Why is it that some people consistently seem to get more done than others? The answer is that they know how to set specific, achievable goals for themi? selves...and then follow through on them. This revised and updated edition of Goal Setting features worksheets, quizzes, and other practical tools, giving readers powerful techniques they can use to set a goal, make a plan, and acquire the rei? sources and power necessary to achieve their objective. The book shows readers how to: act upon their objectives in a precise, targeted way * recognize obstacles and overcome them * become more assertive * change counterproductive behavior * establish priorities * make the most of their time Achieving goals takes hard work and discipline. This expanded edition of Goal Setting gives readers the tools and techniques to accomplish anything.


Background: To provide, maintain and promote the health of children as a vulnerable group in the health service has a special place. So, the first step in reducing mortality and improve their health, identify causes of morbidity and mortality.
Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, the main causes of neonate death in the case of neonatal who died in Aboozar hospital in 1390 were extracted, then based on the new international coding of diseases (International Coding Of Disease version 10) were categorized and the information on gestational age, type of delivery, birth weight, sex and age after birth .
Results: Five main causes of death were generally: prematurity, respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, asphyxia and intracranial hemorrhage. It was also revealed that the causes of death in neonatal with low birth weight premature neonatal are similar and include: respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, asphyxia and intracranial hemorrhage. In this study, between death and gestational age, mode of delivery, age after birth and birth weight there were a significant relationship , but no significant relationship between the death and age.
Conclusion: While in this study infection as the primary cause of death in neonatal , but important cause of mortality in preterm and low birth weight had no major difference with other studies.According to its ease and efficiency ICD10 and determine the underlying causes of neonatal mortality, neonatal death certificates this classification is recommended.
Keywords: Neonatal, Mortality, Prematurity, Respiratory distress syndrome.


Ed Miliband tells us he wants to reward good families and firms. Where there are details, they raise as many questions as answers. Allocating housing on the basis of criteria other than needs throws up big questions. It's not clear to me why we want people to do apprenticeships in firms that have government contracts, etc. Stepping back from the details, Ed Milliband says that what they will do is change the regulatory and tax framework to carefully reward good firms. Fine in principle, but in practice I worry that this sort of thing vastly overestimates the ability of government to intervene in a way that actually achieves it's objectives. Two analogies spring to mind - one concerns the role of the Basel regulations on capital requirements that sought to ensure good behaviour but ended up encouraging banks to hold mortgage backed assets (and derivatives of those assets). The second is a little more in line with my expertise and concerns what policy might do to 'reward innovative firms located in clusters'. For those of you that want the headline message - it turns out to be incredibly difficult to know what we should do (if anything) to reward innovative clusters of firms. For those of you that like the details, read on for a more careful analysis (based on my contribution to the Manchester Independent Economic Review)


Debris-covered glaciers in the Himalaya may have spatially-averaged rates of surface height change that are similar to those observed on bare-ice glaciers, despite the insulating effects of thick debris. Spatially heterogeneous melt patterns caused by the development and evolution of ice cliffs and supraglacial pond systems result in substantial mass losses over time. However, mechanisms controlling the formation and survival of cliffs and ponds remain largely unknown. To study the distribution and characteristics of these surface features we deploy an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over a stretch of the debris-covered Langtang Glacier, Nepal. Acquired images are processed into high-resolution orthomosaics and elevation models with the Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry algorithm. Ice cliffs and ponds are classified using object-based image analysis (OBIA) and their morphology and spatial distribution are analysed and evaluated using object, pixel and point cloud approaches. Results show that ice cliffs are predominantly north-facing, and larger ice cliffs are generally coupled with supraglacial ponds, which may affect their evolution considerably. The spatial distribution of ice cliffs indicates that they are more likely to form in areas where high strain rates are expected. The spatial configuration of ponds over the entire tongue reveals high pond density near confluences, possibly due to closure of conduits via transverse compression. We conclude that the combination of OBIA and UAV imagery is a valuable tool in the semi-automatic and objective analysis of surface features on debris-covered glaciers. The technique may also have potential for upscaling to the use of spaceborne imagery, and the use of UAV-derived point clouds to analyse ice cliff undercuts is promising. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


In this article I attempt to contribute to the development of foundations for a sociological theory of economic action. Such a theory, it is argued here, has to make a substantial break with the teleological structure that informs both rational actor theory and normative theories of action. Informed by the tradition of American pragmatism I propose to base the understanding of action in economic contexts on a "non-teleological interpretation of intentionality" (Joas 1996). Such a theoretical conceptualization brings the interpretative acts of intentionally rational actors to the center. It finds its justification in the observation that the complexity and novelty inherent in economic contexts create an uncertain environment for actors which rules out optimizing decisions and provokes the question as to how actors make such an environment intelligible for intentionally rational decisions. I will argue that meaning and perceptions of rationality are established intersubjectively in the action process itself. Embeddedness then refers to the social structuration of meaning which is enacted based on interpretations, a process which is undetermined but not unstructured.


The research uses neural nets as a tool in the investigation of busienss failure prediction and business performance monitoring. The novelty lies in the introduction of models including qualitative factors as well as financial ratios. In addition, an analysis of data gathered from a new survey is offered. To achieve its objectives the research begins by exploring the AI options and then reviews current neural net technology with a view to identifying appropriate technology for the implementation of a classifier for the two areas of failure prediction and performance monitoring.

After consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of the options, a multi-layer perceptron, back propagation net is adopted as being unsuitable for this application.

In order to verify the validity of the bespoke neural net software it was necessary to employ a two stage strategy. The first step was to confirm that the net, as implemented, retained the expected property of being able to solve problems that were not linearly separable. This was achieved by demonstrating its ability to solve the straightforward XOR problem.

To be confident of the net performance it was deemed necessary to replicate the experiments of previous research which used only purely financial inputs to the net. The results confirmed the validity of the new network implementation. Using the intital results as a control, experiments were undertaken to ascertain the effect of reducing the training sample size and to identify minimum sample sizes commensurate with maintaining the effectiveness.

The work then further contributes to this research by using traditional stastical methods to provide an empirically derived equation for calculating the minimum number of training patterns required for corporate failure prediction in the context of the experimental sets of variables. The resulting failure prediction model was then used to test for symptoms of bankruptcy in firms currently trading.

The thesis then leads on to describing a technique developed in this study for pre-processing qualitative questionnaires, prior to input into a neural model as well as providing a method for predicting values not supplied in incomplete survey responses.

A contribution is also made to the area of company performance analysis by using neural techniques and discriminant analysis to show that relationships do exist between certain company variables and business performance, as well as highlighting which of these variables are the most important if an appropriate corporate condition monitoring strategy is to be developed.

Lastly, the corporate performance neural network model is enhanced by facilitating the categorisation of a firm into one of several performance bands.


It is found that learners prefer to use micro learning mode to conduct learning activities through open educational resources (OERs). However, adaptive micro learning is scarcely supported by current OER platforms. In this paper we focus on profiling an effective micro learning process which is central to establish the raw materials and set up rules for the final adaptive process. This work consists of two parts. First, we conducted an educational data mining and learning analysis study to discover the patterns and rules in micro learning through OER. Then based on its findings, we profiled features of both learners and OERs to reveal the full learning story in order to support the decision making process. Incorporating educational data mining and learning analysis, an cloud-based architecture for Micro Learning as a Service (MLaaS) was designed to integrate all necessary procedures together as a complete service for delivering micro OERs. The MLaaS also provides a platform for resource sharing and exchanging in peer-to-peer learning environment. Working principle of a key step, namely the computational decision-making of micro OER adaptation, was also introduced.


During 2008 and 2009, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB, or Bank) assessed and documented shortcomings and constraints in its information technology (IT) capabilities, and in 2008 it created the IT Roadmap project (later Program Optima) to address these issues. As part of the IDB-9 Report, the Bank committed to the implementation of Program Optima to improve its efficiency in delivering services through IT. The program evolved over time, with its focus changing from information systems to business process reengineering. Also during 2010, the scope of the program was expanded to include areas that were originally left out of the program. Consequently, the budget assigned to the program increased from the original US$37 million to US$55.5 million. Program Optima suffered two major setbacks and changes in direction, the first in early 2009, when irregularities in the contracting of the consulting firm stopped the project for eight months; and the second in late 2010, when concerns were raised by senior Bank Management about the direction of the program. The team was moved to the Office of Strategic Planning and Development Effectiveness and a new Manager was hired, a process that again delayed the work for about eight months. Since the end of 2011 a new Optima team has been in charge of the program. The Bank has not yet implemented the necessary changes on its internal processes and IT systems to fulfill the requirements set out in the IDB-9 Report. However, the new Optima team has put in place the necessary mechanisms to make this program work, and it is now moving forward at a steady pace.


A bit error rate (BER) estimation-based adaptive space-time-frequency coded (STFC) multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing ultra-wideband (MB-OFDM UWB) wireless body area network (WBAN) system is proposed in this paper. It is designed to improve the average BER performance for high data rate applications while maintaining a reasonably high throughput in body-to-external links of a WBAN. The performance improvement fundamentally translates to power saving at the transmitter and/or receiver, thus reducing battery requirements and size of WBAN devices. Two novel blocks, namely the BER estimation-based adaptive algorithm which controls the set of modulation, STFC coding rate, and power of signal constellations, and the linearly interpolated CM4 WBAN channel model are implemented in the proposed adaptive STFC MB-OFDM UWB WBAN system. Three sets of adaptive schemes are defined, each of which is determined by two BER thresholds, i.e. the lower and upper thresholds, which are in turns calculated from the non-adaptive average BER performance as the benchmark. Simulation results show a significant improvement in the performance and/or Tx/Rx power saving, with the cost of a slight reduction in the throughput.


The practice of classroom assessment occurs at the intersection of three teaching functions: instruction, classroom management, and assessment. Theory relevant to studying classroom assessment comes from several different areas: the study of individual differences (e.g., educational psychology, theories of learning and motivation), the study of groups (e.g., social learning theory, sociology), and the study of measurement (e.g., validity and reliability theory, formative and summative assessment theory). This article explores how intersections of these areas have played out in the classroom assessment literature over the last 20 years. Some literature has emphasized one practical function or theoretical tradition; some literature has blended several. Overlapping theoretical traditions are opportunities both for richness of understanding and for tensions and conflicts.


As large language models have demonstrated impressive performance in many domains, recent works have adopted language models (LMs) as controllers of visual modules for vision-and-language tasks. While existing work focuses on equipping LMs with visual understanding, we propose two novel interpretable/explainable visual programming frameworks for text-to-image (T2I) generation and evaluation. First, we introduce VPGen, an interpretable step-by-step T2I generation framework that decomposes T2I generation into three steps: object/count generation, layout generation, and image generation. We employ an LM to handle the first two steps (object/count generation and layout generation), by finetuning it on text-layout pairs. Our step-by-step T2I generation framework provides stronger spatial control than end-to-end models, the dominant approach for this task. Furthermore, we leverage the world knowledge of pretrained LMs, overcoming the limitation of previous layout-guided T2I works that can only handle predefined object classes. We demonstrate that our VPGen has improved control in counts/spatial relations/scales of objects than state-of-the-art T2I generation models. Second, we introduce VPEval, an interpretable and explainable evaluation framework for T2I generation based on visual programming. Unlike previous T2I evaluations with a single scoring model that is accurate in some skills but unreliable in others, VPEval produces evaluation programs that invoke a set of visual modules that are experts in different skills, and also provides visual+textual explanations of the evaluation results. Our analysis shows VPEval provides a more human-correlated evaluation for skill-specific and open-ended prompts than widely used single model-based evaluation. We hope our work encourages future progress on interpretable/explainable generation and evaluation for T2I models. Website: https://vp-t2i.github.io


This paper presents parametric instance classification (PIC) for unsupervised visual feature learning. Unlike the state-of-the-art approaches which do instance discrimination in a dual-branch non-parametric fashion, PIC directly performs a one-branch parametric instance classification, revealing a simple framework similar to supervised classification and without the need to address the information leakage issue. We show that the simple PIC framework can be as effective as the state-of-the-art approaches, i.e. SimCLR and MoCo v2, by adapting several common component settings used in the state-of-the-art approaches. We also propose two novel techniques to further improve effectiveness and practicality of PIC: 1) a sliding-window data scheduler, instead of the previous epoch-based data scheduler, which addresses the extremely infrequent instance visiting issue in PIC and improves the effectiveness; 2) a negative sampling and weight update correction approach to reduce the training time and GPU memory consumption, which also enables application of PIC to almost unlimited training images. We hope that the PIC framework can serve as a simple baseline to facilitate future study.


Improving locational outcomes emerged as a major policy hope for the nation's largest low-income housing program over the past two decades, but a host of supply and demand-side barriers confront rental voucher users, leading to heated debate over the importance of choice versus constraint. In this context, we examine the Moving to Opportunity experiment's first decade, using a mixed-method approach. MTO families faced major barriers in tightening markets, yet diverse housing trajectories emerged, reflecting variation in: (a) willingness to trade location – in particular, safety and avoidance of "ghetto" behavior – to get larger, better housing units after initial relocation; (b) the distribution of neighborhood types in different metro areas; and (c) circumstances that produced many involuntary moves. Access to social networks or services "left behind" in poorer neighborhoods seldom drove moving decisions. Numerous moves were brokered by rental agents who provided shortcuts to willing landlords but thereby steered participants to particular neighborhoods.


Larvae of non-biting midges in the family Chironomidae can be found in association with several species of fish in the family Loricariidae. In this study, we describe the first record of phoretic interaction between larvae of Ichthyocladius sp. and the fish Hisonotus chromodontus in streams in the Amazon basin. Between July 2010 and March 2019, fish were collected from three streams of the Teles Pires River basin in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. We investigated the attachment site of chironomid larvae on the body of fish and the frequency of attachment. A total of 1.241 specimens of H. chromodontus were collected, among which nine hosts were found carrying in the ventral region a single Ichthyocladius sp. specimen. All Ichthyocladius sp. were attached to a spicule of fish between the pectoral and pelvic fins, in which they were observed at the fourth developmental stage at the beginning of the cocoon construction (1.50 mm). In addition, a pre-pupa larva (2.60 mm) and an empty cocoon (2.50 mm) were reported. The Loanda stream had the highest occurrence of this type of association (of 12 fish examined, three had larvae). The other two streams reported a lower occurrence: the Baixada Morena stream had three fish associated with larvae amongst 1105 fish examined, whereas the Selma stream had three out of 124 fish infested by larvae. The occurrence of only one larva per host can be related to the small body area of the host fish (average standard length = 26.60 mm and average weight = 0.31 g). We observed that the larvae prefer fixation sites in the vicinity of the pectoral and pelvic fin of the fish, which is presumably associated with the fact that chironomids feed on algae and debris suspended by the movement of loricariids. These streams differ with respect to the presence of riparian forests, which may affect resource availability and thereby influence ecological interactions between the species.


Different transition metal complexes such as RuCl2(=CHPh)(PCy3,)2, RuCl2(=CHPh)(PCy3)(IMes), RuCl2(=CH2) (PCy3)2, RuCl2(= CHBu)(PCy3)2, RuCl(H)(PPh3)3(CO), RuCl3, RhCl3-3H20, were used to isomerise alkenes. For the majority of experiments, reactions were performed on 1-octene and 4-octene, gas chromatography was used to monitor the consumption of the starting alkenes and the formation of isomers.
The variation of the reaction temperature on the different catalytic systems, the variation of the alkenelcatalyst molar ratio and the variation of the solvents on the isomerisation activity of the different catalytic systems were investigated. The results showed that the best conversion and selectivity are obtained with ruthenium carbenes. lsomerisation was observed at high temperatures ≥ 100°C and at lower temperatures more metathesis products were observed.
Short chain alkenes achieved higher isomerisation activity than long chain alkenes: 4-octene > 4-nonene > 4-decene. lsomerisation favoured more stable internal alkenes with the order of activity being trans-4-octene > trans-3-octene > trans-2-octene > cis-2-octene > 1 -octene.
From the study it is clear that RuCl2(=CHPh)(PCy3)2 is a capable double bond isornerisation catalyst for internal alkenes because metathesis products were not detected in any of the reactions using it. But when it comes to terminal alkenes, the complex gives a mixture of isomerisation and metathesis products. RuCI2(=CHPh)(PCy3)(lMes) is catalytically active for the isomerisation and metathesis of both the internal and terminal alkenes at high temperatures, at room temperature it is selective towards the isomerisation of internal alkenes and metathesis of terminal alkenes.
Although RuCI(H)(PPh3)3(CO)/PhCI is catalytically active for the isomerisation of terminal alkenes at room temperature, it does not isomerise internal alkenes at lower temperatures. Interestingly, at high temperatures, especially after prolonged reaction times, isomerisation products were detected.
The rhodium carbene and dimer are also catalytically active and selective for the isomerisation of internal and terminal alkenes, metathesis reactions were not observed in reactions involving these two catalysts. RhCl3-3H2O and RuCl3, cannot isomerise alkenes rapidly; longer reaction hours and high temperatures are required to get the isomerisation products.
The isomerisation reaction proceeded with first order kinetics in both catalyst and 4-octene
which is in agreement with a simple bimolecular interaction between the octene substrate and
the ruthenium center. The kinetics data of 1-octene isomerisation did not fit simple first order or
second order rate expressions, presumably due to secondary reactions (metathesis). The data
showed a reasonably linear second order fit at the initial stages.
The reaction mechanisms can be illustrated by the catalytic cycles.


The excitation of a whispering gallery resonator by a surface wave guided in a dielectric slab is analyzed with a rigorous volume-integral-equation approach. The analysis is based on the Green's function concept and the application of the entire-domain Galerkin technique through expansion of the electric field in the resonator in terms of cylindrical wave functions. The algorithm developed yields highly accurate results for the transmission and reflection coefficients in the waveguide. The radiated far field is computed, and the effect of the excitation of a whispering gallery mode on the radiation pattern is studied.


The significance of a spectral feature is defined as the probability that the feature captures the structure of the data set at hand. In particular, the significance is equal to a value proportional to the variance of a feature within a particular data set. The larger the variance, the higher the probability that the feature will capture the underlying structure. This approach is particularly useful when significance is used to select features differentiating clusters of samples and for the construction of self-organizing maps (SOMs) of clusters. A significance spectrum is obtained by plotting significance as a function of wavenumber. After developing the approach for feature significance, the significance framework was applied to the construction of SOMs for clustering infrared spectra of bacteria. The significance framework consistently chooses features that make it possible to construct maps with reduced feature sets that are at least as good as the maps constructed on full feature sets. In addition, significance reliably picks features that are consistent with biological interpretations of the spectra.


Erica Wood is vice-president of ISBT, and a member of its working parties on clinical practice, haemovigilance, and transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases. From 2010–2014 she was ISBT regional director for the Western Pacific region. Erica is head of the Transfusion Research Unit in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She is a consultant haematologist at Monash Health and holds an honorary appointment at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Erica is president of the International Haemovigilance Network, past-president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion, and a member of the World Health Organization Expert Advisory Panel in Transfusion Medicine.


The increase of flows in the container supply chains is largely driven by the growth in demand for container transportation. In order to meet the demands of clients, an ongoing improvement of the transport chain structure is underway. The successful development of container maritime terminal requires a corresponding growth of capacity of inland terminal infrastructure, like roads and railways, establishing vital links between entities. As such, the paper presents an empirical analysis from the technical, economical, operational, and ecological perspectives of Russian seaport container terminals that depend on dry ports construction. The justification of dry ports implementation as a main reserve, whereby the major seaport terminals' productivity is enhanced, is investigated with simulation approach, which allows to compare the performance of the chain under varying conditions.


In Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England, 1500 to 1800, Keith Thomas, provides the background to Wordsworth's contribution to the "tradition of environmental consciousness," that writers, such as Jonathan Bate, in Romantic Ecology recognize he inherited and shaped, ultimately influencing contemporary environmental thinking. Briefly', Thomas argued that British environmental consciousness evolved over three hundred years from the desire and capacity to explore and exploit nature to the human recognition of an affinity and interdependence with it. The intensification of an environmental consciousness gained impetus from opposition to those who perceive nature as either wild and threatening, in need of being tamed, or as merely a bountiful repository of goods for human consumption. Thomas' conclusion effectively invites Wordsworth and his ecological second selves to bring more momentum to the evolutionary, process. Acknowledging that "the early modern period had thus generated feelings which would make it increasingly hard for men to come to terms with the uncompromising methods by which the dominance of their species had been secured" (302), Thomas claims that the issue of dominance "cannot be completely evaded and it can be relied upon to recur" (303). In Wordsworth's poetry the issue of dominance is modified and modulated by his interest in the interdependence of the human and the natural. His awareness of the intricacy and intimacy of the natural and the human is his legacy to subsequent generations of nature writers who collectively may be considered Wordsworth's ecological second selves. I have chosen to consider the American writer and farmer, Wendell Berry, as one who has inherited, not so much Wordsworth's particular experience of Nature, but his prophetic and inspiring voice as one who will speak for Nature's interests. Berry is appropriate for several reasons. He has read both widely and deeply in British and American literature, including the Romantics. He has also published more than thirty books of essays, fiction, and poetry, all concerned with the relation of human beings to the land and the need for strong rural communities, unified by their vital local economies and by their awareness of their histories, passed along from generation to generation through stories. Berry, too, works in a prophetic role. Edward Abbey, himself a relentless advocate for the land, called Berry "our contemporary Isaiah." A prophet of nature must speak for the land and, while so doing, must often assume a position at odds with contemporary tastes, political movements, and social structures. Berry and Wordsworth shared that position. Seeking to inspire an understanding of the natural world, they covered considerable and significant common ground: 1) a commitment to the importance of a particular place; 2) a respect for the lives and values of rural people, their personal involvement in the land and their fierce desire for independence; 3) an abiding sense of the importance of community, and the conviction that through community the land receives the love and work necessary for its survival; and 4) a poetics based on the power of unadorned language, a language really used by or certainly accessible to those who live on or by means of the land. In "The Work of Local Culture" from What Are People For? Berry finds in an old battered galvanized bucket a metaphor for what is sacred and vital about nature and its processes. The bucket itself is notable for several reasons, primarily that it endured fifty years or more, hanging on the same fence post on a Kentucky family farm. But what is remarkable about the bucket is, in Berry's words, "what is going on" in it. As the seasons pass, the bucket collects leaves, moisture, seeds and nuts dropped by birds and squirrels, droppings from various birds and insects, all of which constitute "the most momentous thing I know, the greatest miracle that I have ever heard of: it is making earth" (153). …


The film Armageddon (1998) puts forward the possibility of using a nuclear weapon buried deep within an Earth-bound asteroid to split the asteroid in two, each half clearing opposite sides of the Earth with only relatively minor damage. This article investigates the feasibility of such a plan and shows that even using the largest nuclear weapon made to date, the bomb comes over 9 orders of magnitude short of the yield required.


Extracted from text ... 1 S 2(2). 2 Trivett & Co (Pty) Ltd and Others v WM Brandt's Sons & Co Ltd and Others 1975(3) SA 423 (A). 3 It was pointed out in Beaver Marine (Pty) Ltd v Wuest 1978(4) SA 263 (A) at 274E that following the establishment of the Republic in 1961 the adjective ""Colonial"" was no longer appropriate. 4 The 1890 Act perpetuated the situation that had existed since the establishment of the Vice Admiralty Courts. The latter were abolished by the 1890 Act. 5 Tharros Shipping Corporation SA v Owner of the ship ""Golden Ocean"" 1972(4) SA 316 ..


This paper analyzes GATI' and its dispute settlement procedure (DSP) in the context of a supergame model of international trade featuring both explicit and implicit agreements. An explicit agreement, such as OAT!', may be violated at some positive cost in addition to retaliatory actions that might be induced by the violation. We interpret this cost as arising from 'international obligation," a phenomenon frequently mentioned in the legal literature on GAY!'. We focus on how international obligation affects two aspects of GAIT-DSP: unilateral retaliation and the effect of inordinate delays in the operation of DSP. Marie Thursby Dan Kovenock Department of Economics Department of Economics Krannert Graduate School of Management Krannert Graduate School Purdue University of Management West Lafayette, IN 47907 Purdue University and NBER West Lafayette, IN 47907


Present Lochon and Extended-Lochon Models for the low-energy nuclear reaction, LENR, fusion process predict the fusion of monatomic deuterium into a sub-fragmentation level excited condition of He*^. The ^ and * indicate the presence of deep-Dirac level (DDL) electrons and of an excited nuclear state respectively. The higher angular-momentum deuterium combinations result in the formation of femto-deuterium molecules or molecular ions, D2^ or D2^. Both the He*^ and femto-deuterium molecules are expected to be short lived (<1fs). However, the short life may be determined more by their fusion with other nuclei than with their decay time to He.


Since its initial discovery in Allentown, PA, USA, the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), Halyomorpha halys (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) has now officially has been detected in 38 states and the District of Columbia in the USA. Isolated populations also exist in Switzerland and Canada. This Asian species quickly became a major nuisance pest in the mid-Atlantic USA region due to its overwintering behavior of entering structures. BMSB has an extremely wide host range in both its native home and invaded countries where it feeds on numerous tree fruits, vegetables, field crops, ornamental plants, and native vegetation. In 2010, populations exploded causing severe crop losses to apples, peaches, sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes and row crops such as field corn and soybeans in several midAtlantic states. Damaging populations were detected in vineyards, small fruit and ornamentals. Researchers are collaborating to develop management solutions that will complement current integrated pest management programs. This article summarizes the current pest status and strategies being developed to manage BMSB in the USA.


F.A. Hayek (1899-1992) was among the most important economists and political philosophers of the twentieth century. He is widely regarded as the principal intellectual force behind the triumph of global capitalism, an 'anti-Marx' who did more than any other recent thinker to elucidate the theoretical foundations of the free market economy. His account of the role played by market prices in transmitting economic knowledge constituted a devastating critique of the socialist ideal of central economic planning, and his famous book The Road to Serfdom was a prophetic statement of the dangers which socialism posed to a free and open society. He also made significant contributions to fields as diverse as the philosophy of law, the theory of complex systems, and cognitive science. The essays in this volume, by an international team of contributors, provide a critical introduction to all aspects of Hayek's thought.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Musculoskeletal pain is considered one of the major causes for leave of absence. In the hospital setting, researchers classify the nursing activity as one of the most harmful to human health. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in nursing professionals working in the orthopedic setting at a hospital in the South of Brazil. METHODS: The study population consisted of 29 nursing professionals among which three were nursing assistant, 23 nurse techs, and three nurses. The workers answered a questionnaire with questions related to musculoskeletal pain (Nordic adapted), sociodemographic profile, labor characteristics, and habits and lifestyle. RESULTS: The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in the studied subjects was 96.6% in at least one of the body parts in the last 12 months. The main regions involved were the lower and upper back (79.3 and 75.9%, respectively), the neck (65.5%), the shoulder (62.1%), ankle/feet (55.2%) and wrists/hands (51.7%). Of the professionals studied, 65.5% reported a leave of absence due to health problems in last the 12 months. It was identified that nurse practitioners showed a higher prevalence of pain in the majority of the body regions in comparison to the other professionals. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain reported by the nursing professionals in the study was considered high. This points to the need for health promotion programs such as exercise at the workplace, ergonomics, pre-established breaks and more professionals in the ward, measures described in the literature that can contribute to reduce the overload and improve the working conditions and quality of life of these professionals.


Systems relying on increasingly large and dynamic communication networks must find effective ways to optimally localize service facilities. This can be achieved by efficiently partitioning the system and computing the partitions' centers, solving the classic p-median and p-center problems. These are NP-hard when striving for optimality. Numerous approximate solutions have been proposed during the past 30 years. However, they all fail to address the combined requirements of scalability, optimality and flexibility. This thesis presents a novel location algorithm that is distributed, does not require any direct knowledge of the network topology, is computed in linear time, and leads to provably near-optimal p-medians. The algorithm exploits the key properties of Mobile Agents (MAs), the latter being autonomous software entities capable of roaming the network and cloning or spawning other Mobile Agents. Mobile Agents play the role of service facilities that are capable of iteratively partitioning the network and locating themselves in p-median locations. This thesis motivates the use of Mobile Agents to provide a 'distributed' solution to the p-median problem that is traditionally tackled only with 'centralised' algorithms. Efficiency is achieved through a combination of distribution, code mobility and simple use of network routing information. The proposed near-optimal algorithm does not require the reconstruction of the network distance matrix and is characterized by linear computational complexity. The proposed approach outweighs existing algorithms, which are polynomial of 2nd and 3rd degree and require a complete knowledge of the network topology. The evaluation of the proposed algorithm has been carried out through simulations. For this purpose, a simulation environment on top of NS (Network Simulator) was developed, which allows the implementation and evaluation of a Mobile Agent system. Along with the algorithm a set of applications that shows the flexibility of the algorithm to adapt to different requirements is presented. The range of algorithm applications focused on overlay networks and in particular Application-level Multicast, Content Adaptation Networks and Overlay Resource Management.


Accurate characterization of spatial soil moisture patterns and their temporal dynamics is important to infer hydrological fluxes and flow pathways and to improve the description and prediction of hydrological models. Recent advances in ground‐based and remote sensing technologies provide new opportunities for temporal information on soil moisture patterns. However, spatial monitoring of soil moisture at the small catchment scale (0.1–1 km2) remains challenging and traditional in situ soil moisture measurements are still indispensable. This paper presents a strategic soil moisture sampling framework for a low‐mountain catchment. The objectives were to: (i) find a priori a representative number of measurement locations, (ii) estimate the soil moisture pattern on the measurement date, and (iii) assess the relative importance of topography for explaining soil moisture pattern dynamics. The fuzzy c‐means sampling and estimation approach (FCM SEA) was used to identify representative measurement locations for in situ soil moisture measurements. The sampling was based on terrain attributes derived from a digital elevation model (DEM). Five time‐domain reflectometry (TDR) measurement campaigns were conducted from April to October 2013. The TDR measurements were used to calibrate the FCM SEA to estimate the soil moisture pattern. For wet conditions the FCM SEA performed better than under intermediate conditions and was able to reproduce a substantial part of the soil moisture pattern. A temporal stability analysis shows a transition between states characterized by a reorganization of the soil moisture pattern. This indicates that, at the investigated site, under wet conditions, topography is a major control that drives water redistribution, whereas for the intermediate state, other factors become increasingly important.


Experiments were conducted at six locations to determine methods for eliminating or controlling existing weeds on highway rights-of-way prior to planting, and preventing weed infestations after planting, without injuring or interfering with normal growth and development of desirable plant material. Four experiments were conducted to determine herbicide programs for eliminating weeds in natural stands of kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Sprang) and salal (Gaultheria shallon Pursh.) on highway rights-of-way, permitting these plants to form solid covers of uniform attractive vegetation. /FHWA/


ABSTRACT The disparities in mental health care around the world have led to differences in the way mental illness is treated, diagnosed, and stigmatized. The studies conducted revealed in this article investigated differences between the United States and India in terms of their willingness to agree with a possible mental illness diagnosis. Each study was conducted online using FluidSurveys®. Participants were recruited via Amazon's® Mechanical Turk® (MTurk), which is a website that provides access to an online, highly diverse participant pool. For Study 1, we hypothesized that there would be significant differences in agreement rates between the two countries and that there would be a positive relationship between agreement rates and the number of previous diagnoses. The three main hypotheses for Study 2 were that there would be a significant difference in agreement rates for the United States and India, the gender of the target individual would have a main effect, and the gender of the participant would have a main effect. The first study was focused on how the number of previous diagnoses would affect agreement rates and how that effect differed between the two countries. The second study looked specifically at how the gender of the participant as well as the gender of the target individual would affect agreement rates. Study 1 yielded significant differences between the United States and India for agreement rates when no previous diagnosis was presented. There was also evidence that as the number of previous diagnoses went from zero, to three, to five, agreement rates also increased. Study 2 also yielded significant differences between the two countries. There was a main effect of participant gender on agreement rates, but no main effect found for target gender.


Outsourcing, particular offshore outsourcing has become a key growth strategy within the Asset Servicing Industry and is now seen as a necessary means to maintain a competitive edge, not just in terms of cost reduction but also in terms of utilizing the 24 hour window that global outsourced locations can provide, naturally improving clients Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) and more importantly their distribution capabilities (Wealth Management, 2016). Many Asset Servicing firms have gone one step further and essentially expanded their operations overseas in order to leverage this resource and cost reduction concept. Using a third party, typically in India or Poland, from an Asset Servicing perspective, seems to add to the divide of locations. However many large corporations such as Northern Trust, BoNY, StateStreet and JP Morgan have specifically established their own in house operation in these locations. Having such operations under the banner of "their own firm" feels less removed, allows much greater control and desensitizes the concept for onshore staff, regulators and most importantly the clients themselves, (Gielen, 2015). In fact most top tier Administrators in Dublin have modeled this low cost or "Tier 3" location concept, leased premises , most likely after receiving a local offshore government grant or promise, rebranded the office space and commenced hiring and training of lower cost and typically highly educated labor. Most top tier administrators do this similar to the franchise practice of a McDonalds or Merry Maids, (Forbes, 2009). Right down to the color of the carpet selected, the office space looks and feels identical to the parent onshore office. This has become a highly effective practice and has somewhat reduced regulator, client and onshore staff concerns in having the offshored firm under the banner and control of the parent company. Firms who have completely outsourced to a third party firm, not within their own company tend to get more challenges and regulatory scrutiny than those who have invested in their own offshore operation (Rousseau, 2015). The question of course is how sustainable this strategy is, what long term impacts does it have to onshore and indeed offshore economies and will the competitive advantage it currently brings still remain competitive in a highly evolving technologic world we live in but moreover in the face of ongoing regulatory scrutiny of such arrangements by the Central Bank of Ireland (Burke-Kennedy, 2017). It's also important to analyse some the hype that surrounds Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

RPA is on the cusp of being a major disrupter in the Financial Services Industry, not just with Asset Service companies but also with Asset Managers themselves. Will offshoring itself be diminished with the introduction and takeover of RPA type technologies? Although limited studies exist around RPA and future impacts on Irish Assets Servicing firms, the dominant view is it is likely to play a major role into the future of offshoring (Cline et al., 2017)

This research will look at the implications of the current, evolving and increasingly more stringent regulatory environment within Ireland limiting of limiting the use of offshore outsourcing. The research will further examine the perception and opinions of Asset Managers to offshore outsourcing and rationale of Asset Servicing firms for using offshore outsourcing.

The aim of this study is to examine the overall perceptions of Asset Managers and Asset Service providers in terms of the usage of offshore outsourcing against the regulatory challenges imposed by the Central Bank of Ireland. The main research method will be qualitative face to face interviews with 4 Irish based Asset Managers that will be triangulated with a brief quantitative online survey aimed at a 7 Asset Service providers out of the 31 Asset Servicing firms based in Ireland.

The findings suggest that there are considerable strains emerging within the Industry right now due to evolving products. The net effect of these new products is a higher demand for firms to deliver quicker turnaround for NAV prices, thus causing them to create shift teams in Ireland at a considerable cost. Given the CBI legislation on outsourcing firms are under pressure to outsource less and retain responsibility and accountability in Ireland so using offshore locations is under serious scrutiny. As a result firms in Ireland are now in danger of becoming too expensive to do business with and Asset Managers may look overseas, in particular Luxembourg and the UK for alternatives.


OBJECTIVES
Past research has suggested smoking disparities among individuals with disabling conditions. We contrasted smoking behaviors of those with and without disabilities from 2001 to 2005.

DESIGN
Descriptive correlational study.

SAMPLE
Telephone interviews were conducted in all states with noninstitutionalized adults. Half were female; most were Anglo (70.5%) and had at least a high school education (90%). Their average age was 45 years. Approximately 19% of the sample reported being disabled.

MEASUREMENT
We analyzed 4 years of data from the population-based Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

RESULTS
While individuals with disabilities were more likely to report ever having smoked than nondisabled respondents, current smoking behaviors were more similar in the 2 groups, and the difference was not statistically significant when demographic factors were included in the model. Smoking behavior decreased somewhat for nondisabled persons between 2001 and 2005, but remained fairly constant for those with disabilities. However, those with disabilities were more likely than those without disabilities to have attempted to quit smoking in all years.

CONCLUSIONS
Findings underscore the importance of smoking cessation programs tailored to people with disabilities. The role of the public health nurse in addressing smoking cessation at the individual, system, and community level is discussed.


Despite an extensive history of providing naval gunfire support (NGS) during the twentieth century, the relevance of the capability to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) came under scrutiny at the turn of the twenty-first century. However, the provision of NGS during the 2003 Iraq War indicated that the capability remained useful in the modern era. Furthermore, lessons learned during past RAN operations and those of the Royal Navy and United States Navy demonstrate the enduring relevance of NGS. Australia's development of an amphibious capability will ensure that NGS remains useful in the future for a number of important reasons, including utility, cost-effectiveness and interoperability.


Knowing the mechanical characteristics of organs during surgery ensures effective diagnosis and treatment. A surgeon's hand can sense the characteristics of organs in open abdominal or chest surgery. However, this sensing ability is reduced in endoscopic surgery, and it is completely lacking in robot-assisted endoscopic surgery. A surgical manipulator with a sensing function should have an autoclavable mechanism, and should be simple to control. In this paper, we propose a method of measuring elasticity using the step-out phenomenon of a stepper motor. Prototype devices were constructed and tested on silicone rubber test pieces and on organs both in vitro and in vivo.The devices were then calibrated using a material testing machine. Elasticity was defined in terms of the Young's modulus E or the spring constant K, which was calculated based on the force applied by the motor, the length of the arm attached to it, and the angular displacement of the arm when step-out occurred. Three different prototype devices were constructed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. All devices consisted of a stepper motor, a rotary encoder, and an arm. To measure silicone rubber objects, the arm was a simple bar. To measure organs in vitro, a bevel-geared jaw was used, and to measure organs in vivo, a long linkage-type forceps was employed. Each prototype had a resolution of approximately 1 μm. The elasticity values determined using these devices were compared with those measured using a material testing machine. For silicone rubber objects and organs in vitro, a good correlation was found between the elasticity values determined using the prototype devices and the material testing machine. In the in vivo experiment, the prototype device was capable of distinguishing differences between organs. This paper demonstrates the possibility of replacing a force sensor by using the proposed stepper motor-based method for measuring organ properties.


This study provides the first description of the feeding ecology of the smooth lanternshark Etmopterus pusillus based on stomach contents of specimens caught as bycatch in the Algarve (southern Portugal) with bottom trawling and bottom longline. The diet of E. pusillus consists mainly of fish (dry weight (% W)=87.1%; frequency of occurrence (%FO)=28.6%; number (%N)=30.3%), crustaceans (%W=7.7%; %FO=36.7%; %N=3.4%) and cephalopods (%W=4.7%; %FO=11.3%; %N=11.1%). The diet did not vary between sexes. Ontogenic changes were detected: crustaceans decreased in importance as the sharks increased in size and fish became dominant in the diet of adults. Combining two fishing methods provided broad information on the diet of E. pusillus, as bottom trawling caught smaller specimens and longlines caught larger individuals. E. pusillus feeds mainly on non-commercial species, and therefore does not compete directly with commercial fisheries. Finally, E. pusillus feeds in various parts of the water column and thus it can access a wide range of prey; however, this also means that it can be caught by both gears, making it more vulnerable in terms of conservation.


Abstract:This article examines church activism for liberal democracy in sub-Saharan Africa in recent decades. The article seeks to explain churches' high levels of activism compared to a) other civil society organizations, specifically trade unions, and b) churches' varied commitments to democratic activism. The argument emphasizes the protections liberal-democratic institutions offer churches to spread their ideas without being curtailed by an all-powerful ruler. The extent to which churches need these protections depends on the degree to which their activities are vulnerable to appropriation by the state, with churches that have historically invested in schools as a method of evangelization being those most likely to advocate for liberal democracy.


Malaria is a devastating parasitic infectious disease with an enormous impact on public health and economic growth, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Besides advances in anti-malarial drugs and vaccine development, a successful malaria eradication program relies on controlling the mosquito vector. In this study, we pursue a novel approach for malaria vector control by inhibiting an enzyme important for ensuring reproductive success of the mosquito Anopheles gambiae. The enzyme, A. gambiae transglutaminase 3 (AgTG3), catalyzes the cross-linking of its native substrate Plugin, which is then transferred to a female mosquito in a coagulated mass known as the mating plug. Interfering with AgTG3-catalyzed mating plug formation prevents efficient sperm storage, with a direct consequence on fertility. This study demonstrates that the mutation of a highly conserved cysteine residue in AgTG3 (Cys323) abolishes its cross-linking activity without disrupting other properties of the enzyme such as protein folding and oligomeric assembly. These results suggest that Cys323 is an active site residue and support the design of specific inhibitors targeting this site as a promising strategy to reduce the malaria disease burden worldwide.


An initial report on the therapeutic application of delta 9-THC (THC) (Dronabinol, Marinol) in 8 children resp. adolescents suffering from the following conditions, is given: neurodegenerative disease, mitochondriopathy, posthypoxic state, epilepsy, posttraumatic reaction. THC effected reduced spasticity, improved dystonia, increased initiative (with low dose), increased interest in the surroundings, and anticonvulsive action. The doses ranged from 0.04 to 0.12 mg/kg body weight a day. The medication was given as an oily solution orally in 7 patients, via percutaneous gastroenterostomy tube in one patient. At higher doses disinhibition and increased restlessness were observed. In several cases treatment was discontinued and in none of them discontinuing resulted in any problems. The possibility that THC-induced effects on ion channels and transmitters may explain its therapeutic activity seen in epileptic patients is discussed.


Fifty-some years ago, the foundational work Afro-American Anthropology: Contemporary Perspectives was edited by Norman Whitten and John Szwed, in the lee of a controversial symposium held in several sessions at the meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in 1967. The book included contributions from nonparticipants who had entered into the lively discussion, including a masterful overview of the papers by Sidney Mintz. As the editors indicated in their preface, they sought papers that would judge the impact of Melville Herskovits's The Myth of the Negro Past (1941) on subsequent scholarship. Herskovits was portrayed as a troublemaker who carried an assimilationist point of view into his fieldwork in many African and Afro-American communities. His insistence on not neglecting African cultural patterns in studies of black communities in the New World fostered a general feeling among those on the soft Left that honor should be paid, as often as possible, to the African ancestry of any New World practice that showed signs of some sort of cultural continuity. He sent a call out to the social sciences in general, and especially to those engaged in ethnographic fieldwork of some sort, working and living in Afro-American communities. He was a faithful student of Franz Boas, who had advocated fine-grained reporting of the lifeways of non-Europeans. Herskovits was also politically committed to encourage the secular cosmopolitan ideas that had been inherited from the Enlightenment, but he did not fall into the trap of the social Darwinists, who insisted on studying a version of the civilizing process that derogated anyone without good table manners and the ability to schmooze effectively. He did not respond with enthusiasm to anthropological approaches that privileged structure and systematic practices--especially kinship systems and other forms of organized power. As a musician he both heard and felt the power of performances of drumming, dancing, and storytelling. And, like Boas, he pursued the study of language and culture in diffusion. Implicitly, he furthered the philological and morphological manner of studying cultures not only in stabilized and bounded communities, but in comparison with contiguous studies. His political position, once its implications could be understood, stressed a pluralist and assimilatonist agenda. Groups should be, to use Greg Dening's wonderful term, ethnogged--that is, studied at ground level in terms of the systematic behaviors which could be observed in daily life (Dening 2004). Under such a regime, the systematics of a culture would emerge from the ways in which power and responsibility were put into practice. Herskovits, like Boas, wanted students with open minds who would accord sympathy, even dignity, to whatever peoples each ethnographer chose to study--with the supposition that all humans lived in groups with shared values and practices. Again, like Boas, he wanted something like social and political parity for all self-designated communities. Like Boas, once more, he urged the ethnogging of Hispanic, Francophonic, Native American, and Negro communities (the term in general use in their day). His comparativist approach underscored historical continuities where they could be teased out. And most pugnaciously, he insisted on the cultural parity of blacks. When he and his wife decided to study African and Afro-American communities, in effect he created tout court the idea of the black diaspora--though as the son of a rabbi, he would not have used that word. This was one of the primary concerns of the group of ethnographers that met in 1967 at the meetings of the AAA. With no little passion, the editors of the book that emerged from that conference, Afro-American Anthropology: Contemporary Perspectives, urged those ethnographers writing on black communities to remember that each had its own customary ways, which could be reported on in such a way that comparative analyses might be carried out. …


The increase in Indigenous participation in university courses in recent years has not been matched by an increase in graduation. In the mainstream university population, student success has been linked to approaches to learning, which are linked to conceptions of learning. This study investigates what conceptions of learning Indigenous students identify at the beginning of their university career. Thirty six students completed a 'Reflections on Learning Inventory' developed by Meyer (1995). Nine of these students were interviewed in depth about what they thought learning was and how they would go about it. The interview analysis for each of the nine students was compared with their individual inventory profile. It was anticipated that the use of such complementary methods would increase the validity of the findings, but this was not the case. The participants identified a range of conceptions comparable with those identified by mainstream students, but with a greater emphasis on understanding. However, the descriptions of how learning happens were undeveloped and not likely to result in the kind of learning described. The findings will be useful in making curricula decisions in an Indigenous university preparation course that encourage students to adopt successful strategies for learning. In addition, it will also be useful information for the participants themselves as they become reflective learners.


Pfund's combination of the McLeod and Pirani pressure gages was studied with a number of gases. The calibration curves of pressure against galvanometer reading were found to be straight lines and, except for hydrogen, nearly interchangeable for all the gases used. By using a galvanometer of high sensitivity and introducing a compensating filament, the sensitivity of the gage was increased until a change in pressure of 1.5×10−9 mm of mercury would cause a change in deflection of 1 cm on the galvanometer scale.Brief comments are made on the release of carbon monoxide and air from coconut charcoal and on the adsorption of air at low pressure by silica gel.


The expanding volume of sea trade between South Africa and other parts of the global world places pressure on increased maritime security particularly because maritime security affects both communities living close to the sea as well as biand multilateral relations on the larger international scale. While most research studies focus on threats of piracy and the economic impacts of maritime security on international trade this paper seeks to critically explore maritime challenges at a more local level namely the voices of actors directly with first hand experiences of maritime matters. Using in depth semi structured face to face interviews with six participants within a qualitative framework the study concluded that maritime challenges are indeed larger than the traditional security challenges. Challenges included seafarers' working conditions, stowaways, human and drug trafficking and piracy. The study makes recommendations for future large scale research on maritime challenges.


Among the envisaged experimental infrastructures supporting ALFRED reactor development, FALCON consortium identified ATHENA as one of the facilities to address the pool thermal-hydraulic challenges and demonstrate the feasibility of the revised ALFRED configuration, along with the thermal-hydraulic performances of its main components. ATHENA is a large pool-type lead-cooled multi-purpose experimental facility featuring a large size vessel (3.2 m diameter, 10 m in height), conceived to host almost 800 tons of lead to test ALFRED relevant scaled components. The test section to be installed in the main vessel includes an electrically heated core simulator, made of 7 FAs, which delivers to the primary coolant a nominal thermal power of 2210 kW, a main coolant pump for lead circulation and a counter-current shell and tubes main heat exchanger, which tube bundle is fed by pressurized water by a dedicated secondary circuit. A preliminary analytical calculation has been performed to identify the most suitable configuration for the ATHENA heat exchanger, as well as to achieve a preliminary sizing of the component. The final layout foresees a bundle of 91 bayonet tubes, arranged in a cylindrical geometry, having an active length of 3000 mm and adopting an external double wall tube with a pressurized helium gap. A numerical model of the heat exchanger has been developed using the thermal-hydraulic system code RELAP5/Mod3.3, and a numerical sensitivity analysis on the geometrical and operating parameters has been carried out to verify the performances of the component.


The dependence on human involvement and human behavior to protect information assets makes it necessary to have an information security awareness program to make people aware of their roles and responsibilities towards information security. The aim of this paper is to examine the feasibility of an information security vocabulary test as an aid to assess awareness levels and to help with the identification of suitable areas or topics to be included in an information security awareness program. The use of such a vocabulary test is illustrated and results obtained suggest that information security awareness vocabulary tests are useful and should be considered when planning and developing an information security awareness program.


Previous studies have claimed that music can prime the selection of certain products and influence consumers' propensity to spend because it activates related knowledge of the world and subsequently raises the salience of certain products and behaviours associated with that music. The possibility that music can raise the salience of associated products has not been tested directly, however, and ought to manifest itself through enhanced ability to recall the products in question when associated music is played. Accordingly, this study investigated the impact of musical 'fit' on product recall. Participants were asked to list as many Malay and Indian food items as they could while listening to either Malay or Indian music. Among ethnically Chinese participants, more Malay food items were recalled when Malay music was played and more Indian food items were recalled when Indian music was played. Ethnically Malay and Indian participants were more likely to recall food from their own cultures, irrespective of the music played. Submitted 2009 December 25; accepted 2010 January 16


American Arabesque examines representations of Arabs, Islam and the Near East in nineteenth-century American culture, arguing that these representations play a significant role in the development of American national identity over the century, revealing largely unexplored exchanges between these two cultural traditions that will alter how we understand them today. Moving from the period of America's engagement in the Barbary Wars through the Holy Land travel mania in the years of Jacksonian expansion and into the writings of romantics such as Edgar Allen Poe, the book argues that not only were Arabs and Muslims prominently featured in nineteenth-century literature, but that the differences writers established between figures such as Moors, Bedouins, Turks and Orientals provide proof of the transnational scope of domestic racial politics. Drawing on both English and Arabic language sources, Berman contends that the fluidity and instability of the term Arab as it appears in captivity narratives, travel narratives, imaginative literature, and ethnic literature simultaneously instantiate and undermine definitions of the American nation and American citizenship.


Kampung Inggris, a community of English language courses in Indonesia based on a nonformal education model, has successfully met the community demand for life skill. The purposes of this research are to analyze the characteristics of the agents of change and the characteristics of changes occurred in the community development of Kampung Inggris in the fields of education, economy, and social. In This research, the qualitative method was maintained by using a case study approach with a descriptive format. From the data analysis, it can be concluded that the agents of change have the following characteristics: humble, upholding the values of humanity, religious, qualified, always trying to communicate with community leaders and individuals, demonstrated familiarity, organized and adapt with the local community by empathy approach of interacting with good ethics. Furthermore, the changes in the economic sector and education of the society, as the agents of change decided to build the course without the dorm, therefore, it provides enjoyable working environment.


Through an analysis of the indie movie For Here or To Go? this essay argues that the rhetoric of "unfairness" articulated by Indian tech workers not only elides privileges, but also increasingly relies on the figure of the illegal immigrant to perform injury and to shore up claims of desirability and inclusion. Although constructed using juridical-legal logics of legality/illegality, the illegal immigrant mirrors racial, gender, and other anxieties that are mobilized to constitute migrant illegality. By examining how economically-privileged immigrants produce the dehumanization of less-privileged groups, this essay hopes to demystify the unequal position of groups within contemporary migration.


Introduction: Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and type 2 diabetes mellitus cause long-term complications in affected patients. Moreover, both disorders are common. Recent cross-sectional studies performed worldwide suggest that they are indeed closely linked. Diabetic patients are at an increased risk of acquiring (HCV) infection because of the nature of the disease and its complications or frequent parenteral exposure. On the other hand Hepatitis C infection may itself contribute to the development of Diabetes Mellitus. The epidemiological evidence of this association has not been studied in Myanmar. Objective: It was to study the frequency of HCV infection among adult diabetic patients attending the diabetic clinic of a hospital in Myanmar. Method: The study is a hospital based cross sectional study, comprised of 100 diabetic patients visiting the diabetic clinic of Yangon General Hospital, in Myanmar. Subjects were previously confirmed diabetes cases or newly diagnosed diabetes according to World Health Organization criteria. The presence of (HCV) infection was tested by SERODIA-HCV Gelatin Particle Agglutination Test method at the National Health Laboratory of Union of Myanmar. A concise history of the patient, examination and laboratory findings were recorded on a proforma. Result: Out of 100 diabetics, 19 were found to be anti-HCV positive and all of them had type 2 diabetes mellitus. There was no gender difference in the seropositive cases. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level was raised in 73.7% of the positive cases as compared to the 18.5% of the seronegative patients. Hepatomegaly was found in 68.4% in seropositive cases in contrast to 18.5% of seronegative cases. Conclusion: (HCV) infection occurs more often in type 2 diabetics and further investigations should be done in diabetic patients with raised ALT for the presence of chronic (HCV) infection. International Journal of Collaborative Research on Internal Medicine & Public Health Vol. 4 No. 5 (2012) 600


Book synopsis:

This volume addresses these key issues through an analysis of important theoretical debates on issues such as digital democracy, cultural politics and transnational communities.

Featuring contributors from both sides of the Atlantic, the book contains a series of case studies on new social movements including campaigns on the environment, gender, animal rights and human rights. It combines cutting edge research with theoretical material and makes an important contribution to this highly topical and rapidly growing area.

This book will be invaluable reading for students in areas including Politics, Communications and IT, Sociology and Cultural Studies.


Air-cooled condenser systems incur a high cost of operation during peak power demand due to hot ambient temperatures, resulting in poor thermal performance. To shift the thermal performance of air-cooled condenser systems closer to that of wet cooling towers, a salt hydrate phase change material (PCM)-based supplemental thermal energy storage system is proposed. Low-grade waste heat from saturated steam in a power generation cycle is stored in a "cold" sink of PCM during the day and rejected at night during cooler ambient air temperatures. Passive loop thermosyphons are used to transfer heat in and out of the PCM heat exchanger. A 30MJ prototype was designed, fabricated, and tested to demonstrate the longevity of the system. Repeated thermal cycling tests have been completed for 50 cycles. The measured latent heat capacity results have shown that the salt hydrate solution segregates into different hydration levels over time but can stabilize by remixing the bulk solution.


BACKGROUND
The prognostic significance of impaired renal function has driven the need for its early recognition and the widespread introduction of the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) reporting, and the incorporation of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in the revised Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) of the General Medical Services (GMS) contract in the UK.

AIM
To characterize the effect of these changes on referral numbers and appropriateness to a nephrology service, and the impact of a newly introduced Map of Medicine(R)-based patient care pathway coupled to the systematic screening of all new referrals.

METHODS
The study was carried out within a single NHS Trust covering five primary health care Local Health Boards and a population of 560,000.

RESULTS
Introduction of eGFR reporting and CKD QOF domains was associated with a rapid 61% increase in new patient referral, and an increase in the mean age of the patients at referral from 63.0 +/- 18.1 to 69.1 +/- 18.5. The referrals did not correlate with the QOF reported prevalence of CKD. Systematic screening of new referrals demonstrated 36% to be either inappropriate or inadequate in terms of clinical information supplied. Introduction of the renal patient care pathway was associated with a fall in both the number of inadequate and total new referrals received. Overall 62% of all primary care practices registered with the Map of Medicine(R) and these sent a higher proportion of appropriate referrals and were less likely to generate referrals with inadequate information. The initiative also enabled managed discharges from secondary to primary care settings, freeing up outpatient capacity.

CONCLUSION
The study describes the impact of the introduction eGFR reporting and revision of the GMS contract with Renal QOF, on patient referrals to a nephrology service. In addition, we provide evidence that a new management pathway has helped to regulate and proactively manage the increased demand within the current resources.


Tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) is a member of the Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription pathway, which is central in cytokine signaling. Previously, germline TYK2 mutations have been described in two patients developing de novo T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias (T-ALL) or precursor B-ALL. The mutations (P760L and G761V) are located within the regulatory pseudokinase domain and lead to constitutive activation of TYK2. We demonstrate the transformation capacity of TYK2 P760L in hematopoietic cell systems including primary bone marrow cells. In vivo engraftment of TYK2 P760L-expressing cell lines led to development of leukemia. A kinase inhibitor screen uncovered that oncogenic TYK2 acts synergistically with the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and CDK4/6 pathways. Accordingly, the TYK2-specific inhibitor deucravacitinib (BMS986165) reduces cell viability of TYK2 P760L-transformed cell models and ex vivo cultured TYK2 P760L-mutated patient-derived xenograft cells most efficiently when combined with mTOR or CDK4/6 inhibitors. Our study thereby pioneers novel treatment options for patients suffering from TYK2-driven acute leukemia.


While inductive modeling is used to develop a model (function) from data of the whole problem space and then to recall it on new data, transductive modeling is concerned with the creation of single model for every new input vector based on some closest vectors from the existing problem space. The model approximates the output value only for this input vector. However, deciding on the appropriate distance measure, on the number of nearest neighbors and on a minimum set of important features/variables is a challenge and is usually based on prior knowledge or exhaustive trial and test experiments. This paper proposes a genetic algorithm (GA) approach for optimizing these three factors. The method is tested on several datasets from UCI repository for classification tasks and results show that it outperforms conventional approaches. The drawback of this approach is the computational time complexity due to the presence of GA, which can be overcome using parallel computer systems due to the intrinsic parallel nature of the algorithm.


Recently, telescopes with segmented primary mirrors are becoming increasingly popular due to their ability of achieving large apertures without the inconveniences caused by the fabrication and handling of monolithic surfaces with 8m (or over) in diameter. The difference in position of each pair of adjacent segments along the local normal of their interface (called piston hereafter), however, needs to be precisely measured in order to provide a diffraction- limited image. If a system yielding the nanometric accuracy required in piston measurements worked in daylight hours, the resultant saving in observation time would be an important advance on a majority of the state-of-the-art piston measurement systems. An interferometric piston measurement instrument accomplishing such objectives has been designed starting from the usual Michelson configuration at the CD6 (Terrassa, Spain), and its final test has been carried out in the test workbench of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC, Canary Islands, Spain). Its optical layout relies on projecting the reference arm of the interferometer onto one of the segments of the pair considered, along the direction of the local normal to the surface while the measurement arm is projected onto the interface which divides the pair of segments considered. The field of view and its illumination are calculated to be equivalent in both segments. The lateral shift of the fringes in both interferograms determines the piston error present. A combination of monochromatic and white light is used, in order to remove the (lambda) /2 phase ambiguities present in piston measurements without losing the required resolution in the measurement. In this paper, the optical design of this interferometric piston measurement instrument will be presented. The particular configuration used in the interferometer, the implementation of an imaging system allowing to see both the interface of the segments and the interference fringes, the effect of the extension of the source and the use of both monochromatic and whit light will be discussed. A detailed study of the wavefront errors embedded in the wavefront at different stages of the interferometer is performed. The analysis shows the validity of the design of the instrument, and some experimental results obtained at the test workbench are provided to demonstrate the ability of the instrument to perform nanometric piston measurements under daylight conditions.


Manoly R. Lupul. The Politics of Multiculturalism: A Ukrainian-Canadian Memoir. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 2005. xviii, 508 pp. $34.95, paper. $69.95, clothIn The Politics of Multiculturalism, Manoly Lupul, former director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and a prominent Ukrainian community activist, sums up over thirty years of his association with the framing and implementation of Canadian multiculturalism. Lupul's memoir is much more than a personal life story-it is an incisive analysis of Canadian ethnic and government politics. It provides the reader with a unique and very personal perspective on the subject, which conies from the author's intimate knowledge of the inside workings of community and government institutions involved in multiculturalism policy-making. A timely and much needed book, it presents a strong case for multiculturalism at a time when increased public concern with national security is leading some commentators to question Canada's accommodating approach to cultural diversity.Like thousands of third-generation Ukrainian Canadians from the Prairies, Lupul was brought up in the bicultural world of Alberta's Ukrainian bloc settlement, which he describes in the first chapter. The author's graduate studies at the University of Minnesota and Harvard University, where he completed his doctorate, were formative in shaping his outlook as a liberal democrat with a strong commitment to cultural diversity. Lupul describes how his research on the education of Canadian linguistic and religious minorities (the subject of his doctoral dissertation) first brought his attention to the predicament of Ukrainians, threatened by assimilation in Anglo-dominated Canada and by Russification in the Soviet-ruled homeland, which he visited in 1968. Lupul's growing concern for the future of the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian culture was shared by many third- and second-generation Ukrainian-Canadian professionals of his generation, who forged an alliance with strongly nationalist post-1945 emigres to achieve recognition of the community in Canadian public affairs.Central to the book is the discussion of the relations between the Canadian state and the Ukrainian-Canadian community, which led the way in promoting official multiculturalism in the late 1960s and 1970s. Lupul writes about the successes and failures of implementing multiculturalism in a society still dominated by the largely AngloCanadian establishment. He focuses on several key projects initiated by the UkrainianCanadian community: the establishment of bilingual education programs in the Prairie provinces, the founding of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies in Edmonton and the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto, and a number of heritagepreservation initiatives.One learns from the book that carrying out multicultural projects involved constant lobbying and difficult negotiating with politicians and civil servants in Ottawa and the provincial capitals. …


The potential for scaling of concrete pavement containing fly ash is one of the durability concerns which imposes restrictions on the use of fly ash in paving applications in Indiana during the period of low temperatures (e.g., the late fall construction season). These restrictions increase the cost of paving projects, and occasionally, results in seasonal cement shortages. The objective of this study was to develop a better understanding of the scaling mechanism through a series of laboratory tests that focused on the role of material properties and length and temperature of curing in controlling scaling. Additionally, an attempt was made to simulate field conditions in the laboratory and to relate these results with performance of concrete pavement. Concrete mixtures were prepared with two different slumps using material combinations that had previously shown high susceptibility to scaling. These mixtures were used to study the influence of the length of moist curing and drying periods on scaling of fly ash concrete, exposed to normal and low early-age temperatures. The scaling studies were supplemented with microstructural and chloride ion penetration tests to assist in the interpretation of these results. To study the influence of temperature of curing, fresh properties and scaling were measured for low temperature cast and cured specimens. To understand the behavior of actual pavement constructed in late fall, large size insulated specimens were prepared at low temperature in the laboratory, for scaling and other relevant studies. In relating laboratory scaling results to field performance, wide differences have been observed indicating severity of laboratory scaling test (ASTM C672). Extensive literature review and telephone survey was conducted to collect information regarding field scaling performance of pavements with supplementary cementitious materials. Based on above information and further laboratory studies, five main parameters are suggested to resolve the apparent discrepancies between laboratory results and field observations. Simultaneously, a risk analysis approach was used to determine the probability of scaling in Indiana. It was determined that probability of initiation of scaling for a typical pavement is only 0.5%. It was further concluded that, for replacement levels 20-25%, fly ash can be used to produce scaling-resistant concrete during late fall paving season for climatic conditions similar to that encountered in Indiana.


This study consists of two parts. In the first part of the study; a Pirkle-type chiral stationary phase was prepared by synthesizing an aromatic amine derivative of (R)-2-amino-1-butanol as a chiral selector and binding to L-tyrosine-modified cyanogen bromide (CNBr)-activated Sepharose 4B and then, packed into the separation column. The chromatographic performance of the separation column was evaluated with racemic mandelic acid and 2-phenylpropionic acid by using phosphate buffers at three different pHs as mobile phase. In the resolution processes, the prepared solutions were loaded onto the separation column at two different concentrations and at three different pHs for each racemic organic acid, separately. Enantiomeric excess (ee%) of the eluates was determined on CHIRALPAK AD-H chiral analytical column by HPLC. The maximum ee% for mandelic acid and 2-phenylpropionic acid was determined to be 60.84 and 27.4, respectively. Separation factors (k1 ' , k2 ' , α, and Rs) were calculated for each acid. The structures of the obtained compounds were characterized using the spectroscopic methods (NMR, and elemental analysis). In the second part of the study; enantioselective interactions between the prepared CSP and the analytes have been widely studied by docking, molecular dynamics simulation and quantum mechanical computation methods. The reason of column eluation of rac-2-phenylpropionic acid with lower enantiomeric yield was explained by these techniques.


The sarcomere contains, in addition to thin and thick filaments, a filament composed of the giant protein titin (also known as connectin). Titin molecules anchor in the Z-disc and extend to the M-line region of the sarcomere. The majority of titin's I-band region functions as a molecular spring. This spring maintains the precise structural arrangement of thick and thin filaments, and gives rise to passive muscle stiffness; an important determinant of diastolic filling. Earlier work on titin has been reviewed before. In this study, our main focus is on recent findings vis-a-vis titin's molecular spring segments in cardiac titins, including the discovery of fetal cardiac isoforms with novel spring elements. We also discuss new insights regarding the role of titin as a biomechanical sensor and signaling molecule. We will end with focusing on the rapidly growing knowledge regarding titinopathies.


Cordimus, a new genus of cricetid rodent, is described from Neogene deposits on the islands of Curaçao and Bonaire, Dutch Antilles. The genus is characterized by strongly cuspidate molars, the presence of mesolophs in most upper molars and the absence of mesolophids in lower molars. Similarities with the early cricetid Copemys from the Miocene of North America coupled with apparent derived characters shared with the subfamily Sigmodontinae suggest that Cordimus may be close to the root of the sigmodontine lineage, a possibility that remains to be tested through explicit phylogenetic analysis. Three species are recognized on the basis of size and details of molar morphology. Cordimus hooijeri sp. nov. is described from Bonaire on the basis of Holocene owl pellet material that consists of dentaries and postcranial material only. This species is presumed to be extinct, but focused surveys are needed to confirm this hypothesis. Cordimus debuisonjei sp. nov. and Cordimus raton sp. nov. are described from deposits on Tafelberg Santa Barbara in Curaçao. Although the age of these deposits is not known, they are most likely of late Pliocene or early Pleistocene age. Both are represented by numerous isolated molars and some osteological material.


This paper will look into whether experimenting with networked processes and input in the production of graphic design can challenge the formal relationships between everyone involved in the creative process, stimulate dynamic readings and interactions and make use of contemporary information chaos. Considering economy, social structure and modern technology, parallels will be drawn between theory and practical examples. This will help to better illustrate the mechanics and creative use of the network and the data it produces, while setting up a broader research context for design practitioners to reflect on.


Learning a graph with a specific structure is essential for interpretability and identification of the relationships among data. But structured graph learning from observed samples is an NP-hard combinatorial problem. In this paper, we first show, for a set of important graph families it is possible to convert the combinatorial constraints of structure into eigenvalue constraints of the graph Laplacian matrix. Then we introduce a unified graph learning framework lying at the integration of the spectral properties of the Laplacian matrix with Gaussian graphical modeling, which is capable of learning structures of a large class of graph families. The proposed algorithms are provably convergent and practically amenable for big-data specific tasks. Extensive numerical experiments with both synthetic and real datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. An R package containing codes for all the experimental results is submitted as a supplementary file.


A combination of anti–CTLA-4 plus anti–PD-1/PD-L1 is the most effective cancer immunotherapy but causes high incidence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Here we report that targeting of HIF-1α suppressed PD-L1 expression on tumor cells and tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells, but unexpectedly induced PD-L1 in normal tissues by an IFN-γ–dependent mechanism. Targeting the HIF-1α/PD-L1 axis in tumor cells reactivated tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and caused tumor rejection. The HIF-1α inhibitor echinomycin potentiated the cancer immunotherapeutic effects of anti–CTLA-4 therapy, with efficacy comparable to that of anti–CTLA-4 plus anti–PD-1 antibodies. However, while anti–PD-1 exacerbated irAEs triggered by ipilimumab, echinomycin protected mice against irAEs by increasing PD-L1 levels in normal tissues. Our data suggest that targeting HIF-1α fortifies the immune tolerance function of the PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint in normal tissues but abrogates its immune evasion function in the tumor microenvironment to achieve safer and more effective immunotherapy.


The importance of tacit knowledge in organisational learning and innovation has become the focus of considerable attention in the recent literature. Our understanding of the nature of the links between tacit knowledge and organisational learning, however, has been hampered by the lack of a conceptual framework integrating micro-level learning activities with organisational forms and macro-level societal institutions. This paper seeks to achieve such an integrative task. It argues that there is an interactive relationship between dominant knowledge types and organisational forms. Further, the extent to which tacit knowledge constitutes the knowledge base of the firm, and how it is formed and used are powerfully shaped by the broader institutional context. The paper develops a four-fold typology, at the cognitive, organisational and societal levels, as an analytical framework to explain the links between knowledge types, organisational forms and societal institutions. It shows how the three levels interact to shape the learning and innovative capabilities of firms. The theory developed in this paper represents the first attempt to integrate the diverse strands of literature and different levels of analysis into a single coherent framework.


A new series of complexes has been synthesized by template condensation of 2-aminoethanthiol and diaryltellurium dichlorides, R2TeCl2 (R=p-hydroxyphenyl and 3-methyl-4-hydroxyphenyl) in methanolic medium in the presence of divalent metal chlorides forming complexes of the type [ML1Cl2] and [ML2Cl2] where [M=Mn (II), Co (II) and Cu (II); L1 and L2=10-membered tellurium containing dithiadiaza macrocyclic ligands]. On the basis of elemental analyses, conductance, magnetic moment measurements, 1HNMR, Infrared and electronic absorption spectroscopy their structures have been elucidated. Based on these studies, a six coordinate octahedral geometry for these complexes have been proposed. These metal complexes have also been screened for their antimicrobial activity against some pathogenic bacteria and fungi.