About the book:
What are the implications of current economic, social and political trends in Britain for older people? Social and demographic changes have led to traditional areas of welfare being transformed. The contributors to this book take a critical look at the current situation and assess the implications for future practice. They debate the assumptions and values underlying established welfare programmes and consider the case for change as growing demands put health and social services under increasing pressure. The second part of the book discusses specific areas in detail, ranging from the organisation of effective domiciliary social care to the impact of new technologies on older people's lives. This book provides a comprehensive and practical overview of the provision of services for older people and will be a valuable and thought-provoking resource for anyone involved in caring for and supporting them.


Air Temperature is mainly affect the condition of temporal and spatial weather. This influence may be very high on some weather variables such as pressure, humidity and winds, also the Extreme of these variables can be considered as an indicator of the impact and intensity of the pressure systems. The data of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) during the summer months (June, July and August) of the period (2006 - 2017) were used to extract the Extreme of Daily Maximum Temperatures (EDMT) for four stations in Iraq (Baghdad, Basra, Khanaqin and AL-Rutba). The results that the number of extreme cases characteristics is nine, one of which is the beginning of the season, and the other was the end of the summer season and this confirms the stretch of the summer about a month May and September. This was done by considering 50°C/323°K as the most extreme values of two stations, and finding other extreme values for each region based on the maximum Temperatures anomalies. However, we must mention the geographical impact of (EDMT) and thus on the changing trajectory of the recipes of pressure pattern.


The aim of the present study is to determine the presence of specific and independent core processes involved in arithmetical skills. We evaluated performances of 68 typically developing school children (8-11 yrs) on numerosity acuity, number line, handwriting (non-math writing skills), phonemic and design fluency as well as math abilities. A principal component analysis on math subtests scores revealed three main factors: Numeracy, Magnitude and Handwriting. Correlations showed that phonemic fluency was associated with the Numeracy factor and the Magnitude factor while design fluency with the Handwriting factor. Number acuity was associated with the Magnitude factor, number line with the Numeracy factor, handwriting with the Handwriting factor. Hierarchical regressions analyses indicated that number acuity, number line, phonemic fluency and handwriting explained unique variance portions on Math test (factors scores). Our study suggests an explanation of the cognitive architecture of processes involved in arithmetical skills in school children.


Background: Information on the patterns of acute poisoning in Kenyan hospitals is limited, and yet such information is crucial for the appropriate management of poisoning. This study attempted to address this knowledge gap by examining admissions in a regional hospital in Kenya. Method: This was a retrospective review of the hospital records of 96 acute poisoning patients in Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital, Nakuru, in the first six months of 2012. A pretested data collection form was used to obtain data on important variables. Results: The prevalence of acute poisoning was 0.07% (96 of 141 769 cases). The average age of the patients was 22.6 years ± 11.20 years, the majority of whom were males [odds ratio (OR) 2.06]. The most prevalent toxic agent was pesticide (50, 52.08%). The majority of cases were intentional poisoning (48.96%) versus unintentional poisoning (43.75%), and involved mainly males (OR 3.06). Conversely, females were the majority with respect to accidental poisoning (25%) versus males (17.7%). However, accidental poisoning was most prevalent in patients aged 12 years and younger (23, 23.96%). Overall, acute poisoning was most prevalent in the age category of 20–30 years (40, 41.66%), in which intentional poisoning was predominant (26, 27.08%). The majority of cases of acute poisoning were incorrectly diagnosed (OR 1.79). The three patients who died were males (3.13%). Conclusion: This study showed that the majority of acute poisoning cases affected males and were intentional. The study also showed that the most prevalent acute toxic agent was pesticide and that acute toxic agents were often misclassified and hence misdiagnosed. These observations should be included when designing focused hospital poison management protocols.


ABSTRACT Heavy metals contaminate numerous freshwater streams and rivers worldwide. Previous work by this group demonstrated a relationship between the structure of hyporheic microbial communities and the fluvial deposition of heavy metals along a contamination gradient during the fall season. Seasonal variation has been documented in microbial communities in numerous terrestrial and aquatic environments, including the hyporheic zone. The current study was designed to assess whether relationships between hyporheic microbial community structure and heavy-metal contamination vary seasonally by monitoring community structure along a heavy-metal contamination gradient for more than a year. No relationship between total bacterial abundance and heavy metals was observed (R2 = 0.02, P = 0.83). However, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis pattern analysis indicated a strong and consistent linear relationship between the difference in microbial community composition (populations present) and the difference in the heavy metal content of hyporheic sediments throughout the year (R2 = 0.58, P < 0.001). Correlations between heavy-metal contamination and the abundance of four specific phylogenetic groups (most closely related to the α, β, and γ-proteobacteria and cyanobacteria) were apparent only during the fall and early winter, when the majority of organic matter is deposited into regional streams. These seasonal data suggest that the abundance of susceptible populations responds to heavy metals primarily during seasons when the potential for growth is highest.


Despite a long history, interlanguage variability research is a debatable topic as most paradigms do not distinguish between competence and performance. While interlanguage
performance has been proven to be variable, determining whether interlanguage competence is exposed to random and/or systematic variations is complex, given the fact that distinction between competence-dependent errors and performance-related mistakes should be established to best represent the interlanguage competence.

This thesis suggests a dynamic assessment model grounded in sociocultural theory to distinguish between errors and mistakes in texts written by learners of French, to then
investigate the extent to which interlanguage competence varies across time, text types, and students. The key outcomes include:

1. An expanded model based on dynamic assessment principles to distinguish between errors and mistakes, which also provides the structure to create and observe learners' zone of proximal development;
2. A method to increase the accuracy of the part-of-speech tagging procedure whose reliability correlates with the number of incorrect words contained in learners' texts;
3. A sociocultural insight into interlanguage variability research. Results demonstrate that interlanguage competence is as variable as performance. The main finding shows that knowledge over time is subject to not only systematic, but also unsystematic variations.


Innovation is the process of making changes, differences, and novelties in the products and services, adding values and business practices to create economic and social benefit. The purpose of this paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of innovation programs in developed and developing countries. We used a mixed-methods approach, quantitative as survey and qualitative as a multi-case study to examine innovation best practices in developed and developing countries. In addition, four case studies of innovation organisations based on the best practices and successful implementation in the developed and developing countries are selected for examination. The research findings provide guidance, suggestions, and recommendations for future implementation in developed and developing countries for practitioners such as policy makers, governments, funded organizations, and strategic institutions. In conclusion, innovation programs are vital tools for economic growth, knowledge, and technology transfer based on the several indicators such as creativity, entrepreneurship, role of government, role of university, strategic focus, new products, survival rate, job creation, start-up companies, and number of patents. The authors aim to conduct future research which will include a comparative study of innovation case studies between developed and developing countries for policy implications worldwide. The originality of this study makes a contribution to the current literature about the innovation best practice in developed and developing countries. Keywords—Economic development, entrepreneurship, developed countries, innovation program.


This Article offers a new way to understand the enforcement of domestic and international law that we call "outcasting." Unlike the distinctive method that modern states use to enforce their law, outcasting is nonviolent: it does not rely on bureaucratic organizations, such as police or militia, that employ physical force to maintain order. Instead, outcasting involves denying the disobedient the benefits of social cooperation and membership. Law enforcement through outcasting in domestic law can be found throughout history - from medieval Iceland and classic canon law to modern-day public law. And it is ubiquitous in modern international law, from the World Trade Organization to the Universal Postal Union to the Montreal Protocol. Across radically different subject areas, international legal institutions use others (usually states) to enforce their rules and typically deploy outcasting rather than physical force. Seeing outcasting as a form of law enforcement not only helps us recognize that the traditional critique of international law - that it is not enforced and is therefore both ineffective and not real law - is based on a limited and inaccurate understanding of law enforcement. It also allows us to understand more fully when and how international law matters.


The factory-built relocatable classroom (RC) is a dominant force in the school facility construction industry in the US and elsewhere. it is estimated that there are approximately 650,000 RCs currently occupied in the US, housing about 16 million students. RCs receive public attention due to complaints about poor indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Both measured data and anecdotal evidence in California have suggested excessive acoustical noise from heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment as a central factor leading to degraded IEQ. In the US, RCs are typically equipped with unitary exterior wall-mount HVAC systems, and interior acoustical noise due to structural and airborne transmission can reach levels of about 58dB(A) with compressor cycling, under unoccupied conditions. Due to these noise levels, teachers often simply choose to turn off the HVAC, leading to inadequate ventilation, as well as poor thermal conditioning, and thus to poor indoor air quality. Elevated levels of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds including formaldehyde are common. They discuss the acoustic component of the efforts to develop and test energy efficient HVAC systems that address the ventilation, controls, and acoustic requirements necessary to ensure high quality indoor environments in RCs.


Head and neck cancer (HNC) is considered one of the most traumatic and distressing types of cancer and is often associated with high rates of depression and suicide. Depression has a negative effect on HNC treatment outcomes, such as quality of life and mortality. However, depression is frequently underdiagnosed and consequently undertreated. Therefore, it is important to understand the trajectories of HNC-associated depression to be able to predict which patients will develop post-treatment depression. This article reviews the literature on the prevalence and trajectories of depressive symptoms and identifies predictors of post-treatment depression in patients with HNC. Many studies have reported persistent depressive symptoms after treatment. The level of pretreatment depressive symptoms could be a useful predictor of the level of pretreatment depression, although the findings of the studies reviewed here are inconsistent.


The purpose of this paper is to from a managerial perspective investigate performance evaluation practices in a product development context. The focus is on exploring how managers perceive and evaluate performance in a software-intensive product development context. The research approach pursued in this research consist of a literature review combined with focused group interviews and exploratory multiple case studies. Moreover, a number of seminars have been held to discuss the findings both in academia and in practice. The result of this research indicates that product development managers are dissatisfied with their current way of evaluating performance. Performance measurements and the perception of performance are focused on cost, time and quality, i.e. what is easily measurable and not necessarily what is important. The dimensions of value creations and learning are missing. It is argued that manager perception of performance is affected by how it is measured, hence limiting the scope of the performance criteria. Thus, a change in the way managers perceive performance is necessary before there can be any change in the way performance is evaluated. Managers within product development that are dissatisfied with their performance measurement system should focus on how the organization perceive performance. By developing relevant performance criteria the first step in developing an effective performance evaluation system is made.


The seemingly inhospitable Sonoran Desert has provided sustenance to indigenous peoples for centuries. Although it is to all appearances a land bereft of useful plants, fully one-fifth of the desert's flora are edible. This volume presents information on nearly 540 edible plants used by people of more than fifty traditional cultures of the Sonoran Desert and peripheral areas. Drawing on thirty years of research, Wendy Hodgson has synthesized the widely scattered literature and added her own experiences to create an exhaustive catalog of desert plants and their many and varied uses. Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert includes not only plants such as gourds and legumes but also unexpected food sources such as palms, lilies, and cattails, all of which provided nutrition to desert peoples. Each species entry lists recorded names and describes indigenous uses, which often include nonfood therapeutic and commodity applications. The agave, for example, is cited for its use as food and for alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, syrup, fiber, cordage, clothing, sandals, nets, blankets, lances, fire hearths, musical instruments, hedgerows, soap, and medicine, and for ceremonial purposes. The agave entry includes information on harvesting, roasting, and consumption and on distinguishing between edible and inedible varieties. No other source provides such a vast amount of information on traditional plant uses for this region. Written to be easily accessible to general readers, the book is an invaluable compendium for anyone interested in the desert's hidden bounty.


Research has used the normalized pairwise variability index (nPVI) to examine relationships between musical rhythm and durational contrast in composers' native languages. Applying this methodology, linearly increasing nPVI in Austro-German, but not Italian music has recently been ascribed to waning Italian and increasing German influence on Austro-German music after the Baroque Era. The inapplicability of controlled experimental methods to historical data necessitates further replication with more sensitive methods and new repertoire. Using novel polynomial modelling procedures, we demonstrate an initial increase and a subsequent decrease in nPVI in music by 34 French composers. Moreover, previous findings for 21 Austro-German (linear increase) and 15 Italian composers (no change) are replicated. Our results provide promissory quantitative support for accounts from historical musicology of an Italian-dominated Baroque (1600-1750), a Classical Era (1750-1820) with Austro-German centres of gravity (e.g., Mannheim, Vienna), and a Romantic Era (1820-1900) with greater national independence. Future studies should aim to replicate these findings with larger corpora with greater historical representability.


This paper examines the major factors constraining the adoption of a newly introduced paddy improvement technology programme by farmers in the Hambantota district, as seen from the perspective of Agricultural extension officers. Further, the adoption pattern of those technological programmes by farmers was analyzed. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data from a purposively selected sample of 30 AI officers. Data was analyzed using the principal factor model with iteration and Varimax rotation, and simple linear regression analysis was done to explain any relationship between the adoption levels of farmers in each of the adoption stages. The results showed that a majority of AI officers perceived that only 40-60 per cent of farmers actually adopted the new technology programme. As for the percentage of farmers who proceeded to adopt each stage of the multi-stage process, the majority of the farmers in the community progressed to the awareness stage but only about 50 per cent of farmers continued until the final adoption stage was reached. Among the factors that could be cited as constraining the adoption: a lack of resources, incompatibility and complexity of new technology, and socio-economic and cultural constraints. Inadequacies in extension intervention, technical training and information were the main constraints that compromised the information and knowledge network. Moreover, the Yaya 2 programme was hindered by environmental and economic barriers, poor educational competencies of farmers and weak information links with the other actors of the network. These findings suggest that there is an urgent need for researchers, policy makers and administrators of the extension service to consider these constraints seriously so as to overcome them to increase the adoption rate by farmers of the new paddy technology programme in Hambantota. Keywords: Agricultural Technology, Adoption Stages, Adoption, Constraints


The epicenter of the Mw 9.0 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on 26 December 2004 at 00:58 UTC occurred near the northwestern end of Sumatra and ruptured northward along the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago (Figure 1). The principal rupture had a duration of more than 10 minutes (Park et al., 2005) and was perceptible to a distance of 3,300 km westward and 2,600 km northward. The largest accelerations were perceived near the epicenter, but high intensities were also perceived along the archipelago with diminishing intensity northward. Presented here are 206 intensity reports interpreted in terms of EMS-98 (Grunthal, 1998), a scale with similarities to the MSK and Modified Mercalli Intensity scales but designed to take into account modern building practices. The data are culled from primary accounts, newspaper reports, and responses to an online intensity questionnaire (http://asc-india.org/menu/felt.htm). Insofar as additional epicentral data will be forthcoming in the next several months, the data are presented with a minimum of interpretation.

 Figure 1.
Map showing the region of the rupture and its aftershocks (black dots). The location of the December mainshock is shown by a star. It is believed that the main rupture propagated to close to Port Blair.

This study focuses on evidence for shaking intensity resulting from the earthquake, ignoring damage due to the tsunami, landslides, or liquefaction. Preliminary ground-based tsunami surveys are available (Borrero, 2005; NICEE, 2005); these provide some information about shaking intensities as well but are spatially limited. First-hand accounts of the disaster and damage reports that appeared in Web logs, conventional newspapers, and Web sites are evaluated along with 48 felt reports sent via the Internet by eyewitnesses in India. Multiple felt reports were received from places such as Bhubaneswar, Chennai, and Port Blair. The highest assigned intensity of 9 EMS was reported from Lameureum, on the northwest coast …


Virtually every major media, information and telecommunications enterprise in the world is significantly tied to China. This volume provides the most expert, up-to-date and multidisciplinary analyses on how the contemporary media function in what has rapidly become the world's biggest market. As the West, particularly the United States, tries to integrate China into the global market economy, the book examines how globalizing forces clash with Chinese nationalism to shape China's media discourses and ideology. It also analyses the role of the media as a site of resistance within China to the ruling elite.


We studied the seasonal dynamics of phytoplankton, bacterioplankton, heterotrophic nanoflagellates, ciliates, and metazoan plankton in the highly eutrophic polymictic Lake Kastoria (Greece), which has a history of toxic cyanobacterial blooms. An acute increase in the flushing rate of the lake during spring inhibited cyanobacterial biomass accumulation. During this transient oligotrophic period, which was characterized by abundant lake snow particles, the plankton food web was an inverted biomass pyramid (low autotrophic biomass and high heterotrophic biomass). Prokaryotes played a key role in these changes (cyanobacteria during periods of autotrophy and bacteria during periods of heterotrophy). In summer and autumn, toxic cyanobacterial blooms developed, and the microbial loop was weak. The microbial loop was weak because the heterotrophic nanoflagellates and nanociliates decreased to undetectable densities during the summer, when larger bacterivores (rotifers and small cladocera) were abundant. Toxic blooms may have a dual effect on heterotrophic nanoplankton: negative during the first bloom and postbloom period and positive during a following toxic bloom. Different species (Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, Aphanizomenon spp., and Microcystis aeruginosa) and succession phases of toxic blooms may differentially affect the microbial food web structure.


This chapter presents the effect of lanthanum (La) dopant on the structural and optical properties of the following ferroelectric thin films: barium strontium titanate (Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3) (BST), lithium tantalate (LiTaO3), and lithium niobate (LiNbO3). We applied X‐ray dif‐ fraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and in some cases, atomic force microscopy to investigate the structural properties, functional groups, and particle size, as well surface roughness of these lanthanum‐doped thin films, respectively, whereas ultra violet‐visible (UV‐Bis) spectrometer was applied to investigate the optical bandgap of the La‐doped thin films. The results are in agreement with other previously researcher stud‐ ies using different substrate materials. In general, the effect of La dopant highly affects both the structural and optical properties, changing significantly the grain size, surface roughness, and energy gap, and in certain cases, such as BST doped by La can change the material electric properties from insulator to semiconductor. Therefore, La‐doped thin films may offer promising applications in the future.


Disjunctive Datalog with stable model semantics is a rule–based language for knowledge representation and common sense reasoning that also allows to use queries for checking the presence of specific atoms in stable models. Expressiveness is a strength of the language, which indeed captures the second level of the polynomial hierarchy. However, because of this high expressive power, evaluating Disjunctive Datalog programs and queries is inherently nondeterministic. In fact, Disjunctive Datalog computations are typically characterized by two distinct phases. The first phase, referred to as program instantiation, is deterministic and associates input programs with equivalent ground programs; only deterministic knowledge is inferred in this phase. The second phase, referred to as stable model search, is nondeterministic and computes stable models of instantiated programs. Many query optimization techniques have been proposed in the literature. Among them are Magic Sets, originally introduced for standard Datalog programs. Program instantiation is sufficient for computing the semantics of standard Datalog programs because only deterministic knowledge can be represented in this case. For this reason, the original Magic Set technique is only focused on the optimization of program instantiation. Dynamic Magic Sets are an extension of the technique that takes into account the nondeterministic knowledge encoded into Disjunctive Datalog programs. In fact, in addition to the standard optimization of program instantiation, Dynamic Magic Sets provide further optimization potential to the subsequent stable model search. In this thesis, Dynamic Magic Sets are proved to be sound and complete for stratified and super–coherent programs. To this end, a strong relationship between magic atoms and unfounded sets is highlighted. Dynamic Magic Sets are also used for proving decidability of reasoning for a class of programs with uninterpreted function symbols. In particular, it is shown that the application of Dynamic Magic Sets to finitely recursive queries generates finitely ground programs, for which decidability of reasoning has been established in the literature. Dynamic Magic Sets have been implemented in a prototype extending DLV, a state–of–the–art system for Disjunctive Datalog programs and queries. The effectiveness of Dynamic Magic Sets has been assessed by experimenting with the prototype system. Experimental results confirm that Dynamic Magic Sets can provide significant, possibly exponential, performance gains.


between auditors and client management during the audit process, and the consequent impact on the effectiveness of corporate governance structures in place. A total of 28 semi-structured interviews were carried out in 8 different sized Egyptian accounting firms. The semi-structured interviews were
facilitated by the use of a pre-designed interview schedule using a very broad topic guide with a few direct questions. The interviewees' responses revealed that it is important for the auditor not only to assess the nature of the given dispute and the stage to which the dispute has evolved, but also to assess the forces and factors affecting the parties involved. Secondly, when resolving audit disputes, interviewees indicated that there is no single negotiation
strategy that can be applied in all situations. The findings should be treated
with some caution since the interviews were conducted with only one group of subjects, namely 28 Egyptian auditors of Big 4 and other audit firms. Accordingly, the issue remains open as to whether the interviewees'
perceptions can be generalized to the whole population or to other groups (for instance, finance directors or shareholders). Most of the previous studies have been conducted in developed, Anglo-Saxon countries, therefore there is an opportunity for more research to be carried out in other countries, specifically in developing countries, namely Egypt, thus providing additional evidence on
this issue.


The sound power of a machine or device provides a general description of its acoustic output. Sound intensity based methods determine this quantity by integrating the normal sound intensity over an area enclosing the noise source. Current ISO standards solely regulate the use of p-p intensity probes. A p-p probe consists of two paired pressure microphones that approximate sound intensity by combining the average pressure and pressure gradient. Sound pressure is strongly affected by the measurement conditions, especially in reverberant environments or the presence of background noise, which can significantly constrain the accuracy of intensity estimations. As a result, regulations define a set of parameters or "field indicators" to guarantee the validity of measurements and control the uncertainty limits of the estimated sound power level. Alternatively, it is possible to directly obtain sound intensity from the sound pressure and particle velocity acquired using p-u probes. However the measurement methodology that support this approach has not yet been established. This paper adapts the current measurement standards for the use of p-u intensity probes. A corresponding field indicator that determines the accuracy of the computed estimations is suggested and experimental data is presented, providing evidence for the viability of the measurement methodology introduced.


It is necessary to quantify rates of woody plant encroachment on southwestern USA rangelands to determine the economic feasibility of treatments designed to manage these plants. This study observed changes in honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa Torr.) canopy cover over a 20-year period (1976-1995) in 2 treatments: an untreated area that initially had a moderately dense mesquite stand (14.6% cover), and an area cleared of mesquite with root-plowing in 1974. Canopy cover of mesquite was estimated from scanned color-infrared aerial photograph images by manually delineating mesquite canopies with a computer using ArcView software. During the 20 years, mesquite cover in the untreated area increased (P less than or equal to 0.05) from 14.6 to 58.7%, averaging 2.2 percentage units per year. Cover in the root-plow treatment also significantly increased during the same period from 0 to 21.9% (1.1 percentage units per year), but the rate of increase was significantly lower than in the untreated area because mesquite growth was from new seedlings instead of established plants and/or new seedlings as occurred in the untreated area. Rate of increase was significantly lower from 1976 to 1990 (1.6 and 0.2 percentage units per year) than from 1990 to 1995 (4.1 and 3.7 percentage units per year) in the untreated and root-plow treatment, respectively. These differences were attributed to precipitation which was near normal from 1976 to 1990 but 25% above normal from 1991 to 1995. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v54i2_ansley


Osteoarthritis of the hand is a condition prevalent in elderly men and women, and causes significant pain and limitations in daily function. International guidelines recommend that non-pharmacological treatment protocols should be composed multidisciplinary and should focus on different dimensions, e.g. education, improvement of impairments (grip strength and joint mobility), the use of assistive devices and improvement of coping skills. However, there is no evidence on the optimal mixture of treatment components.

A multidisciplinary and multidimensional treatment program according to the recommendations of current international guidelines was developed following a systematic approach. The program contained an individual intake, four weekly nurse and occupational therapist-led group sessions and a booster session after six months. Treatment components of the program were self-management, daily home exercises to enhance joint mobility and grip strength, and education about ergonomic principles.

151 patients with osteoarthritis of the hand were randomized to determine the efficacy of the newly developed treatment program compared to a single educational session. Outcomes focused primarily on limitations in activities, along with pain and joint stiffness.

At 3 months no significant and no relevant differences were observed between the experimental and control group in any of the outcome measures. In both groups about one-third of patients were classified as responder. Therefore, it was concluded that there is insufficient evidence to confirm a clinically relevant treatment effect on the short term. In addition, one year after the treatment program we found no evidence for the efficacy of a single booster session after a multidisciplinary treatment program on pain and limitations in activities.

These negative findings could possibly be due to the broad range of impairments and limitations evoked by osteoarthritis of the hand, and may not be treatable with a standardized program.

One of the main results of the thesis is that although our treatment program was developed following a systematic, thorough approach, it was found to be not effective in improving pain and limitations in activities, being the predominant problems of patients with hand OA. The second aim of this PhD study was to gain more insight into factors contributing to the burden of hand OA.

In several cross sectional studies it was found that, patients with hand OA experience lowered health related quality of life compared with a Dutch reference population. Joint stiffness and grip strenght were found to be the main determinants of pain whereas pain is the main determinant of limitations in activities Patients with more signs and symptoms of the thumb base joints showed a significant higher disease burden than patients without signs and symptoms in this joint area. In clinical practice we recommend to focus on presence of joint stiffness, limited grip strength, and signs and symptoms in the thumb base joints. Interventions aimed at adequate pain control (such as splints and medication) may be important treatment options.


A central issue in privacy governance is understanding how users balance their privacy preferences and data sharing to satisfy service demands. We combine survey and behavioral data of a sample of Alipay users to examine how data privacy preferences affect their data sharing with third-party mini-programs on the Alipay platform. We find that there is no relationship between the respondents' self-stated privacy concerns and their number of data-sharing authorizations, confirming the puzzling data privacy paradox. Instead of attributing this paradox to the respondents' unreliable survey responses, resignation from active protection of their data privacy, or behavioral factors in making their data-sharing choices, we show that this phenomenon can be explained by a curious finding that users with stronger privacy concerns tend to benefit more from using mini-programs. This positive relationship between privacy concerns and digital demands further suggests that consumers may develop data privacy concerns as a by-product of the process of using digital applications, not because such concerns are innate.


Objective Collect head impact dose data in young athletes, using an instrumented mouthguard validated per NFL specification. Compare theses doses with published concussive head impact data. Design Prospective, cross-sectional Setting Calibrate an instrumented mouthguard head impact dosimeter in laboratory on Hybrid III (HIII) dummy. Collect young athlete non-concussive head impacts on playing field using this dosimeter. Compare these doses to published concussion doses from adult American footballers. Participants Young American footballers and boxers, n=12, ages 10–21. IRB #13–899. Assessment of risk factors Single head impact doses, signs/symptoms of concussion. Outcome measures National Football League (NFL) validity specifications for laboratory testing, head kinematics, presence/absence of concussion. Main results 177 non-concussive head impact doses were identified. Apparent overlap between non-concussive mouthguard doses and published concussion helmet doses from Rowson et al, (2012) was found. Mouthguard dosimeter meets NFL validity specifications set forth by Siegmund & Guskiewicz et al. (2016) up to 123 g and 7320 rad/s2. Conclusions The mouthguard dosimeter meets the NFL laboratory validity specifications. In human tests, 177 non-concussive, asymptomatic head impacts were measured. Young athlete mouthguard-measured head impact doses (up to 62 g, 4470 rad/s2) had apparent overlap with concussion doses reported from adult athletes wearing instrumented helmets. The overlap may be due to individual concussion tolerance variability, differences in dosimeter accuracy, or peak acceleration magnitude being an insufficient concussion metric. Accurate dosimeter monitoring may be useful in the future to limit play once a certain dose is reached, or to identify dangerous impacts that may have not been observed by the caregiver. Competing interests Bartsch/Samorezov/Benzel/Miele – Cleveland Clinic has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Prevent Biometrics for Intelligent Mouthguard technology on which the Authors (AB, SS, EB, VM) are inventors. AB & SS are also paid consultants of Prevent Biometrics. AB, EB and VM are – members of Prevent Biometrics' Scientific Advisory Panel. Under terms of these agreements there is potential for fee-for-service payments, royalties and/or equity arising from commercialization of head impact measurement and/or head impact safety product(s). The conflicts disclosed here are managed by the Cleveland Clinic Conflict Management Board. Complete details can be found at https://my.clevelandclinic.org/ccf/media/files/About/COI.pdf. These authors also receive research support from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Transportation, Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University and Rawlings Sporting Goods. Alberts – as of 4/30/2015, Dr. Alberts has reported a financial relationship and may receive future financial benefits from the Cleveland Clinic for inventions or discoveries commercialised through i-COMET Technologies, Inc Bernick – as of 5/10/2016, Dr. Bernick has reported financial relationships as a paid consultant, speaker or member of an advisory committee for the following companies: Allergan. Dr. Bernick also receives research support from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Haymon Boxing, Spike TV, Home Box Office Inc. (HBO) and Top Rank Boxing Inc. Brett – Dr. Brett is an Officer in Prevent Biometrics, and sub-awardee on federally funded grants from Cleveland Clinic. Figler, Gray, Russman – None.


Bronchoalveolar lavage has been used to sample cells and proteins in the distal lung. One of the major secretory products of the alveolar type II epithelial cells, pulmonary surfactant, can be recovered by lavage. Abnormalities in alveolar type II cells are found in biopsies of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and abnormalities of pulmonary surfactant phospholipids have been reported after diffuse lung injury in animals and in humans. Therefore, we questioned if abnormalities in lavage phospholipids might also occur in IPF, a chronic inflammatory disease of the alveolar epithelium and interstitium, and, if present, would these abnormalities reflect histopathologic changes or predict responsiveness to therapy. Fifteen untreated patients with IPF, diagnosed by open lung biopsy, were studied and were found to have less than half the amount of bronchoalveolar lavage phospholipid as that recovered from healthy volunteers (p less than 0.05). In addition, patients with IPF had a lower proportion of phosphatidylglycerol and a higher proportion of phosphatidylinositol in the recovered phospholipids than did healthy volunteers (p less than 0.05). The severity of these alterations in phospholipid composition correlated with more advanced fibrotic histopathologic changes. Patients with less depression of total phospholipids in lavage improved with corticosteroid therapy, whereas the patients with more severely decreased total phospholipid recovered in lavage did not.


In this Article, I consider the contemporary law reform project of a radical social movement seeking to transform the state: specifically, the Movement for Black Lives policy platform, "A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom, and Justice." The Movement for Black Lives is the leading example of a contemporary racial justice movement with an intersectional politics including feminist and anti-capitalist commitments. The visions of such radical social movements offer an alternative epistemology for understanding and addressing structural inequality and injustice. By studying not only the critiques offered by radical social movements, but also their visions for transformative change, the edges of law scholarship can be expanded, a deeper set of critiques and a longer set of histories—of colonialism and settler colonialism, the Atlantic slave trade and mass incarceration—centered, and a bolder project of transformation forwarded. These visions should push legal scholars toward a broader frame for understanding how law, the market, and the state co-produce intersectional structural inequality, and toward agendas that focus not on building the power of law and law enforcement, but on transforming the state and society and building the power of marginalized communities. This shift would invigorate the social movements literature and bring new energy to scholarship on substantive areas of law, from criminal and immigration law to property and contract law.

To illustrate the creative potential of studying radical social movements, this Article considers policing the Vision for Black Lives with the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Ferguson and Baltimore reports. The Vision and DOJ reports offer alternate conceptualizations of the problem of policing and the appropriate approach to law reform. Reflective of liberal law reform projects on police, the DOJ reports identify policing as a fundamental tool of law and order that serves the collective interests of society, and locate the problems of police in their failure to adhere to constitutional law. As a remedy, the DOJ reports advocate for investing more resources in police: more trainings, better supervision, community policing. In contrast, the Vision identifies policing as a historical and violent force in Black communities underpinning a system of racial capitalism and limiting the possibilities of Black life. Here, law is central to the shape and legitimation of racialized violence and inequality. The Vision's reimagination of policing—rooted in Black history and Black intellectual traditions—transforms mainstream approaches to reform. The Vision demands shrinking the large footprint of policing, surveillance, and incarceration, and shifting resources into other social programs in Black communities: housing, health care, jobs, and schools. It focuses on building power in Black communities, and fundamentally transforming the relationship between government, market, and society. In forwarding an abolitionist imagination, the movement offers transformative, affirmative visions for change designed to address the structures of inequality—something legal scholarship has for far too long lacked.


Abstract The intra-oceanic Izu Bonin arc (NW Pacific) has produced a bimodal spectrum of melts with maxima in the basaltic andesitic (c. 53–54 wt% SiO2) and rhyolitic range (c. 70–72 wt% SiO2) since arc inception c. 48–49 million years ago. Composition of phenocrysts and accessory minerals from 21 contemporaneous fallout tephras from ODP Site 782A confirm the bimodality and uniformity of the erupted melts. The basaltic andesite melts equilibrated with calcic plagioclase (c. An70–95), high-Mg# clino- and orthopyroxene and low-Ti titanomagnetite. Dacitic and rhyolitic melts crystallized sodic plagioclase (c. An40–60), low-Mg# clino- and orthopyroxene, apatite, Ti-rich titanomagnetite in addition to occasional ilmenite and amphibole. The Izu melts are inferred to crystallize at oxygen fugacities between c. 0 to +2.5 log10 units relative to FMQ, at temperatures between c. 775° and 1100 °C and at pressures between c. 300 and c. 1100 MPa, corresponding to c. 5–35 km lithospheric depth. The compositional uniformity of the tephra layers, which are spaced on average 230 ± 380 ka apart, suggest uniform processes of differentiation since at least c. 42 Ma ago. The tephra record shows no indication of periodic or progressive crustal growth that might correlate with the alternate periods of arc formation, arc rifting or backarc spreading, or would suggest an increasingly efficient 'crustal filter' with time. The tephra data tentatively conform to a model where crust grows steadily through intrusions of mafic and evolved melt body batches whereby buoyancy controls the level of solidification. While the tephra compositions demonstrate the uniformity of the processes of melt formation and differentiation through time, the data do not permit the differentiation processes themselves to be constrained. These may comprise fractional crystallization, crustal fusion, fusion of non-peridotitic sub-crustal lithologies, or any combination of these processes.


A polarity-based extraction/fractionation method validated with standard compounds was used to characterize organic aerosol samples collected during the Pittsburgh Air Quality Study (PAQS). Organic extracts were separated into 5 polarity classes by sequential elution with hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, acetone, and methanol. Organic mass (OM) and carbon mass (OC) were measured in samples, their extracts, and their corresponding fractions yielding OM/OC ratios and the contribution of each polarity fraction to total OM. The study average OM/OC ratio for each fraction [(OM/OC)fraction] varied from 1.37 for the hexane fraction to 2.25 for the methanol fraction. OM/OC ratios for "non-extractable" organics ((OM/OC)N-E) were also predicted; the study average (OM/OC)N - E was 2.54, consistent with ratios of 2.1–3.2 for water-soluble organic aerosol species. Annual average ratios with and without the contributions of the "non-extractable" material [(OM/OC)total and (OM/OC)extract, respectively] were 2.05 ± 0.18(1σ) and 1.91 ± 0.24(1σ), similar to OM/OC of atmospherically relevant oligomers and aged aerosols measured elsewhere. Ratios were somewhat higher during summer/winter than spring/fall, probably because of a greater contribution of oxidized species such as dicarboxylic acids (summer), levoglucosan (winter and/or summer), and humic-like-substances (HULIS; winter and/or summer). We hypothesize that the OM/OC of atmospheric aerosols approaches a value of 1.9–2.1 as it ages and oligomerizes in the atmosphere. The annual-average contributions of each fraction to the total collected OM mass were, 16.8, 14.0, 11.7, 11.5, 19.3, and 26.7% for the hexane-, dichloromethane-, ethyl acetate-, acetone-, methanol-, and "non-extractable" fractions, respectively. Thus non-polar and very polar species dominated the OM mass throughout the year. Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to further characterize the composition of extracts and fractions. This method can be used to fractionate organic PM for toxicological studies as well as organic aerosol characterization.


1. A 'World Water Crisis'? Assessing its significance against the history of water management 1.1 Hydraulic cultures and religious codes: management in advance of science 1.2 Engineering and science: the rise of hydraulics and hydrology 1.3 Monks, mills and mines: coordination (but abuse) of rivers in England 1.4 Urbanisation and industrialisation: a steep deterioration 1.5 Environment, the current 'crisis' and challenges of a sustainable future 2. The river basin ecosystem: basic biophysical dynamics, natural and modified 2.1 Flow of water and transport of sediment 2.1.1 Elementary fluvial sediment transport 2.1.2 Slopes, channel, storage zones 2.1.3 Timescales of river basin dynamics and concepts of 'stability' 2.2 Channel morphology: indicating process and state? 2.2.1 "Stable'/'unstable' channels and 'natural' channel change 2.2.2 Catchment sediment flux, channel change and development impacts 2.2.3 Hydraulic geometry, regime and channel design 2.3 Floodplains 2.3.1 Floodplain formation and functions: floods, aquifers 2.3.2 Floodplain modifications in the Anthropocene 2.4 Sediment 'delivery' at the basin scale: sources, pathways and targets 2.4.1 Sediment budgets 2.4.2 World sediment yields 2.5 Incorporating the basin sediment system in ecosystem management 2.5.1 Fitting together water, sediment and biota 3. Land-water interactions: the evidence base for catchment planning and management 3.1 Vegetation, soils and hydrology: a humid climate perspective 3.1.1 The hydrological cycle in nature and the role of vegetation: 'green' and 'blue' water 3.1.2 Important vegetation canopy processes 3.1.3 Patterns of soil hydrological processes 3.2 Groundwater exploitation and protection 3.3 Runoff modifications in developed river basins 3.3.1 Modifications to runoff volume 3.3.2 Modifications to runoff timing 3.3.3 Regulated rivers, an introduction 3.4 Land and water use/management: off-site impacts on water quality and biota 3.4.1 Land use and the fine sediment system 3.4.2 Solute processes and basin-scale pollution problems 3.5 Conclusions: towards water body 'pressures' 4. Managing land and water in the developed world. An international survey 4.1 Development and the river basin 4.2 River basin management in the USA 4.2.1 Exploration, exploitation 4.2.2 The Colorado basin 4.2.3 The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) 4.2.4 Dams and development in the USA: from solution to problem 4.2.5 The rise of land-use issues in US river management 4.2.6 Flood and drought measures 4.2.7 Land-use planning in river basin units 4.2.8 Cultural, political, legal attitudes 4.3 Canadian river basin management 4.3.1 Water transfers: a Canadian speciality 4.3.2 Land-use issues in basin development 4.3.3 Improving the integration of policies 4.4 Australia: lessons learned late and the settler legacy 4.4.1 The rise of planning and the use of economics 4.4.2 The Murray-Darling basin and its management 4.5 New Zealand: Resource management conditioned by hazard 4.5.1 Catchment Authorities: an early New Zealand lead 4.6 Conclusions: national priorities in the developed world 5. River basins and development 5.1 New millennium, new tensions: incorporating poverty and health in the water agenda 5.1.1 The water and sanitation crisis 5.1.2 'Solutions' to the water and sanitation crisis? 5.2 Characteristics of water development projects in the 20th Century: 'gigantism' 5.2.1 Damaging development: the dilemma of urbanisation 5.3 A development focus: food, power and trade in drylands 5.3.1 Desertification 5.4 River basin management in Iran: the Zayandeh Rud 5.5 The Nile - a definitive case of hydropolitics 5.5.1 Egypt: product of the river 5.5.2 'Hydrosovereignty' - control of the river 5.5.3 Aswan and Lake Nasser: plus and minus 5.5.4 Basin planning: sharing knowledge but not water 5.6 River basin development authorities: experience elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa 5.6.1 The Awash Valley Authority, Ethiopia 5.6.2 The Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority, Kenya 5.6.3 Nigeria's RBDAs 5.7 South Africa: a unique water management experiment 5.7.1 Starting from scratch: the 1998 Water Act 5.7.2 Land, water and 'the Act' 5.7.3 Stealing or sharing? Facing basin closure in South Africa 5.8 Land use writ large (or not?): Himalayan headwaters and the GBM 5.8.1 Nepal: a rush to judgement under a theory of Himalayan degradation 5.8.2 GBM international: India's drought stress, Bangladesh's flood hazards and headwater development 5.8.3 Watershed development in India 5.9 Dams and alternatives 5.9.1 The case against large dams and associated developments 5.9.2 Respect for tradition: 'bottom-up' development in drylands 5.9.3 'Water wars' and 'hydrosolidarity': international river basin management 5.10 Development and rivers: broad trends 6. Technical issues in river basin management 6.1 Soil erosion 6.1.1 The physical processes of erosion: identifying controls to design protection 6.1.2 Sophistication laid low: a realistic role for research 6.1.3 Social science and erosion 6.1.4 Tropical deforestation: a particular erosion problem 6.2 A stressed global food supply - 'Water for food, Water For life' 6.2.1 The water we eat 6.2.2 Irrigation: land, water and people 6.2.3 Social dimensions and alternatives 6.2.4 Drought 6.3 Dams and development: sedimentation, environmental flows, impact assessment 6.3.1 Dams and reservoirs: an introductory environmental assessment 6.3.2 Soil erosion and reservoir sedimentation 6.3.3 Regulated rivers below dams 6.3.4 Improving regulation efficiency and releasing 'environmental flows' 6.3.5 The future for large dams: impact and inclusiveness 6.4 Conservation and restoration of river channels and wetlands 6.4.1 River channel restoration 6.4.2 Beyond the channel: wetland, floodplain, riparian restoration 6.5 Climate change and river basin management 6.5.1 Can we believe data and models? 6.5.2 Uncertain answers from IPCC and other research 6.5.3 River basin impacts: reconstructing past changes and modelling future scenarios 6.5.4 Change, management and resource stress 6.5.5 Mitigation and adaptation: global approaches 6.6 Conclusions 7. Institutional issues in river basin management 7.1 Delivering IWRM/IRBM within contexts of rights and governance 7.2 Can basin authorities work? From TVA to CMAs and RBDs 7.3 Case study: the evolution of basin institutions in England and Wales 7.4 River basin units of management in England and Wales 7.5 Basin-scale regulation of resources and pollution 7.6 Private or public: economics and environment 7.7 Demand management and water efficiency 7.8 Integration with development plans: flooding leads again 7.9 The spotlight of sustainable development 7.10 River basin institutions and developing nations 7.11 Institutions for international river basin management 7.12 Sustainability and subsidiarity: scale-sensitive institutions which can plan basin development 8. Sustainable river basin management with uncertain knowledge 8.1 Science in the 'new environmental age' and the 'risk society' 8.2 The (uncertain) environmental sciences 8.3 'Science speaks to power' - uncertain science empowers? 8.4 Uncertain science and river basin management: How did we get to here? 8.5 Uncertain science and river basin management: Where now? 8.6 The land-use hydrologist's stock-in-trade: catchment research 8.7 Science and policy: land-use management in river basins 8.8 Implementation: land-use controls in river basins 8.9 Broadening horizons: more knowledge needed, more knowledge accessed: people speak to science 9. Adaptive land and water management through participation and social learning: hydropolitical decisions 9.1 The contexts for future land and water development, urban and rural 9.2 Scale-sensitive governance, information flows and decision-support 9.3 Experiences in public participation: stakeholders and 'Joe' 9.4 Is social learning an improvement on 'research'? 9.5 The cauldron of hydropolitics 9.6 Formalities of adaptive management 9.7 Outside the box: globalized water, hydrocentricity and hydrosolidarity - exclusive 'solutions'?


In April 23, 1999, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Washington Treaty, the heads of state of the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will gather in Washington to celebrate the creation of the Atlantic Alliance. Undoubtedly, these leaders will commend themselves for having built the most successful military alliance in history. They will look back with satisfaction on NATO's central role in the containment and defeat of Soviet imperialism and its crucial contribution to the defense, reformation and ultimate reunification of Germany. They can point to NATO's unique role in keeping the peace between Greece and Turkey over decades, in establishing the Partnership for Peace program, and in the "Open Door" for new democracies. They might also observe that NATO has served to help stave off American flirtations with isolationism and has acted as a magnet that continues to pull emerging democracies toward the West. Finally, there will be justifiable celebration of the accession of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary as NATO allies, a watershed event that can only be regarded as a major step towards the achievement of the West's historic objective of a Europe whole and free. Ironically, however, while the allies will have no difficulty finding past achievements to toast, they will doubtless find themselves discordant on the key question now facing NATO -- the ambitious task of agreeing on a revised "strategic concept" for the alliance. Recently, the NATO members have bickered openly about the future mission of the alliance, and some have even gone so far as to wonder whether NATO deserves to live on. Rarely in world history has such a successful military and political alliance been so lacking in self-confidence and so uncertain about political support among its constituent members. NATO's identity crisis is particularly perplexing for those who are generally optimistic that what has worked in the past will work in the future and are accordingly reluctant to tear down institutions of proven value to make way for new world orders -- that is, for those who take a conservative view of foreign policy. Why this debate? Why now? The historical context The problem of the "New NATO," as every writer on the subject reminds us, began with the disappearance of the Soviet threat in 1989. This wholesale change in the geopolitical landscape fundamentally altered the West's security. In the United States, standing military forces and the defense industrial base were dramatically downsized. U.S. strategic forces were reoriented, and the National Laboratory system, which had been built to sustain the U.S. nuclear deterrent, was cut back and assigned other missions. Multilateral institutions, too, such as the U.N. and the IMF, have become objects of significant criticism. They also have been forced to face reform and overhaul. The construction of a "New NATO" is therefore but one of the many transformations of previously reliable Euro-Atlantic institutions since 1989. Nor is change of this sort without precedent in the context of military strategy. The history of American foreign policy in the inter-war periods of the 20th century offers guidance on how to adapt our alliances to new strategic circumstances. To understand where the alliance is going as it redefines itself, it is useful to look at its historical antecedents. From 1919 to 1939, the United States made decisions to withdraw from "European entanglements," to limit our participation in multi-lateral alliances, and, if not to rely upon, at least to benefit from a vague association of collective security. Americans have tended to draw from the negative experience of the 1930s an appropriate prejudice against isolationism and three general lessons, which should today inform our vision of the future of NATO. First, the withdrawal of the United States from Europe is a geostrategic mistake of the first order. Second, alliances and ad hoc coalitions of the liked-minded and the willing, within the constraints imposed by American exceptionalism, are on balance prudent. …


This thesis is concerned with the problem of processing data from Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to meet the requirements of emergency responders (e.g. Fire and Rescue Services). A WSN typically consists of spatially distributed sensor nodes to cooperatively monitor the physical or environmental conditions. Sensor data about the physical or environmental conditions can then be used as part of the input to predict, detect, and monitor emergencies. Although WSNs have demonstrated their great potential in facilitating Emergency Response, sensor data cannot be interpreted directly due to its large volume, noise, and redundancy. In addition, emergency responders are not interested in raw data, they are interested in the meaning it conveys. This thesis presents research on processing and combining data from multiple types of sensors, and combining sensor data with other relevant data, for the purpose of obtaining data of greater quality and information of greater relevance to emergency responders.
The current theory and practice in Emergency Response and the existing technology aids were reviewed to identify the requirements from both application and technology perspectives (Chapter 2). The detailed process of information extraction from sensor data and sensor data fusion techniques were reviewed to identify what constitutes suitable sensor data fusion techniques and challenges presented in sensor data processing (Chapter 3). A study of Incident Commanders' requirements utilised a goal-driven task analysis method to identify gaps in current means of obtaining relevant information during response to fire emergencies and a list of opportunities for WSN technology to fill those gaps (Chapter 4). A high-level Emergency Information Management System Architecture was proposed, including the main components that are needed, the interaction between components, and system function specification at different incident stages (Chapter 5). A set of state-awareness rules was proposed, and integrated with Kalman Filter to improve the performance of filtering. The proposed data pre-processing approach achieved both improved outlier removal and quick detection of real events (Chapter 6). A data storage mechanism was proposed to support timely response to queries regardless of the increase in volume of data (Chapter 7). What can be considered as "meaning" (e.g. events) for emergency responders were identified and a generic emergency event detection model was proposed to identify patterns presenting in sensor data and associate patterns with events (Chapter 8). In conclusion, the added benefits that the technical work can provide to the current Emergency Response is discussed and specific contributions and future work are highlighted (Chapter 9).


Backobourkia, a new Australasian genus of orb-weaving spider (family Araneidae Clerck, 1758) is proposed with Backobourkia heroine (L. Koch, 1871) as type species. Two other species are included in the genus: B. brounii (Urquhart, 1885) comb. nov. (here removed from synonymy with B. heroine) and B. collina (Keyserling, 1886) comb. nov. (= Araneus reversus Hogg, 1914, new synonymy). A phylogenetic analysis places Backobourkia within the 'coxal hook clade' of the subfamily Araneinae Clerck, 1758 and close to Eriophora Simon, 1864; however, Backobourkia differs from other Australasian Araneinae by the proposed synapopomorphy of a long fl ange at the base of the median apophysis in males. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of a fragment of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) supports the monophyly of Backobourkia in a limited dataset that includes exemplars of Australasian Araneidae and Eriophora ravilla (C.L. Koch, 1844) (type species of Eriophora Simon, 1864). Backobourkia brounii and B. heroine are sister taxa in this analysis. Backobourkia collina is unusual within the genus and amongst most Araneinae as it displays extreme sexual size dimorphism (SSD), with females on average more than four times the size of males. Comparison with the other two Backobourkia species (and other Araneinae) suggests male dwarfi sm rather than female gigantism for this SSD. Some morphological differences of B. collina males to its congeners are evident, possibly due to its reduced size. These include characters of putative phylogenetic signal at the genus level such as eye position, shape of male pedipalp sclerites and the absence or presence of endite teeth or coxal hooks. Backobourkia species are common throughout Australia, with B. heroine more prevalent in the western and B. brounii in the eastern parts of the country. Backobourkia collina is mainly found throughout the arid regions. Backobourkia brounii is also found in New Zealand and B. heroine in New Caledonia. Araneus felinus (Butler, 1876), originally described as 'Allied to E. heroine', is here considered a nomen dubium as the type specimen appears to be lost and an accurate identifi cation based on the original description is not possible. The New Zealand Eriophora decorosa (Urquhart, 1894) is transferred to Acroaspis Karsch, 1878, A. decorosa (Urquhart, 1894) comb. nov.


NG2 cells, oligodendrocyte progenitors, receive a major synaptic input from interneurons in the developing neocortex. It is presumed that these precursors integrate cortical networks where they act as sensors of neuronal activity. We show that NG2 cells of the developing somatosensory cortex form a transient and structured synaptic network with interneurons that follows its own rules of connectivity. Fast-spiking interneurons, highly connected to NG2 cells, target proximal subcellular domains containing GABAA receptors with γ2 subunits. Conversely, non-fast-spiking interneurons, poorly connected with these progenitors, target distal sites lacking this subunit. In the network, interneuron-NG2 cell connectivity maps exhibit a local spatial arrangement reflecting innervation only by the nearest interneurons. This microcircuit architecture shows a connectivity peak at PN10, coinciding with a switch to massive oligodendrocyte differentiation. Hence, GABAergic innervation of NG2 cells is temporally and spatially regulated from the subcellular to the network level in coordination with the onset of oligodendrogenesis. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06953.001


The database regarding the earliest occupation of Europe has increased significantly in quantity and quality of data points over the last two decades, mainly through the addition of new sites as a result of long-term systematic excavations and large-scale prospections of Early and early Middle Pleistocene exposures. The site distribution pattern suggests an ephemeral presence of hominins in the south of Europe from around 1 million years ago onward, with occasional short northward expansions along the western coastal areas when temperate conditions permitted. From around 600,000–700,000 years ago, Acheulean artefacts appear in Europe and somewhat later hominin presence seems to pick up, with more sites and now some also present in colder climatic settings. It is again only later, around 350,000 years ago, that the first sites show up in more continental, central parts of Europe, east of the Rhine. A series of recent papers on the Early Pleistocene palaeontological site of Untermassfeld (Thuringia, Germany) makes claims that are of great interest for studies of earliest Europe and are at odds with the described pattern: the papers suggest that Untermassfeld has yielded stone tools and humanly modified faunal remains, evidence for a 1 million years old hominin presence in European continental mid-latitudes, and additional evidence that hominins were well-established in Europe already around that time period. Here, we evaluate these claims and demonstrate that these studies are severely flawed in terms of data on provenance of the materials studied and in the interpretation of faunal remains and lithics as testifying to a hominin presence at the site. In actual fact, any reference to the Untermassfeld site as an archaeological one is unwarranted. Furthermore, it is not the only European Early Pleistocene site where inferred evidence for hominin presence is problematic. The strength of the spatiotemporal patterns of hominin presence and absence depends on the quality of the data points we work with, and database maintenance, including critical evaluation of new sites, is crucial to advance our knowledge of the expansions and contractions of hominin ranges during the Pleistocene.


Migration is becoming a major political and social issue in a global context. However, while immigrants' integration into the hosting society and cities has sparked research investigations, there have been few studies focusing on how their presence affects the urban fabric, especially their use of public open spaces and even less is known about how, and in what way, such spaces have an impact on the immigrants themselves. The scope of this research is to gain a better understanding of how immigrants use, perceive and experience public open spaces. The research focuses on the case study of public open spaces in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. The thesis centres on the experience of first generation immigrants from the three largest immigrant communities living in Portugal, namely, from Brazil, Cape Verde and Ukraine. These immigrants not only represent different waves of migration but also communities from very different geographic origins and socio-cultural backgrounds. David Canter's 'Theory of Place' (Canter, 1977) is used as the theoretical framework for the study, whereby place is understood to be the locus for the juxtaposition of activities that people engage in, their perceptions of it and the physical attributes of space. The key research aim is to explore immigrants' attitudes, preferences, perceptions, uses and 'place attachment' in relation to public open spaces in Lisbon. A mixed-method approach is used to gather information from these three immigrant communities and to establish the relationship between them and public open spaces in the host country. The qualitative methods comprise focus-group discussions and 'go-along' interviews, while the quantitative methods include questionnaires. The key findings from the analysis of the cross-cultural experiences show that 'frequency of use' is likely to be affected by immigrants' national and cultural identity. The analysis also reveals the particular meaning that 'being close to water' has for the three immigrant groups, especially in terms of its connection with the sea and going to the beach, as well as the importance to them of music being played outdoors and their need for more places to have barbecues. The findings also highlight the importance of public open spaces to immigrants' lives, particularly in terms of how they evoke different memories (childhood and adult) and how some immigrants have already developed memories in relation to certain places and features in Lisbon. 'Place attachment', thus, is shown to serve as an anchor for people and it creates links between the homeland and host country, giving a sense of continuity to immigrants' lives.


The emergence of plants and animals from the sea on to land – terrestrialisation – was one of the major advances in the history of life on Earth. Evidence for early colonisation is poor, but the fossil record reveals that by mid-Palaeozoic times, complex terrestrial ecosystems had become established. The first phase of land colonisation by organisms may have started in the Precambrian, some 2.6 gigaannums (Ga) ago, in the form of microbially bound alluvial sands. The second phase began in earnest in Ordovician times, when early land plants, in the form of bryophyte-like spores, first appear in the fossil record. By the Silurian, true vascular plants were present, and these green swards were inhabited by mainly detritivorous and predatory arthropods. By the late Devonian, true forests had developed, but it was not until the latest Palaeozoic that modern-type terrestrial ecosystems, with abundant herbivores in the food chain.

Key Concepts:

Organisms need to be overcome many physiological barriers when colonising the land from the sea.

Conditions on the early Earth (∼4.6–1.0 Ga) were inhospitable to terrestrial life.

Microbial crusts were likely the earliest land life.

Higher plants appeared on land in the Ordovician period; vascular plants in the Silurian.

The first land animals (Silurian) were detritivorous and predatory arthropods.

Modern-type ecosystems, with abundant herbivory and vertebrates, came in the latest Palaeozoic.

Keywords:

arthropod;
Devonian;
ecosystem;
tracheophyte;
land colonisation


This study examines the human rights and the notion of citizenship under the prism of pedagogical science. The methodology that was followed was the experimental method. In a sample of 100 children-experimental group and control group held an intervention program with deepening axes of human rights and the concept of citizenship. The analysis of the findings presented in four axes. The first relates to the analysis of the responses of the two groups using quantitative data. The second axis concerns the discourse analysis of children's responses. The third axis relates to involve children and the fourth in the pop up program of children's activities. In conclusion, according to the survey results, children may affect their participation shaping the curriculum at micro level but also affect their behavior in the macro. Children seem to understand a pedagogical context the concept of human rights and the concept of citizenship in their ability to influence the school and not only the daily life, respect the wishes of others, to understand the limits and restrictions in school and local community, their participation as a social obligation but also a right, to the understanding of human rights and children's rights as a premise for the quality of their lives.


Detection of malicious behavior is a fundamental problem in security. One of the major challenges in using detection systems in practice is in dealing with an overwhelming number of alerts that are triggered by normal behavior (the so-called false positives), obscuring alerts resulting from actual malicious activities. We introduce a novel approach for computing a policy for prioritizing alerts using adversarial reinforcement learning. Our approach assumes that the attacker knows the full state of the detection system and the defender's alert prioritization policy, and will dynamically choose an optimal attack. The first step of our approach is to capture the interaction between the defender and attacker in a game theoretic model. To tackle the computational complexity of solving this game to obtain a dynamic stochastic alert prioritization policy, we propose an adversarial reinforcement learning framework. In this framework, we use neural reinforcement learning to compute best response policies for both the defender and the adversary to an arbitrary stochastic policy of the other. We then use these in a double-oracle framework to obtain an approximate equilibrium of the game, which in turn yields a robust stochastic policy for the defender. We use case studies in network intrusion and fraud detection to demonstrate that our approach is effective in creating robust alert prioritization policies.1


Background and purpose — Long-term survivors of cancer can develop adverse effects of the treatment. 60% of cancer patients survive for at least 5 years after diagnosis. Pelvic irradiation can cause bone damage in these long-term survivors, with increased risk of fracture and degeneration of the hip. Patients and methods — Analyses were based on linkage between the Cancer Registry of Norway (CRN) and the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register (NAR). All women who had been exposed to radiation for curative radiotherapy of gynecological cancer (40–60 Gy for at least 28 days) were identified in the CRN. Radiotherapy had been given between 1998 and 2006 and only patients who were irradiated within 6 months of diagnosis were included. The control group contained women with breast cancer who had also undergone radiotherapy, but not to the pelvic area. Fine and Gray competing-risk analysis was used to calculate subhazard-rate ratios (subHRRs) and cumulative incidence functions (CIFs) for the risk of having a prosthesis accounting for differences in mortality. Results — Of 962 eligible patients with gynecological cancer, 26 (3%) had received a total hip replacement. In the control group without exposure, 253 (3%) of 7,545 patients with breast cancer had undergone total hip replacement. The 8-year CIF for receiving a total hip replacement was 2.7% (95% CI: 2.6–2.8) for gynecological cancer patients and 3.0% (95% CI: 2.95–3.03) for breast cancer patients; subHRR was 0.80 (95% CI: 0.53–1.22; p = 0.3). In both groups, the most common reason for hip replacement was idiopathic osteoarthritis. Interpretation — We did not find any statistically significantly higher risk of undergoing total hip replacement in patients with gynecological cancer who had had pelvic radiotherapy than in women with breast cancer who had not had pelvic radiotherapy.


The decline of cognitive function has emerged as one of the greatest health threats of old age. Age-related cognitive decline is caused by an impacted neuronal circuitry, yet the molecular mechanisms responsible are unknown. C1q, the initiating protein of the classical complement cascade and powerful effector of the peripheral immune response, mediates synapse elimination in the developing CNS. Here we show that C1q protein levels dramatically increase in the normal aging mouse and human brain, by as much as 300-fold. This increase was predominantly localized in close proximity to synapses and occurred earliest and most dramatically in certain regions of the brain, including some but not all regions known to be selectively vulnerable in neurodegenerative diseases, i.e., the hippocampus, substantia nigra, and piriform cortex. C1q-deficient mice exhibited enhanced synaptic plasticity in the adult and reorganization of the circuitry in the aging hippocampal dentate gyrus. Moreover, aged C1q-deficient mice exhibited significantly less cognitive and memory decline in certain hippocampus-dependent behavior tests compared with their wild-type littermates. Unlike in the developing CNS, the complement cascade effector C3 was only present at very low levels in the adult and aging brain. In addition, the aging-dependent effect of C1q on the hippocampal circuitry was independent of C3 and unaccompanied by detectable synapse loss, providing evidence for a novel, complement- and synapse elimination-independent role for C1q in CNS aging.


Simulation modeling is arguably the most versatile scientific tool for predicting the future environment. However, the reliability of model-based predictions is limited to the behavior domain defined by the historical data employed for conceptualizing and calibrating the model. Future changes in external inputs and internal structure tend to produce system behavior significantly different from prior predictions. To abate this seeming lack of credibility, it is now customary to qualify model predictions with uncertainty estimates. This dissertation explores the complementary approach of back-casting future scenarios. Centered on the analysis of uncertainty, a methodological framework is developed for the computational evaluation of environmental futures, driven by stakeholder participation as a means for establishing credibility in the model. The analysis reveals possible structural change between the observed past and speculated future scenarios by comparing the ranking of key sources of uncertainty in model outputs. Three sampling-based methods are employed: Regionalized Sensitivity Analysis (RSA), Tree-Structured Density Estimation (TSDE), and Uniform Covering by Probabilistic Rejection (UCPR). RSA and TSDE are tested for identifying and ranking the key factors that influence ecological behavior in Lake Oglethorpe, Georgia, and UCPR, for recovering parameters of a rainfall-runoff model of an experimental watershed near Loch Ard, Scotland. The framework is applied to an integrated assessment of ecological behavior in Lake Lanier, Georgia. Stakeholders' fears and desires for the future state of the reservoir are elicited and encoded for analysis. The results indicate: (i) that the desired future is more reachable, and accompanied by more significant structural change, than the feared future, and (ii) that sediment-water-nutrient interactions, secondary production , and microbial processes play a critical role in the future ecological behavior of the reservoir. Thus, it is possible to: (i) confirm or refute stakeholder concerns for the future environment, (ii) inform priorities for future environmental policy actions, (iii) identify critical gaps in current knowledge, in order to prioritize future scientific research, and (iv) promote adaptive community learning, through the continual mutual feedback between scenario-generation and systematic analysis. By bridging the gap between stakeholder imagination and scientific theory, through computational analysis, the framework provides a promising direction for integrated environmental assessment. iv Dedication To Osatohamhen, Oluwatobi, and Ayo. deji v vi Acknowledgements My sincere gratitude goes to my major professor, Dr. Bruce Beck, for providing the problem setting that turned out to be a challenging and interesting research experience for me, and for supporting me with his wealth of knowledge …


This thesis explores the university experiences of the daughters of single mothers who are first-generation students in the United Kingdom. Data was collected during spring and summer of 2013. Participants were recruited through flyers, email, and social networking sites. Participants were sought who met the following criteria: they considered themselves to have been primarily raised by their mother (or their mother raised them alone for about five years or more during their childhood); they were current or recent undergraduate university students at any university in the UK, any mode of study (full or part time), and any age (traditional age or mature students); and they were first-generation students (the first in their family to attend university, which includes students whose siblings might have gone to university). A preliminary 30-question, online questionnaire was completed by 110 respondents. Among the survey respondents, 26 participated in qualitative, semi- structured interviews. After the interview, participants were encouraged to engage in reflective writing. Data was explored through a thematic, theoretical, and autoethnographical analysis. This research examines intersectionalities of gender, socio-economic class, race, and family status as they shape the students' identities and their university experiences. The theoretical and conceptual frameworks upon which this study is built include feminist theory, intersectionality theory, and the concept of social exclusion. The findings from this study contribute to the existing literature within the area of widening participation and social identities and illuminate the ways that single mother families are constructed by the media, by politicians, and in society. Additionally, this study bridges the gap between the existing literature on the experience of single mother families and the existing literature on the experiences of students in higher education, providing a deeper understanding of access, participation, and inclusion of this specific population of students as yet unexplored within existing research.


This paper discusses the legitimacy of general principles of private law as they have been formulated recently by the Court of Justice of the European Union and proposed by the European Commission. It addresses challenges from different strands in political theory including liberal perfectionism, political liberalism and Habermasian discourse theory. There are four specific lessons to be learned from these theories. First, the quest should not be for very general and abstract principles with a very broad scope, but rather for principles of an intermediate level of abstraction and a limited scope, which could explain and bring coherence to a set of rules or a legal doctrine, but not to the whole law of contract. Private law principles which are too general and sweeping would risk to neglect the need for internal diversification within private law. Secondly, these private law principles should be situated on the non-constitutional level of ordinary private law, subject to the constitution (including its horizontal effect) which in turn must be compatible, in order to be legitimate, with the political principles of justice that the EU polity has given itself. Thirdly, the CJEU, although an institution that is not in itself a less legitimate lawmaker than the legislator, also when it comes to private law principles, has a strong duty to explain itself and to provide good reasons for adopting general principles of civil law and for choosing certain principles, especially if these principles happen to be controversial, either from a comparative law point of view or along any of the other axes along which European citizens and European Member States may differ. Finally, there is no legitimate place for strong perfectionism in the deliberation on fundamental European private law principles; any private law perfectionism should be either local (in specific doctrines like unfair exploitation) or thin (limited to values like rationality). However, as long as we remain cautious is all these respects, the quest for general private law principles is perfectly legitimate. There is no contradiction per se in seeking to find general private law principles in a pluralist world.


Local pattern mining is concerned with finding the set of patterns that satisfy a constraint in a database. We study local pattern mining in the context of ProbLog, a probabilistic Prolog system, and introduce an approach for finding correlated patterns in the form of queries in such a Prolog system. The approach combines principles of inductive logic programming, data mining and statistical relational learning. Experiments on a challenging biological network mining task provide evidence for the interestingness of the approach.


The morphometry of the large conducting airways is presumed to have a strong effect on the regional deposition of inhaled aerosol particles. Nevertheless, sex-based differences have not been fully quantified and are still largely ignored in designing inhalation therapies. To this end, we retrospectively analyzed high-resolution computer-tomography scans for 185 individuals (90 women, 95 men) in the age range of 12-89 years to determine airway luminal areas, airway lengths and bifurcation angles. Only subjects free of chronic airway disease were considered. In men, luminal areas of the upper conducting airways were on the average ~ 30-50% larger when compared to those in women, with the largest differences found in the trachea (289.72±54.25mm2 vs. 193.50±42.37mm2 for men/women respectively). The ratio of the largest luminal area in men to the smallest luminal area in women (in any given segment) ranged between 4.5 and 8.6, the largest differences being found in the lobar bronchi. Sex-based differences were minor in the case of bifurcation angles (e.g. average main bifurcation angle: 93.04±9.58o vs. 91.03±9.81o for men/women respectively), but large inter-subject variability was found irrespective of sex (e.g. range of main bifurcation angle: 65.04-122.01o vs. 69.46-113.94o for men/women respectively). Bronchial segments were shorter by ~ 5-20% in women relative to men, the largest differences being located in the upper lobes. False discovery rate (FDR) analysis revealed statistically significant associations among morphometric measures of the right lung in women (but not in men) suggesting two phenotypes among women that we attribute to the smaller female thoracic volume.


Recognition of daily activities is the key to providing contextaware services in an intelligent home. This research explores the problem of activity recognition, given diverse data from multiple heterogeneous sensors and without prior knowledge about the start and end of each activity. This paper presents our approaching to continuous recognition of daily activities as a sequence labeling problem. To evaluate the capability of activity models in handling heterogeneous sensors, we compare several state-of-the-art sequence labeling algorithms including hidden Markov model (HMM), linear-chain conditional random field (LCRF) and SVM hmm . The experimental results show that the two discriminative models, LCRF and SVM hmm , significantly outperform HMM. In particular, SVM hmm shows robustness in dealing with all sensors we used, and its recognition accuracy can be further improved by incorporating carefully designed overlapping features.


Abstract This paper focuses on contemporary charismatic Christian practices of spiritual warfare and its techniques of warfare prayer. The paradigm of "global spiritual warfare" with its apocalyptic visions, violent language and its obsession with enemies, appears as a particularly polemical instance of Christian supersessionism and expansionism. Drawing on material from Nigeria and the United States, I briefly explore two related axes in order to bring to light the centrality of prayer conceived as a form of political praxis. First, the ways in which charismatic Christianity self-consciously and antagonistically constructs itself as a global force. In this global expansion, prayer as an embodied form of inspired speech is central both to the construction of militant subjects and the occupation of public space. Secondly, since the violence of spiritual warriors is mostly effected through their prayers and testimonies, we are led to question the place of an activist, pragmatist, or even performative model of truth for a political problematics of emancipation and democratization.


Path planning is a key factor that determines how well a robotic vehicle performs in executing automated formations and maneuvers as in multi-vehicle platooning and selforganizing leader following with safe and graceful movements. Many types of pathplanning schemes have been employed in the autonomous robotics and driving systems. In this paper, we will focus on the application of a smooth path-planning (SPP) algorithm that produces simple-to-implement robotic maneuvers. The algorithm is derived from using a well-established Lyapunov stability criterion and a clever dynamical control synthesis. We show that the SPP can be adapted to many autonomous guidance scenarios. Simulations show that the SPP resulted in autonomous behaviors similar to that parallel those of human or animal actions. The paper presents results using Matlab simulations as well as Gazebo animation. The results will provide a foundation for an implementation of SPP on actual robotic vehicles.


Emanating from the mainstream accounting and managerial thinking, which hinges upon
the "command and control" assumption, a firm's Intellectual Capital (IC) is understood as
an objective reality. Influenced by this understanding, advocates of the measuring
paradigm attempt to posit IC under parsimonious conditions within a reporting system.
This thesis contributes to an emerging critical trend that seeks to counterbalance the
limitations of the measuring paradigm and explores the possibilities of constructing a
learning paradigm.
A series of high-level questions that confront both paradigms, including their ontological
assumptions, methodological considerations, foci of practice, and criteria for ICinformation disclosure, are considered. Whilst the measuring paradigm prioritises the
activities of assessing and reporting individual IC elements, a learning paradigm is
concerned with nurturing a learning motive in IC practice for organisational change and
innovation. The analysis of a learning paradigm draws on the works of three processphilosophers: Habermas, Vygotsky and Deleuze.
This thesis engages with the case study of "InCaS": a project combined IC research and
practice, involving researchers and 25 SMEs from 5 European countries. Data were
collected through qualitative survey and administrative documents, interviews, and group
discussions over a 30-month-period. Thematic analysis and reconstructed stories analysis
were applied where suitable.
The findings reveal that a learning paradigm does not stand against the measuring
paradigm, but transforms it by enabling a flowing process of IC in SMEs. This flowing
process contributes to the generation and development of new knowledge, new practice,
and a new sense of positive energy. Based on this, the thesis suggests that the future of IC
practice should focus on "IC flow management", i.e. activate a non-linear process of
learning-by-reflection, learning-by-participation, and learning-by-affection. In doing so, IC
would not be perceived as a lifeless commodity, but as a metaphor of life that
accommodates different pathways to value.


Focusing on the core topics of radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and system design, this textbook provides the in-depth coverage and detailed mathematical analyses needed to gain a thorough understanding of the subject. Throughout, theory is linked to practice with real-world application examples; practical design guidance is also offered, covering the pros and cons of various topologies, and preparing students for future work in industry. Written for graduate courses on RFICs, this uniquely intuitive and practical book will also be of value to practising RFIC and system designers. Key topics covered include RF components, signals and systems, two-ports, noise, distortion, low-noise amplifiers, mixers, oscillators, power amplifiers, and transceiver architectures. Lecture slides and a solutions manual for instructors are provided online to complete the course package.


SELAMOVSKA, A., S. KRATOVALIEVA, S. PETROVIC and M. DIMITRIJEVIC, 2013. Microphenophases on some junebearing strawberry varieties in region of Skopje. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 709-713 This paper gives an overview of the results from the microfenophases on junebearing strawberry varieties: Pocahontas, Evita, Marmalade, Belrubi, and Elsant in Skopje region, Republic of Macedonia. The beginning of the flower bud differentia tion among the studied strawberry varieties is, on average, during the first half of August when the day lasts for 13.5-14 hours. The calyx is formed during the second half of September, stamens during the first half of October, and the pistils during the second half of October. Archesporial tissue and meiosis are formed in November. The microspores are formed in December. Pocahontas variety has earliest flower bud initiation (FBI), followed by Evita, Marmalade and Belrubi. Elsanta variety has the latest FBI. The higher temperatures and a photoperiod (duration of sunshine) have positive influence on early FBI.


This paper presents a 3D thermo-mechanical model of arc-welding applied to tubular K-joints susceptible to fatigue cracking. The 3D torch trajectory is reproduced to simulate both temperatures and stresses during welding and ultimately the 3D residual stress distribution after cooling. The influence of latent heat, of the increase of thermal conductivity to simulate the fluid convection within the weld pool, the activation of finite elements to simulate the use of filler wire and the number of passes on as-welded residual stresses is assessed using ABAQUS. Actions taken to simplify the problem and reduce the computation time are presented and discussed. Comparisons of fusion zones obtained numerically and using optical macrographs as well as comparisons between calculated and measured residual stresses are presented. This numerical analysis highlights high tensile residual stresses occurring at the gap zone which is the most critical location where fatigue cracks initiate and propagate in tubular bridge K-joints.


Background In July 2013 the UNICEF report stated that 125 million women worldwide are affected by female genital mutilation (FGM). Despite an estimated 20,000 children at risk in the UK there is a complete absence of data on presentation in childhood and ignorance among many healthcare workers. Although, since 2003, it is illegal to take a child out of the country for FGM, there have been no prosecutions. Aims To increase understanding of FGM by collecting and analysing details of all paediatric presentations of suspected FGM to a London clinic from 2006 onwards. Methods Retrospective data collection on all suspected FGM cases referred to the tertiary safeguarding clinic in an inner London teaching hospital from 2006, including details of referral, history and examination findings. Results Of 32 referrals 13 (41%) were since the start of 2013. 26 were Somali, 5 Ethiopian and 1 Malay. Common routes of referral included: healthcare workers (7), school concerns (7), siblings of cases (4) and family disputes (5). 22 (69%) were confirmed to have had FGM. Of the 22 with FGM 15 were examined, of whom none had undergone WHO type 3 FGM (infundibulation). 10 girls (60%) had a normal or near normal examination (WHO type 4) with 5 (40%) having WHO types 1 and 2. Four children were taken from the UK after 2003 (i.e. illegally); unclear perpetrators and a lack of evidence have prevented prosecutions. Conclusions Physical signs of FGM may be subtle and a normal examination does not exclude it. Our findings support the limited evidence from UNICEF that there is a trend toward less severe forms of FGM. WHO Type 4 without anatomical change was the commonest category in this small cohort and hence use of a revised classification (UNICEF) reflecting current practices could improve understanding of FGM and its implications for the child. Pursuing prosecution for neglect, as opposed to FGM, might be more successful in protecting children. The observed increase in referrals in 2013 supports the success of recent awareness campaigns and increases the chances of a criminal prosecution in this country.


The amino acid L-R-alanine and its associated radiation-induced radicals display particular characteristics in solid-state that make it very appropriate for use in Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) dosimetry. In contrast to the number of experimental studies, relatively few theoretical studies have been published concerning the EPR parameters of these radicals. However, these studies inadequately account for the molecular environment of the alanine radicals in the crystalline lattice. Here, we present Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations on one of the stable radiation-induced radicals of L-R-alanine both in molecular cluster models and in periodic models. An extensive investigation is presented on the various geometrical ingredients which have a substantial impact on the hyperfine coupling constants as the planarity of the radical backbone and the internal rotations of the final methyl and amino group vary. It is found that the accurate modeling of the hydrogen bonds with neighboring molecules is of utmost importance for an adequate reproduction of the experimental data.