The present investigation was to study phytochemical, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of Z. zerumbet (L.) Ethanolic seed extracts by Soxhelt method. The antimicrobial activity by Agar well diffusion method. Qualitative study reveals that very rich in triterpenoids, tannin, and phenol but low in carbohydrates and steroids. Seven metabolites are identified by high resolution mass spectrometry and these metabolites are found in various drug compounds used for drug.


We investigate the competition between barrier slowing down and proliferation induced superdiffusion in a model of population dynamics in a random force field. A one-loop rg analysis close to the critical dimension dc = 2 predicts a second order phase transition between a subdiffusive regime and a superdiffusive regime, at variance with our numerical results in d = 1 which suggest that a new stable mixed fixed point appears. We introduce the idea of proliferation assisted barrier crossing and give a Flory like argument to understand qualitatively the observed diffusive behaviour at this mixed fixed point.


Bacterial and fungal cultures were performed from cloacal swabs collected from 29 wild Nile crocodiles, captured in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Sixteen species of bacteria and 6 fungal species were cultured. Individual crocodiles yielded 1-4 bacterial species, and 0-2 fungal species. The most commonly isolated bacteria were Microbacterium, Enterococcus faecalis, Aeromonas hydrophila, and Escherichia coli. No salmonellae were cultured. The most commonly occurring fungus was Cladosporium. Several of the bacterial and fungal species isolated have been implicated in cases of septicaemia in crocodilians. Knowledge of the normal intestinal flora will contribute towards the development of a crocodile-specific probiotic for use in farmed crocodiles.


The adoption of the ASEAN Charter in 2007 represented a watershed moment in the organisation's history - for the first time the member states explicitly included principles of human rights and democracy in a binding regional agreement. Since then, developments in the region have included the creation of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights in 2009 and the adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration in 2012. Despite these advances, many commentators ask whether ASEAN can take human rights seriously. The authors explore this question by comprehensively examining the new ASEAN human rights mechanisms in the context of existing national and international human rights institutions. This book places these regional mechanisms and commitments to human rights within the framework of the political and legal development of ASEAN and its member states and considers the way in which ASEAN could strengthen its new institutions to better promote and protect human rights.


Summary The study reviews the records of 671 social work students and graduates including the seven intakes from the first cohort in 2003/2004 to the intake in 2010/2011 to examine the interacting effect of learning difficulties, ethnicity and gender on the completion of social work training at a university in the South East of England. Findings Among the students, 79.9% of them were female, 50.1% were black, 27.9% white, 10.7% Asian and 11.3% other ethnicities. A majority of students did not report any disability. Among those who did (n = 84), 52.3% (n = 44) reported a learning difficulty. The percentage of students who have successfully completed the training is 76.4%, a completion rate that is comparable to the UK's national figure. Having controlled the confounding variables, hierarchical logistic regression identified the risk factor for dropout from undergraduate social work programme as black female students with learning difficulties (odds ratio = 0.100, 95% confidence interval = 0.012–0.862, p < 0.05). Findings suggested that students with multiplicity of identities, i.e. being black and female and with a learning difficulty, have a lower probability to complete the programme successfully. Applications Strategies for tackling the intersecting disadvantages of race, gender and disabilities in social work training should embrace three principles: providing continuous support, focusing on how the support is provided and addressing contextual and structural barriers.


This study explores the 'affordability' of development targets in six key sectors (health, education, water and sanitation, agriculture and infrastructure), by means of an empirical study examining sectoral expenditure in five low income case study countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Uganda) and comparing them with target levels of expenditure set out in recent international agreements to which sub-Saharan governments are signatories. The study has a particular focus on social protection in response to growing government and donor interest in the affordability of provision in this sector. This approach is taken in order to assess the limitations of the current 'silo' approach to sector financing which characterises much of the development financing discourse, and which results in the abstraction of one sector from the broader fiscal whole, to the detriment of overall fiscal coherence and realism. While this study looks at total expenditure per sector, it does not look at efficiency or outcomes of this spending. The report examines expenditure in 2006/ 2007 in relation to sector-specific international targets, assesses the shortfall, and then explores the fiscal feasibility of financing all six sectoral targets. The paper finds that meeting all the six targets simultaneously would require more than 100% of total government expenditure in four of the five case study countries, and 98% in the fifth, and that to meet these targets while retaining current levels of expenditure in other sectors would imply doubling current levels of government expenditure. Often it is claimed that developing country governments lack the political will to allocate resources to some sectors. However, this study suggests that the inadequacy of public expenditure in key sectors is also informed by the inherent impossibility of simultaneously meeting the range of international commitments to which developing counties are signatories. Current funding for basic social protection provision is between 0.1% and 0.7% of GDP in the case study countries, compared to target expenditure levels of 4.5% to achieve the goals of the basic social protection component of the AU Social Policy Framework. This study concludes that the social protection sector is in competition with the five other key development sectors and that not all goals can be met from available resources. While there may be potential to increase financing to this sector through the conventional range of instruments (efficiency savings, reallocation, increased borrowing, increased revenue generation, increased ODA or private sector financing) the social protection sector is in effect in competition with each of the other key development sectors in pursuit of any additional resources, and when considered in aggregate as part of the wider fiscal context, it is clear that meeting all targets is not realistic, and consequently that the development vision which underlies them, is challenged, even compromised by the fiscal reality. Input targets have a role to play in i) motivating greater effort in revenue generation (within the boundaries of sound macroeconomic policy) and ii) encourage governments and donors to prioritise spending by reallocating from low to high-priority sectors within existing budgets. While such targets can serve as useful lobbying mechanisms, spending targets should be taken 'seriously but not literally' (Wood, 2004): that is primarily as a guide and motivation for raising and spending public finance. This report does not conclude that such targets should be dropped, but it does caution against the argument that particular sectoral targets are 'affordable' in any objective sense. The report highlights the tension faced by governments between the need for good public financial management on the one hand, and the challenge of meeting international commitments on the other, raising the impossibility of meeting the key development spending targets simultaneously. Given the unavoidable overall financing shortfall, the key question becomes prioritisation of the use of existing resources, the opportunity cost of programming outside these sectors and non priority or ineffective use of resources within the sectors.


Cities are characterised by local identities, which have been shaped by natural and cultural values. Constituting elements of local identity are settlement pattern bearing the traces of past, local music, traditional taste, handicrafts and life story. Besides, there has been a fast pace of life owing to globalization, and globally standardized cities, where local identities are ignored, have been emerged in planningdesign-implementation process. From this viewpoint, Cittaslow movement has become a major turning point for liveable and sustainable cities that emphasize the local character. In this context, in the study, it is aimed to raise awareness about Cittaslow which is an example of an urban model for sustainability. In line with this purpose, the importance of Cittaslow approach and the criteria that are needed to be met for being a member of the Association of Cittaslow have been revealed. In line with these criteria Cittaslow cities in Turkey were discussed comparatively in terms of their features were considered. Examples from our country have been evaluated together with the international Cittaslow examples. In addition, proposals have been made by developing strategies in planningdesigning and implementation process for the Cittaslow approach.


Vitamin K deficiency may cause unexpected bleeding (0.25% to 1.7% incidence) during the first week of life in previously healthy-appearing neonates (classic hemorrhagic disease of the newborn [HDN]). The efficacy of neonatal vitamin K prophylaxis (either oral or parenteral) in the prevention of classic HDN is firmly established. It has been the standard of care since the recommendation by the Committee on Nutrition was adopted as policy by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 19611
 Late HDN, a syndrome defined as unexpected bleeding due to severe vitamin K deficiency in infants aged 2 to 12 weeks, occurs primarily in exclusively breast-fed infants who have received no or inadequate neonatal vitamin K prophylaxis. In addition, infants who have intestinal malabsorption defects (cholestatic jaundice, cystic fibrosis, etc) may also present with late HDN. The rate of late HDN (often manifested by sudden central nervous system hemorrhage) ranges from 4.4 to 7.2 per 100 000 births based on reports from Europe and Asia. When a single dose of oral vitamin K has been used as neonatal prophylaxis, the rate has decreased to 1.4 to 6.4 per 100 000 births. Parenteral neonatal vitamin K prophylaxis prevents the development of late HDN, with the rare exception of infants with severe malabsorption syndromes. Oral regimens that have a similar efficacy as parenteral vitamin K in prevention of late HDN include the repeated administration of oral vitamin K1 (Germany) or K2 (Japan) at birth, 1 week, and 2 to 4 weeks.
 In 1990 Golding et al2 reported a study of a 1970 birth cohort in Britain in which they noted an unexpected association between childhood cancer and pethidine given in labor and the neonatal administration of vitamin K. Subsequently, Golding and others3 conducted a case-control study designed to examine the risk of cancer associated with intramuscular vitamin K administration among infants born in two hospitals in Avon between 1965 and 1987 and diagnosed with cancer between 1971 and 1989.


Have been to be optimized environmentally friendly batteries with the basic ingredients of human urine. Prototyping is done to create a natural energy source of human waste and to overcome the limitations of existing energy sources in Indonesia. The battery is expected to be implemented naturally become pioneers of new energy sources in the future that can be mass produced. Methods of execution in this experiment is dissolving CuCl2 with distilled water. As the battery is used paper media that has been cut to fit the design of the battery. Once the paper is dipped into a solution of CuCl2, then injected human urine and left for a certain time. To determine the presence of voltage on the paper, was measured with a digital Avometer. From the results of measurements that have been made, the value of the maximum voltage of the battery is capable of 616 mV measured in urine composition that has been deposited for 10 days as much as 2 ml and the concentration of a solution of copper (II) chloride by 8 M. With the measured values indicates that the battery that have been made can be implemented as a prototype battery is environmentally friendly natural. Keywords: battery natural, human urine, environmentally friendly


The study intends to evaluate the top papers of Computer Science as reflected in Science Direct. Moreover, it aims to find out authorship pattern, ranking of authors, ranking of country productivity, ranking of journals, and highly cited papers of Computer Science. The citations data have been collected from the quarterly list of hottest 25 research articles in the subject field of Computer Science from Science Direct database. In the present study, 20 issues of the alert service beginning from January/March 2005 to October/December 2010 containing a total number of 495 articles in Computer Science have been taken up for analysis. The study reveals that out of 495 top papers; three-authored articles are little ahead than two authored articles followed by four-authored articles and the country productivity of USA is at the top followed by UK, Taiwan, Chaina, and Canada. Moreover, it finds that European Journal of Operational Research occupies the top position followed by Computers in Human Behavior, and Pattern Recognition.


Tangible interfaces, such as keyboards, mice, touch pads, and touch screens, are widely used in human computer interaction. A common disadvantage with these devices is the presence of mechanical or electronic devices at the point of interaction with the interface. The aim of this work has been to investigate and develop new tangible interfaces that can be adapted to virtually any surface, by acquiring and studying the acoustic vibrations produced by the interaction of the user's finger on the surface. Various approaches have been investigated in this work, including the popular time difference of arrival (TDOA) method, time-frequency analysis of dispersive velocities, the time reversal method, and continuous object tracking. The received signal due to a tap at a source position can be considered the impulse response function of the wave propagation between the source and the receiver. With the time reversal theory, the signals induced by impacts from one position contain the unique and consistent information that forms its signature. A pattern matching method, named Location Template Matching (LTM), has been developed to identify the signature of the received signals from different individual positions. Various experiments have been performed for different purposes, such as consistency testing, acquisition configuration, and accuracy of recognition. Eventually, this can be used to implement HCI applications on any arbitrary surfaces, including those of 3D objects and inhomogeneous materials. The resolution with the LTM method has been studied by different experiments, investigating factors such as optimal sensor configurations and the limitation of materials. On plates of the same material, the thickness is the essential determinant of resolution. With the knowledge of resolution for one material, a simple but faster search method becomes feasible to reduce the computation. Multiple simultaneous impacts are also recognisable in certain cases. The TDOA method has also been evaluated with two conventional approaches. Taking into account the dispersive properties of the vibration propagation in plates, time-frequency analysis, with continuous wavelet transformation, has been employed for the accurate localising of dispersive signals. In addition, a statistical estimation of maximum likelihood has been developed to improve the accuracy and reliability of acoustic localisation. A method to measure and verify the dispersive velocities has also been introduced. To enable the commonly required "drag & drop" function in the operation of graphical user interface (GUI) software, the tracking of a finger scratching on a surface needs to be implemented. To minimise the tracking error, a priori knowledge of previous measurements of source locations is needed to linearise the state model that enables prediction of the location of the contact point and the direction of movement. An adaptive Kalman filter has been used for this purpose.


2017 was a bad year for the Internet. Journalists trying to get to the bottom of the Russian election meddling story discovered pathologies of the Internet's attention economy that legal and media scholars have been writing about for several years. From filter bubbles and clickbait to revenge porn and "fake news," the antisocial effects of social media are now front and center in a serious public debate about the future of the Internet and the firms that have come to dominate it. As the public learns more about the ease with which the Internet's most popular platforms can be exploited to harass, deceive, and manipulate their users, there is a growing consensus that the Internet is broken and that tech titans dominating the Internet's edge are largely to blame.
The drumbeat for a regulatory response is getting louder. And it's coming from points across the political spectrum. Some are calling for interventions in the area of antitrust law. Others have proposed imposing at the Internet's application layer content neutrality rules that have historically applied only at the network layer. To describe such rules, conservative activist Phil Kerpen coined the term "layer-neutral net neutrality." Supporters of this approach assert that rules requiring social media platforms to behave like network infrastructure providers in their handling of users' content will enhance freedom of expression and limit the role of dominant platforms as gatekeepers of the privatized public sphere. Former Democratic Senator Al Franken offered the same rationale in an op-ed in The Guardian. Franken wrote that "no one company should have the power to pick and choose which content reaches consumers and which doesn't. And Facebook, Google, and Amazon—like ISPs—should be 'neutral' in their treatment of lawful information and commerce on their platforms."
This article is a high-level effort to explain, in terms of both regulatory history and shifting public attitudes about online speech, why adopting a must-carry obligation for social media platforms is not what the Internet needs now. Such a requirement would more likely exacerbate than remediate social media's current problems with information quality and integrity. Part I discusses the historical layer-consciousness of Internet regulation and explains the public policies underlying differential treatment of "core" and "edge" services. Part II considers evolving speech norms at the Internet's edge and the increasing pressure on social media platforms to more actively address some demonstrable failures in social media's "marketplace of ideas." Part III argues that a must-carry rule for social media platforms is precisely the wrong regulatory approach for addressing those failures. The better prescription, I argue, is to breathe new life into the underused "Good Samaritan" provision in § 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which was intended to protect and promote good faith content moderation at the Internet's edge. What the Internet needs now is not layer-neutral net neutrality; it is an awakening to what James Grimmelmann has called "the virtues of moderation."


We started the 2011 revolution and the rest of Egypt followed," say Egyptian workers with strong conviction. Egyptian independent workers' continuous claims of contention and repertoires of protest were one of several main factors leading to the January 25, 2011 uprising. After thirty-two years of a Mubarak-led authoritarian regime, massive protests began in January 2011 and forced President Mubarak to step down from his position. The first question of this research endeavor is: how did Egyptian workers challenge the regime and how they became one of the factors leading to the January 2011 uprising? These workers were organized into loose networks of different independent groups that had been protesting for a decade and longer prior to January 2011. However, their regular protests for over a decade before 2011 challenged the authoritarian regime. This dissertation examines the combative role of Egyptian independent workers' formal and informal organizations as a contentious social movement to challenge the regime. It will examine the evolving role of workers as socio-economic actors and then as political actors in political transitions. Social Movement Theory (SMT) and its mechanisms and Social Movement Unionism (SMU) will be the lenses through which this research will be presented. The methodology will be the comparative case studies of two different movements where workers who advocated for their rights for a decade prior to January 2011 experienced significantly differing outcomes. One case study showcases the municipal real estate tax collection workers who were able to establish a successful social movement and then create an independent trade union. The second case study examines an influential group of garment and textile workers, who also developed an effective social movement, yet were not able to take it to the next step to establish an independent union. I will explore within this research a second question: why one group of workers was able to establish an independent union while the other arguably more influential group of workers, the garment and textile workers, was not able to do so. This had an impact on the influence they were able to exercise over the regime in addition to their effectiveness as a social movement for change.


The 'knowledge economy' is a concept commonly deemed too ambiguous and elusive to hold any significance in current economic debate. This valuable book seeks to refute that myth. Presenting an important collection of views, from a number of leading scholars, this innovative volume visibly demonstrates that knowledge and information are a prime resource in driving the dynamics of an economy.


 Abstract — Military Communication Systems (MCS) are a key element of Command and Control. MCS provide data transmission for Combat Information Systems. Situation awareness would be impossible without its proper functioning. The battle usage of MCS requires new planning and control approaches. Risk Management is a new approach which improves the timeliness and resilience of MCS. Risk Management is aimed at new ways of planning and managing business continuity during a combat deployment. Risk Mapping tools improve the planning process. Risk Management ensures business continuity management during a combat deployment. Risk Analysis and Risk Assessment are the most important points of this approach. A number of methods are suitable for Risk Analysis purposes. The FMEA method is a suitable method for Risk Management in MCS battle-usage. This article analyzes the Risk Management options to improve the resilience and timeliness of Military Mobile Communications.


As foreclosure initiations have soared over the past couple of years, many have questioned whether mortgage servicers have the right incentives to work out troubled subprime mortgages so that borrowers can avoid foreclosure and remain in their homes. Some critics claim that because servicers, unlike investors, do not bear the losses associated with foreclosure, they have little incentive to modify troubled loans by reducing interest rates or principal, or by extending the term. Our analysis suggests that while servicers have substantially improved borrower outreach and increased loss mitigation efforts, some foreclosures still occur where both borrower and investor would benefit if such an outcome were avoided. We discuss servicers' incentives and the obstacles to working out delinquent mortgages. We find that loss mitigation is costly for servicers, in large part because servicers currently lack adequate staff and technology; unfortunately, servicers have few financial incentives to expand capacity. Two additional factors appear to be damping workouts of nonprime loans, the group that has seen the largest increase in delinquencies. First, affordable solutions are more difficult to achieve for borrowers with these loans than for those with prime mortgages. Second, these loans are generally funded by private-label mortgage backed securities, for which investors provide little or no guidance to servicers about what modifications are appropriate. More generally, investors are wary that modifications might turn out to be unsuccessful, thus delaying and increasing ultimate losses. Given the significant deadweight losses incorporated in recent quarters' loss rates of 50 percent or more, we present options for further improving servicer performance. We discuss supporting further industry efforts to expand borrower outreach and establish servicing guidelines, educating investors, paying servicers fees for appropriate loan workouts, and improving measures of servicer performance.


Health informatics is a field in which the disciplines of software engineering and machine learning necessarily co-exist. This discussion paper considers the interaction of software engineering and machine learning, set within the context of health informatics, where the scale of clinical practice requires new engineering approaches from both disciplines. We introduce applications implemented in large on-going research programmes undertaken between the Departments of Engineering Science and Computer Science at Oxford University, the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, and the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London.


Abstract A minimal cardiac model has been developed that captures the major dynamics of the cardio-vascular system (CVS). This model is extended to simulate time varying disease state including reflex actions and an integral based identification method is presented that enables linear and convex parameter identification. Two common time varying disease states are identified to within 10% without false identification. Also the valve law in this model is reformulated in terms of Heaviside functions, and a unique closed form analytical solution is obtained for the ventricular interaction equation. This enables rapid forward simulations of the model. Clinically, the method ensures medical staff can rapidly obtain a patient specific model and can simulate a large number of therapy combinations to find the best treatment.


Water has been a passionately contested issue in the United States (US) over the past century. Some argue for growth restrictions in drought-susceptible regions, but based on economic production, it may be worthwhile implementing creative measures to ensure continued and sustainable growth. The following economic analysis correlates water withdrawals in the 32 most populous metropolitan areas in the US with several economic indicators, including gross metropolitan product (GMP), income, and employment. The ratio of GMP to water withdrawals (GMP/H2O) ranged from (US)$58,788 per million gallons in Tampa to $939,555 per million gallons in San Jose ($15,532 to $248,231 per megaliter, respectively). Some drought-susceptible areas (e.g., Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas) had relatively high GMP/H2O values, while others (e.g., Phoenix and San Diego) had relatively low GMP/H2O values. From a regional perspective, the Northwest had the strongest economy relative to its water withdrawals, and the Midwest had the weakest. These data indicate that the GMP/H2O metric can be used to justify water use in certain metropolitan areas but that the metric is less applicable to regional analyses due to unique aspects of local economies and water resource portfolios.


A new randomized Byzantine agreement algorithm is presented. This algorithm operates in a synchronous system of n processors, at most t of which can fail. The algorithm reaches agreement in 0(t/log n) expected rounds and O(n2tf/log n) expected message bits independent of the distribution of processor failures. This performance is further improved to a constant expected number of rounds and O(n2) message bits if the distribution of processor failures is assumed to be uniform. In either event, the algorithm improves on the known lower bound on rounds for deterministic algorithms. Some other advantages of the algorithm are that it requires no cryptographic techniques, that the amount of local computation is small, and that the expected number of random bits used per processor is only one. It is argued that in many practical applications of Byzantine agreement, the randomized algorithm of this paper achieves superior performance.


Register Variation in Indian English constitutes the first large-scale empirical investigation of an international variety of English. Using a combination of the corpus compiled for this project and relevant sections of ICE-India as its database, this work tests existing descriptions and characterizations of English in India, and provides the first empirical account of register variation in Indian English (or indeed, any international variety of English). Included in this survey are linguistic features that have been examined before and others that have not. From an empirical standpoint, it comments on the process of Indianization of the English used in India. The book will be of interest to readers beyond specialists of Indian English as it is one of very few studies to undertake a large-scale corpus analysis for the purpose of dialect research. The book provides a model on which future studies of international Englishes can be based.


Negative attitudes toward mathematics and what has come to be know as "math anxiety are serious obstacles for children in all levels of schooling today. In this paper, the literature is reviewed and critically assessed in regards to the roots of math anxiety and its especially detrimental effect on children in "at-risk" populations such as low socioeconomic status and females. The effects of teachers' and parents' assumptions, family support, and parents' level of educational attainment will be addressed. The paper also addresses the curricular issues that may lead to math anxiety such as high stress instructional methods and "timed testing". ********** A negative attitude toward mathematics is a growing barrier for many children to mathematics (Ashcraft, 2002; Popham, 2008; Rameau & Louime, 2007). For many children, negative attitudes toward mathematics begin early in life, sometimes even before they enter kindergarten (Arnold, Fisher, Doctoroff, & Dobbs, 2002). The child's educational context at home and at school can affect this attitude (Scarpello, 2007). Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds often have parents with less educational background and who often have negative attitudes toward mathematics themselves. Females are also often overlooked or socialized to dislike mathematics (Geist & King 2008; Titu, Gallian, Kane, & Mertz, 2008). While research supports that girls have the similar aptitude for mathematics, they are more susceptible to math anxiety due to their aversion to high stakes testing and social comparison (Haynes, Mullins, & Stein, 2004; Miller & Bichsel, 2004; Miller & Mitchell, 1994). For these groups and many other children, a fear of mathematics or what is commonly known a "math anxiety" it creating a disparity between levels of mathematics achievement. In some cases, the gap in achievement is not brought about by differing levels of potential and ability, but the chances of developing math anxiety or a negative attitude toward mathematics (Ashcraft, 2002; Hopko et al., 2003). Children begin to construct the foundations for future mathematical concepts during the first few months of life (Geist, 2003a; Geist, 2003b). Before a child can add or even count, they must construct ideas about mathematics that cannot be directly taught. Many of these basic ideas are constructed through interaction with the surrounding environment and the adults in that environment. Ideas that will support formal mathematics later in life such as order and sequence, seriation, comparisons, classifying, addition and other more advanced mathematical skills have their genesis before the age of five. The seemingly simple understanding that numbers have a quantity attached to them is actually a complex relationship that children must construct. As children enter formal schooling, the constructive process sometimes takes a turn for the worse, especially for girls and minorities (Ma, 2003; Scarpello, 2007; Turner et al., 2002). Studies have shown that at this time in children's learning of mathematics, textbooks take over the process of teaching and the focus on shifts from construction of concepts using children's own mathematical thinking to teacher imposed methods of getting the correct answer (Geist, 2000). Teachers begin to focus on repetition and speed or "timed tests" as important tools for improving mathematical prowess and skill which can undermine the child's natural thinking process and lead to a negative attitude toward mathematics (Popham, 2008; Scarpello, 2007; Thilmany, 2004; Tsui & Mazzocco, 2007). This overreliance on timed tests and other high stakes approaches to teaching mathematics reinforce the negative attitude toward mathematics that many children have developed in the early years of life (Scarpello, 2007). For those children who had a positive mathematical experience in the early years, this new approach to learning mathematics is often very different from what they are used to (Popham, 2008). …


This article gives an overview of the process and logic of sampling. The article begins by describing the basic building blocks of sampling theory. The most common sampling designs that can be used in social science research are discussed and is divided into two broad categories :
Probability sampling which include simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling, multi-stage cluster sampling and probability proportionate to size (PPA) sampling, and
Non-probability sampling which include accidental sampling, purposive sampling, quota sampling and referral sampling which can be divided into network and snowball sampling.
The article also assesses various factors that determine the choice of a sample design, which include the stage of the research process, availability of resources and the data collection methods applied. It concludes with a discussion on selecting the right sample size.


Imaging sand/shale sequences is problematic when the impedance contrast between them is very small, a problem commonly encountered in basins with Tertiary clastics. Impedance trends for sand and shale in these basins display higher impedances for shales than for sands at shallow depths; however, sands exhibit higher impedances than shales at greater depths. That implies a crossover between the trends at some depth and that it is going to be difficult to image sands near the crossover depth with traditional seismic surveys.

Sometimes stacking far-offset data is a solution because a strong AVO gradient can generate significant reflections at high angles of incidence, even if the normal-incidence reflection coefficient is close to zero.

Converted waves can, in some cases, image the reservoir. The question is when because there is no generally accepted insight regarding what conditions favor converted-wave imaging. In other words, why does converted-wave imaging work very well in some reservoirs and not so well in others?

Three conditions must exist for converted shear-wave imaging to be preferable to conventional P-P imaging:

1. A very small acoustic impedance contrast results in very weak reflections and thereby poor images.

2. The offset dependence of P-P amplitudes is not useful because (a) a small contrast in Poisson's ratio across the contact between seal and reservoir makes the P-P AVO gradient small, resulting in weak amplitudes at all offsets, or (b) velocity distribution in the overburden makes it impossible to achieve large angles of incidence at the reservoir level.

3. A large shear-wave impedance contrast generates strong converted waves.

The first point simply states the obvious—converted-wave imaging is cost effective only when traditional P-P imaging fails, and P-P imaging fails when the acoustic-impedance contrast is close to zero.

Point …


We investigated changes in respiration across nighttime and daytime in a headwater stream. For this, we conducted consecutive nighttime and daytime experiments injecting the bioreactive tracer resazurin in two reaches with different riparian canopy densities (different levels of photosynthetically active radiation) to compare respiration rate coefficients. We found that even though stream water temperatures measured above the streambed at day and night (half‐day timescale) were different within each reach and across reaches (95% confidence level), apparent respiration rate coefficients were not different across nighttime and daytime conditions (95% confidence level). A likely explanation for this is that the bulk of stream respiration takes place in the hyporheic zone, where diel fluctuations of stream temperature and photosynthetically active radiation are considerably attenuated and where temperature is not measured in routine investigations of stream metabolism. Our results suggest that community respiration in headwater streams may not need to be 'corrected' for temperature between daytime and nighttime, even though instantaneous changes in respiration are expected to occur from a pure biological perspective. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Conventionally, equalizers are applied when reproducing audio signals in rooms, to reduce coloration and effect of room resonances. Another approach, filtering audio signals with an inverse of the room impulse response (RIR), can theoretically eliminate the effect of the room in one point. But practical issues arise, such as impaired sound at other positions, a need to update when RIRs change, and loudspeaker-challenging signals. A technique is presented, which modifies the time-frequency envelopes (spectrogram) of audio signals, such that the corresponding spectrogram in the room is more similar to the original signal's spectrogram, i.e. room effect is attenuated. The proposed technique has low sensitivity on RIR and listener position changes.


Vision has long been the model for understanding cortical function. Great progress has been made in understanding the transformations that occur within some primary visual cortex (V1) layers, like the emergence of orientation selectivity in layer 4. Less is known about other V1 circuit elements, like the shaping of V1 input via corticothalamic projections, or the population structure of the cortico-cortical output in layer 2/3. Here, we use the mouse early visual system to investigate the structure and function of circuit elements in V1. We use two approaches: comparative physiology and optogenetics. We measured the structure of pairwise correlations in the output layer 2/3 using extracellular recordings. We find that despite a lack of organization in mouse V1 seen in other species, the specificity of connections preserves a correlation structure on multiple timescales. To investigate the role of corticogeniculate projections, we utilize a transgenic mouse line to specifically and reversibly manipulate these projections with millisecond precision. We find that activity of these cells results a mix of inhibition and excitation in the thalamus, is not spatiotemporally specific, and can affect correlated activity. Finally, we classify mouse thalamic cells according to stimuli used for cell classification in primates and cats, finding some, but not complete, homology to the processing streams of primate thalamus and further highlighting fundamentals of mammalian visual system organization. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Neuroscience First Advisor Diego Contreras


Some perturbations differentially influence invasive plant and grass production. For example, growth regulator herbicides and biological control agents can dramatically reduce leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) production while having little or no influence on grass production, and overgrazing can reduce grass production while not substantially influencing leafy spurge production because cattle typically ingest little or no leafy spurge. To predict how grass production will respond to a perturbation that influences only leafy spurge and to predict how leafy spurge production will respond to a perturbation that affects only grasses, competitive relationships must be understood. Sowing mixtures of leafy spurge and 2 grasses (Poa pratensis and Agropyron smithii [Elymus smithii]) were planted in experiments and grown for 127 days to determine whether different water application regimes influenced competition among these 3 species. Competition became less intense as the number of water applications increased. If this finding holds true under field conditions, then it indicates that competition is less intense in years and locations with numerous precipitation events. Competitive interactions (i.e., competition coefficients) were less variable when water was applied more frequently, but the ability of models to account for variation in plant weight (i.e., r2) was not influenced by the frequency of water application. This suggests that models will predict invasive plant and grass biomass with equal accuracy in years with few or many precipitation events. Competitive effects were similar regardless of grass species, which suggests that grasses might be considered collectively in predicting response to perturbations in the field.


Background Monoallelic expression (MAE) is a frequent genomic phenomenon in normal tissues, however its role in cancer is yet to be fully understood. MAE is defined as the expression of a gene that is restricted to one allele in the presence of a diploid heterozygous genome. Constitutive MAE occur for imprinted genes, odorant receptors and random X inactivation. Several studies in normal tissues have showed MAE in about 5–20% of the cases. However, little information exists on the MAE rate in cancer. In this study we assessed the presence and rate of MAE in melanoma. The genetic basis of melanoma has been studied in depth over the past decades, leading to the identification of mutations/genetic alterations responsible for melanoma development. To examine the role of MAE in melanoma we used 15 melanoma cell lines and compared their RNA-seq data with genotyping data obtained by the parental TIL (tumor infiltrating lymphocytes). Methods Genotyping was performed by Illumina HumanOmni1 beadchip. For the RNA-seq experiment, library preparation and sequencing was performed using the Illumina TruSeq Stranded Total RNA Human Kit and subsequently sequenced using a HiSeq 2500 according to manufacturer's guidelines. Genotype calling and subsequent quality filtering was performed in Illumina's Genome Studio software. IMPUTE2 (University of Oxford) was used for imputation of the genotyped data. RNA-Seq analysis was performed using the Broad Best Practice Workflows for RNA-Seq with the exception that a genotype was created for every available base pair in order to compare to the genotyped array data. In house custom perl scripts were then created to compare the genotyping data to the processed RNA-Seq data. The genotype and the B-allele frequency were calculated the latter creating a range of expression to evaluate. By comparing genotyping data with RNA-seq data, we identified SNPs in which DNA genotypes were heterozygous and corresponding RNA genotypes were homozygous. All homozygous DNA genotypes were removed prior to the analysis. To confirm the validity to detect MAE, we examined heterozygous DNA genotypes from X chromosome of female samples as well as for imprinted and olfactory receptor genes and confirmed MAE. Results MAE was detected in all 15 cell lines although to a different rate (spanning from approximately 17% to 75% MAE). When looking at the B-allele frequencies we found a preferential pattern of complete monoallelic expression rather then differential monoallelic expression across the 15 melanoma cell lines. As some samples showed high differences in the homozygous and heterozygous call rate, we looked at the single chromosomes and showed that MAE may be explained by underlying large copy number imbalances and isodisomy in some instances. Nevertheless, some chromosome regions showed MAE without CN imbalances suggesting that additional mechanisms (including epigenetic silencing) may explain MAE in melanoma. Conclusion The biological implications of MAE are yet to be realized. Nevertheless our findings suggest that MAE is a common phenomenon in melanoma cell lines. Further analyses are currently being undertaken to evaluate whether MAE is gene/pathway specific and to understand whether MAE can be employed by cancers to achieve a more aggressive phenotype.


Decisions about noisy stimuli require evidence integration over time. Traditionally, evidence integration and decision making are described as a one-stage process: a decision is made when evidence for the presence of a stimulus crosses a threshold. However, this model is incompatible with psychophysical experiments on feature fusion, where two visual stimuli are presented in rapid succession. Paradoxically, the second stimulus biases decisions more strongly than the first one, contrary to predictions of one-stage models and intuition. This can only be explained using a two-stage model where sensory information is integrated and buffered before it is fed into a drift diffusion process. I will present a series of psychophysical experiments to test both, accuracy and reaction time distributions predicted by the model.


The study of molecules adsorption of different geometric and electronic structure by zeolites of different composition and structure is of great interest to study the effect on the adsorption of chemical nature of adsorbents surface. Zeolites are porous crystals, so the micropore structure of zeolites is determined with high accuracy, their adsorption properties are physical-chemical constants, which can be calculated theoretically based on the calculation of the potential interaction energy adsorbate-adsorbate and adsorbateadsorbent in zeolites. These data are of great interest for the development of the theory of adsorption forces and intermolecular interactions. However, the calculation of the potential energy of adsorption is difficult due to the complexity of the crystal structure and the potential field in the zeolite channels. The high benzene content degrades the environmental and technological properties of fuels. To select a highly efficient sorbent for dearomatization of fuel, studies of regularities of benzene adsorption in various zeolites are necessary. The isotherm, differential heats of benzene adsorption in zeolites LiLSX and NaLSX at 303K were measured using the adsorption calorimetry method. The adsorption isotherm is quantitatively reproduced by VOM theory equations.


Background: Sarcostemma viminale (L.) R.Br. (Asclepiadaceae), an endangered medicinal plant distributed in various habitats in semi-arid region of Thar Desert of Rajasthan. Present study is focused on the extraction of bioactive compounds from the flowers of this plant by Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using Methanol and chloroform as solvents. Methods: Flowers were collected from hilly and stony regions from xeric and harsh conditions of Indian Thar Desert of Rajasthan, during the month of July-September. The phytochemical compounds were investigated using Perkin-Elmer Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, while the mass spectra of the compounds found in the extract were matched with the National Institute of Standards and Technology library. Result: Maximum % area is found for 24-Norursa-3, 12-diene is present in maximum amount (26.25%) with retention time (RT) =39.441 min, followed by Tetracontane (20.68%) with RT=30.275min in the methanolic extract. Lup-20(29)-en-3-ol, acetate, (3.beta.)is present in maximum amount (35.70%) with retention time (RT) =38.569 min, followed by Tetracontane (15.24%) with RT=29.678 min in the chloroform extract of flowers of Sarcostemma viminale (L.) R.Br. Conclusion: Flowers of Sarcostemma viminale (L.) R.Br. shows important pinpoint pharmacological activity. These bio-active constituents can be used by pharmaceutical or other drug designing industry to find a novel drug and pharmacologically active constituents justifying the use of this plant to treat many ailments.


Large-scale massive MIMO network deployments can provide higher spectral efficiency and better coverage for future communication systems like 5G. Due to the large number of antennas at the base station, the system achieves stable channel quality and spatially separable channels to the different users. In this work, linear, planar, circular and cylindrical arrays are used in the evaluation of a largescale multi-cell massive MIMO network. The system-level performance is predicted using two different kinds of channel models. First, a ray-based deterministic tool is utilized in a real North American city environment. Second, an independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Rayleigh fading channel model is considered, as often used in previously published massive MIMO studies. The analysis is conducted in a 16-macro-cell network with outdoor and randomly distributed users. It is shown that the array configuration has a large impact on the throughput statistics. Although the system-level performance with i.i.d. Rayleigh fading can be close to the deterministic prediction in some situations (e.g., with large linear arrays), significant differences are noticed when considering other types of arrays.


This report is a country by country assessment of the supports and barriers for district heating and the subsequent effects they have on the sector nationally. This is an analysis of information gathered by the national partners of this project from 10 or more experts and combined with the extensive knowledge and experience of the 14 national partners. These reports can be found on the web in Country by Country database and should be consulted when further information on a specific country is desired (ecoheat4.eu/en/Country-by-Country-DB).


This book presents a comprehensive overview of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with an emphasis on security, coverage, and localization. It offers a structural treatment of WSN building blocks including hardware and protocol architectures and also provides a systems-level view of how WSNs operate. These building blocks will allow readers to program specialized applications and conduct research in advanced topics. A brief introductory chapter covers common applications and communication protocols for WSNs. Next, the authors review basic mathematical models such as Voroni diagrams and Delaunay triangulations. Sensor principles, hardware structure, and medium access protocols are examined. Security challenges ranging from defense strategies to network robustness are explored, along with quality of service measures. Finally, this book discusses recent developments and future directions in WSN platforms. Each chapter concludes with classroom-tested exercises that reinforce key concepts. This book is suitable for researchers and for practitioners in industry. Advanced-level students in electrical engineering and computer science will also find the content helpful as a textbook or reference.


Problem Preaching has always been at the center of Christianity and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is the most visible part of a pastor's ministry, and it has a significant influence on the spiritual journey of a congregation. It is the express desire of the homiletics teachers at the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary to guide students to be the best preachers possible. However, the problem that is a review of the dissertations at the James White Library revealed that in the last 35 years no attention has been given to evaluating the effectiveness of methods used in homiletic classes at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. Method A semester-long approach more focused on the discipline of practice was formed and implemented in one of two biblical preaching classes taught in the seminary. Two specific focuses were on the impact peer accountability (classmates were paired off and gave each other feedback) and task repetition (practicing the sermon) make on one's preaching ability. The project success was measured by observation of both classes and interviews with the students using questionnaires to determine what they felt were the most impactful disciplines. Results Overall, 18 of the 20 students and 12 of the 20 in the two classes, respectively, responded that accountability and task repetition were significantly instrumental in their growth as preachers. Both classes included peer accountability and the percentage of students reporting that this discipline was helpful was similar—64% and 67%. In one biblical preaching class, twice the required practice or task repetition was included. In the questionnaire, 43% of the students identified it without prompting as a significant factor compared to only 17% in the class with less required practice. In the questions where the student preachers were specifically asked to evaluate the impact of task repetition on their preaching, 71% compared to 33%, respectively, described it as having had a significant impact. Conclusions This study demonstrates that the disciplines of peer accountability and task repetition are vital factors in raising the level of preaching. It also demonstrates a need for more attention to be given to the homiletical pedagogy at the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary. Methodology can be a natural emphasis in the preaching classroom, but this will be a barrier to raising the effectiveness of preaching. Understanding preaching as a practice helps keep a balance.


Background: Lonicera japonica Thunb. or Japanese Honeysuckle has been widely used in traditional medicine for antipyretic. Objective: To establish the pharmacognostic specification of L. japonica flowering bud in Thailand and to determine its chlorogenic acid content and in vitro antioxidant activities. Materials and Methods: Dried L. japonica flowering bud from 15 various herbal drugstores throughout Thailand were investigated for pharmacognostic specification. Their chlorogenic acid contents were quantitatively analyzed by thin layer chromatography (TLC) densitometry with winCATS software. The mobile phase for TLC development consisted of ethyl acetate: formic acid: acetic acid: water (10:1.1:1.1:2.6). Antioxidant activities were investigated by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, ferric ion reducing antioxidant power assay, nitric oxide scavenging assay, and β-carotene bleaching assays. Results: Qualified L. japonica flowering bud in Thailand was presented that the contents of loss on drying, total ash, acid-insoluble ash, and water should not be >10.11%, 6.59%, 1.14%, and 10.82% by weight, respectively. The ethanol and water soluble extractive values should not be < 16.46% and 28.88% by weight, respectively. Chlorogenic acid content in L. japonica flowering bud was found to be 2.24 ± 0.50 g/100 g of crude drug. L. japonica flowering bud showed DPPH and nitric oxide scavenging activities as well as reducing power property. Conclusion: This pharmacognostic specification with special reference to the chlorogenic acid content can be used for quality control of L. japonica flowering bud in Thailand. The potential antioxidant of this crude drug was demonstrated in vitro.


Cognitive "anchoring effect" bias, especially related to numbers, like sentencing guidelines ranges, is widely recognized in cognitive psychology as an extremely robust and powerful heuristic. It is a cognitive shortcut that has a strong tendency to undermine judgments by "anchoring" a judgment to an earlier disclosed number, the anchor. Numerous studies prove anchoring bias produces systematic errors in judgment in wide-ranging circumstances, including judgments by experts — doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, psychologists, and auditors — as well as a variety of decisions by foreign and American federal and state judges. The anchoring effect occurs even when the anchor is incomplete, inaccurate, irrelevant, implausible, or even random. Roughly corresponding in time with the developing understanding of the anchoring effect, federal sentencing has undergone a revolution from judges having virtually unlimited discretion, to virtually no discretion, and back to considerable discretion, as the Federal Sentencing Guidelines went from mandatory to advisory in a single monumental U.S. Supreme Court decision, United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005). Surprisingly, since judges were granted much greater discretion in Booker, the length and severity of federal sentences, for the most part, has not changed. This remains true despite long-standing, persistent, and widespread dissatisfaction among federal district court judges with the Guidelines and the length of sentences. This Article argues that this is because judges' sentences are subconsciously anchored by the calculated Guidelines range. This Article offers a simple, modest, and practical solution that requires no change in existing law by the Supreme Court or Congress. It simply requires rearranging the numerical anchoring information in the presentence report and adding additional relevant numerical information to counteract the anchoring effect of the Guidelines. If federal district court judges are educated about the effect of cognitive anchoring and their own bias-based blind spots to it — their improved awareness can only enhance the fairness of sentencing.


Crime is part of human activities and needs to be managed. No human society has ever been totally free of deviants and it is unlikely that society will ever be. The more populated and complex a society becomes the wider the range of antisocial conducts that must be controlled by the government through the armed forces and other agencies especially the Police Force. The incident-based system reports on a much broader range of crimes and includes data on the circumstances of the crime, the victim, and the defendant. The current crime reporting system is faced with several difficulties as there is no instant means of reporting crime other than telephone calls, messaging or perhaps face-to-face which is usually cumbersome especially where the reporter wishes to keep anonymity. The proposed crime reporting system aims to assist the Nigerian Police in their bid to solve crimes with timely and useful information about criminals and/or their mode of operations so as to nip in the bud criminal activities in a given locality. Finally, a prototype crime reporting system was designed that relies on four reporting forms: a complaint or dispatch reporting form, a crime event report form, follow-up investigation report form, and an arrest report form. The system consists of three functional modules: a data capture module, a report management and control module, and a data utilization module. Future work on crime reporting system can be tailored towards accessibility (mobile version), awareness and improvement on the usage.


Most software version control systems provide mechanisms for branching into multiple lines of development and merging source code from one development line into another. However, the techniques, policies and guidelines for using these mechanisms are often misapplied or not fully understood. This is unfortunate, since the use or misuse of branching and merging can make or break a parallel software development project. Streamed Lines is a pattern language for organizing related lines of development into appropriately diverging and converging streams of source code changes.


ASTM E 2187 has become the internationally referenced standard for designing and specifying less fire-prone cigarettes. In this test method, a lit cigarette is laid on multiple layers of filter paper, and the observer identifies whether the cigarette burns its full length or not. For decades, a specific type of filter paper has been used as the test substrate, with specified values of mass and moisture uptake used to define acceptable material. There is interest in the availability of alternate makes of filter paper, and an interlaboratory study (ILS) of three of these was performed to identify the potential for any of these to provide test results (a) indistinguishable from the currently specified filter paper and (b) with no degradation of repeatability. Each of the three alternate filter paper types demonstrated test result repeatability similar to that obtained using the current paper. One of the three alternate papers also showed indistinguishable test results for all test cigarettes. However, significant additional testing is required for high confidence that testing a variety of cigarettes using any of the three alternate filter paper types would consistently yield test data indistinguishable from the data obtained using the currently specified paper. In addition, the ILS confirmed test result sensitivity to the upward facing surface of the papers, and led to recommendation that the standard test method be modified so that future tests will be performed with the choice of upward facing paper surface prescribed.


Xylophilus ampelinus is the causal agent of blight and canker on grapevine. Only a few data are available on this species implying that the occurrence of this pathogen may be underestimated, and its actual ecological niche may not be understood. Moreover, its genetic diversity is not well known. To improve our knowledge of this species, an analysis of the complete genome sequences available in NCBI was performed. It appeared that several sequences are misidentified. The complete genome sequence of the type strain was obtained and primers designed in order to sequence gyrB and rpoD genes for the strains held in CIRM-CFBP. The genetic barcoding data were obtained for 93 strains, isolated over 35 years and from several geographical origins. The species revealed to be strongly homogenous, displaying nearly identical sequences for all strains. However, the oldest strains of this collection were isolated in 2001 therefore, a new isolation campaign and epidemiological surveys are necessary, along with the obtention of new complete genome sequences for this species.


The hydrogeology of the valley-fill aquifer system along a 32-mile reach of the Susquehanna River valley and adjacent areas was evaluated in eastern Broome and southeastern Chenango Counties, New York. The surficial geology, inferred ice-marginal positions, and distribution of stratified-drift aquifers were mapped from existing data. Ice-marginal positions, which represent pauses in the retreat of glacial ice from the region, favored the accumulation of coarse-grained deposits whereas more steady or rapid ice retreat between these positions favored deposition of fine-grained lacustrine deposits with limited coarse-grained deposits at depth. Unconfined aquifers with thick saturated coarse-grained deposits are the most favorable settings for water-resource development, and three several-mile-long sections of valley were identified (mostly in Broome County) as potentially favorable: (1) the southernmost valley section, which extends from the New York–Pennsylvania border to about 1 mile north of South Windsor, (2) the valley section that rounds the west side of the umlaufberg (an isolated bedrock hill within a valley) north of Windsor, and (3) the east–west valley section at the Broome County–Chenango County border from Nineveh to East of Bettsburg (including the lower reach of the Cornell Brook valley). Fine-grained lacustrine deposits form extensive confining units between the unconfined areas, and the water-resource potential of confined aquifers is largely untested. Recharge, or replenishment, of these aquifers is dependent not only on infiltration of precipitation directly on unconfined aquifers, but perhaps more so from precipitation that falls in adjacent upland areas. Surface runoff and shallow groundwater from the valley walls flow downslope and recharge valley aquifers. Tributary streams that drain upland areas lose flow as they enter main valleys on permeable alluvial fans. This infiltrating water also recharges valley aquifers. Current (2012) use of water resources in the area is primarily through domestic wells, most of which are completed in fractured bedrock in upland areas. A few villages in the Susquehanna River valley have supply wells that draw water from beneath alluvial fans and near the Susquehanna River, which is a large potential source of water from induced infiltration.


Acquiring small targets on a tablet or touch screen can be challenging. To address the problem, researchers have proposed techniques that enlarge the effective size of targets by extending targets into adjacent screen space. When applied to targets organized in clusters, however, these techniques show little effect because there is no space to grow into. Unfortunately, target clusters are common in many popular applications. We present Starburst, a space partitioning algorithm that works for target clusters. Starburst identifies areas of available screen space, grows a line from each target into the available space, and then expands that line into a clickable surface. We present the basic algorithm and extensions. We then present 2 user studies in which Starburst led to a reduction in error rate by factors of 9 and 3 compared to traditional target expansion.


Abstract The introduction of a fifth amphibole group, the Na-Ca-Mg-Fe-Mn-Li group, defined by 0.50 < B(Mg,Fe2+,Mn2+,Li) < 1.50 and 0.50 ≤ B(Ca,Na) ≤ 1.50 a.f.p.u. (atoms per formula unit), with members whittakerite and ottoliniite, has been required by recent discoveries of B(LiNa) amphiboles. This, and other new discoveries, such as sodicpedrizite (which, here, is changed slightly, but significantly, from the original idealized formula), necessitate amendments to the IMA 1997 definitions of the Mg-Fe-Mn-Li, calcic, sodic-calcic and sodic groups. The discovery of obertiite and the finding of an incompatibility in the IMA 1997 subdivision of the sodic group, requires further amendments within the sodic group. All these changes, which have IMA approval, are summarized.


An assessment was conducted of educational needs among engineers working in nuclear fuel cycle-related areas, focusing on the nuclear industry in the Southeast. Educational needs addressed were those at the post-baccalaureate professional level. As a result of the study, a list of subject areas has been compiled as best representing the current content of an educational program. In addition to identifying subject areas, a set of course descriptions and reference materials has been developed around each subject. Each course description contains information regarding objectives, anticipated audience, and prerequisites and offers a suggested course outline. An initial modest program of implementation is recommended which would continue to concentrate on the Southeast as a target area.


Speed has always been a critical consideration in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), promising dramatic gains in imaging speed, a reduction in motion and susceptibility artifacts, and ultimately increased throughput for clinical studies. This thesis presents several new approaches to increase temporal resolution of a three dimensional (3D) echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence and explores the benefits of using high temporal resolution for both event-related brain activation and resting state networks fMRI studies. In the first approach, a new k-space traversal strategy for segmented 3D EPI is introduced which we termed as 3D reduced excitation EPI (3D RE-EPI). In this approach, two partitions are encoded per radio frequency (RF) excitation, effectively reducing the number of excitations used to acquire a 3D EPI dataset by a factor of two. With this strategy, whole-brain images with a nominal voxel size of 2mmisotropic could be acquired with a temporal resolution under half a second, using traditional parallel imaging acceleration upto 4x in the partition-encoding direction and using novel data acquisition speed-up of 2x. With 8x data acquisition speed-up in the partition-encoding direction, 3D RE-EPI produced acceptable image quality without introduction of noticeable additional artifacts. Due to increased temporal signal-to-noise ratio (tSNR) and better characterization of physiological fluctuations, the new strategy allowed detection of more resting state networks compared to standardmulti-slice two dimensional (2D) EPI and segmented 3D EPI. The approach above suffered from geometry factor (g-factor related) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) losses, while using very high parallel imaging acceleration factor. To achieve substantial increase in the temporal resolution whilemaintaining low g-factors when high parallel imaging acceleration factors are used, the combination of segmented 3D EPI using 2D controlled aliasing with generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions (GRAPPA) was implemented in the next approach termed 3D-EPI-CAIPI. FunctionalMRI data with whole-brain coverage, a voxel size of 2 mm isotropic and a temporal resolution of 371 ms was acquired with acceptable image quality. 10-fold parallel imaging accelerated 3D-EPI-CAIPI data was shown to lower g-factor losses by as much as 10% with respect to segmented 3D EPI at 7 Tesla. Additional resting state networks were detected using 3D-EPI-CAIPI compared to a comparable standard 2D EPI acquisition. This was attributed to the improved statistics due to an increased number of volumes acquired in a given duration and because of the improved characterization of physiological signal fluctuations. Functional MRI with 400 ms temporal resolution allowed the detection of time-to-peak variations in temporal, occipital and frontal cortices haemodynamic responses due to multisensory facilitation of the order of  200 ms. To conclude, this thesis introduces several novel techniques to increase temporal resolution of fMRI. Besides building theoretical foundations for these techniques, their applications for studying human brain functional connectivity, event-related brain activation and the ability to characterize physiological signal fluctuations at ultra-high field strength (7 Tesla) are evaluated.


SUMMARY During the early phase of the influenza pandemic in 2009, all cases of laboratory-confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009 (pH1N1) infection required compulsory isolation in hospital. These cases were offered oseltamivir treatment and only allowed to be discharged from the hospital when three consecutive respiratory specimens were negative for the virus by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR). We reviewed the case records of these patients to assess the viral shedding kinetics of the pH1N1 virus. We defined viral shedding duration as the interval from illness onset date to the date of collection of the last positive specimen from the patients. Fifty-six patients were included in the study, of whom 96% received oseltamivir. The median viral shedding duration of pH1N1 virus by viral culture and RT–PCR were 3 days and 4 days, respectively. Patients who started oseltamivir treatment >48 h after onset had a significantly longer median viral shedding duration by viral culture than those who started treatment within 48 h of onset (4 days vs. 2 days, P=0·014).


Abstract Saline basinal fluids, at temperatures from 60 to 250 °C, have affected almost every sedimentary basin in the world including rocks from Palaeoproterozoic to Cenozoic age. These fluids commonly precipitate base-metal sulphides (pyrite, sphalerite, galena, etc.) and associated minerals (barite, fluorite, calcite, dolomite, etc.) ranging in volume from trace amounts to large economic ore deposits. Such deposits are commonly referred to as Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) after the large Palaeozoic deposits of this kind found in the Mississippi Valley of North America. They are primarily hosted by platform carbonates, typically dolomite, and are usually associated with hydrocarbons. Dolomites not affected by mineralizing fluids commonly display micron- to decimicron-size planar textures, and have well-developed micro- and mesoporosity networks dominated by intercrystal and vug porosity. However, these and other carbonate rocks affected by basinal fluids may undergo massive geochemical and textural alteration. This occurs even when the affected rocks are distal from the main loci of sulphide mineralization. Alteration includes: dolomitization of limestone; neomorphic recrystallization of existing dolomite; and precipitation at intervals of large volumes of open-space-filling dolomite, calcite and quartz cements alternating with dissolution. Dolomitization of limestone and/or neomorphic recrystallization of dolomite, at elevated temperatures, commonly results in centimicron and larger size crystals, and development of nonplanar textures that increase pore-throat tortuosity. Open-space-filling dolomite, calcite and quartz cementation causes a dramatic reduction of porosity and blockage of pore throats. Periods of carbonate dissolution, proximal to intense sulphide mineralization, result in the development of large-scale macroporosity such as breccias that are commonly superimposed on karst and tectonic fractures. Exposure to mineralizing basinal fluids substantially alters porosity and permeability distribution, and thus the potential reservoir properties of the dolomite. The resulting reservoir may have little resemblance to its precursor. Understanding the epigenetic history of a dolomite is critical, therefore, as this will ultimately affect its development strategy and production history.


Charge-carrier recombination dynamics after laser excitation are investigated by time-resolved microwave conductivity (TRMC) measurements of quantum-sized (Q-) TiO_2, Fe^(III)-doped Q-TiO_2, ZnO and CdS, and several commercial bulk-sized TiO2 samples. After pulsed laser excitation of charge carriers, holes that escape recombination react with sorbed trans-decalin within ns while the measured conductivity signal is due to conduction-band electrons remaining in the semiconductor lattice. The charge-carrier recombination lifetime and the interfacial electron-transfer rate constant that are derived from the TRMC measurements correlate with the CW photo-oxidation quantum efficiency obtained for aqueous chloroform in the presence of TiO_2. The quantum efficiencies are 0. 4 % for Q-TiO_2, 1. 6 % for Degussa P25, and 2. 0 % for Fe^(III)-doped Q-TiO_2. The lower quantum efficiencies for Q-TiO_2 are consistent with the relative interfacial electron-transfer rates observed by TRMC for Q-TiO_2 and Degussa P25. The increased quantum efficiencies of Fe^(III)-doped Q-TiO_2 and the observed TRMC decays are consistent with a mechanism involving fast trapping of valence-band holes as Fe^(IV) and inhibition of charge-order recombination.


The article presents a series of pieces excavated by the ISMEO Italian Archaeological Mission in two Buddhist sacred areas in Swat (Pakistan). The pieces are chosen for their connection to the theme of monumental entrances of cultic buildings. In the first case (Gumbat), the building is a shrine. In the second, (Amluk-dara) it is a Main Stupa. The pieces belong to three different entrance parts: lower sides of the stairs, decorated steps or stair-riser friezes, and decorated frames of doors. Pieces like these, which belong to specific architecture, can be hypothetically positioned in their places, allowing thus a more vivid reconstruction of the original appearance of the monuments. The decorative apparatus of the entrances to Buddhist monuments, although apparently extraneous to the religious language, is not less rich than the Buddhist iconographic programme illustrated on the stupas or inside the shrines. The second part of the article deals with the interpretation of the language of the entrance as 'symbolic capital' of the political élites, who were the donors of the great Buddhist architecture in Swat.


The article presents the methodology for the assessment of the resource potential of the Arctic. The authors analyze the main elements of its economy that are involved in the food supply of both the Arctic regions and the whole country, as well as in export-import transactions. We state facts and figures for the implementation of the Arctic States policies with the field of both potentials in the Northern latitudes and the projects for utilizing living marine resources in previously unexplored waters. We reveal the dependence of the use of Arctic resources from geopolitical, economic and technological changes in the world. Previously, the economic activities in the Artic were conditioned by certain legal regimes. Now it may revised because of the differences in conceptual approaches when determining the external borders and delimitating continental shelf. We characterize the domestic model of Arctic exploration and the food supply system of territories. We identify the current problem of extraction of marine resources, their processing and delivery to the consumer. The intersectoral resource economy of the Arctic territories, the difficulties of fishery and fish processing, aquaculture production, the lack of support for local farms cultivating crops and producing of animal genetic resources are inherited from previous economic models. The basic features of the modern economy of the Arctic have significant country-specific differences depending on the policies that are implemented on one or another Arctic territory. This is manifested in the conditions created by the state as well as in the level of investment attractiveness and the quality of life. The factors affecting food security in Arctic areas are the following: the access to fishing stocks; support of the agricultural sector and rural households; the formation of state market mechanisms when creating interregional agrofood complexes; respect for animal genetic resources. We recommend enhancing the regulatory, institutional and economic opportunities of coastal regions, creating the conditions for competition development in the extraction and processing of natural resources in the Arctic.


Narratives and conventions have received considerable attention in recent discussions of the valuation of financial assets. Narratives and conventions, however, can only be effective to the extent that they attract and persuade audiences, and this article makes the case for paying more attention to those audiences. In particular, the article argues that financial assets can only be established as assets if there is a group of potential investors that has been persuaded to accept them as such: to take them seriously as potential investments. The article coins the term asset circles to refer to such groups and supports the argument with a discussion of venture capital and its role in the production of unicorns: private companies with extraordinary valuations. Venture capital firms may be thought of as value entrepreneurs, and much of the venture capital process is oriented towards constructing both value narratives for the companies they invest in and asset circles prepared to accept those value narratives. Their aim in these processes is a profitable exit, in which the venture capital firm converts its investment back into cash at a considerable profit through either an acquisition or a flotation.


Introduction Acute ischemic stroke secondary to cervical carotid artery occlusion can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Acute carotid occlusion may be managed by carotid angioplasty, stenting, or both. The use of carotid stents requires patients to be placed on dual antiplatelet agents, which may contribute to increased haemorrhage risk. We undertook this study to evaluate outcomes for angioplasty alone versus stenting in the setting of acute carotid occlusion. Methods All patients treated from 2008 to 2013 with acute cervical internal carotid artery occlusions that had intervention within eight hours of symptom onset were included. NIHSS were recorded preceding intervention, and clinical outcomes were assessed using mRS at 90 days. All imaging and angiographic data were reviewed for pre-procedural ASPECT scores, pre- and post- TICI reperfusion scores, and intracranial haemorrhage as defined by PH grading score for haemorrhage. Demographic and treatment factors were correlated with good functional outcome (mRS < 2 at 90 days and a comparison was made for patients undergoing angioplasty alone versus stenting. All patients who underwent carotid stent were placed on dual antiplatelet agents while angioplasty patients received aspirin only. Results Twenty-four patients (15 males, 9 females; mean age, 67 years) satisfied the inclusion criteria. Seventeen patients underwent placement of carotid stent and 7 patients had angioplasty alone. Patients in both subgroups were comparable across characteristics including comorbidities, time for onset to recanalization, ASPECTS, and IV tPA use. 35% of patients who underwent stenting had good functional outcomes, versus 71% of patients treated with angioplasty alone, although these differences were not statistically significant. No differences were seen for the two treatment groups comparing time from onset to recanalization, baseline ASPECTS, and IV tPA use. Additionally, increased age (p = 0.049) and post-treatment parenchymal haemorrhage- PH1 or PH2 (p = 0.016) correlated with poor outcomes (mRS > 2). All parenchymal haemorrhages (6/17) and deaths (5/17) fell within the stenting subgroup (35.3% and 29.4%, respectively). Conclusions This data suggest that patients undergoing angioplasty alone in the setting of acute internal carotid artery occlusion may have improved functional outcome at 90-day compared to those undergoing stenting. This study was limited by a small sample size and a larger study would be needed to confirm these findings. Keywords angioplasty, stenting, acute ischemic stroke, carotid occlusion. Disclosures O. Choudhri: None. M. Gupta: None. A. Feroze: None. G. Albers: None. M. Lansberg: None. H. Do: None. R. Dodd: None. M. Marcellus: None. M. Marks: None.


Surface restructuration upon potential cycling of three dimensionally ordered NixCo3−xO4 spinels for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in an alkaline medium is studied using structural, spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques. It was shown that the intrinsic activity of different catalysts depends on the incorporated amount of nickel and surprisingly correlates with the CoIII/CoIV peak potential. The electrochemical activity of the OER is amazingly improved upon potential cycling. It was observed that potential cycling induces an increase of active sites up to 45% on the most effective electrocatalyst. This unexpected increase in activity is very pronounced and becomes stable after 30 voltammetric cycles. Such a phenomenon is explained by the formation of a layered mixed nickel/cobalt oxyhydroxide active site whose oxidation potential is related to the nickel amount in the catalyst. The formation of this layer is promoted by the surface hydroxylation degree of non-cycled catalysts. In these catalysts, nickel modulates the electronic properties of the active site, which modifies the adsorption energies of key oxygenated intermediates. The synthesis route proposed herein allows an efficient way for obtaining high specific surface areas as well as highly hydroxylated surfaces, the latter being the key factor in the enhancement of the electrocatalytic activity of nickel cobaltites.


Abstract.
 New samples of fusulinids collected in the Tengchong Block, western Yunnan, China, are systematically studied and presented here. The fusulinid fauna from the Xishancun section in the Shanmutang area is dominated by Chusenella and Nankinella, whereas that from the Shuangheyan area is composed mainly of Chusenella and Schwagerina. Both faunas are dated as Roadian—Capitanian (middle Permian). These new findings are integrated with fusulinid taxa reported earlier from the block to demonstrate the taxonomic features and paleogeographic significance of Permian fusulinids. The low generic diversity through early and middle Permian and the paucity of middle Permian neoschwagerinids and verbeekinids in the block confirm its Gondwana-affinity attributes. Moreover, the Permian fusulinids of the Tengchong Block are depauperate; i.e., consisting of a limited number of species with abundant individuals. This particular feature commonly suggests an inhospitable environment, and carbonates of varied facies containing these faunas in the Tengchong Block suggest a facies-independent factor as the reason, most likely the relatively low temperature of seawater.


We have measured the binding affinity for five HLA-A alleles: HLA-A1 (A*0101), A2.1 (A*0201), A3 (A*0301), A11 (A*1101), and A24 (A*2401); of a set of all possible nonamer peptides (n = 240) of human papillomavirus type 16 E6 and E7 proteins. High affinity binding peptides were identified for each of the alleles, thus allowing us to select several candidates for CTL-based vaccines. Moreover, this unbiased set of peptides allowed an evaluation of the predictive value of HLA motifs derived either from the analysis of sequencing of pools of naturally processed peptides or from the binding analysis of polyalanine nonameric peptides that differed in the amino acids (aa) present at the anchor positions. Whereas pool sequencing-derived motifs were present in only 27% of high affinity binders, the more expanded motif, based on analysis of different aa substitutions at the anchor positions, was present in 73% of high affinity binders. Furthermore, it was found that the presence of anchor residues in a peptide was in itself not sufficient to determine binding to MHC class I molecules, because the majority of motif-containing peptides failed to bind to the relevant MHC. Finally, specific HLA motifs were used to predict peptide binders of 8, 10, and 11 aa in length. Several high affinity binding peptides were identified for each of the various peptide lengths, indicating a significant size heterogeneity in peptides capable of high affinity binding to HLA-A molecules.


Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) and autism are characterized by different social phenotypes but have been said to show similar atypicalities of face-processing style. Although the structural encoding of faces may be similarly atypical in these two developmental disorders, there are clear differences in overall face skills. The inclusion of both populations in the same study can address how the profile of face skills varies across disorders. The current paper explored the processing of identity, eye-gaze, lipreading, and expressions of emotion using the same participants across face domains. The tasks had previously been used to make claims of a modular structure to face perception in typical development. Participants with WS (N=15) and autism (N=20) could be dissociated from each other, and from individuals with general developmental delay, in the domains of eye-gaze and expression processing. Individuals with WS were stronger at these skills than individuals with autism. Even if the structural encoding of faces appears similarly atypical in these groups, the overall profile of face skills, as well as the underlying architecture of face perception, varies greatly. The research provides insights into typical and atypical models of face perception in WS and autism.


This paper presents an argument for the application of Wenger's (1998) theory of a community of practice to develop understanding of the learning that occurs in early-career police. The focus of this research is on the ways that early career police learn the craft of policing. Early career police are defined as police in their first three years of service. This definition is formed from the general requirements of the New South Wales Police for the completion of one year probation and two further years as a general duties constable prior to application to transfer or specialise. During the probation year police officers continue to undertake further formal university-based study. Police learning experiences will be investigated using Lave and Wenger's social theory of learning and the notion of communities of practice, applied within a para-military police culture. The argument is that a community of practice can be used to explore, and better understand, the impact of field experience on the learning of police post their compulsory recruit training. At present there is only a few studies of this issue, such as Chan et al. (2003), Fielding (1988) and van Maanen (1978); these studies tend to cease at the conclusion of the probation year, are not set within the recent context of a university provided education, as is the case in New South Wales, and there exists no research applying community of practice theory in this context. It is intended that in exploring the learning and socialisation process, this research will contribute to the understanding and realisation of professionalism in policing, facilitate the improved design of the Associate Degree in Policing Practice (ADPP) and lead to better understanding of how police learn to be police, thus contributing to the design of training and education that can target their development.


Section 1983 no longer serves as a remedial statute for the people most in need of its protection. Those who have suffered a violation of their civil rights at the hands of state authorities, but who cannot afford a lawyer because they have only modest damages or seek only equitable remedies, are foreclosed from relief because lawyers shun their cases. Today civil rights plaintiffs are treated the same as ordinary tort plaintiffs by the private bar: without high damages, civil rights plaintiffs are denied access to the courts because no one will represent them. Congress understood that civil rights laws are only as good as their enforcement. When Congress passed the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976, it wanted to ensure that meritorious claims would be heard and that all illegal conduct would be deterred. The enforcement mechanism that Congress chose-fee-shifting-guaranteed access to the courts even when damages were modest or the form of relief was equitable. So-called "private attorneys general" would accept all meritorious claims, knowing that if they won they would be paid by the liable Copyright © 2008 by Paul D. Reingold. * Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Michigan Clinical Law Program, University of Michigan Law School. HeinOnline -3 Duke J. Const. L. & Pub. Pol'y 1 2008 2 DUKE JOURNAL OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW & PUBLIC POLICY [VOL. 3:1 defendants at reasonable market rates pursuant to the fee-shifting provisions of the law. In 1986, however, in Evans v. Jeff D., the U.S. Supreme Court allowed defendants to condition settlement of civil rights cases on the waiver or reduction of plaintiffs' attorney's fees. Two decades later, it is evident that Evans destroyed the enforcement mechanism of the Civil Rights Act. Today civil rights plaintiffs who have only modest damages or who seek equitable relief are without a remedy. Although fee waivers (and their effects) were the subject of much debate after Evans was decided, in recent years the issue has dropped off the radar screen. It is time for Congress to amend the Fees Act in order to resurrect section 1983 as the robust remedial law Congress meant it to be.


We present experiments on the behavior of reaction fronts in extended, vortex-dominated flows in the presence of an imposed wind. We use the ferroin-catalyzed, excitable Belousov-Zhabotinsky chemical reaction, which produces pulse-like reaction fronts. Two time-independent flows are studied: an ordered (square) array of vortices and a spatially disordered flow. The flows are generated with a magnetohydrodynamic forcing technique, with a pattern of magnets underneath the fluid cell. The magnets are mounted on a translation stage which moves with a constant speed Vd under the fluid, resulting in motion of the vortices within the flow. In a reference frame moving with magnets, the flow is equivalent to one with stationary vortices and a uniform wind with speed W = Vd . For a wide range of wind speeds, reaction fronts pin to the vortices (in a co-moving reference frame), propagating neither forward against the wind nor being blown backward. We analyze this pinning phenomenon and the resulting front shapes using a burning invariant manifold (BIM) formalism. The BIMs are one-way barriers to reaction fronts in the advection-reaction-diffusion process. Pinning occurs when several BIMs overlap to form a complete barrier that spans the width of the system. In that case, the shape of the front is determined by the shape of the BIMs. For the ordered array flow, we predict the locations of the BIMs numerically using a simplified model of the velocity field for the ordered vortex array and compare the BIM shapes to the pinned reaction fronts. We also explore transient behavior of the fronts (before reaching their steady state) to highlight the one-way nature of the BIMs.


FinFET has begun replacing CMOS at the 22nm technology node and beyond. Compared to planar CMOS, FinFET has a higher on-current and lower leakage due to its double-gate structure. A FinFET-based system simulation framework can be very helpful to system architects for early-stage design-space exploration using this new technology. However, such a simulator does not exist. We fill this gap by presenting the details of one such simulation framework, called gem5-PVT, that we have developed. Our simulation framework combines and extends existing lower-level FinFET simulators to support timing, power, and thermal studies of FinFET-based chip multiprocessor systems under process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations. It uses a bottom-up modeling approach based on logic/memory cell libraries that have been very accurately characterized using TCAD device simulation. This allows accuracy to bubble up to the system level. The framework is modular and automated, hence enables system designers the flexibility to evaluate various system implementations. It is currently targeted at the 22nm FinFET technology. We report results for two case studies to demonstrate its usefulness. One study shows that more than 62.1× system-level leakage reduction, at the same performance, is possible when using a particular FinFET logic style. Another study characterizes core-to-core frequency and power variations that result from underlying PVT variations and compares the effectiveness of variation-aware scheduling schemes.


In this lecture, I take stock of what the gender and sexuality based critiques of refugee law formulated over the past decades have achieved. I first address statistical issues. Then I address the question how law is being applied today, now the gender and sexuality critiques of refugee law have been incorporated in legal practice. I focus on the case of A.A. and others v Sweden about forced marriage, and on discretion reasoning in sexual orientation cases. Having done that, I will try to understand this reformulated refugee law by using the concept of sexual nationalism.


OBJECTIVE
To quantify the limitations associated with restricting readmission metrics to same-hospital only readmission.

DESIGN
Using 2000-2009 California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development Patient Discharge Data Nonpublic file, we identified the proportion of 7-, 15- and 30-day readmissions occurring to the same hospital as the initial admission using All-cause Readmission (ACR) and 3M Corporation Potentially Preventable Readmissions (PPR) Metric. We examined the correlation between performance using same and different hospital readmission, the percent of hospitals remaining in the extreme deciles when utilizing different metrics, agreement in identifying outliers and differences in longitudinal performance. Using logistic regression, we examined the factors associated with admission to the same hospital.

RESULTS
68% of 30-day ACR and 70% of 30-day PPR occurred to the same hospital. Abdominopelvic procedures had higher proportions of same-hospital readmissions (87.4-88.9%), cardiac surgery had lower (72.5-74.9%) and medical DRGs were lower than surgical DRGs (67.1 vs. 71.1%). Correlation and agreement in identifying high- and low-performing hospitals was weak to moderate, except for 7-day metrics where agreement was stronger (r = 0.23-0.80, Kappa = 0.38-0.76). Agreement for within-hospital significant (P < 0.05) longitudinal change was weak (Kappa = 0.05-0.11). Beyond all patient refined-diagnostic related groups, payer was the most predictive factor with Medicare and MediCal patients having a higher likelihood of same-hospital readmission (OR 1.62, 1.73).

CONCLUSIONS
Same-hospital readmission metrics are limited for all tested applications. Caution should be used when conducting research, quality improvement or comparative applications that do not account for readmissions to other hospitals.