynamically favorable compounds (e.g., alkanes and olefinics with a low NOSC) were used last. These results indicate that in anaerobic conditions, microbial communities are capable of degrading and mineralizing all forms of organic matter, converting larger energy-rich compounds into smaller energy-poor compounds. However, in an open system, where fresh carbon is continually supplied, the slower degradation rate of reduced carbon compounds would enable this portion of the organic carbon pool to build up, explaining the apparent persistence of compounds with a low NOSC in anaerobic environments.


The described here method can provide unbiased estimates and sampling errors with increasingly precise polygon information from non-sample sources that are often free and readily available. It is extremely flexible, and it appears to be in line with the main trend of modern sampling – you first estimate using any information available, and then you sample to adjust those estimates. At later dates, further readjustment can be done at will, as long as the total is maintained. The situation with forest inventory is very similar to mapmaking. For many years the only acceptable method of improving a map was to start over with a fresh sheet of paper and do the entire job again with great fidelity to current map accuracy standards. Those days are over. The same is true of forest inventory. A better concept is "let's just change the parts that are not good enough". The other parts change so little as not to be noticed. Stratified cruises with standard descriptions for multiple stands and repeating the process every 20 years while ignoring the existing inventory are old and outdated processes. In an age where information pours down upon us from every direction, it is time we started to use it effectively. It is so easy to insure statistical unbiasedness, good polygon estimates, and valid sampling errors by the progress described here that it is hard to imagine why anyone would strike the old forest inventory off the records and independently do it again from a standing start. MCFNS-1:10-13.


The therapeutic efficacy of tea tree oil (TTO), Melaleuca alternifolia, and its main component, terpinen-4-ol, were evaluated in a murine oral candidiasis model. Prednisolone -pretreated mice were orally infected with a fluconazole-susceptible (TIMM 2640) or a resistant (TIMM 3163) strain of Candida albicans to induce oral candidiasis. TTO or terpinen-4-ol was administrated with a cotton swab 3 h and 24 h after candida infection. These treatments clearly showed a decrease in the symptom score of tongues and in the viable candida cell number in the oral cavity at 2 d after azole-susceptible C. albicans infection, although the degree of the efficacy was less than that of fluconazole. Even against oral candidiasis caused by azole-resistant C. albicans, TTO and terpinen-4-ol were similarly effective, while fluconazole appeared ineffective. These results suggest that TTO and terpinen-4-ol may have the potential of therapeutic ability for mucosal candidiasis which may also be applicable to C. albicans oral candidiasis induced by the azole-resistant strain.


The valuation of assets is a relatively challenging activity as well as a scientific discipline having an impact on the amount of the reported assets and economic result process. The report deals with the issue of valuation of the tangible fixed assets in the accounting entities compiling the financial statements pursuant to the Czech national legislation and in conformity with the requirements of the International Accounting Standards IAS/IFRS and US GAAP. The substantial dif - ferences in the definitions and valuation of the tangible fixed assets in these systems have been determined, indicating the impact on the economy of the accounting entity, both at the primary acquisition and as at the day of the closing of books. Attention has also been paid to the possibilities of recording the value decreases and to subsequent expenses. The analysis of legal regulations was completed with the analysis of the financial statements from selected economic entities. As per the international standards, the main difference consists in the possibility of component depreciation of tangible assets or, on the other hand, the possibility of group depreciation, in the differences in valuation in the event of acquisition paid for and of acquisition by one's own production and in the possibility to consider the costs of disposal of assets. The subsequent ex - penses are also construed in a different manner: as per the Czech regulation, they are construed as repairs and maintenan- ce. The substantial difference in comparison with the Czech regulation consists in the possibility of re-valuation of assets upwards as well as the method of actual value determination.


An Arabidopsis lectin receptor kinase, DORN1, is the plant receptor for extracellular adenosine triphosphate. As well as its role as an intracellular energy source, extracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) has diverse functions as a signaling molecule. ATP receptors have been identified in animal cells, but searches based on structural homology have not identified ATP receptors in plants.Choi et al. have now identified an ATP receptor in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana by tracking down the cause of mutations that leave mutant plants unresponsive to ATP signals. The receptor identified carries an intracellular kinase domain and an extracellular lectin domain. J. Choi, K. Tanaka, Y. Cao, Y. Qi, J. Qiu, Y. Liang, S. Y. Lee, G. Stacey, Identification of a plant receptor for extracellular ATP. Science 343, 290–294 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The importance of the work by the British composer, performer, inventor of new musical instruments, and musicologist Hugh Davies (1943-2005) has yet to be fully acknowledged. Despite being a central figure in British music outside the conventions of the concert hall, no comprehensive study of his oeuvre has been carried out before. The idiosyncratic nature and radicalism of his work undoubtedly cast him as an 'outsider', but can a broader conceptual framework with which to assess his output be identified? What was the aesthetic philosophy on which Davies's musical project rested? How did his work mediate its context? This research represents an attempt at answering these questions. First of all it gathers, categorises, and evaluates information on Davies's larger body of work and activities. Indeed Davies engaged in many different forms of music making: he composed serial works and wrote music theatre pieces; he invented new musical instruments and improvised on them; he devised gallery installations and environmental projects. At the same time Davies pursued a number of significant activities such as the publishing of a world catalogue of experimental and electronic music and the setting up of the first permanent electronic music studio at a British university. He was also an assistant to the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007), an experience that had a profound effect on his development. Davies's musical output as well as his related research and pioneering work will be given due attention here in order to build a comprehensive and critical account of Davies's achievements and the context in which they took place. This thesis suggests that all the diverse pursuits in which Davies was engaged have been part of the same artistic discourse, and therefore can be logically connected in their genesis and development. The chosen framework to make sense of Davies's heterogeneous practice is that of 'experimental electronic music', and its defining principles are applied even when the pieces examined feature no electronic technology at all. The experimental ethos and the impact of electronic technology are thus construed as the foundation of Davies's production. This research casts light on Davies's work and on his fundamental role in the context of experimental and electronic music in Britain, and calls not only for a more informed appraisal of Davies's oeuvre but also for a more accurate account of twentieth century British music history.


Abstract: It is shown that time may be appreciated in at least two senses: chronological and dynamical. Chronological time is the time of our naive acquaintance as transient beings. At its most extensive scale, it corresponds to history encompassing both the abiotic and the biotic universe. Dynamical time, deriving from classical mechanics, is the time embraced by most of the laws of physics. It concerns itself only with present conditions since it is held that that the past may be reconstructed from the present (literally) and the future predicted from the present, a position known as Laplacian determinism. Nonlinear dynamics has shown the fallacy of this supposition because, of necessity, the concrete values that may be assumed in the variables of the equations of motion constituting the laws of physics (i.e. the present or starting conditions) as a result of the spontaneous or intentional interaction of subject (or measuring) systems and of object (or measured) systems, cannot be of infinite precision. Indeed, even if they could be, it is not at all clear that they would permit Laplacian determinism because of what is thought to be the ubiquity of K-flow dynamics in nature in which even infinite past information leading to the present cannot yield prediction of the future. In consequence, nonlinear dynamics, in rebellion against dynamical time, generates a primitive form of history distinguishing past, present, and future that may be termed nonlinear dynamical hysteresis. When nonlinear dynamics came to be complemented with semiotic modulation through the implement of symbol-mediated language (a complementation subsequently termed semantic closure) as first instantiated through the communicating (as opposed to merely dynamically interacting) molecular complexes of the cell, what can be termed semiotic hysteresis was born. The paper attempts to show that indefinitely evolving complexity, sustainability, justice, and meaning are indissolubly bound with chronological time in the sense of semiotic hysteresis (as afforded initially by non-cognitive semantic closure and subsequently, at least one hopes, by cognitive semantic closure): This semiotic hysteresis yields the indefinite evolutionary time of the living condition—including culture.


The prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically worldwide during the past three decades and has passed 30% of the adult population in both the US and UK. In the Nordic countries, more than 20% of adults are obese and more than 5% severely obese, with a body mass index >35 kg/m3 (1–3). The devastating impact of obesity on health is undisputed and spans common conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteoarthritis, major depression, adverse pregnancy outcomes and infertility (4, 5). Therefore the potential health impact of efficient preventive action in modern societies is tremendous. In this issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, a series of papers address the relationship between obesity and the workplace, and the question is raised whether the workplace and occupational health professionals have a role to play in this context.

Overweight and obesity basically reflect an imbalance between energy provision and expenditure or between intake of calories and physical activity. Although several new genetic determinants of obesity have been unravelled in the past few years (6), it is obvious that the greatly increasing occurrence of obesity during the past decades must have environmental and behavioral causes. In this issue, Pandalai et al (7) provide a systematic outline of interrelationships between obesity and workplace factors from a health perspective.

First, changes in the occupational environment may directly contribute to the epidemic by causing overweight and obesity. Rapid shifts towards more sedentary work with less physical activity is an obvious risk factor, but as reviewed by Solovieva et al (8) there is also limited evidence that psychosocial factors, long work hours, and shift work may contribute to overweight and obesity (9, 10), but temporal trends of these potential risk factors are less obvious. Moreover, pre- and perinatal exposure to xenobiotics with the capacity to interfere with endogenous hormone signalling have been linked with the risk of developing diabetes and obesity later in life (11). It is a provocative thought that obesity could, to some extent, be a toxicological issue. Considering the overwhelming evidence of a general decline in workplace exposure to chemicals in the Western world, many researchers will doubt the plausibility that chemical exposures at work are important contributors to the obesity epidemic. Besides genuine causal factors in the workplace, Pandalai et al (7) also provide examples of how workplace exposures can modify the effects of other risk factors of obesity.
Second, obesity is related to occupational health because it is a risk factor for injuries and preterm exit from the labor market. In this issue of the journal, Lin et al (12) provide compelling evidence from a large, longitudinal study in the US that obesity increases the risk of occupational injuries by some 25%. The authors acknowledge that the mechanisms leading to increased injury risk have not been well studied. The effects could be mediated by obesity-related conditions, such as sleep apnea leading to fatigue, osteoarthritis leading to physical limitations, or altered biomechanics leading to postural instability. While it would be most straightforward to attempt to prevent obesity, we also know that this is not easily achieved. Therefore, for effective prevention of injuries, we may need to consider and affect also the pathomechanical pathways.

In addition to being a risk factor for accidents at the workplace, it is now well documented that obesity is related to preterm exit from work. In their meta-analysis of 28 prospective studies mostly performed in the Nordic and a few other European countries, Robroek et al (13) provide evidence that obesity is associated with a 50% higher risk of disability pension – a result that is not unexpected considering the known association between obesity and serious chronic disease. These data are corroborated by a new large prospective study from Finland also published in this issue of the journal. According to Roos et al (14), obesity was strongly related to all-cause disability in both genders with clear indications of an "exposure–effect" relationship: the severely obese were at a higher risk than obese, and obese were at higher risk than overweight persons. In the case of disability retirement as a result of musculoskeletal disease, the risk was more than doubled. Important in the context of preventive action, this study did not indicate that working conditions modify the risk of disability retirement. Apparently one needs to address obesity itself. But how is this accomplished from an occupational health point of view?

In a paper on the co-occurrence of obesity and insomnia among employees and in workplaces, respectively, Oksanen et al observed a weak co-occurrence at the individual level but a strikingly strong co-occurrence of almost 60% at the workplace level (15). This workplace clustering of the two common and interrelated disorders may be taken as an argument for health promotion actions targeting these disorders at the work-unit rather than the individual level. Others provide less sophisticated arguments for preventive interventions targeting overweight and obesity at the workplace (16, 17). The occupational healthcare setting offers good opportunities to reach employees and promote more healthy behaviors (18, 19). Moreover, a Cochrane review of counselling and education programs aimed at lifestyle change in the general population did not demonstrate beneficial effects (20). However, the fact that there is no easy solution is demonstrated by one of the few published randomized controlled studies that examines effects of workplace interventions targeting overweight and obesity. In a controlled trial among Dutch occupational physicians, Verweij et al (21) did not find that an occupational health guideline, including repeated face-to-face counselling sessions to improve lifestyle, was more effective than usual care. The disappointing fact is that, at present, there is no evidence-based recommendable occupational health intervention targeting obesity.

In conclusion, the papers in this thematic issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health demonstrate how, for several reasons, the obesity epidemic is an important issue in occupational health research and practice. Some occupational risk factors contribute to obesity, and obesity contributes to injuries and preterm exit from the labor market. It is also known that behavioral changes focusing on diet and physical activity are key factors to address. But at present it is not known if and how this knowledge can be utilized for preventive action at the workplace. This gap in knowledge defines a major research area that so far has been given far too little attention.